During our talk with FF7 Rebirth director, Naoki Hamaguchi, he revealed that the third game already has a clear vision for it that he has conveyed to the team. While there wasn’t any direct confirmation what phase of development its currently in right now, it’s safe to assume that the follow up is well underway, especially given how excellent Rebirth is. In a recent interview with IGN, the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director talks about part 3 in a little bit more detail.
The 4-year gap between Remake and Rebirth’s release shouldn’t be brushed upon. Square Enix takes their sweet time in developing these titles. And who can blame them? This is their most iconic title in one of the most iconic franchises in gaming history. The team has established that the remake games, while being incredibly faithful to the original, does take a few slight deviations in the story. The ending of Rebirth is yet another proof of this, proving to be a little divisive among long-time fans. However, Hamaguchi fully intended this to happen as to fuel the hype going into the 3rd entry.
“HD games take quite long to develop…it’s not as so that we can release the final title the following year or anything like that. Of course, it takes a bit more time, so it is our intent and hopes that there will be many thoughts and conjectures and sort of guesses as to what this exactly means. And we do hope that players will kind of think about this and consider this up to the following title,”
Speaking of what’s coming next, Hamaguchi did leave a few juicy breadcrumbs for fans to eat up. While the script is already in development, there is potential to include more characters from the extended Final Fantasy 7 universe. No promises, but you can definitely keep your fingers crossed.
“… while I can’t comment on the sort of exact contents of the third title now, of course, whenever we present characters that have originally appealed and appeared in a Compilation title for Final Fantasy VII, we’ve seen very positive feedback. Fans are very delighted to see some of the characters from the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII titles that they have really loved and enjoyed. So, I hope that we can continue to touch on these. But at the time, in terms of the storyline, nothing is set in stone,”
Square Enix has the opportunity to make history and make the best remake trilogy ever made out of one of the best games ever released. Hamaguchi and the rest of his team has their work cut out for them. But from what we’ve seen them do so far, it’s safe to say that the final chapter is gearing up to be yet another industry defining release.