Love Final Fantasy VII Remake? Turns out two PlayStation icons—and The Witcher 3—shaped how the RPG was built. Director Naoki Hamaguchi says God of War and The Last of Us, alongside CD Projekt RED’s epic, steered the team’s creative approach.

As fans wait for concrete news on Part 3, many are digging into the craft behind the two entries already on shelves. What’s come to light is that, throughout the development of both the Remake and the newer Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Square Enix closely studied a pair of PlayStation flagships and CD Projekt RED’s acclaimed fantasy RPG.

Hamaguchi—who oversees the trilogy—spelled this out in a YouTube interview with Joesephyr (surfaced via Genki on X) when asked about each installment’s touchstones. “Obviously, for the first game in the series, Final Fantasy VII Remake is a very story-based game. So I would say that the things that inspired me in how it was made were, again, story-based games like God of War or The Last of Us, for example.”

The Third Entry Aims To Be “More Concise”

Rebirth demanded a different tack. The narrative still follows Cloud and company, but the team embraced a broader, more open structure that called for new references. As Hamaguchi puts it: “However, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has an open-world design. So the games that inspired me to do it… We get more open-world games, things like The Witcher 3 or The Last of Us.” (The latter isn’t a pure open world, but the team still revisited it while shaping the latest entry.)

In recent days, the director has also teased the trilogy’s finale. There’s no official title or launch window yet, but he says the adventure will be “more concise” (without trimming the story) and will introduce a gameplay change unrelated to combat. It’s all about priming expectations before the reveal; Hamaguchi remains confident in the work so far and insists it will be a game “loved by everyone.”

Source: 3DJuegos