After pumping out two incredible games in the subgenre with a third on the way, Final Fantasy 7 Revelation game director Naoki Hamaguchi thinks his next project will more than likely be another JRPG. Whether that ends up being a new Final Fantasy game or a totally different franchise is still up in the air, though.
Naoki Hamaguchi has served as the director on the entire Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy, which finally comes to a close and concludes a bonkers retelling of the 1997 classic in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, coming next year. But what happens after? Hamaguchi's toyed with the idea of DLC, though surely he must move on from Cloud and Tifa eventually...
"In terms of what I personally want to do, obviously, I think my next creative work is also going to be a JRPG," he tells Game Informer when asked about what comes next. "When you look at all the other titles that we have released at Square Enix, not just the FF7 Remake series, I think Square Enix, as a brand, as a company, is more than capable of delivering this grand-scale RPG that could resonate to gamers across the world."
Square Enix built its foundations on massive RPGs and JRPGs. Look no further than some of this past month's biggest reveals from FF7 Revelation to Kingdom Hearts 4 and Dragon Quest 12 - so, it's no surprise that Hamaguchi wants to remain working in a genre he's already deeply embedded in.
"Fans might have a lot of different expectations, but for me personally, I do want to take on this new challenge with another RPG title after this, whether it be Final Fantasy or a different IP," he adds. "Again, we don't know. But personally, if it's not Final Fantasy, that's also exciting, because that could be a challenge for me. So, whatever it is, I hope fans look forward to it."
By the sounds of it, Hamaguchi's not too keen on taking on yet another remake project. But Final Fantasy is such a flexible series, anything's possible.
