The “Final Fantasy 7” Remake is moving right along in the development process despite hitting a bump in the road here or there. That was the message put forward by Square Enix during a special live stream last week. The company did mention it is changing the direction of just how the title is going to be brought to the current generation consoles.
Square announced one of the changes is bringing in a new lead developer and said from here on out, FF7 is going to be developed in house. Up until last week, the development had been carried out with the “support of external partners” but the quality had not been what the company expected.
Naoki Hamaguchi will take over the project and his firm hopes Hamaguchi will be able to take the title to the finish line
In-house vet leading‘Final Fantasy 7’ development
Hamaguchi is no stranger to the long running franchise having previously served as the project lead on “Mobius” and “Lightning Returns: FFXIII”. Judging from the way Square Enix announced the change, it appears Hamaguchi will be focusing all of his attention on the remake for the time being. At the same time, the developer has said it won’t be forcing Hamaguchi to leave “Mobius” behind entirely. This does appear to mean the company either wants to up the timetable for the FF7 remake or delay “Mobius” even further.
The big question now is just how this announcement is going to affect future development projects from Square Enix.
It’s not clear whether the firm is simply unhappy with the way FF7 is being remade or whether they are frustrated by working with external help in general.
New norm in 'Final Fantasy 7' change?
The talk about being able to control quality and making sure there is a stable schedule hints at some overall frustration that isn’t limited to this game.
The statement also included talk of forming a “robust system within the company to properly carry out the development.” If this system is being formed, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for the company to then abandon the system once this title has been released. CyberConnect2 was the firm’s original partner on this game but that has clearly been put on the back burner, what that means going forward is going to be interesting to watch.
The “Final Fantasy 7” remake was announced way back at the 2015 E3 but there has been very little information since the official reveal. Trailers and images have hit the web every now and then but Square has been stingy with details about when we can expect to see a finished product. It appears one of the reason the PS4 exclusive doesn’t have a release date yet is because of setbacks with CyberConnect2.
