Cloud's the limit.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will let players access Hard Mode from the very beginning of the journey, unlike FF7 Remake and Rebirth, which made folks roll credits before unlocking the tougher difficulty option.

The tidbit comes courtesy of director Naoki Hamaguchi, who told Hardcore Gamer that Final Fantasy 7 Revelation's Hard Mode "won't function in the exact same way" as it did previously. For next year's third and final chapter, the team "reimagined the high-difficulty experience to align with the new game design."

You see, this time around, the world of Gaia supposedly opens up really early in the game. Cloud and company can fly straight to some of the game's toughest battles as soon as they jump into their flying airship, whether they're ready for the fight or not, so Square Enix's approach to difficulty had to change too.

"Hard Mode is selectable from the very start of this game," Hamaguchi explained. "Therefore, players who want to tackle challenging battles and high-difficulty gameplay right from the beginning can enjoy that experience from their very first playthrough. This is because, unlike Remake and Rebirth, Revelation offers a wide variety of end-game content even after you've beaten the game. Rather than relying solely on the traditional flow of challenging Hard Mode after beating the game, we aimed to create a game where players can enjoy various new content and challenges even after completing the main story."

As much as I loved both Remake and Rebirth, the combat never properly pushed me to my limits and tested my creaky reflexes until I finally reached that second playthrough - in the case of Rebirth, that meant playing the game for at least 50 hours. FF7 Revelation is shaping up to be another behemoth that could easily take 100 hours to fully complete, apparently, so I'm very relieved to hear that I can get to the good stuff from the jump. Hard Mode is truly where these games shine.

In a separate tweet, Hamaguchi also shared there'll be a Dynamic Mode at launch, like in Rebirth, "allowing players to enjoy consistently challenging battles throughout the game." It also looks like we'll be able to adjust how tricky those many, many mini-games are. (Damn you, Moogles!)

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is coming to PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S on 8th April, 2027.

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