There may have been no Final Fantasy VII Rebirth DLC news or a PC release date, but the “Summoning a Masterpiece” event hosted over the weekend in Boulevard City in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia wasn’t without its big moments. Producer Yoshinori Kitase and director Naoki Hamaguchi were on hand to share interesting details and anecdotes behind the development of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. However, during the Q&A portion of the event, Hamaguchi excitedly let loose a few teasers about the third and final installment of the Final Fantasy VII Remake series.
At the time of writing, the official replay of the event has been removed, but fear not! While these details are far from concrete and there’s still much to learn, we’ve summed up the gameplay details Hamaguchi released about the third game.
The Highwind and snowboarding are confirmed.
In considering the plot points of Final Fantasy VII being covered in the third installment, Hamaguchi asked the crowd which core elements of the original strike them as essential. He then admitted that, for him, the Highwind and snowboarding were the two that immediately came to mind–subtly confirming their inclusion.
In the original Final Fantasy VII, snowboarding appeared as a minigame. Whether the upcoming version of snowboarding will be a minigame or be expanded to become a method of world traversal is unclear. And while the inclusion of the Highwind may not be a huge surprise given we’ve already spent time in the iconic airship in Rebirth, Hamaguchi had more to share about Cid’s ride, which we’ll cover next.
The Highwind will include all-new gameplay features.
Hamaguchi made it clear that he sees the Highwind as an essential part of the Final Fantasy VII experience, so not including it wasn’t an option. For him, it’s just a matter of making the experience engaging and fresh for new and old Final Fantasy players alike. Sure, exploring the world with Cid’s airship is important, but it wouldn’t be a remake without adding something unexpected. Here’s his translated statement regarding upcoming Highwind features.
“As well as traveling around the world in the Highwind, there’s another aspect to the gameplay you’ll be able to access from the Highwind and do something new and special while you’re riding around on it.”
The third game will have more Tifa.
The overwhelming popularity of Tifa is well-documented, but we may be seeing the best of her in the third game. Hamaguchi said this about the hand-to-hand combat expert and Seventh Heaven bartender.
“We really do want to show more of Tifa in the third game and different aspects of her as a strong and powerful character.”
He also teased the addition of an all-new game system players can look forward to seeing Tifa interact with. He was mum on details beyond that. And about those Tifa suplexes from the original Final Fantasy VII. Hamaguchi said he couldn’t guarantee that skill would be included, but they’d consider it. Here’s hoping.
Queen’s Blood is returning, but it won’t be the same.
The consensus among the Final Fantasy community is pretty clear: Queen’s Blood is awesome! Hamaguchi was asked if everyone’s favorite Final Fantasy VII Rebirth card-based minigame would return in the third installment and he confirmed it would be. However, the gameplay experience will intentionally be different this second time around. What do we mean by that? Hamaguchi clarified a bit.
“If we included it unchanged–exactly the same–in the third game it wouldn’t feel new, it wouldn't feel special anymore. It might not be as enjoyable as perhaps it could be. I definitely want to include it in some way but I think we might change it a little bit, have a little bit of a tweak, evolve it in a certain direction.”
