Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth preview: The subsequent a part of a unprecedented remake

What’s Remaining Fantasy Rebirth?

It’s the second a part of the trilogy, following on from 2020’s Remaining Fantasy VII Remake. The primary half already tore by means of expectations by including new parts to the storyline and altering the destiny of some key characters. Now Rebirth, guarantees to go even additional. From beloved heroes and villains to main plot twists, every thing might be up for grabs.

We went hands-on with sections of the sport final week, and whereas there’s nonetheless an terrible lot we don’t know, some elements of Rebirth are coming into focus.

You’ll be able to play as Sephiroth

Sure, certainly one of gaming’s most infamous villains might be playable in a piece of the sport. We performed by means of a sequence recreating one of many unique recreation’s best-known moments, as hero Cloud Strife revisits a tragic episode from 5 years earlier, the place he joined Sephiroth to research a malfunctioning reactor on the slopes of Mount Nibel. For those who performed the 1997 unique, you’ll bear in mind this as a uncommon likelihood to see Cloud and Sephiroth combating on the identical crew, however with Rebirth it’s an opportunity to see what the massive dangerous antihero can actually do in fight, as you’re employed by means of the mines beneath the mountain to the cliffs beneath the reactor, battling each grotesque monster that stands in your approach.

Is large Seph a complete badass? You guess. Wielding his legendary blade, Masamune, he can minimize by means of super-sized critters in a whirlwind of metal and fury, making the youthful Cloud look slightly, properly, puny. The revised Energetic Time Battle system of FFVII Remake returns, providing you with the perfect stability between real-time motion and basic turn-based technique, with the power to pause the combating, use gadgets and talents and use all the talents in your get together to defeat the opposition. It helps make Rebirth really feel extra like a conventional RPG than this 12 months’s extra action-oriented Remaining Fantasy XVI. It additionally means there’s extra time to become familiar with Sephiroth’s highly effective talents, magical assaults and superpowered ‘Restrict’ breaks. It’s improbable to look at him go to work if you’re not the one on the mistaken finish of his sword.

There are new twists to the fight

Whilst you’re battling away as Sephiroth, you shouldn’t neglect about Cloud. The sulky younger pup warrior of Remaining Fantasy VII has his personal cool capabilities, however he can even be part of forces with Sephiroth in spectacular synergy assaults. These are new to Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth and permit two heroes to cost up and unleash a joint assault, doing large harm to mobs of enemies or screen-filling boss monsters.

The sequence’s climactic battle in opposition to certainly one of these, the Materia Guardian, gave us ample alternative to place these new assaults to work, and the good factor is that every mixture of two heroes will include their very own distinctive synergy strikes, providing you with much more motive to maintain mixing up your get together, and be sure to’re attempting out the completely different team-ups.

There’s extra room to roam

Now that Cloud and his mates have left Midgar, there’s an enormous world on the market to discover. The second part we performed by means of confirmed off a brand new side of Rebirth: a fully-explorable, open-world space set across the closely industrialised metropolis of Junon and the downtrodden fishing villages round it. Whereas this was a restricted model of what we’ll see within the completed recreation, there was nonetheless loads of scope to discover the coast and surrounding wastelands, trying out deserted huts and monitoring down cute child Chocobos – the large birds that substitute horses within the collection. You’ll be able to even assist the little guys put rundown Chcocobo stops again so as.

Driving Chocobos to get round quicker, we had been additionally capable of search out menacing creatures in livid Fiend battles, with bonus factors for finishing particular goals, equivalent to utilizing sure strikes or characters or taking them out in opposition to a time restrict.

Given how on-rails and Linear Remaining Fantasy can appear at occasions, it’s nice to stretch Cloud’s legs, hop on a Chocobo and see slightly extra of the broader world, and you may relaxation assured which you can pet the Chocobos, together with the infants. It appears like Rebirth may also be going large on crafting, with a great deal of supplies to gather to make your individual potions, life-restoring phoenix down and different goodies.

Rebirth appears even higher than FFVII Remake

Remaining Fantasy VII Remake was a little bit of a late showcase for the PS4, however the PS5 replace, Intergrade, solely hinted at what Sq.-Enix might do with the facility of PS5. Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth is pushing the tech a lot tougher. The rocky landscapes and ramshackle city beneath Junon are superbly lit and rendered in gorgeous element, making it onerous to not get enthusiastic about what Sq.-Enix could make of different basic places just like the Gold Saucer, Cosmo Canyon and Rocket City. The heroes and villains have the identical heightened styling that that they had in Remaining Fantasy VII Remake, and Sq.-Enix doesn’t let realism get in the best way of an iconic character design. But the best way pores and skin material, armour and pores and skin react to gentle is often superb, and there are some impressively intricate touches within the faces or the costumes.

You’ll need to hold switching up your get together

One of many nice joys of the Junon part was switching between completely different three-strong groups of heroes, with Cloud, Barrett, Tifa, Aerith and brainiac large cat, Pink XIII, all within the combine. Not solely is that this an effective way to check out completely different spells and talents for measurement, however completely different Synergy powers as properly. Each hero has their energy, whether or not it’s Barrett’s means to cost up his minigun and blast away from a distance, or Tifa’s fists of fury going to work at shut vary. However it’s particularly nice to be again enjoying with Pink XIII, along with his brutal tooth-and-claw assaults leaving house for some improbable aerial super-moves, together with focused meteor strikes and the mighty Crescent Claw.

The demo ended with the return of Remaining Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade hero, Yuffie, pursued by a monstrous creature from the deep. Defeating this outsized varmint is a real check of your motion and get together technique expertise, switching between heroes to keep up the strain, stagger the beast and focus your simplest assaults. The critter itself has its personal talents, imprisoning our champions in magical, man-sized blobs of water, from which they wanted rescue by a good friend. It’s all too straightforward to get worn out should you’re not listening to well being and magic factors, and pretty straightforward even in case you are.

There’s nonetheless lots we don’t know – and might’t wait to find

The Remaining Fantasy VII Remake crew likes to hold us guessing, and we nonetheless don’t understand how Cloud’s relationships along with his comrades will develop, and whether or not the persevering with existence of Cloud’s outdated good friend and mentor, Zack Honest, on this replaying of the story, will alter the way it all works out. Most of all, we don’t know if the remake will play straight with a few of gaming’s most legendary moments or change them altogether. Who’s going to stay and who’s going to die? Who’s going to triumph and who’s going to fall? Proper now, no one is aware of for certain.

All we do know is that Rebirth appears each bit as magical and compelling as Remake – and the unique Remaining Fantasy VII of over 25 years in the past. There are good the explanation why this historical PlayStation 1 RPG nonetheless casts a spell over followers of RPGs, and why the primary a part of the remake venture gave them a lot new to shock and encourage them. This isn’t simply one other remake. It takes the remake to a complete new stage.