Teruki Endo is one of the most legendary names to come out of Capcom. Starting his journey with Monster Hunter Tri, he continued to work on the series through the classic era of the series’ peak with Monster Hunter 4 and then brought it into the new era with Monster Hunter World. But rather than continue with hunting monsters, his next role was at Square Enix as the battle director for Final Fantasy 7: Remake and its sequel, Rebirth (with Final Fantasy 16’s combat being built by another former Capcom employee, Ryota Suzuki).
Many had compared the combat of Final Fantasy 7 Remake to Final Fantasy 13; however, this wasn’t the source of inspiration. Speaking to Inverse, Endo said, “I didn’t really look at different Final Fantasy titles, as I felt like if I leaned too much on them, it would prevent me from pushing the envelope. I tried to look at it from a very sort of flat and non-biased way” Endo added, “I wanted to take the feeling of fun of a command-based battle, that feeling you get, not necessarily the system itself. So I built the system from scratch, and it might have been a coincidence that parts of it felt similar to other games.”
When Endo joined the Final Fantasy 7 Remake project, it had already been decided that the game wouldn’t be turn-based, but outside of that the combat hadn’t been defined. Inverse says that during his time as lead game designer on Monster Hunter World, Endo had “accumulated knowledge working on the various action elements of Monster Hunter that worked to his advantage, and when combined with Square’s technology and unique skills, it created a ‘chemical reaction’.”
Endo was asked how his approach to the game’s combat was altered by Final Fantasy 7 Remake being spread across multiple (and at the time an unknown amount of) parts. Endo said, “I don’t really give too much thought in terms of long-term planning, but put my all into whatever I’m working on. If I think too much about what’s supposed to come ahead, I get too tied up in that thinking, feeling like whatever I put in the moment will be incomplete.” He added, “I want to put my full focus into whatever project I’m on, then add to it and build from there. I think that will eventually lead to a better conclusion.” Given that the combat in Final Fantasy 7 Remake is one of the best in the series (I’m a Devil May Cry sicko, so Final Fantasy 16 gets my vote), I’d say that this approach worked out perfectly.
Elsewhere in Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy 14’s producer Yoshi-P was hesitant to reference Final Fantasy 9 because it’s a “masterpiece, and everyone has a strong emotional attachment to it.”
