Square Enix Breaks Down Developing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s World

There are several “benefits” to the “remake saga” that Square Enix is doing with their most beloved RPG ever. The first is that they can break it down into parts so that the game has more time to be fleshed out and thus make the experience even grander than before. Second, thanks to it being a few decades after the initial release, they can improve the gameplay to feel more modern while also paying tribute to what came before. But arguably most importantly, especially with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, they’re using the PS5’s graphics and processing power to develop the planet Gaia in a way they could’ve only dreamed of via the original PlayStation.

Over on the PlayStation Blog, the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth team talked about what it was like making this world on the PS5, and one of the first things they noted is that the SSD would allow them to make a beautiful and seamlessly traversed-through world:

“With SSDs improving data loading speeds and allowing necessary resources to be loaded instantly, we felt that significant changes were needed in the system design to ensure a smooth gaming experience without any loading times for players. In fact, to take advantage of the high-speed SSDs in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the graphics pipeline and asset streaming system have been revamped from those of the previous title.”

Recall that the initial game was made for the PS4 and merely ported to the PS5, so this is the first game in the remake saga to truly take advantage of things. But once they got the hang of what they wanted to do via the PS5’s systems, they pushed it to new levels:

“To create a sense of density within the world map, rather than simply polishing how it looked within a single screenshot, we focused on increasing the actual “quantity” of assets to enhance the feeling of a well-populated map. This approach also matched well with the SSD, which could load a large number of assets instantly. Through this, players can expect a beautiful, diverse, and expansive world to explore.”

Oh, and don’t think the character models were “simple upgrades,” either. They were completely redone so they could benefit from the PS5. Not only do they look better, but they have new animations for their faces that you’ll see throughout the game.

If you want to get a small taste of everything the team has worked on, the game’s demo is out now, and it just got expanded!