Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster

Unreleased

The Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster, written as Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster in the official logo, is an upcoming remastered compilation of Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2 for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. It was announced at the Sony Press Conference in Japan on September 14th, 2011 as part of a 10th anniversary special, and is set to be released in 2013. This version is based on the International version of both games.

It has been announced that Square Enix's 1st Production Department is developing this port, a change from Square Enix's normal method of outsourcing remakes and ports to other companies, for example the DS remake of Final Fantasy III and Finest Fantasy for Advance, which were developed by Matrix Software and TOSE, respectively. However, it has been stated it is solely of a quality remaster, featuring a small quantity of upgrades.

The two games will be available together on a single Blu-Ray disc for the PlayStation 3 version, but sold separately on PlayStation Vita due to storage issues.

Story
See also: Story of Final Fantasy X and Story of Final Fantasy X-2.

Differences from the Original Versions
The games contain improved maps and character models and textures as well as improved lighting, shadowing and enhanced pre-rendered movies with better quality in high definition. Final Fantasy X's soundtrack has had about 60 tracks rearranged. Trophies for both games will be added. All controllable and other major characters have new character models, and monsters and minor characters have rearranged textures to improve quality. The game now plays at 16:9 widescreen and some scenes have been adjusted with different camera angles to accommodate for it.

As the HD remasters will be of the games' International versions, they have some new additions for North American and PAL region players. The Final Fantasy X International was never released in North America and includes a new Sphere Grid option, new optional bosses and new abilities. Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission was a Japan exclusive release, and adds new dresspheres, a Monster Create system, and Coliseum, and a new dungeon, Yadonoki Tower.

Both games will get improved voice audio. , and have around 60 tracks remastered.

Yoshinori Kitase has confirmed that those who pick up both Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2 on PlayStation Vita will be able to take advantage of swapping saves between systems allowing fans to transfer data between the standalone Vita version and the PlayStation 3 counterpart.

Kazushige Nojima is writing a "new episode" for the Remaster that will be a 30-minute audio drama at the end credits featuring a new cast and new character voices.

Development
The idea for the remastering came about when Square Enix met with some of the voice actors during the making of Final Fantasy Type-0 and realized they hadn't met since the making of Final Fantasy X, and how it would be fun to do something for the game's 10th anniversary. Character designer Tetsuya Nomura negotiated with various people and got shown green light for the project, but as staff were still devoted to the Final Fantasy XIII project, the remake wasn't possible right away. The remastering wasn't completed in time for the game's 10th anniversary, but Yoshinori Kitase has joked they lucked out in making it for the Final Fantasy X-2 anniversary instead.

At Square Enix Presents livestream during E3 2013 Yoshinori Kitase and Motomu Toriyama mentioned the reason they wanted to remaster Final Fantasy X and, in turn, Final Fantasy X-2, was because earlier Final Fantasy games are playable on current generation consoles via PlayStation Network and various remakes, but as Final Fantasy X was a PlayStation 2 game, and only the first generation of PlayStation 3s had backwards compatibility with PlayStation 2, Final Fantasy X was seen as an ideal candidate for a remastering. During the livestream interview it was also mentioned that, learning from the Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster project, Square Enix has realized they need to keep good backups of game data, in case they want to remaster it in the future. Back when Final Fantasy X was first developed, development was open, and the planner could develop whatever he wanted, but in modern game development, a lot of the process is tool-based and polish-focused, and the planner is not be able to put his own flavor into the game. Square Enix hopes they can merge the old ways with using the new tools.

It was always Square Enix's intention to release the Final Fantasy X-2 remaster alongside the original Final Fantasy X, but the PS Vita versions are being released separately for storage capacity reasons.

For both Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2, many of the character models are remade from the ground up, including all the controllable characters. The other characters and monsters are having their textures rearranged to improve quality. For the 16:9 support the camera has been adjusted to have the visuals work in 3D scenes, but the pre-rendered background scenes required a lot of redrawing and adding on to get them to look correct. With the cut scenes, if the view was simply extended to 16:9, things like people on the sides waiting for their 'cue' to enter, would become visible.

Recreating the original gameplay was surprisingly tough. The gameplay had to be adjusted to match with the improved visuals, but care was taken to ensure the player impression would remain the same. Not all of the data from the original development project remains, and Square Enix is working with an external development studio and an internal staff for the project, with the internal programmers handling data salvage and repair. Yoshinori Kitase has said that in some ways, it'd be easier to rebuild some of the assets from scratch.

When asked about the international versions having the option of using Japanese voices with English subtitles, Yoshinori Kitase said that is not possible due to PlayStation Vita not having the capacity for it, and they aim for the two versions to be as identical as can be.

On May 29th, 2013, Famitsu revealed that remastering of Final Fantasy X was estimated at 80% completion, while remastering of Final Fantasy X-2 was at 65% completion. In the July 3 issue of Jump magazine, it was revealed that Kazushige Nojima would be writing a post-credit 30-minute story with new voice cast and characters.

Release
Final Fantasy X|X-2 HD Remaster for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita is slated for release in Japan, the United States and Europe this year. The PS Vita versions will be released separately, while the PlayStation 3 version will bundle both games together. Those who pre-order the PlayStation 3 version will get a limited-edition artbook.

A limited edition PlayStation Vita featuring Final Fantasy X|X-2 HD Remaster design will be released later in 2013.