As per Twitter user @aitaikimochi, Square Enix veteran and Final Fantasy Committee member Motomu Toriyama will be making a special appearance at this week’s Orchestra World Tour debut to share some new developments about the series on February 13 at 3am EST / 8am GMT / 5pm JST. “There will be a special part of the concert where I’ll make an appearance and talk about a few FF7R contents to be revealed only during this event, so please tune in!” says the developer, according to aitaikimochi’s translation. But what could the developer be getting ready to announce? Back in early January, RPGSite noted that Square Enix filed a collection of new trademarks that seem tied to the Final Fantasy 7 Remake universe. ‘Ever Crisis’ and ‘The First Soldier’ were both filed in Japan, as well as a copyright for Final Fantasy 7’s Shinra Electric Power Company. The upcoming announcement will likely tie into these titles; whether it’ll be a Final Fantasy 7 Remake update for PS5 (arriving with bonus content) or a PC port remains to be seen. Fans are also eagerly awaiting some news on an Xbox One/Xbox Series S|X version of the game, though Square Enix has made no indication that either of those will will happen in the near future. It’s worth noting that PS4 console exclusives seem to enjoy a set amount of exclusivity before PC players are primed to receive them; for Death Stranding it was a couple of months, but for other titles (think Horizon Zero Dawn) it tends to be longer. Equally, this could just be a reveal of behind-the-scenes content from the remake’s development (it wouldn’t be the first time Square Enix has made the choice to reveal something like that in this way). But a next-generation version of the game has been anticipated since its release last year, with the PS4 exclusivity window set to expire 12 months after its April 10, 2020 release date. In terms of what’s next for the Final Fantasy 7 Remake project as a whole, Final Fantasy 7 Remake co-director Naoki Hamaguchi and producer Yoshinori Kitase recently took part in an interview where they acknowledged the Remake’s peculiar narrative structure and hinted that – going forward – there will likely be more deviations from the original game. Whether we’ll hear about more of this at the Final Fantasy 7 Remake Orchestra World Tour performance later this week, where the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra will be playing tracks from the Remake OST.
