Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director says the world is bigger than Rebirth — but open world fatigue is on his radar

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi has spoken openly about open world fatigue and confirmed the final chapter of the remake trilogy will feature a world even larger than Rebirth — while promising the team has been "very careful" to make sure players always know where to go.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Hamaguchi said the concept of open world fatigue is "very important" to him personally. He described the frustration of being dropped into a massive game with no clear direction, and said Square Enix deliberately designed Revelation to avoid that feeling. "Players have all the guidance that they need," he said, adding that both he and the development team were careful about this throughout the design process. One concrete example he gave involves the Highwind airship — players will need to rely on their own memory to land where they want, giving them agency without hand-holding. The world in Revelation is confirmed to be bigger than Rebirth's already sprawling map, which makes that guidance philosophy more critical than ever, according to Hamaguchi.

Both Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth have drawn praise and criticism in equal measure for their scale. Rebirth in particular featured multiple large open regions packed with side content, mini-games, and collectibles — a design that some players loved and others found exhausting. Hamaguchi's comments suggest Revelation is doubling down on size while trying to address the pacing concerns that followed Rebirth. The trilogy wraps up Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and the rest of the party's fight against Sephiroth, and the team is clearly aware of the pressure to stick the landing after two well-received but divisive entries.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation has no firm release date yet but is targeting spring 2027 on PC, Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. A separate leak also suggests DLC may already be in development, though nothing official has been confirmed on that front.