"How did it feel being back up there? I don't know... nostalgic, I guess?" Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth summarised our feelings with one simple question. We love the original game but when Final Fantasy 7 Remake opened the door to some dramatic changes, nothing was guaranteed moving forward. Thankfully, Rebirth feels like a natural evolution that continues walking this precarious path with grace, and right now, it's mixing that nostalgic familiarity with a renewed uncertainty.
This isn't the first time we've previewed Rebirth. You may recall we went hands-on last September as we explored Mt.Nibel and Junon's surroundings. This time, we played Square Enix's latest preview build for roughly three hours, and because it featured the Mt.Nibel segment once again, we're mostly focusing on what's new — our first look at the reimagined Kalm and its nearby grasslands.
For anyone unfamiliar with the original Final Fantasy 7, Kalm is a fitting location to start Rebirth — Mt.Nibel flashback sequence aside — as it's the first town Cloud Strife and his friends reach after escaping Midgar. Compared to that dystopian Shinra-led steely metropolis we spent all of Remake in, Kalm's vibrant scenery offers a pleasing contrast that's highly appealing, and nicely symbolises the group's new chapter.
Much like Remake's Midgar, Rebirth significantly expands Kalm by giving this once-minor mining village plenty of additional activities. That creates an interesting introduction to Rebirth's new features, the most prominent being Queen's Blood, a deck-building card minigame. Reminiscent of Gwent in The Witcher 3, you can challenge people to win new cards and unlock different opponents across the game's world.
Queen's Blood involves strengthening your power across three lanes, placing down cards with different power levels that add to your lane score. Every card shows position tiles in the middle where you can place further cards, though you can only draw cards that are equal to or higher than their rank, indicated by a pawn symbol. You're only awarded points if your final lane score beats your opponent's. While we needed several tries to understand the basic rules, it's an entertaining minigame and we enjoyed challenging people across Kalm.
Elsewhere, party members were all dotted around the town. Like before, your conversation choices affect Aerith, Tifa, and Barret's affection for Cloud, though it's too early to know what this will bring; perhaps something special at the Gold Saucer? Regardless, we're keen to see where this leads, and what's more intriguing is how character relationships are reflected in battle. While it's not revolutionary, Rebirth does a good job of adding to Remake's combat through Synergy Skills.
These abilities let two specific party members team up for some appealing skills, ranging from offensive moves like Tifa's Synchro Cyclone for an aerial attack, to Barrett's Iron Defense. They're are unlocked by spending skill points to augment 'Folios', and it would be more accurate to call this a skill core rather than a skill tree. More Synergy Skills options unlock when your party level increases, and that's achieved by tackling challenges or helping people. We also briefly played as Red XIII in combat, who's become one of the more interesting combatants thanks to his unique vengeance meter; it charges through blocking incoming blows, offering useful speed and attack buffs.
Our biggest concern is whether Rebirth's crammed open areas will provide a meaningful story expansion, or simply feel like padding. Between visiting the Chocobo Farm, clearing timed fiend quests, activating towers, and scanning crystals to obtain regional data for Chadley — plus an ill-fated encounter with Midgardsormr — there's so much to do. Though we certainly tried, we didn't have nearly enough time to see everything the Grasslands offered, so any definitive judgments would be premature.
Still, Rebirth's seamless open world is visually impressive on PS5, and reaching the Grasslands reminded us of visiting Rosaria in Final Fantasy 16. We've come away from this preview even more excited to continue Cloud's story, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth seems to be building upon Remake's foundations well. So far, it's looking like a strong sequel.
How are you feeling about Final Fantasy 7 Remake as we creep closer to release? What are your hopes and dreams for this highly anticipated sequel? Start scraping the rust off that buster sword and join our party in the comments section below.
Comments 19
I am so hyped after that State of Play and now previews are up while I'm downloading demo. Talk about overload 😆
Man I wish Persona 3 and Granblue didn’t come out right before this. 100% gonna buy Rebirth but not at launch. I really liked XVI, but there was something whimsical about 7 remake that wasn’t in XVI. Going back to FF7 will be magic.
The amount activities, minigames, and content just feels so unreal to me. And as I was wanting the demo is meaty and allows us to explore one of the regions due to how massive the map is.
Aerith has shades, Barret has his sailor suit, and Red XIII has that swagger in the Shinra uniform.
10/10
The game looks absolutely jam-packed with things to see and do!
That seals it. FF7 Rebirth is my most anticipated game of all time. This is going to be LEGENDARY!
I am even more excited for this game. I expected more of the same as Remake, which would have been awesome already, but Rebirth looks like it is greatly exceeding my expectations.
@Deoxyr1bose Out if interest, how far are you through Granblue? Because it's just a 10 hour story, quite a weak one, then it's just endless grinding for the sake of it. A kind of MH lite. I say that as someone who bought it after eagerly anticipating it. I doubt think it'll keep you away from Rebirth, basically.
I really wish they will give FF8 a remake on this level down the line.
Yeah looks like I'll be putting my playthrough of Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth on pause when this comes out. Easily my most hyped game in years
I do hope im not premature in saying this, but from everything i'm seeing i really hope this becomes the blueprint and benchmark that Square refers back to for future FF titles. This seems to have a bit of everything and looks absolutely phenomenal. They seem to have nailed what FF is all about
No mention of Gilgamesh possibly being in the footage?
@Matroska I haven’t played Granblue yet. All my efforts been in Persona 3 Reload and I’m about 10 hours in. If reviews are like stellar stellar, I’ll probably pick up 7Rebirth over Granblue, but as of now Granblue is my next priority after Persona. Then again I’ve played the Granblue demo and not the FF7 one yet
This game fr might be TOO BIG (that’s what she said) and idk if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
@Matroska Yeah, I finished off the Granblue main story in about 15 hours, and that's all I'm going to do with it. Fun combat and character designs, but not worth the absolute grind it would be to get to the true ending. The story was weak as it was.
I am a huge FF fan, the first game I ever completed was Ff7 way back in the mid 90's and I really enjoyed the remake (played it from day 1) however I never felt the need to go back to it until a few weeks ago. Again, I enjoyed it (probably more the second time) but I'm strangely not all that hyped for the next part. I don't get it, the combat was great, visuals were utterly beautiful, story was still really strong and I even enjoyed the little tweaks and added extra's. Yet, I can't put my finger on it but something is missing. There's a piece of the puzzle that just doesn't fit.
I'll still buy Rebirth on day one (I have a distinct absence of a back log these day's) but I'm not hyped for it in the way I thought I would be. Hopefully my first few hours will increase my enthusiasm.
"nostalgic familiarity with renewed uncertainty". Couldn't have put my feeling better with this remake series.
I skimmed through to look at the map of a Planet with only one hemisphere showing. So you telling me we will get new lands in the 3rd installment or what?
Anyway, exited to get my collectors edition in the mail. Crossing my fingers I get it 5 days early like when the first part released
It's looking good! Sounds like a must-have. Hopefully the pacing is improved, Remake kinda dragged at some point, the tension built up to a level that felt like the end of the game, only for it to continue for many chapters yet.
The Nibelheim demo was exquisite. I can’t wait for more. I just can’t believe… after all these years… Final Fantasy is peaking yet again. I have high hopes this will top even 16…
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