Final Fantasy fans have a lot to unpack today, as the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Ultimania book has now launched in Japan, giving us more juicy details about the recent RPG as well as the next chapter in the Remake trilogy. Notably, we've gotten a little more indication as to how long we can expect to wait for Part 3, even if no release window has been confirmed yet.
According to Aitai Japan CEO and reliable translator Audrey on Twitter, who's been going through Ultimania and sharing all sorts of fascinating snippets, the main story for the third part of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy is already complete. Reportedly, Rebirth co-director Tetsuya Nomura thinks that voice recording for the next RPG might start soon, too, so it sounds like things are already starting to truly come together.
Elsewhere, Rebirth producer and original Final Fantasy 7 director Yoshinori Kitase spoke about how fast the trilogy's second installment was made. Although we did wait almost four years after the release of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Rebirth was apparently finished within three years, since one year went toward the Remake DLC, and the producer is hoping for Part 3 to follow the same schedule.
#FF7RUltimaniaFF7 Remake Part 3 main story has already been completed, and Nomura thinks they will perhaps start voice recording in the near future. He remarks that Kitase proposed an idea to him about “something” very important to include, even though it wasn’t in the… pic.twitter.com/sBqGJgcpnBApril 12, 2024
Kitase says that the reason Rebirth was developed so efficiently is because Square Enix still had the same staff on board from Remake, which makes a lot of sense. Keep the people who make good games instead of laying them off in the name of quarterly margins and they can make another good game – who knew. Considering that the same situation applies again to the third game, that bodes pretty well, and it makes sense that the producer is hoping for it to take a similar amount of time.
In Part 3's case, it's also worth noting that back in September 2023, Nomura stated that there were no plans for Rebirth to get any DLC. Of course, things could change, but if Square Enix sticks to its original word here, it suggests that the next game may be in our hands a little bit sooner.
Does this mean that we could expect Part 3 to release in around three years, then? Well, potentially, but we shouldn't get our hopes up yet with nothing officially announced. We still lack a few specifics on various milestones in the game's production timeline, after all. But in February, Rebirth co-director Naoki Hamaguchi said "we are in the same situation today" with Part 3 as the team was with Rebirth at the end of Remake's development. With a four-year wait between Remake and Rebirth, we might be in for a similar wait here if there's still a lot of (currently DLC-less) work to be done, but only time will tell.
The original director of Final Fantasy 7 has said that he hopes the JRPG series continues after Part 3, but reckons it may be without him.
