SPEAKER 1: Games of this podcast range from E to M.
JOSH STEIN: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the official Xbox podcast. It's the only podcast coming to you from inside Xbox. I'm Josh and today we've got a really exciting episode for you, very special, because joining us here in the studio to talk all things Final Fantasy and the Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is Naoki Hamaguchi-san welcome to the podcast. It's great to have you here and I kind of just wanted to jump right in and dive in and ask you, you have such a strong connection to Final Fantasy, the series and the remake, I just want to know what it means to you as you've worked on these past titles?
TRANSLATOR FOR NAOKI HAMAGUCHI: [Japanese language spoken] Let's see, I've been working with the Final Fantasy series for over 20 years at this point and yeah, it's a game and games franchise that basically raised me. So, as being a creator on the franchise, but also at the same time I am a big fan of the series. And of course, I am leading the Final Fantasy VII Remake series and the original Final Fantasy VII has such a fan base that this title is so beloved and so being a sort of new director to the Final Fantasy franchise and having somebody who is in this current generation creating something like this, I feel is very important, because we are carrying on the legacy to the next generation. So, I also feel very responsible almost for carrying this title.
JOSH STEIN: Yeah, well it's an honor to have you at the helm. You said 20 years, like this game even goes back to my own childhood, so it's an honor and it's exciting to see it such good hands as it moves forward into the future and new generations get to experience it. Now, the Tokyo Game Show, we announced that the Final Fantasy Remakes will be coming to all Xbox platforms. We know this was very exciting for folks who want to get back in, exciting for myself who get to go back and play our classics again, what can you tell us about the success so far with the Final Fantasy VII Remakes and what's this partnership with Xbox been like?
TRASLATOR FOR NAOKI HAMAGUCHI: Of course, I'm so happy that you are excited about this. Thank you very much for that. And, of course, with Final Fantasy VII and having such a large and passionate fan base, remaking such a property is a very delicate process and I think with so many people expecting for a remake to be produced out this series, there are those who are very particular about how some of the elements are being recreated. So, there is that risk of potentially disappointing some players if there is something wrong or something that is drastically different from the original. But, of course, we were trying to strive to make sure that we're honoring the originality of the original Final Fantasy VII and bring it to the modern era, culturalized so to speak, and trying to fit in more to more modern standards in ways of thinking and we took on new challenges with not just the elements that are incorporated, but the story as well. And I feel like that was what helped us be successful. And so, we saw that many fans and media as well, took to this very well and so as a creator on the project, I was really happy to see that. And in my career, I was actually a programmer before I took the seat of director and I was on the Final Fantasy XIII series as a main programmer. And I remember the days when I worked on the build so that we can get that submitted to Xbox for our build submission. So, I'm just excited to see that we can deliver the Final Fantasy VII Remake series to Xbox and get the franchise to even more people. And then also, I really want to take this opportunity, this chance to sort of establish a really good relationship with Xbox so that we are working in partnership to bring our games to more Xbox players.
JOSH STEIN: It's been an honor to see the partnership grow and it's fascinating to hear your story of growth yourself as you grew with the Final Fantasy series as well. And yeah, you guys have been doing it masterfully. I know it is no easy task to bring something so beloved to so many gamers and so many players around the world, and I think you guys are doing a great job of balancing that modern gaming ethos with kind of that classic, but feels like your childhood and home.
TRANSLATOR FOR NAOKI HAMAGUCHI: Oh, you hit the nail right on the head. That's what we were really aiming for in terms of like modern and classic, so I'm really happy to hear that as somebody who helped with the direction on the game.
JOSH STEIN: And I thank you so much. And obviously, coming to Xbox it's a big deal for us, it's a big deal for our partnership and for our players. Final Fantasy continues to spread its wings more and more, getting in front of more players, which is always a good thing when it a great game gets played by even more players. How exciting is back home for you and the team to see this franchise expand and grow as it becomes available to even more audiences on the Xbox side?
TRANSLATOR FOR NAOKI HAMAGUCHI: For sure. Up until this point, whenever we released a title in the Final Fantasy VII Remake series, like remake and rebirth, every time it releases the Xbox players were clamoring for "Where is the Xbox version?" And they want to play these Final Fantasy VII games and so, it hurt my heart that we can't respond to that, but I'm really happy now that we can confidently say to our Xbox players that the Final Fantasy VII Remake series will become available on the platform, and so I'm really happy about that.
JOSH STEIN: We're happy to heal your heart and make millions of fans happy at the same time.
NAOKI HAMAGUCHI: Yeah. Thank you.
JOSH STEIN: For some Xbox fans, this might be their first foray in a Final Fantasy game. This may be the very first one they play, honestly, I'm biased; I think it's a great one to jump right in and experience with Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade. What would you tell a newcomer to the maybe the Final Fantasy franchise who may be picking this up for the first time, maybe some of the background, the general story without spoilers if the Internet hasn't done that already, what can players expect when they step in the Midgar?
TRANSLATOR FOR NAOKI HAMAGUCHI: For sure and I agree with you. I think people who are jumping into Final Fantasy and the franchise itself for the first time, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade in the Remake series is definitely a great starting point. So, I would definitely recommend it. And with Final Fantasy VII franchise, I believe the original was especially popular in our mainline Final Fantasy series. So, in this game the protagonist Cloud who is a former soldier, will be sort of pursuing this villain who is (inaudible) very famous Sephiroth and through his sort of pursuit of Sephiroth, Cloud will rove himself and he will learn to kind of discover himself. And it's a very deep enriching story and I feel that it's been (inaudible) again, and it has a great sort of world view, a great storyline, great characters, and it's been about 20-plus years since the original Final Fantasy had come out, but yeah we've kind of reimagined it with modern technology and made it very immersive. And so, if somebody who has never played a Final Fantasy franchise title, I feel like, yeah, it would be a great sort of entry point to experience this.
JOSH STEIN: Yeah, folks are going to quickly learn how they feel about Sephiroth.
SEPHIROTH: "Our beloved planet is dying. Slowly. Silently. Painfully."
JOSH STEIN: And also, 20 years-it's just insane to think about how long it's been. Makes me feel old a little bit, but it's great to remember like just some of my first reactions with Cloud and some of his characters. I don't want to spoil it or go into details, but I think folks are in for a really great story. What can you share with us a little bit about Episode INTERmission, because that's a little different? I didn't have that 20 years ago.
TRANSLATOR FOR NAOKI HAMAGUCHI: For sure. And with Final Fantasy VII, we got such famous characters including Cloud and Sephiroth, but also a variety of cast of characters including Barrett, Tifa, Aerith and every one of them I believe has their own following, they're so beloved as well, and Yuffie is also a very popular character among the cast. And so, INTERmission was meant to be a story that would connect Remake and Rebirth and have Yuffie as our protagonist kind of go about in that episode.
JOSH STEIN: If anything a compliment to the characters that you guys built, because they're so loved. There's almost a fan club for each character which is great. Now, you guys have also streamlined a new progression system to look forward to, which makes me very happy, a little less menu time, a little bit more playtime. I'm always happy when I can play some more. What can players expect when they check out that new system?
TRANSLATOR FOR NAOKI HAMAGUCHI: For sure and with the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, being brought to the Xbox fans, I'm sure with the new players, of course, there will be people who want to take their time and play through Remake, Rebirth, and then Part III, but at the same time, I think there maybe people who might not want to attempt taking on an entire trilogy only because they don't have the time to play through the previous titles. And so, when we were brainstorming on ideas as to how we can get people to enjoy the story of the trilogy before the third installment comes out, we thought about the Streamlined Progression so that people can more casually get through the first two titles. This kind of stems from what I personally experienced as a game creator. Of course, as a creator, I would be spending a lot of time doing creative work, but at the same time, I love to sort of do some input so that I can continuously hone my creative sort of sensibilities and to grow that, but I don't have enough time sometimes and so I might be interested in a game, but then oh, but I might not have the time to get through this and I can't carve out the time. So, sometimes I feel like is there a way that perhaps the leveling can be done separately or what if my character didn't die so easily? Maybe I can keep going on this game. So, that's some of the things that I personally felt. So, I wanted to incorporate that into the Remake series for Final Fantasy VII and hopefully that would kind of trigger other like games to kind of take a hint and make people think that "Oh yeah, there are ways to play games like this as well."
JOSH STEIN: Yeah, 20 years later, turns out time is not quite as open as we used to have itself; modern problems need modern solutions, so it's pretty funny. We are quickly running out of time, so I have just a few more questions here. Now, I heard recently you and Phil Spencer were hanging out and you kind of shared your excitement over how well the game runs on the Xbox or ROG Ally X. How has been getting the game ready for Xbox, not only just the console, but all screens whether it be home or on the go?
TRANSLATOR FOR NAOKI HAMAGUCHI: For sure. Trying to develop on a sort of handheld device will tend to sort of have a lower machine spec compared to something like a full console unit, but I feel that the Xbox ROG Ally is a very high-spec machine in and of itself, so we didn't really necessarily have to customize so to speak to get it to function smoothly on that device, and of course yeah, Phil has had a chance to play it on that machine and he did express that for a handheld device you can still get a very rich gameplay experience out of it. And with the Xbox ROG Ally being such a high-spec handheld machine, I do feel that up until now, when we think of HD games, we would think it would be played on a console on a big screen, or on the PC, but nowadays I think we can start looking at handheld devices being available for players who want to play their games on the go or if they want to kind of be more relaxed in their living room, they can lay down and play on a handheld device. And I feel like we are going to be able to expand even more in terms of opportunities and that would allow for more players to get interested in Ishii games and so I want to continue sort of expanding on that. Yeah, I want to approach it so that we can deliver more games so that more players can play on the go also.
JOSH STEIN: It's always a win when people can have more chanced to play wherever they want whether it's the bed, the couch, maybe between a call at work, you never know when you can squeeze it in. Alright, final question. Now, we've talked about what newcomers can experience and what players both new and old can kind of get to setup for when they pickup Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade on January 22nd, 2026, but my question for you, Hamaguchi-san is, what is the one thing that you're personally most excited for players to get to experience when they play this for the first time?
TRANSLATOR FOR NAOKI HAMAGUCHI: In the end, Final Fantasy VII in game history I believe, has accumulated so many fans of the title and just being able to bring that in using modern technology and kind of bringing that into the modern world, I think our development team, me included, have been really sort of excited in our production of this game and we were really-we wanted to approach it sincerely and with our whole heart, and we are excited that we are able to sort of take this legacy of Final Fantasy VII, the original title and bring it to Xbox, the Xbox ROG Ally and just being able to expand further to deliver that game experience to players and just bring that sort of new sort of emotionally moving experience to the players.
JOSH STEIN: That's awesome and I hear you have a little surprise also for the Xbox players, maybe a demo?
TRANSLATOR FOR NAOKI HAMAGUCHI: Oh, yes. We would love for everybody to of course buy the title, but if you're still on the fence for the Remake series, yeah there is an opportunity to just get a feel for what the game is like be it on the Xbox console or the ROG Ally or even through Microsoft Store on the PC.
JOSH STEIN: That's exciting news. Hamaguchi-san, thank you so much for joining us today here on the podcast. You and your team are incredibly talented and we're so lucky and excited that we were able to get just a little bit of your time during your visit. Thank you so much.
NAOKI HAMAGUCHI: Thank you too.
JOSH STEIN: And for everyone watching and listening, you can preorder Final Fantasy VVI Remake Intergrade for PC and Xbox Series X and S right now. It releases on January 22nd, 2026 and for a limited time, those who preorder will receive the original Final Fantasy VII. Xbox players can download and play the legendary Final Fantasy VII immediately after their preorder purchase and it's an Xbox Play Anywhere title, which is awesome. I know I can't wait to get my hands on it, but until then, thank you again Hamaguchi-san. We appreciate you so much. And thank you to everyone who's watching and we'll see you in the next one. Goodbye. [ Xbox Sound ]
