Before the era of consumer-driven game-making software like the Unreal Engine editor in Fortnite and Roblox, fans had a different way to flex their creative muscles: Little Big Planet.
Now, more than 10 years after the release of Little Big Planet 2, one creator has remade the entirety of the original Final Fantasy 7 in meticulous detail within the game.
The impressive undertaking reimagines and recreates the original Final Fantasy 7 section by section. Creator Jamie Colliver has rebuilt everything — from Cloud’s spiky hair to the iconic themes composed by Nobuo Uematsu — within Little Big Planet 2.
It’s an impressive undertaking, to say the least; The original Final Fantasy 7 runs roughly 36 hours long, touts a sprawling world map of diverse regions, and contains more than 130,000 words of dialogue according to one report — dialogue that Colliver says he added in its entirety to his remake.
It’s not a perfect one-to-one recreation by any means, but instead transforms the game into a platformer using Little Big Planet 2’s suite of tools. The game doesn’t contain any turn-based combat, but characters can perform attacks that will reduce a boss’s health by a set amount.
Colliver portrays beloved Final Fantasy locales, like the grime-covered slums of Wall Market, with building blocks textured to look like a junkyard or signs designed in neon. So while each place doesn’t capture the art and textures from the PlayStation game, it at least gets at the vibe of each area.
“I spent a lot of time deciding what should be in the foreground, middle ground, and background to best represent each location’s depth of field,” Colliver told Polygon via email, “Wutai was particularly challenging due to its vast size as a continent, numerous cutscenes, and hidden paths, making the planning process a nightmare!”
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In addition to redesigning the environments, Colliver had to contend with the restrictions on each level’s size in Little Big Planet 2.
“I had to get creative with fitting so many characters into small spaces, sometimes resulting in levels being split into smaller sections,” Colliver said. “Storage space was a major limitation as well, restricting the physical size a level could be. This forced me to plan the level’s architecture out before adding more detailed elements.”
Colliver told Polygon the project took him “countless hours of dedication” and three-and-a-half years to complete. He did it all, just because he loves the original Final Fantasy 7.
Said Colliver: “My project is a passionate tribute to the original PS1 version of Final Fantasy 7 and I hope viewers enjoy seeing every moment big and small reimagined by a lifelong fan.”
