Final Fantasy VII Remake’s third and final entry is still years away, but Square Enix is actively developing whatever comes after 2024’s Rebirth. The sequel was notoriously minigame heavy, and while the *Remake *trilogy already felt like it was straining to make three games out of one, Rebirth’s reliance on minigames to pad the length really pushed things past the limit. Other than its divisive ending, it’s probably the most widely derided part of the game, but it doesn’t sound like this criticism has deterred Square from this approach.

In an interview with GamerBraves, *Rebirth *director Naoki Hamaguchi was asked about Rebirth’s inclusion of heaps of minigames, with interviewer Sean Lim noting that some players felt the onslaught interrupted the game’s pacing. Hamaguchi said that the team’s intention was to not only shake up what the player was doing throughout Rebirth’s lengthy runtime, but also pay homage to the original Final Fantasy VII, which had its fair share of minigames as well.

So, that’s not a unique problem for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth only. A lot of games, aside from the main theme and main story progression, also have the side games and the minigames built into them. So, we don’t think we’re unique in that aspect. So when you’re playing the game and you’re going through the main story progression, as well as the intended game design, you tend to fall into this trap of having the same tempo. So, you tend to get bored playing it. To sort of combat this and keep that fresh feeling of going through the game, that’s why we introduced these minigames, to sort of add a diversity of experience as you’re playing the game, to keep up the good rhythm, so to say. So we understand when you introduce these different facets, some people would play it and really enjoy it, but some people would rather just get on with the main story. So it’s sort of a calculated move on our part to include all these different facets of the game. Whether it’s the amount of minigames or the pacing [with which] we introduce them, so on the creator side, it’s sort of something we have taken into account when we do the game design.

So the original Final Fantasy VII also had lots of minigames, and it was very famous for that. So, when [we] were entrusted with doing the remake, [we] sort of wanted to keep that spirit of the diversity of play within the title, so that people can have lots of different experiences the same way they did with Final Fantasy VII.

I can appreciate wanting to be true to the original RPG’s minigames, but Rebirth’s obvious use of it as filler goes far beyond reimagining. It would be helpful if each diversion was good, but they varied from the good as hell Queen’s Blood card game to the infamous Cait Sith box throwing segment. Walking through Rebirth’s open world was like trying to cross a minefield where the most obnoxious, unskippable landmines were waiting for you if you stepped in the wrong direction.

Hamaguchi doesn’t say if this will persist into the next Final Fantasy VII Remake game, but he has said elsewhere that the third game will be more concise, so hopefully that means the minigames get dialed down a bit in the final chapter. Or let Sephiroth strike me down.