Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi hasn't been shy about his admiration for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, this year's JRPG-inspired hit, even going as far as calling it his game of the year. But the growing trend of successful AA games has him itching to try the same thing... if only he could ignore his important role at Square Enix.
When asked about Clair Obscur and if other AA games have affected how the team views game production in an interview with GamesRadar+, Hamaguchi acknowledges that "the cost involved in creating AAA games really have risen so much" via a translator. But the main difference manifests in "how complete and multi-faceted [the games] can be."
With a AAA game, Hamaguchi explains that "whatever direction you look at it, whatever element you take, it's at a very high quality." Think of how much stuff is loaded into Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, for example - mini-games, vehicles, tournaments, side quests, photo modes, hidden bosses, etc. Meanwhile, in Hamaguchi's view, AA games usually "pick one aspect of one element and really push that and... take that to a high level" since money for development is limited, of course.
The FF7 Remake trilogy lead then told us he "would love to try and make a game like that [AA], which is really focused on one area, pushing the boat out, and making that one aspect as fun as possible"... but only if he "completely ignored the reality of it - the position I have in the company, what they want me to make, the requirements of my position and that kind of thing."
Still, despite Hamaguchi being on the AAA RPG conveyor belt for the foreseeable future, he wants to support developers working at a smaller scope, mainly because it's good for the industry. "If I've got a chance to work together with some of the people who make these kinds of games, I think that'd be really great as well," he says. "So from an industry, I think it's really healthy, and I like seeing those AAs coming."
