GamesJRPGFinal FantasyFinal Fantasy 7 RebirthFinal Fantasy 7 Remake director had to swap his inspirations from The Last of Us to The Witcher 3 to make Rebirth’s open worldWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesJRPGFinal FantasyFinal Fantasy 7 RebirthFinal Fantasy 7 Remake director had to swap his inspirations from The Last of Us to The Witcher 3 to make Rebirth’s open worldWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Square Enix)
Final Fantasy 7 Remake andFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirthmight technically be ‘remaking’ the same 1997 original, but they sometimes feel like they belong to entirely different genres, and that’s partly because the development team drew inspiration from totally different games during production.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake aped some of the biggest action-adventure hits of the PS4 generation as Cloud slashed across zig-zagging corridors, crawled through tight spaces, and only occasionally broke off from the linear path to explore towns and complete side quests. Speaking toEdge Magazine, director Naoki Hamaguchi says the team looked to games like The Last of Us, God of War, and Uncharted on how to structure the journey across Midgar.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was an entirely different beast, though. Cloud and Co aren’t just running through the city’s understandably narrow and linear roads anymore. This is the part of the 1997 game where the party is in a wide-open Gaia, free from most roadblocks and able to literally walk on the map’s various fields, forests, and towns.
Hamaguchi knew the team wouldn’t be able to re-use the tricks they learned while making Remake, so he instead turned to open-world blockbusters this time and decided to play The Witcher 3 and Horizon Zero Dawn to see how other developers built their huge worlds. “Then we looked to recreate the same kinds of experiences and systems that we had in the 1997 game, but with this more modern edge,” he explained.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth shippers waited 27 years for Cloud to kiss Tifa, but the team only added it because they wanted “something more” than a hug.
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
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2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
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3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
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Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
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1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
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5Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
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5Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”
5
Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”