God of War and Witcher 3 inspired Final Fantasy 7 remake and rebirth

Although part of the same trilogy, Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth are very different games. The title director Naoki Hamaguchi drew inspiration from while developing those games to explain why.

Speaking to Josephir, Hamaguchi commented that the remake is a very story driven game. This led him and the team behind a title that introduced Final Fantasy 7 to a whole new generation of gamers looking to PlayStation's greatest story-driven hits for inspiration.

The remake's linear story was inspired by a pair of PlayStation flagships

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Hamaguchi specifically mentions The Last of You and God of War as games that he looked at when creating the remake. Maybe not a series you'd associate with Final Fantasy 7, but perhaps fitting considering how long the remake has been a PlayStation exclusive.

Also, whether you like them or not, The Last of Us and God of War have become standard bearers for linear, story-driven triple-A games. It's hard to think of better examples of Hamaguchi helping to produce a remake, especially when he and Square Enix were working on the FF7 revival.

Hamaguchi then switches to talking about Rebirth which, despite being a sequel to the remake, is very different and very open. Using The Last of Us and God of War didn't make much sense. Instead, Hamaguchi used The Witcher 3 and Horizon games as his touchstones, creating a very open map of Rebirth that players will explore after leaving Midgar.

The translator repeats The Last of Us, but Josephir seems to confirm on Twitter what Hamaguchi says is Horizon.

It might sound strange since two titles in the same trilogy were inspired by such different games, but those who have played the Final Fantasy 7 remake story until now are reading this and thinking it makes perfect sense. Now we need to know what games Hamaguchi and team took inspiration from during the development of Part 3.

Hamaguchi naturally stopped short of revealing that information, but we do know that the next game will be more abbreviated than Rebirth. Hamaguchi has already revealed a lot, which means the next game will probably be closer to God of War than The Witcher 3.

My guess is it will fall somewhere in between. If you have any ideas about what games might fit the bill as inspiration, I'm all ears. A third game might not even spell the end of the Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy. Square is considering DLC, and maybe even a fourth game.