The framework exists. The destination does not yet.
Two months after Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's release, its director Naoki Hamaguchi has openly acknowledged that the opening of the trilogy's final chapter remains unresolved — a rare admission that invites us to consider how even the most ambitious creative undertakings must sit, for a time, in productive uncertainty. The Remake series has already rewritten the terms of its own inheritance, departing meaningfully from the 1997 original, and now the question of where it ultimately lands — faithful or transformed — remains genuinely open. In this, the story of a game's development mirrors something older: the difficulty of knowing how to end a journey before you have fully understood what the journey has become.
- Director Naoki Hamaguchi has admitted he has no firm conviction about how to open the final installment of the FF7 Remake trilogy, despite having a loose structural outline involving Icicle Inn, the Weapons, and the airship.
- The third game sits at the very beginning of its development cycle — years of work away — while most players are still making their way through Rebirth itself, creating a strange temporal gap between audience and creator.
- Remake and Rebirth have already made bold departures from the beloved 1997 source material, raising the stakes for a fanbase divided between those who welcome reinvention and those who want the ending they have always known.
- The ambiguity Hamaguchi expressed in the Rebirth Ultimania guidebook suggests the creative team is still internally wrestling with the trilogy's ultimate direction, meaning the final shape of this story is genuinely undecided.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has been out for two months, and its director is already thinking about what comes next — or more precisely, how to begin it. Naoki Hamaguchi recently admitted in the Rebirth Ultimania guidebook that he hasn't settled on the right way to open the trilogy's final chapter. The admission is telling: a framework exists, but no clear conviction about how to deploy it.
What Hamaguchi has outlined provisionally follows the skeleton of the original FF7 — Cloud and company traveling to Icicle Inn and the Great Cavity, the emergence of the Weapons, and eventually the acquisition of the airship. It's a roadmap, but one he hasn't committed to as a destination. The third game is at the very start of its development cycle, a phase he compared to where the first Remake stood when its own work concluded — meaning years of decisions still lie ahead.
The deeper intrigue is what he left unsaid. Hamaguchi hinted the third game may not strictly follow the original's plot, which matters enormously given how much Remake and Rebirth have already diverged from the 1997 source material — recontextualizing characters, shifting plot beats, and introducing entirely new narrative threads. Whether those changes eventually converge toward the familiar ending or veer into genuinely new territory remains the central question hanging over the trilogy.
For longtime fans, this uncertainty cuts both ways. Some have embraced the series' willingness to treat the original as a starting point rather than a sacred text; others have grown frustrated, wanting the trilogy to ultimately deliver the ending they know. Hamaguchi's hesitation suggests the creative team is still wrestling with that same tension. The framework exists. The destination does not yet.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has been out for two months now, and already its director is thinking about what comes next—or rather, how to begin it. Naoki Hamaguchi, who steered the sequel through development, recently admitted in the Rebirth Ultimania guidebook that he hasn't yet settled on the right way to open the trilogy's final chapter. The admission is telling: here is a director with a framework in mind, but no clear conviction about how to deploy it.
The timeline matters here. Rebirth launched in February 2024, arriving alongside a wave of other substantial JRPGs that made early 2024 a crowded season for the genre. Most players are still working through it. Meanwhile, the third game sits at the beginning of its own development cycle—a phase Hamaguchi compared to where the first Remake stood when its own work wrapped up. That means years of work ahead, and plenty of time for decisions to shift.
What Hamaguchi has outlined, at least provisionally, follows the skeleton of the original Final Fantasy 7. The third installment would open with Cloud and his companions traveling to Icicle Inn and the Great Cavity. From there, the Weapons would emerge—those catastrophic entities that define the endgame of the source material—and the party would eventually obtain the airship. It's a roadmap, but Hamaguchi's own words suggest it's not yet a destination he's committed to.
The real intrigue lies in what he left unsaid. Hamaguchi hinted that the third game might not strictly follow the original game's plot, or at least not to the degree fans might expect. This matters because Remake and Rebirth have already made significant departures from the 1997 source material. The Remake series has recontextualized characters, shifted plot beats, and introduced new narrative threads that didn't exist in the original. Whether those changes converge back toward the familiar ending or veer into genuinely new territory remains the central question hanging over the trilogy.
For longtime Final Fantasy 7 fans, this uncertainty cuts both ways. Some have embraced the Remake's willingness to surprise them, to treat the original story as a starting point rather than a sacred text. Others have grown frustrated with the departures, wanting the trilogy to eventually deliver the ending they know. Hamaguchi's hesitation—his admission that he doesn't yet know the best way to begin the final chapter—suggests that the creative team is still wrestling with that same tension internally.
The Rebirth Ultimania book, which typically serves as a comprehensive guide to a game's development and design, couldn't quite resolve the question of how the sequel's own ending should be understood. That ambiguity now extends forward into the third game's conception. What Hamaguchi is really saying, between the lines, is that the Remake trilogy's final shape is still being decided. The framework exists. The destination does not yet.
Citações Notáveis
Hamaguchi said he remains undecided on the best way to start the game, despite having a vague framework in mind— Naoki Hamaguchi, director, in the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Ultimania guidebook
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
So Hamaguchi knows roughly where the third game should start—Icicle Inn, the Weapons, the airship. Why is he still uncertain?
Because knowing the plot points isn't the same as knowing how to tell the story. The question isn't what happens next; it's whether what happens next is what fans expect, or something else entirely.
You mean the third game might not follow the original Final Fantasy 7 at all?
Not exactly. It might follow it in structure but diverge in meaning. Or it might follow it faithfully and then break away. Hamaguchi seems to be saying the team hasn't decided which version of that they want to tell.
That sounds like a problem for a game that's supposed to close out a trilogy.
It would be, except the Remake has always been about playing with expectations. The first two games already changed things. The question now is whether those changes were leading somewhere, or whether the third game gets to choose its own path.
And if it chooses a path the fans don't want?
Then the trilogy ends with a conversation about what Final Fantasy 7 actually is—the original, or what it's become. That's not a small thing.