“[Wutai is] one of the main locations. Yuffie’s made a very prominent appearance, stating her case about her homeland. So if Wutai’s not featured, I think the fans are going to yell at me,” said Hamaguchi when asked about some of the ion-game locations. He also went on to confirm some of the other features, like expanding the flying capabilities of the Highwind.

“We want to expand on the gameplay experience,” he said. “Flying the Highwind is a very large part of the third installment. Let me leave it at that.” As for other details, Hamaguchi preferred to keep his cards close to his chest. While he didn’t confirm or deny the presence of the Chocobo breeding mechanic in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3, he did note that the bird mounts will function differently when compared to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

“We didn’t want the three installments to be a reskinning of the same game over and over again,” Hamaguchi explained when discussing new gameplay elements coming to Remake Part 3. “We want to make sure we’re expanding with every installment in terms of scale, as well as retaining that freshness as you go into each installment.”

One of the bigger locations in the original Final Fantasy 7 was the Great Glacier area. In the third entry of the Remake trilogy, Hamaguchi noted that Rebirth ends up with players in the Forgotten City. If it follows the footsteps of the original, Remake Part 3 might also end up directly leading players to the Icicle Inn.

As for when Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 will finally get revealed, Hamaguchi said that it is slated to happen some time this year. “I’m hoping it’s not going to be too far in the future,” he said, before also revealing that 95 percent of the development team of Rebirth is working on the third entry. “I think the number is closer to 95% of the Rebirth staff that stayed on for the third project,” he explained.

Back in January, Hamaguchi had confirmed that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 will see the return of one of its more popular minigames: Queen’s Blood. In an interview, he revealed that the new version of the card game will be a “powered-up version”.

“Queen’s Blood is a very popular and beloved minigame, and I believe a lot of people are still wanting something like that,” Hamaguchi said. “I want to expand on Queen’s Blood so that we are enhancing it, and giving you a more powered-up version of it when you see that third instalment… Queen’s Blood is still going to be available in the third instalment. We just want to expand on it.”

In the meantime, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth got confirmed for Nintendo Switch 2, with the development team targeting a steady frame rate of 30 FPS. It is slated for release on June 3rd.

In an interview with Automaton Media, when told that many probably perceive the higher version number to mean it’s “more advanced,” he said, “I think that’s mostly how the general public sees it, and I do believe it’s true. Around the time we began developing Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Unreal Engine 5 was just entering its pre-launch phase.

“What makes Unreal Engine 5 groundbreaking compared to Unreal Engine 4 are two features: Lumen, its lighting system (related article), and Nanite, which allows you to portray dense graphical detail (related article). These represent the current trend in graphics pipelines, and of course, such pipelines are important to us as well.

“However, if we had tied our development schedule and milestones too closely to Unreal Engine 5’s roadmap, we would have risked our own progress being stalled if the engine encountered any kind of delay. For that reason, we decided early on in development of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth to stick with Unreal Engine 4. We’re using a graphics pipeline built in-house, which also makes optimization and porting to various hardware more straightforward.”

There’s also the benefit that any experience accrued with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth would lead to further refinements in Part 3. “So even for the final installment of the trilogy, rather than rebuilding our pipeline from scratch in Unreal Engine 5, it’s far more efficient for us to use Unreal Engine 4, which we already have a well-established pipeline for. This also allows us to further refine things based on the experience we accumulated with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

“With all of this in mind, we judged that continuing with Unreal Engine 4 would definitely lead to a better third installment for our customers. I never imagined it would become such a hot topic (laughs), though a lot of people took it quite positively, too.

“We’re using the know-how and development environment we cultivated with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth as a base and further refining it to create the third game. In that sense, the quality will certainly not drop, and we’re working hard to deliver something even better. Production of the third installment itself is progressing very smoothly.”

That last point is especially important considering the interval between releases. Final Fantasy 7 Remake released in April 2020 for PlayStation 4, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth followed in February 2024 for PS5. About two years later, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 is in a playable state, and while it’s likely to launch in 2027 or even early 2028, it’s set to be a massive experience with tons of content.

Look no further than Rebirth, which boasts much more content and larger-scale regions than the first part. And that’s not even accounting for the implementation of the Highwind, further improvements to the visuals, or the fact that it’s launching on multiple platforms.

Of course, Square Enix hasn’t confirmed whether it’s a day one launch on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2. Or even the official title, though it’s apparently locked. Nevertheless, it should be interesting to see how Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 ends the trilogy.

After his statements about Game Key-Cards earlier this month, he mentioned to Automaton that the Switch 2 versions are likely going to target 30 FPS across its larger, more detailed worlds. Arguing in favor of stable performance over visual fidelity on a platform that has two distinct graphical modes in the interest of portability, Hamaguchi was emphatic about crafting an experience that would perform consistently enough to keep its players invested in it.

“…with the Nintendo Switch 2, there’s the added characteristic of handheld mode, where performance constraints are tighter…We’re consistently aiming for 30 FPS wherever possible. For Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and the third installment of the trilogy, our engineers are working hard on tuning to ensure stable performance at that level.”

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade did quite well on the Switch 2, and we’re hoping that the next two can sustain that forward momentum on the platform as far as the performance is concerned. From the looks of it, we’re in good hands as we count down the days until we get to replay a largely enjoyable experience while we’re on the go.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth launches on June 3rd for Nintendo Switch 2 alongside Xbox Series X/S. Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 doesn’t have a release date but it’s in a playable state and could receive a proper reveal this year.

Hamaguchi revealed that the difference in loading speeds when a game is pulling in data from the Switch 2’s internal storage is “roughly double” when compared to pulling it off a game cartridge. This is a big reason for the use of Game-Key Cards for Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade.

“There’s simply no way around key cards in certain respects,” said Hamaguchi. “If you compare loading directly from a game cartridge (containing all game data) to loading from the Nintendo Switch 2’s internal storage, the load speed difference is roughly double. Some have expressed concern that multiplatform development may impose constraints not only on graphics, but even on game design itself. However, this is precisely why we didn’t choose a cartridge.”

He went on to note that the game wasn’t built around the idea of loading in all of the required data right at the beginning. Rather, data is constantly loaded in and out in the course of gameplay, which means that the speed at which data can be loaded in becomes an important consideration for the developers. Along with this, Nintendo Switch 2 cartridges also offer lower storage than what the studio needs.

“Our game design isn’t built around loading all data upfront, with nothing further being loaded afterward,” Hamaguchi explained. “Even during gameplay, data is constantly swapped in and out, and given that premise, the loading speed from a game card would inevitably be insufficient, leading to stress for the player. In addition, with currently available cartridge capacity, there is the practical limitation that the full game data simply wouldn’t fit in the first place.”

“However, as long as we can secure the high-speed storage read speeds such as SSD or UFS (on Switch 2), the design we’re aiming for becomes achievable within the scope of optimization for each platform. For the third game in the trilogy, we’re proceeding with development with the goal of delivering a large-scale experience similar to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, so please rest assured on that point.”

Ultimately, Hamaguchi noted that Game-Key Cards are a major reason for the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy coming to the Nintendo Switch 2 at all. Load speeds and storage capacities simply weren’t high enough in the past. Now, however, the combination of Game-Key Cards lifting these restrictions and the Switch 2’s “impressive” performance has allowed the team to start bringing the trilogy to a new audience.

“In the past, when faced with practical issues related to load speed and storage capacity we couldn’t resolve, we had to decide not to release on Nintendo systems. However, Nintendo Switch 2’s performance is impressive, and with a key card format like FFVII Remake, releasing the games became possible,” he said.

Hamaguchi had made similar comments about Game-Key Cards back in October, noting that while he understands why some may not like it, the technology is simply not one that can be avoided. Nightdive Studios CEO Stephen Kick, on the other hand, has called the system “disheartening” from a video game preservation standpoint.

In the meantime, check out our review of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade on the Nintendo Switch 2.

“Development of the third installment is progressing very smoothly, and we’re almost exactly on schedule with the milestones we set at the beginning of the project,” he told Automaton-Media. “The game is already in a playable state, and right now, we’re in the final push phase, refining and building up the experience.

“We’re at the stage where the quality improves day by day, and each time we play it, the scenery feels different, so it’s genuinely exciting. I think it won’t be too long before we’re able to share some kind of update with everyone.” Coupled with a previous statement about sharing “more updates” on the project this year than ever before, it certainly feels like an announcement is imminent. Soon-ish.

In the same interview, Hamaguchi spoke about how developing for multiple platforms wouldn’t impact the title’s visual quality. But what about bringing Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade and Rebirth to Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S, potentially affecting the team’s attention on the finale?

Thankfully, that’s not a concern, says Hamaguchi. “We have a dedicated unit within my team that handles porting work, and they operate separately from the team developing the third installment. The porting unit is deeply committed and has been tuning those versions with meticulous care, so I trust them and oversee their work from a distance. That allows me to focus on the third game.”

So what do we actually know about Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 from a gameplay perspective? It includes a “powered-up version” of Queen’s Blood, Rebirth’s popular card game, and despite offering a “more concise structure,” it won’t be a shorter experience than its predecessor. The airship, Highwind, is also featured, with the world seemingly rebuilt to accommodate it. As always, however, we await concrete details on where the story could go next.

“Both the Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox versions have been incredibly well-received and generated a lot of buzz online, and that attention has also made me realize how many people are worried about this issue. However, our decision to go multiplatform with the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series will not in any way lower the quality of the third installment. Our development structure simply doesn’t work that way to begin with. …I suppose I’ll just have to keep saying it,” he told Automaton-Media.

While it’s all well and good to say it, how can Hamaguchi be sure that this will be the case? After breaking down the “four key points” to consider across all platforms – CPU, GPU, RAM, and ROM – he revealed that the team focuses on achieving 30 FPS on lower-end platforms while achieving 60 FPS on the higher-end. “In other words, we don’t design the game to fully saturate a high-end CPU at 30 FPS.

“Instead, on hardware that lends additional CPU headroom, we scale density elements, like increasing the number of NPCs in towns. As a result, towns feel more alive on higher-spec hardware, while lower-spec systems may display fewer NPCs. So even when factoring in Nintendo Switch 2 or Xbox Series S support, CPU-related bottlenecks are unlikely.

“Finally, the area most people are concerned about is the GPU, the graphics processor. When a game launches across multiple platforms, many enjoy comparing the visual differences, like in those side-by-side comparison videos. The main concern is that if development assumes hardware of a certain level as the standard, all platforms might be pulled to that level of quality. What I’d like to clarify first is that the highest-end gaming environment is PC.

“While PC gaming is gradually expanding in Japan, overseas growth has been even more rapid. The market has broadened tremendously across both consoles and PC. The Final Fantasy 7 Remake series has sold very well on platforms like Steam and the Epic Games Store, so we develop assets with the broad PC market in mind. In fact, our 3D assets are created at the highest quality level based on PC as the foundation.”

Hamaguchi goes on to recount how Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on PC was considered visually superior to the PS5 version. “As our fundamental principle, we do not design assets to meet the lowest baseline. Instead, we create them for high-end environments first.

“We then apply what we call ‘reduction,’ adjusting assets and tuning them appropriately for each platform. This means that we avoid negatively impacting high-spec platforms. This isn’t unique to us, either. I believe it’s become fairly common practice among developers in recent years.”

Of course, some may point out that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth launched with several issues on PC, which required patching to reach an acceptable state. Then again, one hopes that the experience will carry over to the finale and produce better results.

The real litmus test will be on June 3rd when the second game becomes available for Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S. While Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 doesn’t have a release date, its title and reveal date have been decided internally. All that’s left to do is wait and hope that it truly matches Hamaguchi’s vision.

Along with a release date for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on the Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox (as announced at the recent Partner Showcase), Hamaguchi also promised more news, potentially ending a long period of relative silence about how things were shaping up for the highly anticipated sequel to Rebirth.

“This year, we plan to share more updates on the Final Fantasy 7 Remake Project than ever before. We look forward to celebrating together with even more players around the world.”

Since Rebirth is making its Switch 2 and Xbox debut on June 3, 2026, it seems feasible to expect updates on Part 3 later this year. Of course, with no timeline explicitly offered up by Hamguchi, that could very well vary.

With fans eager to resolve the cliffhanger that it ended on, news – and possibly a reveal – is going to be most welcome, and could potentially end speculation about the new game’s title. It might be hard to outdo the top-notch experience on offer in Rebirth, but Square Enix is sure to be on top of its game with this one. Even Hamaguchi has expressed confidence in it himself.

https://x.com/nhamaguc/status/2019428998875590885

“That’s a good question, and also, a very difficult question [to answer],” said Hamaguchi when asked about whether he and his team have been savoring their final few months with the trilogy. “We want to see it through, and we want to meet, if not surpass, fan expectations with the final installment. But it would be a lie to say that I haven’t thought, ‘Oh no! There’s still more I have to get through!’ Especially when transitioning from the first to second game. But now that we are seeing the conclusion of the trilogy, there is no wavering. We are focused and want to see it through.”

Leaving behind something you might have worked on for over a decade can understandably be a challenging thing, especially when taking the context of Final Fantasy 7‘s popularity into account. Hamaguchi had spoken in the past, however, that he hopes to work alongside the same team again on future projects. Back in October, he spoke about how the team had bonded throughout their time on the project, and how this helped them improve quite a bit.

“I think once we have got out the third game in the series, and hopefully it’s a big success,” he said. “We’ll definitely move on to something else, and it’d be great to see what that team that we’ve managed to build up together produces. I don’t know if it’s the right way of talking about it, but the bonds, the relationship between the team has definitely improved a lot and strengthened that team.”

Whether this next project will be yet another game in the Final Fantasy series or whether it will be something new altogether is also currently unknown. Despite this, however, Hamaguchi noted that fans of the Remake trilogy can also look forward to the team’s next release.

“I can’t say at this point what that’s going to be, whether it’s going to be a completely new game, completely new IP, whether it’s gonna be something new within the Final Fantasy series, but I’m really looking forward to it,” he said. “I think fans who’ve seen what our work has been on the Remake series, the three games, will really look forward to this exciting, new gameplay experience. What we work on after that, I’m very much looking forward to working on that myself as well.”

The most recent entry in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy was 2024’s Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and development on the third game has been described as going well. In another recent interview, Hamaguchi also confirmed that the third game will feature a “powered-up version” of fan-favorite mini-game Queen’s Blood.

In the meantime, also check out our review of the recent Nintendo Switch 2 release of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade.

“Queen’s Blood is a very popular and beloved minigame, and I believe a lot of people are still wanting something like that,” Hamaguchi said. “I want to expand on Queen’s Blood so that we are enhancing it, and giving you a more powered-up version of it when you see that third instalment… Queen’s Blood is still going to be available in the third instalment. We just want to expand on it.”

Along with Queen’s Blood, Hamaguchi has also noted that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 will also bring with it other new mini-games, including an updated version of snowboarding from the original. While he didn’t go into too many details, he confirmed that it won’t just be a simple mini-game and that it will be integrated into the game’s story.

“Snowboarding! This is something that fans have really deep memories about!” Hamaguchi said. “I’m afraid I can’t delve too much into the details, but we understand that it’s not going to be just a simple snowboarding minigame. We want to make sure that it’s incorporated into the story to have that sort of connection with the theming of it.”

Hamaguchi also went on to note that development on the third part of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy has been going quite well, and that the studio is on track to hit an upcoming internal milestone. He also confirmed that the game is playable, but there is still plenty of work to be done in terms of polish.

“In terms of the third instalment, I believe we are coming along very smoothly,” he explained. “We have set a schedule for ourselves, and I believe we are tracking on time for the milestones we have set. So I’m really thankful for the development team, and I have so much respect for them working on this project. I believe that at this point the game is playable, technically, but we are still trying to polish it so it is at a quality where we can deliver it to our players.”

Square Enix has been busy with growing the audience for the remake trilogy, with the first title—Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade—having recently been released on Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S. Check out our review of the Switch 2 version for more details. In the meantime, also check out what Hamaguchi has said about the third part’s official title being locked in, and why the development team opted to use Unreal Engine 4 instead of more recent versions of the game engine.

“We’ve been using Unreal Engine 4, but we’ve made a lot of modifications to fit our needs. It’s more beneficial to have something we’re already familiar with and have customized to fit our needs.”

While commendable, the saga hasn’t exactly escaped performance concerns, especially with regards to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. It’s larger open-world-style regions resulted in performance and image quality issues on PS5 (which Square Enix released updated to address). Optimization issues would crop up again with its PC release.

Even with the Highwind, the legendary airship from the original, being a key focus in Part 3, it’s unknown whether it will feature the exact same world design as Rebirth. Thus far, Hamaguchi clarified that the sequel wouldn’t be a smaller game than its predecessor by any means, though this was within the context of side content.

Regardless, with the development team also working on a Nintendo Switch 2 version, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 could end up better optimized. Time will tell, and Hamaguchi and his team still need to work their magic on the port of Rebirth, which is out this year, so stay tuned. In the meantime, we could get some more details on the finale in the coming months, especially since the official name has been finalized.