While the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy has featured many things that weren’t present in the 1997 original, Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi is assuring fans that the original vision of the seminal RPG remains intact. In an interview with GamesRadar, Hamaguchi noted that this even extends to how the team evaluates fan feedback.
Noting that much of the original team behind Final Fantasy 7 is in charge of making any big changes to the narrative of the Remake trilogy, Hamaguchi also said, “That’s not taking fan expectations or fan feedback into account really at all. That fan feedback is looked at for other aspects of the game, but [the big changes are] really consistent with the creators’ vision. I think, ultimately, maybe quite paradoxically, that is better for the fans in order to do it that way.”
When it comes to some of the new things added to Final Fantasy 7 in the Remake trilogy, Hamaguchi said that the team has its hands full with also coming up with ways to flesh out things from the expanded universe of Final Fantasy 7 that were brought in with various books, movies, and spin-offs.
“One of the other ways we’re approaching the wider Final Fantasy 7 universe, the compilation content [is] the mission the team has is to basically recreate a new Final Fantasy 7 that includes all of that wider universe content from the start. So that’s all consistently part of the world in the games that people will be playing.”
This means story elements and characters from games like Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 and Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy 7, as well as movies like Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children. We’ve already seen plenty of hints of the latter with Remake and Rebirth, and even minor spin-off characters have shown up over the course of both games so far.
Hamaguchi has spoken about including elements from the compilation releases into the Remake trilogy in the past. Back in June, he spoke about this when asked whether Cissnei from Crisis Core would be showing up again in Revelation following her appearance in Rebirth. In response, he noted that the team’s goal is to include settings and concepts that have been introduced through spin-offs and sequels in the past.
“Well, at this time it’s best not to say whether Cissnei will appear or not, but there is one thing I can tell you. This Final Fantasy 7 Remake series is not simply a recreation of the original work, but rather, our goal is to create a single, new Final Fantasy 7 that incorporates the settings and concepts of all the previous spin-off titles, such as Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, and Crisis Core. Therefore, the appearance of Cissnei and the inclusion of Dirge of Cerberus Soldiers in the DLC, all have that meaning.”
“So, since that concept will of course carry over into Revelatfion as well, not limited to Cissnei, for the last entry, there will be characters that have appeared in the various FF7 compilation games that I think will be there, and each of these characters has a large and dedicated fanbase, so we want to create a work that can satisfy the feelings of those people.”
Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2 on April 7th. For more details, check out what Hamaguchi has said about which of the three entries has been the toughest to develop so far.
