Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Director Believes ‘There Is Definitely A Need’ For Environmental Markers Like Yellow Paint

Speaking during an interview with GamesRadar, Naoki Hamaguchi, the director on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, has weighed in on the debate regarding yellow and paint and other environmental pointers in video games, stating he feels there is ‘definitely a need’ for them.

Games have been using various signals in their environments to point players in the right direction or to acknowledge objects to interact with for a while now. For example, Assassin’s Creed 2 used pieces of white cloth to let players know they can begin their parkour runs, while the recent Silent Hill 2 Remake also uses similar markings to determine climbable surfaces or walls that can be broken down with your melee weapon.

Then of course you have Final Fantasy VII Rebirth itself, which employs yellow paint to highlight climbable surfaces and other key areas. For Hamaguchi-san, such pointers are useful and have to be implemented at times, although he does acknowledge some are against them.

Related Content – Upcoming PS5 Games 2025: The Best PS5 Games Coming Soon

I get there is a debate about that, whether that fits with that world or not, whether some people want it, some people don’t. I think as a game, there is definitely a need for that kind of thing in a lot of ways. I think obviously different developers experiment, try different things about what works best, what fits best, the right way of doing that in their game.

“The need to guide players around from a gameplay perspective and show them what can be done, what they need to do, there are definitely times where that is needed. So I think obviously there is more of a debate about how it’s done, what level and what works. And there’ll still be people who say, ‘no, that doesn’t fit at all. We don’t like that.’ That’s fine, but I think there is definitely a need there, and it’s something that is definitely worth looking at.

Hamaguchi is currently working on Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3, which is targeting a 2027 release. Speaking during a recent interview, the game director revealed that the third and final part in the remake project should ‘feel bit more concise,’ and flirted with the possibility of working on DLC or ‘a full title’ once Part 3 has released.

[Source – GamesRadar]