The Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy finale will have a new gameplay experience, director Naoki Hamaguchi has stated.
Speaking to German outlet NTower, Hamaguchi stated “development is going very well”, and while no specifics were provided, he did compare the gameplay of the third part back to the progression from Remake to Rebirth.
“As you’re very much aware, the first game in the series, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, was a more story driven linear gaming experience and then that evolved and changed into a more open world adventure for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, the second game,” Hamaguchi explained. “And that seems to be very well regarded. People seem to like that change a lot and they like the new gameplay direction. So, we’re very happy with that.”
“But moving forward to the third game in the series,” he continued, “obviously I can’t say exactly what it is, but I don’t want to deliver just exactly the same style of gameplay experience as we had with Rebirth again. We’re going to evolve it and change it again to give another different and fresh take on the Final Fantasy 7 gameplay. Again, that will be revealed in the not too distant future. I can say we’re working on it and we’re trying to change that because we’ve actually got a build up and running in the development team right now where you can experience that new style of gameplay.”
So what exactly does he mean here?
While “gameplay experience” is a broad term, part three will likely still use the same battle system that’s been developed across Remake and Rebirth, though presumably with some twists for additional characters Cid and Vincent.
Hamaguchi really seems to be discussing structure here. Remake was a more linear affair, owing to the tight focus on a single location (the city of Midgar), while Rebirth was open world as Cloud and friends explore expansive environments in pursuit of Sephiroth – just as players moved to the world map in the original PS1 game.