If you are nearing the end of one of the most ambitious undertakings in video‑game history, the pressure can feel overwhelming. That pressure is magnified when the project in question is the decade‑long Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, a complete reconstruction and major expansion of one of the most influential games of the past thirty years.
Square Enix studio head and game director Naoki Hamaguchi, however, appears unruffled. When asked how he feels as the launch of Final Fantasy VII Revelation approaches, the culmination of a series he has helped shape for more than ten years, he replied with a wry smile, “I was just so focused, it really felt like it passed in a flash.”
His calm is striking given the huge expectations surrounding the title. The original Final Fantasy VII debuted on Sony’s PlayStation in 1997 and quickly became a cultural phenomenon. It was not the series’ first Western release, but it was the breakout title that arrived as gaming was moving beyond a children’s hobby into mainstream entertainment. The game remains one of the most celebrated entries in the franchise, and its story of reluctant hero Cloud Strife and his rag‑tag group of eco‑warriors battling a planet‑ravaging corporation feels as relevant today as it did then.
A remake had been discussed since the PlayStation 2 era and was even hinted at with a cinematic tech demo during the PS3 reveal. When Final Fantasy VII Remake finally launched in 2020, near the end of the PS4’s life cycle, it arrived with a twist: it was not simply the old game with updated graphics and mechanics, but a glimpse into an alternate reality where events could unfold differently. The concept was expanded in 2024’s second chapter, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which introduced characters moving between timelines. Hamaguchi is careful not to describe the project as a Marvel‑style multiverse.
“When we started approaching these things, seven years or more ago, I don’t believe there were so many other pieces of media tackling those same themes at the time,” Hamaguchi said with a laugh. “We don’t really tend to use the word ‘multiverse’—we talk about the story being ‘multilayered.’ Actually, the word that comes up most often is ‘reunion.’”
The term “reunion” may echo fans of the original, where experiments using cells from the alien Jenova linked characters like Sephiroth. Hamaguchi hints that Revelation’s increasingly intricate narrative could bring together various cosmic variations of the original events, but he does not confirm any specific direction. He does note that Square Enix is viewing the story as layers that eventually converge, offering a unique perspective within the established lore.
The Remake trilogy’s three‑act structure has been dramatically expanded, which sometimes requires reshuffling characters, locations, and events, placing many elements out of their original sequence. A prominent example is the nation of Wutai, home to teenage ninja Yuffie, who becomes an ally of Cloud. In the 1997 game, Wutai was an optional side area consisting of two huts and a handful of screens. In Revelation, it is a bustling city filled with NPCs, secrets, and even Chocobo‑based travel. The area is portrayed as being embroiled in a war with Midgar, the massive metropolis featured in the Remake, adding a depth that was absent in the original.
Some observers have suggested that holding back Wutai and Rocket Town for the third Remake entry was a way to pad the third disc of the original, which primarily consisted of side quests and optional boss battles. Hamaguchi says the opposite is true. After two games that each exceed one hundred hours, he was still concerned about fitting everything into Revelation.
“I did see people online talking about things after Rebirth, saying, ‘Are you going to have enough to fill up another game? What’s gonna happen?’” he recalled. “I was sat there like, ‘No, this is the opposite problem!’ I’m looking at everything we still got to put in, and how are we going to get it in there? We actually had to be quite careful with what we put in to avoid having too much content.”
Revelation may still feel dense. It introduces the final two playable characters from the original—airship pilot Cid Highwind and the enigmatic gunman Vincent Valentine—expanding party dynamics and combat combos. The game also reinvents the iconic Emerald, Ruby, and Ultima Weapon super‑boss encounters, delivering brutally challenging fights against god‑tier foes with strict constraints that test player skill.
In addition to the new zones, the world is far more open. Returning locations from the first two installments provide extra story threads and battles when revisited. Players can take to the skies in Cid’s airship, the Highwind, before parachuting back down to explore further. “I’m not sure if there’s anything other than Revelation that is really an open world on a truly ‘world’ scale, on a planetary scale,” Hamaguchi said.
He has previously mentioned that seeing everything the game has to offer may require multiple playthroughs. While that prospect might seem daunting to some, Hamaguchi is undeterred. “Personally, I don’t have any reservations,” he concluded.