‘I’m very confident in Part 3’: Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s director talks Switch 2, Clair Obscur, and more

It’s not often that directors get a second crack at delivering their video game concept.

Naoki Hamaguchi, co-director of Final Fantasy 7 Remake – itself a second attempt at interpreting a 1997 classic – already had his chance at delivering an improved version with 2021’s Intergrade. Now, FF7 Remake is coming to Xbox and Nintendo Switch 2 for the first time, offering its own tweaks.

The upcoming ports, which will release on January 22, 2026, introduce new difficulty options, allowing players to tweak HP, damage, and more to suit their play style. As Hamaguchi explained in an interview with VGC, the development team has also worked wonders getting the Switch 2 edition to look remarkably comparable to the other versions of the RPG.

Hamaguchi hopes the fact that FF7 Remake looks and runs great on Switch 2 will alleviate concerns from some fans that recent news that the entire Remake trilogy is going multiplatform – including the upcoming third and final part – doesn’t necessarily mean it will be compromised for weaker platforms.

“I think there is actually one big advantage in my favour here that maybe other directors wouldn’t have, which is that I started out as an engineer and I have a very strong programming background, so I very much understand the technical side of development as well,” he explained.

Hamaguchi said his Square Enix development team is working hard to ensure that the upcoming Rebirth port, and the eventual Part 3, will look just as good on Switch 2.

“Nintendo players in the future, you really don’t need to worry at all. They’re going to get a version that is just as satisfying and just as high quality as the first game, if not higher.”

In our interview, the director also touched on the ongoing development of Final Fantasy Remake Part 3, which he says he’s “very confident” about and hopes to deliver in the “not-too-distant” future.

Hamaguchi also elaborated on his recent comments that Part 3 would feel “more concise”, explaining that he meant he intends to make the third game better paced, rather than condensing its content as some had feared.

“It’s about making sure the pacing feels right, it’s not about cutting out content, it’s making sure that it feels right, the speed that the story progresses at feels right, and it is fairly quick and feels like you can get through it at a reasonable pace,” he explained.

Read on for our full interview with Naoki Hamaguchi. Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade will release for Xbox Series and Nintendo Switch 2 on January 22, 2026.

Developers often say their games are abandoned, rather than finished. How grateful do you feel to have been able to revisit Final Fantasy 7 Remake and make adjustments not only with Intergrade, but now with Xbox and Nintendo Switch 2 versions?

I think there are probably two aspects of what you’re asking there. The first one is about how I feel about being able to work again on this masterpiece from 30 years ago and recreate that for gamers today. And I was a fan of the game, I played it back in the day when it first came out, and I really loved the game.

I think that’s really important because I can keep that fan perspective on it as someone who wasn’t involved in that initial development. So I understand what the fans are looking for, what they really value in the game, and how to approach remaking that, reimagining that in a way that goes even deeper and digs into it, and makes it something that the fans who loved it before will love even more again. I think the fact that I can be involved in that and keep that fan perspective is really important.

The second part of that is obviously with the move to multi-platform, going to all these new platforms with the game. I think the strategy previously, the business strategy from the company for the Remake series, obviously focused more on PlayStation, and a lot of people enjoyed the game playing on PlayStation. But of course, we got a lot of people asking, ‘I’d love to play this on Xbox’, ‘I want to play this on Nintendo hardware’.

We’ve been hearing those voices, we understand, and being able to go back and give this game to all these people who have been looking to play it but haven’t been able to, as a game creator, makes me really happy. I’m just delighted to be able to see more people able to play the game who really want to play it.

“I understand what the fans are looking for, what they really value in the game, and how to approach remaking that in a way that goes even deeper”

The Switch 2 port looks fantastic and really favourable compared to the next-gen console version. Were you surprised at how well it ran? Or did it require a lot of work initially?

I think the Switch 2 is a really great piece of hardware. I really appreciate its technical specifications, its capabilities, especially the memory. It’s got really great memory, and certainly, importing games that we’ve previously made for other hardware for PlayStation hardware or PC is actually fairly trouble-free. Importing that over and getting it to a state where it can run on Switch 2 involves not a great deal of difficulty in getting that far.

The thing about Switch 2, though, is that because of the TV mode and docked modes, the specifications of the hardware actually change between the two modes. It’s for very good reasons like saving on battery power etc, but the capabilities of the hardware are actually lower in handheld mode. It’s mainly the frame rate that hits, so to get a really stable frame rate, we had to put in the effort and do the tweaking to get that right. And that’s not just us; a lot of developers will come across that hurdle on Switch 2.

In order to achieve that, our engineers came up with a lot of specific optimizations for Switch 2 involving the rendering structure and processing used in the game, and repeating that until the game was in a really good place. That’s where the effort went, and I think the results of that are really positive. Certainly, we’ve kind of proved this by looking at the reactions of fans and media where we’ve shown the game off.

I would say we’re confident that, of all the games currently on Switch 2, we’ve probably reached the highest point in terms of graphical quality combined with a stable frame rate. I think at the moment we’re number one in that and I’m very proud… it was a big success from all the hard work that the team has done.

You’ve said multiple teams are handling the ports, as part of your shift to multiplatform development. How does that work with you as director? And how do you ensure you can maintain synergy with the different teams?

Rather than having multiple teams working on the same game, certainly for the third game in the series, we’ve got another team which is working on all platform versions of that game, to reduce the amount of work in terms of adapting that to different hardware platforms. We’re working on the Unreal Engine on Windows to create the base core version of that game, which is then going to be the template for all versions.

The way we are handling it is that there is actually a separate team, it’s a team specifically of engineers, we call them ‘The Porting Squad’ or ‘The Multiplatform Squad’. These guys are the ones looking at the technical side of how to move the game and adapt it to different platforms, to meet the different requirements on those platforms.

For example, if there is a certain asset which on this specific hardware goes over the regulation, the volumes of data etc, and that needs tweaking for that specific platform, then they will be the ones mainly handling that. The idea of that is to reduce the burden on the main development team, all the planners, the directors, the creative leads etc. Obviously, if there is an issue that they need to work on on the main dev team side, they will share information, they will come back and say, ‘this needs adapting, can we work on that?’ But generally, they are kept separate to work on all the multi-platform issues.

I was actually surprised by the [outside] reaction to this news. When we released the news that we were going to bring the whole of the Final Fantasy VII Remake series, all three parts of the trilogy, multiplatform, and that the third game is going to go out on multiple platforms, the vast majority of response we got was really positive, because it means people can play on the platform they want to play on.

But I was a little bit surprised that there were a few people who saw that as a concern, who were saying, ‘would that not affect the creative side of it, if you are going to develop it on multi-platform? Is it going to hold you back, or is that going to restrict the creative side?’

Fair enough, I can understand the logic there, but I was a little bit surprised at seeing it. So if you could get this message out, it would be really appreciated. The decision we made to do that has been thought through very well. As I said, the structure that I put in place, which I just described, where they got the creative side team, and they do the creative work completely in isolation from any thinking about what platforms it goes on, and then if there are concerns, it is worked on by another team.

That really helps ensure that there are no breaks put on the development, we are not holding back on anything on the creative side, and it will be the ultimate version, the creative vision that we want to make for the third part of the Remake series. So hopefully people can be reassured by that, that we have thought very strongly through this, and we have made sure that multiplatform is definitely going to be a plus, and it is never going to hold the project back.

So are there rarely any incidents where you, as a director, have to be pulled into the porting work? For example, an idea that the team might flag as difficult to implement on certain lower-power platforms.

I think there is actually one big advantage in my favour here that maybe other directors wouldn’t have is that I started out as an engineer and I have a very strong programming background, so I very much understand the technical side of development as well.

For example, you get directors, maybe who aren’t originally engineers, who are more on the creative side, they obviously would have that issue where they have got this massive creative vision, but then afterwards, discover that to actually achieve that, there are these restrictions, there are these limitations, and technically that is really difficult.

“Hopefully people can be reassured… that we have thought very strongly through this, and we have made sure that multiplatform is definitely going to be a plus, and it is never going to hold the project back.”

Because I have both, I have the understanding of the technical side and the system requirements as well, and I have generally got a very good idea of what level of hardware spec allows a certain creative decision to be realized or not. So in that sense, it is very synchronized.

When I am communicating my vision to the team and instructing them, I come from that perspective, so I think that really does help reduce those kinds of disjuncts between the creative vision and the technical side, because I understand all that from the beginning. So I think that is a big advantage of having myself at the top of the team, just because of the background I have.

It seems you’re interested in the technical side, so I’ll give you a specific example of how my engineering background helped. Obviously, when we’re moving games from previous platforms onto the Switch 2, especially in handheld mode, it becomes quite an issue. Like I said, obviously, effects require a lot of processing burden, and the Switch 2 can’t really keep up with that in handheld mode. So we needed to explore how we could reduce that burden and the data that needs to be processed.

There are various ways around it and various approaches you could take, but you have to work out what the right thing to do is and what the wrong thing to do is. Certainly, the decision I made there… Final Fantasy 7 and the Remake series is very much a character-driven one. It’s got such strong, iconic characters, and I think it was really important that those characters appear in the best possible quality, and how their facial expressions and emotions come across is kind of all down to lighting.

The way that those characters are lit really does change, even if it’s exactly the same model, exactly the same facial expression… Having different lighting can completely change how they appear. So I felt what we don’t want here is that the Switch version looks worse or even different in terms of that lighting, how that changes the characters, how they appear, and how they’re presented.

So as I said at the beginning, even though lighting is quite a high burden part of the processing, it takes up a lot of memory and processing, that had to stay the same. That was my idea. We couldn’t really touch that and that had to be maintained. So then we looked at, OK, what can we work around? We looked at other things like generating the shadows – that could be changed. We also looked at post effects and other things that would take up processing burden.

So they were redone to look as similar as possible to the original ones, but with a different kind of processing style. And that was all reworked to actually reduce the burden a lot. And that’s what allowed us to get that really strong frame rate in handheld mode. A lot of effort was put in by my rendering engineer team, they did a really good job on it. I think that’s been proven with the result that we’ve shown off. So yeah, that was one real advantage of me being from that technical perspective and knowing exactly how that interacts with the creative side of it.

On fan concern regarding multiplatform development, most of that was possibly surrounding Parts 2 and 3, which are obviously next-gen console games primarily. So what kind of quality do you hope to be able to achieve with Rebirth on Switch 2? Do you think fans will be similarly surprised?

Yes, obviously, we are working very hard to make sure that is the case, and that people are going to get that high quality they are looking for. I think we have kind of proved that concept to the world already, in some ways, with the release of Rebirth on Steam Deck. I think we saw a similar kind of reaction there, where people said,’ wow, it’s actually running on Steam Deck, it looks really good, it’s a quality much higher than I thought they could get on Steam Deck’.

In that sense, that was where we did the experiments, to work out how to get these high-level games into a mobile platform. Obviously, there is a bit of a difference in the specs and the capacity between Steam Deck and Switch 2 and various other handheld game systems. But I think we managed to get such a good result there, and that really did help with the planning and the understanding of how to do that going forward in the series.

“I would say we’re confident that, of all the games currently on Switch 2, we’ve probably reached the highest point in terms of graphical quality combined with a stable frame rate”

Obviously, we got Steam Deck verified for that. So I think people can be reassured that. Because I see that as a mission, personally, that every version should be as close as possible to the high quality that we want for this, and I’m definitely going to keep pushing that going forward in the series.

Again, it seems that you are very interested in the technical side, so I can definitely go into that a bit more. What we did was, the initial experiments allowed us to achieve this flexibility in terms of supporting different levels of graphical capacity in different hardware. A lot of that was done for the PC version of the game.

Obviously, we had to run the whole gamut there between the Steam Deck and the comparatively lower specs that has up to real high-end PCs, so we created a system that could support all of those and adapt the graphical level to what processing power was available.

We actually created a rendering pipeline within the PC Unreal Engine. It is similar to Nanite, it is not Nanite, it is similar to it, but we created a unique flexible pipeline of our own and that can really adapt various factors. For example, the number of polygons used in an asset, or the resolution for specific assets, depending on the processing power available. That gave us a really good range to work with on PC and really help with the development of the PC version.

Obviously, when we take that to other platforms, like Nintendo Switch 2, for example, you could just pull that over, use the same flexible system and say, okay, well, where does Switch fit into that? You get a fairly good result, but it would still leave some rough areas. For example, you look at some of the assets and say, okay, because of the way Switch interacts differently, that left that looking a little bit too rough.

So we went after that and did some Switch 2-specific optimizations and further tweaks to make sure that the frame rate, for example, or like I said before, by using a similar but different rendering style or processing different equations, you can lower the processing burden and thus shoot up the resolution or the frame rate, etc.

So I think we got a really good response to the first game on PC, and that’s really helped us and given us the know-how and the ability to keep that going, reflect on that, and maybe even push it further in Rebirth and in the third game in the series going forward.

So what I want to say is, because of all that experimentation stuff we’ve done on the PC to make sure of that, Nintendo players in the future, you really don’t need to worry at all. They’re going to get a version that is just as satisfying and just as high quality as the first game, if not higher.

You’re here in London, and I imagine promotion tours away from your desk can be exciting. But I’m also weary you’re busy working on the next game behind the scenes, and the pressure to deliver a satisfying conclusion to such an ambitious trilogy must be significant. Could you talk a bit about how you’re feeling right now with all this going on?

That’s a very polite way of asking that! Thank you. The way you’re imagining it is probably not too far from the truth. I am up to my waist in development, and I’m really involved in the daily grind of that. I am very busy, you’re definitely right on that.

There is definitely that feeling of responsibility. You might call it pressure to deliver the proper conclusion to the series, for the fans out there who are so eagerly awaiting and loving this. But at the moment, I’m having fun with it. I really do enjoy it. I think that’s very important to keep that enjoyment.

This may be something that we can laugh about, but yes, I really enjoy these opportunities to talk to the fans and the media. It’s a motivation for me. It’s really satisfying and I really enjoy this. It’s a great time for me, and I love doing the media-facing side of things.

“You might call it pressure to deliver the proper conclusion to the series to the fans out there who are so expecting and loving this. But at the moment, I’m having fun with it.”

At the same time, I still have to keep working on the Japan side, controlling the team, and working on the development there. Obviously, when I’m abroad doing these kinds of events because of time zone differences, a lot of the time I’ll be working in what will be the nighttime period in Japan, and then I’ll be doing my regular job and communicating with the Japan team during the nighttime there while I’m doing media stuff in the day.

Because usually coming to Europe or North America involves long 10-hour or more flights, I’m working on the plane as well. Obviously, nowadays you’ve got Wi-Fi on planes, so I can continue working my job communicating with Japan then. Almost always, as soon as I get on the flight, I open my laptop and just work there the whole time.

A lot of the time, I get flight attendants who will come to me and say, ‘Wow, I don’t see that many people just working constantly the whole time, are you okay? Do you want me to bring you something?’ I’m really happy that they look after me, but it’s a little bit embarrassing.

Obviously, you’re not talking about Part 3 much at the moment, but you were quoted in the press recently as stating that the third game would be more “concise” compared to Rebirth. Could you elaborate on that?

That’s actually something I wanted to speak about today, so I’m glad that you asked that.

Just to explain, the original question I was asked there was, they said that there are some people who played Rebirth, the second game in the series, and they felt that because we’ve added in new story content, which wasn’t in the original Final Fantasy 7, to them it felt like the story was being stretched out. So they asked whether we were considering doing anything related to that in the third game.

In terms of the result of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and the ultimate experience that it delivered to players, that’s actually something that I’m very confident in. I mean, I don’t want to blow my own trumpet too much, but the way I work as a director, I don’t think there are that many other directors out there who, to the level that I do this, are playing through the games that I’m directing, sitting there and going through them and playing them again and again and again, just to try and see if the gameplay experience and the balance feels right.

Because I do so much of that in my daily job, that’s a really important thing. I’ve put a lot of effort into that. There can’t be that many other directors who put that much emphasis on that. I feel that the pacing, the content, and the balance in Rebirth is exactly as I wanted it. I personally don’t feel it’s been stretched out; it doesn’t feel unnecessarily long. To me, I think I got that right, and I think a lot of people would agree with me.

But obviously, I understand that there are maybe people who would see it like that and maybe feel differently. That’s fine, I see the people who express those opinions, and that’s definitely worth taking on board that some people felt that.

However, for the third game, in terms of what I said about that and the way I’m looking at that is about improving the pacing and making sure that, to achieve an even greater level of immersion in the game, we make sure that the story developments move forward in a fairly speedy manner and with the right pace essentially, rather than feeling slow and drawn out.

I think that may have been misconstrued by people; they may have said, ‘OK, that means they’re going to cut down on the volume and they’re going to remove story content, it’s going to be a shorter game, they’re going to cut it down’, and that’s not what I’m saying at all. It’s about making sure the pacing feels right, it’s not about cutting out content, it’s making sure that it feels right, the speed that the story progresses at feels right, and it is fairly quick and feels like you can get through it at a reasonable pace. But it has to feel right, so that’s what I mainly intended to say there.

Many modern turn-based RPGs, most notably Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 this year, have adopted an Active Time Battle style system where players are still dodging and parrying between turns. As a director on the Final Fantasy 13 series, I wondered if you noticed that, and how you think that series would be received today?

Yes, I worked on all the Final Fantasy 13 games. I think they were really well done, and I get a lot of response from fans who really liked them. There’s a really big fan community out there who are really passionate about those games still.

“It’s about making sure the pacing feels right, it’s not about cutting out content, it’s making sure that it feels right, the speed that the story progresses at feels right”

Of course, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 came out this year, and there’s been a lot of love from fans and the media for that game. But I do remember, exactly like you said in your question, I felt similarly when I saw that: ‘OK, that’s what they’ve done with their game, I remember doing that quite a while ago with Lightning Returns…’ It does seem to use a similar kind of system to what we did.

Talking about Clair Obscur, though, I think it’s very easy for people to focus too much maybe on that mechanics side of it. Obviously, it’s a very big story in the gaming industry this year, so it’s a very obvious thing to point to. It’s followed the JRPG tradition, it’s a turn-based, but it adds in all these kinds of more action-style mechanics, like you’ve got the pinpoint timing guard, you’ve got the parry mechanic, etc.

It’s clearly part of what makes it a good game, but I don’t think people should be focusing too much on that. I think the reason why it’s such a good game and why it’s done so well and been so well regarded is that, overall, it has a really great balance of all the other aspects to it as well. It’s got a really great story, the culture behind it, it’s very much steeped in French history and culture, and they’ve got that aspect to it, which makes it unique in its own right.

They’ve done that very well. The subject of the story, as well, may be similar in some ways to what modern drama series do, and reveal things slowly, but the idea is that you’ve got this mystery, and as the story progresses, you can learn more about the world and what this mystery really means. I think that’s really easy to understand. It’s really catchy for people who like that kind of modern storytelling style.

I think the reason it’s such a good game is because all of that is so well balanced, and every single aspect is so well done. As a game creator, as someone who looks at how people appreciate games, I don’t want people to get too focused on, ‘oh, it’s a JRPG, it uses those mechanics, that’s why it’s popular. ’ I think it’s not a case of if you make a JRPG-style game, you put those mechanics in, anything is going to sell. That’s not the case.

It’s because it’s such a complete product. I’d just be really happy if people appreciate and respect that game for those things, rather than just because it uses that kind of take on JRPG.

Finally, Ben Starr, star of Final Fantasy 16 and friend of VGC, asked me to ask you if he can voice a golden Chocobo in Final Fantasy Remake Part 3?

I’ll ask the team if they want to do that!

I’ve got the impression he’s kind of the guy that, at every event you go to, he’s there. So I’m going to have to see him at London Comic Con this weekend, because I’d imagine he’d probably be there as well! I’ll look forward to seeing him.

Thanks for your time.

Can I have one final message?

Yes, of course.

Two final things from me. First of all, we’re working really hard on the third game in the Remake series at the moment. It’s coming along really well. I’ve got in my head the vision now, the gameplay structure, the gameplay experience, the core experience, and it’s looking in a really good state.

It’s something really satisfying that gamers can get their teeth into, and it’ll be just a brilliant experience that it really should be and has to be. So we’re going to work on that, brush that up even further, and then deliver it in the not-too-distant future. You really can look forward to that climax of the series, and it’ll be exactly what you want it to be. So don’t worry about that. It’s coming, and it’s just as good as you think it is. I’m very confident in the game that I’m making there.

And then finally, for people, I’m sure with the new opportunities coming to new platforms for Final Fantasy Remake, I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who have wanted to play this game, but maybe haven’t had the right hardware environment to play it on before. So it’s just a really brilliant experience if you want to play that now.

We’ve got Rebirth coming fairly soon, moving into the third game. So take this opportunity right now, play the game. It’s the ultimate Final Fantasy 7 experience that, if you play the original and love it, you’ll really like this one as well. And then if you get into those now, you can be able to play the third game when it comes out alongside everyone else, because it’s coming to all platforms.