Final Fantasy 7 Remake Director Issues Update on Part 3 Progress and Reveals Cloud’s Iconic Buster Sword Was Almost Resized to Make It ‘More Realistic’

Final Fantasy’s Cloud has one of the most recognizable weapons in gaming history, but the Final Fantasy 7 Remake team actually considered resizing his iconic Buster Sword to make it more realistic before deciding to stick with the original design.

In a new interview alongside Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director Guillaume Broche, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi opened up about the decision, admitting that while rescaling Cloud’s sword did come up, “it was just too iconic” to change.

“While making Remake, there was this aspect of the weight and how Cloud swings it around with one hand that sort of felt like it would weaken the sense of realism, you know?” Hamaguchi said, according to a translation by a Final Fantasy fan account on X/Twitter (thanks, GR+).

“So at the time, when we were making Remake, there was some discussion about whether we should give Cloud a more realistic version of the Buster Sword,” Hamaguchi added. “But it was just too iconic, and if we’d made it just a regular old sword, players wouldn’t accept it.”

He closed, stressing: “In the end we stayed faithful to the OG. A whole new generation of people fell in love with it, so I think it was the right call.”

As for the latest on Final Fantasy Remake Part 3? Well, in the same interview, Hamaguchi teased that the “core game experience is almost complete,” and while he “really want[s] everyone to play it as soon as possible,” the team has now moved on to “refining and polishing.”

Curiously, he also warned the team “never intended to make all three parts feel like the same game.”

“As the director, I feel a very strong sense of the game’s final form,” the director said. “Honestly, I really want everyone to play it as soon as possible, but of course, since it’s a game, it needs to be carefully crafted before it can be delivered to players.

“Once we go through this phase properly, we’ll be able to present it in a form we’re satisfied with. So I ask everyone to wait just a little longer, and we’ll be able to share more information soon.”

Interestingly, he also teased that “Highwind” will be an important keyword for the third instalment. “As for the third part, introducing new gameplay experiences and a new scale is key to successfully delivering the project to players. ‘Highwind’ is certainly an important keyword here, there’s no doubt about that,” he teased.

Meanwhile, Briana White, the actress who portrays Aerith in Final Fantasy 7, has called on fans to stop tagging voice artists in spicy material featuring their characters.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.