We recently had the privilege to do two different interviews: an in-person interview with Teruki Endo, the battle director of Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and a Q&A with Naoki Hamaguchi, the Director on those projects. Be sure to read our companion Q&A article with Naoki Hamaguchi, too. Enjoy!
RPGFan: When working with established characters from Final Fantasy VII, and trying to redesign them and their movesets for games like Remake and Rebirth, what are the steps and thought processes you and your team go through? For example, what Limit Breaks make the cut? Which ones become abilities? What goes into making their unique abilitiy?
Endo: So, when it comes to a new battle system, the foundation is always the most important when introducing these new installments. From there, you think about what sort of skills would make the most sense to keep that will retain the flavor and personality of the original game. And that forms the basis of our thinking. So for someone like Cloud, his Braver skill, for example, is a move that has very strong impact, and so that’s something we’re able to retain as is. For a new battle system, we also want to bring in new skills. Then, when making a new skill, we look at the same sort of motif from the original and kind of adapt it as a new skill, or come up with something entirely different. That’s sort of the general thought process that we go through.
RPGFan: So, to follow up, what were some of your favorites characters to work on and which one do you think came out the best?
Endo: Ah, so this is a little bit tricky because I actually do love all of the characters. (Laughs from the room)
RPGFan: That’s fair. They’re all cool. I like them all too. (Laughs from the room)
Endo: Thank you! So you know, when it came to the battles, the first character that really forms the basis or the central spine of the system is Cloud. And I feel as though Cloud was a character that we were also able to create in a really tight and compact way. And I feel as though all of his skills really do fit the battle system very nicely.
RPGFan: Transitioning from Remake to Rebirth, we saw further changes to the battle abilities, such as Cloud and Tifa having smoother aerial combat compared to the stiffer style in FFVII Remake. Then, you saw characters like Barret who had some ground based moves in Remake, which for the most part were taken away to focus on his long-range abilities in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Were these choices made for balance reasons, or to allow players more freedom in choosing their character because of the greater choice in character selection in Rebirth compared to Remake?
Endo: So, yeah, it wasn’t solely about the balance. It was more of when we were making Remake, we were more focused on the command and turn based portion. Due to that, the action component was a little bit more limited or more selected in that sense.
When it came to Rebirth, with the extended development opportunity, we were able to actually further that balance of the action parts, extending them a little bit further. We tapped into and utilized a little bit more of our prior experience and expanded the action gameplay. From there, we reassesed each character and adjusted accordingly, and that’s sort of the general approach that we took.
RPGFan: So, we can’t talk about Final Fantasy VII without talking about Materia. It’s still one of the most iconic RPG systems of all time. And I have to ask, we’ve seen in Remake and Rebirth the inclusion and exclusion of different Materia, and we’ve seen the addition of brand new Materia. So what’s the process in choosing which Materia make the cut and which new Materia get added?
Endo: The answer is very similar to the first question in the sense that we typically thought about the original game and about what sort of Materia would be fitting, and then went through and confirmed each of them. And then from there, we narrowed it down again and thought about which ones really made the most sense to keep, which ones wouldn’t. We then assessed and finalized which Materia that we felt would be the most compelling for the players to use to get our final selection.
RPGFan: So as follow-up to that, I would love to know what are some of your favorite Materia to use and your favorite ability combos you enjoyed? What are you most proud to see finally come to fruition like, “Oh, this works! I can’t wait for people to see this?”
Endo: There is one called ATB Boost, and it makes the ATB gauge of the character double. I actually really enjoy using that and utilizing different skills for each of the characters.
RPGFan: Yeah, me too! I feel like it’s more fun to play and watch the abilities The spells are cool, but the abilities are what you want to do with everybody. The ATB Boost lets you do it, especially with a character like Tifa. I enjoyed it a lot with her. (Laughs from the room)
Endo: So yeah, when it to abilities and combos, Tifa is actually my favorite character also, especially when it comes to how her play style feels. It’s very granular, but actually whenever you cancel certain moves her movement is a little bit quicker. And so I really like those sort of details. (Laughs from the room)
RPGFan: Yes! Agreed! The quickness makes it fun to play!
RPGFan: The boss fights in these games are simply amazing. From the first one against the Guard Scorpion in the reactor to the fights against Jenova and everything between. They are engaging, special, unique, and just fun to play. So I want to ask, which of these battles were your favorite? Which ones were the hardest from the original game to make work? Which ones were like, “Oh, this is going to be great, I can’t wait for players to experience this?”
Endo: So for Remake, my favorite one would be Airbuster, and then for Rebirth, it would be the Materia Guardian. And it terms of which one we struggled the most with, it would be the Guard Scorpion that you mentioned. Since, you know, this was the boss battle that essentially was going to set up the form and framework the players are going to experience throughout the rest of the game. And so, in that sense, that was definitely a boss battle we had to mull over a lot during its design.
RPGFan: Well, let me say, you guys absolutely nailed that feeling with Guard Scorpion. Ever since the demo, it left me with a great impression of how amazing the rest of the game was going to be.
Endo: Thank you very much!
RPGFan: We have also seen some new fights added to these games that were not in the original game. Such as Roche, Gilgamesh, and we even saw a Vincent fight. For fights that are brand new to Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, how does the process of making these fights work out? I’m sure it’s work with other parts of the team, but how do you go about taking that information and make it work in the world of FFVII?
Endo: So, this could be said about the Final Fantasy series overall. The typical approach that we take is that we finalize these new characters, settings, and the story first. And then we come in and ask how we can adopt that thinking more for the battle design. And then, using the story component and the current narrative, we ask ourselves what we want the players to feel when they go into the battle. How can we reflect that current story and thinking in the fight itself and push it forward when it comes to the phase progression? The story is always what we are thinking about when we design these battles.
RPGFan: So, of all the new fights your team got to create, which one is your favorite?
Endo: Actually, yeah, it would have to be the Gilgamesh battle, because when I was making it, I just felt very fun. The character is so unique, and I really like the music as well. It’s one of my favorites.
RPGFan: Agreed, “Battle at the Big Bridge” is such a good music track.
Endo: Yes! Being able to listen to that music during development of the fight was very moving for me, since I’ve been a fan of the games for a long time as well.
[Editor’s Note: As you may guess, this interview was conducted before the Final Fantasy VII Revelation reveal.]
RPGFan: All right. I only have one final question, and if you can’t answer this question right now, please, by all means, you can choose not to. We are here for Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on the Switch 2, but there is a third game possibly coming out. And I just want to know, there’s two characters we haven’t seen in battle yet. Two big important characters: Cid and Vincent. Without spoilers, and you can just give a one-word answer, which are you most excited for players to finally see enter the battle when the third game comes around? Cid or Vincent? Because personally, I love Cid. He’s one of my favorites. I’ve been waiting very patiently, and I can’t wait to finally play as Cid.
Endo: Ah, so, you know, because I’m involved in the playable character design, for me, I don’t actually have one specific character that I tend to be biased towards or anything like that. My thinking is that I want all the characters to be something that all players will be able to enjoy. So… (Laughs from the room)
RPGFan: That’s an understandable and fair answer. (Laughs from the room)
RPGFan: Endo-san, thank you so much for your time today, and for answering all of our questions about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. I can’t wait to see what you and your team have in store for the future. Thank you!
Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth are both now available on the Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S as of June 3rd, 2026.
