Square Enix had big plans for the Final Fantasy 7 Remake Honey Bee Inn sequence, the development team said in a new blog post, and not all of them could be included.
With design freed from the technological restraints of the PlayStation 1 and its blocky polygon characters, co-director Motoru Toriyama wanted to make the Honey Bee Inn dance sequence lavish and lovely, even planning a pole-dancing scene on a grand stage for the main piece.
“We decided to take that part out due to the impact on the rating!” Toriyama said in the blog post.
Detailed costumes and extensive choreography aside, the Honeybee Inn segment also presented a chance to alter how the original game handled Cloud’s cross-dressing.
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Final Fantasy 7 Remake's Honey Bee Inn Sequence Was Initially Much More Risque
Of course, risque scenes at the Honeybee are nothing new to Final Fantasy 7.
The original Honey Bee Inn included a good deal of prototype content that never made it to release, including suggestive conversations with Shinra management and "Mystery Panties," though the "&$%# Room" still made the final cut.
The team also knew they needed to change certain aspects of how the game presents Wall Market’s most famous entertainment spot, such as not turning Cloud’s makeover into a joke and not relying on harmful stereotypes such as the original does with Mukki.
“Fans these days expect stories and dialogue in games to go beyond stereotypical depictions of gender,” Toriyama said.
“Through Andrea’s lines and the lyrics of the backing track, Stand Up, we tried to build in a positive and supportive message for Cloud during his cross-dressing scene. Cloud is a cool and stoic character, so we spent a lot of time making sure that his design for the cross-dressing scene would be an amusing contrast, but also dignified and beautiful.”
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[Source: Square Enix]
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