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Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth’s director Naoki Hamaguchi hasn’t been overly anxious about his admiration for The Witcher, so he reacted exactly like the rest of us when CD Projekt Red‘s latest narrative was well showcased at The Game Awards 2024.

Hamaguchi has been open about CDPR’s series. Just last week, the director revealed that The Witcher 3 was one of his primary inspirations while transitioning to an open-world format in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth since it makes sense to draw from the best in the industry. However, he didn’t just play The Wild Hunt for work-related analysis.

In a recent Reddit AMA with the leads of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Hamaguchi mentioned that the threequel is his all-time favorite game. Series producer Yoshinori Kitase then shared how they were at The Game Awards this year when The Witcher 4‘s inaugural trailer was revealed. “Hamaguchi was so thrilled when Ciri took off her hood that he nearly jumped up!” All I can say is: same, same.

The Witcher enthusiasts, Hamaguchi added, will be more than pleased to hear that Geralt will indeed be part of The Witcher 4 as CDPR recently confirmed that, yes, that was Doug Cockle’s memorable deep voice at the end of the trailer. However, we will have to wait until the game is finally released to find out why Ciri has taken center stage as it seems closely linked to the unfolding narrative.

Elsewhere, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s PC version was announced to be released next month. The game itself was nominated for several awards at the event – including the coveted Game of the Year award – but ultimately came away with a trophy for Best Soundtrack, and honestly, who could argue with that?

See where Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth ranks in our best games of 2024 list.