In the six years since Final Fantasy VII Remake was released, I’ve been counting down to the moment we could finally hear the Highwind theme and rise to the skies in Shinra’s giant airship. While Disc 1 of Final Fantasy VII is incredible, it’s that second disc where the fate of the world is finally placed in your hands. After the incredible journey through Midgar in Remake and the emotion-filled trek through Gaia in Rebirth, we have finally arrived at the Final Fantasy VII Remake project’s final destination: Final Fantasy VII Revelation.
I’d be lying if I didn’t say my expectations for Revelation are probably insane. I feel like I have been waiting endlessly to see so many of my favorite moments adapted in the Remake series, particularly with the Lifestream sequence. And that’s just scratching the surface. This game is set to explore Rocket Town, the journey to space, the battles with Gaia’s Weapons, a reimagined Wutai, Knights of the Round, and, of course, the iconic final fight. Everything in the remake project has led to this, and many of the mysteries revealed in the previous two games are set to be resolved. Can Final Fantasy VII Revelation really live up to the impossible expectations fans have placed on it?
After spending one hour with Final Fantasy VII Revelation, I think it is. Square Enix flew me out to Los Angeles this week to get a first look at the highly anticipated RPG, and I do not even know where to begin. Revelation is bigger than any trailer can truly show, letting you fly literally anywhere in the world and take on anything you’d like at any point.
This preview focused on player freedom. I was thrown into Chapter 4, where the party has acquired the Highwind and is set for Wutai. This allowed me to get a feel for flying the airship around the world and traveling between destinations. Instead of throwing us into a story segment, Square Enix shared eight different ideas we could tackle, and we were left to do whatever we pleased. You could go directly to Wutai and start that story segment, challenge enemies and try out Cid and Vincent, take on a side quest in Gongaga, or play Queen’s Blood for the entire hour. Before even starting, I immediately went through every menu I could to see what details I might be able to find. I found both Outfit and Weapon Skins (allowing you to wear one outfit but equip another that doesn’t show in-game), some Shinra Cold Weather Gear (snow outfits, anyone!?), as well as a few other things like potentially three additional FITS slots that could be filled throughout the journey.
Jumping into the pilot’s seat of the Highwind for the first time was a little overwhelming. There is so much to see and do in this world, and I (still) feel like I barely did anything at all by the time my hour was up. That being said, I attempted to do a little bit of everything, and the start of that was exploring and piloting the Highwind. The Highwind is everything I wanted it to be, at least based on the time I spent in it. Multiple levels contain all sorts of things to see, such as barracks, Chocobo stables, computer stations for research, shops, a bar, and the bridge for piloting. There’s even a new Highwind Collection that’s seemingly replacing Johnny’s Seaside Inn Collection with new collectibles to discover. I loved finding the different party members interacting with different people and areas inside of the ship.
Taking to the skies, the Highwind literally can go anywhere. Controlling it feels great, and the scale of the world is very apparent as you fly across all the different regions. Areas like Rocket Town, which is now located in a region called Aerospace Cape, can be seen from below and are rendered in excellent detail. As I flew from one side of the world to the other, I was able to fly right above many of the regions and hold the triangle button on the DualSense to immediately jump off and parachute in. For this demo (and potentially narrative reasons, too), some locations were inaccessible to fly over for one reason or another. The northern continent was enveloped by a giant snowstorm, Cosmo Canyon was filled with a dust storm, and Midgar & Aerospace Cape were under Shinra control, so we steered clear.
After taking in the sights and flying around for a bit, I hovered over Mideel and parachuted down. Mideel is incredibly vibrant and an area that I am seriously looking forward to seeing more of. There are geysers of Lifestream that flow into the air, mysterious ancient buildings, and, of course, the iconic town. I won’t spoil any specifics, but if you’re familiar with what occurs here in the original, let’s just say two particular characters were here and tucked away in the village during the demo. I got a good feel for riding the Chocobo in Mideel and testing its new abilities, one of which is an air dash that lets you fly in different directions. This is a lot of fun to use and opens up the Chocobo exploration quite a bit; I’m very interested in messing around with it more, especially since it appears there will be more abilities to unlock over the course of the journey.
I was satisfied with my brief time in Mideel at this point, so I opened the map and jumped straight back into the Highwind to fly away to my next destination. Revelation makes it incredibly easy to jump back in and explore, and I really appreciated that. At any time, you can open the map and teleport to the Highwind, with options to fly, go to the bridge, or even parachute down from it. That helps a lot if you end up landing in the wrong place. Speaking of which, there are some areas you can’t land at. I tried landing on top of the giant hill at the Gongaga Region, but I wasn’t able to and forcibly turned around. There is also lots of land around the world between the regions where you cannot land or parachute from. This is not a deal-breaker whatsoever for me, as I think it’d be a very unrealistic ask to be able to explore random forests or cliffs that have no relevance at all, but it is worth noting. Though it is possible some of these areas were walled off for the sake of the demo.
From here, I decided to go check out the Gold Saucer. MAI, who makes a return alongside Chadley, continued to make comments about it as I flew by, and I figured I might as well see what new additions could have been added to the minigame-filled destination. Upon arriving, the place was locked down by polygon soldiers, and Dio was sitting there, ready with a quest. I didn’t end up taking it, but I appreciate the fact that all previous locations introduced in Rebirth will have new things to look forward to and discover. Areas like Costa Del Sol introduce new objects in the environment that change how things looked previously, and regions like Junon have been altered due to the appearance of the Weapons. I was able to see the Ruby Weapon in Corel, and the scale of these creatures is everything I wanted. I’m so excited to see how these fights will play out, but there’s just a particular feeling evoked when seeing a giant kaiju towering above these areas as you fly overhead in the Highwind.
I mentioned MAI just a bit ago, and she is going to be very important in Final Fantasy VII Revelation. This time around, there are numerous “MAI Intel” objectives to complete, which have built on World Intel. There are Global objectives that apply everywhere, as well as objectives for each region in the game. These are vast and have multiple objectives for each, so I’m interested to see how extensive some of these will be. Whereas World Intel would have you check off a box and move on, MAI Intel appeared to be built around completing objectives that are tied together in a questline of sorts. I appreciate the change, as it appears that this optional content will be a bit more substantive this time around. I like the changes I am seeing so far with MAI Intel, but I definitely could go without the numerous pop-ups from MAI that showcase each individual new MAI Intel objective available when you arrive at an area. It can be a bit exhausting to press through.
Beyond this, I made sure to spend ample time with both Vincent Valentine and Cid Highwind, who are joining the party as playable characters in Revelation. Director Naoki Hamaguchi has previously shared that he really enjoys Vincent, and it was immediately clear why after just one battle. Vincent is lightning-fast and packs an incredible punch. He is a gunslinger who deals quick damage with his gun but can instantly transform into a close-range, melee attack character with his Galian Beast form. I am a huge fan of some of the Remake series’ fastest characters (Tifa and Yuffie), and Vincent might have sold me as my permanent third party member based on this experience alone. Cid, on the other hand, is a joy to play, featuring classic Dragoon combat abilities that feel great to use. He is sneakily speedy with his abilities, and based on my time with him, I feel like he could have an incredibly high skill ceiling. His lance has the ability to hit multiple enemies at once, which is super nice when dealing with crowds. Once he’s airborne, he can deal much more damage and pack much more of a punch, further building on expansions to aerial combat for the series in a great way.
I also got a chance to experiment with the new FITS (Function-Integrated Tactical Suitwear) system. Admittedly, I was cautiously excited for this addition. The prospect of adding a job system on top of the already seemingly perfected ATB system first appeared like it could be a bit much, but it surprisingly fits right in after getting some hands-on time. All party members have access to the same four FITS: Warrior, Knight, Black Mage, and Summoner. These can be freely chosen at any time, and each FIT gives you a unique outfit and set of abilities that align with that character. What I do appreciate about this addition is that it is not forced. You do not have to use the FITS if you do not want to, but they can unlock even more abilities in combat that you would not have access to with just the character’s toolkit. Personally, I had a lot of fun experimenting around with each of them and testing the abilities. This totally blows away the concept of traditional roles for the party, so anyone can be built to anything now. It’s some real RPG goodness. Also, a lot of these outfits are great. Barret’s Black Mage FIT is straight-up Saejima from Yakuza 5; it’s hilarious. I feel like I barely scratched the surface here with FITS, and I’ll be excitedly looking forward to pouring hours into experimentation in April.
I ended off the last 15 minutes of my preview by heading to Wutai, which feels so different from any other area in this world. The development team has done such a tremendous job at capturing the environment of this location, featuring unique architecture, plants, wildlife, and more. I was able to see a few story cutscenes that made me even more convinced that The First Soldier is more important than almost anyone realizes, and I also got to walk around the capital. The bustling Happy Turtle was filled with charm, and I was astounded by just how big the Wutai region seemed to be. I was focused only on the area leading up to and surrounding the capital, but there was a vast area shrouded on the map down South that could have been five or six times the size of the massive capital area. I am seriously excited to see more. I’ll also say the lighting here (and in Mideel) looks phenomenal. I can’t say for sure based on the short playtime I had, but I feel there has been major work done to the lighting. It appears much improved from Rebirth.
Hopping around the rooftops in Wutai with the grappling hook is a blast, as it lets you quickly reach areas you never possibly could in previous games. I saw quite a few of these at older locations we’ve already visited as well, so it’s likely even areas in Rebirth will have new vantage points to discover. The Highwind even has a few of these! This new grappling hook is accompanied by the Toolkit, which features items like a Camera for taking pictures, Field Glasses that let you zoom into areas almost like in Metal Gear Solid V, a Makolight that can reveal hidden items in the environment not visible to the naked eye, and more.
As my preview closed, I sat back and admired just how massive Final Fantasy VII Revelation is shaping up to be. This game is the final stop for a project that began over a decade ago, and one that has been requested for nearly 30 years. Revelation feels more ambitious than either game that came before it. The connected world, the Highwind, the Meteor in the sky, the huge story beats, the once-again expanded combat system, and everything here ultimately intertwine into what looks to be the ultimate celebration of Final Fantasy VII. The end of this journey approaches, and as bittersweet as that is, after seeing just a glimpse of what lies ahead, it cannot get here soon enough.
Final Fantasy VII Revelation launches on April 8, 2027.
For more on Final Fantasy VII Revelation, be sure to check out my extended thoughts on my preview session in the latest episode of our Under The Plate series.
