When are we getting Final Fantasy VII Remake part three? That’s the question on every fan’s mind as they wait for Square Enix to officially reveal a first look at the trilogy’s closer. Director Naoki Hamaguchi didn’t tip his hand as to when that announcement will happen, but he did recently provide some good news about the project’s progress and his reflections on a decade spent bringing it to life.
“I’m unable to share concrete details at this time,” he said in a new interview with Comic Book. “What I can say is that development itself is proceeding on time and on schedule. We believe it’ll become a title we can deliver with confidence as the culmination of the trilogy. We know many fans are eagerly waiting, and preparations toward the announcement are steadily underway. Please look forward to it just a little longer.”
I’m still hoping for a trailer reveal around Summer Game Fest in June followed by a release date in early 2027. But this is also the last chapter in Square Enix’s biggest franchise. I wouldn’t be surprised if it wanted to take the extra time to get everything right. Hamaguchi talked a bit about that as well, noting that the goal of the third game isn’t just to wrap up the story but to make a better, more ambitious RPG as well.
More than just a conclusion to the story
“This series isn’t about rehashing the same gameplay just because it’s a remake,” he said. “I consider this a project where we’ve pushed ourselves to ask, ‘How much further can we expand the experience?’ with each new entry. For the third installment, we’re not thinking about simply wrapping up everything we’ve built until this point. Rather, we’re focused on how the full scale of the series we’ve been aiming for could ultimately be realized as a complete experience.”
It’s now been over a decade since Final Fantasy VII Remake was first announced. Hamaguchi noted that it is unusual for a developer to spend so long working not just on the same franchise but the same multi-part project. What began development during the early PS4 era will wrap up on the cusp of when the PS6 likely comes out. “I’m also struck by the fact that, even after dedicating over a decade of my career to this project, I feel no negativity about that time at all,” he said. “I simply feel a renewed sense of gratitude toward FFVII for giving me the opportunity to work on something truly worthy of this level of time and commitment.”
Staying sensitive to the original story
That sense of gratitude extends to the original 1997 PS1 game’s story, which Hamaguchi has tweaked but not dramatically rewritten. “I place my trust in what Kazushige Nojima writes and have no intention of altering that based on my judgment,” he said. Most of the places where Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth deviate from the original were a response to wanting things to remain plausible despite the increased visual fidelity or trying to lay the proper emotional groundwork for the more fleshed-out versions of the characters.
“That process required revisiting scenes again and again, and honestly, it was one of the aspects of development we were most sensitive about,” Hamaguchi said. I was curious what Nojima himself might think of that and found an old interview he gave for the Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary Ultimania book. Back then, he suggested he would be busy with rewrites.
“I was definitely younger back then,” he said at the time. “Looking at the dialogue, I’m not confident that I managed to convey everything to the player, so I keep wanting to go back and add a lot more text, shamefully enough. *laughing* The whole game is filled with a ton of enthusiasm and had a lot of silly parts too.”
