Despite the blockbuster reception to Sandfall’s RPG, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 co-director Naoki Hamaguchi says that decisions about Part 3’s gameplay will be “based on the director’s decision himself,” and it had not been “pre-determined yet.”
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which boasts traditional JRPG-inspired turn-based combat, recently confirmed sales of 5 million copies in five months, making it one of the biggest hits of the year. But Hamaguchi isn’t letting his head be turned by current trends, it seems, and is focused instead on “what game experience fans will enjoy.”
“Essentially for the Final Fantasy numbered series, the game design is based on the director’s decision himself,” Hamaguchi told TheGamer. “For the new title, whether it’s action or turn-based, that’s not pre-determined yet.
“If you would ask me, ‘Is [my next game] going to be an RPG?’, yes, there is definitely a possibility. But is it going to be a turn-based RPG? We’re taking this aside from the fact that Expedition 33 was received well, we received a lot of ‘JRPGs are back’ comments. For me, I’m thinking about what game experience fans will enjoy. That’s the most important point.”
In July, Naoki Yoshida, the director/producer of Final Fantasy 14 and producer of Final Fantasy 16, was asked in an interview with AnimeNewsNetwork whether mainline Final Fantasy games could go back to being turn-based, in the wake of Clair Obscur’s success.
“With this question of turn-based versus action, it tends to isolate the gameplay to just the battle system,” said Yoshida. “That doesn’t take into account what kind of game the creators want to deliver to players. For example, based on a certain graphical quality we want to present to our players, or the narrative we want to deliver to our players, it relates to how we set up the game’s systems around it. This includes the battle system, game design, and gameplay feel. It’s not a clear-cut answer, whether it will become all turn-based, or if it’s going to become more action-based.
“[I’m] not necessarily going to be on Final Fantasy 17, so we also don’t want to obstruct or limit our future director or whomever will be producing the games like 17 or even 18,” Yoshida continued. “We don’t want to put them on a rail.”
It later emerged that several members of the Clair Obscur team recently visited Square Enix’s offices and met with some of the development leads there, including Hamaguchi and Visions of Mana director Ryosuke Yoshida.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 game director Guillaume Broche, producer Francois Meurisse, and technical director Tom Guillermin, as well as publisher Kepler Interactive’s CEO Alexis Garavaryan, took the trip out to visit the Final Fantasy publisher’s offices. In a social post, Hamaguchi described it as a “creatively rich exchange of visions and ideas.”
Hamaguchi, meanwhile, has also assured fans that the team working on the highly anticipated final instalment is “striking a balance” between keeping the story moving and tightening the pacing. Though he disagreed that some sections of FF7 Rebirth were “longer than necessary,” he said: “As we work on the conclusion to the trilogy, we are striking a balance on how story arcs are told and spread out so as to ensure that the game feels a bit more concise.”
We know development of Part 3 started as early as June 2022, with Square Enix saying last year that its goal was to see it launch by 2027, but RPG fans have been on the hunt for news about the next entry in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy since its last installment, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, launched in early 2024. Excitement for the third and final chapter in the trilogy grew even more when the team revealed that it had completed its story earlier this year.
Hamaguchi also recently assured fans that despite Square Enix admitting last year that Rebirth “did not meet expectations,” the second part of the Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy has been “doing very well” on both PC and PS5, and the team has been able to channel that success into a “high-quality third instalment.” While we wait, you can read up why the Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 team “will not cheat” when it comes to Final Fantasy 7’s iconic airship.
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.