Note: There will be no spoilers for Revelation, but its inciting incident will be mentioned
In the Final Fantasy VII Revelation demo, we were dropped straight into the game’s fourth chapter, free to explore the world at our own leisure or barrel through the main storyline. However, an hour hands-on with an open-world RPG is ultimately a drop in the bucket compared to how much the title has to offer. You’re either going to plunge straight down the deep end when focusing on a singular objective, or zip across the surface of a kiddie pool a mile wide when exploring as much as possible. So naturally, lots of questions will arise no matter what end of that spectrum I was on (it was the latter).
Fortunately, Square Enix allowed me to speak with director Naoki Hamaguchi and battle director Teruki Endo during PAX West to ask questions and share feedback regarding my hands-on period. We talked about the new Function Integrated Tactical Suitwear (FITS) system, the additions to open-world traversal, MAI, and ultimately their vision for the ambitious finale to one of the most ambitious projects in gaming history.
GamingTrend (GT): The most visually stunning and technically impressive feature of Revelation is being able to fly and dive anywhere in the world. How did this ambitious feature come to be?
Naoki Hamaguchi: One of the core concepts and goals of FFVII Revelation was to take it a step above FFVII Rebirth’s open-world gameplay experience. We wanted to think about how we could expand that open-world exploration element. One of the ways that we were able to achieve that with Revelation was to implement the seamless diving that you just described; flying the Highwind anywhere in the world and parachuting straight down ahead, then landing all being a seamless transition from air to land.
GT: Did that vision have to be scaled back to function on less powerful hardware such as Nintendo Switch 2?
Hamaguchi: I will say that the portable devices, such as the Switch 2 or the Steam Deck, while less powerful compared to the console devices, I don't think that fact hindered our creativity or the development process.
One more thing I would want to add is that being able to release successful ports of previous installments like FFVII Remake Integrade and FFVII Rebirth, especially considering that it was originally placed on the PS5, but being able to release a great port onto the Switch 2 and having the experience to do that for the team. I think that really worked out well for us.
To give you a more specific example, being able to work on the Rebirth port for Switch 2, we were able to understand the correct amount of textures and polygon density in order to bring it from PS5 to other platforms. So, having that knowledge and experience and applying that same logic to the Revelation release helped smooth the development process for us.
GT: Other traversal features prominent during the demo were their grapple gun and the Chocobo Air Dash. Revelation’s new area of Wutai makes heavy use of these mechanics of verticality, but will prior areas from Rebirth also take advantage of these features?
Hamaguchi: This kind of ties into the first question, but when you look at FFVII Rebirth, we were able to implement this open-world exploration design where there are vast, huge areas where it offers horizontal width. In order to take it a step above and get further expansion of the open-world, we wanted to have a vertical depth in addition to the horizontal depth.
So that's why there are a lot of traversal features, including the grapple guns and the Chocobo flights that take you from the low end of the ground into the high end of the sky. So yes, in terms of the existing areas that have already appeared in previous installments, you will be able to kind of explore it all again in Revelation, but the experience of it is going to be a bit different.
GT: Speaking of exploring previous areas, how is the team trying to make these areas from the prior games feel fresh to re-explore once more beyond the traversal?
Hamaguchi: First of all, the various side quests and content that you will be able to explore and engage in these existing areas are going to be completely new and unique to FFVII Revelation. When you look at the story of Revelation, the Black Materia has been used, Meteor is looming in the sky, and the Weapons have emerged across the planet. All of these dramatic changes have brought a seismic shift to the entire planet, so even areas you have explored previously in FFVII Remake and Rebirth are going to look very different from previous installments.
In Rebirth, you would visit each region sequentially, and the side content you would engage in would begin and end in that same region. But for FFVII Revelation, certain side quests will happen across multiple regions, and it won’t just conclude in one single region because the core concept of Revelation is the global scale of the adventure. That is one of the many examples we can offer in terms of how we are delivering on that.
GT: The biggest critique I have of the demo so far is how MAI would constantly halt progress to display multiple checklists of activities in the area. For example, there were multiple times I was flying on my Chocobo before dropping like a rock for MAI to display the checklist. Will there be a way to disable that at all?
Hamaguchi: Thank you so much for that comment. It certainly makes sense why you feel that way when you’re playing the demo, and it just pops up in the middle of gameplay. Certain players might not want that in their gameplay experience. Right now, the way it is behaving in the game is as intended. However, we’re going to take this back and have a discussion with the team and see what we can do before the game releases.
GT: Revelations combat is still based on the foundations of Remake and Rebirth. The FITS system is arguably the biggest shake-up the trilogy's battle system has seen, altering the roles a character can play. What were the challenges of layering this mechanic on an established, in-depth battle system?
Endo: So obviously, we would definitely want newcomers to start playing the game and enjoy Revelation as their first entry as well, but we also want to consider the returning players who have played Remake and Rebirth. We don’t want to keep delivering the same exact battle system over and over for them. As you mentioned, the foundation was already there, and in a sense, we feel that it was already perfected. So in that regard, it was very challenging to come up with something completely new to make it feel different.
With the core concept of FFVII Revelation offering player freedom, we figured coming up with a new feature and element of combat that offers another layer of customization was the right way to go. That’s how we came up with the FITS system.
GT: Continuing with how the battle system has evolved through the trilogy, the addition of Cid and Vincent increases the party size from Remake’s four to Revelation’s seven. What goes into designing the kits for these new characters so they can synergize with older party members while also being distinct?
Endo: When you look at the two new party members being introduced in FFVII Revelation, Cid and Vincent, what helped the design process was that they both have pretty distinct weapons. Cid has a sphere, and Vincent has a handgun, so that already helps differentiate them from the other party members.
GT: I loved how Cid and Vincent played in terms of timing attacks with a visual cue to power them up. However, there is a lot of visual chaos going on with multiple enemies and particle effects. The blue and red auras for Cid and Vincent, respectively, were a bit hard for me to see to use their kits to their fullest potential.
Endo: Yeah, it’s a very common thing to happen across a lot of action games; all the effects happening make it harder to see the intended effects of things like that. It's actually something that I, as the combat director, wanted to be careful of. So, at the end of the day, I think it's all about the balancing of the visual effects, UI, and things like that. We'll continue to look out for that as we move on. We really appreciate all the feedback so far. They're really good points.
GT: Circling back to the grapple gun. I noticed how party members would propel themselves towards the enemies, especially when leaping off the chocobos. Is this more like a visual transition, or can we expect more gameplay-oriented integration of the grapple gun in the battle system?
Endo: To give you a short answer, that's probably the extent that we'll see the grapple being used. That being said, personally I am very interested in the idea of implementing more of the grapple gun into combat. So, if it was something that existed earlier in the remake series, like from the first installment in Remake, we probably would have been able to do something a lot more interesting.
GT: An aspect people adore about Final Fantasy, like with remakes and prior titles as well, is how it balances its playfulness and its serious tone really well. Remake especially wasn’t afraid to emphasize the quirky sections such as the Honey Bee Inn scene. With Revelation covering a darker, more somber section of the original game’s story, was there a challenge in balancing those two contrasting tones?
Hamaguchi: Yeah, as you pointed out, when you look at the story of FFVII Revelation, the meteor is looming in the sky, and the planet is on the brink of destruction. So it is understandable why you would have that question in mind.
Connected to that story is the theme of the resolve of the characters. The way it works is that as you progress through the game, you get to see the internal conflicts of the party members: all of the emotions they might have as they go on to save the world, the responsibilities that they carry, the reason why they fight the battles they fight. Things like that are going to be shown and illustrated in the story of the game.
But in those moments of introspection, it's not all somber. There are some story moments where it's rather comedic and has more heart and humor. In that sense, I think we did a good job depicting the classic diversity of these FF moments. It follows the original, where there are a lot of different story moments that aren’t just dark from beginning to end because you see these humorous moments throughout the game. In Revelation, people get to see these modes as well.
GT: Relating to the introspection of the characters, the demo dropped us into chapter four. Going towards the main quest put us in Wutai, exploring a lof ot Yuffie’s character. These, alongside Vincent, were optional content in the original game. How is the narrative team incorporating these optional elements and weaving them naturally into the main storyline?
Hamaguchi: After the release of the original, Yuffie and Vincent continued to appear in the various spin-off and compilation titles. They are among the fan favorites of the main characters, so when we first planned the remake series, we decided early on that Yuffie and Vincent would not be optional characters.
Throughout Remake and Rebirth, we did drop in some story details about a conflict between Wutai and the Shinra Company to give a bit more detail and context on how these two powers engage in conflict. We feel we were able to find a way to naturally fit the story details in across the remake trilogy, and I think we did a pretty good job.
As for Vincent, we're also giving him a lot of deeper story moments that weren't necessarily depicted in the original FFVII. Obviously, I can't really speak in too much detail about it, but specific examples would be his background as a character, his relationship with Shinra, the Turks, and with Sephiroth. There are a lot of story moments we get to see more of in FFVII Revelation, so I think the Vincent fans have a lot to look forward to.
GT: Today [September 6], Square Enix announced how they plan to continue with more FFVII content in the future. With the remake trilogy coming to a close, are you and your team planning on continuing that journey as well? Or are you guys wanting to work on something else first?
Hamaguchi: This doesn't just apply to me; this is something I’ve been telling the entire team as well: fully prioritize and focus on finishing up the development of FFVII Revelation. In terms of how the FFVII IP is going to look after the FFVII trilogy. It would be great to see the IP continue to expand and evolve even after FFVII Revelation. But again, I keep telling myself and the team to consider FFVII Revelation to be something that could be the end of FFVII as a whole. So they make sure that we're putting everything that we want to put into the game so that we're not leaving anything out.
In that sense, in terms of what we would be doing after FFVII Revelation, it could be another FFVII spin-off, but it could also be something outside of FFVII, but there are no plans whatsoever right now. Again, as a team, we're putting our full focus on finishing development of FFVII Revelation.
Hamaguchi: So I want to ask a question to you haha. Do you want another spin-off of FFVII?
GT: [laughs] I don’t have a lot of stake in this. I have only played the original and Remake. I haven’t watched Advent Children [or played the spin-offs] either, but I am a firm believer in having stories conclude and have a definitive ending. When you mentioned how you wanted to include everything in this game and leave no regrets, treat it like the last Final Fantasy VII thing ever. I think that’s a very powerful sentiment.
The whole FFVII saga in general- even if I didn’t grow up with it, many people did and have been positively impacted by it. There is a reason why this series is one of the most iconic and influential video games of all time. Treating it [Revelation] as the swan song, whether or not it will be remains to be seen, but having that sort of respect for the player and franchise is powerful.
Hamaguchi: I appreciate it, thanks so much.
Once again, Hamaguchi and Endo for their time, and to Square Enix for organizing this interview. Final Fantasy VII Revelation launches on April 8, 2027 on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, XBOX Series X|S, Steam, and Epic Games Store.
(Questions and answers have been edited for clarity)
For my thoughts on the demo, check out my preview here.
