Naoki Hamaguchi explains why Final Fantasy 7 Revelation caps jobs at four FITS per character

Naoki Hamaguchi, director of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, says each character only has four FITS because making games now is “just insanely difficult” unless it is built like an ongoing title. In his words, even with the classic Final Fantasy job-system flexibility, you cannot realistically scale to “20 or 30 jobs” for a standalone release when the production burden keeps climbing.

In Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, the ragtag party does not get a giant menu of classes. Instead, each character can equip four different classes called FITS (Function Integrated Tactical Suitwear), and those FITS come with both gameplay changes and distinct outfits. Hamaguchi argues that this system still gives players “quite a lot of breadth of strategy,” because each of the four FITS has “quite a defined role,” but he also openly admits the work added up fast: even with only four FITS per character, “it was quite a lot of work.”

Why does that matter beyond the JRPG nerd universe? Because Hamaguchi is describing a modern production reality that applies to almost every interactive entertainment team. The source points to how early Final Fantasy job systems were built for a world where you could stuff in a lot more content. GamesRadar+ highlights Final Fantasy 5, where party members could be mixed and matched with over 20 jobs, as an example of what used to be feasible. In a more graphically intensive era, however, every additional job is not just a name swap. It can mean bespoke animations, reworked combat behaviors, and additional presentation work.

The article makes that explicit: every playable character in Revelation's cast has their own bespoke animations. Hamaguchi compares modern expectations to the older days when pixels on screen could “awkwardly shimmy forward to attack,” which was much less demanding than building full sets of character-specific motion and combat presentation. Put plainly, expanding a job list is no longer just expanding design spreadsheets. It expands art pipelines, animation scope, and QA surface area, all at once.

So what does Hamaguchi say is the alternative? He suggests you can go bigger when you are an ongoing title that adds content “bit by bit,” and he uses Final Fantasy 14 as the example. That is not a throwaway line. It is a blueprint for how teams can survive scope creep in environments where the product is continually updated. In that model, systems can be extended progressively, rather than locked into a single release window where every permutation must be shipped at once.

Meanwhile, Hamaguchi frames FITS as a deliberate way to manage strategy without pretending the impossible. The system has four outfits for each character, each tied to a defined role, and the result is strategy breadth even though the number of available roles is capped. In other words, Revelation tries to buy depth through structure, not through sheer quantity. It is also worth noting what the source has already shown: Cloud in a Warrior fit and Tifa in a Black Mage fit. Even with limited visible examples, the design logic is clear. Each FIT should meaningfully change how combat plays, so four options feel like choices, not missing options.

There is also a bigger framing for fans and for business leaders alike: the director is “serious about concluding the series” at the end of the JRPG, and any DLC will focus on “untold stories.” If you are responsible for product planning, that suggests a strategy of containing the core game experience to a finish line, while reserving expansion for side narratives rather than turning the base release into an endless platform for new mechanics. That is consistent with the engineering reality Hamaguchi describes. When the ceiling on jobs is driven by difficulty, your release plan has to protect the schedule and still deliver a complete combat system.

The second-order implication for executives and boards is straightforward: constraints are becoming design choices, not just budget limits. When a director says early job systems let you “put a lot in there,” and then immediately contrasts that with “just insanely difficult” scope today, it is a signal about where teams are likely to spend effort. Expect more systems that deliver meaningful variety with bounded permutations, and expect more reliance on ongoing titles for large-scale content expansion.

For leaders working on games or other high-asset products, Hamaguchi's comments land like a warning and a roadmap. If you try to replicate the old approach where you could scale to 20 or 30 roles in one go, you risk building a content combinatorics problem you cannot ship. Instead, teams may need to formalize caps, define roles tightly, and structure updates through DLC or ongoing development. In 2026, the question is no longer whether you can imagine more variety. It is whether you can afford to animate, balance, and validate it all before launch.