‘Final Fantasy 7 Remake’ devs weren’t sure if series needed 2 or 3 games

It’s been revealed that Square Enix weren’t initially sure how many games the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series would span.

The first chapter of the remake was released in 2020 with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth due for release in 2023 before an as-of-yet-unnanounced third game completes the trilogy.

In a new interview with Famitsu (and translated by VGC) creative director Tetsuya Nomura said “the reason we didn’t announce how many parts there would be until now was because we were considering whether it would be a trilogy or a two-part series. Originally, I was planning a trilogy, but (producer Yoshinori) Kitase suggested that (Square Enix) would like to explore the possibility of a two-part series.”

“It’s one of the many ideas that came up. At the beginning of development for Final Fantasy VII Remake, it was difficult to see how many man-hours and what kind of development cycle would be necessary, but by the time we finished, we could understand the required man-hours and schedule,” added Kitase. “In truth, I thought that there might be an option to make it to the end in the next game.”

It was also confirmed by Nomura that the series won’t be expanded beyond a trilogy of games, nor will anything from the original game be omitted.

In other promising Final Fantasy news, it’s been confirmed by producer Mariko Sato that the team behind Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion has a performance benchmark of  120 FPS on PC and 60 FPS on PS5 and Xbox Series X. All of the original’s assets are being replaced, with the updated versions utilising Unreal Engine 4 with the intention being to be “visually aligned and up to the standards of Final Fantasy 7 Remake,” he confirmed in an interview with IGN.

Despite avoiding specifics about the Nintendo Switch version of the game, Sato did say that “the gaming experience will be solid and the same great experience on all platforms.”

In other news, Rockstar has announced that due to moving more resources into developing Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6), there will be no more “major themed content updates” coming to Red Dead Online.