There’s no question that Final Fantasy 7 is among the most influential games of all time—it’s enjoyed prominence in movies, novels, and an entire Compilation of Final Fantasy 7 series of games, with a trilogy of remakes currently underway. However, that's not where its influence ends, as it has even made its way to LittleBigPlanet 2... in a sense.

Game ZXC spoke to Jamie Colliver, the creator behind the YouTube channel LittleBigWorld, about the long effort of making an entire legendary RPG from scratch in LittleBigPlanet 2, a project 12 years in the making, though its current iteration took under four years. The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

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Making a LittleBigMeteor for Final Fantasy 7

Q: What made you want to adapt Final Fantasy 7 like this?

Colliver: Final Fantasy 7 has been my favorite video game since I first played it in 1997, and I've always harbored a deep desire to see it remade. It all began with me messing around with the creation tools in LittleBigPlanet. As I gradually mastered them, I realized the potential to recreate some of Final Fantasy 7's iconic opening levels.

The project quickly became more than just a hobby; it became a passion project. I saw a unique opportunity to bring my vision to life and it felt like something I could feasibly accomplish, with the end goal of having my own distinctive version of the game.

Q: How does being in LittleBigPlanet 2 change the Final Fantasy 7 experience?

Colliver: Its platforming mechanics introduce new gameplay elements not present in the original Final Fantasy 7—sometimes you need a grappling hook to reach the next location or scuba gear to fight underwater enemies. The three layers force the world to feel much more intimate, almost like a stage performance vibe, and the shift in visual style gives the game a unique and charming appearance to its characters and environments.

Colliver's Final Fantasy 7 (FF7) Remake in LittleBigPlanet Walkthrough playlist contains 141 videos across nearly 40 hours of content.

Q: What parts of Final Fantasy 7 lend themselves to LittleBigPlanet's gameplay the best?

Colliver: The polygonal visual style of Final Fantasy 7 complements LittleBigPlanet's craft-based visual style quite nicely. The original game also focuses on written dialogue to tell its story, which mirrors the way LittleBigPlanet communicates its story beats using expressions and the world around it to advance the narrative.

Q: What areas of the game were the trickiest to adapt?

Colliver: Definitely the file sizes. I had to get creative with being able to load so many characters in small spaces, sometimes leading to levels being split into smaller levels. Storage space in particular was a big one as you're limited by the amount of physical space a level can have, meaning I had to plan out a level architecturally before really fleshing out the detail. Another challenge was translating the environmental design of the original into LittleBigPlanet's three layers, which led to a lot of time considering what should be in the foreground, middle ground, and background to best represent each location's depth of field.

Wutai comes to mind as a challenging level due to its vast size as a continent, the number of cutscenes, and the little hidden paths, which made planning it a nightmare. Also, the scope of the project, particularly the amount of text conversations and NPCs that populate the entire game world, took me a long time to complete and also fit into each level.

Q: Final Fantasy 7 is a long game. Did you cut content making this adaptation?

Colliver: Not at all. It was really important to me to faithfully recreate every single detail from start to finish. Once I started such a massive project, it became an obsession to reimagine everything including every cutscene, side mission, and piece of Materia from the original. It was important to me that my adaptation was a faithful recreation as this project has been a labor of love.

Q: What parts of this adaptation are you proudest of?

Colliver: One section of my adaptation I'm really proud of is the Sector 7 Pillar. It was one of my favorite parts of the original and I really wanted to capture the brutality, struggle, and despair of the situation in my version. Secondly, in the burning of Nibelheim, I really wanted to capture the intensity of the situation as Sephiroth finally snaps. I spent hours just getting that infamous scene in the flames as accurate as possible. A few more moments include recreating Aerith's famous death, reimagining Cosmo Canyon, and the final designs of my main characters.

Putting the LittleBigPlanet x FF7 Platformer in Players' Hands

Q: Can players get their hands on what you've made?

Colliver: The best way to interact with this project at the moment is via my trailer and my 141-video playlist, which totals around 40 hours of footage on my YouTube channel, LittleBigWorld. Unfortunately, the LittleBigPlanet servers are currently down, which has been a disappointment. My dream is to see it hosted by Square Enix in a playable format once again, which is why I've started my petition to address this.

Q: You're trying to get Square Enix to make th final chapter of Final Fantasy 7 Remake?

Colliver: Yes I am. The petition is to ask Square Enix to include my creation as a playable mini-game in Part 3 of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy. I strongly believe that Part 3 would greatly benefit from a diverse array of new mini-games to enhance the overall experience and maintain the world's freshness.

Colliver's project has a petition on Change.org to be included in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 as a mini-game.

I feel this project would be a fun addition that could be featured as a mini-game at the Gold Saucer arcade or Costa del Sol, within the Shinra Combat VR Simulator, or as a new Protorelic Quest. Players could collect miniatures of my characters as they journey throughout the world, with each one unlocking a new level within the mini-game.

Q: Has anyone from Square Enix taken note of the project?

Colliver: The Square Enix blog reposted a very early incomplete version of my project when I started many years ago, but I've yet to have an opportunity to show them my completely finished project. I've had encouragement from the voice actors of Barret, Cait Sith, and Rude of the Turks, which has been really motivating and heartwarming. I am excited at the prospect of Square Enix and Sony one day seeing my work, and hopefully, they like it enough to feature it.

LittleBigWorld's Love Letter to FF7

Q: Do you have any future projects in mind?

Colliver: I plan to continue expanding my project. It would be fun to add some of my own original content that adds to the canon of Final Fantasy 7, including boss fights against the Sapphire Weapon, all four of the Turks, and a Mutated Professor Gast.

In addition, I'd like to add extra locations only featured in the compilation, such as Fort Tamblin, Modenheim, Banora, Midgar's Unseen Sectors 2 and 3, and a new original volcanic area to the world. Additionally, I would also like to revive some cut content from the original PS1 game, like the Ho-Chu boss fight in the Ancient Forest, encounters with Cobalt XIV and Indigo XV (clones of Red XIII), and the Travelling Peddler side quest.

Q: What makes Final Fantasy 7 special to you?

Colliver:Final Fantasy 7, to me, is the pinnacle of any form of media. I believe it has the strongest set of main characters in any video game. To have several characters like Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith have major growth throughout the story alongside having complex personalities, I feel, is quite rare. Cloud's journey especially, to me, is relatable—his struggle with mental health, trauma, and difficulty in building mental resilience really speaks to me.

The music is such a big part of the experience as well. Even now, whenever I hear the fighting theme, it brings back dramatic memories of having two party members down and the struggle to keep everyone alive.

There's just so much to talk about, like its perfect blend of strategy and action gameplay mechanics, the fact the story keeps you hooked with all its twists and emotions, and that each character has a unique and unforgettable arc. It's such an immersive and unforgettable experience. For me, Final Fantasy 7 is not just a perfect game, but a timeless narrative that continues to resonate on a personal level the older I get.

Q: Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Colliver: Just that this project is a love letter to the original game. I hope everyone enjoys it, and hope it can be included in some form in Part 3 of the Remake trilogy so it can be playable for the public.

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