The Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy is quickly becoming not just my all-time favorite video game trilogy (not that there are many of those anyway), but also some of my favorite individual games of all time. Rebirth made me cry more times than I can count, put a smile on my face when it felt like that was impossible, and showcased a world so teeming with fun and life that I couldn’t help but fall madly in love. Say what you will about the ways in which Square Enix has extended the original game’s runtime drastically, Remake and Rebirth are some of the finest JRPGs ever conceived.
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All that being said, I’m a tad worried about Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3. There’s a major problem it will inevitably face that could endanger any chances of getting a series quite like it in the future. The biggest issue is that this is entirely unavoidable and symptomatic of the trilogy’s entire structure. Don’t get me wrong, I am still certain that the third part in this trilogy will cement it as one of the greatest JRPG series of all time. However, Part 3 will face challenges that the others never really had to, and it is concerning.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 Will Be The Least Accessible Entry
I feel like this goes without saying, but if one hasn’t played Final Fantasy 7 Remake or Rebirth before Part 3, it won’t make a whole lot of sense. Rebirth was positioned somewhat as an entry point for fans who wanted to skip the first game, although even then, Square Enix’s efforts to make it newcomer-friendly were tenous at best. However, there is simply no way the studio can make Part 3 even remotely accessible to those unfamiliar with the story thus far, rendering it exclusively aimed at those already deeply invested in this trilogy.
That may sound like a redundant statement to make, but I’d argue that this poses a serious problem for Square Enix. On the one hand, sequels intrinsically tied to their predecessors aren’t anything new, and gamers have had to deal with new and exciting entries in series being completely inaccessible for quite some time. However, we are gradually moving away from this largely because new entries take so long to make that requiring even hardcore fans to have retained in-depth knowledge of the last game is a big ask. Part 3, following the former trend rather than the latter, means that it is losing a potentially huge portion of players and thus revenue.
More importantly, Rebirth was considered quite divisive at launch, with a lot of its mechanics, world design, and narrative changes being brought into question. While many like myself loved it unequivocally, those loyal to the original experience were understandably disappointed, and those who simply didn’t gel with its approach were justified in abandoning it early. This means that the number of people likely to buy Part 3 will be substantially lower than those who bought Rebirth, a game Square Enix already admitted didn’t meet profit expectations.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3’s Failure Could Be The End Of FF Remakes
It seems somewhat inevitable, then, that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 will fail commercially. Sure, Square Enix has ported Remake and Rebirth to the Nintendo Switch 2, which will almost certainly drum up some attention, but even with those selling well, it’s unlikely to bring in enough players to replace those who’ve dropped off, simply aren’t interested in the third part, or are new to it and therefore won’t understand it. This is the nature of trilogies, unfortunately, but FF7 is a rare case in that its third part will likely cost a fortune to produce, despite the diminishing returns financially.
Rebirth had an estimated budget of around $150 million and was able to subsidize some of its marketing and development costs thanks to its console exclusivity deal with PlayStation. Now that Square Enix has moved to a multi-platform approach and is doubling down on blockbuster titles, Part 3 is losing the financial respite its predecessor enjoyed while still requiring an enormous budget to finish off the trilogy. Of course, I’m extremely grateful Square Enix is finishing off the Remake trilogy rather than abandoning it, but I cannot imagine a world in which it makes as significant a return on investment as it is hoping for, especially considering the studio’s incredibly high standards.
Its failure could mean a complete rethinking of the types of games Square Enix produces and even the death of the heavily rumored Final Fantasy 9 Remake. Square Enix cancelled $140 million worth of in-development games shortly after Rebirth’s commercial failure, so one can only imagine what it’ll do should Part 3 be a bust too. It’s an unavoidable fate, one brought about by the surprising relative lack of interest in the Remake trilogy as a whole. There’s little Part 3 can do at this point to endear enough new players to the series, and no other platforms are left for Square Enix to port the first two games. Rebirth was a success in many ways, and Part 3 will surely follow its example, but I suspect that this whole trilogy will be written off as a commercial failure and nothing like it will be attempted on the same scale again, at least for a very long time.
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