Square Enix veteran Tetsuya Nomura has provided a rare update on the progress of Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s third instalment and the long-in-development Kingdom Hearts 4.

Development is progressing well, apparently!

Speaking as part of mobile game Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis’ second anniversary livestream earlier today, the creative director pre-empted comments about the upcoming projects by facing them head on.

He said, as translated by Gematsu:

“Right, so, looking at the comments, I’m seeing people ask every so often about the third entry in the [Final Fantasy 7] Remake series. Apparently, [co-director Motomu] Toriyama mentioned in an interview that something might be released around the second anniversary [of Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis]. So that’s probably where those expectations are coming from. Right, so things are progressing really smoothly. I can’t really say more – if I suddenly went, ‘Well, actually…,’ everyone would be really surprised!”

Nomura added that the “release timing” of the third instalment in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series has “already been decided”, but naturally he didn’t share that publicly.

He added of Kingdom Hearts 4:

“This has also come up in the comments here and there, but Kingdom Hearts 4 is likewise steadily moving forward according to schedule, so please look forward to it.”

While the third and final entry of Final Fantasy 7 Remake has not been officially announced yet, fresh screenshots of Kingdom Hearts 4 were shown earlier in the year, raising expectations for its release. Unfortunately, no date or platforms have been attached to the project yet.