Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth co-director says Zack will help players 'deepen their understanding' of the game's world

Shot of Zack Fair in his Soldier uniform
(Image credit: Square Enix)

With the release of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth fast approaching, co-director Naoki Hamaguchi has opened up a little on what players can expect from Zack Fair’s inclusion in the game.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Final Fantasy 7 games, it’s rather difficult to discuss Zack’s role in the story since it’s deeply intertwined with spoilers left right and center. Without getting too deep into all of those, all you really need to know is that he’s a pretty big deal, and the fact that he’s going to be included in Rebirth in the first place strongly implies that not everything will play out as fans of the original Final Fantasy 7 might have expected. 

This is something which Hamaguchi acknowledged in a new interview with Game Informer. He referred to Zack as one of Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth’s “new elements,” and said that these sorts of changes from the original game can provide players with a feeling of “mystery building,” which is something that the developers are aiming for. Furthermore, they can give “players the feeling that based on these, perhaps the ending is going to be different” from what they originally knew.

As for Zack’s role specifically, Hamaguchi explained: “Through him, players will be able to experience and understand more of the Final Fantasy 7 worldview and it will deepen their understanding of the Final Fantasy 7 world.” 

He went on to say that things like the “policies and rules governing this world” will be depicted via Zack, although he didn’t explain exactly how this will work.

Rebirth will also give players a deeper insight into Cloud’s nemesis, Sephiroth. Hamaguchi previously revealed that making him playable in the upcoming game was “the best way to allow the player to understand his point of view.”

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is set to release exclusively on PlayStation 5 on February 29.

If you’re looking for some fantastic new games to play while you wait for the release of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, you can find some top-notch recommendations on our lists of the best RPGs and best PS5 games.

Catherine Lewis
News Writer, TechRadar Gaming

Catherine is a News Writer for TechRadar Gaming. Armed with a journalism degree from The University of Sheffield, she was sucked into the games media industry after spending far too much time on her university newspaper writing about Pokémon and cool indie games, and realising that was a very cool job, actually. She previously spent 19 months working at GAMINGbible as a full-time journalist. She loves all things Nintendo, and will never stop talking about Xenoblade Chronicles.