On April 10th, and even sooner for those in Australia and Europe, the wait for the Final Fantasy VII Remake paid off. When Square Enix announced the remake of the 1997 Final Fantasy VII back in 2015, it clarified that it would get released in installments. As proven, Final Fantasy VII Remake covers the first section of the original game, taking place in the city of Midgar. Despite adapting only a small portion of the original game, the remake clocks in at around 30 hours (it took me 40 with completing the side quests). So the question is, when will the next installment release?
While director Tetsuya Nomura has yet to give a specific release date, he did provide some info in the Japanese Final Fantasy VII Remake Ultimania book, translated by Twitter user @aitaikimochi. Asked about the release of the next installment in the remake series, Nomura responded, “Depends on how many parts the overall story will be. If we divide the story into large parts, it’ll take longer to make. If we divide it into more detailed smaller sections, then developing it will be faster. I hope to release the next one ASAP.” This makes sense from a development point of view. If the team decides to adapt a larger section of the game it could be a few years until it’s released. If it adapts a shorter section it could be much earlier, considering that work on the second part had already begun by November of last year.
In another interview in the book, producer Yoshinori Kitase clarifies that while the development team hasn’t decided how many installments the remake will consist of, they have a “general idea” of how the story will play out and there’s “speculation that it will be 3 parts.” Again, this seems to be contingent on whether they decide to adopt shorter or larger sections of the game. Considering that Final Fantasy VII Remake adapts only the first few hours of the original, if they do decide to go with three installments this would suggest larger sections and a longer wait.
But before we get too ahead of ourselves, Final Fantasy VII Remake has been selling well, with over 3.5 million copies sold in the first three days alone. If you’re thinking of jumping on the bandwagon, you can check out our review here, in which we praised the first part of the remake for “finding the balance between traditional and innovation.”
