Square Enix just gave fans their most in-depth look at Final Fantasy 7 Revelation in motion yet during today's PlayStation State of Play, confirming an April release date and post-launch story DLC, but there was one detail JRPG diehards just can't get over: the showcase demonstrated cutscenes you can speed up. That's it. That's the controversy.
I know, I know, it's completely uncharacteristic for a community of online JRPG fans to dramatize a completely optional and seemingly harmless feature in a game like Final Fantasy 7, but alas, one Twitter user reacted to the news by proclaiming, "games are truly dead." That post has 1.7 thousand likes and a handful of comments largely in agreement. "They really did make a mode for larpers that watch YouTube videos at 2X speed," reads one such reply.
Now, to be fair, this particular reaction was in response to Square Enix advertising the fast-forward feature, and after reviewing that part of today's showcase, it definitely stuck me as a bit odd that it was such a focus. But I'll go out on a limb and say that games are probably not truly dead just yet, at the very least, not because Final Fantasy 7 Revelation has cutscenes you can speed up... just like Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth before it.
I will definitely concede that it's a weird look, and, if you look at it a certain way, it's even mildly insulting to Revelation's writers, since Square Enix is explicitly putting its fast-forward button on display instead of their work in a big trailer. But I do think the feature itself is on the same level as skippable written dialogue, which has been a thing in video games forever. I'll even put myself at great risk in comments sections by admitting I find it deeply annoying when dialogue can't be sped up. Still, everyone's entitled to their own unique feelings on this sort of thing, and I seem to be in the minority by simply not really caring all that much.
"look i'm excited about this game, but this functionality is absolutely an admission of defeat imo," reads a Bluesky post from Into the Aether host Brendon Bigley.
"okay i'm sorry but the 1.5x speed watching brainrot has gone too far if we're now doing playback speed for video game dialogue," says Game Informer video editor Eric Van Allen.
My best guess as to why Square decided to put fast-forwardable cutscenes on display today is that it was a response to the years of complaints about length and bloat in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy. These are massive games that demand a commensurate time commitment, and I'm assuming the fast-forward option is Square's answer to that feedback, whether it's appropriate or not.
