Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's director wants series vets and newbies alike to be surprised by its twist and turns, seeing the remake as more than 'just a callback'

An image from the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth trailer, wherein Cloud Strife shares a tender hug with Sephiroth. — (Image credit: Square Enix)

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth isn't coming to PC any time soon—but there are signs of hope, which means I'm allowed to be hyped for it, and definitely won't get burned by a year-long wait. Especially not after finishing the FF7 Remake last week. (I'm hoping if I write this down, it'll become real).

Until then I'll be dodging spoilers—and it looks like there'll be plenty of fresh ones to avoid. That's according to an interview with the game's director Tetsuya Nomura over on Automaton last week.

"More than 20 years have passed since the original game. In that time, each player has probably developed their own image of what FF7 is. However, it was precisely because of this that I wanted to take on the challenge of remaking it," Nomura says, later remarking: "There are people who have played the original and will play the remake trilogy, and on the other hand, there are players who started out with FF7 Remake. I also think there will be players who begin with Rebirth too."

I'm actually one of said players—the original Final Fantasy 7 passed young Harvey by, though I know the broad strokes of its plot through osmosis. I thoroughly enjoyed myself with the Remake, even if I did start to tune out whenever talk of subverting fate and destiny happened. I figured it was mostly for the series vets, anyway, and fighting ghosts is fun.

"We want all these different players to experience the same sense of surprise, regardless of their entry point," Nomura continues. "However, we didn’t want the remake trilogy to be just a callback to the original. We don’t just want people to play it from the perspective of 'oh, that’s how it’s changed'."

It's an admirable goal, even if it's sure to ruffle a few chocobo feathers. I'm of the mind that shaking things up is more interesting than just a 1:1 translation, I can understand why players hungry for a sweet hit of RTX-on nostalgia felt hard-done by. On that point, Nomura says: "I honestly cannot imagine what players will be thinking … I’m even more nervous about how people are going to react to some of the things in Rebirth than I was for Remake."

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth releases for the PS5 later this month February 29. As for a PC port? It's a near-certainty, it's just a question of 'when' rather than 'if'. Signs point to probably-one-year-from-then, which is both a blessing and a curse.

On the one hand, I need to dodge spoilers for (probably) twelve calendar months. On the other hand, the discourse over how they ruined Cloud's acupuncture story arc (again, I have not played the original game) will have no bearing on me. I can simply boot up the game and enjoy it a whole year after the twitter arguments over yellow paint have dried out.

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Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.