If you're on the brink of completing one of the most ambitious projects in video game history, you're probably stressed. If said project is the decade-spanning Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, a ground-up rebuild and drastic expansion of one of the most influential games of the last 30 years, you’d probably be even more anxious.

Naoki Hamaguchi doesn’t seem stressed, though. When I ask the Square Enix studio head and game director how he’s feeling as the release of Final Fantasy VII Revelation draws near, capping a series he’s worked on for over a decade, the only reply is a wry “I was just so focused, it really felt like it passed in a flash.”

Hamaguchi’s calm demeanor is all the more surprising given the weight of expectation surrounding the project. The original Final Fantasy VII, released on Sony's PlayStation in 1997, was a pop-cultural phenomenon—not the Japanese-RPG series’ first Western release, but undeniably its breakthrough title; one that arrived right as gaming was growing out of its kids-only niche and into a mainstream medium.

It’s still regarded as one of the best Final Fantasy entries, and its tale of reluctant hero Cloud Strife and his scrappy band of eco-warrior friends battling an all-powerful corporation destroying the planet is more relevant than ever.

A remake has been brewing since the PlayStation 2 era , and even teased with a cinematic tech demo alongside the PS3 reveal . Yet when Final Fantasy VII Remake finally arrived in 2020, toward the end of the PS4’s lifespan , it came with a twist—this wasn’t the same game with modern visuals and mechanics, but rather a glimpse of an alternate reality, one where events could potentially play out differently.

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