Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth - the second part in the trilogy remaking the 1997 classic - is just around the corner, but the inevitable third and final entry is also chugging along at a steady pace.
When asked about the transition from Rebirth to the third part, in an interview with Julien Chieze, director Naoki Hamaguchi says, "Of course, I cannot tell you what stage we are at, but we have already made progress on the script and we are thinking about certain developments." The topic starts at around the 41 minute mark, if you'd like to see the full discussion.)
Producer Yoshinori Kitase previously revealed that a "tentative first draft" had been completed for the third part - Remnants, Revival, whatever it ends up being called. Hamaguchi's latest comments don’t negate Kitase's, though I imagine the script is going through rewrites as development begins in earnest.
"When we got to the end of the development for Remake," the director continues, "we started talking about a sequel with [writer Kazushige Nojima] and I think we can say that we are in the same situation today." There was a four year gap between Remake and Rebirth's releases, so hopefully the third entry comes around just as quickly.
Following the ending of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, it was pretty easy to imagine what a sequel would look like. Cloud and Crew stared out into a hopeful horizon with the promise of a more open Midgar in the future. Theorizing about the third part is a little trickier, though, because the development team has continually teased fans about Rebirth's (potentially) heartbreaking finale, as they do once again in the interview above.
"Those that played the original know that the story takes a turn at the City of the Ancients," Kitase teases, with a smile that makes me sort of fearful. "Players eagerly await that decisive moment… I would just tell people to play and experience that moment for themselves. And for my part, I think that would be a good place to end the game."
Clearly, that scene has been remixed to some extent, but we'll need to wait for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth to launch on February 29 before we find out how.
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