Progress on the third chapter of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy has been steady and smooth so far, with the game having already reached a “playable” state according to game director Naoki Hamaguchi. Now, we’ve received an update on its (still secret) title and what engine the team is using.
The news came via GameSpot’s latest interview with the director, which was shared on 23rd January, right as Final Fantasy 7 Remake arrived on Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2 with excellent ports. Without getting into actual spoilers, the “Remake” label of these games goes beyond the traditional use of the word, as there’s a meta narrative which has gradually reshaped the direction of the overall trilogy.
As a result, fan expectations since Rebirth’s release was that Part 3’s title would be in line with the previous two. No word on what the final name is yet, but Hamaguchi has now said “the title has been locked” following creative director (and OG FF7 veteran) Tetsuya Nomura making the final decision recently.
Another interesting tidbit which explains the threequel’s fast-moving development comes from Hamaguchi confirming they’ve ultimately decided to use Unreal Engine 4 over UE5 after making “a lot of modifications to fit our needs.” As impressive as UE5 can be when used properly, it’s also led to several high-profile disappointments, so it’s not surprising to see one of Square Enix‘s key teams playing things safe in the last stretch of this hugely ambitious trilogy. “It’s more beneficial to have something we’re already familiar with and have customized to fit our needs,” he added.
This should also help with getting Rebirth and the as-yet-untitled third chapter running on the Switch 2 following Remake’s remarkable looks and stable performance. At this moment, the team has “gotten [Rebirth] to function” on Nintendo’s still-infant hybrid console, but a release date won’t be locked until more optimizations are done.
It’s all quite impressive considering Rebirth launched less than two years ago and “almost no documentation” remains from the original Final Fantasy 7‘s development, but in the age of the average AAA project taking around half a decade to finish (if we’re lucky), Hamaguchi’s team seems to have cracked the code with this daring three-part effort.
