‘Final Fantasy VII Revelation’ Game Director Interview

Appears to be like like these seven seconds are coming to an finish.

At Gamescom 2026, Final Fantasy VII Revelation provided a glimpse on the huge ultimate chapter of Square Enix’s remake trilogy, which concludes Cloud and his activist pals’ journey as they race in opposition to time to cease Sephiroth, who’s near attaining god standing in his quest to hurt the planet.

The preview dropped us into Chapter 4 aboard Cid’s iconic Highwind aerial ship with Yuffie, Barret, Cait Sith and Vincent, because the group explores the islands for assets or makes a beeline for Wutai, which has been considerably expanded for the finale. In the meantime, Tifa and an unwell Cloud stay separated from the group, leaving the remainder of the occasion to chart their very own course via a world that has grown significantly since Rebirth.

For Sq. Enix sport director Naoki Hamaguchi, who has guided the challenge via Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth, that enlargement is likely one of the greatest challenges—and alternatives—of the finale. The Highwind opens the skies, whereas flying chocobos and parachuting provide new methods to traverse acquainted territory. Junon bears the brunt of Weapons’ assaults in protection of the planet, elements of Gongaga have been flooded, and the grasslands look remarkably completely different from above.

After Remake’s extra linear construction and Rebirth’s open-world enlargement, Revelation takes that scale to a planet-wide stage. Hamaguchi stated the Highwind supplies “a sense that no different open-world sport offers,” whereas Mai and the sport’s facet content material assist information gamers via the sprawling panorama with out making exploration too hectic.

Throughout the timed playthrough (and regardless of all of the exploratory distractions), I caught a hopeful glimpse of a finale geared in the direction of delving deeper into the lore of its iconic solid of characters. Hamaguchi advised Deadline that the crew painstakingly cemented Vincent and Yuffie into irrevocable mainstays whereas additionally giving Zack (not obtainable in my preview) an more and more vital position within the trilogy’s bigger time-boggling thriller.

Under, Deadline spoke additional with Hamaguchi about bringing the formidable remake challenge to its conclusion, increasing its world and characters, Cloud’s emotional journey, and whether or not Ultimate Fantasy VII may finally leap to tv.

DEADLINE: That is it. You’re within the strategy of finalizing one of many greatest remake tasks of a legendary sport for Sq. Enix. What’s the normal vibe and emotionality going via your minds proper now at headquarters?

NAOKI HAMAGUCHI: As you say, it’s a legendary sport. It’s so well-loved by so many individuals on the market, with actually excessive expectations, and I’m remaking that. And in doing the ultimate work, it’s actually setting in that we’re about to launch the climax. There’s a sense of nice satisfaction, and I’m feeling that now. I can nonetheless keep in mind after we put out Final Fantasy VII Rebirth; the large problem with that sport was that we needed to take that traditional Ultimate Fantasy really feel and convey it into an open-world construction. And I feel we felt that we did that actually effectively, and fortunately, there was a really optimistic response to that.

So, with Revelation, what we’ve tried to do is take that even additional and develop out. And it sits on a planet-level open world, with verticality, and the entire surroundings is now obtainable for journey. And I’m very assured that we’ve achieved that. And actually, there’s no open world on the market at this scale in some other sport.

DEADLINE: With that stated, I do know Final Fantasy VII Remake confronted backlash for being too linear. Then Rebirth opened up lots as you’ve said. And now this one’s even larger. Are you nervous about an unwieldy narrative or followers’ response to this?

HAMAGUCHI: No matter type of sport you’re making, you possibly can have 100 folks and present them the sport; you’re by no means going to get something the place all 100 of them prefer it. There’ll at all times be somebody who doesn’t prefer it, who complains about it. You’ll be able to’t scale back these voices to nothing, so we don’t even strive.

What’s vital is that you’ve a strong idea and do your greatest to realize it. With Revelation, I actually am assured that we managed to do this. So, once more, you guys performed the demos and had this expertise, however that feeling of simply the dimensions of the world and that scale of open world, once you rise up within the Highwind and also you set out into the skies, I don’t suppose there’s some other open-world sport on the market that provides you with that feeling. So, I wish to share that feeling with as many individuals as attainable and present what we’ve achieved right here.

DEADLINE: Does this imply we will anticipate the rooster with the tin can in Gongaga to seem once more?

HAMAGUCHI: No, I used to be fascinated about what to do with that for a very long time. We’ve taken a barely completely different method [laughs]. However we’ve bought lots of quests like that, with that particular Ultimate Fantasy humor in it. Look ahead to a great deal of that.

DEADLINE: Who was the character you understood extra by the tip of the sport’s journey?

HAMAGUCHI: Vincent and Yuffie as a result of they had been two characters within the authentic who had been optionally available characters. And due to that, they weren’t featured inside the primary story as strongly as all the opposite solid. So, as a really aware resolution for the Remake collection, they’ve been made obligatory elements of the crew, they usually’ve actually been fleshed out extra and given the background and the deeper dive into them as characters. So, I feel these are most likely the 2 the followers will recognize most and which have been fleshed out essentially the most.

Additionally, Zack is the opposite one as a result of he performs a really fascinating position within the story’s setup. He gives the look of, “Properly, that is the [game] variations, that is what’s going on.” Equally to Rebirth, when it comes to exhibiting not telling, he will even have a task like that in Revelation. So gamers can very a lot anticipate to see much more of Zack and dig even deeper into him. He performs a really huge half on this final finale of the collection.

DEADLINE: Which character then was essentially the most troublesome to flesh out and convey to the forefront?

HAMAGUCHI: That’s a tricky query. In some methods, Zack was fairly a troublesome one. As a result of to start with, he’s fairly effectively lined when it comes to background materials from the compilation. There’s lots of details about him the place he options fairly closely, so there’s stuff now we have to incorporate. And on the identical time, the way in which he’s used within the story, he’s a part of that very particular metaphysical phenomenon that’s happening. So, how he’s portrayed in that, and the way he interacts with others and the surroundings, should be dealt with very fastidiously in order that we don’t give an excessive amount of away. Getting that stability proper with Zack was exhausting, particularly in including extra element about him.

However fascinated about this query once more, and all of the characters, they’ve bought actually devoted followers. You make one unsuitable resolution for any of them, I’m most likely going to get shouted at by lots of people [laughs]. So, I feel selecting one as harder than the others is sort of troublesome in itself.

DEADLINE: Within the preview’s Chapter 4, Cloud is already affected by mako poisoning. But it surely was fascinating to me that Mai mentions the Lifesprings could also be concerned in restoring or bettering his psychological state? What are you able to inform us about this new growth? My boy is struggling.

HAMAGUCHI: So to start with, everybody needs to take pleasure in that within the sport. I would like you to take pleasure in that within the sport. One of the simplest ways to expertise that’s by not telling you. I can’t let you know [laughs]. However what I’ll let you know is that, like in any movie, any actually good movie, you’ll get the rhythm of issues, the ups and downs of the story and the way [the story] progresses like that. And when it comes to that rhythm in Revelation, that was one of many areas we put a lot care and a spotlight into the story of how Cloud finds himself and recovers and will get his sanity again.

A number of the voice actors have stated in interviews that there’s a lot emotional payback in that scene, and everybody’s going to have so many sophisticated feelings in regards to the actually stunning scene. And it was the English voice actors who stated that for those who didn’t cry in Rebirth, you’re going to cry in Revelation. In order that’s why I actually needed folks [at the demos] to see and expertise that as quickly as attainable.

DEADLINE: Waiting for 2027, it’s going to be a giant 12 months for Sq. Enix between Kingdom Hearts IV and Ultimate Fantasy VII Revelation. However I’m pondering extra particularly about Tetsuya Nomura going to D23 and the announcement of the Kingdom Hearts animated collection for Disney+. Does Ultimate Fantasy VII lend itself to a TV collection adaptation?

HAMAGUCHI: By way of Sq. Enix and 2027, our President, Takashi Kiryu, says that subsequent 12 months is the large combat again for us, the place the whole lot turns round. And clearly, between Ultimate Fantasy VII Revelation and Kingdom Hearts IV, these are huge titles which can be going to push that. And each are being developed in my very own studio, Inventive Studio 1. So yeah, I’m actually pumped up now for that. That’s actually all on my watch now, so I’m going to be the man who’s pushing all that ahead.

However when it comes to diversifications, even a live-action adaptation or an animated adaptation, we’re at all times pondering that these properties, issues like, once more, Kingdom Hearts, Ultimate Fantasy VII … not simply Ultimate Fantasy VII, even simply Remake. Throughout the entire Ultimate Fantasy properties and IPs, we’re at all times on the lookout for the easiest way to deliver them to the viewers and for alternatives like this with them. So yeah, it’s positively a chance. We wish to be very proactive in trying into alternatives like that.

Ultimate Fantasy VII Revelation will launch on April 8, 2027 concurrently on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Change 2, Xbox Sequence X|S, Steam and Epic Video games.