Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi thinks Part 3 will be one of the best games ever made.
Hamaguchi made the comments during a live presentation called 'Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Summoning A Masterpiece' (timestamped here), where he was joined by producer Yoshinori Kitase to talk mostly about the making of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. At some point, the conversation turned toward the future of the trilogy, and both Hamaguchi and Kitase really took the opportunity to hype up fans.
"When I think about the third and final game in the Remake trilogy, it really does fill me with excitement, and I have such great expectations toward it as well," said Kitase. "I really hope the fans can have great expectations toward this game, and we will meet those expectations. We will definitely expand on and make the world of Final Fantasy 7 even bigger than it is now."
Kitase said fan feedback from the first two games will be "reflected in the third game" and promised "it'll be exactly what the fans are looking for." He also described the third game as a "synergy" of "nostalgia and new innovation".
We don't have anything close to a release date yet, and the third game in the trilogy is likely years from releasing, but Hamaguchi did say recently that Square Enix is considering moving its development over to Unreal Engine 5 if it becomes convinced it would speed things up.
"The development team is hard at work as we speak, and we're going to make the game something that even beats any of the expectations that you have towards the game," said Hamaguchi. "I am absolutely confident that the third game in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series will be one of the most loved, most popular games in the whole history of video games once again."
If this were almost any other game and dev team, I would call this some capital-B braggadocio, but the original Final Fantasy 7 is widely considered one of the most beloved and influential games of all time. Remake and Rebirth were met with universal acclaim from critics and players, and nothing significant has changed about its development team at the highest levels.
Of course, only time will tell if Hamaguchi's words prove to be prophetic. The framework for a generational release is already there thanks to the original game and the two entries in the remake series, but the studio still has to stick the landing by tying together all of the loose ends in a story and world that's grown much more complex than the original game from 27 years ago.
In the meantime, here are the best JRPGs you can play right now.
