Final Fantasy VII Revelation is set to become a pivotal release not only for the Remake trilogy but for the series as a whole, in terms of player freedom. Speaking with Denfaminico Gamer, director Naoki Hamaguchi detailed how the Highwind airship is set to redefine the scale of the series, delivering players unprecedented levels of freedom for a JRPG, right from the beginning of the game as Cloud and his companions travel back through a fully explorable world, including Midgar and underwater locations.
"I can't go into too much detail, but you do acquire it relatively early in the game. I think everyone is really looking forward to seeing how the game starts, and it has a fun beginning that's typical of the third installment, so please look forward to that as well," said Hamaguchi-san. "You can fly freely everywhere. You can go to various islands, jump off from them, and explore freely. Of course, there are areas you can't go to, but basically you can fly freely anywhere with Highwind."
Although much of the world already appeared in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and mostly played out its role in the story, every previous location will return, with some light design changes that will make exploration more engaging. For example, as the Chocobo Piko grows, it will be possible to explore the Grasslands region by flying over the area.
With the entire world at the player's disposal almost from the beginning, Final Fantasy VII Revelation will go full Zelda: Breath of the Wild, allowing players to explore areas populated by powerful enemies they are not yet ready to take on. The story will still follow a predetermined path, and sometimes lock players to a continent, but there will be plenty of times where players will be able to experience side content at will across the world, which will be fully unlocked as soon as the Highwind becomes available.
"The main story follows a predetermined order. However, this is not the case for side content. For example, the weapons that appear in the story have a somewhat fixed order in which they must be defeated, but weapons that are not involved in the story can be challenged at any time. It's okay if you jump straight into the game early on, get beaten badly, and think, 'This is impossible!' This time, we've prepared a lot of side content that's almost as good as the main story, so we want users to be able to choose when to play it while keeping the main story in mind," Hamaguchi-san explained.
Among the regions players will be able to explore is Midgar, the iconic city where Final Fantasy VII Remake is set. "This time, the Midgar area will also be featured, and you'll be able to explore it, so I hope we can meet your expectations," Hamaguchi-san said. In addition, he also teased the return of characters related to Deepground, like Nero and Weiss, within Midgar.
Lastly, Hamaguchi-san also clarified that underwater exploration will return in some capacity. "The underwater world will also appear in the story. I can't give you any specific details, but I hope you'll look forward to seeing how it's depicted in this work," he explained.
The rest of the interview is packed with new details, ranging from story to combat details, and the revelations that guest characters will join the party at times and even become controllable. You can head over to the ResetERA forums for a comprehensive summary of all the information.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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