Today, during a group interview hosted at E3, which Twinfinite attended, Final Fantasy VII Remake Producer Yoshinori Kitase provided more color on the episodic nature of the series.
Kitase-san referred to the upcoming release through a translator as “the first game” not just as part one and confirmed that it includes a massive amount of content (two Blu-Ray Disks worth of Data). That being said, there will be no scaling back from anything that the fans loved about the original Final Fantasy VII.
The reason why the team took this expansive approach is that just remaking the original game wasn’t something they were really interested in doing.
While the first game focuses on Midgar, the development team doesn’t yet know for sure what future games beyond the first will include. They’re still working on fleshing out what they’re going to do for the second game of the project and how far that one is going to reach in the story.
Do keep in mind that (while Square Enix never provided any specific details) the game’s development underwent a significant reboot in 2017 when it was shifted from CyberConnect 2 to in-house, so Kitase-san likely is talking about that interval rather than the full timespan since the announcement in 2015.
Update: Square Enix sent in an update clarifying Kitase-san’s words:
“While the development team finishes the first game of the project, they are also planning the volume of content for the second. Due to the work already done on the first game, we anticipate that the development of the second game will be more efficient. However, for now we would like to focus on the development of the first game.”
If you want to see more of the Final Fantasy VII Remake, you can check out today’s gameplay reveal and trailers, another from a few weeks ago, and a beautiful piece of concept artwork showing off Sephiroth, and some crazy-detailed character images featuring the protagonists.
You can also read more details about the voice and subtitle options that will be included in the game. Square Enix is going all out with this one.
The first game of the Final Fantasy VII remake will launch on PS4 on March 3, 2020. No other platforms have been announced so far.
[On location reporting: Ed Mcglone]