Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Director: Zack To Be a Key Figure in the Game, Isn't the Only Spinoff Character Included
In Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Zack will be a key figure, but more spinoff appearances are planned according to game director Naoki Hamaguchi.
techraptor.net
There’s still a little over four months to go until Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the next chapter of the Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy, hits the stores, but we visited Square Enix at New York Comic Con to try a sneak preview of the game and to sit down with game director Naoki Hamaguchi to ask some questions.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: Zack Will Have a Larger Role
Like my fellow writer, Erren Van Duine, my Final Fantasy VII Rebirth preview consisted of playing a slice of “Cloud” and Sephiroth’s visit to Nibelheim five years in the past, as well as a portion of the open-world area available once the team leaves Midgard and is on their way to Junon.One of the most applauded and contentious aspects of Final Fantasy VII Remake is the fact that the story hints at possibly changing the status quo.
“Will Cloud and others … defy destiny? Will things be played out exactly the same as that of the original title? That is one question we’ll be exploring," Hamaguchi said.
In line with that, Zack Fair is set to have a much bigger role in Rebirth than he did in the original Final Fantasy VII, where he only appeared a few times in tangential flashbacks to Cloud’s backstory.
“(Zack) will be a key figure, through him the players will have experienced the workings of the Final Fantasy VII world within Rebirth,” said Hamaguchi.
The remake of Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core being released in the interim between Remake and Rebirth makes even more sense in this case, giving players a chance to familiarize themselves with Zack and his story before he makes his Rebirth appearance.
While Zack is undoubtedly a fan-favorite character of the franchise, Hamaguchi explained that, “We are really aware that Final Fantasy VII franchise in particular, even for characters in spinoffs there’s a lot of fans for these characters as well, so we are aware of that.”
However, in even more exciting news, he revealed, “Without again providing any major spoilers, besides Zack, who was not in the original Final Fantasy VII but will be making an appearance here, there’s going to be other characters from FFVII spinoffs that will be appearing in Rebirth as well.”
My fingers are absolutely crossed for Cissnei, who, like Zack, is one of my favorite characters of the franchise. Other likely possibilities are Angeal, Genesis, Lazard, the cast of Deepground from Dirge of Cerberus, or even Denzel or Kadaj from Advent Children.
Admittedly, the living/dead status of some of these characters in the timeline makes an appearance unlikely, but it’s clear that the timeline is a bit wibbly wobbly anyway, so anything is possible.
