In an era where our gaming backlogs resemble ancient libraries and our free time feels like a rapidly depleting resource, the question of game length has become one of the most contentious debates in our community. Naoki Hamaguchi, the director of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, recently offered a fascinating perspective that cuts right to the heart of this modern gaming paradox. While acknowledging that the trilogy’s final chapter will be more concise, he defended Rebirth’s pacing with a simple but profound observation: we’re not bored with the game, we’re overwhelmed with choice.
Hamaguchi’s stance reveals something crucial about the developer-player relationship in 2024. When he says he doesn’t believe certain sections were longer than necessary, he’s not being stubborn or dismissive of feedback. Instead, he’s pointing to a fundamental shift in how we consume entertainment. We’ve moved from an era where a single game might occupy months of our attention to one where we’re constantly juggling multiple titles, streaming services, and social obligations. The problem isn’t necessarily the game’s pacing—it’s our fractured attention spans and the pressure to consume everything at once.
What makes this particularly interesting is that Hamaguchi isn’t ignoring player feedback despite his disagreement. The fact that he’s promising a more concise structure for the trilogy’s conclusion shows remarkable maturity in game development. He’s essentially saying: I understand your experience, even if I don’t agree with your diagnosis. This balancing act between artistic vision and audience expectations is exactly what separates great developers from merely competent ones. They listen without compromising their creative integrity.
Rebirth’s sprawling open world and numerous minigames represent a fascinating experiment in modern RPG design. In trying to honor both the original’s legacy and contemporary gaming expectations, Square Enix created something that feels simultaneously nostalgic and forward-thinking. The criticism about certain sections dragging speaks to a larger conversation about what we want from our RPGs in 2024. Do we want tightly paced narratives that respect our time, or do we want vast worlds we can get lost in for hundreds of hours? The answer, frustratingly, seems to be both.
As we await the trilogy’s conclusion, Hamaguchi’s comments serve as a mirror reflecting our own gaming habits back at us. His observation that players have too much to play isn’t an excuse—it’s an invitation to examine our relationship with gaming itself. Perhaps the solution isn’t shorter games, but rather a shift in how we approach them. Maybe we need to stop treating our gaming libraries like checklists and start treating individual games like relationships that deserve our full attention. The promise of a more concise final chapter isn’t just about respecting our time—it’s about creating an experience that demands we slow down and savor every moment of Cloud’s journey, rather than rushing through it to get to the next thing in our endless queue.
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