We’ve been waiting for Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy VII Remake release dates since the games were announced during E3 2013 and E3 2015 respectively. Looks like it’ll be another three years before we’ll get a confirmation.
Gematsu reports Square Enix president and CEO Yosuke Matsuda announced the release lineup during Square Enix’s financial briefings for the fiscal year through a slideshow. Matsuda said: “This slide shows our release lineup for FY2017/3 as well as for FY2018/3 and beyond. We plan to launch each of these upcoming titles in the next three years or so.”
In simpler terms, no Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy VII Remake release dates until 2020 at the earliest. We’ll give you a second to rage. Just take it in and let it out.
It’s been a guessing game with Kingdom Hearts 3 since the 2013 announcement, which in all fairness only stated that the game was in development. They never specified a time frame for the game’s release, but it seems a bit cruel to announce a game that’s nowhere near completion. Then again it took 10 years to complete Final Fantasy 15 and it’s a great game. We want to rage, but can’t blame Square Enix for taking their time as they’ve never been ones to rush out games.
Square Enix has released several Kingdom Hearts games for the Nintendo 3DS since the release of Kingdom Hearts 2 in 2005, but players are anxious to see the game on a console once again. Kingdom Hearts 3 Director Tetsuya Nomura confirmed during an interview with Famitsu released back in January the game is moving along in development as planned. They’re focusing on one world at a time, which likely contributes to the lengthy development process.
“We never start by working on all the worlds at the same time,” Nomura told Famitsu . “In order to avoid having to redo things once we've started it's necessary to let things take shape only after all the elements have received approval, and there are currently some worlds that are still being audited. As I said a while ago, we also have to remake all the character models and such for current-gen consoles, so there's still a lot of development work to do. But, you don't have to worry about the quality, so please wait until the next opportunity I have to show you something. Preparations are underway.”
It’s also likely Square Enix has to go back and forth with Disney to acquire the rights to use their franchises in the game. For example, we wouldn’t be surprised if Square Enix is interested in creating a Frozen -inspired world to entice younger gamers to pick up the title. Though we’re not sure how relevant Frozen will be by 2020. Disney could release another major hit by then and no one’s going to be talking about Elsa.
As for the Final Fantasy VII Remake , we wouldn’t be surprised if the game didn’t come out until 2025. The good news is the story will probably stay the same, which will probably help the production process move along a bit quicker. At least we hope it does.
What do you think about the 2020 release date for both Square Enix franchises? Let us know in the comments below.
