Final Fantasy 7 director calls streaming a 'crisis' for choice-poor RPGs

Streaming has long let players skip buying games by watching others play, from uploaded cutscenes to live streams. Naoki Hamaguchi, director of the Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy, warned this can pose a serious problem for RPGs that don’t give players enough reason to engage directly.

He made the remarks after the reveal of Final Fantasy VII Revelation at Summer Game Fest; he told 4Gamer, and Automaton provided a translation. Hamaguchi said, 'One thing RPGs like Final Fantasy need to be careful about today is the possibility that people might simply watch a stream and feel satisfied without ever playing the game themselves.' He added that creators can’t celebrate a situation where viewers replace players.

To counter that, he argued games must offer genuine agency and meaningful choices that make viewers ask, 'What would I do in that situation?' or 'How would I experiment with that?' — impulses that might inspire them to play rather than just watch.

ffvii, naoki hamaguchi, ff remake, rpgs, game streaming, live streams, player agency, meaningful choices, revelation, 4gamer