Naoki Hamaguchi

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's open world is apparently inspired by Final Fantasy 15, Horizon, and The Witcher 3.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's director, Naoki Hamaguchi, has seemingly confirmed in a recent interview that characters will have customisation options, something that was specific to story scenes in Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

Details on Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth have been coming in at a steady rate in recent weeks, with Square Enix doubtless looking to ramp up the anticipation surrounding the game ahead of its February release, and more new tidbits have also emerged courtesy of an interview with Final Fantasy Dream at Paris Games Week.

As Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth moves towards a grander adventure for the follow-up to Remake, players will have more ways to build their party of heroes as they take on greater challenges. But with the sequel, the creative team behind the game has also revealed that players will have more ways to customize the look of their squad as well. Reported by French website Final Fantasy Dream, Rebirth game director Naoki Hamaguchi and producer Yoshinori Kitase stated during a recent appearance at Paris Game Week 2023 that Rebirth will have more costumes for your favorite FFVII characters to try out as they explore the world beyond Midgar.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is continuing the re-telling of Square Enix's most iconic entry, which means it's about to step into one of the most heartbreaking scenes in Final Fantasy history. I won't spoil anything yet, but that means fans are debating endlessly about the fates of their favourite characters and who deserves to face the music this time around.

One of the key writers in the Final Fantasy series has asked fans to stop demanding that he kill off characters they don’t like.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has two versions of each quest due to Square Enix's desire to include a story detail from the original JRPG.

A long-hidden detail in has been commented on by the game director, revealing an adorable secret. The first entry in the remake series was released back in early 2020 and covered the first portion of the game, set entirely within the city of Midgar. As such, the game’s final moments see the group led by Cloud Strife leaving Midgar after a gruesome and fate-changing fight with Sephiroth.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's director, Naoki Hamaguchi, has revealed that there are two versions of every quest in the game to accommodate Red XIII's personality change after visiting Cosmo Canyon.

If there's one thing that Final Fantasy 7 Remake isn't short of, it's cats. You can't go anywhere in the slums of Midgar without running across a furry feline friend, and the same can be said on top of the plate too. There's even a side quest that has you rounding up a bunch of them. In fact, there are so many that one of the game's co-directors, Naoki Hamaguchi, saw it as an opportunity to give his own cat a little cameo role during one point in the game.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth isn't going to stick to the script of the original game, we know that for certain. For starters, everyone's favorite himbo Zack Fair is alive and well, and it's already been stated by creative director Tetsuya Nomura that the remake trilogy will attempt to bring in certain story elements from spinoffs and movies such as Advent Children.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is stuffed with cats in every corner of Midgar’s dark and desolate slums, but one adorable street cat actually belongs to the game’s director. 

New Final Fantasy VII Rebirth footage was shared online, showcasing some secrets found in the demo the media played last month and advanced combat mechanics, also analyzing some of the changes made to combat over the first entry in the series.

will arrive early next year, continuing the three-part reimagining of the original 1997 game. The Square Enix project began in 2020 with the release of, which offered a modernized and expanded take on the first part of the overall storyline. picks up where its predecessor left off, with Cloud and his party leaving Midgar for the Forgotten City.

One of the biggest questions of Square Enix’s “remake saga” with Cloud and friends was, “how much are they going to change things?” At first, it seemed like the changes would merely be cosmetic in the gameplay space. After all, the company had moved past turn-based combat for their mainline titles, and the remake took that and ran with it in a good way. But as players actually went through the title, they noticed not just a focus on the Midgar saga but fleshed-out characters and big changes. All this makes Final Fantasy VII Rebirth even more anticipated because of the changes that could come.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's director, Naoki Hamaguchi, has confirmed in a recent interview that there's a "big surprise" planned for the original game's most iconic death scene. You know the one.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will reportedly take you around 40 hours to beat if you're just focused on the main story content.

The anticipation for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth grows with every week that goes by and every piece of news that gets put out for it. In the game, we’ll finally get to set foot outside of Midgar and see the world of Gaia for the most part. Square Enix has already highlighted certain cities and areas we’ll visit, including the final “fateful” location that will end the game. But there are still many mysteries surrounding the title that we won’t get answered until we play it. For example, there’s the issue with Zack Fair and his role in the remake saga.

Watch out for falling Sephiroths before praying to the planet.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's director, Naoki Hamaguchi, says there's a "big surprise" planned for the original JRPG's most iconic twist, and it's far from the first time fans – myself included – have been given reason to sweat over what's to come.

Final Fantasy is such a long running series that it can be tricky to decide where to jump in. Do you commit to the time sink and start off with the first game, immediately jump into the golden era and start with 7, 8 and 9, or cast all that away and start your Final Fantasy journey with the most recent entry and work backwards?

When it comes to games coming out in 2024, it will be hard to top the hype for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. It took quite a while for the original remake title to be released on PS4, but once it did, it was rather legendary. Square Enix put everything they could into this remake saga so that it would stand out visually, have advanced gameplay mechanics, and still feel like the original, but be expanded in ways they couldn’t do before. The result was one of the system’s best titles, and now, the sequel has the same hype attached to it.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will feature what is likely the most well-known event of the original, and of JRPGs in general, and it sounds like it will be surprising even for those who played the original.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has taken less than four years to develop thanks to team chemistry.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s director doesn’t think the original classic is a good starting place for series newcomers.

Naoki Hamaguchi, the director behind Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, revealed that the entire game will be stuffed with Gold Saucer-level mini-games.

It’s no secret thatFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth is a massive game, but while there is a copious amount of content, fans are excited to see where the story goes next. Various trailers have showcased Zack Fair, who ventures to Midgar following the events of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7, but a familiar foe from Final Fantasy 7 Remake also appears. Spoilers follow, so beware.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's director, Naoki Hamaguchi, has confirmed that Remake's story-shifting Whispers will be making a return and that we'll see what's happened to them since Cloud and the gang changed their fate.

The upcoming Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is borrowing from JRPG classic Chrono Trigger to ensure every character pairing has a synergy attack.

Square Enix hosted a panel for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth at New York Comic-Con 2023 hosted by Critical Role’s Matt Mercer, in which the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth voice cast discussed their experiences voicing the game’s iconic characters. During the panel, Matt Mercer confirmed he will voice Vincent Valentine, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi appeared for a surprise question-and-answer session at the end.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's director, Naoki Hamaguchi, has commented on why Red XIII rides on top of Chocobos and explained that it was actually Tetsuya Nomura's idea.

Square Enix has taken to social media platform X to explain the artwork featured on the cover for the upcoming Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Created by creative director of the game Tetsuya Nomura, the artwork is meant to represent three distinct worlds that Cloud Strife, Sephiroth, and Zack Fair find themselves in.

Final Fantasy has been such a massive franchise that spanned across decades and across multiple console generations. There’s been some truly standout installments from this long-running series as well. One of the more beloved games of the series was Final Fantasy VII, a title that blew up in multiple markets when it initially launched in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation. Since then, fans worldwide have pleaded for Square Enix to return and bring out a remake for this JRPG installment. Fortunately, in 2020, we finally got the first part of this remake. Since this game installment was so massive, the developers could only deliver the game in parts. We’re going to receive Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the second installment to this trilogy remake, in 2024. 

If you've played any of the Final Fantasy 7 games, you'll more than likely be aware of the Cait Sith debate. Due to the way the name is spelt and how the original Final Fantasy 7 featured no voice acting, arguments have raged for quite a while over how Cait Sith's name is pronounced. Most of us have it in our heads that the name is pronounced "Kate Sith", but there has always been a section of fans convinced it should be pronounced "Ket Shee" due to the character's background.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is going to be a much more open experience than its predecessor, and it seems like fan feedback was among the reasons behind this.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is going to be a massive game, and now we have a better idea of how bigger the Eastern Continent will be, compared to the original game.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is continuing Cloud and the gang's adventure outside the walls of Midgar, so it was always assumed that it would feature larger, more open environments than what you'll find in the typically cramped Final Fantasy 7 Remake. But we didn't realise just how big this sequel's world might actually be.

There’s been much discussion about Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Square Enix’s follow-up to Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and how it offers a larger world to explore. As a seamless one-to-one recreation of the original game’s world map, it promises 100 hours of content, various mini-games and side content (like the recently showcased Grasslands).

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth aims to retain the original game’s zaniness with “a lot of gimmicks thrown inside like a giant toy box.”

Square Enix showcased over 30 minutes of gameplay footage and a new trailer for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth focused on mini-games playable in the Grasslands during its Tokyo Game Show 2023 stage event.

Fans have been pleading for years, hoping that Square Enix would provide a remake of the beloved Final Fantasy VII video game. This title launched back on the original PlayStation. Of course, we now know this remake was finally put into production, but it won’t be a complete experience with just one game. In fact, the first part of the remake has already been published, and you can enjoy it right now. However, if you’ve already played the first game in the remake collection for Final Fantasy VII, your eyes might be set on that next installment, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

If there’s one that recent weeks have taught us about Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Square Enix’s second part in the remake trilogy, it’s the sheer size of its world. Final Fantasy 7 Remake was a bit more confined due to its chapter-wise setup and Midgar setting, but Rebirth goes much bigger and employs a seamless map.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is looking more and more impressive with each new reveal, and some additional details on the world map that have been provided in a recent interview highlight the extreme amount of care the development team is putting into the game.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is a sizable lad that'll take up 150GB of storage on your PS5 when it eventually releases. While that's spread across two disks, though, don't worry about needing to swap between them.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth looks set to bring back chocobos in a big way. Thanks to details revealed in the recent release date trailer as well as our time with a hands-on preview of the game, we can confirm that both chocobo racing and chocobo riding will be in the game. However, it also looks like Square Enix won't be including chocobo breeding. 

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth won't let you directly control Vincent or Cid.

Square Enix has confirmed that Vincent Valentine won't be playable in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and will instead fight alongside the party like Red XIII did in Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

Square Enix has decreased the overall scope of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, from shipping on two Blu-ray discs to creative director Tetsuya Nomura promising 100 hours of adventure. However, in an interview with Game Informer, director Naoki Hamaguchi confirmed the game’s installation size on PS5 – a whopping 150 GB.

After playing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for the first time (check out my full impressions here), I then spoke with director Naoki Hamaguchi, producer Yoshinori Kitase, and creative director Tetsuya Nomura to seek answers to some burning questions. That includes how much narrative ground Rebirth covers, the decision behind splitting it between two discs, and if there’s any form of data transfer between Remake and Rebirth.

Square Enix has announced that those who played PS5, PS4 game Final Fantasy VII Remake will be treated to «special bonuses» when they boot up Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Tracked through your save data, this is being done because the publisher isn't carrying over levels or abilities. As such, the bonus items are just a «little something extra».

Final Fantasy fans are feasting today with the reveal of a new trailer and release date for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth during Sony's State of Play livestream. The follow-up to 2020's Final Fantasy VII Remake and the second part of a planned trilogy, we got a bunch of our burning questions answered; chief amongst them how much of the original game's story will be covered and where the inevitable cutoff point will be.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth won't allow players to import their Final Fantasy 7 Remakesave files. 

The amount of side content will nearly double that of the game's main quest, according to game director Naoki Hamaguchi.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth won't let you import your save files from Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth putting Cloud on a segway is winning the hearts of a lot of fans.

Whether it’s the new party members or mini-games, Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has much going on. Its world is pretty big, with Cloud and friends searching for Sephiroth. In a new interview with PlayStation Blog, director Naoki Hamaguchi said the team emphasized “exploration-focused game design” and wanted to “create that feeling of going on a journey while traveling around the world in pursuit of evidence of Sephiroth’s movements.”

Final Fantasy 7 bad boy Sephiroth will be fully playable in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

Yesterday, Square Enix debuted a gorgeous new Final Fantasy VII Rebirth trailer to reveal the game's PlayStation 5 launch date of February 29, 2024.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is set to launch on February 29, 2024, for PlayStation 5.

Among the many games to make a splash during the recent PlayStation State of Play is Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. It’s launching on February 29th, 2024, for PS5, and the latest gameplay trailer offered several new details, including the appearance of summons like Alexander and Odin.

Sony’s State of Play had some heavy hitters, including Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, the second part in the Remake trilogy. It received a release date and extensive new gameplay, which looked very nice. In a new PlayStation Blog interview, director Naoki Hamaguchi spoke about the combat system, including the new synergy moves.

Soon after showing off a new trailer announcing the release date for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Square Enix has revealed more details about the upcoming game in a series of posts made on social media platform X, including the fact that the game will feature 100 hours of gameplay.

A new Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth trailer includes the most jacked horse you've ever seen, Cloud riding a Segway, and the PlayStation 5 release date: February 29, 2024.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the sequel to 2020's Final Fantasy VII Remake, will hit PlayStation 5 on February 29, 2024. This follows news from Summer Game Fest back in June where Square Enix announced Rebirth will require two discs and launch in «early 2024.» 

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was arguably the biggest game of tonight's PlayStation State of Play showcase, with a jam-packed trailer delivering the long-awaited release date. One of the JRPG's most tantalizing reveals was reserved a post-show statement from director Naoki Hamaguchi, who says Rebirth delivers "nearly 100 hours of adventure."

By Jay Peters, a news editor who writes about technology, video games, and virtual worlds. He’s submitted several accepted emoji proposals to the Unicode Consortium.

Square Enix has revealed that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will release on February 29, 2024 and will require two disks.

Today’s State of Play included a brand-new look at Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. The trailer surely will delight both long-term FFVII fans as well as players eager to know what happens after the conclusion of Final Fantasy VII Remake, as Cloud and company embark on a journey that takes them to the world outside Midgar. In the trailer we caught glimpses of new party members, sprawling open areas to explore and the reimagining of some iconic moments from the original game.