Naoki Hamaguchi has a 12-year project wrapping up in Spring 2027, and he already knows what he doesn't want to do next. The director of the FF7 Remake trilogy told interviewers this week that his follow-up to Final Fantasy 7 Revelation won't be a remake, and that a grand-scale original RPG is where his ambitions are pointing.
For fans still deep in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and bracing for the trilogy's conclusion, this is a notable signal about where one of Square Enix's most prominent directors sees himself going once the trilogy finally closes.
Closing out a 12-year run
The FF7 Remake project was first announced at E3 2015. Eleven years later, Hamaguchi is finishing the third and final chapter. Final Fantasy 7 Revelation arrives Spring 2027 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and PC simultaneously, dropping the timed exclusivity model that defined the first two entries.
Hamaguchi has spoken publicly about the weight of finishing the trilogy. He's played through Revelation roughly 40 times already, and has said one scene involving Cloud moves him every single time. That level of personal investment makes the question of "what's next" genuinely interesting rather than routine.
Why he's passing on a Final Fantasy 6 remake
Here's the thing: a loud portion of the community has been pushing Hamaguchi to tackle a Final Fantasy 6 remake next. He's aware of it. He's laughed about it in interviews. But his answer is a clear, considered no.
His reasoning isn't dismissive of the idea itself. He just thinks a FF6 remake, or any remake project, would be better served by a different creator at Square Enix bringing their own perspective to it. Hamaguchi specifically framed it as wanting to give another developer the opportunity rather than treating it as territory he's abandoning.
The distinction matters for anyone hoping his comments leave the door open. They don't.
What "grand-scale RPG" actually means here
Hamaguchi's language in interviews has been deliberately open-ended. He described wanting to take on a new RPG challenge, with options ranging from a smaller AA-scale project to a new AAA franchise entirely. He mentioned Final Fantasy as one possibility but was equally enthusiastic about the prospect of working on a completely new IP.
"If it's not Final Fantasy, that's also exciting, because that could be a challenge for me," he said. That framing, where a non-FF project reads as an opportunity rather than a demotion, suggests he's genuinely weighing both paths rather than defaulting to the franchise that made his name.
Square Enix has the infrastructure to support either direction. Hamaguchi pointed to the company's broader catalogue as evidence it can deliver world-class RPGs beyond the FF7 Remake framework.
What this means for players who loved the trilogy
The FF7 Remake series set a high bar for what a large-scale RPG adaptation can look like. If you've been building out your FF7 Rebirth best builds ahead of Revelation, you already know the kind of depth and mechanical ambition Hamaguchi's team brings to combat and character systems. Wherever he goes next, that design philosophy is almost certainly coming with him.
The key here is that Hamaguchi isn't stepping back after the trilogy ends. He's actively looking for the next challenge at scale. Whether that lands as a new Final Fantasy numbered entry, a standalone IP, or something smaller and more experimental, the creative appetite is clearly still there.
Final Fantasy 7 Revelation releases Spring 2027. Until then, the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth guides collection has everything you need to stay sharp ahead of the trilogy's conclusion.
