Naoki Hamaguchi

Hamaguchi was heavily inspired to make games after playing Final Fantasy VI, wanting to make a game of its quality. In 2003, he graduated from HAL Nagoya College of Technology & Design and in the same year entered the games industry.^[1]

After working as a programmer on the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, Hamaguchi was appointed Project Leader of Mobius Final Fantasy. He was involved with Final Fantasy VII Remake from the start of its development, but later in development was promoted to the role of Development Leader when the project switched to using a primarily internal development structure. In March 2018, Hamaguchi stepped down from his role of Mobius Final Fantasy Project Leader in order to focus on Final Fantasy VII Remake. Former Mobius battle planner Takashi Shiraga replaced Hamaguchi as Mobius Final Fantasy Project Leader.^{[citation needed]}

In April 2019, during the restructuring of the company's business divisions, Hamaguchi was promoted as co-director on Final Fantasy VII Remake alongside Nomura, making it his first directorial debut.^[2]

In February 2021, it was announced that Nomura will be stepping down as director on future Final Fantasy VII Remake titles to focus on other projects, and that Hamaguchi would become the new main director while Nomura would remain as creative director.^[3]