Final Fantasy VII Rebirth influenced by The Witcher 3's dramatic quests

Square Enix's Creative Business Unit I took direct inspiration from CD Projekt RED's masterclass in open-world RPG design while making the new Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth game.

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Since its launch in 2015 (hey, that's almost 10 years ago!), The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has influenced countless open-world games. CD Projekt RED set a new high watermark for meaningful and interesting sidequests; gone are the days of rote fetch quests and escort missions, here The Witcher 3 creates dramatic and engaging quests that are just as satisfying as the main storyline.

This didn't go unnoticed, and we've seen companies like even Nintendo leverage this formula with its modern Zelda duology. Now this influence is carrying over to Final Fantasy, namely FF7 Remake's second chapter.

In a recent interview with Game Informer, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth game director Naoki Hamaguchi said that The Witcher 3 was his favorite non-Final Fantasy game.

Co-game director Motomu Toriyama told Game Informer's Brian Shea that the team put a lot of investigation into open-world games to help frame FF7 Rebirth's in-game quests and content.

"Regarding titles like The Witcher 3, which has that open-world role-playing type element, we did some extensive research into these types of titles and looked at it as a baseline in which Rebirth should be a type of title that can stand alongside it and have the type of content that would be satisfying to its players."

It'll be interesting to see how well Rebirth takes cues from its medieval fantasy forebear while also maintaining the distinct FF7 style and execution.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth launches on February 29, 2024 as PlayStation 5 timed exclusive title.