Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director confirms that Midgar is back, but smaller

Several major changes are coming to Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, but the biggest one is its open world. How will that impact some areas from the previous games that weren’t designed for that format? In an interview with Polygon, director Naoki Hamaguchi gave an example of how Midgar was adjusted for Revelation.

In Final Fantasy 7 Remake, everything takes place in Midgar, the iconic walled city from the original PS1 game that sits underneath an enormous plate. Hamaguchi confirmed that players will be able to return to Midgar as part of Revelation’s open-world pivot, teasing that a certain moment from the original game will occur again.

“Midgar is going to appear in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, and players will be able to visit it again,” Hamaguchi told Polygon. “In the original Final Fantasy 7, there is a narrative moment within the main story where the party revisits Midgar. We are following suit with the original, and having that same moment in Revelation.”

Hamaguchi is likely referring to a late game sequence where the party raids Midgar in order to fight Hojo. Funny enough, that scene features the crew parachuting into the city. We already know that Revelation will allow players to parachute out of the Highwind, so it’s not hard to imagine how the classic scene will work in the context of the new game.

Of course, returning to Midgar would require some drastic changes. The version of the city in Remake is largely made up of linear corridors. It’s not exactly built for open-world exploration, which players can do in Revelation by hopping out of their airship. Hamaguchi confirmed that Midgar has been stripped down to better fit that design ethos.

“The game experience of visiting and exploring Midgar is going to be a little different than it was in Final Fantasy 7 Remake,” Hamaguchi said. “You won’t be able to visit all of the slums or all the streets you were able to go around in. It’s going to be a bit different in Revelation. I can’t dive into details too much because it would be a spoiler, but when you look at the overall area of Midgar, it is built in a way that retains the iconic element of the Final Fantasy 7 world.”

The change is part of a larger philosophy tweak that players can expect from Revelation. A common complaint with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was that its various areas featured an overwhelming amount of content. Hamaguchi said that Revelation’s world is designed to be a little more manageable overall.

“Whenever you have this epic open-world format, a lot of the common fan criticism is that there’s way too much content to cover and it becomes too much,” Hamaguchi said. “We faced that same criticism for Rebirth, particularly with the minigames. With that, we did take some feedback from fans and we are implementing some changes with Revelation. We tried to address and alleviate their concerns, so we are putting some changes in Revelation so that the open-world experience becomes more enjoyable.”

We at least know that one location will still be filled with minigames. Hamaguchi also confirmed to Polygon that the Gold Saucer will return in Revelation, and one of its areas has been taken over by Queen’s Blood, Rebirth’s popular card game.