{"id":60720,"date":"2026-02-26T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=60720"},"modified":"2026-02-26T15:50:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T06:50:52","slug":"final-fantasy-7-remake-trilogys-third-entry-is-progressing-very-smoothly-we-ask-director-naoki-hamaguchi-why-the-team-chose-not-to-switch-to-unreal-engine-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/interviews\/final-fantasy-7-remake-trilogys-third-entry-is-progressing-very-smoothly-we-ask-director-naoki-hamaguchi-why-the-team-chose-not-to-switch-to-unreal-engine-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Fantasy\u00a07\u00a0Remake trilogy\u2019s\u00a0third\u00a0entry is progressing\u00a0\u201cvery\u00a0smoothly.\u201d\u00a0We\u00a0ask director\u00a0Naoki Hamaguchi why the team\u00a0chose\u00a0not to\u00a0switch\u00a0to\u00a0Unreal Engine\u00a05\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade<\/strong>, an expanded version of the original remake, came to Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC on January 22.&nbsp;Following the release,&nbsp;AUTOMATON caught up with&nbsp;series director Naoki Hamaguchi&nbsp;to&nbsp;ask him about&nbsp;how the&nbsp;new Switch 2 and Xbox versions&nbsp;of Intergrade&nbsp;have been performing&nbsp;so far, as well as the much-anticipated third installment&nbsp;of&nbsp;the trilogy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2014Congratulations on the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S versions of FFVII Remake Intergrade. How has the launch been so far?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Naoki Hamaguchi (hereafter Hamaguchi):<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>To be frank, the response has been extremely positive.&nbsp;I feel that both&nbsp;the&nbsp;Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S&nbsp;versions&nbsp;have had&nbsp;very strong&nbsp;launches. The game is ranking highly on digital storefronts, and physical copies are&nbsp;selling out&nbsp;at major retailers&nbsp;too, so the&nbsp;numbers&nbsp;clearly show&nbsp;strong&nbsp;performance.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nintendo fans&nbsp;in particular tend&nbsp;to prefer physical editions, so it was encouraging to see&nbsp;that&nbsp;digital sales remained strong&nbsp;as well. FFVII is a title with a strong presence not only in Japan but globally, and as a result,&nbsp;we\u2019ve&nbsp;been able to achieve sales that are satisfying on a worldwide&nbsp;level.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both Microsoft and Nintendo&nbsp;have been&nbsp;very positive&nbsp;about bringing the FFVII IP to their platforms. For example, Microsoft arranged opportunities for us to present the future direction of the series directly to Phil Spencer and&nbsp;Sarah Bond, and&nbsp;even invited us onto the Xbox podcast. Nintendo collaborated with us&nbsp;to plan&nbsp;an original launch event at the Nintendo Store in New York. We truly felt&nbsp;a warm welcome from the&nbsp;platform holders, and&nbsp;we\u2019re&nbsp;very grateful&nbsp;for it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a result, sales figures came through strongly,&nbsp;and&nbsp;the&nbsp;fans are happy, so it feels like this multiplatform approach itself has led to positive&nbsp;results.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2014How is&nbsp;development&nbsp;of&nbsp;the third installment of the trilogy&nbsp;coming along?&nbsp;Can&nbsp;we expect further technological evolution&nbsp;with this entry?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hamaguchi:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Yes,&nbsp;please&nbsp;look forward to that.&nbsp;Speaking of which,&nbsp;after&nbsp;I mentioned in another interview that we would continue using Unreal Engine 4 for the third game&nbsp;(related article), it became quite the topic&nbsp;online,&nbsp;and it made me realize anew how much interest people have in that side of things.&nbsp;But&nbsp;I think most people&nbsp;aren\u2019t&nbsp;necessarily familiar with the actual differences between Unreal Engine 4 and Unreal Engine 5.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1494\" height=\"836\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1494px) 100vw, 1494px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260226-60720-001.jpg\" alt=\"Unreal Engine logo\" class=\"wp-image-60728\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260226-60720-001.jpg 1494w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260226-60720-001-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260226-60720-001-768x430.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2014I\u00a0think\u00a0it&#8217;s mostly the common notion that\u00a0a higher version number\u00a0means\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0more advanced.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hamaguchi:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>I think&nbsp;that\u2019s&nbsp;mostly&nbsp;how&nbsp;the&nbsp;general public&nbsp;sees&nbsp;it, and&nbsp;I do believe&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;true.&nbsp;Around the time we began developing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Unreal Engine 5 was just entering its pre-launch phase.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What makes&nbsp;Unreal Engine 5&nbsp;groundbreaking&nbsp;compared to Unreal Engine 4 are&nbsp;two features:&nbsp;Lumen, its lighting system&nbsp;(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.unrealengine.com\/en-US\/tech-blog\/unreal-engine-5-goes-all-in-on-dynamic-global-illumination-with-lumen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">related article<\/a>), and Nanite, which allows&nbsp;you to&nbsp;portray&nbsp;dense graphical detail&nbsp;(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.unrealengine.com\/en-US\/blog\/understanding-nanite---unreal-engine-5-s-new-virtualized-geometry-system\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">related article<\/a>).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These&nbsp;represent&nbsp;the current trend in graphics pipelines, and&nbsp;of course, such pipelines are important to us as well.&nbsp;However, if we&nbsp;had tied our development schedule and milestones too closely&nbsp;to&nbsp;Unreal Engine 5\u2019s roadmap, we would&nbsp;have&nbsp;risked&nbsp;our own&nbsp;progress&nbsp;being stalled if the engine&nbsp;encountered&nbsp;any kind of&nbsp;delay.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For that reason, we decided early&nbsp;on in&nbsp;development of&nbsp;FFVII Rebirth to&nbsp;stick with&nbsp;Unreal Engine 4.&nbsp;We\u2019re&nbsp;using a&nbsp;graphics pipeline&nbsp;built&nbsp;in-house, which also makes optimization and porting to various hardware more straightforward.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1515\" height=\"845\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1515px) 100vw, 1515px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260226-60720-002.jpg\" alt=\"Unreal Engine Lumen demo\" class=\"wp-image-60730\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260226-60720-002.jpg 1515w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260226-60720-002-380x212.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260226-60720-002-768x428.jpg 768w\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Image via Unreal Engine\u00a0official website\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1514\" height=\"851\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1514px) 100vw, 1514px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260226-60720-003.jpg\" alt=\"Unreal Engine Nanite demo\" class=\"wp-image-60731\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260226-60720-003.jpg 1514w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260226-60720-003-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260226-60720-003-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Image via Unreal Engine\u00a0official website\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2014It\u2019s&nbsp;often said that upgrading&nbsp;the&nbsp;game engine carries significant risk for live-service&nbsp;games&nbsp;or ongoing&nbsp;series, especially when it comes to&nbsp;major version changes.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hamaguchi:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>That\u2019s right.&nbsp;So even for&nbsp;the final installment of the trilogy, rather than rebuilding our pipeline&nbsp;from scratch&nbsp;in Unreal Engine 5,&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;far more efficient&nbsp;for us&nbsp;to use Unreal Engine 4, which we&nbsp;already&nbsp;have a well-established pipeline for.&nbsp;This&nbsp;also allows us to further refine things&nbsp;based on the&nbsp;experience&nbsp;we accumulated&nbsp;with&nbsp;FFVII Rebirth.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With all of this in mind,&nbsp;we judged that continuing with Unreal Engine 4 would&nbsp;definitely lead&nbsp;to a better third installment for our customers. I never imagined it would become such a hot topic (laughs),&nbsp;though&nbsp;a lot of people took it quite positively too.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;re&nbsp;using the&nbsp;know-how&nbsp;and development environment we cultivated with FFVII: Rebirth as a base and further refining it to create the third game. In that sense, the quality&nbsp;will certainly not drop,&nbsp;and&nbsp;we&#8217;re&nbsp;working hard to deliver&nbsp;something even better.&nbsp;Production of the third installment&nbsp;itself&nbsp;is progressing very smoothly.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1518\" height=\"850\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1518px) 100vw, 1518px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260226-60720-004.jpg\" alt=\"Final Fantasy VII Rebirth\" class=\"wp-image-60732\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260226-60720-004.jpg 1518w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260226-60720-004-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260226-60720-004-768x430.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2014For such a large-scale project,&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;almost&nbsp;unusual&nbsp;for development to&nbsp;go&nbsp;so smoothly&nbsp;throughout. Why are you able to stay on top of things so well?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hamaguchi:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>The team behind the FFVII Remake series has been working together for over ten&nbsp;years,&nbsp;since&nbsp;day one&nbsp;of the very first&nbsp;project.&nbsp;Moreover, the core members have&nbsp;remained&nbsp;throughout, and I&nbsp;truly&nbsp;respect them&nbsp;for that. Building something together for more than a decade is not easy.&nbsp;You\u2019ll&nbsp;get energy and motivation&nbsp;in&nbsp;bursts, but&nbsp;sustaining&nbsp;it&nbsp;over the long term is&nbsp;challenging.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>FFVII is a&nbsp;monumental&nbsp;IP,&nbsp;and&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;where&nbsp;our roots&nbsp;as&nbsp;creators&nbsp;lie, which is why&nbsp;we feel&nbsp;a strong sense&nbsp;of&nbsp;duty&nbsp;towards this project.&nbsp;On top of that, having the same staff continuously on the team ensures a clear chain of command and&nbsp;good communication, which&nbsp;directly contributes to development speed and quality.&nbsp;I&nbsp;believe these&nbsp;are the biggest reasons&nbsp;we\u2019ve&nbsp;had such smooth progress.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2014Having everyone aligned toward the same goal&nbsp;feels crucial for a project.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hamaguchi:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>It truly is. If we had finished&nbsp;FFVII&nbsp;Remake&nbsp;and then had to rebuild the team from scratch for FFVII Rebirth, I would have&nbsp;probably said, \u201cIt&#8217;s&nbsp;impossible. We&nbsp;can\u2019t&nbsp;make this\u201d (laughs).&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2014Finally, could you share a message for fans awaiting the&nbsp;finale?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hamaguchi:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>After&nbsp;we&nbsp;announced&nbsp;the FFVII Remake series for Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S,&nbsp;I&nbsp;was&nbsp;delighted to see fans on those platforms respond so positively. At the same time, we also received messages from PS5 and PC users asking us to keep them properly&nbsp;in the loop&nbsp;as well.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve&nbsp;often developed titles for specific platforms, so this experience has reminded me that greater&nbsp;care and&nbsp;consideration is needed when addressing a broader&nbsp;playerbase. I want everyone who plays the FFVII Remake series to have a satisfying experience&nbsp;on their chosen platform.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If there&#8217;s anything we&#8217;ve overlooked, please&nbsp;don&#8217;t hesitate to&nbsp;speak up&nbsp;\u2013 we&#8217;re now in a day and age where your voices can reach us.&nbsp;We genuinely want to address any concerns, so we&nbsp;truly appreciate&nbsp;your feedback.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I believe the many opinions we receive come from people\u2019s&nbsp;love of&nbsp;FFVII.&nbsp;And as the culmination of the&nbsp;fond&nbsp;memories everyone holds of FFVII,&nbsp;I&#8217;m&nbsp;looking forward to releasing the third installment to the world and&nbsp;enjoying&nbsp;it alongside all of you.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2014It\u2019s&nbsp;rare to hear a developer say, \u201cIf something concerns you, speak up on social media.\u201d You&nbsp;seem&nbsp;to have&nbsp;a very resilient&nbsp;stance.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hamaguchi:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>\u2026Well, I&nbsp;<em>would<\/em>&nbsp;appreciate it if everyone were gentle,&nbsp;of course&nbsp;(laughs).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2014(laughs) Thank you very much.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, which includes a major&nbsp;additional&nbsp;episode centered on&nbsp;Yuffie&nbsp;Kisaragi, is available on PC (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/1462040\/FINAL_FANTASY_VII_REMAKE_INTERGRADE\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/store.epicgames.com\/en-US\/p\/final-fantasy-vii-remake-intergrade?lang=en-US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Epic Games Store<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.xbox.com\/en-us\/games\/store\/final-fantasy-vii-remake-intergrade\/9nrqvq7zrm7z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Microsoft Store<\/a>),&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/store.playstation.com\/en-us\/product\/UP0082-PPSA01903_00-5827003902180177\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">PS5<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendo.com\/us\/store\/products\/final-fantasy-vii-remake-intergrade-switch-2\/?srsltid=AfmBOorDvjFPu6vR8Qe_MXPxjKacRBpz4doiyR8RbIbxZy8Dyb4J91Ft\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Nintendo Switch<\/a>&nbsp;2 and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.xbox.com\/en-us\/games\/store\/final-fantasy-vii-remake-intergrade\/9nrqvq7zrm7z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Xbox Series X|S<\/a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The trilogy\u2019s second installment, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, is available on PC (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/2909400\/FINAL_FANTASY_VII_REBIRTH\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/store.epicgames.com\/en-US\/p\/final-fantasy-vii-rebirth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Epic Games Store<\/a>) and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.playstation.com\/en-us\/games\/final-fantasy-vii-rebirth\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">PS5<\/a>, with Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S versions scheduled for release on June 3.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related:&nbsp;<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/game-development\/final-fantasy-7-remake-trilogys-third-entry-will-not-compromise-on-graphics-whatsoever-despite-multiplatform-shift-director-naoki-hamaguchi-addresses-co\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy\u2019s third entry \u201cwill not compromise on graphics whatsoever\u201d despite multiplatform shift. Director Naoki Hamaguchi addresses concerns<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/interviews\/final-fantasy-7-remakes-nintendo-switch-2-release-was-from-a-technical-standpoint-only-possible-with-game-key-cards-director-naoki-hamaguchi-explains-why\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Final Fantasy 7 Remake\u2019s Nintendo Switch 2 release was, from a technical standpoint, only possible with Game-key cards. Director Naoki Hamaguchi explains why<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/interviews\/we-ask-final-fantasy-vii-remake-director-naoki-hamaguchi-about-the-switch-2-versions-hair-problem-why-does-it-happen-and-can-it-be-avoided\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>We ask Final Fantasy VII Remake director Naoki Hamaguchi about the Switch 2 version\u2019s \u201chair problem.\u201d Why does it happen, and can it be avoided?<\/strong><\/a><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Interview with Final Fantasy VII Remake series director Naoki Hamaguchi about the development of the trilogy&#8217;s third and final instalment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":60726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64,10],"tags":[36],"class_list":["post-60720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-development","category-interviews","tag-final-fantasy"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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