Final Fantasy VII Revelation Has a High Ambitions, a Big Heart, and a Huge

Preview

Written by Robert Scarpinito

Published: September 10, 2026 8:00 AM

In many of the best JRPGs, there's a point in the last third(ish) of the story where everything opens up. You can fully indulge in its systems, characters, and world. You can freely explore the map, complete all the side quests, find the super special ultimate weapons, and challenge every secret boss before saving the world. Final Fantasy VII Revelation feels like it's going to have that vibe for nearly its entire runtime.

That makes sense, since it's technically the last act of an iconic JRPG, but it's on a scale unlike anything I've seen before. I played roughly 45 minutes of it during PAX West weekend, and typically, that's enough time to get a gist for a game. For Revelation, I wanted another 45 minutes just to scroll through all through menus and world map.

The demo put me right where you first get the Highwind, where the world presumably opens up after some story setup. The information pamphlet Square Enix gave us outlined eight different paths we could take from there, including the Golden Saucer, Junon, and Wutai. I could just barely do two paths. When that translates to the full experience, I can't help but imagine that I'll be drowning in the riches Final Fantasy VII Revelation has in store.

A Huge Planet to Save

The first thing I did was explore the Highwind, the airship your party uses to get around the world. Everyone's got their own bunks, and there's a little nook where you can collect relics and memorabilia from your journey. Of course, Chadley has his own room full of computers, and his companion MAI is ready to give you all sorts of direction as you explore the world.

After grabbing a grappling hook and checking out a bit of Queen's Blood (don't worry, it's back and bigger than before), I helmed the Highwind and chose a direction to go. My first instinct? Straight down onto the island of Mideel so I could get a feel for exploration without any story beats attached.

I wanted to see the parachuting for myself, and it's wild to see the game seamlessly transition from thousands of feet in the air to literal feet on the ground. You can't move much as you're falling, but once you deploy the parachute, there's a lot more leeway for you to pinpoint your landing zone. There's seemingly no limit too, as long as there's ground beneath you, so I could see this mechanic coming in handy when you're checking off every icon on the map.

And trust, there will be loads of icons to explore. Like Rebirth, there are special enemies, treasure hunts, Chocobo stops, and crystal deposits to all check off your to-do list. Additionally, now you can do some nature photography, and there's a list of wild animals for you to snap pictures of (and don't worry, digital photographers: photo mode also exists).

A small worry I have is just how annoying these side objectives might become. Every time I ran into something new, MAI would beep at me, forcing my leader to pull out their communicator and see all the new to-do items on my quest log. It happened frequently, pretty much every time I ran into a new monster or entered a new area. I'm hopeful that will feel less annoying in the full experience, when a handful of these notifications will literally be a drop in the bucket of time I'll sink into Final Fantasy VII Revelation.

Chart a Course for Wutai!

While I could've spent literal hours in Mideel, I tore myself away to fly to Wutai, where the next major story beat awaited. Yuffie wants to return back home and ask for help with the many threats against the planet, but as with anything for this gang, it's never quite that simple.

I won't spoil anything, but it was a treat to get a taste of nearly the entire Final Fantasy VII cast together and in their element. Yuffie is playful, young, and peppy, making her a fantastic foil to Vincent's absolute no-nonsense behavior. His mysterious aura and aversion to anything fun horseshoes back into being campy, making him such a wonderful fit for the lively ensemble. I only wish I could see more of how he and Cloud will interact.

As I wandered toward the city, the party chatted up a storm, even the members who weren't in the three-person fighting party. It made the adventure feel more grand, like all eight party members are involved and have stakes in this fight against Sephiroth, rather than just the main three you might default to using.

Though as much as I enjoyed the banter between party members, I did appreciate the new fast-forward feature in cutscenes. You can choose between 1.5x or 2x speed, and it'll fast forward as long as you hold the trigger. The pressure to see as much as possible in the demo definitely made me use it more, but it was nice to see the option implemented and work well.

The story segment in Wutai showed me that much like Rebirth before it, Revelation will create scenarios to limit your party to a select crew. It's something I really appreciated in Rebirth, considering how dense each character is. Now with Cid and Vincent joining the team, and not to mention the mechanical updates that come with the FITS system, having some dedicated time with specific characters will help keep the game fresh.

The Best Real-Time ATB Combat Yet

Final Fantasy VII Remake took the Kingdom Hearts combat formula and married it with the stagger mechanic from Final Fantasy XIII, creating wonderfully addictive and constantly engaging system. Rebirth expanded on it by giving each character more special abilities, and now with Revelation, everyone has more options than ever before.

On top of everyone's main kit and materia, every character can now equip one of four FITS: Warrior, Knight, Black Mage, or Summoner. These are an homage to the Job system in classic titles, and each one provides the wearer with extra passive and active abilities.

For example, when the Knight guards, they create an aura around them to that gives allies Protect and Shell. The Black Mage, on the other hand, builds elemental stacks every time they cast a spell, with each stack lowering the MP cost of spells. Building three stacks of the same element unlocks a stronger spell, too.

So if you're keeping track, that means at any given moment in a fight, your character's ATB menu could include their latent abilities, spells, FITS abilities, synergy abilities, summons, and items. All of this gives you even more reason to pause the game to sift through all your options. As much as I loved mapping abilities to the L1 shortcut menu, I fear that won't be enough for Revelation. Heck, it was barely enough for Rebirth, either, and I'm excited for the strategic opportunities that await with all these options at my disposal.

I spent most of my combat time playing with the two newest characters, Cid and Vincent. Both of their kits focus on timing to maximize your damage. For Cid, after landing a hit with square, he'll flash blue for a moment, and pressing square during that flash will make his next attack in the combo stronger. His triangle attack can mark enemies, which makes your abilities (like Dragoon Jump) do more damage.

For Vincent, he'll flash red after attacks in his combo string, and pressing triangle during those red flashes increases the effectiveness of his special attacks. Vincent can also transform into his Galian Beast form in combat, giving him access to wide-sweeping attacks and big damage. However, the longer he's in that form, the lower his maximum HP becomes.

Final Fantasy VII Revelation Preview | Final Thoughts

It's poetic that Final Fantasy VII Revelation will release almost exactly seven years after Remake first launched. It's been clear how much the team at Square Enix loves this entry, treating it with equal parts respect, levity, and excitement. With everything I've seen so far from Revelation, I expect it to be a satisfying finale.

The combat is bigger, flashier, and even more engaging than before. The open world is expansive, and while it could end up feeling a little too big, that also means there's just more of the game to enjoy when it launches in April. Plus, I'm living for the moments of lighthearted silliness between all the planet destruction and Sephiroth edginess.

Above all, there's still a few central mysteries that have been haunting us since the end of Rebirth: How exactly will this trilogy's story end? What roles will Zack and Aerith play now? And what other changes can we expect from the original? Well, no matter how it all shakes out, Final Fantasy VII Revelation will be a momentous release for JRPG fans worldwide, and I can't wait to board the Highwind once more.

TechRaptor played Final Fantasy VII Revelation on a PlayStation 5 Pro during a preview event hosted by Square Enix.

Robert Scarpinito | Features Editor

Robert Scarpinito is the Features Editor of TechRaptor. With a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the Ohio State University, sharing compelling stories is… More about Robert