There was a lot to do in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, between the main story and all the myriad side-quests – perhaps an overwhelming amount, even, and trilogy head honcho Naoki Hamaguchi is distinctly aware of that issue while making Final Fantasy 7 Revelation.
“One of the things I think people got a little bit tired of – or maybe that’s when they stepped away from the game – was on the world map, there is a lot of content,” Hamaguchi tells GamesRadar+ during a recent interview.
“Sometimes you’d get rewards like materia if you finish that content,” he explains. “But for those people who just wanted to get those materia or rewards, they might feel like they have to do certain mini-games, even if they don’t really want to.”
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This is the tricky balance of building out a world map. You want to give players things to do, reasons to explore every nook and cranny, but too much and suddenly it all looks like a mess of fairy lights, and you’ve no idea where to start.
Or, it just feels arbitrary, as is a hurdle I’ve encountered in Assassin’s Creed games as well as Skyrim and other such sprawling role-playing misadventures, where I noticed I was just ticking things off.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth feels bigger than its predecessor Remake, leaning into the fact we’re now away from Midgar, but even with unlocking new magic and abilities, I got a bit fatigued.
His comments make it sound like Revelation will be more curated, perhaps with more variation, either in terms of mini-games and activities, or the things they provide, or both. Bigger isn’t inherently better, and I’m relieved to hear Hamaguchi’s taken that mindset coming off of Rebirth.