Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi had previously spoken about how the team wants to ensure that players don’t get lost in the RPG’s massive open world. In a new social media post, he has offered some more details about this idea, while also discussing options that the development team can give to players who prefer to play games without too much player guidance.
Hamaguchi noted that Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will have plenty of on-screen hints that players can use to understand where they need to go to continue throughout the game. These hints also lead to players automatically exploring the world as it opens up. These ideas, on the other hand, have also led to feedback from fans that they would also like the option for more unguided experience.
“In Revelation, we’ve included more on-screen guidance than in our previous titles so that even players who are not familiar with open-world games can enjoy the experience without getting lost,” he said (via machine translation). By following that guidance, players can naturally explore the world as it gradually opens up, revealing new places to discover and more things to do.
“At the same time, some experienced open-world players have told us that the guidance can feel a bit too strong. Because of that feedback, we’re also considering options that would allow players to customize how guidance is presented.”
Hamaguchi had previously brought up this guidance as one of the ways the team behind Final Fantasy 7 Revelation was going to deal with open-world fatigue amongst players. Back in July, he spoke about wanting to avoid players getting too lost in the upcoming RPG’s world by making sure that players always knew how they could make progress.
“There are a lot of open world games out in the world right now, and [the idea of ‘open world fatigue’] is a very important concept to me. It depends on personal preference and different perceptions, but for me personally, I know I’ve had the experience where I’ve been thrown out into an open world game and not known where to go, not known where to begin, and not known what to do. But at the same time, the concept of being thrown into this wondrous world where anything goes is amazing.”
“But for me personally, as a creator, I think it’s very important to offer proper guidance for the players in open world games. It’s important for players to know what to do and know where to go. In Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, we made sure to make it easy for the players to understand how much content there is, and how difficult that content is. That design philosophy is applied to Revelation: players have all the guidance that they need. This is something that both myself and the development team were very careful about when we designed the game.”
Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is being developed for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2, and is slated for release on April 8th, 2027. For more details, check out some of the other options that will be available for players who just want to focus on the story.
