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 that 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.

Differences from the Original Versions
Both 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. 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.

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 realised 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. However, they missed the 10th anniversary of Final Fantasy X in 2011, but lucked out with 2013 being the 10th anniversary of Final Fantasy X-2. 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.

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.

As of March 27th, 2013, remastering of Final Fantasy X was at 70% completion, while remastering of Final Fantasy X-2 was at 50% completion.

On May 29th, 2013, Famitsu revealed that remastering of Final Fantasy X was completed at 80% completion, while remastering of Final Fantasy X-2 was at 65% completion.