FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH – A Closer Look at the New Trailer

There is a new trailer for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. We took a closer look at its story teasers and puzzled out what you can expect on the gameplay front and the scope of the second chapter of the Final Fantasy VII Remake Trilogy.

After Final Fantasy VII Remake was released in 2020, it has been quiet around the FFVII Remake project. In 2021 Square Enix released the DLC Chapter INTERmission included in the Next-Gen Version, followed by a PC port in 2022. Later we’d also get a taste of what the next chapter would look like.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is Part 2 of the Remake trilogy and covers the events after Cloud and his friends left Midgard. Or so we thought.

The ending of the FFVII Remake and the INTERmission bonus chapter left us with many questions. Suddenly this story that most of us knew by heart seemed exciting and strange. And now, this new trailer proves that nothing is certain in the next chapter of the Unknown Journey.

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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: Other Side, Other Story

The first few seconds of the new Trailer are already as confusing as you’d expect from a Tetsuya Nomura (Creative Director) and Kazushige Nojima (Story and Scenario Writer). Those two are responsible for the Kingdom Hearts Series, after all.

We see Tifa, Barret, Red XIII, and Aerith being put on stretchers after a tornado ripped through the city of Midgar. Confirming that destiny has been changed.

If you haven’t played INTERmission yet, which is part of the PS5 and PC versions, we’re apparently operating in a new reality with this Remake project. One in which Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core protagonist and Clouds friend/mentor Zack Fair is still alive. How far those ripple effects go is left to be seen, but we’re certain that Zack will play an important role in the events to come.

The rest of the trailer is mostly concerned with the events of the original, only that the characters continue to question some of the original’s continuity errors just like they did in Part 1. This makes us wonder how these more complete versions of the cast will deal with these lingering questions while chasing Sephiroth.

Open? Semi-Open World?

We have also got an idea of the scale of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. At the same time, we don’t know if the game will feature a seamless world that features the 3 continents. In the 1997 release, players got to explore the entirety of Gaia with its 3 continents and numerous iconic locations.

In the trailer, we spotted Kalm, The Chocobo Farm, the Mythril Mine, Jeunon, and Cosmo Canyon. So if we were to hitch a bet, Rebirth will most likely feature everything til the original’s events at the Northern Crater.

Structurally, the game seems to follow FFVII Remake’s and FFXVI’s approach by letting players explore expansive but linear sections in between points of interest. The open sections shown were gigantic and we can only imagine what getting chased through the marshlands by the Midgar Zolom will be like.

Combat Lessons Learned from INTERmission

Final Fantasy VII Remake’s combat felt like a first draft after playing through the INTERmission DLC. In part 1 all characters had their own unique playstyles while also leaving room for the iconic material system, but outside of mid-battle cutscenes, it never felt like they were operating as a team.

INTERmission then introduced the Synergy System, which allowed Yuffie and her companion Sonon for devastating team attacks. In Rebirth, it seems that Cloud and friends have learned a few tricks from Yuffie. The trailer shows a couple of cooperative attacks like Barret uppercutting what looks like a boar only for Cloud to come in and bat it with his Buster Sword.

And according to the Remake Ultimania companion book, lead battle programmer Satoru Koyama stated that with FFVII Rebirth he is aiming to create AI companions that can surpass FFXII’s Gambit system.

The Gambit System in Final Fantasy XII allowed players to give certain conditions to their AI companions so they would operate on their own in real-time battles. Maybe this idea will also see a full return in Rebirth.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will release sometime in early 2024 for the PlayStation 5 on 2 Blu-ray discs, so we can only imagine how big this game will be. If the original is anything to go by you can expect to revisit these locations in Part 3 of the Final Fantasy VII Remake.

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