We Played Final Fantasy VII: Revelation | Our First Impressions

It’s hard to believe that it’s been just over 11 years since the Final Fantasy VII Remake series was first announced at E3 2015. It was my first ever E3 in-person, and while I didn’t have the opportunity to attend the press conference since I was focused on all things Nintendo, I vividly remember watching it live from my hotel room.

The pure joy and borderline manic excitement that came out of me during that reveal is still one of my all-time favorite E3 memories. Final Fantasy VII was just that kind of game for me. It came out at exactly the right time in my life, and the idea of finally getting a full remake was unbelievably exciting.

 

 

Little did I know at the time that I wasn’t just getting one game, but three.

And here we are, more than a decade later, finally approaching the end of this incredibly long journey. I was lucky enough to be invited to a hands-on preview session for the third and final chapter in the Final Fantasy VII Remake series, Final Fantasy VII Revelation.

And boy, oh boy, I can already tell you one thing: This game is ridiculously ambitious.

Now, this isn’t my first rodeo with a Final Fantasy VII Remake demo. In fact, it was at E3 2019, that I got my first hands-on experience with Final Fantasy VII Remake. That demo was an extremely curated and fairly linear experience focused exclusively on the first bombing mission, so I kind of expected something similar this time around. I was wrong.

 

The world is yours to explore

 

More or less, the people working the demo station simply told me to have fun and do whatever I wanted. And just like that, I was aboard the iconic Highwind and given free rein to explore the world in pretty much any way I saw fit. And that freedom ended up being one of my biggest takeaways from my entire time with Revelation.

 

 

Technically, before the demo began, we were given nine suggestions for places we could visit in the open world. We only had 50 minutes, so at least we had some idea of what we could do. Familiar locations like the Gold Saucer were among the suggestions, but as somebody who has played through Remake and Rebirth more times than I can count, I wanted to see something new.

So, for the most part, I scrapped the recommendations and decided to just fly around and see what I could find. Almost immediately, two things piqued my interest.

The first was an ominous Meteor hovering in the sky. Having played Final Fantasy VII many times over the years, I knew exactly what that Meteor represented. But actually seeing it hanging there above this massive world, almost like the falling moon in Majora’s Mask, filled me with just a little bit of terror.

 

 

The second thing I spotted almost immediately after taking control of the Highwind was Ruby Weapon.

For those of you who, like me, were probably scarred at some point in your childhood by this giant red creature, you can probably understand why I immediately wanted to go check it out. But before diving out of the Highwind directly toward the massive red tentacles surrounding Ruby Weapon in the middle of the desert, I decided to get my bearings with the airship first.

 

Taking the plunge

 

Overall, the Highwind controls pretty much exactly how you would imagine it to. R2 accelerates, while L2 slows you down and eventually puts you into reverse. More importantly, as you fly over the world, you can jump out and parachute down to the ground from almost anywhere.

 

 

And the transition is surprisingly seamless. There was only about a five-second delay between jumping from the Highwind and actually beginning my descent toward the world below.

Once you’re falling, you have full control over when to deploy your parachute, and after opening it, you have some leeway to steer yourself toward wherever you want to land. I only had the chance to do this a handful of times during my demo, but each time I got a little better at judging exactly when to pull the chute and where I was going to end up.

One thing that immediately surprised me, however, was that instead of simply landing on the ground, like I expected to, I was immediately picked up by my chocobo, Piko. It was almost like he was catching me as I was falling from the sky, allowing me to seamlessly keep moving the moment I touched the ground.

Once you’re falling, you have full control over when to deploy your parachute, and after opening it, you have some leeway to steer yourself toward wherever you want to land. I only had the chance to do this a handful of times during my demo, but each time I got a little better at judging exactly when to pull the chute and where I was going to end up. And with Piko waiting for you below, landing feels less like the end of your descent and more like a seamless transition right back into exploring.

 

 

Taking flight with Piko

 

I learned a decent amount about Piko by watching the trailers for Revelation over the past few months, but actually getting to control him was something completely different. There’s a button combination that will propel you dozens of feet into the air, and another that can jet propel you forward if you want to quickly reach a target. I didn’t have a huge amount of time to play with these mechanics, but I got the hang of them pretty quickly.

And I can tell you, traveling on chocobo is going to be even more exciting going forward, as the developers have really opened up what you can actually do with them now. Unlike Rebirth, where each chocobo had its own special mechanic, here it seems like Piko is simply a supercharged chocobo with tons of different abilities. I genuinely can’t wait to get more ride time in the future.

 

 

More than anything, though, being able to fly across this enormous world, spot something interesting below, and simply jump out of the Highwind to investigate made the world feel incredibly open in a way that even Rebirth never quite did.

 

The impossible fight

 

So, there I was, about to go toe-to-toe with one of  Final Fantasy VII’s craziest superbosses.

I noticed pretty quickly that I wasn’t actually able to approach Ruby Weapon itself, as it was surrounded by a massive sandstorm that threw me right back out anytime I tried to get close. Instead, scattered throughout the surrounding desert were a variety of massive red tentacles sticking out of the sand. This isn’t too far off from the original game, where dealing with Ruby Weapon’s tentacles was a pretty important part of the fight.

 

 

Deep down, I knew there was absolutely no way I was going to take this thing down. But then I thought, why shouldn’t I try? Why shouldn’t my very first battle in Final Fantasy VII Revelation be against the gnarliest superboss in the entire game?

My mind was made up: I’m doing it!

 

A perfect FIT

 

But first, I decided now was probably a good time to check out the FITS system that the developers seemed so excited about. After all, best not to go into a battle like this without being fully prepared.

Navigating to the FITS menu allows you to select between four different jobs: Warrior, Knight, Black Mage, and Summoner. Each job also comes with its own corresponding costume, and I probably spent far too much of my limited demo time just scrolling through them to see how each character looked.

Some of them are fantastic. Vincent’s Black Mage outfit somehow makes him look even more like a 17th-century vampire, while Cait Sith has an outfit that looks oddly reminiscent of a Heartless from Kingdom Hearts.

 

 

While I didn’t have nearly enough time to experiment with how each job changes the characters in battle, I was impressed by the sheer variety of costumes available. I was also happy to find out that choosing a particular job doesn’t mean you’re stuck wearing its corresponding outfit. You’re free to overlay another costume while keeping the job and abilities you actually want. So don’t worry. If you want to dress like a Final Fantasy purist while masquerading as a Summoner, you absolutely can.

For my party, I ended up equipping Vincent as a Summoner, Barret as a Knight, and Cid as a Warrior. And for obvious reasons, because he’s just so badass, I made Vincent my party leader and jumped directly into battle with Ruby Weapon’s red tentacles.

Now, they didn’t knock my party out immediately, but their attacks hit a bit harder than I was expecting. Thankfully, before my entire party got completely KO’d, I was able to experiment with quite a bit of what Vincent can do. And man, Vincent is better than I even imagined.

One of his biggest abilities is Galian Beast mode, which transforms him into a towering behemoth that packs an absolutely crazy punch. What surprised me most was how easily I could swap back and forth between Vincent and Galian Beast. In the original Final Fantasy VII, that transformation was reserved for Vincent’s Limit Breaks. Here, you can transform back and forth pretty much whenever you want.

 

 

The difference between the two forms is significant, too. In his human form, Vincent’s gunfire works extremely well as a long-range attack. Unlike Barret, who typically plants himself in one spot and unleashes a barrage of bullets, Vincent is constantly jumping and moving around as he fires, allowing you to dodge attacks and be a bit more strategic with where you’re laying down your gunfire.

Galian Beast, on the other hand, is much more of a tank and lets you punch the ever-living crap out of whatever you see fit.

I was also able to utilize Vincent’s Summoner FITS abilities and bring Ifrit into the fight. Summoning here works very differently from the traditional summons in Remake and Rebirth. Rather than having Ifrit stick around and independently fight alongside me for an extended period of time, I could bring him out in short bursts to help chip away at the enemy before he disappeared again.

 

 

I wish I’d had more time to experiment with the system, but from what I played, it worked pretty well and made Summoner feel meaningfully different from the other FITS options.

I didn’t get nearly as much time with Cid, but I did swap over to him several times during the fight. His attacks were much more close-range and honestly weren’t the best fit for this particular encounter.

In total, my grand battle against Ruby Weapon’s squiggling red tentacles lasted about two minutes before my entire party was completely knocked unconscious. So, no, I did not manage to take down one of Final Fantasy VII’s most notorious superbosses during my first battle.

 

 

But I did get my first real taste of Revelation’s combat, and I loved it. At its core, it feels remarkably similar to what I already loved in Rebirth, but the addition of Vincent, Cid, and the FITS system adds just enough new variety to make combat feel fresh again.

My time with the demo was quickly ticking away, and I knew there was absolutely no point in attempting a second rumble with Ruby. So instead, I spawned myself back at the Highwind and decided I wanted to see something completely new with the little time I had left.

 

 

Welcome to Wutai

 

That led me to Yuffie’s hometown of Wutai, a place talked about quite a bit throughout both Remake and Rebirth, but never actually seen until now.

Once again, I piloted the Highwind directly above the city and dove right in, landing just outside the bustling city center. And thankfully, this time I found some monsters that were a little more within my capabilities.

I once again focused most of my attention on Cid and Vincent. This time around, Cid was able to make quick work of flying enemies, using his lance to propel himself into the air and easily take on anything airborne. It immediately gave me a much better idea of what Cid could actually do when I wasn’t stupidly throwing him against Ruby Weapon.

 

 

This also gave me another opportunity to experiment with Vincent’s gunplay, which felt just as good as it did against Ruby Weapon’s tentacles, except this time I wasn’t getting my ass completely kicked.

After finishing up the fight, I followed a winding staircase into the city center of Wutai. And this is where I started to get a much better feel for Yuffie and, more importantly, how the people of Wutai see her.

There were some pretty amusing interactions between Yuffie and a group of young ninja trainees (that I won’t spoil here). But judging by those interactions alone, although brief, I can already tell that Yuffie is going to have one heck of a fleshed-out story in Revelation, with plenty of the heartfelt and genuinely funny moments that Remake and Rebirth did so well.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the grappling hooks equipped that would have allowed me to fly around Wutai like we’ve seen in some of the trailers. Instead, I spent the last bit of my time wandering around the city, talking to NPCs, and just taking everything in.

 

 

I even got a little glimpse of Queen’s Blood, which is indeed back in Revelation. Unfortunately, with the clock quickly running out, I didn’t have enough time to actually sit down and play a match.

 

 

After exploring Wutai a little further and getting a few additional story beats that, once again, I won’t spoil here, my time with the demo was over.

And I remember thinking to myself: That was probably the fastest 50 minutes of my entire life.

 

Final Thoughts

 

My biggest takeaway from my short time with Final Fantasy VII Revelation is that the game doesn’t seem interested in holding your hand. It gives you this massive world and lets you make your own way through it. Sure, I was dropped into Chapter 4 with a slightly beefy party, but the game still happily allowed me to wander directly into fights that I was in no way, shape, or form prepared for.

And I kind of love that.

I love the idea that I can explore this massive world in pretty much any way I see fit, even if that means getting absolutely rocked by giant red tentacles in the middle of the desert. Being able to hop aboard the Highwind, fly wherever I want, and see familiar locations like the Gold Saucer and Midgar from an entirely new perspective made the world of Final Fantasy VII feel bigger than it ever has before.

 

 

And, after 50 minutes of flying around, fighting enemies, experimenting with Vincent and Cid, exploring the FITS system, and finally setting foot in Wutai, I feel like there’s just a ton more to see and do.

As a longtime Final Fantasy VII fan, that might be the most exciting thing I can say about Revelation. If the quality and freedom I experienced during those 50 minutes are representative of the final game, I think we’re all going to be in for one hell of a good time when Final Fantasy VII Revelation arrives next April. I can’t wait.

 

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