‘Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’ Director Recommends New Players Skip Original And Get “First Impression” From Remakes
Rather than getting into the RPG classic via its original, now-widely-available-on-digital-platforms release – Hell, they’re even bundling it with its Magic: The Gathering pre-con Commander deck – Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy director Naoki Hamaguchi believes new players would be better served by getting their “first impression” of the game from Square Enix’s current return trip.
Hamaguchi, who helms the Remake series alongside original Final Fantasy VII event planner Motomu Toriyama, offered his eyebrow-raising take on Cloud and crew’s big adventure during a recent interview given to Nintendo Life‘s Ollie Reynolds, as facilitated by veteran Square Enix translator Gavin Poffley.
Amidst a larger conversation regarding the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 port of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, the director was at one point asked as to whether or not he would “recommend newcomers try this out first before moving onto Remake, or would you prefer the opposite?”, to which he affirmed, “In a lot of ways, that’s a difficult question to answer.”
“A lot of people say to me that if they could go back and play the original Final Fantasy VII with no knowledge of the story and enjoy it for the first time, there’d be nothing better than that. The Remake is designed to be enjoyed by people who have played the original and know it well, and also by complete newcomers who know nothing about it.”
“So either way is fine, you’ll enjoy the game and have a similar experience whether you’ve played the original or not. If you have the opportunity, I’d like you to play the Remake first and enjoy it as a fresh experience on its own.
“There are definitely nods in there, so if you’ve played [the original] before, you can see how we’ve reworked things, and that’s a completely legitimate way of playing. But if you’ve not played it before, I’d kind of like you to experience the Remake first with the new graphics and presentation and have that be your first impression of the game.”
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A bold and curious proclamation by any metric, Hamaguchi unfortunately did not provide any arguments to back it up, thus leaving it currently unknown just why he believes the Remake trilogy to be the superior ‘first entry’ point for the series.
However, he did speak vaguely to his vision earlier in the interview, meeting a question from Reynolds regarding “as a fan yourself, do you have your own personal expectations that you’d like to meet?” by explaining to his Nintendo Life host, “My honest feeling is that yes, there is pressure, I can’t deny that, but I don’t really let it get on top of me.”
“It’s just so satisfying and rewarding to have so many people out there waiting for your game. Having so many people play and enjoy these games is really special, so I’m having a lot of fun with it at the same time.
“One other thing is that the team we have working on this series is just really, really great. I’m blessed to have it, and it really supports me in making these games. It contains a lot of new people, people like myself who were fans of the original games, but then we also have a number of creators who worked on the original Final Fantasy VII. So people like Tetsuya Nomura, Yoshinori Kitase, Motomu Toriyama, Kazushige Nojima…
“Having them there really helps to ground it in the original and keep that essence of what made Final Fantasy VII what it was. In some sense, if it was just me and I was responsible for everything, then it might wind up becoming my personal take on it as a fan. But together, we’re able to determine what is most important for the fans and create a modern piece of entertainment that still retains the core essence.”
For those interested in diving into the Remake trilogy, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade will finally join the Nintendo Switch 2 family on January 22nd, 2026, with Rebirth and the as-of-yet-unannounced-third game set to follow at later dates.
Meanwhile, as noted above, if the original Final Fantasy VII has piqued your interest, not only is it available on pretty much every digital storefront, but it’s even being bunded with the game-specific Magic: The Gathering pre-con Commander deck.
Further, a Nintendo Switch dual-release containing Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII is due out on December 9th.
