Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Director Talks About Creating Its Anticipated Ending and Teases Part 3 - IGN
Director Naoki Hamaguchi answers our questions about Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's ending, some of the potential additions to Part 3, and more.
FINAL FANTASY 7 REBIRTH
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Director Talks About Creating Its Anticipated Ending and Teases Part 3
Spoiler Warning: This interview contains some spoilers for the ending of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth as well as some of the major changes from the original. You have been warned!
Heading into Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, fans had only one question on their mind: What was going to happen to Aerith? Final Fantasy VII Remake had upended the classic story, seemingly leaving the door open for all manner of changes, including to one of the biggest twists in gaming history. But if director Naoki Hamaguchi felt pressure to get the moment right, he isn't saying it.
"In terms of whether there was pressure or stress around the scene, it was actually more so that within Nojima-san's initial scenario we had this direction that was pretty set from his initial scenario. And so that was kind of quite solidified early on," Hamaguchi tells IGN.
According to Hamaguchi, the anticipated finale for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which launched yesterday on PlayStation 5, didn't inspire much internal debate. Instead, the development team mostly focused on executing on director Kazushige Nojima's vision as best they could. "More of this kind of sense of determination as a team to best convey this based on Nojima-san's scenario," Hamaguchi says.
Early returns have been mostly positive. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth currently sits at 92 on Metacritic and is enjoying strong word-of-mouth. But despite awarding it a 9 in our review, we weren't the biggest fans of how it wrapped up, writing, "It does fumble the execution of its ending, getting caught up in the mess of its multiple twisting timelines, but new moments and the overarching journey manage to evoke a deeper sense of reflection in spite of that."
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's ending is indeed confusing, its vague nature bound to inspire lorehounds within the fandom. For Hamaguchi and his team, though, the confusion may be a feature more than a bug.
"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," Hamaguchi says.