What can we say about Final Fantasy VII that hasn’t been said already? A masterpiece of a game that takes all the best parts of Final Fantasy VII Remake and significantly improves upon them to continue reimagining one of gaming’s most beloved titles. Giving it a perfect score was a no brainer for us. To celebrate the launch in the Philippines, we got the opportunity to interview Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Director Naoki Hamaguchi where he talks about all the things that were important to him during Rebirth’s development.
Making a remake of a beloved game will always be a major risk, especially when it comes to Final Fantasy VII, a title that’s just as iconic as it is significant in gaming. How do you modernize something without removing what made it so special back then? When asked to talk about some of the narrative and systematic changes in Rebirth, Hamaguchi emphasized that while thinking of new ways to innovate the experience, keeping the core essence of the original was a critical focus of the team. A feat that we’d say the developers achieved with flying colors.
“Major story beats and key points do remain intact in Rebirth. What we wanted to do with the changes was to find a way to invoke the same emotions people felt when playing the original.”
In our review, we mentioned how Rebirth feels like a reward for fans who grew up with the franchise. Seeing their favorite characters, environments, and story moments in a brand-new modern perspective. It’s what our minds imagined it would look like back in 1997. Nearly every aspect of the original now carries much more emotional weight because of the modern visuals and voice performances.
“One of the examples of the many things I wanted to focus on was the relationship of Barret and Dyne. We get a glimpse of it in the original but this time around, I saw an opportunity to fully explore and flesh out their dynamic.”
Brief moments from the original are now given so much more weight and depth to them. Hamaguchi also mentioned a few more personal favorite sequences from the original which were the Junon Parade and Corel Prison. No spoilers, but you can feel the love, care, and respect he and the team had in creating every corner of Rebirth.
We also asked about what lessons the team learned in creating Remake and how did it affect the way they approached Rebirth. And as a cherry on top, Hamaguchi also mentioned a brief teaser for what’s to come next.
“For Remake, we wanted to focus on exploration. For Rebirth, it was providing the sense of freedom. But all in all, me and the team did not have any doubt with how we wanted to tackle the sequel with regards to game design. There wasn’t any second guessing with what we wanted Rebirth to be.”
Right now, the team’s focus is Rebirth. However, Hamaguchi did confirm that he already has a vision with what he wants to do for the third game. While there is no clear indication as to what phase they are in development, he has already held conversations with the team about it. Usually in these cases, development for the next game starts right after the current one releases. But judging from how Square Enix handled Remake and Rebirth, they won’t be rushing the third one out any time soon. They’ll be giving it the time it needs to cook. And by all means, let them cook.
Hamaguchi also wanted to address one of the rumors that were surrounding him and the development prior to Rebirth’s release. There was news going around that he wanted a Metacritic score of 90 for Rebirth, a narrative that gained some criticism.
“I want to clarify that the 90 Metacritic score was a personal goal of mine. This is not something that I imposed on the team.”
Final Fantasy VII Remake, as impressive as it was, only reached 87 on Metacritic. As of the writing of this article, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has a Metacritic score of 93. It goes without saying, every goal Hamaguchi set out to do with the development team, they have accomplished and so much more. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a special game that deserves every praise it gets.