While we haven’t gotten around to Final Fantasy VII Remake’s release on Nintendo Switch 2 just yet, it seems fans are worrying over the quality of the upcoming Final Fantasy VII Rebirth port that is likely to release sometime in 2026. The second game in the planned trilogy and one that pushed even the PlayStation 5 to its limits, I suppose there is reason to believe it won’t wind up running smoothly or looking any decent. According to Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi, though, Switch 2 players “don’t need to worry at all.”
In an interview with VGC about a range of topics, including the upcoming Final Fantasy VII Part III, Hamaguchi explained that Square Enix is hard at work optimizing Rebirth for Nintendo’s platform. “Obviously, we are working very hard to make sure that [fans are similarly impressed by Rebirth on Switch], and that people are going to get that high quality they are looking for,” he stated. He compared it to the Steam Deck and how Square Enix managed to optimize for Valve’s hardware, which is comparatively less powerful than Nintendo’s newest console.
“In that sense, that [Steam Deck] was where we did the experiments, to work out how to get these high-level games into a mobile platform,” Hamaguchi said. “Obviously, there is a bit of a difference in the specs and the capacity between Steam Deck and Switch 2 and various other handheld game systems. But I think we managed to get such a good result there, and that really did help with the planning and the understanding of how to do that going forward in the series.”
According to Hamaguchi, who does have an engineering background, Square Enix’s earlier work on PC gave it some flexibility when it came to supporting different levels of hardware. Final Fantasy VII Remake, in particular, utilizes Unreal Engine and the team created a system similar to UE’s “Nanite” rendering. With this, they were able to adapt graphical elements on the fly, which allowed them to test for lower spec hardware much faster. It has also made optimizing for Switch 2 comparatively simpler.
“Because of all that experimentation stuff we’ve done on the PC to make sure of that, Nintendo players in the future, you really don’t need to worry at all,” Hamaguchi reassured VGC. “They’re going to get a version that is just as satisfying and just as high quality as the first game, if not higher.”
Check out more Final Fantasy content
Final Fantasy VII Remake co-director hopes players can one day accept Game-Key Cards
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade will have new difficulty toggles when it hits Switch 2
Leave a Comment
Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
