Square Enix has long been saddled with a reputation for taking far too long to develop its games — especially when those games are called Final Fantasy — but it does feel like the company's turned a bit of a corner over the last console generation or so. And while the third game in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy is probably still at least two or three years off, it's felt like the development of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has gone rather smoothly.
According to director Naoki Hamaguchi, that's down to the fact that between 80 and 90 per cent of Remake's team have stuck around for the sequel, which has led to a real sense of togetherness throughout the studio. "We were able to work together as a team, achieve this great flow and tempo of game development," Hamaguchi told Bloomberg.
Of course, it'll also help that most of Rebirth's core systems were put in place by its predecessor; this certainly isn't a case of starting over from scratch. Having said that, we wouldn't want to undermine the clear effort that's being poured into Rebirth. Everything we've seen of the game so far suggests a labour of love, with an impressive eye for detail.