Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is taking exploration far beyond Rebirth, with director Naoki Hamaguchi confirming that players will be able to explore the entire planet using the Highwind.

The final installment of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy launches on April 8, 2027, and Square Enix wanted its world to represent another major step forward from both Remake and Rebirth.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation Expands to Planetary Exploration

Speaking to IGN, Hamaguchi explained that one of the team’s biggest challenges was finding a way to make Revelation feel larger than Rebirth.

“How can we expand the open world?”

The answer was to move beyond individual open-world regions and create a world that can be explored on a planetary scale.

Hamaguchi described it as an “open-world map scale where players just really just explore the entire planet using the Highwind.”

Creating that level of freedom was one of the more difficult aspects of development. Exploration won’t simply expand horizontally either, with Square Enix introducing greater verticality and allowing players to navigate the world using both the Highwind and Chocobos.

The Highwind is therefore much more than a traditional fast-travel system, becoming an important part of how players freely explore Revelation’s world.

Physical Edition Requires an Additional Download

Hamaguchi also addressed another important detail surrounding Revelation: its physical edition will require players to download part of the game.

Square Enix considered an approach similar to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, but Hamaguchi explained that fitting the game within those limitations would have required the development team to compromise its intended visual fidelity and overall quality.

Instead, the team chose to preserve the scope and quality of the game while still providing a physical release, even if some data must be downloaded separately.

Hamaguchi acknowledged that some players won’t be happy with the requirement but said he is pleased that Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will still receive a physical edition as the industry increasingly moves toward digital distribution.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation launches on April 8, 2027, concluding the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy with its largest explorable world yet.