The memes were right. Naoki Hamaguchi, director of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, has confirmed that Fortnite was a partial inspiration for the Highwind skydiving mechanic in the upcoming third entry of the FF7 remake trilogy. When asked directly about the comparison, Hamaguchi's response was straightforward: "We did get a bit of inspiration from Fortnite, [we] won't lie about that."
For anyone who has been following Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and the broader remake series, this lands as both hilarious and entirely unsurprising.
How a PS1 classic became a battle royale moment
Here's the thing about the Highwind: in the original PS1 Final Fantasy 7, the iconic airship was your fast travel solution. You flew over the world map, landed wherever you wanted, and your party just materialized on the ground. Simple, functional, completely abstract. Nobody questioned it in 1997.
Fast forward to a modern, grounded remake trilogy and that solution no longer holds up. You cannot have Cloud Strife and crew simply blink into existence on a hillside. So the development team had to figure out a realistic way to get the party from an airship cruising at altitude down to the terrain below.
Their answer: jump off the side and skydive down.
When Revelation's first proper showing arrived earlier this year, the Highwind mechanic was front and center. Players fly the airship across the world, pick a destination, and then launch themselves off the deck into a freefall toward the map below. The moment it appeared on screen, the internet collectively asked the same question Cloud would never actually say: "where we droppin'?"
The meme that turned out to be accurate reporting
The Fortnite comparison was instant and relentless. Memes flooded social media within hours of the reveal, all riffing on the same joke. What makes Hamaguchi's admission so satisfying is that the community essentially reverse-engineered the design decision through sheer meme energy before anyone on the development side confirmed it.
The irony here is worth sitting with for a moment. Fortnite has crossed over with what feels like every major gaming franchise in existence, yet Final Fantasy 7 remains one of the few holdouts that has never appeared in Epic's battle royale. The inspiration flowed in the opposite direction. Square Enix looked at the battle royale genre's signature opening sequence and adapted it for a JRPG airship.
There's also Apex Legends in this conversation, which actually ran a Final Fantasy 7 crossover and features a squad drop mechanic that mirrors what Revelation is doing. The now-defunct Final Fantasy 7: The First Soldier battle royale also had players dropping into a map. The genre connection runs deeper than just Fortnite, but Fortnite is the one Hamaguchi pointed to.
What this actually means for how Revelation plays
Beyond the meme validation, the Highwind is shaping up to be the central traversal mechanic for the entire game. The airship was a major part of the original FF7's late-game, giving players the freedom to reach previously locked areas and hunt down optional content. In Revelation, it looks set to serve the same purpose but with considerably more spectacle.
The skydive approach solves a genuine design problem while adding a layer of moment-to-moment excitement to something as routine as fast travel. Choosing your landing zone from the air, watching the terrain rush up toward you, it transforms a menu selection into an actual gameplay beat. Whether that stays fresh across dozens of trips is something players will find out when the game releases.
For those just getting into the remake series before Revelation arrives, the FF7 Rebirth beginner's guide covers everything you need to catch up on the story and systems before the trilogy concludes. And if you want to go deeper on party builds and combat before then, the FF7 Rebirth weapon abilities and character build guide is worth your time before Revelation puts a new set of mechanics in front of you.
