Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has hundreds of breathtaking locations that perfectly recreate areas from the 1997 original. Naturally, some things were altered to better fit modern gaming controls and cameras. One area many noticed within the first chapter of the game was the omission of the secret staircase in Shinra Manor.
In the original game, you had to enter a secret staircase hidden in a bathroom to descend into the depths of the basement. Here, Professor Gast had plenty of research stored, and Professor Hojo conducted numerous experiments. In Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the staircase was replaced with an elevator, with no access to the second floor provided. Today, we now know why the development team decided to make this change.
In an interview with Square Enix and Duncan Heaney, Naoki Hamaguchi said the following:
“We did actually try to make the spiral staircase and incorporate it into the game,” recalls Hamaguchi-san. “The problem was that it just didn’t feel right.”
“When we tried to do it at the realistic scale of the building, it become very steep and very narrow. When you tried to go down it, the camera flew everywhere – it just felt really odd!”
“We tried out a few things, but ultimately thought that if we were to go with realistic proportions, it just doesn’t work. That’s why we ultimately made the decision to switch to using the elevator.“
