From Tokyo: Square Enix has taken a measured approach to revealing Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3, but director Naoki Hamaguchi is now offering genuine glimpses at what the trilogy's finale will contain. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Hamaguchi confirmed that two major locations from the original 1997 game will finally appear in the remake series: Rocket Town and Wutai, both conspicuously absent from Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
For players of the original, these omissions stood out.Rocket Town was excluded in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, despite its central role in the source material.Hamaguchi has confirmed the grungy Rocket Town and Yuffie's homeland, Wutai, are returning in the finale. The decision to defer these locations to Part 3 suggests Square Enix recognised the need to pace the remake's scope across all three games.
Wutai carries particular narrative weight.Hamaguchi tells Bloomberg the originally optional area will be "one of the main locations" in the remake. "Yuffie's made a very prominent appearance, stating her case about her homeland. So if Wutai's not featured, I think the fans are going to yell at me," says Hamaguchi. This reflects a pragmatic truth in game development: when you feature a character as prominently as Yuffie in the remake series, her home nation can't remain a peripheral optional zone.
The Highwind airship, the series' iconic vessel of exploration, will receive expanded treatment.The Highwind is no longer just a way to hop from point A to B, with Hamaguchi wanting it to be one of the pillars of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3.Flying the Highwind will have "a very large part of the third installment," with Hamaguchi adding that space travel will also be in the cards. For players who remember soaring freely across the original's world map, this signals a significant gameplay evolution beyond the linear structure of the first remake and the open-world design of Rebirth.
What remains unclear is exactly how these new elements fit together. Hamaguchi has been deliberately vague about Chocobo breeding, Chocobo encounters, and underwater exploration.When asked about Chocobo breeding, the director declined to confirm whether the mechanic would return, but suggested that Chocobo-related gameplay will appear in a new form: "I can't say yay or nay on the actual breeding. But there is an element in the third installment involving Chocobos that is a little different than Rebirth".
The broader design philosophy is no secret.One of the major goals for the trilogy has been to make each title feel unique in terms of gameplay, rather than being the same across all three titles. Hamaguchi said the team didn't just want to reskin "the same game over and over again." Instead, the plan is to keep the freshness with every entry. This is a reasonable creative constraint: three chapters of identical mechanics would have felt hollow.
Director Naoki Hamaguchi revealed in a recently translated interview that the game's core gameplay is "almost complete" and the team has moved into the refining and polishing phase.Around 95% of the staff who worked on the second title returned for the third, suggesting continuity in vision and execution. These are signs of a project running cleanly.
On timing, Hamaguchi remains noncommittal but optimistic. The game is expected to be revealed sometime this year, though he stopped short of naming a specific event or month. Square Enix has not announced a release date, but the director's language suggests the reveal will not be distant. For a series as carefully stewarded as this one, the slow drip of information reflects a studio confident enough to let details emerge rather than manufacturing hype through manufactured surprise.
The challenge ahead is clear: deliver a finale that justifies three chapters, honour the original without becoming archaeologically bound to it, and prove that the seven-part structure (including the original game) remains coherent across platforms from PlayStation 5 to Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox. Those are legitimate ambitions and genuine technical hurdles. Whether Hamaguchi's team can clear them is the only question that matters now.