FF7 Revelation director Hamaguchi discusses the game’s 200GB size, DLC plans, and a new Tifa detail

In VGC’s recent hands-on preview for Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, we were left with high hopes for the final entry in the remake trilogy, but also startled by the overwhelming scope of the game.

At Tokyo Game Show 2026, I caught up with Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi, who said he’s not concerned about such critiques, and noted that the public demo debuting in Japan this week offers a more focused look at what Square Enix is trying to do with Part 3.

In our brief conversation, Hamaguchi discussed recent news around the game, including confirmation of DLC stories, and word that all physical versions will require a download.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will release on April 8, 2027, for PS5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

Some of the comments online from fans and press are concerned that the scope of this game might be a bit too big. What would you say to them?

I’m really not worried about the scale. It is big, but I’m not worried about it. For the media demo, it starts at Chapter 4, which is a few hours into the game. The purpose of that media demo was to show the impact of how much there is to do in the world – that was the goal.

In that build, if you go to certain areas, quests are locked behind level blocks. We purposely put that in there to show, ‘hey, there’s so much more here’. We wanted players to be excited that there’s so much to do in this game.

While there is a lot going on, we make sure to place markers and identify the rewards for why you’re doing what you’re doing, so rather than being overwhelmed by choice, players can decide what they do and what they don’t want to do.

You’re showing a different demo here at TGS that’s playable for everyone. What’s the biggest difference you’ve heard from players versus the media impressions so far?

For the media demo, we wanted to show that the game is big and throw them in with no restrictions. With the public demo, it’s a hyper-focused version of one of the earlier chapters. You get to experience what the game feels like, how Sid plays, the story… the focus is very clear.

Some people have told me they prefer this demo, but I tell them the other one is better! The two different demos have different focuses. We’re expecting good things to come out of this one.

You’re officially planning two story DLCs, one starring Vincent and the other Sephiroth. You previously said you wanted Revelation to have a definitive ending that wouldn’t be spoiled by DLC. So what does that mean for the DLC’s placement in the story? Are they prequels?

It’s best to imagine the DLC like what we did with Intermission: digging deeper into the characters of Vincent and Sephiroth. In regard to whether those stories take place in the past or the present, I’m not going to tell you that now, but we’re excited to reveal that.

You recently confirmed that all physical versions of Revelation will require additional downloads because you didn’t want to ‘compromise’ the game in terms of file size. Does that mean that the game download will be larger than the two Blu-ray discs previous entries shipped on?

In a word, yes. Things are still getting worked out, but it’s probably going to be around 200GB of game. I understand there are a lot of opinions about this topic, but at the end of the day, the fact is we need to overcome the hardware to a certain extent.

“It’s best to imagine the DLC like what we did with Intermission: digging deeper into the characters of Vincent and Sephiroth.”

One thing I want to say is, even though the game will not be on the full disc, in the position we’re in, because discs may be dying out, or maybe staying, with Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, we definitely wanted to deliver some kind of physical product. That was really important to us. Trust me!

With your background in programming, can you explain for our readers the advantages of shipping all digitally versus on a physical disc?

With a full disc release, three months before, you have all these performance checks, and you really need to schedule things out. To give you an extreme example, for a download-only version, you can literally fix the game up until the day of release, so if there’s a huge issue, you can fix it before release. I’m not saying, ‘you have to believe me and it’s my way or the highway’ or anything like that: this is strictly one of the benefits, speaking as a developer. I’m not saying one way or the other. For me, these are the benefits.

There was mixed excitement and disappointment over the three-game Complete Edition and its Japan-only release. Is there any chance of that coming to the West eventually?

From a production schedule, things are so tight, and we have to provide a limited quantity of editions: we can’t just make a bunch of them. That’s one of the issues.

So will it come to the West?

You’ll have to ask him! (Points to PR)

You’ve taken part in a huge number of interviews since Revelation’s announcement this summer. What can you tell me about the game that you’ve not yet revealed?

(Long pause)…

In Rebirth, there was a piano mini-game. This time around, that’s been greatly expanded, and it now contains information related to Tifa. You can learn more about Tifa by playing this Piano game. I’m definitely going to get asked by PR why I just said that, but I want to keep our friendship going!

With Revelation, you’re of course going to have to wrap up the trilogy. Have you seen any fan theories online about where the story could go that were close, or that made you laugh at how far off they were?

That’s a difficult question to answer, but we look at all the fan theories and what people are writing. I’m not going to say which are right and wrong, but as a fan and a developer, we’ve been on this journey for ten years, and by the time it all concludes, I think it’s going to be very satisfying. We’re just really excited to see how people take to the ending.