Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2: everything we know so far
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Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 is the sequel to 2019’s FF7 Remake, which aimed to reimagine the beloved JPRG for modern audiences. We now know that this sequel will officially be called Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and that it could stray even further from the original material than its predecessor.
When Final Fantasy 7 Remake launched back in 2019, many had expected it to be a straight up remake of the original game. Once we all played it, however, we realized that the game had started to diverge from the original story by the time the credits had rolled. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth therefore starts as more of a blank slate than you might expect, with many different directions that the story could go in.
While we have a little while to wait before we can play Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Square Enix seem to be revealing new info on the game fairly regularly. This page contains all of the latest news and rumors, and will be updated when new updates are given by the developer. For now, here’s what we know about Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth so far.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2: cut to the chase
- What is it? The sequel to Final Fantasy 7 Remake
- When can I play it? “Next winter” (so likely December 2023 – March 2024)
- What can I play it on? PS5
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 release date and platforms
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2, officially called Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, will release “next Winter” for PS5. This release window was confirmed during a special Final Fantasy 7 25th Anniversary Celebration stream on June 16, 2022. During the stream, it was also confirmed that Final Fantasy 7 Remake is being released as a trilogy of games, with Rebirth serving as the second distinct game in the series.
Unfortunately for PS4 owners, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth won’t be a cross-gen release like the first part. However, during an interview roundup with different Japanese outlets (compiled by Gematsu (opens in new tab)), Square Enix explained why its sticking to new-gen hardware.
“It’s exclusive to PlayStation 5 because of the graphical quality, of course, as well as SSD access speed. Since the adventure unfolds in a vast world after the escape from Midgar, loading stress is an extreme bottleneck,” it explains.
We expect, however, that, like Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Rebirth will also arrive on PC at a later date once its PlayStation exclusivity runs out. Though, this hasn’t been confirmed. It’s unlikely to come to Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S, for at least a few years. After all, two years since the release of Remake Part 1, it’s still not arrived on Xbox consoles.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 trailer
First look trailer
During a special Final Fantasy 7 25th Anniversary Celebration stream on June 16, 2022, Square Enix shared a first-look trailer for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Giving us a brief look at gameplay, this footage offered a fresh look at Cloud Strife, Zack Fair, and Sephiroth.
You can hear a voiceover from Aerith too, which alludes to key events from the original PS1 game. It’s a very famous moment in Final Fantasy 7 and there’s no guarantee it’ll happen again in Rebirth, but this may prove spoilery for some as a result. Check it out, below:
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 gameplay
First look at gameplay
We had our first look at gameplay as part of a trailer that was revealed during a special Final Fantasy 7 25th Anniversary Celebration stream back on June 16, 2022. It’s pretty brief and features Cloud and Sephiroth walking side by side through a forest. At present, no combat has been shown off yet.
Using elements from Intermission
Aspects of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade’s Intermission chapter could feature in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2, according to the game’s co-director. Speaking with The Washington Post (via VGC) in July 2021, Naoki Hamaguchi said that some of the combat and gameplay enhancements introduced in Intergrade will likely be in Part 2, more specifically, Yuffie and Sonon’s team-up moves from Intermission.
“I am rather satisfied with this final form, in which the strategic element of the command-based battle from the original co-exists with the real-time, action-oriented battle,” he said. “Additionally, with ‘Intermission,’ there’s another element introduced: combo moves where Yuffie and Sonon team up … which makes for a different feel in battle strategy. I would like to leverage these, including other elements we tried out in ‘Intermission,’ in our next story.”
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 news and rumors
Microsoft states that FF7 Rebirth will not come to Xbox consoles
While we do know that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will only launch on PS5, it was hoped that the game could then head to Xbox. According to comments by Microsoft (via Eurogamer), Sony has “entered into arrangements with third-party publishers which require the ‘exclusion’ of Xbox.”
The report then goes on to offer examples of what games Microsoft is talking about:
“Some prominent examples of these agreements include Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix), Bloodborne (From Software), the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix) and the recently announced Silent Hill 2 remastered [sic] (Bloober team).”
These comments were made in response to the FTC lawsuit against Xbox. For now, there’s been no confirmation as to whether these ‘exclusion’ agreements are real. It’s worth noting that Final Fantasy 7 Remake still hasn’t come to Xbox platforms, despite having released in April, 2020. Even if Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is going to come to Xbox platforms, we may be in for quite a wait.
Rebirth could deviate even further form the original game’s story
According to a blog post (opens in new tab) in which co-director Motomu Toriyama speaks about Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, the Whispers from the last game aren’t going to be able to keep the timeline in order this time around.
“As it says at the end of the game ‘The Unknown Journey Will Continue’, and Cloud and his friends will be on that journey for a while yet,” co-director Motomu Toriyama says in the final installment of Square Enix’s FF7 Remake blog series (opens in new tab). “From here on in the Whispers cannot act to maintain the destined timeline, so fans can look forward to seeing what kind of future awaits the team.”
Newbies can jump straight in with Rebirth
In a press release, following the reveal of the first-look trailer for Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2, Creative Director Tetsuya Nomura explained that those who never played part one of the trilogy will still be able to enjoy Rebirth.
“Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is being designed so that people can enjoy this game whether they know the original game or not,” Nomura wrote in the press release. “In fact, new players might even enjoy starting their Final Fantasy 7 journey with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Cloud and his friends embark on a new journey in this game, and I believe that the scenes that they witness after leaving Midgar will give players a fresh, new experience. I can’t wait to share the intention behind naming the first title, “REMAKE,” and the second title, “REBIRTH.” In time, I hope to reveal what the third title will be called, and where this journey will ultimately lead.”
Work on Part 3 has started
In the same press release, Nomura also revealed that development on Rebirth has been “progressing rapidly” since the studio adopted a new development structure, meaning that work on Final Fantasy Remake Part 3 has already begun.
“A title of this scale in which everything is interconnected even before production began is truly rare,” Nomura wrote. “In fact, some development has already begun on the third title. I myself have started on the development and am working towards the completion of the series.”
A more gripping experience than Part 1
The press release also included a statement from Final Fantasy 7 Director, and Final Fantasy 7 Remake Producer, Producer Yoshinori Kitase, who explained that the developer plans to make this installment in the trilogy more gripping and memorable than its predecessor.
“We have officially announced that the second title Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will be released next winter, approximately three years after the original Final Fantasy 7 Remake released in April 2020,” Kitase wrote. “Three years may feel like a long time for all the fans who are eagerly awaiting the next game, but we want to offer the best experience possible and reassure everyone that development is proceeding at an astonishingly fast pace for such a large-scale HD title.
“Making the middle part of a trilogy has its own challenges, but there are plenty of classic second installments in the world of film that are defined by stunning story twists and deeper explorations of their characters. Often these second instalments become a favorite amongst the fans. In the same vein, we are aiming to make Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth an even more gripping and memorable experience than Final Fantasy 7 Remake, so please wait a little longer while we finish up.”
Preparing with Intergrade
In an August 2021 interview on the Unreal Engine blog (opens in new tab), the Final Fantasy 7 Intergrade development team delved into the ways they utilized current-gen hardware to make the game look better. The interview touched on the game’s faster loading times and its improved visuals as well as what the team learned. Of interest to fans hungry for news of Part 2, co-director Naoki Hamaguchi said that his biggest goal with the update to the latest consoles “was to get a first-hand feel of the performance of the next-gen hardware leading up to the next installment of Final Fantasy 7 Remake”.
According to Hamaguchi, he was “able to learn several things, like how much load is feasible using 3K and 4K rendering resolutions, or what the threshold is for loading high-quality assets while allowing players to play without stress, since the I/O bottleneck is now gone due to the implementation of the high-speed SSD”. The process has, he added, led to “very meaningful experiences for our developers working on our next title”, which is presumably Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2. It seems, then, that Intergrade has enabled the team to bridge the gap between parts technically as well as narratively.
Talking maps
In an interview with The Gamer (opens in new tab) in July 2021, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 co-director Naoki Hamaguchi touched on what players might be able to expect from the game in terms of its world-building and map. “I understand that there are lots of fans out there who want to see a world map,” Hamaguchi explained, “and we want to challenge ourselves to leverage the breadth of the world in the next game of the overall project, so you can expect great things to come”.
Denying that Fort Condor mini-games are a sign of anything, Hamaguchi said: “There is no connection between Final Fantasy 7 Remake not having a world map and Fort Condor being included. We wanted to include some kind of mini-game in the Yuffie episode from the start of development, and felt that it would be better to have something that paid homage to the original and be nostalgic for those who had played it, rather than include something new.”
Using elements from Intermission
Aspects of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade’s Intermission chapter could feature in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2, according to the game’s co-director. Speaking with The Washington Post (via VGC (opens in new tab)) in July 2021, Naoki Hamaguchi said that some of the combat and gameplay enhancements introduced in Intergrade will likely be in Part 2, more specifically, Yuffie and Sonon’s team-up moves from Intermission.
“I am rather satisfied with this final form, in which the strategic element of the command-based battle from the original co-exists with the real-time, action-oriented battle,” he said. “Additionally, with ‘Intermission,’ there’s another element introduced: combo moves where Yuffie and Sonon team up … which makes for a different feel in battle strategy. I would like to leverage these, including other elements we tried out in ‘Intermission,’ in our next story.”
Leveraging the “vastness of the world”
In an interview with IGN (opens in new tab) in July 2021, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 co-director Motomu Toriyama offered some tantalizing teasers for the game while talking about Intergrade’s recent Yuffie DLC. Toriyama couldn’t offer much in the way of details but did say, “as for improvement, or should I say ‘change,’ moving forward — because the next installment will involve Cloud and company to leave Midgar and explore the world map, our next challenge will be to create gameplay that leverages the vastness of the world, unlike what we did in this current title”.
Starting directly after Intergrade
During a Square Enix livestream (opens in new tab) in 2021, in which a new trailer was released for Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade, Tetsuya Nomura was able to give a tiny insight into the second part of the remake. Nomura confirmed that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 will pick up where Intergrade ends, adding that development on the game continues “smoothly” and that announcements will be made when “the time is right”.
A different director
It has been confirmed that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 will have a different director as Tetsuya Nomura, director of the first part, has stepped down. In an interview with Famitsu (opens in new tab) (via GamesRadar (opens in new tab)), Nomura cited his work on an “unprecedented number of projects” as his reason for stepping down.
The directorial role is being taken over by Naoki Hamaguchi, who was Nomura’s co-director for part one of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Nomura has confirmed that he will still occupy the role of creative director.
Hints in Final Fantasy Remake about what’s coming next
In an interview with Famitsu (translated by DualShockers (opens in new tab)) Final Fantasy 7 Remake producer, Yoshinori Kitase, teased that there are hints in the game that allude to what may happen in the second part.
“With this first game, we showed how there is great potential for the future, and we included many hints regarding what’s coming next,” Kitase said. “I’m looking forward to seeing the fans’ theories on social media regarding what could happen now.”
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2: what we want to see
More playable characters
While it was fun controlling Cloud, Barret, Tifa and Aerith in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, there’s a whole cast of characters in the original that we’d like to be able to control. We don’t know about you, but playing as the pistol-wielding vampire Vincent sounds like an excellent time.
Some wild story turns
With how Final Fantasy 7 Remake ended, we’re expecting Tetsuya Nomura to reshape the classic game into something entirely new. While some fans may want a faithful recreation of the original game, we’re interested to see how exactly the story may shift in the upcoming installments. We don’t want to see anything coming.
Chocobo racing
Because the next installment of the game is likely going to be open world, we want to see a super robust chocobo racing mini-game. In the original game, this side activity was needed to unlock some of the most powerful materia in the game. With how fun it was in Final Fantasy XV, we can’t wait to see what it looks like in the next iteration of the remake.
All kinds of minigames
We already can’t wait to see what the Gold Saucer looks like in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, as it’s this big shiny amusement park full of mini-games. But, with technology coming so far in the 23 years since the original game came to market, we want to see even more activities in this area.
New-generation visuals and ray tracing
Because Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is coming to PS5 (and hopefully PC), we would love to see the game look even better than the first installment. With ray tracing becoming more and more popular, we would love to see the fantastical scenery come to life in a huge way.
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