A few weeks ago, CGM was invited to Los Angeles to play about four hours of the upcoming, highly anticipated Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. This playthrough consisted of the first two chapters, and for spoiler purposes, this includes the Kalm flashback as well as the open world portion set in the Kalm region.
If you want to go in entirely blind, you should turn away now. You have been warned.
When things opened up, we were plopped right into the Kalm flashback. We have seen a smaller portion of this section during our preview back in October, but now it is more sprawling and covers the entire incident. Cloud and Sephiroth walk through the welcoming arch of Nibelheim. It was awe-inspiring; the way the town was recreated and flushed out gave it more depth and made it feel like an actual small town rather than just a few houses.
Cloud, Tifa and Sephiroth climbing up Mt. Nibelheim to the reactor as the credits hit with a remixed theme I welled up and had to hold back tears unsuccessfully. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth delves deeper into the relationship between the three and how a certain level of camaraderie was built by surviving the climb. We see a gentler side of Sephiroth before the madness takes hold.
“Final Fantasy VII Rebirth delves deeper into the relationship between the three and how a certain level of camaraderie was built by surviving the climb.”
It’s, of course, after the discovery of what Hojo is doing that things get intense in a way that makes the original pale in comparison to the savagery of Sephiroth and his slaughter of Nibelheim. But this is also the point where we see they are approaching the story in a different, more realistic way when it comes to character growth. Instead of Cloud and Tifa holding their internal dialogues back, they confront it regarding Cloud and being in Neibelheim. I don’t know where this will lead, but I am excited about the possibilities.
While the story was light but effective, most of my time was spent in the city and surrounding world of Kalm after a brief escape from Kalm, which itself was redesigned in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth to be a much more expansive location instead of the one-note stop of the original. We are released into the vast world; when I say vast, it is incredibly vast. I spent about three and a half hours in that area and only completed about half of the objectives I could have.
There is a linear path to follow until you are given your first Chocobo and meet Chadley again. It’s after this that things get absolutely stunning. Littered throughout the world are these Ubisoft-like towers that will add sub-objectives to your map. There are a few types, like battle intel, which requires you to fight certain enemies while doing specific actions like pressuring them, not letting them use certain attacks, or besting them within a time limit. Synchronizing summon points makes obtaining new summons easier, and observing mako springs gives you background into the world and unlocks unique battles and, finally, expeditions.
The expeditions are designed to have you chasing a group of bandits around the world of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, at least the world we had access to. But this also gives character to some of the side bandits, and I really enjoyed their side story. Not to mention, there was a Moogle house that had us chasing around moogles in an adorable way.
But that’s not all, as there are also fully fleshed-out side quests. These are fountains of experience and gil, and they add a certain level of characterization to the NPCs in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth by adding a bit of humanity to the vast world. One of them features some characters from Final Fantasy VII Remake, but I won’t spoil that surprise for you.
Queens Blood is the name of the mini-game that is taking the world by storm in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and it is fun but mostly just okay. It is played similarly to Gwent from The Witcher 3 but is much more refined and maybe even too refined. Players play on a three-by-six table, vying for more attack points, with some cards bolstering others. It is all well and good. I just don’t think it’s been the strongest card game out in Final Fantasy, but I can see myself having a love-hate relationship with it.
“The combat is just as smooth as always, with little improvements helping everything flow better.”
The combat is just as smooth as always, with little improvements helping everything flow better. For more detailed combat, be sure to check out our earlier Final Fantasy VII Rebirth preview, which took place on the outskirts of Junon. Here, we get a deeper look into Chadley’s role and what he can provide us. As you complete these world intel locations like the springs, fiend intel, and towers, you will get intel points, which can be spent to get new materia from Chadley. This was exceedingly helpful as he was able to give me a materia that combined both ice and fire, helping save precious materia slots for others.
The feature I enjoyed the most in the combat simulator that Chadley holds is how the besting of summons is tied to unlocking those summons in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. While they start out incredibly powerful, you can weaken them by unlocking these synchronization points around the world. This makes it easier to fight them to unlock them, but if you complete them all, the summon is more powerful when used. This ties world exploration, combat, and side quests together nicely.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is gorgeous. Between sweeping vistas and the character models, it’s a genuine joy to look at every second. During my preview time, I came across so many points of beauty, either deep in a forest or overlooking the ocean. The soundtrack helps push the emotional nature of it, which, of course, is terrific. There is something so sombre and beautiful about having our team walking around in the overworld with remixed themes coming through ever so quietly, only for bombastic music to kick in as battle begins.
Two things are clear after my four hours with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. One is that Square Enix is very confident in what they have done, as we haven’t seen them this open about a game in a long time. The other thing is that they’ve managed to capture a feeling that I’ve only ever felt with Punch-Out! on Wii; it doesn’t play like the Final Fantasy VII that we remember, but it plays like the Final Fantasy VII that I remember in my head. There are so many emotional and outstanding scenes, all condensed into a short section of the game.
I personally can’t wait for what Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has in store for us when it comes out on February 29th 2024 for PlayStation 5. During that time, it made me the happiest I have been in a long time with Final Fantasy.
