Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth marked a transition from the 2020 remake's strictly linear maps into full-blown open world territory, but its world is still made up of several interconnected maps, rather than giant map that can be traversed seamlessly as in Breath of the Wild and Red Dead Redemption 2. Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, the upcoming third entry in the remake series, opens things up even more, allowing players to explore the entirety of the map right away, and according to director Naoki Hamaguchi, the map is even bigger than all of Rebirth's distinct maps put together.
Talking to GamesRadar+ during Summer Game Fest 2026, Hamaguchi explains the differences between Rebirth's open world and the one you'll get to explore in Revelation. Chiefly, you'll be able to take to the skies in the Highwind airship and seamlessly explore the entire map without having to deal with progression gates or loading screens, opening up a new dimension of verticality to the map.
"With the third entry of our FF7 Remake series, Revelation, we're offering an even bigger open world map," says Hamaguchi. "How that works is that there's obviously the Highwind [airship] traversal feature where players can fly around in the open world and they can parachute down anywhere they want to. It's not just that, but there's - when you look at the scale of it - the horizontal width of the map is far bigger than Rebirth, but it's also the vertical depth as well because now you can control this skies too."
Hamaguchi previously confirmed that all areas in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will be part of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation's map, but he tells GamesRadar+ that they won't all be exactly how you remember them.
"I am happy to say that yes, again, all areas featured in Rebirth will also appear in Revelation in the same scope, if not bigger," he says. "We didn't want to just keep it the same as it was in Rebirth. We're actually adding a little bit of touches and twists to it.
"So, for example, if you visit certain areas in the game, you can see the meteor falling from the sky, so it's not just going to be like the same exact areas as it was in Rebirth, I can say that."
I like this in theory, but I'm anxious to see whether Square Enix devotes the time to making sure such a gargantuan explorable map is actually rewarding to explore, from narrative and gameplay standpoints. I know I'm not the only one wary of yet another open world checklist to cross off, and one of my few criticisms of Rebirth is that it follows the tired open world formula of modern Ubisoft games and could've used some variety. Again though, that isn't a hot take by any means, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Square Enix take some of that feedback on board with Revelation.
Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will launch on PS5, Xbox Series X, Switch 2, and PC in Spring 2027.
In the meantime, here are the best PS5 games you can play today.
