Following the announcement of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Square Enix confirmed that its Remake series will be spread across three games. However, during the earlier days of development, that wasn't necessarily the case. In a recent Famitsu interview (via VGC), Remake director Tetsuya Nomura and producer Yoshinori Kitase admit that they considered making this a two-part saga.
"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," says Nomura, referencing the fact that we didn't get confirmation of a trilogy until just last month.
"Originally, I was planning a trilogy, but Kitase suggested that they would like to explore the possibility of a two-part series," he continues.
Kitase goes on to explain that the development schedule couldn't be finalised until the team had a better understanding of the project's overall scope: "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. Therefore, in truth, I thought that there might be an option to make it to the end in the next game."
Given that Final Fantasy VII Remake takes place entirely within the city of Midgar — the opening section of the original Final Fantasy VII that lasts just several hours — wrapping things up in a single sequel would probably be a tall order. Turning it into trilogy seems to make a lot more sense — even if Remake's story is pushing the adventure in a new direction.
But you could also argue that Remake is stretched pretty thin to begin with, transforming the relatively compact Midgar arc into a 30+ hour, standalone game. With that in mind, we can certainly see why the development team might have considered a duology at one point or another.
What do you think of Square Enix's decision to slice Remake's story into three pieces? Could it have worked over two games? Write some fan fiction in the comments section below.
[source famitsu.com, via videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 29
Can't wait until they release Final Fantasy VII Crisis Armored Core Intergradial Remake Rebirthing Remastered Part XI in 2050.
I just can't see how they'll finish in 3 games. Going at Remakes pace, Rebirth will take place entirely in Kalm and Remake 3 will cover the Chocobo Ranch. There'll still be quite a bit of game left.
One game per disc of the PS1 original. I called it when the PS4 Remake was first stated to be part 1.
It should be one multi-disc game as same as original.
Glad it's a trilogy instead of 2. Square Enix said from the beginning that they didn't want to leave anything out of the original. There is filler but most of it was optional and the expanded gave us more of places like Wallmarket and more backstory to characters like Jessie.
@djlard If they did that we would have to wait over 10 years, the game file would be about 200gb, and likely on Unreal engine 4 instead of 5 that there using now that we're getting to the bigger areas.
@AdamNovice when they said a Midgar game would let us see more of the city and people, flesh it all out, I was intrigued. I was hoping to see more up top, the disparity with the slums. Wallmarket was great, but most of the added content seemed to be corridors of rubble in the slums, which was a bit underwhelming.
It'll be nice to know my grandkids will be playing final fantasy 7 remake part 3 ultimate chocobo edition. I'll probably be dead.
They made it a trilogy because $$$, sounds like they're doing a bunch of alternate reality BS filler in the 2nd game to plump up the length
Removed - inappropriate
At a guess the translation is “Not sure we
can spin out the remake for as long as we thought as we will end up competing for gamer time with other Squaresoft releases. Market research shows us
Most are going to wait for the PS Plus release as they clear backlogs”
Yeahhhhhh, having played the thing they put out I wish they'd done zero games.
They ruined the remake. Fairly terrible voice acting. Awful gameplay segments (that stupid guy riding a motorcycle like a blooming horse, the cross dressing dance sequence) and altered the storyline too much and in stupid ways (no, no one would've cared AT ALL if Sephiroth didn't appear until Kalm, As he should).
So, bleh, not for me.
I really wish it were 2 games. Then we wouldn't have to spread a single story out over a decade.
@djlard It is a multi-disc game. The game is so large that it will cost the consumer roughly $200 per copy if bought new at launch...
Disc 1 - PS4 — $60
Disc 2 - PS5 — $70
Disc 3 - PS6 — $70
Why sell 2 games of a remake of 1 game when you can sell 3 lol
I think there was a very clear route for the game to follow as a trilogy.
Part 1: Midgar
Part 2: Up to Aerith's death
Part 3: The rest of FF7 (which was honestly mostly bad in the original.)
I fully expect part 3 will be very divergent from the original, simply because so much of the original story (like all of the huge materia questlines) were so boring and unnecessary.
@patronmacabre Aerith ain't dying. The FF7 remake is soft AF.
@MattBoothDev "Fairly terrible voice acting" Now that's just wrong on so many levels.
@Uncharted2007 Still cheaper than FFXIV plus all the required movies, DLC, and incomplete complete edition repurchases though, so there's that....
@patronmacabre what do you mean Aerith dies?? So spoiler!!
I agree everything after that in the original was honestly bad. I'm convinced when people say they love 7 they mean they stopped playing after that...
@Milktastrophe possibly sell it all as dlc?
@Bismarck True. They even saved everyone from the plate falling.
@AdamNovice Same thoughts here! I loved getting to really know Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge more. It made their fates more impactful.
Looking forward to playing Part 2 & 3 for sure, as well as the Crisis Core Remake.
For me a dissapointing game nothing complete on a disc. The game takes to long to fully release so i dont even care anymore the crisis core is the better way to release a old game. I rather see a full release in one time and let them take their time to release a full game.
@Milktastrophe
Lol. On a serious note, The "Remake" was just a title, just like Rebirth is a title. All things indicate this is a sequel or reboot. They were just fooling people, making them think they were doing a remake. The events of the original FF7 and Advent Children have already taken place. The new trailer shows that characters are aware of Aerith's death in another timeline. They will just do whatever they want and wind it up in part 3.
For all the criticism about TLOU remake being a cash grab I find it odd that more people aren’t critical of what is quite clearly the biggest cash grab in gaming since the GTA shark card. Absolutely no reason to be more than one game, part 1 was full to the brim of nonsense filler.
now your just being bad to me i just want to play it 🤣
il play through the first part again and finish a day before the next part i think il play through the original on me psone . i love ffvii!
@Nepp67 ok, in not that the voice acting was bad, but some characters didn't fit cough Barratt cough and were cheesy.
@MattBoothDev Proof you can't please everybody. And that's fine. 🤷♂️
@NeutronBomb yep, it's not for me. I'm not the target audience for it and that's ok
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