Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director addresses Chadley and MAI complaints | indy100

A screenshot of Chadley from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Square Enix

Chadley and MAI are two characters in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series that have seriously divided opinion among fans and director Naoki Hamaguchi has addressed complaints about them ahead of the duo's return in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is the third and final entry in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy, finishing off the retold story from the 1997 classic Final Fantasy 7.

Chadley is the main guide for side content, combat simulations and Materia development in Remake and Rebirth with MAI introduced in Rebirth as the party's personal Monster Assessment Instrument (MAI).

In Rebirth especially, a number of players found Chadley and MAI to be annoying because of frequent calls interrupting gameplay, lots of dialogue and commentary over combat quests.

And speaking to Indy100, Hamaguchi addressed some of the complaints and while they'll be returning in Revelation, their roles are different this time around.

"This time, the main character's role of guiding you through this open world has switched from Chadley to MAI in this game," he said via a translator.

"There were some people with Rebirth who thought Chadley had a lot to say, he's a little bit irritating and there were a few comments from some saying MAI over-explains somewhat.

An official screenshot from Final Fantasy VII Revelation MAI replaces Chadley as the main guide in the open world sections in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation / Square Enix

"For both Rebirth and Revelation, this holds true, but there are people out there who perhaps aren't necessarily used to playing open world games, perhaps they focus more on JRPGs, and they come into an open world game and don't know what to do first and give up.

"We wanted to be mindful that guidance was available for players who might need it.

"I have seen comments after that information came out where people were saying 'that's matching too much to those people who want it to be easy' but that has always been the underlying concept behind Rebirth and Revelation.

"I'm not planning on moving away from that."

And Hamaguchi has a plea to those who will play Revelation and find Chadley and MAI annoying.

"I do completely understand for people who are used to playing a lot of games, particularly influencers and people from the media, they may find the guidance from Chadley and MAI a little overbearing so in the final game there will be options to customise how much guidance is provided, you can have it at the level that best suits you," he added.

"I would just ask, please don't be too mean to MAI! And I'm not saying everyone out there hates Chadley, there are some vocal people who do, but there are plenty of people out there who love him and I've heard some people say 'when will Chadley be playable'!

"I think it's the right thing for entertainment to have lots of different playstyles available for people to be able to engage and have their own opinions about it.

"If we can then support that and have different options in the game to find what works best for you, I think that's really the best way to go."

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation releases on 8 April 2027 on PS5, XBOX Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC.

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