Naoki Hamaguchi – the director of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy – has revealed that story-centric games like The Last of Us and God of War served as the inspiration behind the narrative style of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. In an interview, which you can check out below, Hamaguchi was asked about the games that inspired the remake.
Through an interpreter, Hamaguchi noted that Final Fantasy 7 Remake is quite a narrative-driven title, which meant that the developers had to look at PlayStation’s story-based single-player games for inspiration. He also went on to reveal that the second part of the trilogy – Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth – was inspired by open-world games instead.
“The first game in the series, Final Fantasy 7 Remake was a very story-driven game,” said Hamaguchi. “So, I’d say things that inspired me in terms of how that was done was things like other story-driven games, like God of War, for example, or The Last of Us.”
“However, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, the next game, is much more open-world in its design,” he continued. “So the kind of games that I was inspired by for that one were more open-world games; things like The Witcher 3, for example.”
Hamaguchi also had a few words for newcomers to the Final Fantasy franchise that might be picking up Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade as their doorway to the series. He joked that while he could get into more complicated details about the world of Final Fantasy 7 Remake and what players should expect, he would prefer it if they just dove in and had fun with the title.
“I could go into a lot of detail about what kind of world Midgar is, what kind of things are in the game, but I think I’ll just keep it simple,” he said. “So one thing I’m often told by people when I’m talking to fans around the world is they say ‘Look, I’d really love it if I was able to forget the entire story about Final Fantasy 7 and then just play the remakes from scratch with no foreknowledge.”
“I think Final Fantasy 7 is such an iconic, such a legendary game. Everything in it, the story, the characters, and everything in the game is such a big part of gaming and gaming history that I think if you are a gaming fan and you haven’t played Final Fantasy 7, I really think you’re missing out.”
While Hamaguchi and his team are currently gearing up for the Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S release of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade on January 22, 2026, they have also been working on the third part of the trilogy. During the recent Brazil Game Show 2025, Hamaguchi said that the conclusion to the trilogy offered by the third game will be loved by fans of the original as well as newer fans who jumped in with the Remake trilogy. He also spoke about why the trilogy was split into three games.
For more details, check out our reviews of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
