Square Enix didn’t want to leave anything to chance, so they decided early on how the project would end.

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi said the trilogy’s conclusion was planned from the beginning, and he is confident the story will end well. The game was announced at Summer Game Fest, marking the end of Square Enix’s ambitious remake trilogy, which debuted on the PlayStation 4 in 2020. Hamaguchi revealed that Yoshinori Kitase, the director and writer of the original Final Fantasy VII, contributed to shaping the conclusion of the remake trilogy as well.

Hamaguchi shared his philosophy on the extent to which player feedback can influence development. He believes that overreacting to user opinions can lead to a boring experience. Despite the negative feedback they received in Rebirth, he was willing to take responsibility for Revelation’s major design decisions, such as including just as many, if not more, minigames in the third installment.

“Obviously, I can’t share actual details on how this story is going to end, but in terms of how we envisioned the conclusion, we did have some idea of what we wanted to do. So we had a direction from the early days of development. The same goes for producer Yoshinori Kitase. He had his own vision, and some of that is reflected in the conclusion of FF7 Revelation. To be completely honest, we’re pretty confident and happy with how it turned out. We’re excited to see how fans will react to the ending.

I understand the logic behind that idea, and I think it applies to mediums outside of video games, such as films and TV shows. When you look at all the critiques and negative feedback and try to understand the median user’s opinion, it’s questionable whether that approach leads to a better product. Even if you address all the negative feedback and take the positive feedback into account, you may end up with a product that lacks character because you’re seeing two sides of extreme opinions. It’s just a blank slate with no strong appeal,” said Hamaguchi.

Final Fantasy VII Revelation is coming to the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC in spring 2027.

Source: VGC