Square Enix’s next big game was revealed during a roundtable discussion with director Naoki Hamaguchi, and we also learned who will be voicing Vincent Valentine.

The interviewee was Matt Mercer, who we learned will be voicing Vincent in the game. He asked Hamaguchi what the internal development process was like when Red XIII was put on a Chocobo. According to Hamaguchi, there was some discussion within the team. One of the designers had made a file of Red XIII riding a chocobo, and it was so adorable that they just had to bring it to their creative director, Nomura Tetsuya, who immediately agreed. There will be flying chocobos in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, but he doesn’t know if everyone wants to see Red XIII flying through the sky with his tail spinning like a helicopter.

But why was Vincent an optional character? Hamaguchi didn’t know either, and he wondered about it when the game was released in 1997. He will be part of our team, but not as a playable character, but as an “obligatory accessory. He could not decide whether to choose Yuffie or Vincent for his team. Yoshinori Kitase (who also worked on Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy VII, and Chrono Trigger) inspired Hamaugchi to become a game developer, and now it’s a strange situation that he’s Kitase’s boss.

According to Hamaguchi, they are creators and colleagues in this creative business, and with that comes sometimes harsh things he says to him, to which Kitase responds in kind. He says it was quite fateful that they were able to work together. Why is a Segway vehicle important to Tiny Bronco and Highwind, for example? According to the game’s director, in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, you can spend a lot of time sitting on a chocobo, but it would be unusual to ride one in a resort town called Costa del Sol. He wants people to have a good time getting around, so he came up with the Segway-like two-wheeled vehicle that fits the theme (serious undertone with fun elements).

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will be released on February 29 for PlayStation 5.

Source: Gematsu