Several French outlets including Finaland recently had the chance to sit down with Testuya Nomura, where he touched on Final Fantasy VII Remake, Kingdom Hearts III and some of his design philosophies.

“A lot of things will change [in Final Fantasy VII Remake],” Nomura told Final Fantasy Dream, “but the essence of the universe will not. That is one of the things that will remain intact.”

Nomura notes Final Fantasy VII Remake is a title “loaded with a lot of mystery for now” with the existing Compilation of FFVII seemingly off the table. “If we make a compilation, these games will hardly have an overall coherence,” said Nomura about Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, etc. “It will be difficult because there is no more continuity between the Compilation and Remake for the moment.”

In a separate interview with Famitsu, Nomura says the team is steadily progressing on production with the goal of making a game that will meet fan expectations. “Last year, I didn’t put out much information on [Final Fantasy VII Remake], but this year I want to show our progress at an event somewhere.” Regardless, it’s clear the game is still far off.

Final Fantasy VII Remake is currently in development for PlayStation 4.