Final Fantasy 7 Revelation Director Says Gameplay Streams Pose a Huge Challenge to RPGs

Streaming can give free publicity to a game, but in the case of story-heavy genres like RPGs, there’s the danger that people will be satisfied just watching someone else play through the game. Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy director Naoki Hamaguchi recently spoke out about this, saying that gameplay streams pose a huge challenge to RPG makers, as they need to ensure that their game is interesting enough that players actually want to pick it up and play it themselves.

Currently hard at work on Final Fantasy 7 Revelation (the final part of the 1997 RPG’s remake trilogy due in spring 2027), Hamaguchi told Japanese news site 4Gamer about the challenges that game streaming poses to Final Fantasy and game creators.

Hamaguchi warned that “one thing that RPGs like Final Fantasy have to pay attention to today is the risk that people might feel satisfied just from watching a stream,” without actually playing the game themselves.

Noting that he’s not completely against streaming, Hamaguchi highlighted the issue with people watching games and not feeling motivated enough to play them. “This is a crisis for the games themselves, or rather, not something that game developers can fully celebrate,” said Hamaguchi.

So what’s Final Fantasy 7 Revelation’s solution to this issue? According to Hamaguchi, it’s vital that games offer enough player choice so that no two gamers will have exactly the same experience. “If people watch a game stream and it makes them wonder, ‘What would I do in that situation?’ or, ‘How would I experiment with that?’, then they’ll hopefully be inspired to try playing it themselves.”

Apparently Revelation will offer even more player choice than Rebirth and a sense that each players’ experience is different, qualities that Hamaguchi feels are “exactly the kind of features that games need in today’s era” of streaming. “The world is changing, and entertainment must evolve with the times.”

In fact, ‘choice’ was one of the conceptual keywords for Final Fantasy 7 Revelation’s development. However, Hamaguchi didn’t go into details about whether player choices in Revelation will affect small plot episodes (such as the OG FF7/Rebirth’s Gold Saucer dating scene) or have a greater impact on the overall story.

But we do know that on the gameplay side, there seems to be a lot of player agency and choice. Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will also feature an outfit-based job system (FITS), echoing Final Fantasy X-2. However, Hamaguchi assured fans that character job and outfit appearance will be separate, allowing players to go through the game in everyone’s original outfits if they like, while still changing character jobs. Players will also be able to choose any job for each character from the get-go, giving them vastly more choice than if they had to unlock specific jobs. Hamaguchi noted that access to the Highwind Airship after the 5-hour mark will give players a huge degree of freedom over which part of the world map they explore next.

When Rebirth came out to rave reviews in 2024, one of the major criticisms the game faced was that it was bogged down with too many minigames. Hamaguchi noted that the team have addressed this criticism for Revelation. Although deep-diving into Rebirth’s mini-games was optional, like with the original FF7 there were moments when it was necessary to play them to advance the plot (e.g. Queen’s Blood tournament) or access certain powerful gear or battle mechanics.

In Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, Hamaguchi and the team have reworked the focus so that battle-focused content will give battle-related rewards (meaning that grinders who love the battle system can pursue that path), while minigames will give cosmetic rewards like character outfits. “We have balanced the game so that players who aren’t interested in minigames don’t have to play them,” noted Hamaguchi. Minigames will also have a skip function, that allows players to skip through to the reward if they don’t like a particular minigame. He does however reassure fans that Tifa and Scarlet’s slap battle from the 1997 original will be in Revelation.

Hamaguchi also reiterated that Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will wrap up all the story lines and mysterious elements that the FF7 remake series has brought us so far. “Rather than expanding the FF7 IP further, our priority as developers is to wrap up this remake series properly,” said Hamaguchi, emphasizing that the team is deeply committed to repaying fans’ loyalty by giving the FF7 trilogy a solid ending.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation was announced at Summer Game Fest 2026 and is set to launch simultaneously for PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S in spring 2027. Loads of new details about the final chapter have come out since, including confirmation that the English version of Sephiroth will be played by a new actor.

Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.