FF7 Remake Part 3 Director Reveals Highwind Journey, Teases Submarine Adventure

A New Era for Final Fantasy 7 Remake

If I were tasked with writing a dedicated Final Fantasy beat, I’d find a way to pull 40 hours a week on this. I can never get enough of the series. Bless you, Naoki Hamaguchi—co-director for the ongoing Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy—for being such a terrific chatterbox that I can get a few pieces in every month or two through you and you alone.

Hamaguchi’s latest words are more open about the as-yet-untitled Part 3 than usual. Just another sign that a formal reveal is coming sooner rather than later. The project lead answered candid questions rather candidly, including acknowledging once and for all that Highwind traversal will be a big part of the grand finale. As well it should be.

Keeping Cid Busy

Cid Highwind didn’t exactly have a ton to do in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. In the original game, the team meets him at Rocket Town, where he’s chafing under Shinra’s dictations as he plans humanity’s first space flight. Rocket Town didn’t make the cut in Rebirth—our heroes instead meet Cid when they send up a signal flare for his Tiny Bronco plane to provide its transportation services. None of Cid’s late-game FF7 fare is in Rebirth, either (although that’s certainly to be expected).

In an interview with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, Naoki Hamaguchi confirms that Rocket Town will be in Part 3. “Yeah, this is one of the elements we had to switch around with Rebirth,” he explains. Certainly, we all saw this one coming, and it’s been heavily alluded to in the past. Furthermore, the space trip is almost certainly a go: “I’ll keep that a secret but considering Rocket Town is a yes…”.

Doubtless, fans will be more excited by Hamaguchi’s increasing confidence in the Highwind’s gameplay mechanics. Back in the OG experience, Final Fantasy was still doing “traditional” JRPG world maps, which is to say, players traveled a miniaturized version of a globe. Chocobos, airships, and other craft would be unlocked in many installments, permitting faster speeds and overseas trips. The Highwind was Final Fantasy’s first 3D world map airship, and its role in the story is just as compelling. But folks really, really, crave another “world map airship” experience; it’s something that we haven’t gotten since Final Fantasy 9.

Schreier asked Hamaguchi whether the Highwind will let you “fly anywhere.” The answer is promising as heck:

“We want to expand on the gameplay experience. Flying the Highwind is a very large part of the third installment. Let me leave it at that.” -Naoki Hamaguchi

A large part, you say? Fascinating. Has me wondering whether they’ll go ham when the party returns to Midgar, which will be one of the finale’s several incredibly hype-inducing sequences. (Rebirth is an all-timer, but its actual original-game plot coverage is relatively slim enough to leave heaps and heaps of masterpiece moments for Part 3.) Maybe there’ll be an airship battle against the Gelnika, or some other craft! I’m thinking big here. But the most important ingredient by far will be the ability to pilot Cid’s sky-worthy vessel across the globe.

Submarine Adventures

What about the submarine, though? Final Fantasy 7 marked the second time that players could explore underwater, following Final Fantasy 5. I’m a big sucker for this, and I’ve lived in hope that we’ll get it again in Part 3. (We need the maximum terror for Emerald Weapon, don’t we?) Citing fellow director/producer Motomu Toriyama’s involvement in the trilogy, Hamaguchi teased something for me:

“It’s an interesting question because [Motomu] Toriyama handled the submarine portion of the game. So perhaps he has injected himself into there. And I will leave it at that.”

Toriyama has tackled many of Remake and Rebirth’s big spectacle setpiece minigame fare, I believe, which is to say, he might be treating the submarine content along similar lines. Perhaps we’ll not get the underwater zone as its own “open region” in the vein of the Grasslands, Junon, and so forth—but I bet it’ll be fun no matter what.

Wutai and More

Schreier made sure to ask about Wutai, too, which Hamaguchi refers to as “one of the main locations” for Part 3. “…If Wutai’s not featured, I think the fans are going to yell at me,” he added, and yeah, that’s fair. Wutai has always been an interesting case study; players could go there as early as late in disc one, once the Tiny Bronco becomes a makeshift boat (much as it does in Rebirth), but many held off until later due to the higher-level enemies and so forth. Rebirth’s plot spent some time setting up a new conflict between Shinra and Yuffie Kisaragi’s home country, so it stands to reason that we’d not see this grand city until now.

Hamaguchi also answered the big “will there be chocobo breeding” question, albeit less openly. “I can’t say yay or nay on the actual breeding,” he answered, which has me thinking it might not make the cut, if I’m being honest. “But there is an element in the third installment involving chocobos that is a little different than Rebirth.” Interesting.

Last but not least, Jason Schreier once again proved he’s as big a Final Fantasy mark as I am, asking about the size of the Great Glacier—an early second-disc extended zone that challenged players by removing their maps and giving them a time limit to explore before they’re rescued by a local climber. Calling Great Glacier “a major element in the game” has me wondering if it will be one of Part 3’s regions. Tantalizingly, however, Hamaguchi notes that Icicle Inn and the subsequent frigid wasteland have a good chance of serving as the last game’s opening stretch. Which many of us figured, but hey, you never know.

“Because it is a major element in the game, I won’t go deep into details. But considering that toward the end of Rebirth, we’re in the Forgotten City — and in the original you would go into Icicle Inn from there — I guess that hints at how the third installment will begin. I hope the players will look forward to it.”

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is out now on Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S. Both ports appear to be doing quite nicely for Square Enix. We don’t know when we’ll get our first look at Part 3, but Hamaguchi has been bullish on the game’s progress. With Switch 2 and Xbox ports of Rebirth on the horizon for June 3, and Summer Game Fest 2026 kicking off on June 5, there’s a fair chance we’ll finally see the hotly-anticipated trilogy-capper in action there.