Final Fantasy 7 Revelation: 100 Hours per Playthrough and a Director Who Finished It 46 Times

The finale of the trilogy reimagining Final Fantasy VII is shaping up to be a giant. According to an interview published by GameSpot, game director Naoki Hamaguchi estimates that completing everything Final Fantasy 7 Revelation has to offer —campaign, side activities and endgame content— can take up to 100 hours. And he isn't speaking from hearsay: at the time of the interview, he had already finished the game 46 times as part of his directing duties.

The number matters for two reasons. The first is practical: if you're going to invest in this game, it's worth knowing it isn't a weekend story but a commitment of weeks or months. The second has to do with what it reveals about development: a team that needs to review every asset and every system through full playthroughs is dealing with a scale few productions reach, and that shapes how a game of this size is tested, polished and finished.

What you need to know

• Hamaguchi estimates that a full playthrough, with all side and endgame content, can exceed 100 hours.
• GameSpot describes Revelation as the biggest entry in the remake trilogy, with a considerable gap over the previous ones.
• The director had completed 46 playthroughs when he was interviewed, all as part of the game's review process.
• Not all of those playthroughs are the same: sometimes he skips combat to focus on the main story, and on each run he looks at different elements.
• For now there are no details on what exactly makes up that endgame content or how long the main story takes on its own.

From Remake to Revelation: the scale explodes

The trilogy kicked off with Remake, centered on Midgar, and continued with Rebirth, which opened up the world and multiplied the optional activities. Revelation is the conclusion, and everything suggests Square Enix wants that ending to feel enormous. Having the director himself talk about 100 hours to see everything confirms the ambition isn't shrinking: there's a campaign, there are side quests and there's an endgame designed for those who stick around after the credits.

One caveat: those 100 hours correspond to a complete playthrough, the one that covers everything. Anyone going straight for the main story will have a shorter experience, although the source doesn't give a figure for that route. What is clear is that the content ceiling is high and the design has layers: the one everybody sees and the one only those who squeeze the game dry get to see.

46 playthroughs: this is how you test a giant game

The most striking thing about the interview isn't the hour count but how the director's work is split up. Hamaguchi explains that, in a standard playthrough from start to finish, reviewing every element and every asset easily takes more than a hundred hours, something he can't afford on every run. The solution is to divide: on some playthroughs he skips combat and focuses on the main plot; on others, he puts different aspects under the microscope. That's how 46 complete runs add up, each with a different review goal.

This says a lot about the final phase of a development like this. A game with so many hours can't be tested superficially: every system, every optional quest and every asset has to pass through human eyes several times. That the director is one of those sets of eyes, and not just the QA team, speaks to a very hands-on way of working with a lot of personal involvement.

Our take

For the competitive community, a 100-hour game is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it's the perfect break between ranked seasons: a long story, deep systems and more than enough content to unplug from the grind. On the other, it's a time sink that competes directly with practice hours. Our advice: don't try to see everything on your first run; save the endgame for when the competitive calendar allows it.

For content creators, however, the news is almost a blessing. That much side and endgame content is material for weeks of streams, guides, challenges and comparisons. And Hamaguchi's method of playthroughs focused on a single aspect is, in fact, an excellent idea for series: one story-only run, another squeezing the combat, another hunting secrets. Content longevity is guaranteed if the game delivers.

That said, it's time to be critical. A game lasting 100 hours doesn't make it better: it makes it longer. The industry has spent years using length as a selling point, and filler is a real temptation when you're chasing a definitive ending. What we want to know is how many of those hours are meaningful content and how many are checklists. Many players already had that debate with Rebirth, and Revelation will have to prove its size is justified.

What do you think?

A 100-hour trilogy finale and a director who has already finished it 46 times: there are reasons for excitement and for caution. Are you up for a Final Fantasy this long, or would you prefer a more compact, direct conclusion? Tell us in the team chat or on our Discord.