'Final Fantasy 7' Remake Trailer Teases a Release Date Reveal Coming Soon

Like many Square Enix games these days (i.e., Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III), the Final Fantasy VII Remake has seemingly been stuck in development hell for what feels like an entire decade. So when Sony released a polished new trailer for the first episode Thursday night during a State of Play broadcast, for the first time it felt like this thing was really happening — and it looks absolutely incredible. Previous teasers also inspired tons of hype and excitement, but for the first time the FF7 remake is starting to look like a real video game rather than a hype machine.

The trailer opens with a shot almost identical to the original game as we zoom in on Aeris, but it very quickly cuts to explosive action as Cloud faces off against a few soldiers. There’s a good blend of cutscenes with actual gameplay, combat or otherwise.

All of the animations look flawless, and even the voice acting is impressive, capturing the wholesome earnestness of Aeris, the embittered apathy of Cloud, and even Barret’s borderline offensive yet somehow comical dialect.

Actually hearing these characters speak is one of the best parts for hardcore fans of the original, because the 1997 game exclusively used text-based dialogue.

We get a solid look at what it’s like to explore environments and, even better, some bonafide combat. It’s very different from the original, which hearkened back to the earliest Final Fantasy games by having character models stand in lines on the battlefield and take turns. Fans will instantly recognize familiar weapons and attacks as they take on a whole new life in a more action-oriented combat system that resembles Final Fantasy XV while still doing its own thing.

At E3 2005, Sony remade the original FF7 opening as a technical demo to demonstrate the graphical power of the PlayStation 3, but a formal remake wasn’t announced until E3 2015. That was four years ago, and there’s still no release date in sight. A glimmer of hope comes at the end of the trailer, however, when it says, “more to come in June.” It seems pretty obvious that the “more to come” will happen at E3 2019 in a month’s time, and we’re all but guaranteed to finally have a firm release date.

Sony is a no-show at E3 this year, but Square Enix is hosting a presentation on Monday, June 10 at 9 p.m. Eastern. We’ll know more then.