After four years, the second installment of the Final Fantasy 7 remake plan "Rebirth."""Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth" is finally coming to everyone. Not long ago, with the help of Square Enix and Asian publisher Bandai Namco, we were able to experience the full content of the second chapter of the game in advance (click here for details, and in this interview, we asked you to answer some questions about the content of the demo, and on the other hand, we touched on the topic of the game's plot and detailed setting). The two of them also contained some thought-provoking words in their answers. Here's the full transcript of the interview:
- I experienced the content of the second chapter of the game this time, and I got a rough idea after playing for 7 hours. So what percentage of this second chapter is in the game? How many chapters will there be in the game? What is the overall estimated duration of the game? Naoki Hamaguchi (hereinafter referred to as "Hamaguchi"): Chapter 2 is still the beginning of the game, so it's hard to say exactly what percentage. By design, if you only play the main story and don't touch any side stories, it will take about 40 hours to play. But if you don't level up at all, the difficulty may be a bit high in the back, of course, if you are very good at action games, you can clear the level without leveling. I don't think there should be too many people who only play the main story.,The average player will at least play some side training or something.,So if you complete about 20-30% of the world report.,It will take about 50-60 hours to clear the final level.。 If you play all the side content, you'll easily exceed 100 hours of gameplay. In fact, the Glasland area that everyone experienced this time, when the plot development comes back, there will be new side content, and this time the side content can be said to be quite rich. INTERVIEWER There are a lot of characters in the game that can be controlled, how did the production team grasp the balance to ensure that each character has a chance to play? Hamaguchi: First of all, the starting point of the game's design is different in terms of exploration of the large map and the main story. When exploring the large map, players can freely team up to explore. In particular, this time we have added the joint action skill, in this regard, we have taken care not to make the joint action of a certain combination particularly strong, and will maintain a good balance, and we also hope that players can try more characters and combinations. As for the main story, although players can also adjust their teams to a certain extent, each character has a part centered on the story arrangement, so that players can experience the uniqueness of each character. 
- The free exploration part of this work is very large, but there are some places that may not seem free enough after playing. Why is it designed this way, and is there any chance of changing it in the future? Here are three points: Claude can't be removed from the party outside of the combat simulation, the leader can't change the control when not in combat, and the character's costume style can't be changed freely. Hamaguchi: This game is basically based on Claude in terms of world view and plot, so players can't remove Claude from the team or control him, which is the same as the original work. Of course, I also know that there are many calls for forming a battle team without Claude, so after the game is cleared, players can choose to remove Claude from the battle team as an item unlocked after clearing the game. At least in the process of clearing the customs, I still hope to be centered on Claude. The second point is also based on the same reason, that is, the story of this game is centered on Claude. However, we also know that the other characters are also very popular, and all the characters have the opportunity to control them as the plot progresses. As for the third point of clothing styling, the part that I have played with at the moment is only in the second chapter, in fact, when you get a new costume later, the function of changing the costume will be turned on. - After the game is cleared, can players return to the big world to explore freely? Hamaguchi: Yes, and there will be a lot of options, such as being able to go back to a certain chapter or reset the completion of certain branches. There is also a lot of content that can be played after clearing the level. - When exploring the large map for a long time, there seems to be very little chat interaction between characters, why is this designed? Hamaguchi: When you're exploring freely, there are some interactive dialogues between the characters, and it doesn't seem like there's a lot of it. In terms of design, if you want to do it, you need to do a lot of things in combination with the scene, otherwise there will be several fixed general-purpose routines repeatedly, and the experience may not be too good. However, in the process of advancing the main story, there will be more dialogue between the characters. 
- The world of this game is very vast, the game is still divided into chapters, and there may be some restrictions on the range of movement in the early stage, so is there a chance to get a vehicle that can fly to explore every corner of the world in the later game? Hamaguchi: The chapters of the game are only divided at the story level, and are not designed to limit functionality. In fact, as the story progresses, for example, if you reach Juno, you can return to Glasland immediately. The game features a vast world that is seamlessly connected, and will allow you to explore every corner of the world later in the game. Vehicles will also be gradually opened, for example, when you need to cross the sea, there will be vehicles that can sail on the sea, and when you need to cross the continent, there will also be vehicles that can fly. - Will I still have a chance to return to Midgar in this game? Hamaguchi: Unfortunately, I can't. When it's time to explore freely in the later stages, you can go back to the vicinity of Midgar and look from the outside, but you can't get in. - As the focus of this work, how many branches are there? In addition to the traditional monster fighting, running errands and doing tasks, is there any interesting gameplay? Hamaguchi: It's not convenient to disclose the specific number of branch lines, but it can only be said that there are very many branches. When designing side quests, one of the overall directions was to make the game's world view fuller, and not only the main characters of the story, but also many characters related to this world will appear. These side quests offer some original story content and unique gameplay experiences, including some side games, puzzles, bosses, and even many features designed for side quests. 
- The Midgard Serpent was a wild monster in the original work, and it couldn't be beaten in the early days. This time it was changed to a story boss, why did you make such a change? Hamaguchi: Since the game is divided into chapters, at the end of the second chapter, we want to set up a boss that players can feel a sense of accomplishment. While it's possible to design a new boss, the Midgard Serpent might bring back memories for some veteran players, and defeating it at this point in time would be a great way to feel accomplished, so we thought it would be interesting to make this design change. In the original game, you can go directly to the Mithril Mine after you get the chocobo, and veteran players may rush over directly, at this time the Midgard Serpent becomes a hurdle that must be passed, and in a sense, it also brings some small shocks to the original players. - In this new dynamic difficulty, will the enemy's ability change in numerical value or AI behavior, and will the experience gained in dynamic difficulty and drops change compared to easy? Hamaguchi: The dynamic difficulty is basically to adjust the level of the enemy, and there will be no change in attack pattern and attack desire. As for why such a difficulty was designed, some players may want to work on side quests at the right time, but if you play late and then come back to deal with the initial side quests, the difficulty may be too low. So in order to make it a little challenging for these players to play the initial content, a dynamic difficulty has been added this time, so that players can choose to play the side content at the right time without losing the challenge. The difficulty adjustment only affects the difficulty of the battle, and it is the same in terms of rewards. - There is a setting of favorability in this work.,Will the favorability affect the damage of the two people's joint moves? Hamaguchi: Friendship has nothing to do with fighting. Favorability mainly changes through the options during the dialogue and the results of the mini-game, and players can cultivate it according to their own preferences, and the favorability will be related to the unlocking of some side plots, and eventually it will also affect the outcome of a side story. If friendship is tied to combat, players will do everything they can to increase it, which is contrary to the original design. 
- Will Vincent join the team as a playable character in this game? Hamaguchi: Vincent is somewhat similar to the Crimson 13 in the previous game in this game, and cannot be included in the game. But in the main story and some side plots, Chinese Sente will appear. - The Final Fantasy series is often linked with other titles, "Final Fantasy 15" was launched with "Tekken 7", and recently "Tekken 8" is about to be released, is it possible that "Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth" will be linked with it? Kitase Yoshifan (hereinafter referred to as "Kitase"): Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is currently working with Apex, and there is no other information to reveal about the future. INTERVIEWER The collaboration between Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Apex has actually caused a lot of discussion, why did these two seemingly completely different titles come together? Kitase: There are a lot of young people in their 20s who are playing Apex players, and there are a lot of veteran players who have played the original game in Final Fantasy 7. We wanted to make Final Fantasy 7 known and accessible to young people through this collaboration, so we made this collaboration. Another personal reason is that my son is actually a heavy player of Apex. This linkage was actually decided a long time ago, but I can't tell my son for the sake of secrecy. 
- According to the known information, the plot has reached a more critical point at the end of the game, and players may be very tempted to play the rest of the content immediately. There has been a gap of almost 4 years between the first and second parts, so is there any hope that the time between the second and third parts will be shortened? Hamaguchi: We also know that players want to play it as soon as possible, but the development of the game is not easy, and it is difficult to say whether it can be released sooner, so we can only say that we will try to do it as quickly as possible. Actually, I've been exposed to various opinions before, some people will say that you are too slow to make a game for 1 year, and some people say that it is amazing to be able to make such a game in 4 years. Kitase: At present, the script of the third game is almost complete, so I can say that the development progress is quite fast. Since it is divided into three games, there will indeed be some gaps between the works and the works, during which players can analyze and discuss the plot. And the plot of "Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth" has also created space for this, and I believe it will cause heated discussions among players, so please look forward to it. - Finally, please say a few words to the Chinese players. Hamaguchi: The development of the game has come to an end, and the release on February 29 will not be postponed. In terms of works,The previous work may have been based on plot content.,And this time it's added to the big map exploration.,With full freedom and in-depth gameplay elements.,Compared with the previous work, there are a lot of evolutions.,Please look forward to it.。 Kitase: This time, the plot will be centered on Sephiroth, and Alice's fate will be very dramatic when she arrives at the high court, so please pay attention to it at the plot level. In terms of game experience, this time it is different from the previous work that you can explore on the world map, and there are many old players who will look forward to what will happen after the remake of the original place, and we hope to present content that exceeds players' expectations, so please support it. 