Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Red XIII Is Not Playable

For fans of Final Fantasy VII Remake, there's good news today in the fact that the PlayStation 4 demo is officially out now. But there's also potentially some disappointing news: Red XIII, the red fur-covered beast hero, won't actually be playable in the upcoming game in the same way as Cloud, Barrett, Tifa, and Aerith.

As part of a larger interview, one of Square Enix's developers confirmed that Red XIII will not actually be a playable character in Final Fantasy VII Remake. Instead, he will serve as an AI-controlled guest character, which isn't a first for the series. As for why, the explanation given was simple: he joins up too late in the game.

"We felt the point at which Red XIII joins the party in the story is very late on so we thought okay, if we're gonna have him as a full character and try and get the player to enjoy his character development arc and growth as a character through that, it's not really enough time to do that," Final Fantasy VII Remake co-director Naoki Hamaguchi told VG247. "We thought that the best way to have him involved was as a guest character. Normally throughout the game you'll be playing as a three-man party, but you will have him as a guest character that fights alongside you during the the last part of the story."

What do you think of what we've seen of Final Fantasy VII Remake so far? Are you excited to check out the demo? Let us know in the comments, or hit me up directly on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk all things gaming!

Here's how Square Enix describes Final Fantasy VII Remake on its official website:

"The world has fallen under the control of the Shinra Electric Power Company, a shadowy corporation controlling the planet's very life force as mako energy.

"In the sprawling city of Midgar, an anti-Shinra organization calling themselves Avalanche have stepped up their resistance. Cloud Strife, a former member of Shinra's elite SOLDIER unit now turned mercenary, lends his aid to the group, unaware of the epic consequences that await him.

"The story of this first, standalone game in the FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE project covers up to the party's escape from Midgar, and goes deeper into the events occurring in Midgar than the original FINAL FANTASY VII."

Final Fantasy VII Remake is now scheduled to launch on April 10th for PlayStation 4. Its timed exclusivity is expected to end the following year. It's currently unclear exactly how many games the Final Fantasy VII Remake will be comprised of, as it's known that it will be releasing in distinct chunks. It would also appear that there will be a demo released for the upcoming video game of some sort in the near future, though nothing has been officially announced as of yet. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the title right here.