Preview: Final Fantasy 7 Revelation on PS5 Is So Huge I Got Lost in Its Demo
Developing story first seen 2 hours ago
New details from the same Push Square hands-on reveal that Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is due out on 8th April, and that the demo build ran smoothly on PS5 Pro without noticeable pop-in, despite being unfinished. The writer also described becoming so overwhelmed by the sheer number of optional activities and map markers that they experienced "choice paralysis", ultimately running out of time before meaningfully progressing the story's plot, reinforcing the earlier point about the game's daunting scale.
Beyond the Highwind and combat sequences already covered, the preview touched on further side content including a returning Golden Saucer snowboarding minigame, a medallion-collecting quest for a character called Freddie, and Chocobo rescue missions to unlock races. The writer eventually pushed on to Wutai, praising Square Enix's recreation of the original game's blend of Japanese and Chinese architecture and the area's impressive scale, though they felt the characters' movement and abilities sometimes struggled to match that scale, leaving them, in their words, unsure how useful the preview ultimately was.
- Final Fantasy 7 Revelation confirmed for release on 8th April
- PS5 Pro demo build ran smoothly with no notable pop-in
- Writer felt overwhelmed by content, praised Wutai's scale and design
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Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is the next instalment in Square Enix's multi-part remake of Final Fantasy VII, the 1997 role-playing game long regarded as one of the most influential titles in the series. The remake project has already produced two entries, Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, each retelling a portion of the original story with modern graphics, expanded worlds and reworked combat, while adding new characters and plot threads not present in the source material.
The game is being developed for Sony's PlayStation 5, including the more powerful PS5 Pro variant, and follows the same core cast, such as Cloud Strife and his allies, as they continue their journey across the fictional world of Gaia. Locations mentioned in coverage, including the Golden Saucer amusement park and the city of Wutai, are drawn from the original 1997 game and have been rebuilt in far greater detail for these modern versions.
Ahead of release, outlets such as Push Square are sometimes given early hands-on access to unfinished versions of the game, allowing journalists to try sections of it and report back on how it looks, plays and feels before the public can buy it. Such previews are a common part of video game marketing and are separate from a full review, since the build is incomplete and impressions may not reflect the finished product.
Full account
Square Enix has given journalists an early look at Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, the concluding chapter of its remake trilogy, running on PS5 Pro at a hands-on event in London. Journalists were handed an hour with a demo built around the explorable Highwind airship, set during Chapter 4: House of Cards, and were told that fully clearing the content on offer in this single section would take somewhere in the region of 20 hours. The scale of what was shown left both journalists in attendance visibly struck, even as they came away with rather different impressions of the experience.
One writer described taking manual control of the Highwind from its cockpit and being free to chase an enormous number of map markers rather than heading straight for the plot-critical destination of Wutai. Players can reportedly leap from the airship parachute-style to drop into points of interest on the ground below, and during the session this journalist photographed wildlife in the Mideel Archipelago for a side quest, then fought off a pack of aggressive monsters called hitmantis with a party of Yuffie, Barrett and newcomer Cid, whose lance-based, aerial-leaning combat style stood out despite time constraints preventing any real dive into the game's much-touted job system. They reported no obvious performance issues or pop-in on the PS5 Pro build, while noting the game remains unfinished ahead of its planned 8th April release, and admitted feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer volume of choice on offer, to the point of experiencing something like decision paralysis.
A second preview took a more critical entry point, focusing on the volume of tutorial prompts and guiding chatter – including check-ins from the returning character Chadley and his Monster Assessment Instrument – that had to be dismissed before free play could begin, estimating a meaningful chunk of the hour was spent clicking through onboarding material. This account placed the demo in the context of development history, noting that director Naoki Hamaguchi began work on Revelation roughly a year before its predecessor, Rebirth, even launched, drawing inspiration from large open-world titles such as The Witcher 3, the Horizon series and Crimson Desert.
Both pieces touched on the wider debate around Rebirth's reception, where extensive open-world side content drew comparisons to Ubisoft's tower-climbing formula and was seen by some as needless padding, prompting Square Enix to later admit the game had underperformed the company's expectations. Where the first preview leaned toward simple astonishment at scale and cautious optimism about combat and performance, the second was more explicitly opinionated, arguing that fans should let Hamaguchi pursue his open-world ambitions freely rather than demanding a leaner, more faithful retelling. Neither writer felt able to offer a definitive verdict from a single hour with the game, but both agreed that Revelation is aiming for a far larger and more elaborate scope than its predecessor.
Where outlets differ
Source 1 centres on the sensation of being overwhelmed by scale and choice, offers specific gameplay detail (party composition, Cid's combat style, the Mideel Archipelago photography quest, the hitmantis fight) and gives a concrete release date of 8th April, plus a note on PS5 Pro technical performance.
Source 2 is more focused on friction from tutorial pop-ups and guide characters (Chadley, the Monster Assessment Instrument), and spends more time on development background – Hamaguchi's early start on the project and his stated inspirations (The Witcher 3, Horizon, Crimson Desert).
Source 2 engages more directly with the debate over Rebirth's 'bloated' open-world reception and takes an explicit editorial stance defending Revelation's expansive design ('let Hamaguchi cook'), whereas Source 1 raises the Ubisoft-style open-world comparison more neutrally, as an observation about double standards rather than a personal opinion.
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