Despite what some thimble-brained fools with little to no reading comprehension might try and tell you, the is a full-blooded, full-length Final Fantasy game. No, it doesn’t retell the epic events of the 1997 classic from beginning to end… but it fleshes out the first part of the original game and turns into an experience all of its own.

The rest of Final Fantasy VII’s story will follow in subsequent, full-length games, and I’ve no doubt each one of those will have their own twists, turns, and story beats that are entirely new or completely overhauled. You’d think that mere weeks away from release we wouldn’t really need to go over that anymore, but you’d be how many people still think Square Enix has hacked into tiny segments in order to make more money.

If you happen to be one of those people that remains unconvinced that is the real deal, the game’s co-director Naoki Hamaguchi and producer Yoshinori Kitase recently touched on some of the new content both towards and beyond the end credits of the upcoming game.

In an official Square Enix interview, the duo reflected on the appearance of beloved character Red XIII in the climatic battle of . While the original game introduced this noble creature as a playable character from the moment you met him, it was previously confirmed that we won’t get to play as him in this part of the remake.

Despite this, Red XIII will be able to fight alongside Cloud and the rest of your party. Hamaguchi even teased a brand-new section of the remake’s Shinra HQ section that’s entirely devoted to Red XIII and his story.

“I won’t reveal exactly what that entails, because I want people to enjoy it when they actually play the game, but I will say that has added a new upper floor to the Shinra Building to present a climax that was not in the original,” Hamaguchi explained.

“The key to navigating this floor lies in using Red XIII’s unique physical abilities to overcome environmental obstacles. Letting the player experience his heroics in this way is something that I’m confident will please the fans.”

will “only” take place in the city Midgar, and will (presumably) come to an end once the gang escape Shinra and prepare to head out into the wider world. Despite only making up a small part of the original game, Square has expanded the city with new areas, side quests, and stories that make the game “comparable in size to other mainline Final Fantasy games”. Given how beefy most Final Fantasy games actually are, we can safely assume that the upcoming remake ain’t small.

In even more good news, Hamaguchi also teased that there be endgame content for players to get stuck into while they wait for the sequel. While the co-director didn’t want to spoil anything, he did tease that those expecting endgame content “won’t be disappointed.”

I for one can’t wait to see what he’s on about. I recently went hands-on with and absolutely adored the way it manages to stay true to the original game while expanding the story and world in new and surprising ways. I expect this is going to be a big hit when it launches on April 10th.