A Square Enix presentation recently surfaced on NeoGAF and outlines the studio’s upcoming titles for the 2018 fiscal year, as well as mobile market plans. To no one’s surprise but everyone’s dismay, Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy VII Remake are not slated for a release in 2017.
The above slide is one of 15 in a presentation given to investors in the UK in February. It lists Sqaure Enix titles for the 2018 fiscal year “and beyond” into the foggy, vague future. The 2018 fiscal year began April 1st, 2017 and will end March 31st, 2018.
Kingdom Hearts 3 is pictured under the 2018 category but is given no specific year or fate. The games in the left column all have dates, and none in the right column do. Fans are assuming this means definitely no Kingdom Hearts 3 for 2017 and are crossing their fingers extra hard for 2018. After almost 12 years since the last main series title, players are getting antsy and annoyed with Square Enix’s prolonged development process. Some fans wonder if we’ll even see Kingdom Hearts 3 on PS4 at all. What if it’s–dare I say–a PS5 launch title?
Some games listed have specific release dates already, such as Dragon Quest XI, which is set to launch on July 29th. Also listed is Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, an HD remaster, that is scheduled to release July 13th.
The Final Fantasy VII Remake is pictured under the FY2018 section, but no one believes we’ll see that release anywhere near 2018. This remake was initially planned for PS2, but Square Enix trashed the project due to the limited technology of the time. This second attempt at the remake was confirmed in 2015, with an official reveal in January.
The only other detail we know about the Final Fantasy VII Remake is it will be released in multiple parts, or episodes. Square Enix is using the Final Fantasy XIII series as a blueprint for releasing these upcoming installments, so each episode will be the size of a full game. The multi-part series will follow the original story of VII, and each part is expected to be on the same scale as the Final Fantasy XIII installments.
Square Enix hasn’t disclosed how many installments will make up the Final Fantasy VII Remake series, so we have no idea how many years its release will span. (Hell, even if we did know how many parts there would we be, we’d still have no idea how many years it’d take to get our hands on them all.)
This remake sounds more complicated every time news breaks, so players are becoming less and less hopeful for seeing a Final Fantasy VII installment before the end of 2018.
Also listed in the presentation are “Marvel IP” games, which we won’t know any more details about until 2018, Square Enix stated at The Avengers Project reveal. We’re expecting several titles to release over several years, though we hope the schedule isn’t as complicated as Marvel’s “phase” system for its films.
Do you have any hopes for a 2018 Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy VII Remake release, or will they be pushed back yet again? Let us know in the comments.
