"We’re going to become the new legend": Naoki Hamaguchi on making Final Fantasy 7 Revelation as if it's the last ever Final Fantasy 7 game

"That’s why I’ve got this confidence"

In this IP-obsessed world, it is quite easy to wonder if anything will ever actually come to an end. Theoretically, the Final Fantasy 7 trilogy of remakes will be coming to an end next year with Final Fantasy 7 Revelation. Except that might not even be true because a couple of pieces of DLC, about Sephiroth and Vincent Valentine respectively, are also in the works, so who knows when the actual end date is. Whether this is actually the end of Final Fantasy 7 or not, however, doesn't matter, as its director is treating it that way.

"I’m approaching the development of Revelation as if there’s never going to be another Final Fantasy 7 game… no spin-offs… no DLC in the future ," director Naoki Hamaguchi said in a recent interview with Kotaku. "I’m not going to say whether there actually is or not," he continues, making it seem like this interview was probably held before the confirmation of DLC. "But we’re making it as if everything we have for Final Fantasy 7 is going to be put into this game. That’s why I’ve got this confidence, and I think we’re going to beat the original’s legend. We’re going to become the new legend."

That last bit is potentially a slightly strange one, as I'm not sure if one of the most beloved JRPGs of all time can be beaten out by a trilogy of remakes that (while I've personally loved) do suffer from the curse of being a triple-A game in the 2020s. In any case, I was also interested to hear what Hamaguchi had to say on the themes of the threequel: "Yet one other thing that working on the Remake project really brought home is thinking about its other very current-feeling themes. Final Fantasy 7 has a lot of diversity.

"These days, those are big topics and everyone is aware of them; social media gives everyone access to that information. But thinking back, Final Fantasy 7 was way ahead of its time when the original was made. Especially in Japan, finding information about things happening abroad back then was not easy. To think that Mr. Kitase and the team put together a game where you see diversity—the variation between party characters, cultures, and people around the world—30-something years ago makes my respect for him even higher."

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is due for release on April 8th, 2027.