Square Enix developers did a round of interviews with Japanese media (such as Famitsu) on the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, which Twitter user Xenosaga promptly translated. There are lots of interesting tidbits, such as the confirmation that there won't be any location cuts, although the order of places might change from the original.
There will be no locations cut from the original FF7, but the structure is going to change a little bit due so the order of visiting each location won't be identical to the original game, but nothing will be cut from the original.#FF7
— xenosaga (@xenosaga7) July 7, 2022
We also learned that at some point the Square Enix developers were considering Final Fantasy VII Remake as a duology, though this eventuality was ultimately discarded.
Nomura says the reason they haven't revealed how many parts FF7 Remake project was going to be was because they were deciding possibility of doing it in 2 games or 3 games. It was initially planned as 3 games trilogy but Kitase wondered if they can do it in 2.#FF7R
— xenosaga (@xenosaga7) July 7, 2022
As some fans might have already guessed, even the third game in the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy will have its subtitle starting with R.
Nomura on the name of the third game in FF7 Remake project: Can't say right now but he wants to keep all 3 games "FF7R" so the final subtitle will start with R.
— xenosaga (@xenosaga7) July 7, 2022
Square Enix even considered potentially remastering other games in the Final Fantasy VII series such as 2006's Dirge of Cerberus or 2004's Before Crisis, but there are no current plans to go ahead with either project.
Nomura: Internally, there has been ideas from staff members wanting to remaster Dirge of Cerberus or calculating the cost of bringing back Before Crisis... but at this moment there are no plans to remaster/remake those games.
— xenosaga (@xenosaga7) July 7, 2022
The game that is getting a remaster is Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion, though Tetsuya Nomura confirmed there won't be any story changes based on Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Nomura says the story in Crisis Core Reunion will be the same as original. Nothing changed/added influenced by FF7R.
— xenosaga (@xenosaga7) July 7, 2022
As a reminder, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion will be released this Winter on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, and Nintendo Switch.
Meanwhile, the next chapter in the trilogy, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, is tentatively targeting a late 2023 launch on PlayStation 5. To that end, Nomura explained that the wider environments of the second part of the trilogy pretty much required the game to be next-generation exclusive.
Kitase says the biggest reason for making Rebirth PS5 only (as in not releasing on PS4 as well) was to utilize the SSD. As you would know if you played the original, world in Rebrith will be bigger than Midgar in Remake so they didn't want the loading to be an issue.
— xenosaga (@xenosaga7) July 7, 2022
Next year will be a big one for Final Fantasy fans between Rebirth and Final Fantasy XVI, scheduled for next Summer. Stay tuned for more news, rumors, and leaks on both projects.
