The State of Play for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth highlighted what we can expect from the open world of Rebirth, showed further changes in the story compared to the original game, and revealed dozens of additional information about the next phase of Cloud’s journey. There is a lot to discover, but here we have summarized some of the main revelations and previews. Square Enix revealed some of the regions we will visit in Rebirth and, although they roughly correspond to the regions of the original game’s map (Junon, Corel, and so on), they could not be more different. Chadley, the boy with the Remake’s summon challenges, is back and gives Cloud activities that encourage exploration.
By completing the tasks, you can obtain items that help to empower Cloud and the party, so it all seems more promising than just a simple to-do list. Every side activity, including missions and Chadley’s dossiers, exists independently of the main story. Regardless of where you are in the narrative, it is possible to return to Junon and play with chocobos, hunt for treasure, or play the piano with a room full of cats. Yes, that’s also an activity.
Zack Fair has returned, and usually, dead people don’t come back to life – well, ok, it’s quite common in role-playing games and anime, but Zack was canonically dead. Now, not only Zack has returned in some form, but there is another possible antagonist who might have ties to the Cetra or even to Jenova, a being that desires nothing more than to interrupt the infinite cycle of dreams in which he and his people are trapped. To do this, he needs the Black Materia, which in the original game was only desired by Sephiroth, and between this and some comments made by Aerith in the trailer, it seems that this time the Black Materia will have a much more important role. This is just the beginning.
The final trailer contains other little tidbits and previews, from Cloud attacking Tifa to Red XIII learning to dance. The famous date at the original Gold Saucer is back, and Square Enix promises that it will be even more beautiful than before. Not only will we be able to go out with all the party members, which the original did not allow, but we will also have to carefully reflect on our relationships. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth offers more opportunities to bond with allies and, consequently, more opportunities to ruin everything.
Square Enix has explained that the synergy system of Rebirth offers the freedom to experiment with any party combination you want to try. Each combination has unique synergistic abilities, so there is no disadvantage in using, for example, Cait Sith and Aerith instead of Cloud and Tifa. With the increase in party level, a novelty in Rebirth, it is possible to unlock new synergistic abilities through the party Folio, also a novelty. Many minigames.
Fort Condor is back, as well as all the minigames of the Gold Saucer, renewed and built from scratch. The Moogles have games for us, the cats, as we said, want us to sing, and Square Enix has also announced new games and contests, including an expanded soldier march during President Rufus’s parade. The Final Fantasy VII Rebirth demo talks about the Nibelheim incident and places it in the first chapter. In the original, it takes some time before the group withdraws from Midgar and finds refuge in Kalm, before Cloud delves into his memories of the Nibelheim incident.
However, since Square Enix is playing around a lot with the story of FF7 and its numerous versions, perhaps it is not a big surprise. The demo also allows you to play as Cloud during the Nibelheim flashback, although Zack does not seem to be present, which makes sense given Cloud’s faltering memory at that time. Creative director Tetsuya Nomura also added that Square Enix will add a part of the Junon region to the demo before the release of Rebirth. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will be released on February 29, 2024, on PS5, and if you can’t wait that long, Square Enix has released a demo of FF7 Rebirth, covering some of the game’s initial segments.
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