Remake of Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 7: RebirthDirector Naoki Hamaguchi is clearly a man of good taste if his own performances are any indication, but if there was ever any doubt, he also stated that Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33 this is his personal choice of game of the year. Get in line, buddy.
When asked by GamesRadar+ what his favorite game of 2025 was so far, the director of the FF7 Remake trilogy replied that it was Sandfall Interactive's debut. “It's a really great game and it deserves game of the year,” he told us. “I wish they could get it.”
Of course, he noted JRPG Expedition 33's turn-based combat and the “new twist” brought to the genre with quick parries, but Hamaguchi also argued that combat “shouldn't be too focused on anything” because “what makes this game so good is that it gets all the elements right and they're all balanced to such a high level quality.”
“For example, the setting, world, characters and storyline are all very well done too, in addition to the gameplay,” Hamaguchi explained. “And I think it all comes together and that's why it's such a respected game, why fans love it so much, why it sells as well as it has.”
Hamaguchi also took the time to mention how some of Clair Obscur's developers actually visited Final Fantasy headquarters: “and it was really inspiring… So you can see that they're held in high esteem as well.” Not only did they make a truly great game, but they also showed this respect for the traditional turn-based JRPG style. Obviously, as Japanese game creators, we're really excited to see people take this and do something with it.”
Now someone just needs to ask Hamaguchi what he thinks of the real 2025 GOTY, Megabonk.
The Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director says that “as much as the AI tries to step in and take part in the creative side of things,” his team wants to be “good enough creators” so that “we can do better than the AI.”
