00:00Final Fantasy VII, Revelation's ending has been planned since the beginning, says director
00:05Naoki Hamaguchi.
00:07As anticipation builds for Final Fantasy VII Revelation, director Naoki Hamaguchi has revealed
00:13that the game's conclusion isn't something the development team decided on late in production.
00:17Instead, he says the ending has been part of the vision for the remake trilogy since
00:21its earliest stages.
00:23In an interview with VGC, Hamaguchi explained that while he can't discuss specific plot
00:28details, the creative team established a clear direction for the trilogy's finale from the
00:33very beginning.
00:34We had some sort of an idea of what we wanted to do at the end, Hamaguchi said.
00:39We had a direction from the early days of development.
00:43He added that producer Yoshinori Katas also had his own vision for how the story should
00:48conclude, and elements of that plan have been incorporated into Final Fantasy VII Revelation's
00:53ending.
00:54A carefully planned finale.
00:56The comments may reassure fans who have wondered whether the remake trilogy's numerous twist
01:02and new story elements were being improvised along the way.
01:06Since the release of Final Fantasy VII Remake, the trilogy has introduced major narrative deviations,
01:12including the mysterious whispers and alternate possibilities that weren't present in the original
01:171997 game.
01:19Final Fantasy VII Rebirth expanded on those ideas, while still following many of the original story's
01:25major beats, leaving players uncertain about how closely the final installment would stick
01:30to the source material.
01:32According to Hamaguchi, however, the development team has remained focused on a predetermined destination,
01:38even if the journey includes new surprises.
01:41He also expressed confidence in the ending, saying the team is eager to see how players
01:45react once the game launches.
01:47feedback doesn't dictate development.
01:50Elsewhere in the interview, Hamaguchi discussed how the studio approaches player feedback, explaining
01:55that the team doesn't try to accommodate every opinion voiced by the community.
01:59He argued that chasing the average response from fans can ultimately weaken a project's identity.
02:04If developers attempt to satisfy every criticism, while incorporating every positive suggestion,
02:11the end result may lose the distinct qualities that made it appealing in the first place.
02:16Instead, Hamaguchi believes that it's important for a game to maintain its own creative direction,
02:21even if some decisions prove divisive.
02:24Expect the series' signature side content to continue.
02:28That philosophy also appears to apply to Final Fantasy VII's Revelations optional activities,
02:34while some players criticize Rebirth for featuring an abundance of many games and side content,
02:40Hamaguchi has indicated that the upcoming title will include just as many, if not more.
02:45For the development team, those diversions are part of the franchise's personality
02:50and contribute to their overall experience rather than detract from it.
02:54A trilogy nearing its conclusion.
02:57With Final Fantasy VII Revelation expected to conclude the remake trilogy,
03:02fans continue to speculate about whether the game will faithfully recreate the original ending
03:07or take the story in an entirely new direction.
03:11Hamaguchi's latest comments don't answer that question directly,
03:14but they do suggest that whatever players experience,
03:17it won't be the product of last-minute changes or improvisation.
03:21Instead, the team believes it has been building toward this conclusion from the outset,
03:26and is confident that the finale will bring its long-running vision to a satisfying close.
03:36So the ending has been planned since the beginning.
03:42That's what they're saying.
03:44The ending has been planned.
03:49But what boggles my mind, and I talked about this on the last podcast,
03:54there's going to be one ending regardless what choices you make in the middle of the game.
03:59All roads lead to the same destination.
04:07Not many people are going to care once they know that.
04:14The fun of making different choices and having different branching paths is to see how that
04:22impacts the end of the game.
04:24If the end of the game is going to happen no matter what,
04:27in my opinion, those choices in the middle of the game are meaningless.
04:36Yeah, I'll bring up a few examples.
04:38What about Resident Evil 3 Nemesis, the original on PlayStation?
04:42Like I said, most of the choices there, they just impacted the middle.
04:48There was one choice that determined which ending you got.
04:51At the end of the game, when Nemesis confirmed you outside the factory,
04:55and you could either push Nemesis off the bridge or jump off the bridge yourself,
04:59that determined what ending you got.
05:01But at least there were two different endings.
05:05Other choices, like the first one in front of Raccoon City Police Department,
05:10really, where you can just fight the monster or run inside the police station.
05:14Really, you would only want to fight the monster if you want to get Brad's ID card,
05:19so you didn't have to go looking for Jill's inside the police department.
05:25But then again, even that choice, while it doesn't impact the end,
05:32it still impacts, it's still going to determine whether you have an easier time inside the police station or not,
05:40because there's like a bunch of rooms you can skip if you're not looking for Jill's card.
05:46Life is, let's take Life is Strange.
05:50How, and you have to decide whether you're going to sacrifice Arcadia Bay or you're going to sacrifice Chloe.
05:56How much would anyone have cared if one of those endings was going to happen regardless?
06:04If you were going to get the Sacrifice Arcadia Bay ending no matter what,
06:08would you really have, would you really want to play through the middle of the game and, um,
06:18and, uh, play the, uh, and spin like, hey, what do I do if I do this instead?
06:24No, because you're going to get the same ending.
06:28And I just don't understand why they couldn't at least just give one other ending.
06:33I mean, this is the last game, this is part three, this is, uh, so, I mean,
06:39why not just give, I'm not saying you have to have 15, 20 endings, I'm saying just one alternate one.
06:47You know, they couldn't come up, they couldn't play in another one when they play in the original ending.
06:55Anyway, do you, uh, what do you think? Um, do you think Final Fantasy 7, um, Revelation, it,
07:01are you excited or is, are you not as excited now, knowing that the, uh, you're going to get the
07:08same
07:08ending no matter what, and it's only the middle of the game that you're going to impact which path
07:13that goes, but you're still going to get the same ending regardless. Honestly, that would be a buzzkill
07:19for me, but let me know what you...
Comments