FFVII Before Crisis, Dirge of Cerberus Remake “Not Planned”

Members of the Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core Reunion team confirmed that there are currently “no plans” for a FFVII Before Crisis or Dirge of Cerberus remake or remaster. The info comes from an interview with Korean site Ruliweb.com, which spoke to Crisis Core Reunion Executive Producer Yoshinori Kitase, Creative Director Tetsuya Nomura, and Producer Mariko Sato. Also hinted at in the interview were why the team chose to remaster Crisis Core Reunion in the first place, and how it’s connected to the Final Fantasy VII Remake project. [Thanks, @xenosaga7]

According to Nomura, a Dirge of Cerberus remake would be “confusing” to experience before the main story of the FFVII Remake project is completed. This is because the story of Dirge of Cerberus takes place three years after the conclusion of Final Fantasy VII. As such, there are no plans yet to work on a remaster or remake of that title. Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII originally released in 2006 on the PS2, and put players in control of Vincent Valentine, a “secret” character from FFVII. While Vincent himself has yet to appear in the FFVII Remake trilogy, Weiss from Dirge of Cerberus appeared as a secret boss in Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade.

There are also “no plans” currently to do an FFVII Before Crisis remake or remaster, as Square Enix is still assessing “overseas demand”. Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII was a Japan-exclusive mobile action-RPG released on NTT DoCoMo’s FOMA 900i series cellphones. Its planned overseas release was cancelled as popular western “feature phones” didn’t meet the technical requirements needed.

When asked why the team chose to remaster Crisis Core, Kitase answered that producing Crisis Core Reunion fits in the timeframe between installments of the FFVII Remake trilogy. It takes a long time to produce games on that scale, but the team wanted fans to have ways to keep experiencing the story and world of Final Fantasy VII. Crisis Core represented and interesting opportunity, because of how Zack is front-and-center for that game’s story. Thus Crisis Core filled that need.

As for how Crisis Core Reunion fits in with Final Fantasy VII Remake, Nomura said that the team has changed nothing from the original Crisis Core, narratively speaking. This makes the story seem “inconsistent” with that presented in Remake, and that contradiction is “intentional.” However, Nomura encouraged fans to be patient, and play the FFVII Remake trilogy to its conclusion, which will reveal why Crisis Core Reunion‘s story is not contradictory at all.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion will come out for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC on December 13, 2022. The original Crisis Core FFVII is available for the PSP.