FF7 Revelation's Hand-Holding Options Are a Portable Win

Naoki Hamaguchi is designing for two players at once: the one who wants to be told exactly where to go, and the one who’d rather wander and find out. On a 65-inch TV, that’s a design philosophy debate. On a Steam Deck or a Switch 2 in handheld mode, it’s a legibility problem — and a session-length problem — long before it’s a purity test.

Speaking on Twitter, the Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director confirmed the trilogy closer ships with “more on-screen guidance than in our previous titles” so that players unfamiliar with open-world games “can enjoy the experience without getting lost.” At the same time, Square Enix is “considering options that would allow players to customize how guidance is presented” for those who read signposting as hand-holding. Hamaguchi didn’t specify what those options look like, and the game is slated for PS5, Xbox Series X, PC and Nintendo Switch 2.

Why Wayfinding Design Hits Harder on a 7-Inch Screen

Rebirth’s world was dense — layered map markers, regional goals, chocobo routes, and a HUD doing a lot of work at once. Blow that up to a TV and you can parse it from the couch. Squeeze it onto an 800p Steam Deck panel or a Switch 2 in handheld mode and the same interface becomes a squint test, especially during the 20-minute windows a lot of us actually play in.

That reframes what Hamaguchi is describing. The “guidance” isn’t only for open-world newcomers — it’s the connective tissue that lets a portable run survive being paused mid-objective on a train. When your play session is chopped into commute-sized blocks, remembering why you were standing in a particular field three days ago costs more than it does on a dedicated living-room run. Markers and objective trails are the difference between resuming a save and resuming a wiki tab. Hamaguchi has already conceded that players “stepped away” from Rebirth’s sprawl in exhaustion, which makes the guidance system look less like hand-holding and more like a fix for a problem he’s named himself.

The Real Customization Test: Storage, Playthroughs, and 200GB

SE is framing guidance as a preference toggle, and on handhelds it needs to behave like one — not a difficulty slider in disguise. If the low end of that customization scales back map clutter and HUD density, it doubles as a readability mode, which is exactly what Steam Deck and Switch 2 players will want when they’re not playing docked. That’s the useful version of “considering options.”

The related math is where the trilogy closer gets uncomfortable for portable players. Revelation has been floated at roughly 200GB, and Square Enix has already confirmed multiple playthroughs, automatic character leveling, and the ability to blast through the campaign. On a 256GB Switch 2, 200GB is a full-time residency for your internal storage — a microSD card stops being optional and starts being mandatory. And once you’re on run two or three, aggressive auto-leveling plus trimmed-down guidance is what turns a 100-hour RPG into something you can actually chip away at in 30-minute blocks. If the toggles land, Revelation gets easier to live with on every handheld it touches. If they’re vague or buried, the people who most need them — the ones squeezing Aerith’s swan song between bus stops — get the least.