Final Fantasy 7 Revelation: Our Big Interview with Director Naoki Hamaguchi and Battle Director Teruki Endo

Final Fantasy VII Revelation is the finale of Square Enix's ambitious project that began with FFVII Remake in 2020 and continued with FFVII Rebirth in 2024. A full trilogy that retells and remixes the story and world of one of the most beloved video games of all time is a crazy idea on paper, but in less than a year, it will be complete. IGN recently went hands-on with Revelation — you can read Michael Higham's preview coverage for his in-depth thoughts — and after playing for roughly two hours for myself, I sat down with two of the creators responsible for bringing this saga to a satisfying conclusion: Director Naoki Hamaguchi and Battle Director Teruki Endo.

I asked the pair (through an interpreter) about how they're keeping the third entry fresh, both with small adjustments to the combat system and new events in areas we already visited in Rebirth. But I was most fascinated to learn about Square Enix's approach to wrapping up this saga: How did they choose a subtitle for this all-important finale? What has this team learned from releasing three AAA RPGs in the span of eight years? And, how does Hamaguchi feel about Revelation releasing on a PlayStation 5 disc in Sony's final year of producing physical games? Read on to learn about all of this and more, including how Fortnite of all things inspired Revelation in one key way.

IGN: Thank you both so much for meeting with me. I appreciate the time. I played about two hours of Final Fantasy VII Revelation yesterday, and I really liked it. And something I'm most interested in is that there are new areas in Revelation, but a lot of it is the same map as Rebirth. I'm curious about the team's process for revisiting old areas and adding interesting content to differentiate them from how they appeared in Rebirth.

Naoki Hamaguchi: So I will say that all the various side quests and side contents that are going to be appearing in FFVII Revelation, those are going to be completely new. And with the meteor looming in the sky over the planet, there are a lot of, I guess, seismic shifts that have occurred because of the meteor approaching. So there are various geographical changes that you'll be able to see in the existing areas from Rebirth. So even though they are continuously appearing from various games, it is going to look a little bit different from the previous game.

But in terms of how the actual gameplay and the exploration might feel different from Rebirth is that when we were making Rebirth, the focus was on the open world aspect of the game. So we wanted to introduce a lot of large, vast areas that offered the horizontal width in terms of how big the area is going to look like. With FFVII Revelation, we want to take it a step above. So in addition to the horizontal width, we're now adding a vertical depth that allows players to explore using the Highwind or the Chocobo. So both of these modes of transportation allow you to fly and jump high in the air and things like that. So it does give you a more expanded feel of how the open world is going to look like in the world of the FFVII Remake series. So in that sense, even with the preexisting areas appearing in FFVII Revelation, the way you might approach, the way you might explore, and the way it feels when you explore these areas might feel different from FFVII Rebirth.

IGN: I did like the Highwind a lot, and being able to skydive down into different areas and steer where I landed. It indicates there will be a lot of freedom in how you re-explore areas. And I'm wondering if there were challenges in developing what appears to be a game that's maybe more freeform than Rebirth in how you can tackle objectives.

Hamaguchi: So this kind of ties into the first question that you had, but one of the goals that we had as a development team is to kind of expand as we step into the next installment. So from Remake to Rebirth and from Rebirth to Revelation, we wanted to take a step above. So from the evolution from going from Rebirth and then heading into Revelation was that again, “How can we expand the open world?” And the way we achieved that is to achieve this planetary exploration, the open world map scale where players can just really just explore the entire planet using the Highwind. So taking on that challenge was one of the rather difficult parts of the development for sure.

So the idea of the party parachuting down from the Highwind was something that we had pretty early on in the development of FFVII revelation. When you look at the original release of FFVII, the way it worked was that the Highwind would just land directly onto the ground and the characters would just exit out of the ship. But if we were to do that in this very high fidelity open world, we’d need to think of how the geography would work out in the map. So we needed designed surfaces where it would make sense for the Highwind to be able to smoothly land, if that makes sense. But that wasn't really realistic for us to consider. So that's why we had this parachuting idea. And when you look at other games, specifically like Fortnite, it did seem that players, modern audiences, were pretty familiar or welcome to this idea of characters flying down the air using parachutes. So I thought it would be a fun way to also introduce a seamless transition from the air to the ground. And I think the end result turned out well for us. I'm really happy with how that is in the game.

IGN: As exploration has evolved, combat has evolved in each new entry as well. In Revelation, there's a version of classes, fighting on Chocobos, and other tweaks. How did you decide what elements to stack on the combat system previously established in Remake and evolved in Rebirth?

Teruki Endo: We as a team felt that the combat system was in a perfect state with FFVII Rebirth. So while we did think about, “What can we do to add more?”, we couldn't really find any areas that needed to be improved, if that makes sense. I feel like it was in pretty good state already. So because of that, rather than coming up with ideas of how we can change something, it was more about expanding what we already had, because again, we felt that the combat system we had in Rebirth was already really good and in a perfected, complete state. So the idea was more about, “How can we offer more flexibility for customization and freedom to players?” So that's kind of the approach that we had, and how we came with the ideas of the FITS system and the Chocobos engaging in combat.

IGN: Would it be fair to say one of the themes of Revelation from a gameplay perspective is freedom? I think about the Highwind’s exploration, and then what you just said about the combat. Was that kind of a core idea of this game?

Hamaguchi: I think yes, but one of the very big concepts that we had for this game is resolve. So resolve being the core theme of the game, that doesn't only just apply to the story or the characters, it also applies to the overall game experience that the players will have when they play FFVII Revelation. So the idea is that we want the players to make the choice themselves. We're going to offer them a lot of different options and choices and they can choose to control or play as Cloud, but they can also choose to play as the different party members in this game as well. So that's one example.

The other example when you look at combat is that we're giving them the FITS system. So they have four choices there as well. So again, it's not just about the story, it's not just about the combat system, it's about the overall game experience. We're offering them a wide array or a diverse range of options that the players will be able to choose from. And this is something that was also offered in the original FFVII as well. So one of the goals definitely was to recreate that experience through FFVII Revelation.

And we kind of showed a glimpse of this in the State of Play stream, but in certain side quests players will have the choice of which character they would play as. So in the State of Play stream, it showed that players can either choose to play as Vincent or choose to play as Cid. In scenarios like that, depending on the character you go with, the conclusion of the side quest or the way the story plays out could change drastically. So again, that's also another example of the player choices that we're offering for the game experience. All in all, players will be faced with these chances, opportunities where they get to make these choices so that each and every player might have a very unique experience depending on the choices that they made throughout the game.

IGN: So, resolve is a focus of the game. I can't help but notice that word starts with R-E. Was Resolve seriously considered as a subtitle for this game, or were there any other words that start with "re-" that you were considering?

Hamaguchi: [Laughs] So to answer the first question, “Resolve” was actually not considered as one of the contenders for the title, and there actually is a reason for that. The development team that we have for this game is in Japan and consists of Japanese staff. So when we were having internal discussions about what the core concept or the philosophy of this game was going to be, we did use the term “resolve,” but in Japanese. So in Japanese, the word is called “ketsui,” which as you can tell, doesn't have that "re-" sound. And then when we were making plans for our first major reveal at Summer Game Fest earlier this year, I actually wrote a script for myself on stage, and I did want to use the term for ketsui, resolve. So when I was looking at the English equivalent of that, I found out that resolve actually started with RE, so I thought, “Oh, this is actually a perfect fit!”

I can talk more about how we ended up with the title Revelation. So way before this whole resolve discussion that we had, we did decide to go with the title Revelation, but even before we made that decision, there were actually three final contenders and I had a discussion with the creative director of the series, Tetsuya Nomura.

In terms of the other two contenders that we had aside from Revelation, I might share it sometime in the future, but I don't think now is the right time for us to share it because the game isn’t out yet. If we do share the other two contenders, I don't want people to be like, "Oh, the other one was better than Revelation." And it feels like it's just going to create some unnecessary discussion and debates online. So I feel like now's not the right time. Maybe sometime down the line we might be able to revisit this discussion again and share what the title could have been. But I will say that when I discussed with the North American Square Enix team, I did share the other two options that we had as the final contenders, and we unanimously agreed that Revelation was the best choice. So I think we made the right decision on that.

IGN: Okay, I'll ask you again in a couple of years what the other two were.

Hamaguchi: [Laughs]

IGN: I'd like to talk a little bit more about the combat because Vincent quickly became my go-to character during the preview. And I know you've talked about Vincent a little bit before, but what's maybe your favorite detail that’s gone unnoticed about Vincent's combat style so far?

Endo: I don't think this is something that I can say as something that was unnoticed because I actually addressed this myself during the PAX West stage panel that we had yesterday. But one of my personal favorite functions of Vincent's combat design is that I was able to implement this feature of him being able to turn into the Galian Beast anytime during combat. Just to hold R1 and be able to revert back to human form and go back to the Galian Beast form anytime during combat. Having that in the game, I think that's actually my personal favorite. I'm really glad I was able to do that.

And one of the big reasons why I wanted to implement that was because when you look at the existing party of playable characters, we already have a lot of different options, a lot of different characters that each has its own unique combat experience. So people who have already played Remake and Rebirth might already have their own favorite character to play in combat. So in order for us to deliver a very impactful gameplay experience for these new characters, we needed to make sure that there's something very unique and different about them. So considering that, if we were to follow suit with the original and have this function where Vincent is only able to turn into the Galian Beast only under a specific condition, I don't think that would've been the best way to go about it with the FFVII Remake series. So I think I made the right choice to do that.

So when you think about it, Vincent being able to switch back and forth between his human form and the Galian Beast form, it's essentially two characters packed into one because each form has its own unique movesets and motions as well. So the animation artist had a bit of an extra hard time compared to the other characters trying to implement all these motions into the combat. So in that sense, I think we spent a lot more effort and time developing Vincent's combat system.

IGN: I do want to ask, Revelation is coming out in the last year that Sony is producing physical PlayStation discs, and it is launching with a physical edition. And Final Fantasy VII has this rich history with PlayStation. Was it important to you to have this game release on a physical disc?

Hamaguchi: Last week with the State of Play announcement, we tied it to the preorder as well. So right after the State of Play, the preorders launched. But before we arrived at that decision, there were a lot of internal discussions and back and forth amongst myself and other internal staff members in terms of how we should treat or handle the physical editions. And this whole disc discussion, it is a rather sensitive issue, and I don't think a lot of the media has asked us about this so far. So I would like to discuss how we approached it.

First and foremost, personally, I'm very happy that we are able to release a physical disc version of FFVII Revelation considering how the entire gaming market, or the landscape, is veering towards the disc-less direction. And after we launched preorders, we did see some fans voicing their concerns and raising questions about the physical discs requiring some internet download. So I would like to address that.

When we had an internal discussion with the development team about how we wanted to approach the physical discs and the physical releases of FFVII Revelation, initially there were conversations about using the same disc size as we did for, say, FFVII Rebirth. But if we were to do that, it would mean that we would have to make a compromise in terms of the fidelity and the quality of the game. So as a development team, we didn't want to do that. We didn't want to make any compromises for the game. So realistically, the only choice that we had was to release this physical disc, but with certain sections of the game being a digital download format through the physical disc. With that being said, I completely understand that not all players might be happy with this decision, but at the same time, I am happy that we were still able to release a physical format of the game. So I am quite satisfied with the end results as well. I would hope that our fans and players would be able to share that as well.

IGN: I think it's impressive that you've released a whole trilogy in the span of roughly eight years. That's rare in the video game industry these days. So I'm wondering if there are any learnings from this major project and its development that you can take with you as you move on to whatever's next.

Hamaguchi: I will say that the top priority for us as a team right now is to put a full focus on completing the development of FFVII Revelation. So in terms of what we would do as the next work or the next game, we haven't really put that much of a thought into it right now. That said, looking at the overall landscape and environment of game development, it does seem like creating and developing these AAA titles, it just takes longer and longer as it goes by. So considering that, having this consistent team that's stuck together throughout the last 10 to 12 years, creating the entire trilogy, and being able to gather all this knowledge and experience that can be applied to future development, I think we were in a very lucky position to be able to do that.

But yeah, we are very much eager to utilize and leverage the experiences that we have made throughout these years of development of the FFVII Remake series. I would say it's undecided in terms of the direction that we're going to after the completion of the Remake series, but we hope the fans and players will look forward to what we work on next. But to reiterate our top priority, our full focus is on FFVII Revelation right now. So until we actually complete it and ensure that it's the intended quality that the game should be, I don't think we will have any actual ideas of what we're going to work on next.

IGN: Thank you both so much for your time, and good luck the rest of the way with Revelation. We're looking forward to it.

Hamaguchi and Endo: Thank you.

Parts of this interview were edited for clarity.