Amid all the announcements for Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 7 Remake director Tetsuya Nomura revealed that he’s not directing the second part. Speaking to Famitsu in a recent interview (translation by Gematsu), Nomura revealed that Naoki Hamaguchi, co-director on the first part, would be the sole director for Part 2. “Today, we announced three Final Fantasy 7 titles, but as I mentioned earlier, I’m personally working on more projects now than ever before.
“Since we were able to solidify the base gameplay in the first part of Final Fantasy 7 Remake and are able to see what we need to improve upon in the future, Naoki Hamaguchi (co-director on Final Fantasy 7 Remake) will be entrusted as the director on the next part, while I’ll be involved as the creative director on all things Final Fantasy 7, including the Remake and mobile titles. My basic involvement in the work won’t significantly change, so please give me your continued support.” For the most part, it seems that the basic creative structure for the sequel, from its gameplay to story-telling, will remain relatively the same.
However it should be interesting to see how having Hamaguchi as the sole director will change its presentation. No further details were revealed on the second part, like when it can be expected but producer Yoshinori Kitase and co-director Naoki Hamaguchi did tease that the story would surprise fans. The goal is to create a game that both “lives up to expectations but also throws them off, in a good way though,” as per Kitase.
In the meantime, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade is out on June 10th for PS5 and will include several enhancements for the base game. It will also have a new story episode with Yuffie, though this content is exclusive to the PS5. Other titles include battle royale shooter Final Fantasy 7: The First Soldier which is out this year for iOS and Android and Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis, a single-player RPG compilation of the entire series, out in 2022 also for mobile.
