Final Fantasy VII Revelation - Hands-on Preview
I missed Final Fantasy VII growing up, so it has long been one of those ‘I’ll get there one day games’ that’s at risk of dying in the backlog. But this year, I decided to change that. A few months ago I finally played through the original game and learned what all the fuss was about, so when I was invited to play a preview of the long-awaited Final Fantasy VII Revelation, I was both oddly prepared and not at all prepared. Revelation isn’t due out until April next year, so I’m still in the early stages of catching up on the Remake trilogy. But even without understanding the full scope of what I’m in for yet, it’s clear that Revelation in particular has a lot to offer as it brings the epic story to a close. And I mean a lot. Like, an overwhelming amount.
All Aboard the Highwind
I kicked off my preview time with a tour of the beloved Highwind – the first sign that everything in Revelations has been supersized. The ship seems to boast a much larger crew than it did in the original game, with engineers and attendants seemingly busying themselves with important tasks wherever you look. Some of the crew were ready to let me and my chosen leader from my crew of six – Yuffie, Cid, Nanaki, Barret, Vincent and Cait Sith – get behind the wheel right away, but there was too much on board to investigate first.
Always drawn to the promise of a good mini-game, I first stumbled upon a tutorial for Queen’s Blood – a game that Nanaki was very excited to try his hand at. It’s a deck-builder that has you placing cards on a 3×5 playing grid, with the ultimate goal of gaining the most points across the rows to take out your opponent. It was pretty clear that this was going to be a quest that would be present across many game locations with a variety of experts to play against in the future, but in an effort to not get too sidetracked, I didn’t linger here.
Other parts of the ship make the place feel like home, but are a little less interactive beyond an area that teaches you to use your new grappling hook. The chocobo stables are massively expanded from the original game, and there’s a crew quarters that can be explored where the heroes lay their heads to rest. Treasure collected as you explore the world is on display, so you can show off all the wares you obtained while getting distracted from the main quest. Chadley, everyone’s favourite (lol) researcher from the Remake trilogy has set up a base on one of the ship’s levels, where it seems he will be mercifully relegated for most of the time. Instead of joining me in the field, he told me he would be sending his assistant – MAI – who would be helping to deliver new objectives and information about new locations I discovered. I quietly cheered, having spent about 10 minutes of Remake with him and already finding that to be enough.
I was also introduced to the FITS system – a series of cool outfits that also allow the player to assign roles to characters, all of which open up new movesets and additional abilities. There are four types of roles – Knight, Summoner, Warrior, and Black Mage, and some will map onto particular characters better than others. I have to be honest and say that I didn’t interact much with the FITS system, mostly due to already being preoccupied with the new characters and what they could do, but I’m sure those who are looking for an extra layer of strategy will be thrilled by this new system.
With FITS unlocked, it was finally time to pilot the Highwind for real.
We’re not just in Midgar anymore
Final Fantasy VII: Remake was big. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth was bigger. Just as the map gradually opens up throughout the course of the original game, it seems here that each new act brings with it a new scope, not just in the amount of map you have to explore, but in the amount of stuff being crammed into it. From the moment I took control of the Highwind, the sense of freedom it afforded was invigorating. The plot called for me to journey to Wutai – home of energetic ninja Yuffie – but the call of the open world was stronger. After enjoying a joyride in the Highwind, I chose to land near Junon, where there seemed to be many side activities calling to me. Able to deploy my parachute anywhere, I jumped out of the aircraft, soaring down to land atop my trusty chocobo in a maneuver that involved physics it’s probably best not to question. All atop their steeds, Yuffie (my chosen leader) and the gang were ready to explore Junon – once they got through all the updates from MAI.
MAI, put simply, wants to tell you about everything. There are about five million side objectives and things to collect in this new and expanded open world, and before she’s going to let you do any of them, MAI has to announce them all to you. Were I not under the time pressure of my preview window I might have found this annoying, but in the moment I wasn’t overly ready to hear what she had to say. What was quite clear was that most of these objectives enjoyed taking out groups of enemies, and the idea of that wasn’t immediately appealing. I’d thought I wanted to spend my preview checking out side quests, but as soon as I landed, the allure of progressing the story was too strong. I turned around, and was immediately told that a group of strong enemies that I might not be ready for were approaching. I took this as a sign, and back up into the Highwind we all went, our time as a chocobo gang sadly only temporary.
Be my Valentine
Somehow, in my playthrough of the original game, despite having all the guides in the world at my disposal, I managed to fully miss out on encountering Vincent Valentine. I am, however, aware that he’s a fan favourite, and the second I laid eyes on this broody anime boy I could see why. He didn’t say a lot in the cutscenes I saw, but that seems to be on brand – he’s clearly wary of anyone and everyone, and though it would have been fun to hear more of Matt Mercer’s voice, there’s plenty of time for that in the full game. Vincent, along with Cid, are newly playable in this game, and both are immediately a lot of fun in combat.
Vincent has the ability to transform from dark anime man into dark anime beast – the Galian Beast form – which makes him ultra powerful at the expense of max HP. When you’re absolutely smashing dudes down, it feels like an easy sacrifice to make. Extremely Southern-accented Cid, on the other hand, relies more on ranged combat, and is great when combined with other characters. There are a bunch of new Synergy moves here between the team members that make for some flashy combos and a lot of satisfying explosions. I suspect when combined with the FITS system, combat is getting a whole lot more evolved with Final Fantasy Revelation, but for me, a person who approaches with a very ‘button mashy’ strategy, there was still a lot of fun to be had without diving in too deep. Even without Cloud and my obvious favourite Tifa on the roster for the section I played, there was a cool sense of synergy between the team members, and their style definitely has a different feel to it.
Wutai is grappling with some issues
If the exterior of Junon was overwhelming, Wutai was doubly so – mostly because of the sheer amount of objective icons that appeared in such a small space. Forsaking them all in favour of exploring the new story beats of the area, I headed into the main part of the city, soon learning that the “Princess” Yuffie Kusaragi may have a stronger tie to the city than she’d previously let onto the party. While she received a mostly warm welcome in Wutai, Yuffie had been gone a long time – leaving the door open for some sinister forces to take control. Everything (and everyone) was clearly not as she’d left them, and that warm welcome quickly turned cold. The story here has clearly been hugely expanded, with flashbacks peppered through extensions to the main quest to tell us more about Yuffie’s past.
In the city centre, the Happy Turtle looms large (a giant turtle is hard to miss), but there are many other places to explore. The rooftops are littered with grappling points to zip around on, but you can get lost if you don’t go in with a plan. You can’t just jump down from anywhere once you’re up there – so make sure you have an exit strategy, or you will (like me) get stuck. Thankfully, once I’d found my way back down, I also found what is obviously going to be the game’s best quest – cat photography. I remember Wutai being teeming with cats in the original game, but here they are given names, personalities, and are placed around the city as hidden gems for you to find and photograph. At this point of the demo, overwhelmed by choice, I realised that pursuing cat photography was how I would spend the rest of my limited time. Those who are keen on fighting might instead investigate the Trials of Daruma, which seemed to be combat trials, but I had cats now.
Final Fantasy VII Revelation releases on April 8th, 2027, across all platforms. You can preorder it now.
