Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 7 Remake project has one more entry on the way, and it might not take as long to make as you might think.
These days, we’re lucky if we get a sequel to a game once every four or five years, with development times and budgets ballooning in recent years. Final Fantasy 7 Remake took a good five years to come out after it was announced, and Rebirth released a full four years after that. But, according to the most recent Final Fantasy 7 Ultimania, it appears that we won’t have to wait quite as long for the third part, whatever it might be called. Twitter user Audrey recently translated some excerpts from the Ultimania, stating that the game’s producer Yoshinori Kitase mentioned that “Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was actually done within three years since about one year was developing the DLC, and he hopes to be able to stick with that schedule for Part 3 too” (in Audrey’s own words).
That would mean the next part would be released some time in 2027, which isn’t too long of a development period overall. Presumably Square Enix will use the same open world map again, with some additions that haven’t appeared in the remake just yet, but of course we’ll have to wait and see. The Golden Saucer in Rebirth did tease a snowboarding mini-game, and the original game famously has Cloud taking part in the sport literally right after that famous, spoilerific Aerith scene, so presumably we’ll be able to head back there.
Interestingly, creative director Tetsuya Nomura has also said he thinks that they’ll be able to start voice recording in the near future. Kitase apparently also “proposed an idea to him about ‘something’ very important to include, even though it wasn’t in the original game, and Nomura is pondering how to deliver. He thinks it will surely make people happy if they can do it well.”
Kitase also noticed that the team was able to produce Rebirth in such a short timeframe because “they retained the same staff as the previous instalment, and Part 3 will also have the same team,” which is another reminder as to why all of the constant layoffs this industry is facing are as ridiculous as they are, outside of putting people out of work.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth launched back in February to mostly positive reviews, including from our own Alex who gave it four out of five stars.