Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Everything We Know Up To This Point

As every fan of RPG knows, Final Fantasy 7 is a famous Japanese RPG released in the year 1997. In recent years, Square Enix declared that it would remake this legendary game. The remaking of the game was first announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2015, and fans of the RPG genre have been eagerly looking forward to observing the new Final Fantasy 7 since.

However, it is not simple for the remake to be actually released, since the development for the game seemed to have several struggles. While the release date is not officially set till now, people can still have for themselves various rumors and news of the legendary JRPG in this article.

Trailers

The remake’s first trailer was revealed at E3 3 years ago, covered with largely cinematic animations:

Also in the year 2015 at the PSX event, gameplay of the RPG’s remake was featured in the second trailer:

Release date

Started to be developed since 2014 but due to several issues, the remake of Final Fantasy 7 hasn’t got any official release date. It is believed that the remake will eventually has more than 1 release date, since its creator confirmed that the story of the game will be told in multiple episodes. Another reason for the delay of release date announcement is the change in the game’s development team, from CyberConnect2 to the in-house team of Square Enix.

Final Fantasy 7 remake’s director Tetsuya Nomura once answered to Famitsu that some parts of the game, like cutscenes, are in a further stage of development than the game Kingdom Hearts 3. As Kingdom Hearts 3 will be officially released in 2019, Final Fantasy 7 fans are hoping that their game will come out in the same year.

Also at E3, Final Fantasy 7 remake was promised to be available on PlayStation 4 first, then will come to PC and Xbox One later. However, there is currently no information on how long it will remain PS4-exclusive for before coming to Xbox One and PC.

Rumors and news

Will the release date not be announced soon?

It seems that the remake couldn’t appear in public within the year 2019. According to The Lifestream’s recent report, the waiting time could be up to 5 more years. The developing progress of the game seemed to be slowed down due to several turbulences.

On the other hand, recently there was a conversation between Yoshinori Kitase, producer of the remake and Naoki Hamaguchi, the game’s development lead. In the discussion, the Final Fantasy 7 remake was suggested to be released in the year 2023 before its 35th anniversary. However, this perhaps is not the truth since there is still no official statement from Square Enix responding to the rumor. The fans will have to wait at least until this year’s E3, when Square Enix will have their presentation. Hopefully they will give out some more information.

The game is not a full remake, it's just a reconstruction

The RPG’s remake will keep the narrative of its original game, featuring the fans’ favorite old iconic characters as well as locations. Despite receiving a lot of pressure about the famous game’s recreation, director from Square Enix Tetsuya Nomura stated that his team’s intention for the remake is neither recreating every single shot, nor just improving the graphics of the original game. According to Nomura, he likely wants this remake to catch up to the current gaming models with new and fresh features, while not being changed so much from the original Final Fantasy 7.

The remake is episodic

It is true that the new Final Fantasy 7 will be episodic, different from its 1997 version. In 2015, this detail was confirmed as Yoshinori Kitase, the series producer, thought that it would take more than one installment to have a quality remake that retains the old feeling of Final Fantasy 1997.

Answering the question why they came to this decision, Yoshinori Kitase said that if they tried to compress everything from the old legendary game into just one game, they would have needed to cut several parts. The producer believed that fans will understand their decision and he hoped to receive appreciation for their project’s designs as well as development, which was promised to be surprising and fresh.

The number of episodes is not announced yet. However, it is claimed that each episode of the game will be an “unique experience”.

The game will not keep the turn-based battles

Nomura once answered to Famitsu that instead of command-based battles, the new Final Fantasy 7 will be designed as action-based. Through Nomura’s brief glimpses about the combat system, it is expected that the RPG’s remake will have a similar formula as the game Kingdom Hearts. The game will have more battles in seamless and active style as well as having the capability of switching party members. This approach is likely to attract more new players thanks to its fresh and interesting designs.