With Final Fantasy VII Rebirth set to launch on February 29, 2024 it's time to start clearing your schedule for one of the most anticipated PS5 exclusives of the year. Developer Square Enix is building an expansive RPG here - the second installment in a planned trilogy – following protagonist Cloud Strife on an adventure to better understand his past, and save the Planet from having its Lifeforce exploited by a maniacal megacorporation.
While you're certainly in a better position to understand the overarching narrative (and the group of expressive characters propulsively driving the story forward) if you played 2020's Final Fantasy VII Remake, Square Enix is building Rebirth as a standalone adventure for players of all experience. The game is being designed to widely appeal to all players - to those who dived into the iconic RPG the first time around back in 1997, those who fell in love with Remake four years ago, and those who are only just joining the party for Rebirth.
If Rebirth is your first brush with Final Fantasy, or even the wider franchise in general, there are a few things you should probably know going in. Below you'll find five things we think you need to know about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, including some spoiler-free grounding for the story and characters, and some expectation setting for the action-packed combat and wide-open exploration you should expect to find in the final game.
Explore an expansive world
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a broader, wider game than its predecessor. You'll be free to walk beyond the borders of Midgar and head out into the wider world. It's a dangerous land full of quests to complete, combat opportunities to uncover with a variety of larger-than-life creatures, and plenty of rare treasures to discover – integral if you want to imbue your party with more powerful items and equipment.
While Rebirth isn't an open world in the traditional sense, it will give you the chance to freely explore expansive areas on foot or by Chocobo – the lush Grasslands, the desolate city of Junon, and the eclectic Gold Saucer amusement park, to name but a few of the locations. A captivating journey awaits you in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and it begins as Cloud and his Avalanche cohorts (an eco-terrorist group working to combat the Shinra corporation) begin to explore the world around them for answers to some of the Planet's biggest questions.
Meet an eclectic cast of characters
Square Enix is designing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth to be friendly to newcomers. A basic understanding of the eclectic heroes and villains who inhabit the world is enough to get you started, with more detail filled in as you complete quests and follow the story. The key character that you need to understand is Cloud Strife, the main protagonist of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth – a former member of an elite warrior unit called Soldier, who is now running around as a mercenary with the Avalanche group to battle the Shinra Electric Power Company and better understand his nemesis, Sephiroth.
You'll also want to pay close attention to Aerith Gainsborough and Zack Fair, two party members who are deeply intertwined with Cloud's mysterious, torturous past. These key characters will be joined by a host of other playable and non-playable party members to help furnish the adventure and bring new dimensions to combat encounters.
Survive encounters with Sephiroth
Regardless of whether you've played Final Fantasy VII before, there's a good chance that you'll be familiar with Sephiroth in some capacity. He's considered to be one of the best video game villains – an iconic character remembered for his dazzling hair, heart-wrenching monologues, and sublime swordsmanship.
If you're coming into Final Fantasy VII Rebirth fresh, I'd recommend that you don't risk exposing yourself to any spoilers online; all you really need to know about Sephiroth is that he has deep historical ties to key characters like Cloud Strife and Zack Fair, and that he's hell bent on ruling the Planet by any means necessary. Sephiroth is a gifted Soldier who was subjected to terrible experiments by the Shinra corporation, circumstances which not only helped cultivate delusions of godhood but make him a formidable threat for the members of Avalanche trying to stop him.
Experience captivating Combat
Final Fantasy VII Remake did a fantastic job at modernizing the strategic turn-based combat systems which helped to define the original adventure in 1997, and Rebirth is set to push things into even more fantastical territory. You should expect a fast, frenetic battle system which highlights the power of the PS5 – encounters that are full of spectacle, as heroes team up to unleash powerful attacks against screen-dwarfing enemies.
Basically, Rebirth dutifully draws from the tactical depth of the original game and infuses it with the sensibilities of modern action games, with every party member under your command rewarded for their defensive and offensive acumen. Eventually, you'll earn the ability to unleash uniquely devastating Limit Break attacks, and have characters collaborate to deliver powerful Synergy Abilities. With a wide cast of characters to draw into your party, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will reward experimentation to find the best pairing of heroes for any given situation or encounter.
Summon true power
Summons are set to be a real highlight of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth – powerful Materia which unlocks truly unnatural power once unleashed upon a battlefield. As spectacular in combat as they are spellbinding to witness in action, summons have the ability to completely change the composition of any battle you find yourself in. If you played last year's Final Fantasy 16 the summons were presented as Eikons, but Rebirth is set to show a more refined selection of monstrous attacks and abilities.
If you want to get a better sense of how the summons work and impact combat, you should go ahead and check out the Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth Twin Pack, a collection which will not only help you get caught up with the core story and events but will also grant you a unique Summoning Materia for the Moogle Trio. Sounds pretty good, eh Kupo?
