If you’re on the brink of completing one of the most ambitious projects in video game history, you’re probably stressed. If said project is the decade-spanning Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, a ground-up rebuild and drastic expansion of one of the most influential games of the last 30 years, you’d probably be even more anxious.

Naoki Hamaguchi doesn’t seem stressed, though. When I ask the Square Enix studio head and game director how he’s feeling as the release of Final Fantasy VII Revelation draws near, capping a series he’s worked on for over a decade, the only reply is a wry “I was just so focused, it really felt like it passed in a flash.”

Hamaguchi’s calm demeanor is all the more surprising given the weight of expectation surrounding the project. The original Final Fantasy VII, released on Sony’s PlayStation in 1997, was a pop-cultural phenomenon—not the Japanese-RPG series’ first Western release, but undeniably its breakthrough title; one that arrived right as gaming was growing out of its kids-only niche and into a mainstream medium.

It’s still regarded as one of the best Final Fantasy entries, and its tale of reluctant hero Cloud Strife and his scrappy band of eco-warrior friends battling an all-powerful corporation destroying the planet is more relevant than ever.

Courtesy of Square Enix

Don’t Call It a Comeback

A remake has been brewing since the PlayStation 2 era, and even teased with a cinematic tech demo alongside the PS3 reveal. Yet when Final Fantasy VII Remake finally arrived in 2020, toward the end of the PS4’s lifespan, it came with a twist—this wasn’t the same game with modern visuals and mechanics, but rather a glimpse of an alternate reality, one where events could potentially play out differently.

The idea was expanded on in 2024’s second chapter, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which saw characters hopping between timelines—but Hamaguchi is keen not to label it his attempt at a Marvel Cinematic Universe–style Final Fantasy VII multiverse.

“When we started approaching these things, seven years or more ago, I don’t believe there were so many other pieces of media tackling those same themes at the time,” Hamaguchi laughs. “We don’t really tend to use the word ‘multiverse’—we talk about [the story being] ‘multilayered.’ Actually, the word that comes up most often is ‘reunion.’”