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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is getting Previews this week | Digital Trends Preview is up earlier

Draugoth

Gold Member
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is getting Previews this week, beware of possible spoilers below

I rode a Chocobo and befriended a dolphin in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth


After a hands-on demo of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, I finally have some answers. Well, sort of. My preview highlighted how both combat and exploration have evolved while showing me new playable characters and locations like Junon for the first time. Even after one hour of playtime, though, its approach to story remains a bewildering mystery … and that's exactly what I was hoping for.

Team synergy


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The first piece of my demo takes place in a flashback. A young Cloud, Tifa, and Sephiroth find themselves in Mt. Nibel, climbing through a dark cave. While there's a little dialogue, this chunk mostly served as a reintroduction to Final Fantasy VII Remake's excellent combat system. The fundamentals remain the same, as players can attack in real-time and slow the action to a near standstill to navigate menus. What's new, though, is a greater emphasis on team attacks.
Expanding on Episode Intermission's combos, Rebirth introduces Synergy Skills, a new combat layer that emphasizes party team-ups. When holding down the block button, I can press a face button to perform a duo attack with my party members. Even more devastating Synergy moves act as two-character limit breaks that can really turn the tide of battle. A climactic boss against a hulking monster would end with Cloud and Sephiroth pulling off a dazzling Synergy attack with more sword slashes than I can count.
And yes, that means Sephiroth is a playable character this time.

Staying unpredictable


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While the first demo focused on combat, the second was entirely focused on exploration. Here, the team finds themselves in a small open-world area outside of Junon. Before walking into the fishing town, I have some time to wander around on a Chocobo and do a few open-world-style activities. Scattered combat trials would have me trying to beat a pack of enemies within a time limit while completing a checklist of tasks in battle. I could follow Chocobo chicks to discover fast travel markers and get plumes that could be traded in to customize my bird's armor. I could even find a wealth of materials, which I could use to craft items and in turn complete micro-objectives for a bit of experience.
It's not a full open-world pivot. The area I explored was probably comparable to some of Final Fantasy XVI's wide fields, but it already feels like there's significantly more to do and see in those spaces. That should come as great news to those who took issue with Remake's corridor-like level design. Just as the original Final Fantasy VII opens up once players leave Midgar, so too does Rebirth. That's great news considering that iconic areas like the Golden Saucer are making a return here.
While all of those changes are exciting, I wouldn't call them surprising. Rebirth looks and plays like its predecessor with some new touches that align with a lot of its modern peers. What I was hungrier to see is just how much the sequel would be willing to get weird, adapting some of the oddest parts of the eclectic original. And the end of my demo would assure me that Square Enix isn't holding back
Upon entering a small town south of Junon, a local would immediately beg for my team's help. She'd lead us to a lake where we'd find Yuffie in a boat, being hunted by Bottomswell. It's a boss fight from the original game but naturally recontextualized to act as a new character introduction. All hope seems lost for Yuffie until Rebirth finally gives me the kind of bizarre moment I craved: A dolphin pops out of the water to lend a helping fin. It's a hilariously left-field moment that confidently preserves a piece of the original game.
My battle with Bottomswell is as thrilling as any fight in Remake, with my party peppering it with spells and long-range attacks while dodging watery whirlpools. When I land the last strike, I transition into a ridiculously enjoyable cutscene where my dolphin pal helps Cloud finish the massive water snake off. It all ends with a picaresque parting shot as Cloud poses with the dolphin, rainbow overhead.
It's that moment that sells me on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth more than anything else I played. Sure, it's always nice to revisit Remake's ingenious combat system, and the extra duo system brings even more personality and party interaction to it. The semi-open-world pivot is a nice touch too that I'm sure will give me a lot of good reasons to marvel at Square Enix's meticulous world design. But what I love about Remake is its entirely unpredictable nature. The way it takes ideas from the original, brings them to new extremes, or subverts them, is what makes that experience so special. Rebirth's retooled dolphin sequence has me confident that it has the same wild energy in abundance.
At Final Fantasy VII Remake's conclusion, a title card teased its sequel by calling it an "unknown journey." I can already see why after a bit of playtime. I still feel like I haven't even seen 1% of what Rebirth will have to offer — even I was shocked watching its recent State of Play trailer despite having actually played it by then. I'm ready to grab that dolphin fin and let it take me as far out into the ocean as it can go.
 
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Astral Dog

Member
Certainly looks more and more like ff16 is just a spinoff of the series.
well we knew what FFVII Remake project was going to be about, a super ambitious 3 part saga ,probably the biggest Square Enix project to date (outside maybe Kingdom Hearts 4),it was planned this way to meet the expectations of the fans and to carry the company for 10+ years

FFXVI,is also an important project it shouldn't be called a mere 'spin off' even if Nomura's team is not making it, Square Enix simply decided to have both big singleplayer FF projects developed around the same time rather than just focusing on a Remake

Its kinda like what Capcom does with Resident Evil
 

Thabass

Member
Seeing that you can control Sephiorth in battle makes me the happiest person on earth right now.
 

TheDarkPhantom

Gold Member
Not watching or reading anything, like I said in another thread, already know this will be my GOTY frontrunner for 2024, can't fucking wait.
 

[Sigma]

Member
Watched Max's video, will check out Easy Allies and Push Square's previews as well. I loved Remake so I have high expectations of this.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
Holy shit, looking at some of the preview footage, looks and sounds crazy!

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New menu

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Thanks to YukiOnna
More interview stuff from various JP outlets:
- Main Path is 40+ hours long at least; Side content and areas double that to over 100; Go off the main path and get lost in the world
- Nomura is not allowed to talk about Zack much, but he is an important character in this title and his side will be told in a way that has him uncover mysteries
- Nojima and Nomura have been working on the plot & scenario since Remake's development; they had long ago decided the game design elements
- Kitase says the 3rd games main scenario is done, they are working on the structure of side quests, the Ending, and which characters appear
- Menu background will change alongside the time of day in the world
- Characters (like Yuffie and Vincent) are squarely depicted in the main path of the story so players can interact with them proper
- Various field actions: jumping off, climbing small cliffs & ledges, and swimming to explore the continents.
- Chocobo's handle special actions: exploration abilities, climbing larger cliffs and mountains, flying, etc.
- Chocobo customization is extensive because you will be exploring a lot with your Chocobo and able to use it in the Chocobo Race
- Item Crafting; as your proficiency level goes up, you will gain access to more items to craft (armor, accessories, etc.)
- Items crafted are sometimes required for field exploration and quests, so use it lots and gather materials across the world
- Some mini-games have been repurposed into other locations outside the Gold Saucer
 
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Go_Ly_Dow

Member
For the OP. I'm not watching any of them though!

Video previews





















Articles










 
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Porticus

Banned
There's any info about Corel Prison?

Seeing that the player is gonna be able to arrive to the Gold Saucer I guess that part should be playable?
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
- Various field actions: jumping off, climbing small cliffs & ledges, and swimming to explore the continents.
- Menu background will change alongside the time of day in the world


XVI could have done with this kind of world interaction and time of day in general.

Very much sounds like FF has finally met what people love about Xenoblade.

Rebirth should be the series template going forward.
 
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GymWolf

Gold Member
I didn’t think I was going to like the first one but ended up playing through it 4 times. I cannot wait for this in FEB. 😱
And i'm happy for you buddy:messenger_kissing_smiling:

I completed the game once and it was enough to send me on rehab with britney for 6 months.
 
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Go_Ly_Dow

Member

How Did Rebirth's Development Compare To Remake's?​

Rebirth launches on February 29, a couple of months shy of Remake’s fourth anniversary. According to Hamaguchi, Remake’s development cycle was around four years, making the turnaround for Rebirth, a much larger game, seem relatively quick. It’s especially impressive since Square developed and released the PlayStation 5-exclusive Intermission story expansion and Intergrade upgrade in between.

Hamaguchi credits working on Intermission/Intergrade for the smoother dev cycle, as it allowed the designers to become more intimately familiar with the PS5 (which Rebirth is exclusive to) and finish Rebirth within a similar timeframe despite its larger scope.

“But at the same time, we were able to keep the development time [down] and be able to release in sort of this normal or standard time while having this immense volume of content,” Hamaguchi says through a translator. “So that's something that we're very confident about and very proud of.”

Impressive.
 

sigmaZ

Member
The only thing I find annoying about these games is triangle as an action button. It's the most unintuitive design choice I've seen in a square game.
 
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