Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's open world inspired by The Witcher 3

Talking at Paris Games Week 2023, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth co-director Naoki Hamaguchi was asked questions by a French outlet about the upcoming second instalment of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

When asked about Rebirth's open-world, which focuses on the original's expansion into the open-world of disc 2 onwards, Hamaguchi answered that the open-world design was inspired by The Witcher 3 and Horizon Zero Dawn. The team came over from Final Fantasy 15, so they already had a wealth of experience for creating a large explorable areas.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth takes place after Remake and explores the open-world sections

Hamaguchi's direct reply to FFDream was as follows, "We always watch games that come out from home or elsewhere. The experience gained in the open world of Final Fantasy So, we are taking an example of what worked, but keeping in mind to add our touch to this game so that it is specific to the universe of Final Fantasy VII ."

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth launches 29 February 2024 as a PS5 exclusive and follows on from Remake which isn't faithfully remaking the original release shot for shot, instead it is expanding the story and characters. It's eagerly anticipated by many; both classic fans and those new to the story.

There are some great moments in the interview, especially when Hamaguchi was asked about the experience of remaking a 25 year old game. On this he said, "Remaking a game from 25 years ago with today's techniques makes the graphics more realistic, and therefore the way of telling it as well. The workload was so large that it was impossible to do it in one game. So we quickly decided to split the game into three parts, and the split came quite naturally. We think it's better that way, both for the development and the way of telling it."

I have loved Final Fantasy 7 since playing back in the 90s and watching the new tendrils of story unfold is wonderful.