{"id":259141,"date":"2025-10-29T17:47:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T17:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/259141\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T17:47:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T17:47:08","slug":"final-fantasy-7-rebirth-director-defends-the-scourge-of-yellow-paint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/259141\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Director Defends The Scourge Of Yellow Paint"},"content":{"rendered":"

The infrastructure of the modern social media landscape means that every so often someone clips out a section of a modern blockbuster that uses bright yellow paint<\/a> to guide the player where to go and says something like, \u201cThis is why games suck now.\u201d<\/p>\n

So it was with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth<\/a>, whose prodigious use of yellow hues to tag climbing ledges and other footholds for progressing the adventure sparked minor controversy back during launch. Was it a lazy shortcut or clever game design? The game\u2019s director has now weighed in on the subject.<\/p>\n

THE YELLOW PAINT VIRUS HAS INFECTED FF7 pic.twitter.com\/calN0dqHf4<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Dave NewBlood (@DaveOshry) February 8, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI get there is a debate about that, whether that fits with that world or not, whether some people want it, some people don\u2019t,\u201d Naoki Hamaguchi told Gamesradar<\/a> in a recent interview. \u201cI think as a game, there is definitely a need for that kind of thing in a lot of ways. I think obviously different developers experiment, try different things about what works best, what fits best, the right way of doing that in their game.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued,<\/p>\n

The need to guide players around from a gameplay perspective and show them what can be done, what they need to do, there are definitely times where that is needed. So I think obviously there is more of a debate about how it\u2019s done, what level and what works. And there\u2019ll still be people who say, \u201cno, that doesn\u2019t fit at all. We don\u2019t like that.\u201d That\u2019s fine, but I think there is definitely a need there, and it\u2019s something that is definitely worth looking at.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely a need there\u201d suggests Hamaguchi has seen enough people running around lost during playtesting to know that yellow paint, while far from the most elegant solution, is preferable to people getting stuck and frustrated. Ghost of Yotei is full of what one friend described as \u201cbird poop\u201d to mark its climbing ledges, and Ninja Gaiden 4 is even more gratuitously slathered in liquid caution tape than Rebirth. None of us\u00a0want yellow paint until we absolutely\u00a0need<\/a> yellow paint.<\/p>\n

Such is the push and pull over immersion in hyper-realistic open-world RPGs (or in the case of Ninja Gaiden 4, visually messy linear corridors) that sometimes the best way to keep you ensconced in the fantasy is to momentarily shatter it with non-diegetic signposting. Hamaguchi\u2019s position on the subject won\u2019t put an end to the debate; we\u2019ll see if the next Final Fantasy VII game implements a different solution or our old friend the yellow paint monster returns.<\/p>\n