Final Fantasy VII: Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi believes modern RPGs face a growing issue: players watching entire playthroughs online and feeling no need to play the games themselves.

The concern comes at a time when games are increasingly becoming visual experiences, with gameplay often taking a backseat as studios focus on cinematic storytelling.

Speaking to 4Gamer after the reveal of Final Fantasy VII: Revelation at the Summer Game Fest, Hamaguchi warned, "One thing RPGs like Final Fantasy need to be careful about today is the possibility that people might simply watch a stream and feel satisfied without ever playing the game themselves. This is a bit of a crisis for the work itself, or rather, it's not something game creators can wholeheartedly celebrate."

Hamaguchi believes players are more likely to try a game themselves, even after watching a livestream or playthrough, if it offers meaningful choices and different ways to experience the journey.

This points to the possibility of having multiple game endings. And while Final Fantasy VII: Revelation has just one ending, it has enough side quests and additional content to push players to play through it multiple times to experience everything the game has to offer.

The debate, however, is not unique to Hamaguchi. Choice driven RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 and Mass Effect 2 offer high replayability through branching decisions. Whereas, linear games offer less reasons for players to pick it up again for another playthrough.

Hamaguchi Hints at Final Fantasy VII: Revelation Ending

Fans are pinning their hopes on Final Fantasy VII: Revelation, which is supposed to be the final title of the remake trilogy, to provide a satisfying culmination of the entire storyline.

Hamaguchi has expressed his curiosity about the potential fan reaction when they play through the ending.

He told VGC, "Obviously, I can’t share actual details on how this story is going to end, but in terms of how we envisioned the conclusion, we did have some sort of an idea of what we wanted to do at the end. So we did have a kind of direction from the early days of development."

This puts to bed any theories about the game exploring multiple endings. A storyline like Final Fantasy deserves one singular ending, which Hamaguchi keeps emphasizing in his interview.

While this is supposed to be the culmination of the remake trilogy, Square Enix has previously said that the story will connect to Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and Hamaguchi's comments suggest that direction remains unchanged.

Final Fantasy VII: Revelation is set to release in Spring of 2027 on PC, PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.

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Written by

Abhisek Bajaj

Edited by

Pulkit Prabhav