What does Square Enix director Naoki Hamaguchi regret most about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, a game he’s spent the last two years porting to PC, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch 2? He recently said in a new interview that it’s the game’s trophies, which ranged from satisfying to earn to exceptionally tiresome to grind out. Hamaguchi is promising a better balance for Final Fantasy VII Remake part 3. More than anything, I hope that means the team re-evaluates requiring fans to beat the game twice.
“We prepared an incredibly diverse range of content as an open-world game for Rebirth, designing the overall game with a philosophy where the players could choose what they wanted to engage in,” he told Restart in an interview that was published earlier this week. “That said, the completion condition for trophies ultimately required finishing every element of the game perfectly, which may have been a bit excessive in hindsight. While our intention was to expand the freedom of the experience, we may have inadvertently introduced a different kind of pressure.”
He continued, “The final installment of the remake trilogy features an even more diverse world and game design that’s packed with a variety of content. In line with this, we’ve made thorough balancing adjustments regarding the trophies, placing greater thought on whether earning them feels enjoyable in and of itself, or whether they restrict the breadth of the experience (laughs).”
While Final Fantasy VII Remake was a shorter, more linear run through Midgar and the first section of the original 1997 PS1 RPG, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was a sprawling, open-world-ish adventure through the game’s entire mid-section. It was full of mini-games, side quests, and off-the-beaten-path collectibles that made it at times reminiscent of an Ubisoft map game. The sequel’s trophy list, and its ensuing achievements on Steam and Xbox, reflected that fact.
Guides on the PlayStation trophy site PSN Profiles estimated the time it takes to Platinum Remake at 60 hours. The estimated time to Platinum Rebirth is 200 hours. So Hamaguchi is correct when he suggests that the last game’s trophy list had gotten out of control. But the sheer number of things players need to do to complete every challenge isn’t even my main issue with the game’s trophy list. It’s instead a thing Square Enix loves to do with lots of its games: require players to beat it twice.
Remake and Rebirth both have trophies that don’t unlock unless you complete the game on hard mode. Hard mode doesn’t unlock until you beat the game the first time. This ensures you have to play through the entire thing at least twice. Final Fantasy XVI has the same requirement. It’s tedious and silly. I’d much rather neurotically follow a guide that has me taking 200-plus hours to do all sorts of wild and mundane tasks on my first playthrough than complete that stuff in half the time and then have to play through the base campaign all over again.
My sense from Hamaguchi’s comments is that the team isn’t planning on addressing that irritating bit about Rebirth‘s trophy list, but I hope they do. We’ll find out whenever Final Fantasy VII Remake part 3 finally launches. Given the number of times Hamaguchi has talked about it being nearly complete, I’m hoping it arrives as early as next spring.