At the Final Fantasy 14 Fan Festival in Berlin on Sunday, Final Fantasy 14 director-producer Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida invited Final Fantasy 7 Remake series director Naoki Hamaguchi to the stage for a chat. Over this 75-minute Naoki’s Room section, the two Final Fantasy devs discussed their motivations, upcoming FF7/FF14 crossover content, and the future of the series. However, one comment may have quashed fans’ hopes for Final Fantasy 6, Final Fantasy 8, or Final Fantasy 9 ever getting the remake treatment.
The talk of remaking other FF games came up when Hamaguchi named Final Fantasy 6 as a big influence on his life. “Final Fantasy 6 is the reason I wanted to work in the game industry and it will always have a special place in my heart,” he said. He added that whenever he mentions this in interviews, it inevitably sparks hopes and headlines that Hamaguchi will remake FF6, something that he always has to deny.
Yoshida added, “I understand fans’ feelings. But please think about it.” He then went on to explain why these remakes would be such a huge effort to develop and release.
“Final Fantasy 6 is an incredibly huge game, and the same goes for other titles like Final Fantasy 8 and Final Fantasy 9. Since Final Fantasy 7 Remake, I understand why people ask for these remakes. But if we did remake these other games, we would probably have to release them in four or even five installments.”
Some have taken Yoshida’s comments here to pour cold water on the chances of further Final Fantasy remakes in the Final Fantasy7 remake style. They echo those Final Fantasy 6 director Yoshinori Kitase issued in 2024, when he sad a Final Fantasy 6 remake akin to that of Final Fantasy 7’s could take around 20 years to complete.
Kitase said that because of the depth of Final Fantasy 6, with so much content and so many characters, it would take twice the length of Final Fantasy 7 Remake to develop and release.
Hamaguchi went on to shout-out the Final Fantasy Remake trilogy team for their dedication and for sticking with him for over 10 years of development. “Not only was it a matter of timing, I think it was a miracle that we were able to get these people who were willing to stick around and keep motivated to work on so many of these titles back-to-back,” he said. “So that’s why I can’t just say, ‘Yeah, I’ll remake FF6,’ as it’s not quite that simple.”
At the end of the talk, Yoshida pointed out that after they had mentioned the difficulties of remaking FF6 and other titles, there were many comments from livestream viewers along the lines of, ‘I want this guy (Hamaguchi) to make Final Fantasy 17,’ which Yoshida described as “the highest praise you could get.” Hamaguchi replied: “Can I respond to that? If I do…” but Yoshida waved him away.
This promoted many excited comments from viewers as to what this meant and if we can take this to mean that Square Enix has already decided to make Final Fantasy 17. Some have even interpreted this as a sign that Hamaguchi may already be slated to work on Final Fantasy 17, but it seems pretty tenuous to assume that, especially considering he still has his hands full with the upcoming Final Fantasy 7 Revelation.
Yoshida then asked Hamaguchi for both his most difficult and most rewarding experiences working on the Final Fantasy franchise. As a manager with a huge team of people, Hamaguchi said the most difficult thing is to unite everyone behind the same vision for the game and make sure they are heading in the same direction. According to Hamaguchi, the most rewarding thing is being able to make these games with the support of such a huge, global fanbase. “I don’t think anything could make me happier,” he added.
Looking back on his career, Hamaguchi reminisced about how he spent ages fine-tuning fire effects on Final Fantasy 12 when he first started out as a programmer at Square Enix 24 years ago. “As an individual creator, it’s very satisfying to get immersed in your work. However, I think that’s something you’re able to do more earlier in your career. Later on, the satisfaction comes more from leading a team and getting them to utilize their abilities.” he explained. “This doesn’t change how I feel about the games. I still want to make something amazing.”
Yoshida and Hamaguchi then turned their attention to the new FF7-themed content coming to FF14 that their teams are collaborating on. This includes the Keybound Brawler game coming to FF14’s Golden Saucer in October, plus new Barret and Tifa-style outfits. The teams are currently working on the crossover raid Beyond the Lifestream, which will bring the FF7 remake series to FF14. It’s scheduled to come out with version 8.01 of Final Fantasy 14 (release date TBC, but set to drop before Final Fantasy 7 Revelations comes out in early 2027).
Regarding Final Fantasy 7, Hamaguchi reiterated that the whole reason they started the remake trilogy was to bring FF7 to the next generation of players, many of whom never experienced the 1997 PS1 classic. “We want to introduce new players to Final Fantasy 7 in a way that they can really understand what made the original so great. So we went into more depth on the depiction of the world, the lore, characters and all these elements in the remake trilogy,” he said.
Throughout the talk, both developers praised each other for their respective work and achievements, revealing they don’t need much sleep and are still enthusiastic and committed to the Final Fantasy series. Yoshida praised Hamaguchi as being the number one at Square Enix in terms of team, task and schedule management. Towards the end of the talk, Hamaguchi expressed hopes that he and Yoshida’s teams can collaborate more in the future.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
