Director speaks on Red XIII riding a Chocobo in FF7 Rebirth

After a few weeks of fanfare behind some sweet gameplay for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, everyone’s been combing through the smallest details from the recent reveals. One of which involves Red XIII riding a Chocobo. In our interview, Game Director Naoki Hamaguchi shed some light on this amusing conundrum, and shared a bit more on what to expect in the game as a whole.

Aside from the surprise budding bromance between Cloud and Sephiroth, players can expect a few changes in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth–all of which are definitely worth the hype.

Hamaguchi delivered two valid points regarding Red XIII’s sudden desire to go bipedal. While one would assume that this was simply a cool Easter Egg, or worse, a glitch in the system, we can rest assured that this is purely by design.

As per the Rebirth team’s creative direction, there was a conscious effort for Red XIII take the reins and ride with his partymates because it would look absolutely cute and that players would like it. For the record, he is correct.

We wholeheartedly agreed from the beginning, and if this were the only reason, we’d wholeheartedly accept it. However, there’s more to this than simply being whimsical.

Chocobos will have a certain set of skills and techniques, including jumping long distances and even actual flight. These certain skills are confirmed to be Chocobo-exclusive. So, while Red XIII from yesteryear was happy enough to simply run alongside everyone, he’d definitely get left behind this time around–unless, of course, he dons a Chocobo like his friends. We’re so glad he did.

This is one of the few nice little details one would find in the game, and it’s safe to say that this cute idea likely didn’t come out of nowhere. Community feedback definitely plays a hand in a game’s changes–and in Rebirth’s case, for the better.

Hamaguchi shares a new feature for everyone to look forward to, and this came to be after a few gripes regarding Final Fantasy VII Remake’s linear, almost hand-holding nature. In Rebirth, players can make more decisions in approaching sidequests and exploring the vast world map. Players can even choose to ignore all the sidequests altogether, and simply go about the main story.

Hamaguchi adds that players will have complete freedom to beat and re-play the game in whichever way the choose. This is also good to know as he also told us, straight-up, that getting the platinum completion trophy will be twice as hard to do compared to Remake.

This is why we love you, Hamaguchi-san. Thank you for giving us Red XIII riding a chocobo.