Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is powered by the Unreal Engine 4, and the decision to go with the previous version of Epic's engine was made from the start of development due to a few reasons, including getting the game out sooner.
Speaking in a recent interview with Julien Chièze, as reported by Genki on X/Twitter, Game Director Naoki Hamaguchi commented on the Unreal Engine 4, saying that the decision to use it for the second entry in the trilogy was made at the beginning of development. Unreal Engine 5 was attractive, Hamaguchi-san mentioned, but some parts of the engine are still being developed, so instead of waiting for them to be ready, the developers decided to develop these functions themselves and use the previous version of the engine to get the game out sooner.
Hamaguchi said they decided to use Unreal Engine 4 from the start for FF7 Rebirth!
He said UE5 is attractive but there are still parts of the engine that are still being developed. So instead of waiting for functions they needed they decided to develop the functions in-house and… pic.twitter.com/QG2ipfJrtD
— Genki✨ (@Genki_JPN) January 29, 2024
Given how Final Fantasy VII Rebirth looks great, and it only took 4 years to release after its predecessor, there's no doubt that fans of the series will surely appreciate the direction decided by Naoki Hamaguchi. With the development of Unreal Engine 5 making some important strides since its original release, however, it wouldn't be surprising for the development team to make the switch for the third and final part of the trilogy.
The wait for the conclusion of the remake project is definitely going to be hard, considering how Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's ending is going to be ambiguous. The decision to go with such an ending was made to keep fans of the original wondering about how the story will continue in the next entry in the series.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth launches on PlayStation 5 on February 29th worldwide.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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