Square Enix veteran Tetsuya Nomura has spoken out about his experience working on Final Fantasy 6, and although he has a "strong attachment" to the JRPG, to this day he feels that there are parts of it that he "could've done a better job on."
Nomura recently served as the creative director of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, but for Final Fantasy 6, he was the character and monster designer. In an official interview posted on the Final Fantasy website in celebration of the classic JRPG's 30th anniversary, he notes that he thinks "we'd gone as far as we could" with the pixel art style, with FF6 being the last mainline game in the series to use it.
"I'm incredibly glad I was able to work on it as a pixel artist, and I definitely feel the love for FF6 even today," Nomura continues. "That said, while I tried to do everything I could during the project, there are still parts I feel I could've done a better job on. I don't really feel that way about many other games; it's just something about FF6 specifically."
This is a surprisingly critical stance, especially since, in the same interview, he says he was "always trying to come up with new, interesting concepts," designing both monsters and characters "even before any planning documents had been made for a project." He adds, "I like to think it was that approach that convinced my coworkers to give me even bigger tasks in the future."
Nomura acknowledges that the Final Fantasy series "changed drastically from 7 onward," and as such, he thinks "it's natural that 6 is viewed as the culmination of all that came before it." He continues: "Whatever your perspective, 6 and 7 mark a big turning point for the series, and in that sense, I think I have a strong attachment to 6 just like its fans from back when it released."
Square Enix is well aware of the demand for a Final Fantasy 6 remake, in fact, last year, director Yoshinori Kitase said: "I would like to push Final Fantasy 6 again!" However, he previously said that it'd also be "difficult," so whether it'll actually happen someday is another matter.
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