Naoki Hamaguchi on Final Fantasy 7 Remake Trilogy: Big Risks That You Have to Take

Final Fantasy 7 Remake series director Naoki Hamaguchi has spoken out about the risks involved in splitting the project into three games. Saying it was a creative decision rather than a business one.

When asked about the decision to split the game into episodic releases, Hamaguchi said: "If the first title had sold really poorly and been poorly reviewed, I mean, what do you do with the rest of the titles?" He noted that with a project like this, "There's also this need to keep the team as similar as possible across all of the titles," which he called "another huge headache, especially for people who control the strings."

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Hamaguchi's comments highlight the tension between the creative vision behind the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy and the business realities of game development. When asked about the business perspective, Hamaguchi said: "from a business perspective, it's a totally different story."

He noted that the team had to take big risks to make the project work, saying: "big risks that you have to take" for a project like this. Hamaguchi also expressed skepticism about other games being remade across multiple titles. Saying he won't see a game on the same scale as the trilogy again.

Hamaguchi's comments also touch on the ballooning budgets of AAA games. When asked about the reported budgets of the Marvel's Spider-Man sequels, Hamaguchi said he felt that even those budgets might not be enough to ensure a smooth development process.

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Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, the latest installment in the trilogy, allows players to automatically level characters and blast through the campaign, a feature that was requested by fans.

Overall, Hamaguchi's comments provide insight into the creative and business decisions behind the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy, and the challenges of making a game of this scope and scale.