Game Director of Final Fantasy VII Remake: Graphics in Part 3 Won't Suffer Due to Switch 2 Release
The game director of the third part of the Final Fantasy VII remake, Naoki Hamaguchi, explained why the multiplatform release will not affect the game's quality.
In a conversation with Automaton, he addressed gamers' concerns that targeting Xbox Series S and Nintendo Switch 2 might "drag down" all other versions of the project.
Hamaguchi stated directly: supporting multiple systems "will not lower the quality of the third part in any way." According to him, the team approaches the process differently from the start — they don't develop the project for one console and then adapt it for others. The developers optimize the game for each platform separately, squeezing the maximum out of the available hardware.
The game director elaborated on how the team works with different hardware components — the processor, graphics card, RAM, and data storage. He noted that the Switch 2 version is being released on cartridge keys, so the developers didn't have to compromise and shrink the game's size to fit it onto a physical cartridge.
There are no issues with RAM on the Switch 2. Xbox Series S has stricter limitations, but the studio optimizes each platform separately. Therefore, the limits of one system do not lead to cuts on others.
Regarding the processor, the team has a clear principle: if the game runs at 30 fps on Switch 2 or Xbox Series S, then on more powerful hardware it should deliver 60 fps.
We do not design the game to fully load a powerful processor at 30 frames per second. Instead, on hardware with additional CPU headroom, we increase the density of elements — for example, we increase the number of NPCs in cities. As a result, cities look more alive on more powerful systems, while less powerful ones may display fewer characters. Therefore, even with support for Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series S, significant limitations related to the processor are unlikely. Naoki Hamaguchi
Speaking about graphics cards, Hamaguchi emphasized: the team does not tailor assets to minimum requirements. They are first created for the most powerful configuration, and only then is the project gradually scaled down — to the weakest supported device.
The leading platform during development is a high-performance PC. According to the studio's internal classification, even the PS5 and PS5 Pro fall into the "mid-range segment." Compared to top-tier PCs, the difference is noticeable: textures can be one and a half to two times smaller, the volume of loaded polygonal meshes can also be smaller, and the polygon count differs by more than three times.
The most "lightweight" version is for the Steam Deck — the platform's performance is less than half that of the base PS5 level. At the same time, Hamaguchi once again emphasized: releasing on multiple platforms does not affect the overall quality of the game.
Earlier, Hamaguchi also explained why the team did not switch to the popular Unreal Engine 5. The studio continues to use Unreal Engine 4, as over the years of work they have deeply modified the engine for their own tasks. According to the game director, the familiar and already modified technology allows them to move faster and avoid unnecessary risks at the final stage of creating the trilogy.