So far, however, both games haven’t had much to show for their development cycles. While Kingdom Hearts 3 got some new gameplay footage in the past year, it was an incredibly brief look at a game that has been in development for long enough that fans are beginning to expect more. Final Fantasy 7 Remake, on the other hand, was almost non-existent on Sony and Square Enix showfloors throughout 2016, as both companies chose to focus more heavily on Final Fantasy 15’s release instead.
Both of those trends are set to change in 2017, however. A recent interview with Tetsuya Nomura, conducted by Weekly Famitsu and translated by Gematsu, saw the director confirm that both Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake would have opportunities to “show [their] progress at an event somewhere”. Nomura was quick to qualify that statement, however:
A bit of good news mixed with some bad, then, for fans of either series. Although the announcement of new footage to show sometime in 2017 is exciting, the revelation that both Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake still have a “long way to go” will disappoint fans - especially those who believed that Final Fantasy’s 30th anniversary celebrations this year could see the Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s first episode debut.
Nomura didn’t have any specific shows in mind during the interview, and there’s still a chance that Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake don’t make it onto any early presentations in 2017, but the fact that there is gameplay footage and progress to show should calm the fears of JRPG fans everywhere. Despite both games being entirely absent from E3 2016 and PSX 2016, it appears that things are progressing smoothly after all, and 2017 should see both Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake catapult themselves back to the forefront of gaming discussion - as long as they have something new and exciting to show, that is.
Both Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake are currently in development with no release date announced.
