The package includes Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which is the first part of the Remake trilogy. It covers the entire story up to the escape from Midgar while adding new content, story elements, and more. Compared to the PS4 version, there are improved textures, atmospherics and Photo Mode in this version.

Intergrade also includes Episode INTERmission which stars Yuffie Kisaragi. Along with a unique story parallel to the main game, it offers new gameplay mechanics (like team-up attacks), enemies, bosses and more. PC players also get bonuses like the Cacstar weapon (available only in the DLC); armor like the Midgar Bangle, Shinra Bangle, Corneo Armlet, Superstar Belt, Mako Crystal, and Seraphic Earrings; and Summon Materia like the Carbuncle, Chocobo Chick and Cactuar.

For more details on the game, check out our review here. Meanwhile, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, the next chapter in the saga, releases in Winter 2023 for PS5. Development on the third and final part has also already begun.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade is an enhanced version of the acclaimed 2020 RPG, offering improved visuals, 60 FPS support, Photo Mode, new quality of life improvements, and much more (including an extension to that ending). It also includes Episode INTERmission, a DLC side story focused on Yuffie as she ventures to Midgar and infiltrates Shinra to retrieve some Materia.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is available for PS4 while Intergrade is exclusive to PS5 and PC. For more details on the latter, you can check out our review here. Stay tuned for more announcements from the 25th anniversary celebration stream.

Max Payne 1 and 2 Remakes

Announced very recently as a collaborative effort between original developer Remedy Entertainment and publisher Rockstar Games, the Finnish developer is working on full-fledged remakes of the first two Max Payne games using its in-house Northlight Engine. Given the massive popularity of this IP, it seems fair to say that expectations and anticipation for the two games are very high. The two remakes are still in the early stages of development, and fans will have to wait a bit before they get a chance to play them in all of their high-fidelity glory.

The stream will be roughly 10 minutes long, and Tetsuya Nomura – co-director of 2020’s Final Fantasy 7 Remake and producer on its sequel – says that it’ll be “short and “sweet” but packed with “lots of information”- along with an “unveiling”.

The hope, of course, is that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 (or whatever it ends up being called) will be unveiled here. Earlier this year, co-director of the first game Yoshinori Kitase said that the plan was to announce the next game this year to celebrate the original Final Fantasy 7’s 2th anniversary. We’ll find out soon enough if that’s still the plan.

Interestingly, Square Enix’s senior influencer relations manager recently took to Twitter to urge people to catch the stream, saying, “DO. NOT. MISS. THIS.”

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy fans have plenty else to look forward to as well, with Final Fantasy 16 set to launch exclusively for PS5 in Summer 2023.

Join us next week for around 10 minutes to celebrate 25 years of @FinalFantasy VII: https://t.co/y074ldZMhg

Co-stream the broadcast and share your reactions with #FFVII25th. Please be excited. pic.twitter.com/DskOd2CxQj

— FINAL FANTASY VII (@finalfantasyvii) June 10, 2022

“We will be streaming “FINAL FANTASY VII 25th Anniversary Celebration”. At only around 10 minutes long, it will be short and sweet, but we have packed in lots of information, so I hope everyone can look forward to the unveiling” – Tetsuya Nomura #FFVII25th #FF7R #FF7FS

— FINAL FANTASY VII (@finalfantasyvii) June 10, 2022

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Gameplay

The sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has been rumored for a long while and finally it is coming rather soon. Titled Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the game will release in early 2023 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC. At this point, no gameplay footage has been showcased but it’s very much possible that it could be revealed at a major showcase in June. This was the pattern with Fallen Order (and even past Star Wars Battlefront reveals) so we’ll see if EA repeats the same.

Final Fantasy 7 anniversary streams are held every years, but this one could be significant for a number of reasons. Chief among them is the fact that earlier this year, Yoshinori Kitase – producer on Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 (or whatever it ends up being called) – said that news regarding the second instalment in the remake saga would likely arrive this year to celebrate the original Final Fantasy 7’s 25th anniversary.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s sequel has been in development for over a couple of years at this point, but details on the game have remained scant. It’s been previously confirmed that Naoki Hamaguchi, co-director of the original game, is serving as the sole director of its sequel.

Tetsuya Nomura has said that the sequel will have a different atmosphere from its predecessor, while Kitase previously mentioned that it will continue to surprise fans with its story. Meanwhile, director Hamaguchi has suggested that players will be able to explore the world map in the sequel, while new gameplay mechanics introduced in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade are also expected to be utilized.

The other big upcoming Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy 16, has also been in the news of late, with producer Naoki Yoshida recently having said that the game is close to completing development and will have a trailer shown off soon.

Well, it’s possible that it isn’t too long of a wait. In a recent stream celebrating the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy 7’s Japanese release, Yoshinori Kitase – who co-directed the 2020 remake and is serving as a producer on its sequel – said that Square Enix will likely reveal more information on Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 (or whatever it ends up being called).

“With regards to the long awaited Final Fantasy 7 Remake [Part 2]… there will be more information… this year if we can,” he said (via VGC).

Later, when prodded again if the game would be announced in 2022, Kitase said, “Well yeah. We just started the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy 7, so we want to celebrate and get fans excited, so within the next 12 months we want to share some information. Look forward to more information!”

Details on Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s sequel have remained scant. Its director Naoki Hamaguchi has previously said that the game will “leverage the vastness of its world”, suggesting that it might place a greater emphasis on scale and exploration. Hamaguchi has also said that the sequel will use many of the new gameplay features introduced in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade, and that it will once again aim to surprise fans with its story.

Back in July 2020, Kitase said that though Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2’s development had been impacted by COVID, it wasn’t expected to be too much of a disruption. About a year later in 2020, director Tetsuya Nomura said the game would be announced “when the timing is right.”

Recent reports have suggested that Square Enix is holding off on announcing future PS5 exclusives (which Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s sequel will most likely be) due to the upcoming Final Fantasy 16– read more on that through here.

In an interview with IGN, Naoki Hamaguchi – recently confirmed as the sole director of the sequel – said that Cloud is going to “explore the world map” in the game, and suggested that exploring a much larger world is going to be something of a focus.

Hamaguchi said: “As for improvement, or should I say “change,” moving forward — because the next installment will involve Cloud and company to leave Midgar and explore the world map, our next challenge will be to create gameplay that leverages the vastness of the world, unlike what we did in this current title.”

I don’t know about you, but to me, that sounds like an open world setting- or at least an overworld, which, of course, is something Final Fantasy as a series is no stranger to. Either would honestly be a refreshing change of pace, after Midgar’s tight and cramped corridors. It’s been previously suggested that Part 2 is going to present a significant change in atmosphere based on the environments you’re going to be exploring (which makes sense if you’ve played the original), so here’s hoping that change in atmosphere goes hand in hand with a larger world.

Recently, Hamaguchi also said that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 is likely going to continue using some of the new gameplay mechanics introduced in Intergrade– read more on that through here.

Speaking in an interview with The Washington Post, Naoki Hamaguchi – the director of the first instalment and recently confirmed as the sole director of the sequel – said that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 will be making use of some of the gameplay mechanics that were introduced in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade. More specifically, he mentioned the synergy combo attacks that see Yuffie and Sonon working together to unleash powerful variants of Yuffie’s abilities on enemies. 

“With ‘Intermission,’ there’s another element introduced: combo movies where Yuffie and Sonon team up, which makes for a different feel in battle strategy,” Hamaguchi said. “I would like to leverage these, including other elements we tried out in ‘Intermission,’ in our next story.”

The sequel’s developers have also said that it is going to have “a somewhat different atmosphere from the first game”, while it’s also been suggested that its story will surprise fans, much like the first game’s story did. 

Meanwhile, if a recent Epic Games Store update is anything to go by, it seems the first Final Fantasy 7 Remake instalment is headed to PC soon.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake would change that trajectory, though. Pleasing old school hardcore Final Fantasy fans as well as catering to those that are a little bit more accustomed to the gameplay that you would find in 15 is a pretty narrow line to walk but Square Enix was largely able to do it with part 1 of what will certainly be a trilogy and the Final Fantasy remake saga. The game smartly blended the story and characters of the original which were handled with great care and changed very little, with gameplay mechanics and production values that would feel far more familiar to more modern players. For most, it was exactly what the doctor ordered – and had the added benefit of bringing in many new players to the series that might not even really know what they were getting into. So where does that leave us? Well, for those who have already completed the game and seen all that it has to offer, they are essentially playing the waiting game.

It’s no secret that Square Enix is going to be milking this remake for all that it’s worth than maybe even more than that. As such, a follow-up to the Final Fantasy 7 Remake that continues the story of the original game is surely imminent. But how imminent? And how long should Final Fantasy fans really be expected to wait on bated breath for the follow-up before losing interest in the series and moving on and forgetting about it?

Thankfully, history may have some hints for us when it comes to answering the former. The previous Final Fantasy entry to be broken up into multiple games – the 13 trilogy – seems to more-or-less be the roadmap that Square is following now with the 7 remakes. Both games concern the same story and set of characters yet are broken up into separate releases. If they really are trying to duplicate that format, then perhaps it’s going to take a couple of years. Final Fantasy XIII was released in 2010, its follow-up didn’t come out until 2012, then, of course, Lightning Returns launched in 2014. Each game was about two years apart, which even for that time was a pretty short development cycle.

While other triple-A games of the 7th generation were well into development three years, four years, or maybe even longer than that, the Final Fantasy XIII games were still able to come out on a regular basis every couple of years. This was not due to any sort of magic on Square Enix’s part as the games we’re fairly linear compared to previous entries and were each clearly built upon the previous games’ foundation. Given that, it’s probably fair to assume that we’ll get Final Fantasy 7 Remake games on a similar schedule. they won’t need to remake character models or invent combat mechanics like they did for the first game for the next two, so in theory that should cut down on development time significantly for the second and third game in the trilogy, much like it did for the 13 games.

The Final Fantasy 7 Remake series does have something different going on than those games did – mobile games. Final Fantasy 7: The First Soldier and Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis. Both of these games are slated to launch well before the next main installment in the FF7 series and will undoubtedly be taking some resources from Square Enix to get made and released to players. It’s impossible to know if the development of these mobile games will slow down development of the mainline series or not, although common sense would lead one to believe that Square Enix knows what they’re doing well enough to make sure that all projects are supported enough to make sure that nothing is leeching progress from anything else. I think we can probably give them the benefit of the doubt on that one.

There’s also another element to keep in mind for the following section of the Final Fantasy 7 story; after Midgar it turns into a much bigger game. The folks developing the Final Fantasy 7 Remake don’t have the luxury of being able to make it whatever they want like they did while making Final Fantasy XIII. While some creative freedom is certainly doable, they do have an outline to follow here and that outline dictates that once the Midgar section is over, the game opens up quite a bit with more explorable spaces, more characters, and just a lot more content available to the player in general. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean that the next game is going to take longer to make than the first one did but it does seem to imply that it may, and perhaps the idea of getting a game in the main line story every two years is a little bit more debatable. Although given the team’s proclivity to change things around with the narrative and take a few liberties with the foundation that the original game created, it’s tough to say exactly what they’ll be doing and how much it will affect their development time.

All of that said, the long and short of it is we still just don’t really know how long of a wait we’re in for, but the good news is that developers are going out of their way to make sure that Final Fantasy 7 stays in everyone’s mind in the meantime. With the Intergrade expansion, some mobile games and maybe more, we will certainly have plenty to do with Final Fantasy 7 in the coming years regardless of whether or not the main line game comes out in 2022, 2023 or beyond. On top of all that we do also have Final Fantasy 16 on the way as well although admittedly still probably much further off than most realize at this point. Either way, regardless of how long of a wait that we’re in for with the next Final Fantasy 7 installment, Square Enix absolutely is aware of what this IP is for them and how much of an appetite there is out there for games that bear the Final Fantasy name, so if you were into the franchise to any degree, you’ll have plenty to do while you wait for the next mainline game.