I still vividly remember the first time I played Final Fantasy VII Remake‘s demo in 2019, and fully how it sold me on Square Enix’s reimagining of one of the most beloved RPGs of all time. Following ex-SOLDIER Cloud’s mission with Avalanche members to destroy Mako Reactor 1, the demo was perfectly paced for showcasing its beautiful modern visuals and more action-focused combat system, both of which made for an electrifying experience filled with cinematic spectacles. Fast-forward to 2026, and I’m finally playing Final Fantasy VII Revelation, the third and final part of this remake series, and it’s just as surreal as it is entirely overwhelming.
This is no exaggeration–when I first sat down to play the Final Fantasy VII Revelation demo at Gamescom, a Square Enix PR representative briefed us on several of the paths we could opt to take, and it became very clear that 45 minutes was not going to even be remotely close to scratching the surface of what was on offer. Basically, if you thought that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s open world maximalism was going to be impossible to match, you haven’t seen anything yet.
“The idea is very much [that] we want to keep expanding, increasing the scale of the game as we go through the series,” game director Naoki Hamaguchi said through a translator during a group interview. “Obviously, Remake was more of a linear story-driven game, then Rebirth turned into an explorable open world. Taking Rebirth to Revelation, we wanted to expand that with the feeling of verticality. The world’s not just going outwards, it’s also going upwards as well.”
That sentiment was very evident in the demo, which started at Chapter 4 of the game on the Highwind, an airship that you can fly all across the world. You can then jump from the Highwind and parachute down to practically any spot, whether it’s locations you visited in Rebirth, or Revelation’s new regions, which include the nation of Wutai or the remote island of Mideel. That this is all seemingly accessible at such a relatively early point of the game is mind-boggling, though I tried my best not to spend too long considering the sheer scale before me. With only 45 minutes to go, time was not on my side.
Do I sit through these lengthy dialogue cutscenes where every character seemingly needs to get a word in, I wondered, or do I watch them at double-speed, butchering the voice performances in the process? Do I take a tour of the Highwind itself, which would also inevitably cut into my precious hands-on time? Or do I, like the person to my right who I occasionally steal a glance at, just casually spend the bulk of it indulging in Queen’s Blood, the addictive collectible card minigame introduced in Rebirth that feels like it could be substantial enough to become its own standalone game?
When that last question inevitably came up, Hamaguchi clarified that there were currently no plans in place for a Queen’s Blood spin-off. “What we really want to prioritize is getting Revelation out as quickly as possible, at the highest possible quality it can be. But certainly, I understand there are a lot of people looking for this kind of thing. So we’d be very positively looking into the idea of maybe doing it in the future.”
Getting back to my predicament, I opted to skip the tour of the Highwind and instead decided on who should be in my active party of three, which naturally meant including Revelation’s two new playable members, pilot Cid Highwind and ex-Turk Vincent Valentine. Also new to this instalment is the ability to switch the character you’re controlling while exploring the world normally, and it soon occurred to me that this is the point in the story when Cloud is notably absent. Fortunately, this meant I had no qualms controlling Vincent and pretending I was playing the Dirge of Cerberus remaster that’s yet to surface.
Instead of revisiting the regions from the previous game, I decided to parachute my party down to Mideel, and was delighted by the ability to summon a chocobo mid-air to give me a smooth “Chocolanding.” Yet my marvelling at how seamless you can go from the sky to the ground was soon undercut by Mai, the chatty AI assistant introduced in Rebirth, who bombarded me with things to do, errands to run, and much more with such velocity that I could barely comprehend what was happening. If you felt that Rebirth suffered from an excess of content bloat, be prepared for more of that in Revelation.
This huge amount of content is also challenging to navigate in terms of figuring out what you can and can’t do yet. One of the quests I was given–located at the entrance of a mysterious Cetra Shrine–was far too high-leveled for me, for example. Upon entering, two beast-like enemies spawned in and practically one-shot each of my party members. I was left badly injured, and wishing I had had some form of warning before embarking on such an ill-advised mission. Granted, there might have been a warning in terms of looking at enemy levels that I missed in my rush to see as much of the game as I could within the limited time frame of the demo, but if there was, it wasn’t obvious.
After retreating to another part of the region, I was finally able to spend some time appreciating the new additions to the party. There’s a wonderful duality to Vincent, as in addition to his normal gun attacks you can transform into his more ferocious Behemoth-like Galian Beast form, which in the original game was only available as a Limit Break. However, there is a limit to how many times you can trigger this before it impacts his maximum HP, preventing this ability from feeling too powerful. But while Vincent was a thrill to play, I had the most fun with Cid, his spear-wielding combat style very reminiscent of the greater Final Fantasy series’ dragoon class thanks to his high-leaping attacks.
Regardless of which party member you’re controlling, each has more skills at their disposal than ever before thanks to Revelation’s new FITS (Function Integrated Tactical Suitwear) system, which essentially bestows a classic RPG job to party members while also altering what outfit they’re wearing. While it’s reminiscent of Dresspheres from Final Fantasy X-2, it’s worth noting that they aren’t a complete class change but rather an addition. For instance, Yuffie’s inherent Ninjitsu skills are still available whether she’s dressed in a Black mage outfit or a Summoner outfit. What does change is that your outfit’s respective job’s skills are now available via a new command tab called FITS Abilities, with all of these abilities costing Mana Points to use. For those less inclined to dabble around with spells and abilities, you can also simply treat the outfits just as outfits and ignore this new menu.
“The idea is that it caters to different audiences,” Hamaguchi explained. “So the real hardcore battle players looking to get the min-max ultimate characters will look at it as how to customize their characters for even more power. But at the same time, the more casual players just want to see the cool costumes and they’re much more interested in customizing how the characters look. So getting that system in at this point in the series would really add something of value for both of those audiences.”
With time running out, I decided to progress the story and drop into Wutai, at which point I was told I would be unable to leave until the chapter was completed. I was relieved to see that, even though Revelation does offer a staggering amount to do, it still knows to lock you in during key story points.
It felt good exploring this secretive ninja nation, which includes points I could traverse via grappling hook as any playable party member, not just Yuffie. Fans of Final Fantasy VII may remember that this was a completely optional region in the original game, but Revelation has now integrated this location and its events into the canon of the story.
My trip to Wutai left me curious as to how the team has approached what elements from the original game would be incorporated as part of the main story, and what would remain optional side content. Although I asked this to Hamaguchi initially in relation to the prominence of the Weapons in Revelation’s latest trailer–the director confirmed that some will still remain as optional super-difficult endgame challenges–I couldn’t help but ask him to elaborate a bit further on the studio’s process.
“I think one thing that’s very important about when you put a piece of content into the game, regardless of whether it’s compulsory or optional, is it has to be a convincing piece of content–it has to be fun and entertaining in its own right, and well fleshed out, rather than just including it for inclusion’s sake,” Hamaguchi explained.
“For example, the Knight of the Round from the original game [is something that] a lot of people are very keen to see how we’ve handled in this game. I can tell you they are fully fleshed out, not like the original Final Fantasy VII where you go to the island, you pick up the materia, and that was it. It’s a lot more like what we did with Gilgamesh in Rebirth, a properly fleshed out storyline with quest contents and some dedicated battles as part of that. Because that’s how we approach that. If you’re going to do the content, it has to be a satisfying piece of content in its own right.”
Even if Revelation’s glut of content sees no sign of restraint, I can’t help but admire the passion and audacity that Hamaguchi has displayed on this remake project. Similarly remarkable is how the series’ scope hasn’t been reduced even as the games have gone from being PlayStation exclusives to releasing across less powerful platforms, like the Switch 2. Revelation in particular represents an interesting challenge for the studio, as it is the first in the series releasing on multiple platforms simultaneously.
But Hamaguchi is confident in the team’s ability to deliver the game’s full vision without worrying about hardware limitations. “The core team making the game itself generally develops on PC, and that structure allows the team to focus on making the game and making it as good as possible,” Hamaguchi said. “Our team does not have the concept of, ‘We have to get this game on the Nintendo Switch 2, so we have to limit something in the game.’ So if we work on something and someone says you can’t do that because the Switch couldn’t do that, we don’t think of it that way.”
“But on top of that, we have the porting team, and these are the guys that really pay attention to what the performance will look like on other hardware,” he continued. “They’re constantly assessing the build that comes out, seeing if there are any issues specific to platforms, then report that back to the team, and they need to collaborate with the rest of the team and the other specialists that we have. For example, it may be a requirement, say, for Nintendo Switch 2, or another comparatively lighter spec machine like Steam Deck, for a slightly lower polygon count and a specific asset. In that kind of situation, we’ll talk with the resources team, and see if they can produce those special assets. But they generally lead the process, and they work together with the rest of the team to find the right solutions.”
When all was said and done, the Revelation demo left me wanting compared to the brilliantly paced introduction of Remake’s Mako Reactor 1 mission–but perhaps it was a deliberate strategy from Square Enix to stupefy me with the utter scale of its ambition.
“There are a lot of open world games out there now, many really celebrated ones, but they are still a part of a larger world–it’s one area, one country, one region. Whereas what makes us unique and what we’ve achieved is this is a whole planet, and the adventure takes place on a planetary scale. I think that’s something that’s new and exciting, and that’s something I really can’t wait to see how the masses of fans out there react to.”
Yet creating a massive, lived-in world is only one part of the equation. More pressing is if Revelation will finally answer the questions the two previous games have asked–and whether or not its answers will be able to satisfy fans. I’m already conscious that the elephant in the room is Aerith, who still appears quite prominently in the game’s key art. What that means for her in this finale is something that Hamaguchi is keeping tight-lipped about.
“I will say one thing: this is a game that really is for the fans, and will be the most satisfying and the best conclusion of the series for all of the fans, and I understand a lot of fans out there are very keen to know what happens to Aerith,” he said. “We had a lot of ideas, myself and the team came up with, so just know that we have thought very hard about how to present [her] and how to handle her in this final part of the trilogy. So I look forward to everyone experiencing and playing that when the game comes out.”
My only hope is that I won’t have gotten too fatigued by all of the other game’s content before I find that answer out for myself.
Final Fantasy VII Revelation is releasing on April 8, 2027 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2.
