Too Good to Be True? FF7 Part 3 Leak Divides Fans

A ResetEra post claiming to detail the full reveal plan for Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3 has split the FF7 community right down the middle, with some fans treating it as gospel and others calling it an elaborate wish list. The leak, first covered in detail by WCCFtech, alleges the game will be titled Final Fantasy VII Return, will be revealed during Summer Game Fest's opening showcase on June 5, and will carry an early 2027 launch window.

The poster, going by PimplePoppingPunk, claims to be sharing information on behalf of someone working between Square Enix's marketing team and Summer Game Fest event staff. The alleged details are extensive: three additional permanent party members (one brand new), over three times the narrative cinematics of Rebirth, over double the world size, a return to Midgar, and a new optional combat system called "Active Turn Action" described as a hybrid of Classic Mode and the original game's ATB system. A triple-pack bundle of Remake, Rebirth, and Crisis Core Reunion is also supposedly planned for the holidays.

I can see why people want this to be real. After Rebirth's ending, the hunger for Part 3 is enormous, and the timing lines up neatly with director Naoki Hamaguchi's recent comments suggesting the game isn't far off. But the specifics strain credibility hard. Three times Rebirth's cinematics? Rebirth was already a 60-plus hour game stuffed with cutscenes. And the "Active Turn Action" system reads less like a design document leak and more like a fan who never made peace with the shift to action combat. As WCCFtech pointed out, Rebirth's battle director Teruki Endō has publicly talked about pursuing more combat freedom going forward, not less.

Known insider LaytonWright has already said the leak is "off," though without specifying which parts. ResetEra's forums typically require posters to verify insider claims with staff before sharing, so there's at least a gatekeeper in place. Whether that verification has actually happened here remains unclear.

Separately, Hamaguchi told Ntower in a new interview that Square Enix deliberately skipped story DLC for Rebirth to avoid compromising Part 3's schedule and quality, adding that post-launch DLC for the third game could happen "if there is significant demand." Final Fantasy VII Rebirth launches on Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S on June 3, two days before the alleged reveal window.