Final Fantasy VII Rebirth takes almost 50 hours to beat if you rush through it. That’s even more than the full original game of which it’s an incomplete retelling. Was part two of Square Enix’s ambitious remake trilogy a fun, maximalist adventure or an overstuffed turkey? According to director Naoki Hamaguchi, it’s neither. But part three will definitely be shorter.
The developer was asked about the recent RPG’s long and arduous runtime during Brazil Game Show 2025. Rebirth is loaded with open-world side quests, chores, and mini-games. It also has extended sequences that weren’t in the original game whose additive value is debatable. “Final Fantasy VII was never meant to be this long,” wrote Kotaku‘s Kenneth Shepard last year.
“Regarding time management in certain sections, especially in FF7 Rebirth, I honestly don’t believe that they were longer than necessary,” Hamaguchi told Screen Rant. “I feel like nowadays, players just have too much to do and too much to play; so they often feel the urge that something has to be concluded quickly.”
Once upon a time, Final Fantasy fans were content to get a meaty RPG they could spend all year toiling away at. Filler wasn’t a flaw, it was part of the natural cadence of the gameplay. Of course, back in the day, there weren’t dozens of interesting new games coming out every month, let alone a raft of always-evolving live-service games to keep playing.
At the same time, I don’t recall many people complaining about the length of Baldur’s Gate III, whose over 70-hour runtime makes the pace of Rebirth look breezy by comparison. It might just be that if players are going to spend dozens of hours off the beaten path collecting flowers or activating towers, they want it to be in service of something more than just a sense of crossing items off their in-game to-do list.
Whatever the reason that many players felt Rebirth was too long, Hamaguchi doesn’t plan on punishing them with an even longer part three. “As we work on the conclusion to the trilogy, we are striking a balance on how story arcs are told and spread out so as to ensure that the game feels a bit more concise.” he said.
We’ll see how many hours “a bit” shaves off when the last Final Fantasy VII remake game arrives a couple of years from now. Development on the third chapter is apparently going well.
Source link
