Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade – An Interview with Game Director Naoki Hamaguchi – Interview

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade may not release this year, but it is certainly shaping up to be one of the highest profile ports coming to Nintendo Switch 2. The game has received high praise from hands-on demos at Gamescom and PAX. We had the opportunity to sit down with Mr. Naoki Hamaguchi, the director of the Final Fantasy VII Remake Trilogy and were able to ask him about Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade and what went into making the game available on Nintendo’s newest hardware. This interview was conducted via a video call with a translator present. Some of the answers have been edited for clarity.

Willem Hilhorst for Nintendo World Report (WH): Thank you very much for sitting down with us. First off, I think there’s a sort of poetic irony that the original FF7 wasn’t able to fit on a Nintendo 64 cartridge but now we have the original and the remake coming to Nintendo Switch 2. So I am curious, what was the biggest technical challenge in bringing Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade to Nintendo Switch 2?

Hamaguchi: When we’re working on titles for the Nintendo Switch 2 we’re working in such a way that the graphical pipeline can be optimized. And that’s what we found with Nintendo Switch 2 working on games with high-end specs, I’m pretty confident that we’re able to provide a great visual experience on Nintendo Switch 2 this time. Seeing the positive feedback coming from events like Gamescom and PAX seems to confirm this as well.

WH: Can you tell me a little bit about how different this version would be compared to the
PlayStation 4 or the Xbox or the PlayStation 5 versions? What were some of the things you had
to graphically cut back on to get it running so smoothly?

Hamaguchi: So, you mentioned having to graphically cut, but I would say that we did want to take the version from PS4 and PS5 and see how we can sort of map that out into the Switch 2. So in terms of what we did sort of specifically for the Switch 2 this time, I would say things like the post process o effect and fog and such has been optimized for Switch 2 and this allowed us to stabilize the frame rate. However, in terms of things like lighting, we really wanted to aim for the same quality that one can experience on PS5 in terms of lighting for the Switch 2 as well.So we had made sure to keep that intact.

WH: Will there be tweakable graphics settings in that sense or did you have to really lock it down to only this and that’s the best way to play the game?

Hamaguchi: So in terms of the graphics settings, it’s not like the PC versions where users can tweak it as such, but it is a sort of optimized graphics setting for the Switch 2 that we have set up for the game.

WH: I wanted to delve a little bit deeper into the hardware standpoint because the Switch 2 offers some unique features that aren’t available in previous versions or other platforms, not just the better performance. So I’m curious, was it ever a consideration to enable mouse controls for the minigames such as the rhythm game in the Honey Bee Inn or other Switch 2 specific hardware that you were excited about using in Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade?

Hamaguchi: That’s a really great question. When we were working on the PC version release, of course we had worked on mouse controls and from there within the dev team we had discussed if we should also do this for Switch 2. But after looking more into it, we discovered that this needed to be adjusted quite a bit to meet the standards and the experience we wanted to provide to the users, and so we settled on the gamepad experience for this time around.

WH: Earlier this month it was announced that the other Final Fantasy Remake games will be coming to Switch 2. I want to keep this interview focused on Final Fantasy VII Remake, but I do think that you have your work cut out for you, because Remake has an advantage as it is both chapter based, a lot more linear, the areas are a lot more compact than Rebirth, which has open world exploration. Was that an advantage for this particular project, and are there any lessons you’ve taken from working on Remake that you’re bringing into the development of Rebirth on Switch 2 specifically?

Hamaguchi: When we first decided to release Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade on Switch 2, it really did allow us to understand this new hardware that we were working on and it did become sort of a model on its own. From there we’re going to release Rebirth and the rest of the trilogy on Nintendo Switch 2 as well. Currently development is progressing at a great pace.
I believe the Switch 2, from a hardware perspective, possesses the capability to support more open-world type games going forward. It does come down to cartridge installs and load times where you see the biggest difference. There may be differing opinions on our decision to release Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade on a Nintendo Switch 2 Game Key Card, but I do think that overall this is going to be much more accepted and commonplace for games that will be released on Nintendo Switch 2.

WH: I think you now hold the distinct honor of having the largest game ever released on Nintendo Switch or Switch 2. I think the first notes we got was about 90 gigabytes, so at least you get that honor.

Hamaguchi: Yes, I do believe that we’ll be able to deliver an experience that’s suitable to that 90 gigs. When the original Final Fantasy VII came out, I was a huge fan of the game on the PlayStation. But now that I’m a creator, when I saw Final Fantasy VII working on Nintendo consoles, I was quite moved. So it almost feels like fate in some sense.

WH: I started playing Remake before playing the original, which is quite unorthodox, but I imagine there’s quite a lot of people who begin with Remake Intergrade instead of playing the original. I’m curious, what does remaking Final Fantasy VII mean to you? What do you think the impact will be for future generations who may only have grown up with Remake 10, 15 years from now? What do you wish to preserve from that original experience? What is the beating heart for you for Final Fantasy VII?

Hamaguchi: This is sort of a sentiment that I believe is true for not just games, but in digital entertainment as a whole, including animation, films, and games, but I do think that there’s the expression of how an animation or film or game is always a core part of itself. There are these iconic stories that are going to remain throughout. But with the change of time, since it’s been 30 years since the original release, this expression can certainly become perhaps a bit outdated with the evolution of technology and the passing of time. When we look at how we can continue to have Final Fantasy VII remain relevant and also reach users around the world, it will require us to continue renewing it in order to deliver to an even wider range of players throughout the years. That’s my belief on this and I’ve often been thinking about this while working on this AAA trilogy, at this massive scale for over 10 years now. I don’t think I’ve had a project where I’ve had such a sense of mission and a soul to do something like this. So this is quite a rare and unique experience and I am very much honored to have had this opportunity.

WH: That’s actually a great transition to one of my other questions. For you this might be the final time you get to work on Final Fantasy VII Remake Inter ograde, specifically the first part of this trilogy. Is there a specific addition you’re excited about with delivering the final version of this particular game?

Hamaguchi: I really like how you kind of phrased it as a final form. That’s a really great and appropriate term for this. One feature that we implemented in this version is called streamlined progression. It’s essentially a feature that makes gameplay, perhaps easier for players and it could allow for guaranteed 9,999 damage in battles, or for example, taking zero damage all the time in battles, or double speed to progress through events, and such. The thinking behind this is that, since this is going to be sort of the first of three titles that we’ll be releasing in this way, we did want to make it accessible. We hope that players will want to stay along for the long ride. This was something that was, you know, definitely in our minds within the development team when we were working on this.

WH: Do you have a personal little detail that is in Final Fantasy VII Remake that others might overlook? That could be an animation, the way the UI is animated, gameplay, or something very little that no one will notice, but that you are particularly proud of. I’m very curious.

Hamaguchi: (laughs) Yes, during the scene where you’re walking around sector 7, there is a cat that you see, an American Shorthair, and this cat is actually modeled after my own cat. I would like for players to keep an eye out and try to look for my cat.

To close out the interview, Mr. Hamaguchi had a special message prepared for Nintendo fans.

Hamaguchi: We are currently preparing a demo for the game to be released around the end of the year. I do think that this game is a great one to experience the full hardware capabilities of Nintendo Switch 2. So if anyone is on the fence about whether or not to try this game, this is a great moment. Please check out the demo near the end of the year and see for yourself what this game is all about.

WH: Fantastic. I cannot wait to play Remake for a third time on the go. Thank you very much Hamaguchi-san.