Fans have been waiting years for Final Fantasy 7 Revelation to arrive, and as exciting as its impending launch is, the game’s sheer size might be a little overwhelming. Final Fantasy 7 Revelation marks the final chapter in Square Enix’s remake trilogy, which is going to be a bittersweet moment. On the one hand, it’s going to be great to see the story wrapped up, but it also brings an epic years-long journey to a close. It’s common for final chapters to be huge, and Square Enix is taking that to heart, which could either be a great thing or a headache.
FF7 Remake and FF7 Rebirth featured two unique world designs. The first chapter was a linear narrative, while the second opened the map up into a semi-open design. Instead of a full-blown open world, FF7 Rebirth sectioned off the map into various large-scale zones, which was a big change from FF7 Remake. This time around, FF7 Revelation‘s map size is going even bigger with its approach to open-world design, and director Naoki Hamaguchi is already teasing that the finale will have more content and a larger world than its predecessors. While this is bound to excite some fans, it also risks taking the game’s map design too far.
Final Fantasy 7 Revelation Risks Pushing Too Far With Its Open-World Formula
During a conversation with GamesRadar, Naoki Hamaguchi shared some fascinating insight into FF7 Rebirth‘s world design that teases a chapter that isn’t afraid to push the boundaries of what was established in previous entries when it comes to an open-world map and in-game content. Granted, it’s not like it’s rare for JRPGs to be long. Some of the best JRPGs of all time often go past the 100-hour mark, but as lives grow busier and audiences age, it’s hard for a lot of gamers to keep up with these play times.
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This makes the prospect of more content and a larger world daunting. Hamaguchi’s interview with GamesRadar made it clear that he’s incredibly optimistic and excited about this expansion, though. According to Hamaguchi, more content and exploration is an asset that makes the game “so appealing” to players and even believes that Revelation has “probably actually even more content in it than Rebirth had.”
I am aware that there is a number of players of Rebirth who said that the content was just too much and that they felt they were overwhelmed by it. I do understand there are people out there who felt that… I feel that having that huge amount of content is part of what makes the game so appealing. I don’t think it’s that kind of game, so I’m very confident in what it is because of that.
It’s fascinating that Hamaguchi is so aware of how some players were overwhelmed by the FF7 Rebirth map and is still expanding the world. After all, he did say in the interview that he was confident in this direction. Hamaguchi clearly believes that the pros of a massive open world outweigh the cons with this finale, and it’s going to be impossible to tell if his confidence is warranted or not until the game actually comes out next year.
Final Fantasy 7 Revelation‘s open world has been on a lot of fans’ minds, and if it really is as big as Hamaguchi is claiming, it hopefully doesn’t keep players from enjoying the experience. Hamaguchi has said in past interviews that he’s aware of “open world fatigue,” so this has hopefully inspired him and the rest of the dev team to at least make FF7 Revelation‘s content as meaningful and engaging as possible, even if there is tons of it.
Hands-On Previews for Final Fantasy 7 Revelation Paint a Worrying Picture
Everyone’s opinions are going to be subjective, of course, but GameRant’s Greysun Morales recently got to check out a playable preview at Gamescom 2026, and it might not be the feedback that open world fatigue sufferers want to hear. In GameRant’s FF7 Revelation preview, the first major talking point is how overwhelming the game’s map is.
There is an absolute ton of side content to dig into here in Revelation, so much so that it felt ten times more overwhelming and “in your face” than it did in Rebirth.
This hands-on preview was only around an hour long, but within that short amount of time, testers at Gamescom were met with an intro to FF7 Revelation‘s Highwind and a multitude of tutorial and side activity screens to reveal things like photo challenges, treasure hunts, and combat challenges. There are plenty of gamers who have fun with these kinds of activities, but Morales likened this extra content to Ubisoft-like filler instead of truly meaningful side activities. Ubisoft’s open-world design has received a lot of flack in recent years, so that doesn’t bode too well for FF7 Revelation.
One Major Feature Could Save FF7 Revelation’s Open World From Feeling Cumbersome
The key difference that FF7 Revelation‘s gameplay has compared to Rebirth is the ability to pilot the Highwind. It may not be a fix to the sheer amount of side content, but it can make exploring such a large world a lot more manageable. Between the Highwind and the ability to still ride Chocobos around, FF7 Revelation‘s traversal options might have found a solid way to cater to both kinds of players.
Players who love being given tons of side content can find that through exploring on foot or by riding Chocobos, and those who want a more streamlined experience can fly the Highwind wherever they please. Side content pop-ups can also just be ignored if players want to travel on the ground but don’t care for extra content. It’s not a perfect compromise, but it could at least help certain players from becoming overwhelmed in the process. Ultimately, it’s too early to say whether FF7 Revelation‘s world design works or not. There are still several months between now and launch, so all fans can do right now is wait and see for themselves when FF7 Revelation‘s release date gets here in April.
- Released
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April 8, 2027
- Prequel(s)
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Final Fantasy VII Remake, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
