Final Fantasy 7 Revelation Won't Lock Hard Mode Behind Beating The Game

You Won't Have To Beat The Story To Play Final Fantasy 7 Revelation On Hard Square Enix Published Oct 19, 2026, 5:06 AM EDT Josh Coulson is an editor at TheGamer covering breaking news on everything from colorful platformers to the latest Lego sets. Primarily a news writer since 2018, Josh has covered just about every major game from the past decade. Now an editor, their focus has shifted to being the leading affiliate expert at the site, building relationships between TheGamer and global brands including Mattel, Funko, and The Pokemon Company. Sign in to your TheGamer account Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth both have a hard difficulty for players who really want to be challenged by their combat. The annoying thing is you have to beat the game first before you can unlock it. We now have confirmation that annoying trope will not return in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation. Revelation Will Let You Crank Up The Difficulty From The Start The FF7 Trilogy’s director Naoki Hamaguchi has confirmed that you will be able to play Revelation on hard from the beginning of the game, no need for an easier playthrough first. “Hard Mode does indeed exist in Revelation, however, it won’t function in the exact same way as it did in Remake and Rebirth,” Hamaguchi 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.” Having to play through the game entirely to unlock its hardest difficulty was a bit of a chore. Particularly in Rebirth, where you’re facing a 50-hour playthrough, at least, to get to the end of the game’s story. Most fans who’d prefer the game to be challenging would rather have that option right away as opposed to playing through the game for what amounts to two solid days of playtime, only to then return to the beginning and start over to play the way they wanted to play in the first place. Revelation Doesn't Need A Hard Mode Promise To Keep You Interested There is a reason why Revelation will include a hard option from the start, and it’s not just because locking it behind a story that might take another 50 hours to complete isn’t a great idea. It’s because the final installment in the trilogy will have more endgame content than Remake and Rebirth. “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,” Hamaguchi continues. So whereas he and the FF7 team felt players needed more to do after the last two games, hence hard mode being locked behind completing the story, Revelation will apparently leave you with so much to do after the story has been told that the developers didn’t think making you wait for hard mode was necessary. Even though you won’t have to play Revelation twice if you want to experience its hardest difficulty, that doesn’t mean you’re going to get away with only playing it once. Hamaguchi previously revealed that if you want to see everything, you’re going to have to play the game multiple times.