At least we have art for the Final Fantasy 7 Remake
This one's a long long way off, isn't it?
Every time I hear Square Enix talk about the Final Fantasy 7 Remake - announced to gasps and sweaty excitement during Sony's E3 2015 press conference - the game seems further away.
This week, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the role-playing game series, Square Enix released a single, solitary piece of key art for the remake. The image, below, shows Cloud holding his Buster Sword set to the background of Midgar, base of the Shinra Electric Power Company. And who's that in the background? Yep, it's a giant, towering Sephiroth, complete with angel wings.
The Final Fantasy 7 remake was announced a year-and-a-half ago, but it sounds like it's still in the early stages of production. Famitsu magazine recently interviewed producer Yoshinori Kitase about the timed PlayStation 4 exclusive, and, according to translation work by Siliconera, gave a progress update.
"We're currently brushing up the scene from the announcement trailer," he said. "We can now see the line of quality that we're aiming for more clearly, but there's still a ways to go."
Square Enix's plan for the remake is to divide it up into a number of episodes. Famitsu asked whether that structure would prolong production, and whether the rest of the games would maintain the quality of the first.
"With the quality line set in place, it's our duty to carry on and protect it until the very end without having any disturbances for the episodes under production," Kitase said.
"But of course as we advance through the episodes, it'll only be natural to have quality that is fitting for the next generation [of when the episode releases]."
I mean, Square Enix did announce the Final Fantasy 7 remake for the PS4, but there will no doubt be a PS5 and it'll need a decent Final Fantasy game won't it, so...
What I'm getting from all this is that the Final Fantasy 7 remake still feels like some sort of distant pipe-dream, even though Sony used it, alongside Shenmue 3, to help its 2015 E3 press conference go down well. Now feels like a good time to watch that moment again.
Kitase said he hopes to show more of the remake this year, "but it's still undecided".
"However, as for when we'll release the next information, for example, I think that it'd be nice if we could have it playable or a trailer for it at an event."
Can't wait! I wonder what will come out first? Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Shenmue 3 or Death Stranding? Place your bets.
