With Final Fantasy 7 Revelation on the horizon, Square Enix’s next bet sounds less like another remake conveyor. Series veteran Yoshinori Kitase told IGN the company is “more likely to invest in new titles and new games,” GamesRadar reports from the interview.
Kitase, who directed the original Final Fantasy VII and produces the remake trilogy, immediately left the door cracked. The VII project worked, he said, because creators who shipped the 1997 game still carried strong feelings for it and wanted something new that could welcome players the original’s pacing might scare off.
“So there might be different cases like this one where the company is willing to invest in remaking old projects,” he added. That is a case-by-case hedge, not a named Final Fantasy VIII, IX or VI remake — and not a denial that nostalgia projects can still win funding when the creative hook is personal.
The comments land after a year of remake fatigue talk across JRPG publishers and separate reporting that an FF9 remake effort had stalled. Kitase did not confirm or deny those side projects; he spoke in philosophy, not slate.
Western calendars are already packing 2027 with other Japanese RPG exports, from Compile Heart’s Hyperspace Neptunia: Unlimited heading west to bigger Square tentpoles still under wraps. Kitase’s point is about internal gravity: after Revelation, greenlights may tilt toward originals unless another remake has VII-level creator heat.
Readers should treat that as guidance, not a roadmap. No next remake was announced, no new Final Fantasy number was teased, and Square Enix can still change its mind the moment a passion pitch clears finance. For Nov. 5, the quotable line is the one Kitase actually said — new games first, remakes when the feelings are strong enough.
Kitase’s framing also quietly defends why VII got the trilogy treatment in the first place: slow 1997 pacing that can bounce modern players, paired with creators who still care enough to rebuild it. That is a higher bar than “the spreadsheet says nostalgia sells,” and it is the standard he is implicitly setting for whatever might follow Revelation.
