Final Fantasy 7 Revelation launches on 8 April 2027

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Square Enix has confirmed that Final Fantasy VII Revelation, the closing instalment of its remake trilogy, will launch worldwide on 8 April 2027. The date was unveiled by director Naoki Hamaguchi during a Sony State of Play broadcast, accompanied by a new trailer and more than ten minutes of gameplay footage. Notably, this will be the first entry in the trilogy to arrive simultaneously on every platform, with PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC versions all releasing on the same day, having previously only been confirmed for a vague 'spring 2027' window.

Revelation completes a project that reimagines the 1997 PlayStation original across three large-scale games, following Final Fantasy VII Remake in 2020 and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth in 2024. Rather than a straightforward remaster, the trilogy has retold the classic story through entirely rebuilt, real-time action combat and expanded, hours-heavy worlds. This final chapter brings the story to its climax, with Cloud and the party finally confronting Sephiroth as a meteor threatens to strike the planet, a crisis that has also roused the Weapons, formidable guardian entities that may prove as dangerous to humanity as the disaster they exist to prevent. The full ensemble cast is present for the finale, including Vincent Valentine and Cid Highwind, who joins the roster together with his customisable Highwind airship, which serves as the party's mobile base and principal means of exploring the game's open world.

Alongside the release date, Square Enix detailed several new systems. Combat introduces a mechanic dubbed FITS, which ties abilities to outfits in a manner reminiscent of the dressphere and Schemata systems from Final Fantasy X-2 and Lightning Returns. Players will also be able to swap freely between party members while exploring the open world, a choice reported to influence minor story beats and character interactions, with some companions, including Red XIII, gaining their own dedicated side stories tied to the Queen's Blood card game. A trailer shown earlier at Gamescom's Opening Night Live gave a first proper look at the Weapons as formidable optional bosses. Hamaguchi has said the team is keen to avoid repeating the sprawling density some felt weighed down Rebirth, despite Revelation being billed as the largest game of the three, and has also confirmed a cutscene fast-forward option intended to let players control pacing, though early impressions suggest viewing scenes at speed can make them difficult to follow.

On the story's ultimate direction, Hamaguchi has maintained that the development team's plans have not shifted in response to fan speculation, insisting the trilogy has followed a consistent vision from the outset, even as the first two games have deliberately left open the question of whether the heroes can alter events from the original 1997 story. Commercially, pre-orders are already live on some platforms, with early buyers promised bonus summon materia, while a Premium Edition will grant a day's early access, an in-game accessory, extra consumables and entry to story downloadable content planned for after launch. Coverage of the announcement varied in focus: some outlets concentrated on the new gameplay systems and were sceptical of features like fast-forwarding cutscenes, others dwelt on the trilogy's unusually long seven-year, three-console-generation gestation and its growing roster of editions and DLC, and at least one outlet's write-up centred on the newly shown airship-driven open world, while flagging concern that it risked feeling overly familiar after Rebirth's own expansive map. Several reports also noted the announcement coincided with news of a separate Square Enix title, the turn-based HD-2D RPG Final Fantasy Resonance, which is due out on 22 October and had a playable demo released the same day.

• www.polygon.com
• www.engadget.com
• www.pcgamer.com
• www.eurogamer.net