Final Fantasy VII Trilogy Director Says Third Game Was Made 95% by Rebirth Crew
Final Fantasy VII fans are used to waiting. After all, what other months or years have you been mocked mercilessly since that PlayStation 3 demo dech back in 2005?
It took another decade for the Final Fantasy VII project to officially materialize, and now, eleven years later, director Naoki Hamaguchi believes that the third installment won’t be “too far in the future”.
The statement came in an interview with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, where Hamaguchi also explained why keeping the team together is as important as making sure the games are different.
Final Fantasy VII Banks on Stability to Guarantee Freshness
This era of gaming has seen more remakes and more serious remakes than any before, but none have come close to the scale and quality of Square Enix’s massive project.
While many are remaking first-person shooters (sometimes very successfully, like Metal Gear Solid Delta), director Naoki Hamaguchi is adamant that the new Final Fantasy VII titles should not only be original in relation to the source, but also feel very different between installments.
The team wasn’t interested in doing “remakes of the same game over and over again”, preferring to expand with each iteration. You can get a good feel for this if you jump from Final Fantasy VII: Remake to Rebirth, where, among other changes, you go from creating a straight line of Midgar to an open world.
Director: Third Installment Of Final Fantasy 7 Remake ‘Already In Playable Form’
The director of the third entry in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series has ensured that the game is playable from start to finish.
Hamaguchi is keeping his cards close to his chest for now, but the Final Fantasy VII boss assured Bloomberg that the third game will live up to that tradition, going as far as saying “flying Highwind. [airship] a very large” part of the experience.
However, the commitment to moving things ends up in the game experience. Hamaguchi and Square Enix have contributed to the stability of the staff for the success of the game, despite the general atmosphere of uncertainty in the gaming industry.
According to Hamaguchi, the team working on the third new Final Fantasy VII game is “close to 95% of the Rebirth staff”. Between 80% and 90% of the developers of the second game are also involved in the Remake, and it seems that Square Enix is happy with the results.
Fighting the Layoff Hydra
You’d think that keeping talent working together would be a given, but that only makes sense if you’re thinking about artistic and entertainment outcomes rather than shareholder value. Unfortunately, many game executives have forgotten that the latter is the result of good games, rather than the raison d’être of this medium.
Stories like that of the remake of Final Fantasy VII are the perfect scenario, where talented teams are kept together, and a fixed workflow is maintained. However, many publishers are not willing to realize the importance of this.
The churn rate in the gaming industry has increased dramatically this decade, and has trapped many talented professionals in a vicious cycle of layoffs.
Hamaguchi and Square Enix have contributed to the stability of the staff for the success of the game, despite the general atmosphere of uncertainty in the gaming industry.
Talented workers from AAA studios often flock to AA or indie projects founded by their former colleagues, who use their experience and portfolio to get funding.
Investors and publishers at that level, however, don’t usually have the deep pockets of your Ubisofts and EAs of the world, and are more than happy to cancel at any sign of uncertainty.
The result? Employees leave, some build new studios, others move in, and the cycle continues. Some of these stories have happy endings, like former DICE employees who have dominated the shooter scene with ARC Raiders. Some, like Highguard or Gang of Dragon, are sad.
As the Final Fantasy VII trilogy approaches its conclusion, only destiny knows what will become of the engineering team once the project is finished. Until then, Naoki Hamaguchi is keeping the family together.
Highguard Calls It Quits (But At Least It Beats Concord)
Highguard developers have confirmed that the game will be closed on March 12, marking a very short life, but one that beats Concord.
- Released
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February 29, 2024
- The ESRB
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T for Teen
- Engine
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Unusual Engine 4
- PC release date
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January 23, 2025
