A new leak is claiming that “Final Fantasy VII Return” will be the title of the third installment in the VII remake trilogy, and that it will launch early next year.
The rumors come from a detailed post from ResetEra, which also claims to know many more details about the game.
As always with leaks of this nature, it is possible that the post is an elaborate hoax and that the following details are entirely false.
“I am posting this on behalf of somebody else I know to protect their identity,” said user PimplePoppingPunk, “who works somewhere in the chain between Square Enix marketing and Summer Game Fest event staff.”
The leaker claimed that a reveal trailer for Part 3 will debut at Summer Game Fest in June 2026.
“The trailer will be followed up by a second video of the development team explaining multiple new details,” they said.
“At the end they announce a follow up event will be held by Square Enix directly in the coming months.”
The post says that the trailer will announce three additional party members, with “one being brand-new.”
“It is described as a known character in the reveals, but the identity is not given in the trailer or developer overview,” it reads.
“It doesn’t contain any hints, so I do not know who it is either. Seems like they want this to be a big surprise and it’s a closely held secret.”
As for the followup developer overview video, this is said to announce that the combined duration of all of Part 3’s narrative cinematics will be triple the length of Rebirth’s, and that the title will have a world double the size of Rebirth’s. There will also be an announcement of a Final Fantasy VII collection including Remake, Rebirth, and Crisis Core Reunion.
“The theme of the title ‘Return’ has triple meanings,” the post reads, “and the trailer highlights it as return to the planet, return to combat, and return to the story.”
The leaker also shared a detailed overview of an optional combat system called “Active Turn Action”:
- Getting near enemies in the world (aggro range) plays a screen animation like random encounters used to do. Then your active party members spread out while the non-active members surround the area further back. It’s not a battle area like true random encounters.
- There is some automated melee attacking happening like the classic combat setting of Remake/Rebirth did, but much less of it this time. The non-active party members are included this time, running in for a couple small-damage hits before running out. It really makes you feel like the whole party is part of the journey. The damage output is lower than real-time battle attacks.
- Enemies and player characters deal increased damage when performing actions with filled battle gauge bars. They are consumed on use as usual. Choosing regular attacks with battle gauge bars will deal significantly increased damage if chosen, similar to older games attack options, or abilities can be used with the additional cost of MP. The game prompts you to switch to the character with the most recently filled gauge for action, to mimic having a party menu. You can still freely switch between all 3 however if desired.
- The battle gauge begins automatically filling like the active time battle system. It fills up somewhat more quickly to make you always feel engaged and never waiting, but slow enough to feel turn based. The point is that it is not constant action.
- Overall with Active Turn Action combat, both the player and the enemies perform less actions in total. The damage of each action is greatly increased to balance out the time between actions performed. The system is tuned for battles to take roughly the same duration in either battle system.
- There is a new subclass of items called provisions. These can be used without waiting to fill battle gauge bars. Provisions are like the base form of items, like regular potions, regular ethers, and status ailment cures such as an antidote. Items are the higher level items like hi-potion, phoenix down, or remedy, and require battle gauge bars to use. All items and provisions have a 3 second cooldown so you can’t spam them.
None of these details have yet been confirmed by Square Enix, so once again, it should be noted that all of this information remains unverified.
Part 3’s director, Naoki Hamaguchi, recently confirmed that development is “proceeding on time and on schedule.” He also stated that he has completed “over 40 full playthroughs” during its development.
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Written by Reece Heather
A veteran Zelda Universe editor and First-class journalism graduate, Reece emerged with a Nintendo 64 and a lifelong obsession after a narrow escape from Santa’s Naughty List in 1998. Outside of games, he’s reading Punisher comics, being bossed around by his cocker spaniel, and cornering innocent bystanders to rant about the importance of game preservation.
