Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy director Naoki Hamaguchi has stated the multiplatform approach for Part Three won’t impact development “whatsoever”.
With Remake Intergrade heading to Switch 2 and Xbox consoles next year, Square Enix confirmed the full trilogy would be multiplatform. That said, we don’t yet know the release date for Rebirth on Switch 2 and Xbox, and it’s unknown if part three will be a simultaneous multiplatform release or staggered with PlayStation leading.
Still, it seems this multiplatform approach is working out just fine, as Hamaguchi told Easy Allies for Part Three “we do have designated teams working on each platform so that our multiplatform approach won’t impact the development whatsoever”.
FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE INTERGRADE – Release Date Announcement – Nintendo Switch 2Watch on YouTube
Yet while “development for both Nintendo Switch 2 Rebirth and the third installment are going very smoothly”, it seems the Xbox consoles are proving a little more problematic.
“As for the Xbox version, like many other publishers, I think we did see some issues with the lack of memory compared with other platforms,” said Hamaguchi. While he doesn’t specify, presumably he’s referring to the less powerful Series S console, which proved tricky for Baldur’s Gate 3 studio Larian among others.
“But as for the Switch 2 releases,” Hamaguchi continued, “we actually have the main dev team working really hard on this. As a result I think we’re pretty confident with the end product, we did get some great reviews for FF7 Remake Intergrade so I hope the fans look forward to it.”
Indeed, in an interview with Automaton earlier this week, Hamaguchi praised the Switch 2’s “great hardware specs”.
“However,” he added, “due to power consumption constraints, it’s designed to dial back performance a bit in handheld mode. So, since a straightforward port wouldn’t be enough to make the game run stably in handheld mode, we had our talented rendering programmers put in extra work on optimisation.”
The key to ensuring the game still looks great, though, is a focus on lighting.
“I believe lighting is the crucial factor in terms of graphics quality and expression in this day and age,” said Hamaguchi. Approximating the lighting would have made the game feel “cheap”, he explained, and so the development team has reduced the processing load in other areas – such as post-effects and fog – to retain high quality lighting.
Hamaguchi has been doing the rounds for interviews as part of last week’s Tokyo Game Show.
In another interview he discussed the gameplay of Part Three further, stating he didn’t want to “deliver just exactly the same style of gameplay experience as we had with Rebirth again”. Instead it will be evolved to offer a “fresh take on the Final Fantasy 7 gameplay”.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade will be released on Switch 2 and Xbox consoles on 22nd January next year. It adds boost options to help players progress quicker, which will retroactively be added to the PS5 and PC versions too.