Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth lead Naoki Hamaguchi says tweaking the OG JRPG's beloved story is "one of the aspects of development we were most sensitive about," and that writer Kazushige Nojima has his trust.
With the demo for the Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X ports now available ahead of launch, Hamaguchi has been doing the press rounds to talk about the series. As part of that, Hamaguchi is asked about any personal tweaks or updates he's made to the overarching story and cast.
"When it comes to the overarching story, I place my trust in what Kazushige Nojima writes and have no intention of altering that based on my judgment," he tells Comicbook. "However, with the significant increase in visual fidelity in these remakes, arranging events and the passage of time exactly as they were in the original game can sometimes result in scenes that feel implausible.
"When changes in time or dates don't feel convincing, it also breaks the player's emotional engagement."
Hamaguchi goes on to explain that, "this time in particular," the team asked themselves whether a given emotion made sense at the point it appeared within the game – and if it didn't, how much more groundwork would need to precede it to give it a sense of flow. After all, the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy isn't a simple visual upgrade, but a full-fat remake that involves the kind of cutscene work and voice acting that you couldn't get when the original JRPG launched in 1997.
"It wasn't so much a matter of adding or changing the story, but rather adjusting things in a way that ensured that the player's emotional pacing aligned with the flow of time," Hamaguchi adds. "That process required revisiting scenes again and again, and honestly, it was one of the aspects of development we were most sensitive about."
How Square Enix handles the original Final Fantasy 7's story while remaking the game for new and old fans alike has been an ongoing topic of conversation since the game's initial release in 2020.
Of course, as Hamaguchi points out, part of that is inevitable as the original JRPG was designed to be read and not heard – so a 1-2-1 effort would likely feel a bit odd to play.
The other part, however, is more creative. The Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy has a meta-narrative alongside the classic story to keep things interesting for players – we're playing through a trilogy rather than a single game, after all. It's landed with mixed results thus far. The main narrative beats have largely remained the same up to now, though the journey between them has had a few attractions added to make the well-trodden path seem less familiar.
Tweaking any story elements of a beloved classic is sacrilegious to some, while others enjoy the sort of theory-crafting we can get up to between launches. Will they do this? Will they keep that? What does this mean for that? You get the idea.
These days, I find myself in the latter camp, though I'm not so firmly planted to refuse to leave it. I do appreciate that the original Final Fantasy 7 is still widely available to play, and, as such, the story remains faithfully intact. I also enjoy delving a bit too far into the odd narrative rabbit hole. That said, after wrapping up Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, I did feel that some of the original JRPG's most potent moments had been dulled thanks to various added layers of narrative mystery fodder.
I'm still looking forward to Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 – whatever it ends up being called – and the good news there is Hamaguchi once again says everything is coming along at a decent pace. We need only wait and see what that means for how the story wraps up for a second time.
