After over a decade of working on the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy, director Naoki Hamaguchi’s watch is almost over. While the upcoming Final Fantasy 7 Revelation may see even more content with the prospect of post-launch DLC, Hamaguchi has a goal to move on and create a new RPG.
Speaking to Game Informer after the reveal of Revelation, Hamaguchi explained that he doesn’t really want to work on another remake project. While fans have called for the director to work on a remake of Final Fantasy VI, he instead wants to do something brand-new with the scale that only Square Enix can muster.
“In terms of what I personally want to do, obviously, I think my next creative work is also going to be a JRPG,” Hamaguchi said. Final Fantasy 7’s Remake trilogy, especially with Rebirth, has been a massive love letter to the golden child of the genre, and the director now wants to make his own stamp.
“When you look at all the other titles that we have released at Square Enix, not just the FFVII Remake series, I think Square Enix, as a brand, as a company, is more than capable of delivering this grand-scale RPG that could resonate to gamers across the world,” he said. “Fans might have a lot of different expectations, but for me personally, I do want to take on this new challenge with another RPG title after this, whether it be Final Fantasy or a different IP.”
Hamaguchi explains they “don’t know” what they’ll actually work on next, but they “hope fans look forward to it”. If it is set in the Final Fantasy multi-verse, that’s great, but the director would also like to create something completely new. “If it’s not Final Fantasy, that’s also exciting,” he said, “because that could be a challenge for me”.
Outside of Final Fantasy, there aren’t many major JRPGs anymore. There’s the upcoming Dragon Quest 12, whose development has been restarted, but true AAA mega-RPGs are largely isolated to the West with the French-made Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 being crowned an honorary JRPG in the genre’s absence.
