Square Enix has opened up a special developer blog to help promote its forthcoming 3D remake of the old SNES title ‘Final Fantasy IV’, complete with extra excerpts from the original script that had previously been ditched.

Tomoya Asano, producer of Final Fantasy IV, takes the lead on the blog and his comments have kindly been translated by the folk over at NeoGAF.com

Below are some of the highlights of what has been revealed so far:

Blog Update No.1: Welcome to the Developer’s Blog!

Asano-san starts off by thanking readers for actually reading his blog site. Unfortunately, videogame publications do not always do the developer’s intentions and production ideas justice due to coverage mainly just being small news items. Therefore, he is hoping to rectify that via this blog, which will be updated on a weekly basis because, even though the game doesn’t ship until late December, they feel that if fans can get acquainted with the game now its even better.

Moving on, Asano states that the idea behind the Final Fantasy IV remake was that it would be the crutial second step after the 3D remake of Final Fantasy III from the NES, which appeared on DS earlier this year in Europe and last year in Japan and the US. That game was centered on three main principles:

• Renovated graphics consisting of three-dimensional expression;
• A reamped job system that will allow you to play with and adjust all the jobs as much as you desire;
• The ability to delve deeper into the scenario, adding personality to the characters and reconstructing the world setting.

Of course, now these principles must be translated to the Final Fantasy IV project instead, but that is merely the basic idea. The game began development around this time last year and now the work is starting to shape up. He concludes with: “It is with great pleasure that we will now begin explaining some of the adaptations that we are bringing to Final Fantasy IV.”

Blog Update No.2: Final Fantasy IV is something that enjoys drama!

Asano starts this particular update by talking about some of the hurdles found during the game’s production and the way to overcome them was to find the root of the problem, which was knowing exactly “What Final Fantasy IV is.” When the original Super Nintendo edition hit the streets, he says that most fans were probably around the Junior / Elementary school age, but IV was the first time a Final Fantasy expressed real drama within the game, something that could not quite be appreciated at that time. He also mentions some scenes that will bring back memories. “We would like to try looking at these scenes with current technology!” He finishes by talking about how Final Fantasy IV’s remake shares the same principle as Final Fantasy III on DS in that it was decided that re-doing the graphics would strengthen the emotional events in the game.

Blog Update No.3: Can I say something, too?

The final update, for now, is not actually dealt with by Asano-san, with it being passed over to another colleague for the unveiling of a new feature that is to be implemented in the final game:

Thoughts & Feelings

When the menu is opened now, a thought bubble appears expressing the party leader’s feelings at that time in the game. When you push the Y button, the party leader changes to the next character in the group. When the menu is opened…Of course now that character’s thoughts are shown. “The human relationships and feelings inside the party can be expressed, and it will sometimes reveal some funny things. If the degree of empathy felt towards the characters increases with this system, rising with the event scenes, we expect players to feel an even deeper connection with the game - so by all means please try looking at the menu with different characters when you play the game!”

So what are your thoughts on the Final Fantasy IV DS project so far? Share your opinions in the forum below and stay tuned for more…