Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's director, Naoki Hamaguchi, has opened up about Zack Fair's involvement in the game, noting that he is an "immensely important" character who plays a "crucial" role in the story.
21.12.2023 - 13:56 / gamesradar.com / Yoshinori Kitase / Kazushige Nojima / Tetsuya Nomura / Naoki Hamaguchi
Zack Fair will have an "immensely important" role in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
One of the huge surprises with Final Fantasy 7 Remake back in 2020 was (spoiler alert!) that Zack Fair is alive and kicking. The Crisis Core hero, very much not dead, was confirmed for certain in a recent trailer for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth when he turned up at Midgar with an injured Cloud and in pursuit of Aerith.
Now, Rebirth's co-director has teased Zack's role further. "We have used the character Zack to depict the combined view of [writer Kazushige Nojima, creative director Tetsuya Nomura, and producer Yoshinori Kitase] - the original creators' - intents of how this world of Final Fantasy 7 came to be and its policies and rule governing this world," Naoki Hamaguchi says in the latest issue of Game Informer.
"This is going to be depicted through the character of Zack," Hamaguchi continues. "As much as the Whispers within the story, Zack is an equally, immensely important, crucial, key character to this story that I believe fans will enjoy in Rebirth," the Rebirth co-director adds.
For those unfamiliar, the 'Whispers' were a force in Final Fantasy 7 Remake meant to be battling against Cloud and company to align the Remake's story with that of the original game. They were very much Hamaguchi and Square Enix's way of pushing back against audience expectations, fighting to establish their own take on Final Fantasy 7 with the Remake trilogy.
It sounds like Zack's role in Rebirth - which will be a direct departure from the original Final Fantasy 7 storyline - will be heavily involved with the world around him. Hamaguchi's comments make it sound like he'll be dealing with authoritarian bodies like Shinra, or the Midgar government, or even Wutai. Zack could also end up embroiled with fate itself, not unlike how Cloud was in Remake.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth launches next year on February 29, exclusively for PS5. You can read up on our own Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth preview for our hands-on experience with the sequel.
You can also head over to our upcoming PS5 games guide for a look over all the exclusives coming to Sony's console next year.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's director, Naoki Hamaguchi, has opened up about Zack Fair's involvement in the game, noting that he is an "immensely important" character who plays a "crucial" role in the story.
There are spoilers ahead for Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
With the release of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth fast approaching, co-director Naoki Hamaguchi has opened up a little on what players can expect from Zack Fair’s inclusion in the game.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is looking like its going to be a much more expansive game than its predecessor. Its main story alone is said to be around 40 hours long, while Square Enix says that with side content included, that can go up to over 100 hours. A lot of that is obviously going to be thanks to its vast, seamless open world setting, and speaking recently with Game Informer, the action RPG’s developers spoke a bit more about what that will bring to the table.
Unsurprisingly, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is going to continue to expand and recontextualize the original PS1 classic in more ways than one, from its seamless open world map to the content it will house to just how long the game will be. That, unsurprisingly, will mean added screentime and narrative content for a number of characters, among which fan-favourite villain Sephiroth will seemingly be one of the most prominent.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is going to feature a scene that made the game's Creative Director cry, but it's not what everybody may think.
Final Fantasy 7 RebirthcreativedirectorTetsuya Nomura has revealed that there's one particular scene in the game that makes him want to cry. This article may contain spoilers for the original Final Fantasy 7.
Since Final Fantasy 7 Remake launched in 2021 and given how events played out, everyone has had the same question regarding a particular character’s fate Speaking to Game Informer, director Naoki Hamaguchi and creative director Tetsuya Nomura talk about how the team approached. Spoilers follow for Final Fantasy 7 Remake and the original game, so be warned.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is shaping up to be a pretty emotional game, as fans of the original will know that there are some proper tear-jerking scenes set to appear. Most of the speculation rightly surrounds the fate of Aerith and whether she'll get skewered by Sephiroth, but there are plenty of other highly emotional scenes in the run-up to that iconic moment.
Spoilers ahead for the original Final Fantasy 7 and potentially Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth!
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth isn’t just remaking the classic game’s middle portion, it’s expanding every single aspect, including how much the iconic Sephiroth shows up in the world map.
For the Square Enix developers behind Final Fantasy 7 Remake and its sequel Rebirth, moving the series to a more action-oriented take with its combat was a key focus, but still retaining the franchise's tactical decision-making was especially vital. They succeeded in that careful balancing act with Remake, but with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, that core concept expands even further. In an interview published in Game Informer magazine, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth creative director Tetsuya Nomura and battle director Teruki Endo spoke about the unique balance they have to strike when developing the combat engine and how the strategy element is a core part of the franchise's history. "I do have this idea of how Final Fantasy battles should be and should feel," said the game director in the Game Informer interview.