Square Enix went open-world with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, but many did not particularly appreciate the checklist-heavy design of the game’s world, feeling it diluted the experience without offering anything truly substantial. Naoki Hamaguchi and his team seem to have listened to players‘ feedback, as world exploration seems to have been tied to some of the game’s story revelations to deliver a more organic experience that avoids exposition-heavy story sequences that are typical in JRPGs.
A New Approach To World Design
“When Cloud looks at himself and re-examines who he is, many of the story’s revelations will be expressed through the gameplay experience and performance experience that players receive,”Hamaguchi-san told One More Game during gamescom Asia x Thailand Game Show 2026. Instead of relying on exposition-heavy cutscenes, the team “structured the game so that many lingering mysteries from previous entries are answered through gameplay progression.” Lingering questions in the trilogy will finally get their answers, but only through direct interaction with the world.
As Final Fantasy VII Revelation‘s world will be much bigger than Rebirth‘s, Hamaguchi-san and his team cleverly implemented the Highwind airship to provide a means to travel quickly from one point to another. However, the team considers this feature not something that diminishes the world’s scale, but a quality-of-life improvement. “The world is very wide, and there are lots of spaces,” he said. “And as a game, I wouldn’t be happy if a player wants to go to a destination that takes lots of time. If players want to go somewhere, I don’t want it to take too much time or become difficult to reach. That would create stress, and that’s not good as a game.” As such, the Highwind will take players to their destination, but it won’t replace world interaction needed to experience more of the story.
While not relying on exposition-heavy sequences would already be a good reason to get more excited about Final Fantasy VII Revelation, as these sorts of sequences don’t make for good storytelling (as the ending of Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots painfully showed years ago), tying story to exploration and making it meaningful even with the Highwind is definitely the way to go to address the most common criticism raised at Final Fantasy VII Rebirth‘s open-world design. Hopefully, the excessive guidance shown in the gamescom demo that many did not like will be toned down, as the recent footage of the Midgar’s Fissure exploration suggests.
One more element that is going to make Final Fantasy VII Revelation‘s world more fun to explore is the summons’ return to the world. “Hamaguchi revealed that Final Fantasy VII Revelation moves much closer to the spirit of the original game,” One More Game confirms. “Players will encounter summon-related content directly in the world and collect materials tied to those summons through exploration rather than solely through simulations.” And the Knights of the Round summon will be related to the “original story for Gilgamesh” in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, so its related questline should be expected to span the entire game.
The FITS System Isn’t a Substitute For Aerith
Besides confirming the above information on Final Fantasy VII Revelation‘s world design, Hamaguchi-san also touched upon the biggest combat addition of the third entry in the series: the FITS system. As I couldn’t fail to notice during Gamescom, the Black Mage FITS seems to be Aerith’s substitute, but according to the series’ director, this isn’t the case.
“Hamaguchi rejected the idea that these changes were made simply because Aerith may not be playable. Instead, he said the adjustments stemmed from lessons learned from Rebirth’s combat design,” reports One More Game. “We wanted to continue using systems that players embraced in Rebirth,”Hamaguchi-san said, emphasizing that the creation of the FITS system is based on the combat system evolution rather than “assumptions about Aerith’s role in the story.” Who, everything considered, has a very high chance of being playable once again, although in an unknown capacity.
Although the game is getting closer to release, I have to admit that the wait for Final Fantasy VII Revelation is becoming harder, as every new bit of information is painting an even better picture than I expected. As such, I have come to a point where I almost dread any new reveal, as it would only make the wait forApril 8, 2027 even harder.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack.
After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi “Suda51” Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA’s president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3.
When he’s not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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