Game Informer
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC Publisher: Square Enix Developer: Square Enix Release: 2027 Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was brimming with minigames and side content when it launched in 2024. Though players had access to myriad minigames, one rose to the top for many players: Queen's Blood. This strategic collectible-card battler captivated players with its deep mechanics, intriguing storyline, and, of course, the earworm theme song. With the announcement of Final Fantasy VII Revelation closing out the recent Summer Game Fest 2026 Live Showcase , we sat down with the director of the Final Fantasy VII Remake Trilogy, Naoki Hamaguchi, to learn about Queen's Blood's big return in Revelation. With Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Hamaguchi and his team delved more into the side-content aspects of Final Fantasy VII. With Revelation, he has no plans to dial that back. "One of the identifying aspects of FF7 is the abundance of minigames and side content," Hamaguchi says. "If I weren't to stay true to that, I don't think I would be able to call this a faithful remake that stays true to the original. So, yes, we are going to have a lot of minigames and a lot of side content." Though Hamaguchi was concerned fans would feel overwhelmed by the number of minigames, he's been pleasantly surprised by the fan reaction to the breadth of things for players to do outside of the main story. That doesn't mean that he didn't hear actionable feedback for several of the minigames, which he implemented into Revelation. "We're very mindful of the feedback we received for FF7 Rebirth, so we did make a lot of adjustments so that the fans can play the minigame and our side content sections a lot more smoothly," he says. "There will be difficulty settings implemented into the minigames now, and if players feel that it's not their cup of tea, they have the option to skip the minigame section, too. And also, one more thing is that most of the rewards are not going to be tied to combat items, either. There are still going to be a lot of minigames and side contents, but we also want to be more mindful of the players' accessibility, too." Queen's Blood, as it appears in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Though Hamaguchi was initially apprehensive about the amount of minigames in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, he was confident in each and every one of them. "We put a lot of resources into [them], and not just the resources, but we're all very passionate about the minigames, too," Hamaguchi says. "We were pretty confident that these minigames were going to be really fun and good, but that being said, Queen's Blood having that much popularity and a warm reception for fans was a bit of a surprise for us." And with Queen's Blood, Hamaguchi's team at Square Enix isn't resting on its laurels. Yes, the game is back and building upon the strong hooks of the original iteration of the minigame, but it is not without changes. "It was a very popular content back in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and yes, it will have its own story again," he says. "One of the key changes, though, is that in Rebirth, Cloud was the main protagonist of the Queen's Blood story. In the Queen's Blood content and story in FF7 Revelation, the protagonist is actually Nanaki, so it's not going to be Cloud this time." While having Nanaki, previously known as Red XIII, serve as the primary driver of Revelation's Queen's Blood story may feel out of nowhere for some, it was hinted at within Rebirth. "This is based off the fact that there's this infamous scene of Red XIII dancing on a boat and, then, in FF7 Rebirth, playing Queen's Blood," Hamaguchi says. "So we're gonna give Nanaki that protagonist role this time around. And looking at the gameplay too, there will be some arrangements to the rules, but right now, we're working hard within the development team, balancing and scaling the rules. But overall, we're pretty confident right now that it's going to be even better than the previous iteration of Queen's Blood." If Square Enix is able to, in fact, deliver an even better version of Queen's Blood with a fun-to-follow storyline starring Nanaki within Final Fantasy VII Revelation, that will likely be enough to sell a section of the player base. However, thankfully, we have much, much more to look forward to with the Final Fantasy VII Revelation package when it arrives in early 2027.
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