Perhaps no other remake was as anticipated or dreaded asFinal Fantasy VII Remake. A remake of the beloved 1997 game could have easily been a disaster given how different the gaming landscape is today. Thankfully, Square Enix was able to deliver back in 2020, blending modern design, gameplay mechanics and storytelling capabilities with the familiar story, characters and locations. It wasn’t perfect with noticeable presentation flaws, but what Square Enix managed to achieve set the stage for an exciting trilogy of games. Three years later, the next entry in that trilogy is around the corner.Final Fantasy VII Rebirthlaunches at the end of this month and we had the opprotunity to check out the first few hours of the game to see what Cloud, Tifa, Barrett and the rest of the crew have in store for players.
An open world for Chocobos to run free
If there’s one word that best summarizes the leap fromRemaketoRebirth, it would be “open.” From the world’s design to party composition to how you interact with characters and more,Final Fantasy VII Rebirthreplaces the linearity ofRemakewith more open concepts. How this plays out across the whole game remains a mystery, but our playtime provided us with a good taste of what players can expect now that they’ve left Midgar behind.
That’s not to say linearity is completely gone. The playthrough took place over the first two chapters. The first, which was a flashback to Cloud and Sephiroth’s trip to Nibelheim five years beforeRemake, was a typical first chapter. The flashback to Nibelheim was primarily concerned with setting up the story and introducing combat and of course ended with the iconic burning of the town and confrontation between Cloud and Sephiroth. Seeing such an iconic moment remade on modern hardware is glorious to behold.
Even within more linear and setpiece moments, however, are still moments of openness. When exploring Nibelheim, players can play within Cloud’s memories and choose what he remembers. Whether you interact with his mother, Tifa’s belongings or even meet Tifa’s fighting teacher is up to you. So, even in those focused moments,Rebirthcomes off as more open thanRemake.
The game then picks up in Calm, allowing players to try out a new minigame (Queen’s Blood) and explore the city before the arrival of Shinra forces Cloud and company out of the city and into the open world. Rather than each chapter and location being segmented like inRemake, locations and chapters flow into each other directly inRebirth. While more seamless, it’ll be interesting to see how this might impact the story’s pacing as players engage with the open world, and it is quite an open world.
If you’ve played an open-world game then you’ll know what to expect. The overworld is teeming with various activities to engage with, including side quests, hunts, towers, Chocobo racing and more to discover. There are treasures to find, NPCs to help and enemies to defeat. There’s nothing revolutionary here, especially if you playedFinal Fantasy XV, but it’s a decent collection of activities to keep you busy should you want to stray from the main story.
Building out your party
It’s also once you get to the overworld that the gameplay opens up from the refresher course served in Nibelheim.Final Fantasy VII Remake’sblend of real-time and turn-based combat returns with players juggling between hitting enemies, blocking and dodging in real-time and then going turn-based to spend ATB bars to unleash skills and magic. Work up enough hits and you’ll be able to stagger the enemy, rendering them vulnerable to major damage. These mechanics worked brilliantly back in Remake by getting players to think about how they best want to build up their ATB bars and then spend them. It was fast, strategic and fun.Rebirthkeeps that all in-check.
WhereRebirthdiffers fromRemakeis in how much more open the combat system is in the sequel. WhereasRemake’schapters ultimately decided who would be a part of Cloud’s party at any given time,Rebirthgives you the ability to mix and match members and then swap them out outside of combat. In Rebirth, you’ll set up three different configurations of party members and can then swap between these configurations. you may build out a team of heavy hitters featuring Tifa and Red XIII, a ranged focused group with Aerith and Barrett, or a girl-power group with Tifa and Aerith. There are some limitations to parties, including the fact that you can’t swap characters out at will nor can you replace Cloud. In that respect, the party mechanics aren’t as open as you’d find inFinal Fantasy XorXII, yet it’s still more open to experimentation thanRemake.
Speaking of party members, Tifa, Barrett and Aerith all return with their familiar fighting styles. Tifa hits hard and fast up close; Barrett is all about dishing damage from afar, while Aerith fires out devastating ranged and close-quarters magic attacks. We got to try out Red XIII, a versatile and quick party member who players get right at the start of the game. His quickness made him fun to take control of and his unique skills delivered powerful area-of-effect attacks.Final Fantasy VII Rebirthalso integratesEpisode InterMission’s‘Synergy’ attacks that allow party members to team up to deliver flashy and devastating damage. All told, between the new party members (Red XIII, Yuffie and Cait Sith) and the Synergy attacks, there’s plenty of new ways to approach party composition and combat.
Our time playingFinal Fantasy VII Rebirthculminated in a boss fight against the Midgar Zolom known as Midgardsormr. For the fight, we selected Tifa and Aerith so that Tifa and Cloud combined could keep Midgardsormr’s attention up close while Aerith pelted him with magic from a safe distance. Weak to ice, both Tifa and Aerith were equipped with Blizzard Materia while Aerith also held Shiva’s summon Materia. After a lengthy battle filled with magic, summons and takedowns, Midgardsormr was defeated.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirthplays like the logical next step in theFinal Fantasy VII Remaketrilogy. Much like how the originalFinal Fantasy VIIopened up a world of possibilities after leaving Midgar,Rebirthcaptures that same feeling overRemake. Gone are the closed and linear streets of Midgar. Now we have an overworld teeming with activities, the ability to customize our party with new and familiar faces, and there even some dialogue options that alter your relationships with each party member.Final Fantasy VII Rebirthis a breath of fresh air after spending so much time in the streets, slums and sewers of Midgar. Hopefully, it can maintain that freshness across its entire playtime.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirthlaunches February 29 on PS5.
Review: Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
Final Fantasy VII Intergrade and its presentation and performance upgrades are worthy of another playthrough.
