Final Fantasy II

Lore & Background

Final Fantasy II began development after the success of Final Fantasy, with the team using a new setting to make the game accessible to players. Returning staff included series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi as director, designer Akitoshi Kawazu, programmer Nasir Gebelli, artist Yoshitaka Amano, writer Kenji Terada, and composer Nobuo Uematsu. The team wanted to create a game different from the first Final Fantasy, including a narrative inspired by The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and a redesigned combat system. The stat growth system was created by Kawazu, who later felt the team went too far in making the game different from the original.

Reader's Guide

Final Fantasy II is notable for its usage-based growth system, where characters' statistics increase according to how they are used or acquired, replacing the experience-based leveling of the original. This system had unintended consequences, such as players having characters attack each other to boost HP. The game also introduced the 'Word Memory' system for conversations with non-player characters. Retrospective reviews have described it as among the most divisive entries in the series due to its progression system. As of 2003, the game sold over one million copies worldwide. Due to negative feedback, the next title Final Fantasy III (1990) reverted to the original combat system. Kawazu would continue using his system in the SaGa series, beginning with 1989's Makai Toushi Sa・Ga (The Final Fantasy Legend) for the Game Boy.

Did You Know?

• Final Fantasy II introduced the chocobo, the signature Final Fantasy mascot.
• The recurring character Cid was introduced in this game and has appeared in every main-series game since.
• Final Fantasy II is one of the few games in the series to not use experience-based levels.

The Story's Final Chapter

Final Fantasy VII Revelation picks up the narrative exactly where Rebirth left off, carrying the party from their arrival at the Great Glacier toward the climactic confrontation at the Northern Crater. The overarching conflict remains the same in spirit: the eco-terrorist collective AVALANCHE, led by mercenary Cloud Strife, wages war against the Shinra Electric Power Company, the megacorporation that dominates Midgar and drains the Planet's lifeblood through mako energy. But the true antagonist has escalated beyond corporate greed. Sephiroth, the former elite SOLDIER long believed dead after the Nibelheim incident, has summoned the Meteor to wound the world and is pursuing Reunion, a catastrophic merging of fractured timelines into a single reality he intends to dominate. The Weapons, ancient entities awakened to defend the Planet, add another layer of conflict. Notably, the game also restores two locations absent from Rebirth: the Shinra-occupied nation of Wutai and Rocket Town, both of which featured prominently in the original 1997 story before the Forgotten City arc.

Gameplay & New Systems

Revelation expands the trilogy's real-time action-RPG formula with several firsts. The most visible addition is a fully open-world map traversable by the Highwind, the party's airship, which players can now pilot directly. From aloft, characters can parachute down onto the landscape below, a mechanic never seen in either Remake or Rebirth. Beneath the surface, a new equipment framework called FITS (Function Integrated Tactical Suitwear) lets each playable character slot in specialized gear that reshapes their appearance and unlocks abilities drawn from classic Final Fantasy job classes, such as the Warrior or the Black Mage. Two characters who appeared only in supporting roles during Rebirth step into fully controllable roles: Cid Highwind, the spear-wielding pilot of the Highwind, and Vincent Valentine, a former Shinra test subject who fights with firearms and can shift into a bestial alternate form. Together these additions promise a broader tactical palette while keeping the series' signature blend of real-time combat and strategic depth.

Development & Trilogy Architecture

The decision to split the remake into multiple entries was made as early as 2015, when Square Enix first greenlit the project. Director Tetsuya Nomura explained that attempting to compress the entire story into a single title would have forced painful cuts, rendering the modernization pointless. Producer Yoshinori Kitase drew a parallel to the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy but emphasized a key distinction: this series keeps Cloud Strife as its singular central protagonist rather than rotating perspectives. By June 2022, the three-game structure was officially locked in, and preliminary work on the third installment was already underway. A first draft of the script was completed by September 2023, though Kitase stressed it would evolve based on player reception to Rebirth. Active production on Revelation began by November 2024, with the story finalized by the following year. The title was unveiled at the 2026 Summer Game Fest, and the game is slated for April 8, 2027, across Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S.

Legacy & Continuity

Revelation serves as the narrative bridge between the Remake trilogy and the broader Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. All three games reimagine the characters, plot, and world first established in the 1997 PlayStation original, yet Nomura, who also directed the 2005 feature film Advent Children, has explicitly stated that the trilogy is designed to flow naturally into that film's events. This means Revelation must honor both the source material and the expanded lore of the Compilation while still telling a fresh story. The restoration of Wutai and Rocket Town, locations that appeared in the original before the Forgotten City sequence, signals a deliberate effort to give players the full geographic and emotional arc they remember. Sephiroth is voiced by Travis Willingham in English and Toshiyuki Morikawa in Japanese, anchoring the character in a performance tradition that spans decades of Final Fantasy media. In this way, Revelation is not merely a sequel but a capstone that ties together two decades of reimagined storytelling.