Japanese outlet Famitsu has recently attended the PlayStation Partner Awards 2024 Japan Asia, where several games have won the Grand Award based on their number of sales. During this, they had the opportunity to interview Naoki Hamaguchi, the Director of Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth.
While the interview focuses on the aspects of both Remake and Rebirth, the Famitsu interviewer ended up asking Hamaguchi about the gondola scene in Rebirth. Hamaguchi also reiterated that the team is working to make the third game’s platinum trophy more accessible, something he had previously mentioned in past interviews.
You can view the translated questions below:
Interviewer: In Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, a kiss scene with Cloud was depicted during his gondola date with Tifa, when they maxed out each other’s affinity level This was the first time this had happened in the 27 years since the original Final Fantasy VII was released, and became a really impactful scene among fans. What was the intent behind that scene?
Hamaguchi: There was a clear intention behind that scene. In Final Fantasy VII Remake, there’s a branching event scene where Cloud hugs Tifa before heading to the Shinra building.
When it came to transitioning the story from Remake to Rebirth, we wanted to showcase Cloud’s growth as well, and after some discussions with the team, we ultimately decided that it would be better to expand on what the original did, and thus, we included the scene in Rebirth.
Interviewer: In regards to the third game in the remake trilogy, are there any changes to the game design that you’ve made based on fans’ feedback?
Hamaguchi: There were no major changes. With Rebirth, I am confident that the game design and its balance that I envisioned for the game was largely well received by the fans. Therefore, we haven’t made any changes to the overall game design or structure of the third game.
There is one thing, however, that we regretted a great deal in Rebirth that we feel we will need to improve for the third game. As you know, Rebirth had a large amount of content, and so the percentage of users who played through all of it was very small. While I wouldn’t go as far as to say that it was a mistake, because we connected that with trophies, the trophy acquisition rate was extremely low, at about 2%. In retrospect, I think we kinda overdid it. So for the third game, I am thinking of relaxing a bit on the Platinum trophy requirements. (laughs)
