Will I Play Final Fantasy VII: Revelation?
**The following is a transcript for a video uploaded on the 8th of June, 2026. You can watch the video here ~ https://youtu.be/SmaN6XCvpXk
G’day websurfers, I’m Kabbaway. As you’re probably aware, Part 3 of Re- project was recently revealed, so I wanted to put out this quick video addressing it.
To start with some positives, I appreciate that the lighting and vibrancy seems to have been improved. It makes the overworld feel more alive and better contrast with the dull grittiness of Midgar. I also liked the glimpses of Wutai and Mideel, as well as the new combat for Cid and Vincent. And of course, the graphics and music are great as always. Apart from that, I wasn’t particularly impressed.
As is a common criticism of trailers, I hated how many major plot points were frontloaded in the narration and footage. Are they expecting players to be familiar with OG’s plot or not? I thought the Weapon designs looked a bit goofy, but they’re growing on me a little. The skydiving bits just reminded me of Skyward Sword and Tears of the Kingdom for some reason… I think it’s because I found it funny that the trailers were acting like this is such an innovative feature no game has ever implemented before. I especially hated that one line absolutely glazing Re- project’s writing, when it sanitised and/or caricaturised every single aspect of FFVII’s story to hell and back. Once again, the telling instead of showing is doing a lot of heavylifting here. And yeah, I couldn’t care less about Sephiroth seemingly possessing the White Materia or any of the other theory bait shots, because why would be invested in this grand cosmic battle when its emotional core of is so under-developed even WITH context from OG?
I unwittingly watched the live announcement via Raven Wing Play’s stream, and the comment I left on the VOD sums up my current feelings quite well:
“[…] I wish I was excited for this. When that trailer with Aerith singing “No Promises to Keep” came out in December 2023, I recorded my reaction to it AND spent the rest of the afternoon editing it while nursing a bad migraine and mental fatigue from therapy earlier that day. All because of how much I loved FFVII and how excited I was for Rebirth. Now, the only thing I’m looking forward to is Re- project finally being over with and never touching it again. On the plus side, it’s motivating me to finish off my playthrough/retroactive series so I can move on to games and video essays that make me much happier”.
As you can probably tell, I’ve never been one to blindly praise Re- project. I called out Remake on a lot of things in my playthrough, but I was willing to forgive most of it because it was still early days and there was time to iron out the wrinkles, but then Rebirth came along and doubled down on everything I criticised Remake for and so much more. While it had some decent-to-good moments, I ultimately found Rebirth underwhelming, frustrating and most of all disappointing. You can check out my ongoing series for more details why, or just watch Raven‘s video to get the general gist. I’ve put in WAY too much time and energy into a game I overall disliked - 65 hours of gameplay and hundreds of hours of editing, research and script writing over the last two years… and I’m not even halfway done yet. Considering all this, you’re probably not surprised to hear that I’ve been pretty ambivalent about the idea of playing Part 3. Further compounding my hesitation is the fact that I have issues with Square Enix beyond their questionable execution of the Re- project trilogy.
Long time followers may recall that I was an avid player of FFVII The First Soldier. It wasn’t a perfect game by any means, but it was basically my Tetris during a traumatic period of my life and I made a lot of friends through it. The gameplay loop was oddly fun and comforting, and there was so much potential for the groundwork to be built up into something amazing. Unfortunately, Square Enix set this game up to fail. They outsourced development to a studio with no experience in Battle Royales or FPSs, restricted the game to mobile while making it borderline impossible to mirror onto PC or consoles, aggressively pushed gacha and microtransactions and refused to listen to feedback from players and ambassadors alike the whole time. From everything I’ve heard, the people at A Team did everything they could to improve the game but their hands were tied by higher-ups at Square Enix.
So for SE to phrase the game’s End of Service notice in that self-pitying tone, effectively blaming players for their own incompetence and predatory practices, was both laughable and insulting. Hell, they expected ambassadors to put out content for the Halloween update, and didn’t even think to mention they were gonna announce EoS the exact same day. The sense of betrayal and resentment within the FS community was palpable, and it’s a feeling that still leaves a sour taste in my mouth to this day. Furthermore, in recent years Square Enix has been proudly jumping on tech bro bandwagons, from cryptocurrency to NFTs to generative AI. At the same time they’ve also been selling IPs and laying off employees, most likely to deepen their investment in these technologies and appease their shareholder.
The experience of never being able to play a comfort game ever again, and watching that company responsible for that proceed to shill out for a plagiaristic, environmentally destructive and exploitative industry taught me a hard lesson: multimillion dollar companies like Square Enix don’t respect their employees or customers; they don’t even care about the innate value of their products as outlets for human creativity and recreation. Ironically, just like Shinra, the higher-ups at Square Enix only give a fuck about their own wealth and clout, and are perfectly content cannibalising the rest of the world to maintain their status. Yet despite all that baggage, I still kept myself open to the possibility of playing Part 3 for the sake of my love for FFVII. But now, after my indifference to its announcement, I think the answer was pretty much inevitable.
No, I will NOT be playing Revelation when it comes out. I love FFVII, I probably always will, but I simply cannot justify playing a game I’m almost certainly not going to enjoy, let alone paying a ridiculous amount of money for it and financially rewarding a company that stands against everything I believe in. I‘m already sick and tired of Re- project’s writing. The tedious and mindnumbing filler, the overly expository dialogue, the clunky gameplay and boring open world, the contrived and underdeveloped melodrama, and the tonedeaf levity and fanservice that undercuts narrative immersion, nuance and sincerity as well as audience critical thinking and emotional maturity.
Even if Revelation somehow fixes all these issues while reconciling all the loose ends and contradictions in a logical way, it can‘t stand on its own merits; it will always be just one part of an overarching story. A good or even amazing conclusion wouldn’t absolve the rest of the trilogy of its soullessness. I don’t think it‘s worth forking out hundreds of dollars and trudging through hundreds of hours of mediocre slop just to cherry-pick a few good things out of it. I don’t owe Square Enix brand loyalty, especially when it’s proven time and time again that it doesn’t deserve it.
I‘m really sorry this news may be disappointing; I’m fully aware that FFVII is my most popular content and that many of you are specifically here for that. I need to emphasise that I make videos for fun and self-expression; I‘m just an autistic person sharing their special interests with no monetary benefit. I don’t want to pump out content out of a sense of obligation; that’s not what I want this channel to become, and I don’t think yous would enjoy that either.
Just to be clear, I’ll still be continuing my Rebirth series I‘m just not gonna resign myself to the sunken cost fallacy any more than I already have. It’s a hell of a lot of work, but I have so much more to vent about, and making this series and seeing all your supportive comments has been so cathartic. Seriously, I can’t thank you all enough for helping me make the most out of my subpar experience with Rebirth. If I get curious, I‘ll probably watch someone else play Revelation. And maybe, just MAYBE, I’ll release the odd video or blog post if I find anything worth talking about. Either way I’ll keep engaging with this franchise on my own terms, so all I ask is that people please not try to pressure me into making new content for it.
Life’s too short to waste on doing things that don’t make us happy, and playing Revelation for the sake of viewership or completionism won’t make me happy. There’s plenty of other games I wanna play, and I can’t wait to move forward and experience them with you all. In the meantime take care, have a great day and I’ll catch yous all later. Bye!