Final Fantasy VII Remake and Borderlands 3 Delays Add to Fan Disappointments

Two of the most anticipated games of the next several years both hail from long-standing series that have legions of fans all around the world.

We’re talking about Final Fantasy and Borderlands, with the remake of Final Fantasy VII and Borderlands 3 specifically in our sights.

For those of you who may be too young for the phenomenon that was Final Fantasy VII, Squaresoft’s tale of environmental terrorism and Oedipus complexes hit the console gaming world like a Meteor out of the sky when it dropped in in 1997.

Offering one of the most cinematic and epic experiences ever to come to a video game system, Final Fantasy VII changed the face of Japanese role-playing games forever and made the genre not only a mainstay of the PlayStation itself but a worldwide niche that continues to thrive to this day.

Many gamers who are fans of RPGs often cite FFVII as the game that got them hooked on the long, expansive narratives and grinding gameplay often associated with titles in this genre.

As you can imagine, when Square Enix announced they were launching a remake of the game with Kingdom Hearts’ Tetsuya Nomura at the helm, fans were thrilled at the news.

But when is the game coming out?

Borderlands 3 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake Release Dates

The remake was announced back in 2013 and now reports are vaguely placing a launch anytime between 2019 and prior to 2023 – quite a time frame given that Sony has recently said we are entering the final phase of the PS4’s lifespan.

This kind of delay has led to speculation that the development team is struggling with such a massive undertaking. This, coupled with the idea that the game will be episodic rather than an all-in-one, has led to disappointment among many fans of the game.

On the flip side, we have the Borderlands series, a title that combines elements of first-person shooters with RPGs in the vein of Fallout but much more action-oriented.

In fact, the loot system reminds many gamers of Blizzard’s epic dungeon crawler Diablo III.

Employing a unique cell-shaded graphical style, Borderlands has carved out a healthy fanbase in the somewhat overcrowded FPS market.

More Delays from Publishers

The launch of Borderlands 3, originally anticipated for this year, has also been pushed back to 2019 and beyond, to the disappointment of many fans.

And it isn’t like publisher Take-Two isn’t busy this year with the sequel to Red Dead Redemption right around the corner.

There’s little doubt about the quality of the game series so it could just be a case of too many big titles in too short of a time. After all, Take Two’s Grand Theft Auto V, released in 2013, is perhaps the single most profitable media release of all time, raking in billions of dollars for Take-Two since its release. With such windfalls, it incentivizes a more cautious approach on Take-Two’s part.

Whenever they launch, Final Fantasy VII Remake and Borderlands 3 will be two of the hottest media properties in the video game space, that much is certain.