Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth creative director and series veteran Tetsuya Nomura is "even more nervous" about your reaction to action-RPG's ending than he was for the original Remake.
Nomura says as much to Automaton Media, which asked him if the ending of Rebirth will see any twists like what we saw in Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
"For FF7 Remake, I wanted players to slightly question 'Isn't it almost the same as the original….?' and then surprise them with the ending," he says. "But with Rebirth, I honestly cannot imagine what players will be thinking.
"For example, I set up the direction of the final scene in Final Fantasy 7 Remake that you asked about. I can't really talk about it now, so I'll just say that the final scene of the next game will have a very… different impact from the previous one. I'm even more nervous about how people are going to react to some of the things in Rebirth than I was for Remake. I would like you to play it as soon as possible before I end up giving away spoilers!"
Hoo boy. Over the past year, Square Enix has dished out plenty of teases over what the ending of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth brings. We know we'll be calling it at The Forgotten Capital, which is the stage for the original JRPG's most iconic scene. The teases have been merciless since, and I may lose a few nights' sleep thinking about what Nomura has said.
As for why Nomura might be nervous, Final Fantasy 7 Remake is largely faithful to the original, save for the presence of visible 'Whispers' who ensure the story continues along the path it's supposed to. That's all well and good until those Whispers get clobbered at the game's end, which opens up Rebirth to deviate further.
When Final Fantasy 7 Remake was revealed, fans were nervous about the original story changing, so the presence of Whispers appears pretty meta. As such, Rebirth could be where the trilogy truly sets itself apart from the original story. Nomura's comments tease plenty, then. Thankfully, with a demo now out and the game set to release later this month, we won't have to wait long to find out and see.