\n\tThe preview dropped us into Chapter 4 aboard Cid\u2019s iconic Highwind aerial ship with Yuffie, Barret, Cait Sith and Vincent, as the group explores the islands for resources or makes a beeline for Wutai, which has been significantly expanded for the finale. Meanwhile, Tifa and an unwell Cloud remain separated from the group, leaving the rest of the party to chart their own course through a world that has grown considerably since Rebirth.<\/p>\n
\n\tFor Square Enix game director Naoki Hamaguchi<\/a>, who has guided the project through Final Fantasy VII<\/a> Remake and Rebirth, that expansion is one of the biggest challenges\u2014and opportunities\u2014of the finale. The Highwind opens the skies, while flying chocobos and parachuting offer new ways to traverse familiar territory. Junon bears the brunt of Weapons\u2019 attacks in defense of the planet, parts of Gongaga have been flooded, and the grasslands look remarkably different from above.<\/p>\n \n\tAfter Remake\u2019s more linear structure and Rebirth\u2019s open-world expansion, Revelation takes that scale to a planet-wide level. Hamaguchi said the Highwind provides \u201ca feeling that no other open-world game gives,\u201d while Mai and the game\u2019s side content help guide players through the sprawling landscape without making exploration too stressful.<\/p>\n \n\tDuring the timed playthrough (and despite all the exploratory distractions), I caught a hopeful glimpse of a finale geared towards delving deeper into the lore of its iconic cast of characters. Hamaguchi told Deadline that the team painstakingly cemented Vincent and Yuffie into irrevocable mainstays while also giving Zack (not available in my preview) an increasingly important role in the trilogy\u2019s larger time-boggling mystery.<\/p>\n \n\tBelow, Deadline spoke further with Hamaguchi about bringing the ambitious remake project to its conclusion, expanding its world and characters, Cloud\u2019s emotional journey, and whether Final Fantasy VII could eventually leap to television.<\/p>\n \n\tDEADLINE: This is it. You\u2019re in the process of finalizing one of the biggest remake projects of a legendary game for Square Enix. What is the general vibe and emotionality going through your minds right now at headquarters?<\/p>\n \n\tNAOKI HAMAGUCHI: As you say, it is a legendary game. It\u2019s so well-loved by so many people out there, with really high expectations, and I\u2019m remaking that. And in doing the final work, it\u2019s really setting in that we\u2019re about to release the climax. There\u2019s a feeling of great satisfaction, and I\u2019m feeling that now. I can still remember when we put out Final Fantasy VII Rebirth<\/a>; the big challenge with that game was that we wanted to take that classic Final Fantasy feel and bring it into an open-world structure. And I think we felt that we did that really well, and thankfully, there was a very positive reaction to that.<\/p>\n \n\tSo, with Revelation, what we\u2019ve tried to do is take that even further and expand out. And it sits on a planet-level open world, with verticality, and the whole environment is now available for adventure. And I\u2019m very confident that we\u2019ve done that. And really, there\u2019s no open world out there at this scale in any other game.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tFinal Fantasy VII Revelation<\/a><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSquare Enix<\/p>\n \n\tDEADLINE: With that said, I know Final Fantasy VII Remake<\/a> faced backlash for being too linear. Then Rebirth opened up a lot as you\u2019ve stated. And now this one\u2019s even bigger. Are you worried about an unwieldy narrative or fans\u2019 response to this?<\/p>\n \n\tHAMAGUCHI: Whatever kind of game you\u2019re making, you can have 100 people and show them the game; you\u2019re never going to get anything where all 100 of them like it. There\u2019ll always be someone who doesn\u2019t like it, who complains about it. You can\u2019t reduce those voices to nothing, so we don\u2019t even try.<\/p>\n \n\tWhat\u2019s important is that you have a solid concept and do your best to achieve it. With Revelation, I really am confident that we managed to do that. So, again, you guys played the demos and had this experience, but that feeling of just the size of the world and that scale of open world, when you get up in the Highwind and you set out into the skies, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any other open-world game out there that will give you that feeling. So, I want to share that feeling with as many people as possible and show what we\u2019ve achieved here.<\/p>\n \n\tDEADLINE: Does this mean we can expect the chicken with the tin can in Gongaga to appear again?<\/p>\n \n\tHAMAGUCHI: No, I was thinking about what to do with that for a long time. We\u2019ve taken a slightly different approach [laughs]. But we\u2019ve got a lot of quests like that, with that distinctive Final Fantasy humor in it. Look forward to loads of that.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tFinal Fantasy VII Revelation<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSquare Enix<\/p>\n \n\tDEADLINE: Who was the character you understood more by the end of the game\u2019s journey?<\/p>\n \n\tHAMAGUCHI: Vincent and Yuffie because they were two characters in the original who were optional characters. And because of that, they weren\u2019t featured within the main story as strongly as all the other cast. So, as a very conscious decision for the Remake series, they\u2019ve been made compulsory parts of the team, and they\u2019ve really been fleshed out more and given the background and the deeper dive into them as characters. So, I think those are probably the two the fans will appreciate most and that have been fleshed out the most.<\/p>\n \n\tAlso, Zack is the other one because he plays a very interesting role in the story\u2019s setup. He gives the impression of, \u201cWell, this is the [game] differences, this is what is going on.\u201d Similarly to Rebirth, in terms of showing not telling, he will also have a role like that in Revelation. So players can very much expect to see a lot more of Zack and dig even deeper into him. He plays a very massive part in this last finale of the series.<\/p>\n \n\tDEADLINE: Which character then was the most difficult to flesh out and bring to the forefront?<\/p>\n \n\tHAMAGUCHI: That\u2019s a tough question. In some ways, Zack was quite a difficult one. Because first of all, he\u2019s quite well covered in terms of background material from the compilation. There\u2019s a lot of information about him where he features quite heavily, so there\u2019s stuff we have to include. And at the same time, the way he\u2019s used in the story, he\u2019s part of that very special metaphysical phenomenon that\u2019s going on. So, how he\u2019s portrayed in that, and how he interacts with others and the environment, have to be handled very carefully so that we don\u2019t give too much away. Getting that balance right with Zack was hard, especially in adding more detail about him.<\/p>\n \n\tBut thinking about this question again, and all the characters, they\u2019ve got really dedicated fans. You make one wrong decision for any of them, I\u2019m probably going to get shouted at by a lot of people [laughs]. So, I think picking one as more difficult than the others is quite difficult in itself.<\/p>\n \n\tDEADLINE: In the preview\u2019s Chapter 4, Cloud is already suffering from mako poisoning. But it was interesting to me that Mai mentions the Lifesprings may be involved in restoring or improving his mental state? What can you tell us about this new development? My boy is suffering.<\/p>\n \n\tHAMAGUCHI: So first of all, everyone wants to enjoy that in the game. I want you to enjoy that in the game. The best way to experience that is by not telling you. I can\u2019t tell you [laughs]. But what I will tell you is that, like in any film, any really good film, you\u2019ll get the rhythm of things, the ups and downs of the story and how [the story] progresses like that. And in terms of that rhythm in Revelation, that was one of the areas we put so much care and attention into the story of how Cloud finds himself and recovers and gets his sanity back.<\/p>\n \n\tSome of the voice actors have said in interviews that there\u2019s so much emotional payback in that scene, and everyone\u2019s going to have so many complicated emotions about the really beautiful scene. And it was the English voice actors who said that if you didn\u2019t cry in Rebirth, you\u2019re going to cry in Revelation. So that\u2019s why I really wanted people [at the demos] to see and experience that as soon as possible.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tFinal Fantasy VII Revelation <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSquare Enix<\/p>\n \n\tDEADLINE: Looking ahead to 2027, it\u2019s going to be a big year for Square Enix between Kingdom Hearts<\/a> IV and Final Fantasy VII Revelation. But I\u2019m thinking more specifically about Tetsuya Nomura<\/a> going to D23 and the announcement of the Kingdom Hearts animated series for Disney+. Does Final Fantasy VII lend itself to a TV series adaptation?<\/p>\n![\"Final](\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-deadline-2019\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.jpg\")
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