he's probably not gonna turn up
In the quiet margins of a vast creative work, a developer's personal cat once found a home — tucked into the background of Final Fantasy 7 Remake as one of a character's beloved strays. Now, as the sequel takes shape, co-director Naoki Hamaguchi has gently closed the door on that small cameo, reasoning — with affectionate dark humor — that his tabby Musashi perished in the game's most devastating story event. It is a minor detail, but it reveals something enduring about how artists inhabit their own fictions: even the smallest presences are granted the dignity of consequence.
- A beloved personal cameo — the director's own cat, Musashi — is quietly but definitively written out of the sequel before it even begins.
- Hamaguchi doesn't simply omit the cat; he constructs a fate for it, placing Musashi among the casualties of Remake's most catastrophic and emotionally charged sequence.
- The joke lands with unexpected weight, because the Sector 7 plate collapse is still fiercely debated by fans — who survived, who didn't — and now even a background cat has been drawn into that reckoning.
- Beyond the cat, the developers are working to reassure fans that Rebirth will honor the original game's story and connect to Advent Children, threading continuity across the entire trilogy.
- The cumulative effect is a signal: this fictional world has internal rules, and its creators take those rules seriously — down to the smallest, warmest details.
When Final Fantasy 7 Remake launched in 2020, co-director Naoki Hamaguchi tucked a private warmth into the game: his own tabby cat, Musashi, appeared as one of three felines kept by the character Wedge. It was the kind of small, personal gesture that developers sometimes hide in their work — a quiet joke amid an enormous production.
But Musashi won't appear in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Asked about the absence, Hamaguchi offered an explanation laced with dark humor: in his personal reading of the story, Musashi didn't survive the Sector 7 plate collapse — the same catastrophic event that claimed the lives of characters like Jessie. "Personally I'd like to think that he was caught up in the Sector 7 plate fall," he said. "He's probably not gonna turn up!"
What makes the moment resonate beyond its comedy is what it reveals about how Hamaguchi inhabits his own fiction. He didn't need to explain the cat's absence at all. Instead, he gave Musashi a fate, a place in the timeline — treating a background detail with the same narrative seriousness as the story's major losses. The plate collapse, already one of Remake's most debated sequences among fans, now extends its shadow even to the small, warm things.
Hamaguchi and producer Yoshinori Kitase also offered broader reassurances: Rebirth will remain faithful to the original game's narrative arc, and the trilogy will conclude in a way that connects to Advent Children, the 2005 film sequel. For fans of that film, it's a promise; for skeptics, a fair warning.
Musashi's absence, in the end, is both a joke and a quiet declaration — that in this world, the rules apply to everything. Even the cats.
When Final Fantasy 7 Remake shipped in 2020, Naoki Hamaguchi slipped something personal into the game—his own cat, a tabby named Musashi, tucked into the background as one of three felines that the character Wedge keeps in his apartment. It was the kind of small, warm detail that game developers sometimes hide in their work: a private joke, a moment of levity in a sprawling production. But Musashi won't be making the journey into Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and Hamaguchi has a specific reason why.
During a recent interview about the upcoming sequel, the co-director explained his thinking with a dark humor that only someone who has spent years inside a fictional world could muster. In his personal canon—the version of the story that lives in his head—Musashi didn't survive the Sector 7 plate collapse, one of Remake's most catastrophic story moments. The cat, in Hamaguchi's imagination, was caught in the same disaster that claimed the lives of several major characters, including the resistance fighter Jessie. "Personally I'd like to think that he was caught up in the Sector 7 plate fall," Hamaguchi said, "he's probably not gonna turn up!"
It's a small thing, really—one cat among thousands of narrative threads in a game as massive as Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. But it speaks to something larger about how creators think about their work. Hamaguchi didn't need to explain why Musashi was absent. He could have simply left the cat out and moved on. Instead, he constructed a story for it, gave it weight and consequence, treated it as a real part of the world he was building. The cat had a death, a moment, a place in the timeline.
The Sector 7 plate fall itself remains one of the most debated moments in Remake among fans. In the years since the game's release, players have argued endlessly about which characters survived the collapse—particularly whether Biggs and Jessie made it through. There's less debate about Wedge; most players accept that he died in the disaster. But Hamaguchi's decision to extend that logic to a background cat shows how thoroughly the collapse has been woven into the game's emotional fabric. Nothing escapes it, not even the small, warm details.
Beyond the fate of Musashi, Hamaguchi and producer Yoshinori Kitase offered reassurance about Rebirth's direction. The story won't veer dramatically away from the original game's narrative, they confirmed, and the remake trilogy will still culminate in a way that connects to Advent Children, the 2005 film sequel that has long divided the Final Fantasy 7 fanbase. For those who embraced Advent Children's particular brand of melodrama and spectacle, that's a promise that the remake will honor that lineage. For those who didn't, it's a warning of what's to come.
Musashi's absence, then, is both a joke and a statement. It's Hamaguchi saying: this world has rules, and those rules apply to everything in it, even the small things. Even the cats.
Notable Quotes
Personally I'd like to think that he was caught up in the Sector 7 plate fall with Jessie and that lot—he's probably not gonna turn up— Naoki Hamaguchi, co-director of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
So Hamaguchi actually put his own cat in the first game? That seems like a very specific kind of easter egg.
It was. Musashi was just there in Wedge's apartment, one of three cats in the background. The kind of thing you might not even notice unless you were paying close attention or someone told you about it.
And now the cat's not coming back because he thinks it died in the Sector 7 plate collapse?
That's his head canon, yes. He's decided that in his version of the story, Musashi got caught up in the same disaster that killed Jessie and the others. It's darkly funny, but also kind of respectful—he's treating the cat like it matters, like it has a story.
Does that tell us anything about how he thinks about the world he's building?
I think it does. He could have just left the cat out without explanation. Instead he gave it a narrative death, a place in the timeline. It suggests he's thinking about consistency, about how everything in that world is affected by the big events.
What about the larger story direction? Is Rebirth going to surprise people?
Not dramatically. They've said it won't veer wildly from the original game, and it'll still connect to Advent Children at the end of the trilogy. So if you liked the first Remake, you know roughly what to expect. If you didn't like Advent Children, you might want to brace yourself.
So Musashi's death is kind of a microcosm of the whole approach?
In a way, yes. Nothing escapes the consequences of that world. Not even the small, warm details.