史克威尔艾尼克斯称《最终幻想VII 启示录》Hard mode 重做且开局可选

Back when Final Fantasy VII Revelation was revealed for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2, director Naoki Hamaguchi commented on the endgame, saying that the extensive content, which also involves fighting the Weapons, would be available on the first playthrough, unlike the first two entries in the series where the biggest challenges are only available from a second playthrough in Hard mode. This seemed to suggest that Hard mode wouldn't be a thing in Final Fantasy VII Revelation, but that is not going to be the case.

"Hard Mode does indeed exist in Revelation, however, it won’t function in the exact same way as it did in Remake and Rebirth. In Revelation, we’ve reimagined the high-difficulty experience to align with the new game design," Hamaguchi-san told Hardcore Gamer. "Hard Mode is selectable from the very start of this game. 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."

As Hard mode in Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was a post-game exclusive feature, it will obviously be different in Final Fantasy VII Revelation. The most crucial change is that it won't disable any mechanics just to artificially make the experience more difficult. In addition, it definitely sounds more challenging than anything we have seen so far, as Hamaguchi-san likens Dynamic mode to the Hard mode of the first two entries in the series.

"On the other hand, for players seeking an experience similar to the Hard Mode in Remake or Rebirth, we’ve retained the Dynamic Mode. Here, you can enjoy highly strategic battles with both enemies and your character fully leveled up," he said. "However, we haven’t adopted the traditional rules centered around no item usage. This is because, throughout the series, player options, such as cooperative abilities and FITS, have expanded significantly; we determined that simply banning items wouldn’t be enough to achieve the ideal high-difficulty experience we envisioned."

"In Revelation, we’ve created a challenging environment that will thoroughly satisfy those seeking high difficulty, while also expanding players’ freedom and strategic options. We hope the fans looking forward to that higher difficulty level content will feel reassured and excited to take on the challenge," Hamaguchi-san concluded.

Simply put, this is music to my ears. Although I would have loved to see difficulty sliders to have granular tweaking of the difficulty, I would be lying if I said the inclusion of Hard mode from the start in Final Fantasy VII Revelation is making me even more excited about the game, and not only because I wasn't expecting it due to it being unavailable in the gamescom 2026 open world demo.

Even at Dynamic difficulty, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth leaves something to be desired in terms of challenge, as most regular enemies have such low HP that players can just button mash their way to victory even in Hard mode, which does a massive disservice to the deep combat mechanics of the game. Thankfully, this time around, those like me won't have to download custom difficulty mods to have a semblance of challenge outside of the post-game content.

Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis Has Been Preserved

The confirmation of Hard mode in Final Fantasy VII Revelation isn't the only good news regarding the series we received today. Following the end-of-service earlier this month, the mobile and PC game Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis went offline and is no longer playable in an official capacity. However, X user Kirito released Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis Eternal, a fully offline version of the game based on the PC build without the gacha elements. This is cleverly achieved by running a local server in the background, with a future version of the game planned to include a new interface that lets the user choose their desired starting date for the server before starting the game.

While this new version of Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis isn't as elegant as the remakes Square Enix has been releasing for its terminated mobile games such as Octopath Traveler 0 and Final Fantasy Resonance, it's still great that the original has been preserved in some capacity, as some of its story scenarios are rather interesting, such as The First Soldier storyline starring Sephiroth set 15 years before the events of the main game.

Speaking about preserving lost Final Fantasy VII mobile spin-off games, this year, a dedicated user restored Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII - Lost Chapter, a Japan-exclusive game starring Vincent Valentine. As Final Fantasy VII Revelation is still 6 months away from release, experiencing these games is a great way to tide oneself over until the launch of the conclusion of the Remake trilogy.

About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.

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