What fans want most is the third installment as soon as possible.
At Tokyo Game Show 2025, Square-Enix director Naoki Hamaguchi offered a window into the quiet calculus behind a beloved franchise's expansion—how a studio weighs new hardware formats, shifting play habits, and the pull of an unfinished trilogy against the temptation to extend what already exists. The choices reveal something older than gaming itself: the tension between giving people more of what they love and trusting that the thing they love most is simply the ending.
- The Switch 2 version of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will ship on a Game Key Card rather than a traditional cartridge, a format change driven by hardware loading limits that Hamaguchi believes Nintendo will champion as the new standard—not quietly fix.
- New accessibility features including Easy mode and infinite health aren't an admission that the original was too hard, but a deliberate response to a fractured gaming landscape where the same player might finish a dungeon on a TV tonight and a bus tomorrow morning.
- A mobile port of the remake trilogy is off the table for now—not ruled out forever, but Square-Enix sees no market signal strong enough to justify the investment at this moment.
- The most consequential trade-off: planned DLC bridging Rebirth to the third installment has been shelved entirely, with the studio betting that fans would rather have the finale sooner than supplemental content in between.
- Everything else—a standalone Queen's Blood card game, post-trilogy DLC, new projects—sits in a genuine open question, contingent on finishing the remake and seeing who shows up when it's done.
At Tokyo Game Show 2025, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi spoke candidly about the decisions shaping the remake trilogy's next chapter, from hardware choices to what his team is choosing not to build.
The Switch 2 version of Rebirth will use Nintendo's Game Key Card format rather than a standard cartridge—a choice rooted in loading speed limitations that Hamaguchi doesn't expect Nintendo to solve by pushing cartridge technology further. He sees the Game Key Card as the platform's future standard, a format publishers and Nintendo are building together. The cost to consumers is real, he acknowledged, but the innovation is genuine.
The new console versions also introduce Easy mode, infinite health, and streamlined progression options. Hamaguchi was clear these aren't corrections to the original game's difficulty, which he stands behind. They reflect something broader: gaming has scattered across living rooms, bedrooms, handhelds, and outdoor spaces, and the studio wanted the experience to travel with players rather than demand a fixed context.
On mobile, the answer was straightforward—the market data doesn't support a port right now. Square-Enix is watching, but won't move without a clearer signal.
The sharpest revelation was about DLC. Plans once existed for bridging content between Rebirth and the third installment, echoing the Intergrade episode that extended the first game. Those plans were set aside. Hamaguchi's team concluded that what fans want most is the trilogy's conclusion, and the fastest path there meant shelving the DLC entirely. A Queen's Blood standalone game received a similar answer: not a priority, not being planned, but not impossible once the trilogy is complete and the studio can see what the audience looks like on the other side.
The conversation ended with Hamaguchi naming his favorite track from Rebirth's sprawling soundtrack—not the main theme, but the cheerful Stamp song "Bow Wow Wow (Chuken Stamp)." A small, unguarded moment before the show floor swallowed everything again.
At Tokyo Game Show 2025, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi sat down for a brief conversation about the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox releases of the first game in Square-Enix's remake trilogy. The discussion touched on technical choices, design philosophy, and what comes next—revealing a studio making deliberate trade-offs about where to spend its energy.
One of the first questions concerned the Game Key Card format that will house Rebirth on Switch 2, rather than a traditional cartridge. The decision stems from loading speed limitations inherent to the hardware itself. Hamaguchi was clear that he doesn't expect Nintendo to push cartridge speeds higher in the future. Instead, he believes the company will invest in popularizing the Game Key Card as the standard storage medium for the platform. From a developer's perspective, he framed this as a collaborative win—publishers and Nintendo working together to establish a new format that serves both the technology and the player experience. The cost to consumers is something the industry will need to help people understand, he acknowledged, but the format itself represents genuine innovation.
The new Switch 2 and Xbox versions of Rebirth include a suite of accessibility features—Easy mode, infinite health, and what Square-Enix calls Streamlined Progression options. These aren't band-aids for difficulty complaints about the original release. Hamaguchi was confident the game's balance is sound. The features exist because how people play games has fragmented dramatically. Console gaming used to mean a TV in the living room. Now players are spread across bedrooms, PCs, and handheld devices outdoors. The studio wanted to reflect that reality by offering multiple ways to experience the same game, not just multiple difficulty settings.
When asked about bringing the trilogy to mobile platforms, Hamaguchi was pragmatic. Square-Enix wants to reach wider audiences, but the market data doesn't justify a mobile port of Final Fantasy VII Remake right now. The demand simply isn't there from a business standpoint. That could change. The company is watching trends and will revisit the question if circumstances shift, but for now, mobile remains off the table.
The most significant revelation came when discussing DLC for Rebirth. Plans existed at one point to create bridging content between the second and third installments, similar to the Intergrade episode that extended the first game. But priorities shifted. Hamaguchi and his team decided that what fans want most is the third installment itself, arriving as quickly as possible. DLC for Rebirth was shelved in favor of accelerating that release. There's a caveat: once the trilogy concludes, DLC for the final chapter is possible. The director noted that finishing the remake trilogy will likely expand Final Fantasy's audience significantly, and at that point, whether the studio pursues additional DLC or entirely new projects remains under consideration.
A question about a standalone Queen's Blood card game—a minigame that became unexpectedly popular in Rebirth—received a similar answer. It's not a priority now. The focus is singular: deliver the third installment with the highest quality possible. After that, the studio's roadmap is genuinely open. If demand materializes, a Queen's Blood standalone title could happen. But it's not being planned for.
Toward the end of the conversation, Hamaguchi was asked which track from Rebirth's massive soundtrack he'd been listening to most. He mentioned the obvious candidates—the recurring Final Fantasy main theme—but his personal favorite was something more unexpected: the Stamp song "Bow Wow Wow (Chuken Stamp)." It's catchy, he said. He hopes others will find it as engaging as he has. The interview ended there, a small moment of levity before returning to the noise of the show floor.
Notable Quotes
What fans want the most is to bring the third installment as soon as possible. That would take priority over the Rebirth DLC.— Naoki Hamaguchi, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth director
The way people approach and play video games is just so diverse, so we wanted to bring a diversified way to play our games.— Naoki Hamaguchi, on accessibility features
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
So you're essentially telling players that the Game Key Card isn't a compromise—it's the future. Are you comfortable with that?
I think it has to be. The hardware has limits. Rather than fight those limits, we're saying this is the better path forward. Nintendo created something genuinely useful for developers. We're betting on that.
The accessibility features feel like a bigger statement than just "we want more players." You're saying the way games are consumed has fundamentally changed.
It has. You can't assume everyone's sitting on a couch with a controller anymore. Some people are playing on a train. Some are playing in bed. The game should work for all of them, not just one ideal scenario.
You had a DLC plan. You killed it. That's a real choice—not a delay, but a cancellation. Why was that hard?
It wasn't hard once we asked the right question: what do fans actually want? The answer was clear. They want to know how the story ends. Everything else is secondary.
Do you worry you're leaving money on the table by not pursuing mobile?
Maybe. But we're not chasing every market. We're chasing the markets where our game actually fits. Mobile isn't that place yet, and we're honest about that.
Queen's Blood became this unexpected phenomenon. Doesn't that suggest there's an audience for a standalone game?
There might be. But right now, that audience is playing Rebirth. We need to finish what we started first. After that, we'll listen.