Final Fantasy 7 Remake devs focusing on Part 2 after Episode Yuffie releases
Tetsuya Nomura talks up First Soldier and Ever Crisis
There isn't any further DLC planned for Final Fantasy 7 Remake after Episode Yuffie releases, and the development team are moving onto making Part Two (now titled Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth) instead.
In a recent interview with Famitsu (which was translated to English for Gamesradar by Square Enix), Final Fantasy 7 Remake series creative director Tetsuya Nomura spoke about the intent behind the Intergrade version of the game. Nomura revealed that there was originally a plan for a full PS5 version of the original game with no DLC, but due to the team opting for the "upgrade" route with the Intergrade version, they had to label Episode Yuffie as DLC.
Currently, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade is set to launch for both PS4 and PS5, but Episode Yuffie will be exclusive DLC for the latter platform. Elsewhere, the upgraded package enhances the visuals of the remake for 4K performance, but the 60 frames per second boost will also be exclusive to Sony's next-gen console, like Episode Yuffie.
Elsewhere in the interview, Nomura revealed that there isn't any additional DLC in the works for Final Fantasy 7 Remake. "We are now prioritizing the roadmap for completing the next game," Nomura said. "So if we do need to think about more DLC then it will probably come after that is finished." In other words, don't expect any DLC for part one of the remake, but there's always a possibility we'll see some added content for the sequel chapter.
The series creative director also detailed Sonon's battle abilities. Although the player will only play as Yuffie, they can periodically chain combos together during combat with Sonon by pressing the left trigger, who will otherwise be fighting independently from the player. Finally, there'll be brand new Summons and Materia for Yuffie to use, but Nomura isn't revealing what they'll be just yet.
Nomura also touched on Final Fantasy 7 First Soldier, a battle royale spin-off game taking place before the events of the remake. The director spoke at length about the need to challenge the development team, and not just "rest on their laurels" with the Final Fantasy 7 brand at their backs. As such, they created the battle royale spin-off to hopefully entice a new audience. At the current time, there are plans for a closed beta test for the mobile game.
Next, Nomura spoke about Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis, a smaller mobile title which groups all of the Final Fantasy 7 storylines together into one game. Through the 10 total chapters, which Nomura reveals are free-to-play but include gacha-like systems for items and weapons, players will experience the full story of Final Fantasy 7, including Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus, for example.
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What's more, Ever Crisis will bundle together the events depicted in First Soldier into its 10 chapters. Nomura reveals that Cloud and company will escape Midgar at around Chapter 3, if you're looking for an example of how the Remake story fits into the vast storyline. There'll also be spin-off dungeons in Ever Crisis, where you can group characters regardless of their timeline to take on powerful foes.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade is slated to launch for PS4 and PS5 on June 10, while the First Soldier battle royale spin-off will launch later in 2021 for iOS and Android devices. Finally, Ever Crisis will launch at some point in 2022, also for iOS and Android devices, bringing the trio of new Final Fantasy 7 Remake titles to a close. After that, we're looking ahead to Part Two of the remake, where Cloud and company finally venture out of Midgar and into the wider world.
For a complete list of all the other games coming to Sony's next-gen console over the next year, head over to our upcoming PS5 games guide for more.
Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.