FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH Director Naoki Hamaguchi on making one of 2024’s greatest games
How did the team celebrate the stellar reviews? What have they learned from working on FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH? What kind of Queen’s Blood player is Hamaguchi-san?With more than 110 perfect scores from critics around the world, it’s fair to say that FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH is A Very Good Game.
That’s only been reinforced by its multiple Game of the Year nominations, including winning four in the Golden Joysticks and earning VII… I mean seven nominations in The Game Awards 2024, including Game of the Year:
- Best Game Direction
- Game of the Year
- Best Narrative
- Best Score and Music
- Best Audio Design
- Best Performance (Briana White)
- Best RPG
If you want to vote in the awards, you can do so here:
It’s a testament to the game’s quality, and a cap on an amazing year for the game’s Director, Naoki Hamaguchi. We recently sat down with to discuss the glowing critical response to the game, the upcoming awards and his thoughts about the game 10 months after release.
Also, pro Queen’s Blood strats.
Congratulations Hamaguchi-san on the multiple awards! How does it feel to get so many nominations?
Good! I think we’re up to 7 nominations for The Game Awards too. But I don’t want to leave it there and want this positive reception from the community to continue growing!
I’m really looking forward to The Game Awards show.
FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH got such a strong critical reception when it came out. Did you and the team celebrate?
Yes, we did! Actually, if you think back to when we released the FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE, it was right in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, so unfortunately, we weren’t able to have a big celebration event for that.
So, when we released REBIRTH, we decided we’d have a combined event for both games to celebrate them. We got the whole team, including outsourced people who had worked on the game, and went for a big celebration together in Aoyama, Tokyo!
We hired a church in that area so everyone could fit in for the celebration. Obviously, we chose that because there’s one in REMAKE and we had it done up to look like the church in the game, with flowers spread everywhere!
From your perspective, what elements of the game have fans best responded to?
First, the story. As a sequel to the first game in the series, it’s something that has resonated well with a lot of people. But perhaps more than that, what hit home with people is that this is different in a lot of ways to previous FINAL FANTASY titles.
Traditionally, FINAL FANTASY is a very sequential type of game - you follow along the storyline and generally don’t go off the beaten path too much. For FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH, we created this vast world that allowed players to explore freely and all kinds of different experiences around the map.
That’s something that really did hit a positive reaction from the fans. Certainly, all the people who made the game seem to really like that direction as well, so hopefully we’ll be able to use that in future games we make as a team.
One element that fans have really taken to is Queen’s Blood! When we previously spoke before release, you indicated you were confident about it, but were you still surprised by the reaction?
My honest feeling is that I’m so glad that it went down well.
As I said, I was confident in Queen’s Blood before it came out, but I was still surprised. The reaction was so much greater than even I had expected it would be!
Honestly, it delighted me, and it delighted the team as well.
What kind of Queens Blood player are you? All about boosting? Destruction deck?
When you’ve got the full selection of cards and you can do your deck building fully, I really like the kind of playstyle where you try and destroy the enemy’s territory.
I always find myself playing those kinds of cards that destroy enemy cards and win enemy areas, rather than the kind of playstyle where you try to put a card down to get more for your hand.
I prefer being aggressive!
What feedback have you taken from FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH that you are applying for future projects?
When I look back at the game, a lot of the things that of the things we aimed to get across to players really hit home. The reactions were exactly what we were hoping for. So, there aren’t many areas where we think: “We tried to do this, but it didn’t turn out so well”.
But if there is one thing that’s exception to that, it would be the trophies. I think we’re going to look at the difficulty for unlocking the trophies in the third game and set it at a level that’s more achievable for most people.
Without going into spoilers, the ending has sparked a lot of discussion amongst fans. Is the reaction what you expected?
Yes. We’ve had some people who are really positive towards the ending - they really liked it. On the other hand, we’ve had people who maybe weren’t so keen on it and had more negative things to say.
I think that both of those opinions are very valid and worthwhile, and to borrow something that Mr Kitase (FINAL FANTASY VII remake project producer) says, we wanted to inspire speculation and discussion among fans during the gap between the second and third game.
And people are still talking about it. You have positive takes and negative takes, interesting discussions and sometimes they all collide. That’s basically the response we wanted to achieve.
2024 for a big year for you personally, Mr Hamaguchi - the game came out, you’ve travelled all over the world and now you’re seeing award nominations galore! When you look back, what’s been the highlight?
I think it would have to be seeing the game come out into the world. It’s several years of development behind us, so to see that finally finished and the game released was a really big thing.
No matter how confident you are in a game as a creator before you release it, there’s always a moment when it’s finally out and you see what the world really thinks of it. That’s when it’s all decided.
So, the fact that it was well-received by fans and the media means we got across what we wanted to. That was definitely the highlight of this year.
Also, post-launch, I’ve been travelling around the world a little bit talking to game media and communities in Europe, the US, the Middle East and various other places. To see the passion that the development team had for the game has been communicated, and seeing that the game really resonates with them, was such a great thing to experience.
What are the most memorable fan interactions you’ve seen?
In terms of a really distinctive fan response, it’s been very interesting. I’ve travelled around Europe, America and Japan and the game’s market is fairly mature now. People have been playing console games for 20 years, probably more.
You compare that to what I saw in some places in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, areas where they’re seeing rapid economic growth, and it feels like the younger generations are playing games in these regions the way we used to when we were younger. Just to see those fans and their reaction has been great.
I’ve had university students come up to me and say: “Wow, this is the first game that really hit me and inspired me to want to become a game creator!” To see those reactions from a younger audience felt unique and wonderful.
Many thanks to Hamaguchi-san for his time and thoughts. FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH is currently (at the time of writing) up for seven nominations at The Game Awards, 2024. The big show takes place on Thursday December 12, 2024, at 4.30pm (PST) / Friday December 13, 2024 at 12.30am (GMT) / Friday December 13, 1.30am CET.
If you want to cast your vote in the awards, there’s still time to do so. Head over to https://thegameawards.com/nominees to do so. Obviously, you should pick the game you like the most in each category, but it sure would be swell if that was FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH…
If you’re yet to play GOTY nominee FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH… well, you’re missing out. It’s available now on PS5:
- Get the Standard Edition
- Get the Deluxe Edition
- Get the Digital Deluxe Edition
- Get the Twin Pack (includes FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE)
Finally, to stay up to date with news and information about the game, be sure to follow us on social media: