And no, we’re not going to claim anything below about the ending to – at the very least not in specifics. As converted by @aitaikimochi, he claims:

“We desired to have the last employer fight take location at the freeway in Midgar, which emerges inquiries that I can not respond to.

And I to leave it there, since to state anything even more concerning who that personality is or may be really is looter territory.

Okay, back on track. A new book released in Japanese by Square Enix and containing “secret information that you may miss or may not understand just by playing normally”, , has been translated, piece by piece (thanks VG247, WCCF Tech, and a whole bunch of tweets I saw this morning), by fans eager to know more about the making of , and also what’s coming next. And Kitase and Nomura talk about precisely these things, in said book.

As translated by Twitter user @aitaikimochi, Nomura says that the speed at which a second chapter of Remake arrives (which we know is well underway, development wise) “depends on which team [within Square Enix] handles it”. He adds: “If we divide the work in large parts, it’ll take longer. If we separate the work in smaller parts, it’ll be a shorter amount of time. I hope to have the next part out ASAP.”

ASAP, of course, could mean next year, 2022, or beyond that. I’m of the mind to think it’ll come sometime between late 2021 and the summer of 2022, while this generation of consoles – is exclusive to PS4 for now, and part two of it will release for the now-seven-year-old console (even if subsequent parts don’t) – remains popular enough, and the next-gen PlayStation 5 is a system people are still adopting. That’s what my waters are saying, anyway – though I’m overdue a cuppa, so, who knows.

As for the story, a comment from Kitase has made its way to Reddit, as follows: “There is no way to make it () completely different from the original version in the future. Please think that remains , even in the version.”

Kitase also said: “We have a general idea of how the story will play out, but we haven’t decided exactly [how many parts it’ll release in], nor can we confirm anything. There’s speculation that it will be three parts, but we’re just doing things one step at a time.”

Which pours some water on speculation that could deviate wildly from the plot of the 1997 game, doesn’t it? Or perhaps Kitase isn’t being quite as honest here as he might be? I’m loath to spoil anything, but there’s certain wording at the end of that really does imply that changes are ahead. But again, I’ve no unique inside line on this, and am just another fan of the game spitballing about what could be ahead of us.

Certainly, another comment from Nomura does tug at the possibility of significant differences between what’s next for , and what we saw play out in 1997’s game. As translated by @aitaikimochi, he says:

“We wanted to have the last boss fight take place at the highway in Midgar, which arises questions that I cannot answer. There is a character who’s alive, which leads to a great mystery.”

And I to leave it there, because to say anything more about who that character is or might be really is spoiler territory. But the main takeaways from these translated excerpts: the story you know and love from 1997’s is, apparently, intact in ; and the second part of , which may be the middle release of a trilogy, will be in your hands sooner rather than later, hopefully. Which is good news, I think?