Final Fantasy VII Revelation Arrives as Decade-Long Remake Trilogy Concludes
Square Enix's reimagining of the 1997 classic expands the original's scope across a vast open world while introducing new narrative complexity.
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What happened
Final Fantasy VII Revelation is releasing as the concluding installment of a decade-spanning remake trilogy that began with Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020) and continued with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2024). The third chapter brings in the final two playable characters from the original game—aeronaut Cid Highwind and were-beast gunman Vincent Valentine—and significantly expands locations like Wutai from the original's minimal representation into a sprawling city. Revelation features a world-scale open environment where players can soar the skies in an airship and engage in multiple playthroughs to see everything in the game, alongside its own interpretations of the memorable Emerald, Ruby, and Ultima Weapon super-boss battles.
Context
The original Final Fantasy VII (1997) was a breakthrough moment for gaming as a mainstream medium, and the remake trilogy represents an attempt to rebuild and substantially expand that influential work rather than simply modernize it. By stretching the original's story across three 100-plus-hour games with alternate narrative paths and layered storylines, the developers have had to substantially restructure the source material—moving events and characters out of sequence and holding back major locations for the final chapter. Director Naoki Hamaguchi has acknowledged that fitting remaining content without overwhelming players was a concern in development, noting he faced "the opposite problem" of worrying there was too much content to fit rather than too little.