In a recent interview with Red Bull, Naoki Hamaguchi, director of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, addressed a topic that has sparked online debate among fans. That is, of course, using yellow paint to indicate climbable surfaces in the game. Some people might find this silly – like me – but others really care about that immersion-breaking stuff.
During the interview, when asked the question, Hamaguchi seemed to not understand why it was such a big deal. Yellow paint doesn’t feel like a big deal and can save a lot of time for players. If you don’t know something is climbable, you’ll just run against walls until you find something to climb.
Question: Speaking of strong opinions, what’s your response to the discussion around the use of ‘yellow paint’ to show where players can climb?
Answer: I didn’t think that the ‘yellow paint’ would be something that would be discussed on social media. For things like camera options, where people have a wide variety of preferences and there’s no one right answer, our basic approach is to offer various accessibility options, so I would like to take on board the valuable feedback we have received towards this for future games.
Red Bull interview with Naoki Hamaguchi
While some players appreciate the clear visual cues, others find the yellow paint immersion-breaking. Hamaguchi acknowledged the unexpected discussion and expressed a willingness to consider feedback in future development decisions. The focus, however, remains on offering accessibility options.
I’d say this is an important feature, and if you’re looking for a difficult game, don’t come to Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy is a game for a lot of people, unlike Souls or Roguelike, which tends to cater only to its core audience. Either way, Hamaguchi’s response shows he won’t stop doing it just because some people don’t like it.
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