Square Enix has confirmed that the upcoming Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will allow players to choose hard difficulty at the beginning of the game, eliminating the need to complete the main story twice to access higher challenge settings. Director Naoki Hamaguchi explained in an interview with Hardcore Gamer that the traditional progression system used in the first two entries of the remake trilogy has been redesigned to better fit Revelation's structure. "Hard mode won't function in the exact same way," Hamaguchi stated, "and has been reimagined to align with the new game design." This change grants immediate access to selectable difficulty levels, including hard, without requiring players to finish the narrative first. The shift comes as Revelation introduces expanded endgame content that becomes available after completing the primary storyline, a feature absent in its predecessors despite their own side activities. Hamaguchi emphasized that this redesign reflects the game's broader scope, where the main narrative represents only the starting point of a larger experience filled with additional challenges and content.