Naoki Hamaguchi, the director behind the upcoming third and final entry in the Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy, talks about what type of game he’d want to pursue next.
No more remakes for hamaguchi
Hamaguchi has been a part of Square Enix working on Final Fantasy games for 20 years, and he’s climbed up the ranks since joining in 2006 to become the director of one of Square’s biggest and most important projects of the past decade: remaking Final Fantasy 7 in three parts. The first entry, 2020’s Final Fantasy 7 Remake, saw Hamaguchi take on a co-director role next to Square Enix legend Tetsuya Nomura. Hamaguchi went on to become the director of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and the final part of the trilogy, which was just recently revealed as Final Fantasy 7 Revelation.
This past Summer Game Fest was the stage for Square Enix’s heavily rumored and much anticipated reveal of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, as it was the two-hour show’s “one last thing.” Hamaguchi and voice of Vincent Valentine, Matt Mercer, gave fans an extended look at gameplay, delving into what fans will be able to expect from the Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy’s epic finale.
Hamaguchi has vision for new “grand-scale rpg”
In a recent interview with Game Informer, Hamaguchi gave his thoughts on what’s next for him after Final Fantasy 7 Revelation comes out in spring 2027. The Revelation director expressed disinterest in working on another Final Fantasy remake. He brought up Final Fantasy 6 as a game from the fabled series many fans have been wanting to see remade FF7-style but noted that he’d rather see somebody else step up from within Square Enix to tackle such a project.
“I do see a lot of fans and community asking me to take on the helm for a Final Fantasy 6 remake… a Final Fantasy 6 Remake or any other remake, it could be me, or it could be someone else. Personally, I think that it might be in better hands if it went to another creator in Square Enix.”
Hamaguchi instead seems to be setting his sights on an all-new project altogether, and mentions that he’d be content working on either a different IP with Square Enix, or an all-new Final Fantasy project. If one thing’s for certain, it’s that his intention of remaining within the realm of RPGs is clear.
“When you look at all the other titles that we have released at Square Enix, not just the Final Fantasy 7 remake series, I think Square Enix, as a brand, as a company, is more than capable of delivering this grand-scale RPG that could resonate to gamers across the world. Fans might have a lot of different expectations, but for me personally, I do want to take on this new challenge with another RPG title after this, whether it be Final Fantasy or a different IP… If it’s not Final Fantasy, that’s also exciting, because that could be a challenge for me.”
Exactly what Hamaguchi means when he says “grand-scale RPG” is hard to know. The Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy began as a fairly linear experience that opened up a bit with Rebirth‘s open zones. Revelation is taking the final leap and is being touted by Square as a fully open world. It would be interesting to know whether Hamaguchi’s vision for this next big project would also be a big open world like Revelation, or if he’d return to the more linear design of FF7 Remake.
Beyond Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, fans of Square Enix aren’t quite sure what’ll be next for Final Fantasy. It’s only been three years since Final Fantasy 16; the next big mainline game is likely several years away. Square hasn’t hinted toward any plans to remake other previous games, either. Whichever remake might come next, it’s safe to say that Hamaguchi won’t be involved. Hopefully by then, he’ll be deep into development on his next big project at Square.
Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is coming to Xbox, PlayStation, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2 in spring 2027.
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