When Is Final Fantasy VII Remake Coming Out?
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We dig through every bit of information we know to give a release window for Square Enix’s highly anticipated Final Fantasy VII Remake
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The Sony press conference at E3 2015 will go down in history as containing some of the biggest video game reveals of all time. Aside from Shenmue III, one of the biggest reveals of the night was the confirmation of Final Fantasy VII Remake, fulfilling our childhood dreams at some undetermined point in the future.
We saw some gameplay footage of the Final Fantasy VII Remake at the PlayStation Experience event in 2015. Since then, we have only received a few screenshots and rumors of production issues behind the scenes.
So when will the Final Fantasy VII Remake be coming out? We are here today to analyze the facts and break down the most likely release date for the long awaited return of Cloud Strife.
Nomura’s Vague Comments
Square Enix is working on two hugely anticipated games—Final Fantasy VII Remake and Kingdom Hearts III. Recently, Kingdom Hearts III has been in the spotlight with the reveal of a Toy Story world, though we still don’t have any concrete release information for the game.
These two games are both being worked on by Tetsuya Nomura, who is closely associated with both the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series. Nomura has made statements in interviews with Famitsu magazine which confirm that the games are a long way off in development, though he never nailed down an estimate. With so much focus on Kingdom Hearts III at the moment, its development could mean Final Fantasy VIII takes a back seat for a while.
PREVIOUSLY: EVERY FINAL FANTASY CHARACTER RANKED
A lot of online stores and video game retailers are listing the Final Fantasy VII Remake for a 2017 release, but these usually have box art images that look like they were created in MS Paint. These are not to be trusted. The dates are a trick to try and get you to pre-order. If the Final Fantasy VII Remake was actually coming out within the next six months, then Square Enix would be shouting it from the rooftops.
The Lack Of Anniversaries To Aim For
Final Fantasy VII was released throughout 1997 across the world. The Japanese version of the game came first and that was released on Jan. 31, 1997. This means that the 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII has come and gone in its homeland.
This is significant because Square Enix likes to celebrate their anniversaries. 2017 is also the 30th anniversary of the series as a whole, as the original Final Fantasy released in 1987. It’s pretty much certain that Final Fantasy VII Remake won’t release this year, which means that it won’t coincide with either of those big anniversaries. Had the game started development earlier, then there might have been a push to release the first episode as part of the 20th or 30th anniversary this year, but as it stands, the game is missing both of these celebrations. The next significant Final Fantasy anniversary that is relevant to Final Fantasy VII is five years away.
The fact that the next big anniversary/celebration is so far off means Square Enix has no special release dates that they need to aim for. It is doubtful that the game will take five years to develop, but they have no impetus to aim for any particular date that happens in the meantime.
Play It First On PlayStation
The original Final Fantasy VII Remake trailer at E3 2015 ended with a screen that said: “Play It First On PlayStation 4”. It seems that the Final Fantasy VII Remake is being used as part of Sony’s exclusive title war that has been going on with Microsoft. The Final Fantasy VII Remake might be the biggest get for the PlayStation 4, even though it will only be an exclusive for a set amount of time.
So, how long will the Final Fantasy VII Remake be a timed-exclusive for?
Final Fantasy VII is the game from the series that is most closely associated with the PlayStation brand, and the huge success of Final Fantasy VII was what helped the PlayStation establish itself within the video game market. As such, it would come as no surprise if the Final Fantasy VII Remake was a timed-exclusive for at least six months to a year. That seems right in the ball park of timed exclusivity from Square Enix. Looking back on this console generation, Rise of the Tomb Raider was an Xbox One/Windows exclusive for almost a year.
The timed-exclusive aspect of the game likely only applies to the individual episodes that will be released, rather than the product as a whole. Xbox owners and PC gamers can expect to wait a little longer to play the Final Fantasy VII Remake. Nintendo owners will have to hope that Cloud is included in the Nintendo Switch version of Super Smash Bros, as the Switch might be a little too underpowered to run the title.
The Episodic Format
Final Fantasy VII Remake will be released in episodes. We don’t know how many episodes there will be, or how long apart they will be released. All we know is that each episode will be the length of a full game.
So how many episodes will the Final Fantasy VII Remake consist of?
The simplest answer is likely three. Final Fantasy VII had its story spread across three discs, with natural break points at the end of each disc. This would mean that the first episode would conclude with the death of Aerith and the second would end when the party gathers together to attack the North Crater, or do a bunch of sidequests. The Meteor isn’t going anywhere until you continue the story.
The later episodes should take a lot less time to develop than the first, due to the fact that the assets for the game will have been created already. Square Enix will want to keep the hype machine going for the game, so there shouldn’t be too much of a wait after episode one.
The Investor Document
Square Enix released their investors document online, outlining their plans for the current financial year leading into 2018. Both the Final Fantasy VII Remake and Kingdom Hearts III are listed under “2018 and beyond”. This is pretty much the smoking gun in terms of confirming that we won’t see a 2017 release and it helps us form an idea of when Square Enix actually plans to release the game.
Conclusion
Given all the information that we have received so far, we have concluded that the first part of the Final Fantasy VII Remake will be released at the end of 2018. The first episode will be released on the PlayStation 4 for at least six months, so Xbox/PC gamers will have to wait until 2019 to play the game. The later episodes could take around a year and a half each to develop, which means we may be seeing new Final Fantasy VII Remake releases until 2020.
Scott has been writing for The Gamer since it launched in 2017 and also regularly contributes to Screen Rant. He has previously written gaming articles for websites like Cracked, Dorkly, Topless Robot, and TopTenz. He has been gaming since the days of the ZX Spectrum, when it used to take 40 minutes to load a game from a tape cassette player to a black and white TV set. Scott thinks Chrono Trigger is the best video game of all time, followed closely by Final Fantasy Tactics and Baldur’s Gate 2. He pretends that sorcerer is his favorite Dungeons & Dragons class in public but he secretly loves bards.
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/final-fantasy-vii-remake-release/