We got to see plenty of Kingdom Hearts III goodness at E3 2018 but not a trace of Final Fantasy VII Remake. Tetsuya Nomura who is directing both titles shared a few words on that in an interview with The Verge.
Nomura started out by saying:
“We are developing [Final Fantasy VII] in parallel, and it’s not just in the early concept stages. We are actually in development.
So right now, it’s like I’ve been putting in 100 percent into Kingdom Hearts, 100 percent into Final Fantasy VII, 100 percent into Kingdom Hearts… just going back and forth. It’s just like [working on] two titles is just going to be one [after Kingdom Hearts III’s launch]. That’s pretty much how I see it.”
He also reiterated that Kingdom Hearts III’s delay from 2018 to January 2019 wasn’t delayed because they needed more time:
“We were told by many people, including hardware manufacturers, sales teams, marketing teams, that it just wasn’t good timing in the year. For Kingdom Hearts III, the Western offices requested to release the game as simultaneously as possible between Japan and America, so we no longer were able to just think about Japanese issues and retail situations.
When we looked toward that, we were told that the best timing after all of that would be the tail end of January. We of course considered maybe speeding up the development to release earlier than we were told that it wasn’t good, but the development team said, no, we can’t do that. We could delay it, but we can’t make it any sooner. If we are to also potentially delay the release date, then we could have that extra time to work on the game a little more. It kind of just all worked together for us to decide on this date.”
Nomura also shared a little bit about his love of creation that keeps him going through the many long hours needed to complete high-profile projects such as Kingdom Hearts III and Final Fantasy VII Remake:
“I don’t get fatigued by that at all. It’s really fun for me to do. I actually don’t like human relationships more than just work, so I just want to focus on work and creating things, if I don’t have to deal with human relationships. It’s actually a little bit easier for me to do than not working.
I do need fans to play my games, to be able to create it, and so fans are definitely a factor to motivate me to keep on going.”
Final Fantasy VII Remake is in development for PlayStation 4. Kingdom Hearts III releases in Japan and Asia on January 25, 2019 and in North America and Europe in January 29, 2019 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
