Final Fantasy VII Remake Update, "Better Than Expected"

E3 2018 absolutely did not give us the Final Fantasy VII remake look many were dreaming about, and left in the wake is disappointment and fear of when we'll actually see the complete overhaul. Though the director has mentioned that Kingdom Hearts 3 is in a place to no longer hinder the project, further news has been mum. Thankfully, we've got an update and as the meme goes, "everything went better than expected."

According to a report from Gematsu, Tetusya Nomura has given a full steam ahead update:

"[Development] is moving along more than expected, so please wait for the next news release with peace of mind," he said, adding, "The direction was pretty much decided upon before we changed to internal development, and production is going well."

The director talks a lot about the upcoming remake in the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu, while also trying to determine when they are in a place to give another reveal. Square Enix had hoped to have more news in time for E3, but alas - it was not meant to be. The site also reported, "While preserving the atmosphere of the original, the scenario will dig deeper into the characters, including members of Avalanche."

Director Tetsuya Nomura recently told The Verge recently that "We are developing [Final Fantasy VII] in parallel, and it's not just in the early concept stages. We are actually in development."

Both Final Fantasy VII and Kingdom Hearts 3 are impressive, with both also demanding a lot of attention to detail. Kingdom Hearts for its highly intricate narrative, and Final Fantasy VII because it is a complete rework from the original. Because both undertakings are definitely time consuming, it's understandable that one would inevitably fall behind. But, Nomura-san assured fans that it is still very much a priority and being actively worked on.

"So right now," he mentioned. "It's like I've been putting in 100 percent into Kingdom Hearts, 100 percent into Final Fantasy VII, 100 percent into Kingdom Hearts... just going back and forth," he says. "It's just like [working on] two titles is just going to be one [after Kingdom Hearts III's launch]. That's pretty much how I see it."

The good news is that we finally have a release date for Kingdom Hearts III, which will be coming in January of next year, meaning the divisive attention can be remedied to the one title once more. Though Kingdom Hearts III was delayed quite a few times, Nomura-san did mention that it wasn't because it was unfinished - but that they wanted to add even more phenomenal material:

"We were told by many people, including hardware manufacturers, sales teams, marketing teams, that it just wasn't good timing in the year," Nomura told the site. "For Kingdom Hearts III, the Western offices requested to release the game as simultaneously as possible between Japan and America, so we no longer were able to just think about Japanese issues and retail situations."

Still no release date at this time, but we're hoping for something a bit more concrete in the near future!