GoKawiilSummer Game Fest's showcase was filled with a lot of trailers, but arguably saved the biggest for last: the first reveal of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, the third and final game in a trilogy that expansively remakes 1997's seminal roleplaying game, Final Fantasy 7. Due out next year, FF7 Revelation has a lot of story left to explore, plot promises left to deliver on and fan expectations to meet.
Nobody knows that better than Naoki Hamaguchi, who has led the decade-long effort to retell FF7's story on a grand scale. As co-director of 2020's Final Fantasy 7 Remake that kicked the trilogy off, then director of 2024's Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and the upcoming FF7 Revelation, Hamaguchi has led studio Square Enix's unusual efforts to expand a single PlayStation One-era game into a trio of titles, the first two of which have been big successes.
Days after Hamaguchi took the stage at the SGF showcase to introduce FF7 Revelation to the world, I visited Square Enix's Los Angeles offices to chat with the director about the final chapter in the FF7 remake trilogy. Through an interpreter, I asked him about what's waiting for fans and how he feels about closing the door on the largest Final Fantasy project to date -- and what it would take to remake another game in the legendary RPG series.
What has the response been so far to Revelation, especially as the last thing at the end of the Summer Game Fest trailer showcase?
Naoki Hamaguchi: Candidly speaking, I don't think we could have asked for a stronger announcement with us being able to have this final slot, the final spot in the SGF show. And seeing the response from all the fans, a lot of them were positive, and I see a lot of excitement from our players. It makes me happy to see that.
There were four years between the first and second games in the trilogy, during which FF7 Intergrade was released, a short standalone game that felt like DLC. But at SGF, you announced that FF7 Revelation would be coming three years later in spring 2027. I think fans were pleasantly surprised -- how did you manage that?
Having this rather shorter span of development, only three years between Rebirth and Revelation, I think that was the best approach for both the fans and for us developers.
We do receive a lot of fan requests about DLCs, and there was actually a plan or discussion about that for FF7 Rebirth as well, but we ultimately decided not to develop or release a DLC for FF7 Rebirth. Instead, we decided to make a very smooth and quick transition between Rebirth and Revelation so that we were able to shift all of our development resources into Revelation -- so that we can put it out to the world as soon as we can. I personally had a lot of actually concrete ideas of what I wanted to do for the DLC of FF7 Rebirth, but again, ultimately it was about what we wanted to do with the overall development timeline of the FF7 Remake series, particularly for the third and final installment.
Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi in Square Enix's Los Angeles offices. David Lumb/CNET
This is getting ahead of ourselves since Revelation hasn't even been released, but are there plans for FF7 Revelation DLC?
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