FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH Director Naoki Hamaguchi talks Gongaga, Cloud and Tifa and more

Updated 12 Dec 24, 2am PST: This article has been revised due to a translation error.

FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH is a game of many wonders, from the incredible combat to the expansive soundtrack. But perhaps one of the greatest of all is its incredible story.

It’s epic, it’s funny, it’s utterly gripping from start to finish. It’s little wonder that it won the Golden Joystick award for Best Storytelling in this year’s show!

Not only that, but it’s also been nominated for Best Story at The Game Awards 2024 along with numerous other categories, including Game of the Year. If you want to cast your vote for the game, you can do so right now on The Game Awards website:

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We recently sat down with FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH’s Director, Naoki Hamaguchi. As well as an extended discussion about the game’s wildly positive reception, I also wanted to ask about that award-winning story - and one of my favorite sections in particular: Gongaga.

SPOILER WARNING: In this interview, we talk about the Gongaga area of the game, and the events that transpire there. If you have yet to play, we advise you wait until you have completed this section.

Otherwise, please scroll down below Cait Sith and enjoy the interview!

The game features many new details and additional scenes that enhance the original FINAL FANTASY VII story. Why was it important to add these for REBIRTH?

All that is really down to the intent and the desire of our main story writer, Kazushige Nojima.

He really wanted to go deeper into those areas of the original FINAL FANTASY VII that were optional. So that includes characters like Yuffie and Vincent, but also Gongaga. That was one of those areas that you didn’t have to visit if you didn’t want to.

The decision was made fairly early on that those parts would go into the critical route of the game and become an integral part of the story. We would use those elements and the idea of going deeper into the regions to give players a much greater understanding into the world of FINAL FANTASY VII.

Zack Fair is a good example. Zack is a really major character in REBIRTH - he plays a much bigger part in the story than in the original game. So, Gongaga being where he comes from was a place we really had to look at and talk about if we wanted to show more about Zack.

So, I think it’s thanks to Mr. Nojima, and his decision to look further into these areas, that we can also use these moments to dive really deeply into the other characters as well.

For example, in the Gongaga region, we get to see more about Tifa’s internal feelings and her emotions at that point in the story as well.

How difficult was it balance the new additions with the structure of the original game?

A lot of the changes to the original story were laid out very early by Mr. Nojima in his original story. He planned which character we’d go deeper into at which point in the story - that was a very solid line that we worked from.

But of course, when going through the process of taking that story and translating it into a game experience, there were some areas where we thought that: “Ok, we’ve tried it here, but the way it’s written in the original story doesn’t really get the same emotions across.”

If something doesn’t have impact that we’re looking for, we need to change things and adapt it to work better as a piece of interactive entertainment.

So, to give you an example of that, there’s a specific scene where Cloud, Barret and Red XIII go to the Gongaga mako reactor, and Tifa, Aerith and Yuffie follow after. There’s a scuffle between Cloud and Tifa and she falls into the lifestream. We then get to see more of her inner world.

That was a scene I asked to be changed - it wasn’t like that in the original plan. The party went together to the mako reactor, and then Tifa would have fallen in the lifestream. I realized that for the story to work as a game, and for the individual character development, we needed to have Cloud’s party as the vanguard and Tifa’s follow on and catch up later.

That way, you get the powerful effect of Cloud’s struggle and then the impact of Tifa falling into the lifestream, through gameplay.

But as I said, the vast majority of the emotional journeys were planned out by Mr. Nojima. There were only a few areas like that where we suggested little changes and alterations that could deliver his intended message and work better as a game.

Let’s talk more about Gongaga! What Tifa sees in the lifestream echoes the original game, but it’s been brought forward in the story. Why was this done?

The reason that was put there was because it was meant to link to the next area of Cosmo Canyon. It’s subtly setting up the scene where the characters are all around the campfire and they’re talking about their pasts, where they grew up, their worries and their fears.

It helps make Tifa and her emotions that she shares at Cosmo Canyon that much deeper.

The scene where Cloud loses control is also shocking! How difficult was it to find how far you could push that without it seeming too much?

Cloud is obviously being influenced by Sephiroth and he’s starting to act oddly and do strange things, but one of the ways we grounded him in these scenes is to have Tifa close by.

She’s there to ground him. As she says, he saved her before, now she offers to save him. At the same time, she’s got her own worries, so Cloud may be supporting her in a similar way. There’s quite an interesting dynamic between the two of them.

One of the things that creators asked when remaking something - and not just in games - is how you change scenes. Personally, I think it’s very much a case of too many cooks spoil the broth. If everyone’s got an opinion on it, and how they want to see it, and you listen to everyone, it doesn’t go in a good direction.

Because we have Mr Nojima in charge of Story and Scenario, we trust him and rely on his judgement. So, if it’s something people like - such as the way Cloud walked the line there - it’s entirely thanks to him. We should be praising his efforts!

Speaking of praise, one thing I love about the game is that as well as dramatic scenes like we’ve discussed, it’s also very funny! In fact, humor runs throughout the game, and not just in the story - even the synergy attack animations raise a smile! Was this an important focus of the game?

I do think humor is important to this game. That said, I don’t want to generalize that things with humor are good and things without humor are bad - both things have their place.

But it was an integral part of the original FINAL FANTASY VII, so in REBIRTH really had to be funny. That’s what players and fans expect and want.

In terms of the Synergy attack animations, a good example is the Sweet-and-Sour Salvo attack between Aerith and Barret, where Aerith puts on some sunglasses. This wasn’t something that came from the Director or the upper planning team, it very much came from the development floor.

Basically, there was a designer who said: “I think it would be really cool to have Aerith put on some sunglasses. Can I do that please?” So, they went ahead with it, and saw what it was like.

Those kinds of suggestions come really easily to our development team because so many of them are of the generation that played FINAL FANTASY VII when they were children. They loved it and enjoyed it and they know what they want to see within it.

So having that humor within the very serious and dramatic storyline is something they expect as much as the fans!

Many thanks to Hamaguchi-san for his time - and Nojima-san and the development team for their impressive work on the game. The story is truly gripping, and the team more than earned the Best Storytelling award at the Golden Joystick Awards 2024!

The awards season doesn’t stop there, however. FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH is up for seven nominations in The Game Awards, 2024, including the coveted Game of the Year! The full list is:

• Best Game Direction
• Game of the Year
• Best Narrative
• Best Score and Music
• Best Audio Design
• Best Performance (Briana White)
• Best RPG

There’s still time to vote in the awards, so if you enjoyed the game be sure to cast your vote:

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