Development of future Final Fantasy VII Remake games ‘will be more efficient‘

Final Fantasy VII Remake producer Yoshinori Kitase expects development of the second entry in the project to be “more efficient” than the first.

The episodic project was announced at E3 2015, but a March 2020 release date for part one of Final Fantasy VII Remake wasn’t confirmed until earlier this week.

It’s still unclear how many releases the project will span, but in excerpts from an upcoming Square Enix interview, Kitase said the level of content being created for each entry is comparable to that of a full game.

“Final Fantasy VII Remake goes much deeper into the world and characters of Final Fantasy VII than ever before,” he said.

“It’s a huge volume of work and data to re-imagine this world. Each game in the project will have a volume of content comparable to a standalone Final Fantasy.”

The title’s first episode will encompass the original’s story through leaving Midgard.

Kitase said: “We chose to focus on Midgar as it best represents the world of VII as a location more than any other. Midgar is full of imagination with myriad influences and surprises around every corner.”

On the subject of future Final Fantasy VII Remake releases, he said: “While the development team finish the first game in the project, we are continuing to plan and outline the overall volume of content for the second.

“Due to the work already done on the first game we anticipate development of the second game to be more efficient. We have our own internal schedule and plan, but for now we’d like to focus our information on the first game in the project.”

Square Enix opened its E3 2019 presentation on Monday with plenty of details about Final Fantasy VII Remake’s combat and gameplay, while also releasing an extended Final Fantasy VII Remake trailer.

It also announced on Monday that Final Fantasy VIII Remastered will arrive on consoles and PC later this year.