Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director anticipated a mixed reaction to its controversial ending, but wanted to avoid fan service

This story discusses the ending of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi has said he deliberately intended for the game’s ending – the fate of Aerith – to cause debate and keep players guessing until the trilogy’s forthcoming conclusion.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Hamaguchi discussed fan reaction to the game’s divisive ending and how he wanted to avoid fan service with its development.

“There was a danger there, there was definitely a trap,” he said with regards to Aerith’s fate. “With the original game, I was just a fan. I played the game when I was younger, and I’ve got my perspective on that scene as just a single fan. I felt if I made a decision – it has to go in this direction, we have to do it this way – that would very much make it a fan-driven thing. Maybe make it more like fan service. I kind of want to avoid doing that.”

As a result, Hamaguchi took a backseat to the original creators – Tetsuya Nomura, Yoshinori Kitase, Kazushige Nojima – and instead shifted his focus to the presentation of their vision.

“Mr Kitase often says this,” Hamaguchi continued, “that he really wanted to create that kind of debate and speculation after the game and moving through to the third game, that people keep talking about it up until they do see the final conclusion. In that sense I think we probably have achieved exactly what he wanted to do there and I’m very satisfied with that, because people are still talking about it.”

Hamaguchi acknowledged a mixed reaction to the game’s ending, but admitted “that’s kind of the way we wanted it to go” to ensure discussion continued until the third game in the trilogy.

The controversial ending is part of a continuous guessing game for players familiar with the original, though Hamaguchi remained tight-lipped on what will be changed in the third game.

“The important thing is that the player will wonder whether it’s going to change or not,” he said. “So if it was all exactly as it was in the original storyline, you’d know exactly what was coming: there’d be no anticipation, there’d be no excitement. For people who played the game, they’d know exactly what’s coming next. It wouldn’t really be a fun experience. It might be nostalgic, but it wouldn’t be a fun experience.”

Hamaguchi notes the ending of Remake with the characters breaking the barriers of fate, the inclusion of the whispers, and Zack’s alternate timeline in Rebirth as key moments to keep players wondering.

“The real purpose of these elements is to indicate to the player, this is where the story might change,” he said. “It doesn’t mean it change, this is where it change. You might see something new, you might see something different. And that really does help people to keep engaged with the story and keep having that wonder and that anticipation about what’s coming next.”