It’s taken 13 years, but Final Fantasy 14 has finally broken the Sephiroth-shaped emergency glass

Final Fantasy is very much a theme park for the series. It regularly references other games or weaves their themes into the very fabric of Eorzea and beyond. Occasionally, it straight-up implants entire characters or plots.

Despite all that, it’s done surprisingly very little with the series’ golden goose: Final Fantasy 7. Sure, there’s the Gold Saucer. And materia melding. And Cloud’s Advent Children fit. And the Fenrir motorcycle. But as for actual characters or dipping into the game’s world? There’s not all that much to be found.

Until now, that is. Director and producer Naoki Yoshida took to the stage at Berlin’s Final Fantasy 14 Fan Festival this weekend to reveal that upcoming expansion Evercold is dedicating its eight-player raid series to Cloud and the gang.

Yoshida was joined by Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi to reveal the collaboration, titled Beyond the Lifestream. Unfortunately we know criminally little regarding what or who will be showing up, but considering both Cloud and Sephiroth were plastered on the screens during the reveal, I’d be surprised if neither one made an appearance.

Hamaguchi and Yoshida assured players that the two teams are working closely together—long-time Square Enix veteran and FF7 remake co-director Motomu Toriyama is assisting on the raid’s story, supervised by the OG FF7’s writer Kazushige Nojima. And for the belt-crazed fiend that dwells within me, I’m especially stoked to see Tetsuya Nomura on design. Those raid pieces are gonna be rad, I’m sure.

That’s not the only FF7 bit making its way into the game, either. An update to the Gold Saucer on October 28 is going full Saucer-ception by adding in an attraction modeled after the same venue’s appearance in Final Fantasy 7. There’s also, er, a typing game attached to it. Which—as Hamaguchi himself joked during the keynote—isn’t exactly the first connection I make between the two. But I’m a sucker for a typing game, so no complaints here.

Even as someone who isn’t a huge Final Fantasy 7 enjoyer, it’s hard to not succumb a tiny bit to the hype that something this massive brings. Will we see Sephiroth cap off the raid series as the final fight of Evercold’s final tier? God, I hope so.