Final Fantasy 7 Remake Will Be A Multi-Part Release

During Sony’s Playstation Experience 2015 keynote conference, fans were treated to a multitude of game announcements and reveals. One of the biggest showings was the Final Fantasy 7 Remake gameplay, which was such a hit, fans are probably excited for when the game rolls out via episodic releases. Yes, that’s right, Final Fantasy 7 Remake will be released as a “multi-part series”.

In a press release sent out by Square Enix, it’s been announced that the remake of Final Fantasy 7 will not follow a traditional single release format and instead, will span across multiple releases. Here’s the press release itself:

LOS ANGELES (Dec. 6, 2015) – During the past weekend’s PlayStation Experience in San Francisco, SQUARE ENIX® debuted a new trailer for FINAL FANTASY® VII REMAKE, the full remake of the award-winning role-playing game, FINAL FANTASY VII. The new trailer features the CG scenes as well as gameplay footage. FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE will be told across a multi-part series, with each entry providing its own unique experience.

Kotaku inquired more details from Square Enix regarding the multi-part aspect of the remake and their respond doesn’t necessarily clear things up about the nature of the game’s release.

“It means instead of concluding in one entry, multiple entries are being considered in development. Each entry will have its own unique story, As a gaming experience, each entry will have the volume of content equal to a full-sized game.”

Now, before you go off and rage against Square Enix, let’s hear out what they have to say on deciding to release Final Fantasy 7 Remake as a “multi-part series”. In an interview with Famitsu, producer Yoshinori Kitase elaborated on the reason to release the remake in an episodic format.

“One of the main reasons why we haven’t done a remake until now is because it’s a massive undertaking to reconstruct Final Fantasy 7 from the ground up with the current technology. To a great extent, we just couldn’t take the plunge. Producing a proper HD remake of Final Fantasy 7 that maintains the same feeling of density of the original results in a volume of content that couldn’t possibly fit into one installment”

Adding to that sentiment was Tetsuya Nomura, who was integral in the designs on numerous Final Fantasy projects and serving as director to the remake. He noted that “If we were to try to fit everything into one installment, we would have to cut various parts and create a condensed version, but there would be no point in doing that.”

He continued, “For instance, players will be able to explore many different areas of Midgar in this game that they couldn’t access in the original–if we’re remaking the world, we want to add in areas like this and depict them with real detail.”

Takashi Mochizuki, a tech reporter from The Wall Street Journal summed it up nicely on how Square Enix plans to roll the Final Fantasy 7 Remake in a tweet.

and SquareEnix says FF7 Remake's data size so huge; the software will be split into several titles (for example, FF7-Remake 1, FF7-Remake 2)

— Takashi Mochizuki (@6d6f636869) December 7, 2015

With development underway, we can only hope that the remake will come sooner than later. Square Enix is often notorious for delaying game releases on their main titles (i.e. Final Fantasy 15, Kingdom Hearts 3), so fan concerns are warranted. With a multi-series approach, we might see the Final Fantasy 7 Remake come earlier. For now, though, we’ll just have to make do with the amazing gameplay trailer they released during Playstation Experience 2015.