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Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is one of those games that has stuck around for years after its initial release. Whether that is because of how beautiful it looks or because of how it gives such an unexpected twist on the original story, more players are picking up Final Fantasy VII every year because of it. Now, before the Switch 2 flexes its graphical power with its own port, we talked to Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade director Naoki Hamaguchi about why this game keeps going and how Square Enix adapts the game to new console architecture.

The big question on our minds when we played through Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade at PAX West was how good the game looked in handheld mode on the Switch 2. And while Nintendo’s new console is certainly selling well enough that it is attractive to develop for, it comes with pitfalls that need to be navigated.

“So in terms of [consoles] that were the most challenging… I would say the Switch 2,” Hamaguchi-san explained to us. “We had to be quite mindful of, sort of, the power consumption of the console. And so, you know, especially in terms of handheld mode, as opposed to when you’re in TV mode. You have to be kind of wary of the different specs and how much power you can consume in handheld mode. In order to ensure the 30 FPS stability while also not compromising on the graphics during the gameplay, we really focused on optimizing the graphic pipeline. And so I think this was something that had the most work involved on the Switch 2.”

The mandate at Square Enix at the moment is to broaden their player base as much as possible, which, with titles like Final Fantasy VII Remake, means releasing the game on as many different platforms as possible, something that comes from the very top of the company. President [Takashi] Kiryu. “The philosophy for Square Enix as a whole is to release on multiple platforms to reach a broader audience,” Hamaguchi told us.

However, doing that doesn’t mean sacrificing the graphical experience for players. “I do think, you know, perhaps a common misconception of trying to play a game like [Final Fantasy VII] in handheld mode on Switch 2, for example, is that people may think that the quality of the graphics might be impacted or be low, but it is quite a rich and beautiful graphic experience. I myself, when I witnessed it and held it in my hands, and saw FF7 operating on this Nintendo console very fluid and beautifully, I was quite moved. So I would like as many players as possible to also experience this. There might be other players who might be unsure on this, but there is a demo coming at the end of the year. So this is a great chance for players to kind of see for themselves about the world of FF7 and how this is played out on new platforms, and I hope that this will lead to greater interest in attaining the game.”

Like many gamers, Hamaguchi has fond memories of the Final Fantasy series on Nintendo consoles. That is where Final Fantasy really broke into the market, with Final Fantasy VI for the SNES still standing as one of the best JRPGs of all time. It also marked one of the biggest turning points in gaming history, as we jumped from sprites to polygons. Now, the series is coming back to a Nintendo platform in something of a full-circle moment for Square Enix. “I think that in terms of like Final Fantasy VI going into Final Fantasy VII, this also really marked the pivotal or important moment where, going up to VI, the Final Fantasy series existed within the Nintendo platform, and now it continues to grow into VII into the PlayStation platform,” Hamaguchi said.

“So I think it was significant in that sense as well. And so, of course, as one fan and creator, there’s just many kinds of, you know, feelings and emotions tied to that. And I do feel that this is sort of like the beginning and the start of something. And while I can’t, you know, I don’t have any confirmation or promises on what is to come, I do want to, you know, put my all as a developer at Square Enix to continue to further the Final Fantasy franchise and to have this be a more widely beloved series.”

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is making the jump to Nintendo Switch 2 on January 22, 2026.

This interview was conducted with the help of a translator and has been edited for clarity.

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