Much was made of how Final Fantasy VII Remake will be split into instalments when the news broke years ago, but the backlash everyone was expecting from the wider gaming community hasn't come to fruition. We haven't come across any big complaints that the first part finishes after the party leaves Midgar, but at least director Tetsuya Nomura wants to get part two out as soon as possible. There's still no word on how many pieces there will be in total, however.
As part of the Japanese Final Fantasy VII Remake Ultimania book, which has been kindly translated by Twitter user @aitaikimochi and reported on Video Games Chronicle, Nomura said that the next part could be smaller than the Midgar section to aid development times. "If we divide the story into large parts, it’ll take longer to make. If we divide it into more detailed smaller sections, then developing it will be faster. I hope to release the next one ASAP.”
Producer Yoshinori Kitase then confirms that Square Enix still doesn't know how many parts the entire story will be split into. "We have a general idea of how the story will play out, but we haven’t decided exactly [how many parts], nor can we confirm anything. There’s speculation that it will be three parts, but we’re just doing things one step at a time."
We can't wait to see what the publisher has in store next for both veteran players and newcomers when it comes to Final Fantasy VII Remake 2 -- it is sure to be another wild ride. Presumably, we'll also be playing it on PlayStation 5. When do you think the next instalment will release? Share your predictions in the comments below.
[source twitter.com, via videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 85
you see this makes me think that the next chapters might come as DLC
That's promising.
The problem with them making loads of wee parts is that they’ll still charge full price. They’ve got us hooked now and expecting quality content so they could easily make money from releasing one a year full price.
@Incarna I do believe SE have said there won’t be nextgen exclusive titles.
Honestly, I'd rather have three big games as opposed to something like six smaller ones, especially when it comes to RPGs.
Making these next instalments smaller could create a weird disconnected story. Not to mention character progression will get screwed up.
If its any "smaller" the price better reflect that big-time
@nessisonett yeah this could be the most expensive game we’ve ever paid to play. I mean if every instalment is £50/$50 we could be looking at a pretty steep final figure.
I might just wait for the definitive version in a few years!
If it's smaller DLC installments then I'm fine. But if they are just going to milk these out and charge full AAA price for umpteen releases then I won't be. They should have had the full narrative arc mapped out with the number of games to be made known beforehand.
As expected, life looking forward to FF7 remake being released was at least a little more exciting than life after FF7 has been released so keep that bun in the oven as long as you want SE.
I'd prefer three parts than stuff being divided up. Similar to the original game having three discs.
That's a terrible idea. I don't mind the game being separated into installments if each one is as lengthy and detailed as FF7R was, but anything less really will turn it into episodic rubbish. Stick to full games, please.
See this is what I was saying before about wondering whether the next part would be an open world game once out of Midgar like the original.With what they are saying I am almost certain now that each game will be a very linear but focused story.
I don't really care how many parts there are at this point so long as they are all meaty and full of content and come on a regular basis...and stick to the story that we all remember and love.
Full length games please. Get rid of all that super slow walking and gap squeezing stuff while you're at it and put the extra resources into more Barret dialogue. Thanks.
I am soo glad I didn't buy this game and decided to just wait until it's all out in one piece, even if it will take a long time. It means not playing when everyone else is but at least they will connect the story and gameplay into a seamless experience (unless they don't) and not charge and arm and a leg for it (again, unless they don't). Happy to wait until it's all out and see, read the review then and so on. By that point, they will have ironed out all the issues, include gameplay mechanics from the beginning that will inevitably evolve over the course of the releases etc.
Them not being sure how many parts there'll be makes a bit more sense now that we know where the remake is going regarding story divergences, but it's still a bit concerning that they don't know.
Find a way to bring back Jessie and I'll keep buying however many installments they want to throw at me.
The fact that even they do not know what they are going is very concerning - without a solid story arc the 'financial planners' will have the biggest input
Definitely would prefer less frequent, but larger releases. I burned through Remake in 2 weeks, loved almost every second of it, and didn't want it to end. So shorter releases? No please.
And I kind of like that they're not 100% sure what they'll do - the world of Final Fantasy 7 is new and exciting again, and it's all the better for it. Square-Enix did an amazing job, I think we can give them the benefit of the doubt now.
As long as those smaller parts aren't priced at £50, selling them as dlc sounds like a better idea.
Tbh final fantasy 7 remake shouldn't of cost full price due to the fact its only a part of an older game and not the full game
@playstation_king I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you. Did you play the game? Because yes, it's not THE FULL GAME, but it is A full game, and a really good one at that. This is art we're talking about here, and people deserve to be paid for their art.
I'm loving FF7R, I'm just arriving to the Shinra building so no spoilers. As an avid fan of the original, I'm happy with the majority of the changes so far and am really looking forward to what comes next. That said, hopefully they stick to 3 parts in total. It's hard to imagine another point in the story that they can expand upon like they did in Midgar, being the sprawling mega metropolis that it is. There's certainly potential to make the Golden Saucer experience as amazing as a modern day theme park, some expansion on Wutai and the war, and perhaps some potential in Junon... but most everywhere else is fairly linear and had to be revisited several times throughout the story. What I can certainly expect is expounding on the depth of the characters and story through dialogue and cut scenes as we have already seen in the first installment. I would guess and hope the second installment would at least take us up to the city of the ancients, opening up all the continents for exploration.
Boy this is a tough decision. I really like how much more depth has been added to the Remake. However, as I said before, this depth could string this series on for a long time if every logical "section" of the game is broken out into 40 - 50 hours chunks. It could easily become 8 - 10 games. It's been a while since I played the original, but I remember it being like 60 - 70 hours to experience every story point in the game. Even more if you wanted to get all the Master Materia and Knights of the Round.
I am on Chapter 15 right now, so I have yet to see how Square Enix wraps up this particular piece of the game to have some kind of definitive end.
I almost feel like there are some parts of the game that could get stretched into a bigger game where other sections are smaller chunks.
One thing that will be pretty weird is going from awesome at the end of one game to square one at the start of another.
I kind of hope there is some kind of progress transfer system where certain base-level weapons, armor, accessories and Materia will transfer over to the next game from the previous game (or provide some static bonuses for having a completed save file from the previous installment).
And yet still no address of how progress will happen (my guess it wont, and people will start from scratch each episode. Personally, I'd love to have it carry over for those who have, and for those who haven't played the first part maybe get like a random stock build of materia and equipment so they're sort of on level ground as those who have) or if there is even a world map (there best be, but let's be honest, there definitely wont be). C'mon SE, I ABSOLUTELY loved this remake (100+ hours for plat) and don't want to see you p!ss on it for the next installments.
@nookie_egg part 2, we meet Yuffie straight away. She steals your Materia. Thats how they restart the progression from scratch maybe? Would be a cool way to do it
@kyleforrester87 Get to the Gold Saucer, some kinda weird time Distortion appears. The gang sees Jessie singing on the main stage
Yeah, no matter how many parts, I'll be waiting until they finish releasing everything to put my hands on it. I'm glad everyone is praising part one, hopefully the rest of it will be great as well. Don't forget FF XV and its not so polished last quarter.
@FullbringIchigo so they either make you keep you ps4 or force PlayStation online to save on the cloud unless there all nearly done I can't see them coming out until well into the ps5
Also yeah, id rather 3 big games that alot of small ones for £50 each
@Ear_wiG yes I did play the game but compared to other final fantasies it felt so short with no real open areas to grind apart form combat simulators to get xp, the story was good though and graphics were amazing but I don't really want to pay £50 for each part of an unfinished game.
Also I never played the original if that helps
@SuperSilverback I actually like that idea. Maybe bump into her again in the 3rd installment as you crash into Wutai somehow. EDIT: And get it all back, if that wasn't clear.
glad people are starting to wake up and realize s-e is one of the most mismanaged publishers in the world. here i thought the game might be released in 3 parts but it's looking more and more evident that it will be 4+ parts (full priced releases of course) now at the very least. the ff7r business model was designed to exploit gamers first and foremost and provide s-e with a 10 year safety net in case the company were to tank in the interim.
@finalstan while I can 100% guarantee the games will not be edited together into one seamless game (in terms of playability or price), you will probably get each earlier installment at a nice discount. More power to you.
I honestly dont care how many installments they are making. As long as the story and game play dont get ruined. I'll pay happily for each individual installment. I also like that they dont know exactly, because that makes it as exciting to us as customers and as them as business to do things that they havnt done yet and that they are doing it this way. So that they can focus directly on each individual part instead of a whole game and make it perfect instead of getting a ***** game. And they have also already announced about a year ago that the ff7 remake will be on ps4. It will likely be on the 5 but it is going to be on the 4 as well.
@SuperSilverback I can really see this happening, right before another 10 minute boss fight with a shadow or some such.
@ApostateMage They could definitely keep you busy to give her enough time to leg it. I like this idea a lot.
@playstation_king totally fair. I definitely agree that there weren't enough places to grind out exp too - in fact, not enough combat opportunities in general. There were quite a few areas in the game where I was walking through empty corridors wondering, "why am I not battling monsters right now?!" Part 2 needs more opportunities to enjoy the excellent battle system!
@ApostateMage Do you mean The Whispers? I was under the impression we wouldnt be seeing them anymore!
They can take as long as they damn well please imo.
Too much anxiety surrounding what will/might/could happen next with this but i think it's a pretty safe bet they will do the right thing.
Wouldn't say no to some sort of Chadley's Ultimate Arena DLC to tide me over til next installment though.
@nookie_egg i wouldnt be surprised to see a cloud save progression system patched in if necessary - but i also love the idea of yuffie pinching your materia!
As for releases, i want to see 3 full titles rather than have the game broken down into small chunks. More battle opportunities to level up too.
I hope final fantasy 16 is being developed alongside it too.
Regarding times for developing part 2, i dont see why it should take a long time. They already have the engine. Resident evil 3 was developed in a year after resi 2 remake - granted it was a 5 hour game. And Capcom are not Square Enix who are quite notorious for slow development times these days
@Rob_230 They really need to start addressing this soon. I know there is plenty of time what with the year exclusivity etc but people are going to need to know soon. I really hope they don't start again with it, I maxed out ALL [lots] my materia, I don't want to have to do it again. I was having a discussion with someone on ign, and they were of the opinion that it would be boring if they allowed you to start the next game with all your equipment and having nothing to upgrade or whatever. My argument was that there are other characters to level up from scratch (Red already joined and Yuffie if they keep her the same way) can be obtained in literally the first forest if needs be. Then there is Kalm that allows more equipment which can all be upgraded etc. I don't see a reason why they would start from scratch, it doesn't make much sense.
Wouldn't be surprised if they did the game over 5 parts (there is still a LOT to cover...). BUT I am fully expecting some (maybe all? Maybe extra...?) of the WEAPON fights to be paid for DLC. Think there were 4 in the original? Could throw in a Jade/Sapphire/Amber too...
I mean I'm not surprised they've dug themselves a hole and will have to find a balance between making too many parts and fleshing out parts of the game. I'm truly confident that it won't be truly open world but rather something like FFX airship travel to each location we've traveled to. It would work if they wanted to realistically make it a 3 part game. Open-World would make it 2-3 times more parts that ,due to the vastness of the world map on top of the work, time,and money they have to put into it, would overwhelm them. SE has recently been milking the FF franchise recently (looking at you FFXV) so we'll see. I'd be for the 3 part game that's not open world, but like FFX where we can return to locations we've been to via submarine, airship, and hovercraft. But if they wanna milk it, go ahead...I can wait lol
I personally do not like the sound of that. I was hoping for extra content and something the scope of FF15 for the next part. That way part one makes for an awesome intro and the next parts big and free. Need to be able to go back to Golden Saucer and such whenever we need to.
It's called a cash grab. I'm sure they are very happy to have us pay 60 a pop for several "installments". Don't look for a final chapter anytime in the next 15 years.
@TaiChiZen I don't know. The whole point of them waiting until now was because hardware limitations and the scope of it. If they don't go big it will feel like it's been unnecessary wait. If they're ps5 exclusive, that's a better option. More power for a big world. I didn't like X and x-2 location list tbh.
@Jayofmaya yeah I can see that. Unfortunately a lot of people don't want to wait too long for the whole remake to finish. I personally don't if they drag this out since I'm not as impatient as a lot of others out there. I think it all depends on the investors breathing down their necks as they move forward
Bigger installments please, and OMG why Nomura has always the worst option XD it’s like a meme or something!
Hope we get something like XV open world(-ish) with 7R combat and strong story direction with part 2.
Trololololololo.
This gonna have so many games and take so long to finish. It might not be finished in ten years.
Let them take their time. It will suck to have to wait but oh well. I would rather wait and be completely satisfied then get it fast and have it not be up to the standard the game should be. They have already said ff7 will be on the ps4 so that gives us an idea of what is going on with the possible time frame of the game. But the first art just came out three weeks ago. We need to slow down, be patient and wait. Because whether we like it or not, that's what's gonna happen.
I can see the weapons, materia and abilities staying the same through each part. But maybe the level will reset
I expected 4 parts but I guess I should keep quiet and not let square know they might be able to make a little more off me.
Why does Abzu not go back to the life stream? He's the only thing that doesn't and it bothered me.
Tbh I'd prefer they take their time and do 3 separate full sized games. Once we get out of midgar, the potential for open world format game should not be wasted on fetch and kill quests. I feel like games like skyrim and witcher have raised the bar on quests and quests ought to be more meaningful... Just my opinion. I want quests that help us connect more with the world that we never got to see from the original.
Personally, the first game, albiet a full game within its own rights, was qay to short anyway. And i have a sinking suspicion that every installment will cost the exact same price as a full game. And at that point its just bull. Take longer to release a better longer game and people will pay for it, and enjoy it more. Release quick small installments simply to push out story then theres potential to backfire. Think ff15. They should just slow down and give us the full storyz that way they make no mistakes and wont be out here charging 60 bucks for a day of gameplay
@nookie_egg Definitely agree it needs to be addressed soon. We need to know platforms, number of releases and how progress will carry across. They might choose to go the Trails of Cold Steel route. The second game saw you start at level 50 from the off, along with a number of moves you'd collected in the first game, but quartz (equivalent of materia) were lost, and needed collecting again. enemies were tougher throughout the game to account for the fact you started out at level 50.
I cant see Square doing paid dlc though. The optics would be awful given so many people are objecting to this being split into parts and saying each release isnt a complete game. I still think thats nonsense though. Last of Us 2 tells a contination of the story started in LoU, and i dont see people kicking off about that. Ff7 R is NOT ff7. Its a whole new release inspired by ff7. If it wasn't called ff7, people wouldn't be complaining.
On characters like Vincent, Cait Sith, Cid and Red, i wouldnt be surprised if they join your party at or around the level of Cloud et al. Thats what used to happen when new characters joined your party in final fantasy titles. Unless square choose to let you play some kind of flashback sequence to show you how each character got to where they are when you meet them.
Or maybe you can send each character to the wall to take on the squat challenge for some remedial training 👍
@Rob_230 That's not too far removed from my suggestion of a random load out of materia and equipment for those who haven't. I dunno, I really want my materia as it is but they will do what they see fit.
They did for FF15 didn't they? (not played it). Lol you sure about no one kicking off about TLOU 2 mate? You are right, but they have chosen to call it ff7 so they kinda have to follow some expectations I guess.
Yeah I seem to remember they were an average of your party or something on the original, which would be fine. But if they did start from scratch, it would mean you'd have to adapt strategies and whatever with them in your team, which could be a nice difficulty curve?
Oh god, no more squats or pull-ups. Who knew that they would be more difficult than the "hardest" boss in the game 😂
I can see them resetting your level itself. But they might let us keep the abilities, materia, and weapons though. Or they might follow off your current saved game and you just go from there. Mass effect 2 into 3 was like that. If you had beaten 2 and used the same save to start mass effect 3 your level was transferred over and you just had to spend the ability points
@Keagon101 how did they do that if you HADN'T played 2?
@nookie_egg if you havnt played mass effect 2 then you start at level 1 on mass effect 3 with no access to abilities until you had leveled up. Mass effect 1-3 you could use the same save through all the separate games. But mass effect 2 going into 3 you were able to keep your level and ability points to level up your character at the start of mass effect 3. It's possible they could do the same with ff7 or hopefully something along those lines. It's tough to see them making you start all the over with nothing in ff7 pt 2
Just watched the credits roll and man was that game amazing. I'm onboard with however they go about it, so long as they keep the standard up or smash through it!
@Keagon101 Did it put you at a massive disadvantage or did the enemies scale accordingly? (never played one so don't know details). But yeah that'd be ideal if they could do something like that.
@playstation_king the first part is a complete overhaul and 40 hours long at least. Why shouldn’t this be sold for full price? Your comment comes across as very entitled.
@nookie_egg the game had a difficulty setting for all the enemies when you started a new game. You were able to choose how hard the game would be in the opening player customization page when your designing your character. Hopefully that happens, then at least if the game is in smaller sections that time could be used to explore and level up. That would help keep people busy while they make the other expansions
@Keagon101 If they followed that path, they could just allow hard to be available from the start instead of having to finish it first on a lower difficulty. I think that would definitely be a good way to do it.
I don't care how much they charge for Remake. Since 1997 I have made a huge emotional investment in this story. The first part of Remake has been nigh-on gaming perfection and I want to see the rest of the story through, especially with the way the first part ended.
I don't understand why some people think that it will be difficult for SE to reproduce the open world of the original, FFXV had a decent open-world.
I do however wonder what those who are discovering FFVII for the first think of Remake. One of my main gripes about 15 was that I didn't care much for the characters. I wonder if others are having that issue with 7; hopefully not, as I think all the cast have major likeability.
In terms of value for money, I bought the Digital Deluxe and I think I took around 70 hours to complete part one on normal difficulty. I didn't rush through it as I wanted to find every collectable. Now I will go back and play through on hard. When you divide the cost by the hours played and compare this with other forms of entertainment, whether games, movies, cinema etc, the value is undeniable.
Keep at it SE! Hopeflly part two will drop in a year or so.
Uh...where did they mention "could be smaller than the Midgar section" ? i checked those sources and it doesn't mention it like that at all, the tweet and site only mention Nomura as saying "they want to divide the story into detailed smaller sections" nothing about it being smaller than Midgar, plz correct that part of the article.
@nookie_egg hopefully thats what they will do, Me and brother are thinking along those same lines also. That would likely be the most sensible thing to do, then all they would have to do is raise the max level by so much with every expansion. Then after you beat each expansion, have things to do for players that have already beat it
Please is this for real some people asking for DLC what a joke. Asking for DLC for a remake you guys are nuts. Final Fantasy 15 is missing 2 massive parts of the story and you want that for Final Fantasy 7R.
I figured it'd be a 'trilogy' three longer episodes is better than 4 or 5 shorter ones but as long as the next installments all add up to a good amount of hours in total it's whatever. I was thinking the next part would be like the first which would make it a sure buy on day one. I'm fine with either direction they go but if it's shorter episodes I might wait until they release a 'Complete Edition.'
Too many entitled hobbyists made excuses to justify buying this garbage, and that's sad. Now look, the game sold well enough the developer is out there doing the finger tap of Mr. Burns while narrowing his eyes and planning how he can milk all the gullible sheep on ONE FULL GAME. I've had morons argue, "dlc does it", or "episodic games aren't new", but neither of them are a single game intentionally cut up into many parts under the guise of "rising development costs and modernization". If they delivered the full game, and then added a huge chapter onto it (think DA Origins) for another $40, that'd be just fine, but that's not what they did. They wanted to see just how many gamers they could fool and subsequently fleece, then plan out from there how best to handle the rest. You all failed. It's been known for awhile that the game would have been 3 parts, anti-consumer in its own right, and now here we have them contemplating even more to "get it out faster".... Stop opening your mouth when the dick is slapping your face, you're making a fool of yourself and gamers everywhere.
@Incarna After this latest installment I'm just done with KH at this point honestly.
Back in my day paying full price for a game actually got you the WHOLE game. 🙄
To be honest. If your talking about smaller installments the midgar then my question is. Are you going to make us buy a whole new game at full price or will we just buy as DLC. Like how FFXV pocket edition was. Cause I don't mind in going that route but to pay 59 or 79 for 2nd installment going to not do well with many others. Maybe 39 or 49 as a DLC would be better.
The minute I heard Nomura was gonna be involved and then that it was gonna be a 3Parter, I made the decision to not buy anything until all 3 parts have been released. Now after seing what a joke the remake turned out to be and all the dumb Kingdomheartism, I'm really glad i didn't buy it.
Not only that, wouldn't be surprised that they drop the remake altogether or turn Part2-3 into DLCs or 5 years apart games. Face it, that Nomura'ed ending was their way of taking a stage-exit the second things go south.
"Oh its all an alternate timeline/dream"
"Enjoy the next part of the Story on PS5-Portable which itself will be 4 different games, two of which, have Reno as the protagnist"
@Incarna sounds like you want cross gen. I'm sure it will come out for PS5. It is a Playstation exclusive.(maybe a PC port down the line) 99% of the games released during the Ps4 first year also released on the Ps3. I don't think Sony would make the mistake of not releasing part 2 on both Ps4 and 5. Especially after Sony said the supply of the Ps5 would be low the 1st year of release. Damn Covid.
@nessisonett as long as its high quality content and at least 20-30 hour of game play, I'm ok with it being full price. I would actually prefer smaller Dlc at a faster rate, then waiting year(s) for part 2.
@Rsco6969 I'm sure you're right, at least for the first year. Seeing Sony already announced a shortage on the number of Ps5's that will be available at launch and for the 1st year.
I can't see how they could make it 3 games and do the story justice. They'd have to rush the story through to fit in that much content, if they want to continue the pacing they set out with the first episode.
Why I decided to cancel because SE couldn't be transparent with what they had planned for the game going forward. They didn't seem to know or give out any inkling what the next part would be or when, I seriously can wait to play this Remake it might the best game of my life was the original but gaming over the last 10 years has got nothing but a joke.
Shoddy games to MTs to LBs
None finished games with massive day 1 patches
Games broken and not fixed
Times like these I loved my childhood with C64, Amiga, Master System NES and the consoles that followed. Before PS3 it was a golden 2 decades of gaming
@Ear_wiG I agree with that, there was so many corridors where I was thinking "why am I not fighting here?".
Especially having recently replayed FF12 which has a similar take on the world, but with so much more combat. I loved the FF7 remake, I've completed it and lent to a friend before I do my hard run, but the lack of combat in the game was a bit of a downer. I would have liked to be able to access the combat simulator or the coliseum in the same way you can do the trials in FF12 too, using your main save and reintegrating that data back into your save again after
After the last original title was met with... mixed enthusiasm... they went the safe route with remaking a classic favorite. And to make more money with it, we'll be playing Remake 7 on the PS8
Sounds to me like they'll string it along in more pieces than we thought, either smaller at full price or more than three full releases. I doubt they'll do us any favours because bottom line, more money.
so the other parts won't be dlc then but standalone games?
@Dislecksier yeah a combat simulator or Colosseum option in the systems menu, just like chapter select, would have been great! Hopefully more combat in part 2...
This game is like a high school kid writing an essay on FF7.. so in order to get more length he uses all capital letters and quadruple spaces.. FF7 is absolute *****.. a super prolonged story about an already super prolonged drawn out story.. people are tools if they think slowly walking down hallways for 30 hours is fun.. ***** FF7 and all the tools that eat this lame ***** up... what happened to cool gameplay mechanics? THIS GAME HAS ZERO
@Stang10189 you're a ***** tool.. 60$ for 20 hours of gameplay? Zero replayability? Please just stop gaming, find a hobby somewhere else. You're supporting bullshit hurts actual gamers at the bottom
I own and love the game. Mainly combat and the relationships between the characters. Graphics are great also. But for the next release, the world map has to be open world. It will fail if they put linear story telling and running down hallways and paths ahead of exploration and adventure. The linearity was fine in Midgar but it won’t work the rest of the way.
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