Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Director Says Hitting a 90-Plus Metacritic Score Was His Personal Goal, Not the Team’s

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has seen universal acclaim from critics, and even stands as one of the best-reviewed Final Fantasy games to date, sitting at a Metacritic score of 92. Achieving a 90-plus Metacritic score was, in fact, a goal that the game’s developers were expressly working towards- or, well, game director Naoki Hamaguchi was anyway.

Shortly after Rebirth’s reviewed started going live a couple of weeks ago, Hamaguchi revealed in a statement on Twitter that hitting a Metacritic score of 90 or above was something the development team had explicitly set out to do, but he’s since clarified in an interview with One More Game that that was a personal goal that he set for himself, not something that was imposed on the entire development team.

“I’m thankful for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s positive reception,” Hamaguchi said. “There were rumors in social media that the team was aiming for 90 or over for the ratings in Rebirth, but it was my personal goal. When FF7 Remake came out, it did not achieve an aggregate score of over 90 [on Metacritic], so the team wanted to do better for Rebirth. I didn’t want to pressure the team to get over 90 in ratings, so I set that as my personal goal.”

Hamaguchi went on to add that though the widespread acclaim for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will put additional pressure on the development team for the third and final instalment of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy – work on which is already underway – it will also bring added motivation to ensure that it’s the best possible sendoff for the series.

“Because of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s positive reception, there might be some pressure on the team,” he said. “However, I feel that this empowers them to give the final title the send-off it deserves. I’m heartened that reviews had good feedback with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s gameplay. I believe that this gives the Final Fantasy franchise more possibility in the future not only in its story and characters, but their gameplay.”

In our own review of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, we awarded it a score of 10/10, saying, “Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is one of the best Final Fantasy games of all time. It’s nothing short of a spectacle, an epic journey full of bombastic action, heartfelt emotion, and unforgettable moments- a celebration both of itself and the legendary game it is based on, one that brazenly and loudly demands your attention, and actually manages to hold on to it, because all of its flash is backed by just as much substance. From storytelling to world design, from exploration to combat, from visuals to music, from the amount of content it offers to how much meaningful variety that content exhibits, in nearly every way that matters, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth surpasses expectations.” Read the full review through here.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is available on PS5.