{"id":110816,"date":"2026-01-24T09:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T09:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/110816\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T09:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T09:12:09","slug":"final-fantasy-vii-rebirth-director-says-number-and-frequency-of-minigames-was-calculated-confirms-similar-plans-for-series-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/110816\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’ Director Says Number And Frequency Of Minigames Was “Calculated”, Confirms Similar Plans For Series Finale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Video Games<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"CloudCloud (Takahiro Sakurai) receives an assist from The Emerald Witch in Queen’s Blood in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2023), Square Enix\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Though a common point of contention among players, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi says the frequency and variety of the game\u2019s various minigame were random, but instead part of a \u201ccalculated\u201d design strategy to keep things \u201cfresh\u201d over the course of Cloud and Co.\u2019s lengthy adventure.<\/p>\n

\"YuffieYuffie (Yumi Kakazu) puts in her application for Avalanche in Final Fantasy VII: Remake Intergrade (2025), Square Enix<\/p>\n

RELATED: \u2018Final Fantasy VII Rebirth\u2019 Director Laments How Video Games Have \u201cLost\u201d The Joy Of \u201cDiscussion And Theorizing\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

From luring a trio of chickens back to their owner by slowly pulling a can of feed attached to a rope, to the Queen\u2019s Blood card game, to the offerings of the Golden Saucer\u2019s Wonderment Square, the second entry in the Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy is undeniably stuffed to the brim with a variety of minigames, many of them one-offs whose mechanics exist solely for the relevant gameplay.<\/p>\n

Said minigames are also regularly presented in an almost back-to-back fashion, with players being required to complete at least a few whenever they reach a new area of the world map before advancing to the next major story beat.<\/p>\n

\"VincentVincent Valentine (Sh\u00f4go Suzuki) rescues Cloud (Takahiro Sakurai) from the clutches of Queen\u2019s Blood in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2023), Square Enix<\/p>\n

Pressed during a recent interview with the Malaysian video game news outlet GamerBraves as to the reasons and motivations behind the game\u2019s massive selection of minigames, Hamaguchi asserted, \u201cSo, that\u2019s not a unique problem for FFVII Rebirth only. A lot of games, aside from the main theme and the main story progression, also have the side games and the mini games built into them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re playing the game and you\u2019re going through the main story progression, as well as the intended game design, you tend to fall into this trap of having the same tempo. So, you tend to get bored playing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, to sort of combat this and keep that fresh feeling of going through the game, that\u2019s why we introduced these minigames, to sort of add a diversity of experience as you\u2019re playing the game, to keep up a good rhythm, so to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BarretBarret (Masato Funaki), Cloud (Takahiro Sakurai), and Tifa (Ayumi Ito) have never looked better in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2023), Square Enix<\/p>\n

RELATED: \u2018Final Fantasy VII Rebirth\u2019 Director Recommends New Players Skip Original And Get \u201cFirst Impression\u201d From Remakes<\/a><\/p>\n

Acknowledging how Rebirth\u2018s emphasis on minigames may not work for every player, Hamaguchi asserted, \u201cWe understand when you introduce these different facets into the game, some people would play it and really really enjoy it, but some people rather just get on with the main story, [so] it\u2019s sort of a calculated move on our part to include all of these different facets of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

He further noted that the wide variety was directly derived from the PS1 version, telling his host \u201cThe original FFVII also had lots of minigames, and it was very famous for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CloudCloud defends the team from a SHINRA pursuit in Final Fantasy VII (1997), Square Enix<\/p>\n

And while critics would have loved nothing more for the third and final Remake entry to massively scale back their required minigames, a separate interview with Polygon saw Hamaguchi confirm that the series finale would not only be following its predecessor\u2019s minigame variety footsteps, but also expanding on some of its returning and newly debuting diversions \u2013 including, in particular, the aforementioned Queen\u2019s Blood.<\/p>\n

\u201cQueen\u2019s Blood is a very popular and beloved minigame, and I believe a lot of people are still wanting something like that,\u201d he told the outlet. \u201cI want to expand on Queen\u2019s Blood so that we are enhancing it, and giving you a more powered-up version of it when you see that third installment\u2026 Queen\u2019s Blood is still going to be available in the third installment. We just want to expand on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CloudCloud (Takahiro Sakurai) deals the winning hand in Queen\u2019s Blood in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2023), Square Enix<\/p>\n

And of course, Hamaguchi explicitly promised that the next installment would be both tackling and expanding upon the original FF7\u2018s most famous minigame: \u201cSnowboarding!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something that fans have really deep memories about!\u201d he concluded. \u201cI\u2019m afraid I can\u2019t delve too much into the details, but we understand that it\u2019s not going to be just a simple snowboarding minigame. We want to make sure that it\u2019s incorporated into the story to have that sort of connection with the theming of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CloudCloud tears up Great Glacier in Final Fantasy VII (1997), Square Enix<\/p>\n

While the conclusion to FF7\u2018s remake line has yet to receive an official release date, the series\u2019 bridge entry Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, was recently made available for the Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox X|S platforms.<\/p>\n

NEXT: \u2018Final Fantasy VII Remake\u2019 Director Says Third Game Won\u2019t Launch With Streamlined Progression Mode<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tAs of December 2023, Spencer is the Editor-in-Chief of Bounding Into Comics. A life-long anime fan, comic book reader, … More about Spencer Baculi<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Video Games Cloud (Takahiro Sakurai) receives an assist from The Emerald Witch in Queen’s Blood in Final Fantasy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[49724,49286,49725,9,24,63,122,124,123,49376],"class_list":["post-110816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-final-fantasy-vii","tag-final-fantasy-vii-rebirth","tag-naoki-hamaguchi","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-square-enix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}