Naoki Hamaguchi says he argued as hard as his role allowed for a physical copy of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, the last part of Square Enix's remake trilogy. In a Radio Times interview, he said he still prefers a box for games he cares about, and that he understands fans who post "no disc, no purchase."
"There's a lot of pressure for disc-less editions, digital editions, and I used my position to put forth an argument for the physical version as much as possible," he said. Talks inside Square Enix and with platform holders ended in a one-disc plan. The disc holds the opening, which he called a key disc, then the game asks players to download the rest. He has put the full install at about 200 GB. A complete set of discs, he has said, would have forced cuts to fidelity, and the team refused that trade.
Product line-ups and SKUs sit with publishing, not the director. "I hope you understand that I completely see where you're coming from, and that I did my best," he said. He also pictured a near future in which a physical release is a code in a box.
The fights the disc has to carry
The size comes from combat the team did not want to shrink. Hamaguchi has called Rebirth's hybrid battles close to a finished form, and said copying them into Revelation would feel stale. With battle director Teruki Endo, he added FITS, a job layer on the action and ATB mix from Remake and Rebirth. Roles are no longer fixed. Cloud does not have to stay in close range with the Buster Sword, Barret does not have to tank from afar, and Aerith does not have to sit on support. Players pick the job and the party.
The roster grows to seven with Cid and Vincent. Vincent can shift into the Galian Beast mid-fight and drop back without leaving combat. Weapon encounters stay in the battle system rather than becoming minigames, and Ruby Weapon pulls in the world map. That is the package the key disc starts and the download finishes.