FF7 Revelation's Fast-Forward Cutscenes Are a Handheld Lifesaver
Square Enix gave Final Fantasy 7 Revelation its deepest gameplay showcase yet during today’s PlayStation State of Play, locking in an April release window and post-launch story DLC. Then came the feature that set social media ablaze: a button that speeds up cutscenes. ‘Games are truly dead,’ read a 1.7k-like tweet; another accused Square Enix of catering to viewers who watch YouTube at 2X speed. It’s a predictable overreaction — Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth both shipped with fast-forward, and nobody built a barricade over it.
But the fury is worth decoding through a handheld lens. A JRPG that thrives on long, movie-like sessions isn’t always compatible with commute windows or lunch breaks. The fast-forward toggle is a quiet acknowledgment that portable play is interruptible play. On Steam Deck, Switch 2, or any gaming handheld, being able to skim through story you’ve already absorbed—or simply don’t have time to rewatch—isn’t a betrayal of the writers. It’s what lets a 15-minute session end in a boss at all.
The Commuter’s Cutscene Problem
Forget the semantics of ‘skip’ vs ‘forward’ for a second. Fast-forward is a temporal accessibility feature. A story-heavy RPG cutscene can run twenty minutes or longer; that’s more than a bus ride, an airport delay, or a kid’s nap time. Speeding through those moments puts you back in control, letting you maintain the story’s momentum without losing your play window to a semi-interactive TV episode. On a Steam Deck, suspend-resume already lets you step away at will, but it can’t create a natural stopping point. Fast-forward does. It builds in a checkpoint for your attention span, and before you shout ‘But the art!’ remember this: the same text is still there for players who want to watch 100% of it at 1X. The toggle is optional, which is the entire point.
This Isn’t YouTube Brainrot — It’s Backlog Reality
The ‘larpers who watch YouTube at 2X speed’ comment assumes every gamer has the same uninterrupted evening to sink into a JRPG. Handheld ownership means your gaming time is a negotiation: ten minutes here, thirty minutes there, always aware of battery life and sleep mode. Game Informer’s Eric Van Allen called the concept ‘1.5x speed watching brainrot,’ but framing an accelerated cutscene as brainrot misses why players want it. Brendon Bigley of Into the Aether called it ‘an admission of defeat’ — I’d call it an admission that adults don’t always have four free hours to spare. The genre already lets you mash through dialogue text. This is the same courtesy for cinematic presentations. It’s not disrespecting the writers; it’s respecting your schedule.
The Real Handheld Barrier: Storage, Not Speed
None of this means Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is safe from portable headaches. The physical edition’s ‘one disc’ still carries a mandatory download before you can play, which tells you the install isn’t insignificant. For Switch 2 owners eyeing a cartridge, that requirement means budgeting not only for the game but for a large data chunk on internal storage or a high-capacity microSD card. On Steam Deck and its Windows rivals, the same applies: modern Square Enix RPGs are beefy, and with post-launch story DLC already confirmed, a single 1TB card won’t feel as huge as it used to. Square Enix hasn’t disclosed file sizes or performance targets, and Valve hasn’t announced Steam Deck verification. Treat the fast-forward button as a convenience, not a workaround, and go in with a storage plan.