Tetsuya Nomura revealed characters from the Final Fantasy VII Compilation won't be appearing in Final Fantasy VII Remake. We learned this via an interview published by Famitsu:

Tetsuya Nomura: "No characters from it appear in this game, but certain elements from it are touched upon in a certain way. Moreover, it's not part of Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, but there are character(s) from Nojima's sidestory novel Final Fantasy VII The Kids Are Alright who appear in the game."

Needless to say, this doesn't include characters like Zack, who already appeared in the original game before being featured in Final Fantasy VII Compilation.

As a reminder, Compilation of Final Fantasy VII is made of sequels, prequels or side stories released after Final Fantasy VII. It contains, in release order:

  • Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII- (2004)
  • Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005)
  • Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII- (2006)
  • Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode -Final Fantasy VII-  (2006)
  • Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- (2007)
  • Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete (2009)

Final Fantasy VII The Kids Are Alright: A Turks Side Story is a Final Fantasy VII side novel written by Final Fantasy scenarist Kazushige Nojima and released in Japan on December 15, 2011. It was released by Yen Press in English on January 22, 2019. The book's story takes place shortly before the Advent Children movie.

It's also important to note Tetsuya Nomura mentioned characters from these works don't appear "in this game" meaning it's not impossible they might show up in Final Fantasy VII Remake's sequel. As a reminder, the game will have either one or two sequels. I'm personally expecting the Final Fantasy VII Remake sequel to be full of references or links to the Compilation.

As you already know, Square Enix released on the PlayStation Store the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo. You can also check out comments from Cloud's Japanese voice actor, our gameplay preview, and the results of the Final Fantasy series fan poll organized by NHK.

Final Fantasy VII Remake launches on PS4 on April 10. If you enjoy our coverage, translations, and wish to support DuaShockers, you can do so by preordering FF7R on Amazon.