During a behind-closed-doors meeting with Square Enix and Final Fantasy VII Remake producer Yoshinori Kitase, the presentation was briefly opened up to questions. Obviously the question on everyone’s mind was how exactly the game would be split up. While Kitase was cagey and not entirely ready to discuss that yet, his answers were telling, and later clarified by Square Enix PR.
When asked directly how many games there would be, Kitase stated that they are not quite sure yet. “We can’t say for sure because we do not know ourselves,” Kitase replied. We then asked if they expect development for future games in the Final Fantasy VII Remake compilation to take a shorter time to develop. Kitase answered candidly, saying that while characters and the like are done and that will make some things easier, new environments will likely still take some time. “I do not expect it to be dramatically shorter,” he said.
While that does sound like a long time, Square Enix did reboot the development of Final Fantasy VII Remake after its debut in 2015. It is possible they only consider the game to have a 3 year cycle or so.
Square Enix PR sent a follow-up email clarifying and somewhat contradicting the statement in the room. In the email, a representative stated “While the development team finishes the first game of the project, they are also planning the volume of content for the second. Due to the work already done on the first game, we anticipate that the development of the second game will be more efficient. However, for now we would like to focus on the development of the first game.”
Kitase also said that each game in the Remake compilation will have as much content as a mainline Final Fantasy title. Final Fantasy VII Remake, at least the Midgar part, is releasing on PlayStation 4 on March 3, 2020.
Source: Game Informer Development Of Further Final Fantasy VII Games Won't Be Much Faster