和田洋一
The "Compilation of Final Fantasy VII" was created by Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura, the respective director and character designer for "Final Fantasy VII". It was at one point defined by Square Enix as their first step towards "polymorphic content", a marketing and sales strategy to "[provide] well-known properties on several platforms, allowing exposure of the products to as wide an audience as possible." Speaking on why "VII" had been chosen for such a project, Kitase explained that the ending left far more development opportunities open for characters and setting than other games in the series. There was also a strong financial benefit to creating the "Compilation"—following the unprecedented financial upturn prompted by the release of "Final Fantasy X-2" just prior to the 2003 merger of Square and Enix into Square Enix, then-CEO Yoichi Wada decided that the company could tap into fan demands for continuations of the story of "Final Fantasy VII".