Square Enix and PlayStation have launched a new series taking fans behind the scenes of the production of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the excellent second installment in the Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy.
The debut episode, titled Shaping the World, is free to watch on PlayStation’s official YouTube channel and focuses on how the team approached recreating Final Fantasy VII’s huge and varied world using modern technology. The episode features word from director Naoki Hamaguchi and producer Yoshinori Kitase (both of who I was lucky enough to sit with and speak to at a preview event not long ago), as well as creative director Tetsuya Nomura, composer Mitsuto Suzuki and a number of other talented folks crucial to bringing this vision of Final Fantasy VII to life.
In the video Hamaguchi and Nomura describe wanting to imagine the world of the game in a true scale, to show fans how all of these memorable locations are connected, while Kitase-san – who directed the original Final Fantasy VII on PS1 – admits the game packs in far more freedom of exploration and extra elements than he’d originally expected.
The video also goes into detail on the reimagining of the iconic Gold Saucer, complete with its visuals, sound design and music as well as the huge number of mini-games across the game, followed by deep dives into a number of other key locations.
The 15-minute video is full of interesting insight into Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s world and development, so you can watch it in full below:
We scored Final Fantasy VII Rebirth a huge 9/10 in our review, with Harry saying, “Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is an immense and expansive middle chapter of this ambitious remake trilogy. A reimagined and redefined behemoth of a game that simultaneously plays on nostalgia and forces you to question your memories of the original. While it suffers from some rote open world elements and a few technical issues, Rebirth is another magnificent entry into the gilded halls of Final Fantasy.”
