How Story-Driven PlayStation Epics Shaped Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is more than a high-definition retelling of a beloved JRPG; it is also a product of a decade shaped by cinematic, story-first PlayStation blockbusters. The creative leads have openly discussed looking to games such as God of War (2018) and The Last of Us for inspiration when deciding how to tell a character-focused story in a modern, visually lavish action RPG. This cross-pollination between Western narrative design and Japanese role-playing traditions is key to understanding why Final Fantasy 7 Remake feels so different from the 1997 original, even when it follows the same broad plot beats.

This article explores how those story-centric titles helped shape the structure, pacing, and presentation of Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s first entry, and how its sequel, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, pivots toward influences from open-world epics like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. We will also look at how this design philosophy affects the future of the trilogy and what it signals for the evolution of blockbuster JRPGs.

From Turn-Based Classic to Cinematic Character Drama

When the original Final Fantasy VII launched on the first PlayStation in 1997, it helped popularize cinematic storytelling in console RPGs, but its presentation was still constrained by hardware limits: fixed camera angles, low-poly characters, and text boxes instead of fully voiced dialogue. By contrast, Final Fantasy 7 Remake arrives in an era when players have become used to motion-captured performances, continuous camera work, and heavily authored narrative pacing, thanks in large part to Sony’s first-party output.

Modern narrative trendsetters like The Last of Us and God of War showed how character-led stories could unfold without constant UI clutter or jarring transitions to cutscenes. Naughty Dog’s work on The Last of Us Part I & II set a benchmark for cinematic storytelling, with long sequences of in-engine dialogue and carefully directed camera movements that keep the player immersed while still maintaining control for light interactivity.¹ Meanwhile, Santa Monica Studio’s 2018 God of War reboot used a continuous “one-shot” camera, avoiding hard cuts and loading screens to create a seamless father–son journey from start to finish.²

Final Fantasy 7 Remake borrows from this philosophy by:

• Reducing hard transitions between gameplay and cutscenes.
• Using extensive motion capture and facial animation to bring Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, and Barret to life.
• Framing many conversations as fully voiced, cinematic scenes that blend into exploration.
• Focusing entire chapters on specific character relationships rather than broad world-building.

The result is a game that feels far closer to a prestige drama with interactive combat sequences than to the menu-driven RPG of the late ’90s, even while it retains iconic locations and scenes from the original.

Why Story-Driven PlayStation Hits Became the Template

In interviews around the release of Final Fantasy 7 Remake and its sequel, director Naoki Hamaguchi has explained that the first entry was conceived as a highly narrative-driven experience. To achieve this, he looked specifically to high-profile, single-player PlayStation hits that prioritize character and story. The idea was not to imitate those games outright, but to adopt a similar standard of narrative polish and emotional clarity while maintaining the tone and identity of Final Fantasy.

Several factors make games like The Last of Us and God of War ideal touchstones for a modern remake:

• Cohesive, contained arcs: Both focus on a relatively tight cast and a journey that can be neatly framed into one game, making them strong models for how to carve a single “season” out of a larger saga.
• Emotional accessibility: Their themes—parenthood, grief, survival, and trust—are presented in a way that feels accessible even to players unfamiliar with the characters’ previous appearances.
• High production values: Sony’s investment in performance capture, writing, and directing sets an expectation for AAA stories that Square Enix clearly wanted to match.
• Balance of combat and quiet moments: Both games mix intense action with intimate downtime, a balance that Final Fantasy 7 Remake leans into within its chapter-based structure.

For a remake that would serve as the first part of a trilogy, these examples offered a blueprint for how to reinterpret a sprawling story as focused, character-first episodes without overwhelming new players.

Restructuring Midgar: Chapters, Beats, and Focus

The most visible impact of these story-driven influences lies in how Final Fantasy 7 Remake restructures Midgar. What was once a relatively brief opening region in the 1997 game is now expanded into an entire full-length title. Instead of progressing through a series of discrete areas with brief story interludes, the Remake presents Midgar as a sequence of narrative arcs, each framed as a chapter.

In practice, this design approach mirrors chapter-based narrative pacing seen in story-driven titles—each chapter of Final Fantasy 7 Remake has:

• A clearly defined objective (e.g., a new reactor mission, a sector to explore, or a character’s personal conflict).
• A mix of main story, combat encounters, and slower character moments.
• A climactic confrontation or revelation that provides emotional payoff.

This structure helps the game function like a television season, where each episode tells a smaller story while contributing to the overarching narrative. It is a format that aligns neatly with modern binge-watching habits and the narrative segmentation found in series like The Last of Us, which started as a game and later adapted to television on HBO, highlighting its inherently episodic storytelling structure.³

Gameplay That Serves the Story

Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s combat system evolves the series’ traditional Active Time Battle into a hybrid of real-time action and tactical pauses. While the influence of action games is apparent, the narrative-centric inspiration is equally important: combat is meant to showcase the characters’ personalities and relationships just as much as it exists to challenge the player.

Compared with pure action titles, Remake slows the pace with menus and time dilation when players select abilities, spells, and items. This mechanical layer supports the story in several ways:

• Distinct fighting styles reinforce character identity: Barret’s ranged attacks, Tifa’s combo-focused strikes, and Aerith’s spellcasting underline their narrative roles.
• Party coordination highlights teamwork: Switching characters and issuing commands captures the sense of a group working together against overwhelming odds.
• Stagger and pressure systems map onto dramatic tension: Boss fights escalate visually and mechanically, echoing the emotional stakes of the story.

This emphasis on synergy echoes the design philosophy of character-driven action games—think of how Kratos and Atreus coordinate, or how Joel and Ellie interact in combat scenarios. In all cases, the mechanics are not just systems; they are tools for expressing relationships.

Open-World Influences and the Shift in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

While the first game in the trilogy emphasizes a tightly choreographed story, the sequel, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, moves toward a more expansive, exploration-driven structure. Hamaguchi has cited open-world titles such as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt as key influences for this shift. CD Projekt Red’s acclaimed RPG demonstrated how optional side stories can deepen world-building and character development without derailing the main plot.⁴

The open-world design philosophy manifests in several ways:

• Broader regions and hub areas: Players can roam large zones between main story beats, creating a sense of journey and discovery that contrasts with Midgar’s linear corridors.
• Optional narrative content: Side quests and regional activities flesh out minor characters, local cultures, and environmental storytelling.
• Emergent pacing: Instead of a single pre-scripted tempo, players can slow down between major events, choosing when to move the story forward.

This evolution balances two distinct inspirations:

1. The carefully managed, cinematic pacing of story-first PlayStation hits.
2. The freedom and systemic depth of open-world RPGs.

Together, they form a hybrid blueprint for how large-scale JRPGs can feel modern while still offering strong narrative direction.

Maintaining Final Fantasy Identity Amid Western Influences

Drawing inspiration from Western-developed games raises a natural question: how does Final Fantasy 7 Remake maintain its own identity rather than becoming a lookalike action adventure? The answer lies in how it integrates those lessons into distinctly Final Fantasy aesthetics and storytelling traditions.

Key elements that preserve its identity include:

• Stylized world-building: The fusion of industrial dystopia, magic, and metaphor-laden environmental themes remains uniquely Final Fantasy.
• Ensemble cast structure: Even with stronger focus on specific relationships, the narrative still revolves around a party rather than a single protagonist–companion duo.
• Long-form plotting: The trilogy format allows for slow-burn mysteries, foreshadowing, and extended character arcs.
• JRPG progression systems: Materia, equipment, and skill progression provide a level of strategy and customization beyond traditional action games.

In effect, what games like God of War and The Last of Us bring to the table is not a new narrative identity for Final Fantasy, but a modern framework for how that identity can be presented to contemporary audiences accustomed to prestige-level storytelling.

The Broader Trend: JRPGs Embracing Prestige Drama

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is part of a larger movement in the Japanese RPG space, where studios increasingly adopt cinematic techniques, higher-fidelity performance capture, and character-focused scripts. This trend parallels a general rise in production values across the industry, but for JRPGs, which historically leaned on text and stylization, it represents a meaningful shift in priorities.

Several important industry trends contribute to this shift:

• Hardware capable of detailed expressive animation: New console generations allow developers to depict subtle facial expressions and body language.
• Globalized audiences: Major JRPGs now launch simultaneously worldwide, with localization and voice acting treated as core pillars rather than afterthoughts.
• Rising expectations for narrative quality: Successes like The Last of Us have raised player expectations for coherent, well-acted, emotionally resonant storytelling even in combat-heavy games.

Research into game narratives suggests that narrative cohesion and emotional engagement can significantly affect player satisfaction and perceived game quality, even when mechanics are complex or demanding.⁵ Final Fantasy 7 Remake, by aligning its narrative design with modern standards while keeping its JRPG roots intact, sits at the intersection of these expectations.

Looking Ahead: What This Means for the Trilogy’s Finale

With the first entry grounded in cinematic, linear storytelling and the second opening up into broader exploration, the trilogy’s final installment faces the task of reconciling both approaches. There is clear potential for a hybrid structure that:

• Retains large, semi-open regions for exploration and optional storytelling.
• Uses tightly controlled segments for climactic narrative sequences.
• Builds toward emotionally charged payoffs that match or exceed those of the original game’s most iconic moments.

Given the established influence of both story-first and open-world design philosophies, the finale is likely to attempt a synthesis: the narrative density and emotional focus of a prestige drama inside a world that offers the agency and discovery players expect from modern RPGs.

Key Takeaways for Players and Designers

For players, understanding these influences can deepen appreciation of what Final Fantasy 7 Remake tries to accomplish. It is not just a remastering of content, but a reinterpretation of structure and pacing shaped by a decade of narrative experimentation across the industry.

For designers, the game serves as a case study in how to:

• Break a large, beloved story into discrete, satisfying entries.
• Blend traditional RPG systems with cinematic presentation without losing mechanical depth.
• Integrate lessons from Western narrative design while preserving a distinctly Japanese storytelling voice.

Ultimately, Final Fantasy 7 Remake underscores that remaking a classic is not just about updating visuals; it is about rethinking how that story is delivered for a new era—one strongly shaped by games like God of War, The Last of Us, and The Witcher 3.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Final Fantasy 7 Remake follow the exact story of the original game?

No. While it broadly follows the events of the Midgar section from the 1997 original, Final Fantasy 7 Remake expands many plot points, adds new scenes and characters, and introduces narrative elements that set up differences in how the trilogy may ultimately unfold.

Do I need to play the original Final Fantasy VII before playing the Remake?

You do not need to play the original first. Final Fantasy 7 Remake is designed to be approachable for newcomers, with modern gameplay and a self-contained narrative arc. Knowing the original can enhance appreciation of references and divergences, but it is not required to understand the story.

How similar is Final Fantasy 7 Remake to God of War or The Last of Us?

In terms of core mechanics, Final Fantasy 7 Remake remains a party-based action RPG with systems like Materia and character builds, which are quite different from the more grounded combat of God of War or The Last of Us. The similarity lies primarily in its cinematic presentation, focus on performances, and chapter-based narrative pacing.

Why did the developers choose to split the remake into multiple games?

The scope and level of detail targeted for the remake made it infeasible to cover the entire original story in a single modern, high-fidelity game. Splitting the project allows the team to expand locations, deepen character arcs, and deliver production values comparable to other large-scale AAA narrative games without drastically cutting content.

What changes in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth compared with the first Remake?

Based on developer commentary, Rebirth shifts from a primarily linear, city-focused experience to broader, semi-open regions inspired by open-world RPGs. Players can explore larger environments, engage in more optional content, and experience a different pacing while the main narrative continues to build on the changes introduced in the first game.