When you’ve waited this long for something, like the Final Fantasy VII Remake, what’s one more month?
What’s crazy, thinking about the original Final Fantasy VII, is just how quickly Squaresoft bashed it out. The game first released in Japan in January 1997, but development didn’t begin in earnest until after Chrono Trigger released in March 1995.
That’s less than two years. Less than two years, including the decision to shift from 2D to 3D, and to move from Nintendo and cartridges to PlayStation and optical discs. It’s mind-boggling. (And what’s even more remarkable is that started a run of four main series games in five years. Final Fantasies 7 through 10 were all released between 1997 and 2001.)
In contrast, the Final Fantasy VII Remake has reportedly been in development since 2015. It releases this year, in 2020. That’s five years for one game.
It’s not a contest, incidentally. And we’re not casting any slight on the modern Square Enix team vs. the Squaresoft team of old. These are very different games. Moden Final Fantasies are enormous feasts of 3D graphics and fully-voiced performances, dozens of gigabytes in size. The original Final Fantasy VII, meanwhile, fit onto three CDs, into about 1.5GB (and three-quarters of that was FMV).
So when we’ve been waiting such a (comparatively) long time for the Final Fantasy VII Remake, an additional delay – of just a month – doesn’t make a jot of difference.
The Final Fantasy VII Remake was originally scheduled to release on March 3, 2020. But following an announcement today across the official Final Fantasy social media accounts, producer Yoshinori Kitase announced that the release date has slipped to April 10, 2020.
A message from the #FinalFantasy VII Remake development team. #FF7R pic.twitter.com/NFYIQmytSa
— FINAL FANTASY VII (@finalfantasyvii) January 14, 2020
“We are making this tough decision in order to give ourselves a few extra weeks to apply final polish to the game and to deliver you with the best possible experience. I, on behalf of the whole team, want to apologize to everyone, as I know this means waiting for the game just a little bit longer. Thank you for your patience and continued support.” – Yoshinori Kitase, producer, Final Fantasy VII Remake
Honestly, Kitase-san, you don’t need to apologise. Take as long as you need. We’ve waited this long for the Final Fantasy VII Remake. We can wait a little bit longer.
Square Enix has been having a day of delays, with Crystal Dynamics announcing that its Avengers game will also be delayed. For all of the latest gaming news – it’s not always about delays, honest – follow Thumbsticks on Flipboard, Facebook, Google News, and Twitter.