If you happen to’re on the brink of finishing probably the most bold tasks in online game historical past, you are most likely harassed. If stated mission is the decade-spanning Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, a ground-up rebuild and drastic growth of probably the most influential video games of the final 30 years, you’d most likely be much more anxious.
Naoki Hamaguchi doesn’t appear harassed, although. After I ask the Sq. Enix studio head and sport director how he’s feeling as the discharge of Ultimate Fantasy VII Revelation attracts close to, capping a collection he’s labored on for over a decade, the one reply is a wry “I used to be simply so centered, it actually felt prefer it handed in a flash.”
Hamaguchi’s calm demeanor is all of the extra stunning given the load of expectation surrounding the mission. The unique Ultimate Fantasy VII, launched on Sony’s PlayStation in 1997, was a pop-cultural phenomenon—not the Japanese-RPG series’ first Western launch, however undeniably its breakthrough title; one which arrived proper as gaming was rising out of its kids-only area of interest and right into a mainstream medium.
It’s nonetheless thought to be probably the greatest Ultimate Fantasy entries, and its story of reluctant hero Cloud Strife and his scrappy band of eco-warrior mates battling an omnipotent company destroying the planet is extra related than ever.
Courtesy of Sq. Enix
Don’t Name It a Comeback
A remake has been brewing because the PlayStation 2 era, and even teased with a cinematic tech demo alongside the PS3 reveal. But when Final Fantasy VII Remake lastly arrived in 2020, towards the top of the PS4’s lifespan, it got here with a twist—this wasn’t the identical sport with trendy visuals and mechanics, however slightly a glimpse of an alternate actuality, one the place occasions might probably play out in another way.
The thought was expanded on in 2024’s second chapter, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which noticed characters hopping between timelines—however Hamaguchi is eager to not label it his try at a Marvel Cinematic Universe–style Ultimate Fantasy VII multiverse.
“Once we began approaching these items, seven years or extra in the past, I do not imagine there have been so many different items of media tackling those self same themes on the time,” Hamaguchi laughs. “We do not actually have a tendency to make use of the phrase ‘multiverse’—we discuss [the story being] ‘multilayered.’ Really, the phrase that comes up most frequently is ‘reunion.’”