Final Fantasy VII Remake was announced back at E3 2015 and this E3 it’ll be 4 years since the game’s announcement. Since E3 2015, Square Enix hasn’t revealed much about the upcoming remake except for a brief gameplay trailer.

In that time there have been many leaks and rumors regarding its development, release date and more. However, Square Enix hasn’t given us anything concrete regarding the game.

According to leaks, Final Fantasy 7 remake will be an episodic adventure and the first episode will launch in 2019. However, Square Enix doesn’t seem to be willing to reveal anything.

With almost 4 years gone, it seems that Final Fantasy VII remake is another The Last Guardian in terms of release. It took nearly a decade for The Last Guardian to finally release for PlayStation 4. There are potentially a lot of reasons why the game is taking too long to develop.

Development

Not much is known about the game’s development except for some leaks and rumors. However, the game is probably still isn’t in full production.

Troubled Development

Another reason why Final Fantasy VII is another The Last Guardian is because of its troubled development. According to one of the 3D artists for the game, the game originally was outsourced to “CyberConnect2”. However, the studio was not up to the task and for 4 years it had nothing to show for.

They don’t have 4 years of work, they have 2. The announcement that square was taking the game away from Cyberconnect2, they didn’t take it away and continue it, they started it again because cyber connects work was just so useless and not far enough along, but still far enough along that remaking it was faster than refactoring it… (it wasn’t in a good state at all).

After 4 years in development hell, Square Enix decided to develop the game internally instead of having a third-party studio develop it. That was last year and the game didn’t go into active development till 2019.

Not only that, Square Enix had to scrap a lot of work done on the game in order to be able to develop the game internally. All of this also shows as Square Enix has revealed nothing about the game.

Went Into Active Development In 2019

Back in 2018, Kingdom Hearts III game director Tetsuya Nomura, who is also heading the Final Fantasy VII remake, noted that the game isn’t in active development and won’t be until Kingdom Hearts 3 launches.

Perhaps not everyone is aware of this, but I am working on a remake of Final Fantasy VII… [laughs]. I’m focusing on Kingdom Hearts III at the moment, but once that’s done I’ll be heading over there next.

Kingdom Hearts 3 launched earlier this year, meaning the game went into full production just a few months ago. Meaning it’ll be 2-3 years before Final Fantasy VII launches. It’s likely that the game will launch for next-gen PlayStation 5 and Xbox Anaconda.

Prioritizing Other projects

As I mentioned above, the Final Fantasy VII remake didn’t go into active development until after the launch of Kingdom Hearts 3. This clearly shows that Square Enix is prioritizing other projects over the remake.

Combine that with Square Enix initially outsourced the game, the studio wasn’t really ready to internally develop it.

Not to mention, Square Enix is prioritizing other projects like Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics is working on the Avengers game along with Eidos Montreal.

That is why Tetsuya Nomura finished the development on Kingdom Hearts 3 and then went to head the upcoming remake. Square Enix just can’t have a studio drop its current project and have them develop the remake.

Square Enix Didn’t Really Have Plan

Leaks and rumors have suggested that Square Enix intends to release the game as an episodic adventure. However, with the game’s development being reset, the studio didn’t really have a plan as to what they were going for.

Back in November 2018, Tetsuya Nomura noted that he would like to release Final Fantasy 7 Spinoffs as part of remake compilation.

However, he added that nothing has been decided yet and the decision will be made when Final Fantasy VII remake goes into active development. This indicates that Square Enix never really decided if the remake will be episodic or a single game.

Now that the game’s development has started from scratch, chances are it won’t be episodic anymore. But all of this does indicate that Square Enix didn’t really have any plan for all of this.

With the game’s development starting from scratch after 4 years in development and Final Fantasy VII remake going into full production just a few months ago, it seems that it will be years before we get to hear anything about the game which makes it another The Last Guardian.