Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will use a more deliberate reward structure for its optional activities, director Naoki Hamaguchi has confirmed. The change may result in a somewhat easier game, with Final Fantasy 7 Revelation allowing players to prioritize or skip side activities based purely on their personal preferences rather than having to do everything in pursuit of a general meta progression goal of getting stronger.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth filled its regional maps with numerous optional activities, some of which awarded useful materia. While a fairly standard genre convention, such a plethora of content did not sit well with everyone. Hamaguchi has since acknowledged that demographic, saying Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will take steps to minimize the risk of open-world fatigue.
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Final Fantasy 7 Revelation Will Match Rewards to Their Activities
The director elaborated on his design goals in a late July 2026 interview with GamesRadar+ at the Final Fantasy 14 Fan Festival in Berlin. Looking back at the second entry in the planned trilogy, Hamaguchi said some players may have grown tired of Rebirth, even to the point of never finishing it, because its world map contained so much content. Since the 2024 RPG does not outline a reward structure for side quests, some players felt compelled to complete content they had no interest in simply due to a chance to get something they needed. Taking that feedback to heart, Hamaguchi said Revelation will make the “goal and reward” of side activities clearer by linking each prize to the type of content that awards it.
Under the planned system, combat-focused activities will provide rewards that improve battle performance, while Queen’s Blood matches will award new Queen’s Blood cards. Players seeking combat upgrades therefore should not need to complete an unrelated mini-game to obtain them. Hamaguchi gave no indication of the developer considering reducing the overall volume of content in Revelation. Sticking to a similar amount of side activities but while embracing greater reward transparency and an overall more predictable reward structure should, in theory, allow Square Enix to target the largest potential audience. Sure enough, the developer has already confirmed that Queen’s Blood is returning in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation with some changes. Hamaguchi’s own example suggests the card game can retain its own progression path without becoming a gate for players primarily interested in combat.
Looking at the bigger picture, the director linked the new reward structure to a broader effort to make Final Fantasy 7 Revelation’s bigger open world feel less repetitive. To that end, Square Enix will also be adding more vertical terrain, the ability to dive onto the map from the Highwind, and flying Chocobo traversal. The overall changes suggest the developer intends to retain the expansive structure of the first two entries in the remake trilogy while giving players all the information they need to decide whether a particular activity is worth their time.
What remains to be seen is whether Square Enix will succeed in applying the system consistently by, for instance, letting combat-focused players always bypass mini-games without feeling like they are losing out on anything. Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is scheduled to launch in spring 2027 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC
Released
2027
Prequel(s)
Final Fantasy VII Remake, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
