Final Fantasy 7 Remake lead says Barret grew on him during the remake trilogy because "there were limits" to what the devs could do with the character in the original JRPG

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He is the best character in the remake series after all

Barret readies his minigun arm in Final Fantasy 7 Remake in a train
(Image credit: Square Enix)

Final Fantasy 7 Remake series director Naoki Hamaguchi says Barret grew on him the most during the creation of the remake series.

Speaking to GamerBraves (below), Hamaguchi is asked if there was a character in Final Fantasy 7 who grew on him during the remake, and while he obviously threw out the 'I love all of my children equally' line, saying "all of the characters are special to me," he says that "in terms of the remake series and introducing new facets of the characters," it was none other than Barret Wallace.

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Hamaguchi explains, "In the original Final Fantasy 7, Barret was a product of the time," saying he was "very contemporary" and "very cookie-cutter." He explains that, presumably due to the PS1 hardware, "there were limits to what they could do with the character, limits to what they could show." But with Barret in the remake, "the sort of justice he seeks and the things he wants to protect, they were able to visualize that, pack that into the story and deliver it to the consumer."

He adds that even after Rebirth released he was seeing a ton of positive comments about Barret and the character development he has in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series, and adds: "I was very glad to receive those comments."

I haven't played Rebirth, but if there's one thing I do remember about playing through Final Fantasy 7 Remake at launch, it's that I absolutely loved Barret. While Cloud and Aerith are obviously the posterchildren of Final Fantasy 7, he, Tifa, and the Avalanche trio ended up being the highlight of that game for me, so it's good to see others agree.

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Scott McCrae
Scott McCrae
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Scott has been freelancing for over three years across a number of different gaming publications, first appearing on GamesRadar+ in 2024. He has also written for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, VG247, Play, TechRadar, and others. He's typically rambling about Metal Gear Solid, God Hand, or any other PS2-era titles that rarely (if ever) get sequels.

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