“We Nailed It” Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3 Director Says He Was Most Excited to Recreate Cloud and Tifa Most Emotional Moment
Even after Final Fantasy VII Rebirth tackled one of the most iconic sequences in the entire Final Fantasy VII legacy, the remake trilogy still has a deep bench of unforgettable moments left to bring into the modern era. One of those scenes sits near the end of the original game and it is widely viewed as one of the most emotionally intense story beats Square Enix has ever shipped. Now, Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy director Naoki Hamaguchi has effectively confirmed that this moment was a personal priority for him and that the team believes it delivered.
The detail surfaced through a livestream report from Vinesauce, who participated in a casual gathering that took place after a promotional event tied to the Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S release of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade earlier this month in New York City. The conversation briefly touched on the conclusion of the remake trilogy, and through an interpreter, Hamaguchi highlighted the scene he was most looking forward to recreating: Cloud finding himself with the help of Tifa. That specific moment is a cornerstone of Final Fantasy VII storytelling, not only because of what it reveals, but because of how it reframes the entire character arc and the relationships around it.
What immediately stands out is the confidence in Hamaguchi’s phrasing. He did not go into production details, but he reportedly said the team nailed it, which is the kind of statement that lands as a deliberate signal to fans. When a director chooses a line like that about one of the most sacred scenes in the game’s narrative, it reads as a calculated reassurance that the emotional core has been protected while the trilogy’s new direction continues to evolve the story.
That is where the modern trilogy context gets interesting. The remake project has not been a 1 to 1 reconstruction, and Rebirth already introduced meaningful changes that could ripple into how this scene plays. Tifa’s brief first venture into the Lifestream in Rebirth is not something that happens in the original, and Cloud has also been depicted as partially aware of his past and the truth behind the Nibelheim incident earlier than expected. That raises a real question for Part 3: how will the scene’s emotional payload be tuned when some of the mystery and confusion has already been redistributed across earlier chapters
If there is one reason to stay optimistic, it is the performance foundation already set by the first 2 entries. Cody Christian and Britt Baron have delivered standout work as Cloud and Tifa, and an upgraded emotional sequence with modern voice acting, facial capture, and cinematic staging has the potential to become one of the trilogy’s defining moments.
Development messaging around Part 3 has also started to loosen up. With the name for Part 3 finally decided, it tracks that the team is becoming more willing to talk about what they are excited to ship. There is still healthy debate about the long term visual ceiling of Unreal Engine 4, but enthusiasm and intent matter, and the team’s commitment to delivering a freely explorable map plus the Highwind airship suggests Square Enix is aiming for a finale that feels expansive rather than purely linear.
Now the real test is execution. If the team truly nailed the Cloud and Tifa sequence, and if it threads the needle between legacy accuracy and trilogy specific changes, Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3 has a path to land as a genre defining JRPG finale.
Do you want Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3 to recreate this scene as close to the original as possible, or do you want the trilogy’s new story direction to push it into something meaningfully different?
