Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was inspired by Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon Zero Dawn, according to director 

Naoki Hamaguchi, director of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, revealed in an interview with The Gamer that he was influenced by Western open-world titles such as The Witcher 3, Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon Zero Dawn. On the other hand, he also said that the team refrained from simply copying what other games do and worked on sublimating the influences into something with a completely different feel. 

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the second installment of the Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy. The first part, Final Fantasy VII Remake, was released in 2020, and Rebirth will continue from where it left off. The game is planned to be released for the PS5 on February 29. 

With the FFVII Rebirth launch day just around the corner, the title’s producer Yoshinori Kitase and director Naoki Hamaguchi talked about the game’s development in an interview for The Gamer. Hamaguchi mentioned specific titles that had an influence on him and his approach to FFVII Rebirth. 

Hamaguchi mentions playing a number of Western titles which served as “useful reference” for Rebirth. The Witcher 3 is already known to have influenced the game, but Hamaguchi also mentions titles such as Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon Zero Dawn, as well as the team “looking at everything out there” and analyzing what other titles do well. 

　 

At the same time, Hamaguchi stresses that the team did not attempt to simply copy what other games do, but rather focused on enriching Rebirth with unique elements in terms of side content and activities, resulting in a game with a completely different feel. 

Incidentally, Hamaguchi had made similar comments to us earlier this month, referring to The Witcher 3 as one of his favorite titles and a big influence. He also mentioned taking inspiration from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but once again, stressed the importance of staying unique: “If side content is just continuously rehashed with a new look, the player will feel like they’re playing the exact same content even though they’ve made it to a new area, and they will lose the enjoyment of progressing through the game.” This is why, according to Hamaguchi, FFVII Rebirth will include new exploration methods and new mini games for each area that the player travels to (Related article). 

The titles that Hamaguchi lists as his inspirations are all highly acclaimed Western open-world games. FFVII Rebirth incorporates open-world elements with a high volume of side content, and it seems the developers took special care in crafting exploration and side quest elements while keeping in mind series conventions and the needs of the player.  
 

Unlike FFVII Remake, Rebirth emphasizes field exploration, which can be felt when playing the demo. However, the current version of the demo does not contain side quests, so we will have to wait for the demo’s Junon area update on February 21 to get a taste of how these will work.  When the full game is released, we will finally be able to see Hamaguchi’s big picture. 

 Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is scheduled to be released on the PS5 on February 29. The demo is available now. 

Written by. Amber V based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2024-02-13 14:24 JST)