Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the most anticipated game of 2024, has finally arrived, and it is stellar. Over 100 hours of adventure and a roller coaster of emotions await in the second part of the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, and we expect players will be hooked for a very long time to come.
With so much to do over such a long quest, however, it might seem daunting, even if you’ve played previous Final Fantasy games or even the previous game in this trilogy. With that in mind, here are 7 handy tips to keep in mind for the first chapters Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (and beyond):
1) Use the Combat Simulator to learn each character’s skills
Very early on in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Cloud and friends will run into a familiar face added in the previous installment: Chadley, an assistant to the evil Professor Hojo who secretly works against the Shinra company. As in the previous game, he has a business proposition for our heroes. With the intel they collect from the monsters they encounter and the sights they see around the new open world, Chadley can forge digital combat missions that reward vital materia rewards.
One of the first things you should do once this becomes available is do the individual missions for each party member. They’re very brief, but they provide a quick tutorial of the unique abilities of each character, and bestow some free materia. Even if you exhausted Final Fantasy VII Remake, it might be worth a refresher course, and if nothing else, Red XIII is a brand new character whose skills you can finally call upon at will as a fully playable character.
The same goes when new teammates join later in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth‘s sprawling storyline—Yuffie may be familiar from the Intermission DLC, but Cait Sith is a very unique entity whose skillset could use some clarification. Plus, free materia!
2) Keep party members equipped
Speaking of materia, it’s wise to keep all the characters at your disposal fully equipped at all times. In Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, you control a party of three (either chosen freely or dictated by the circumstances, in some instances). However, unlike in the original Final Fantasy VII, your other allies don’t disappear until you reach the next story point or summon them back to your party.
Now they circle the edges of the combat arena, chipping in from the sidelines occasionally. Outside of battle, you can call upon any restorative spells they have equipped when they’re not actively in the party as well, making it easy to spread your magical resources around; instead of downing material items or spending MP from active party members, they can share the load.
When exploring new areas in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, be sure to have the Assess materia equipped on somebody in your active party
Their materia will gain AP from battle as well, so this can be very effective for leveling up your spells and buffs. Besides, during the story you might be surprised by a forced party change at times, and you don’t want to get caught off-guard and unequipped.
3) Assess everything
It’s dangerous to go alone; take this Assess materia.
When exploring new areas in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, be sure to have the Assess materia equipped on somebody in your active party most of the time. This allows you to scan enemies (like the Libra ability in previous Final Fantasy games or the Sense command in FFVII) to sense their weaknesses, resistances, immunities, and so on.
Assess is a very detailed tool in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, even providing information on what items a foe might drop and the attacks they use. Perhaps most vital is information on how to pressure and stagger them, which can make a huge difference in difficult fights. Knowing how to do both things to the particularly difficult enemies in the fiend research quests, for example, is an invaluable advantage.
Remember Chadley’s combat simulator? Fighting enemies in each distinct region around the world and Assessing them will unlock additional combat missions with even more potent rewards than the tutorial missions. If you intend to do as much as possible in this game, do yourself a favour and Assess each new monster that pops up, as backtracking to find them for the combat simulator is a more tedious task than doing it in the first place.
(This process gets even easier when the materia levels up and scans all monsters in combat at once.)
4) Use the Item Transmuter as much as possible
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth introduces a simple Item Transmuter system. This may cause dread in those who have played too many open-world games with crafting elements, but thankfully, this is a tame system, and it can be a huge asset when you can’t access an in-game shop.
Along your journey, Cloud can painlessly pick up natural components from the world around him. These are using in transmutation, available from the regular menu, to make new items and equipment. These range from the common consumables you might buy at a vending machine and use to heal in battle, to upgraded versions of armor, and even a few other surprises along the way.
Since the Item Transmuter is right in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth‘s pause menu, it’s accessible at times when you might not be able to reach an item shop.
Crafting a new item for the first time rewards EXP which is used to increase your Craftsmanship level; the higher the level, the more items you can forge. Even more recipes can be unlocked through a chocobo minigame, unearthing the means of forging some potent, forgotten gear.
It may sound a little tedious on paper but it’s quick and painless (so much so that I even forgot about it once or twice and had catching up to do). Just check it occasionally and see if there’s anything new you can craft with the components you’ve picked up along the way, and it may save you in a pinch.
Since the Item Transmuter is right in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth‘s pause menu, it’s accessible at times when you might not be able to reach an item shop. At one point I’d had a game over against the last of a gauntlet of bosses, but was able to duck into the menu for a moment after rewatching the cutscenes, slap some high-level potions together, and got over that hurdle in no time.
5) Don’t sleep on the Queen’s Blood card game
There’s already talk of the new card game in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, called Queen’s Blood, taking the minigame crown from Final Fantasy VIII‘s Triple Triad card game. This is, of course, high treason and I shall not stand for it. Yet, Queen’s Blood is a pretty fun successor nonetheless and something that’s worth giving at least a little attention.
Queen’s Blood in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is as essential as Triple Triad in FFVIII or Tetra Master in Final Fantasy IX.
The tutorial is available right after the infamous flashback sequence (which made up the game’s demo), and can also be accessed from the main menu at most times. Its rules are easy to learn and a little tougher to master. The goal in Triple Triad was to have a higher quantity of cards on the board at the end, while in Queen’s Blood you want a higher quality (or score value) of cards on the board at the end.
You place cards on the board to increase your score, to potentially play better cards in the neighboring spots, to buff your other cards, and to attack enemy cards. Each card has specific score values, attack patterns, and so on. It’s worth a guide all of its own, but the game makes it accessible and forgiving.
Suffice it to say, Queen’s Blood in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is about as essential as Triple Triad in FFVIII or even Tetra Master in Final Fantasy IX—you’re not forced to play it to death, but there are times where it’s beneficial to at least understand the rules and be able to win a game.
If you see a new pack of cards in an item shop, be sure to grab it to add to your collection (and your strategic options). The Gold Saucer has some potent options as well, available with the amusement park’s own unique currency; I was glad that I spent the meager GP I accumulated on my first visit there to obtain most of these.
Other cards can be won by defeating players you encounter in the world, but if you’re not keen to become a card-shark, buying any available packs and a couple of the Gold Saucer options should suffice. Having some better cards than the basic few you start Final Fantasy VII Rebirth with makes a huge difference.
6) Prioritize finding each region’s Chocobo
Many players have fond memories of the chocobo breeding sidequest in Final Fantasy VII—while some ’90s kids were trading and battling Pokémon, others were training and breeding chocobos to compete in gambling and unlock the most potent summon materia of all.
While that sidequest hasn’t exactly been recreated now in 2024, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth does retain most of its elements of it, save the actual animal husbandry. In each geographical region, like the Grasslands where the game begins, Cloud’s team can tame a local Chocobo. Once wrangled through various methods, they can be summoned at almost any time to serve as a mount, or to sniff out hidden items (like the transmutation recipes mentioned earlier).
Each regional variety has a unique skill suited to that region, and many World Intel activities require the use of that Chocobo’s abilities to either complete the task or to access it in the first place. For instance, in the Junon region, several icons on the map require use of the local chocobo’s ability to climb certain rock faces.
When you reach a new corner of the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth map, keep an eye out for Chocobo tracks or a quest or NPC that seems to be associated with Chocobos before you get too far.
7) Unlock or master abilities ASAP
One final thing to be vigilant for as you progress through Final Fantasy VII Rebirth‘s epic quest is your party’s abilities, which come in a couple varities.
First of all are weapon abilities. Similar to Remake, each weapon can impart a skill onto its wielder permanently, but they need to use it enough first. This goes faster if you utilize the proficiency bonus, a certain condition (listed in the weapon’s details) that massively increases its progress. A couple uses of the proficiency bonus should be all it takes to unlock it for good, and then you’re free to equip whatever weapon you prefer. It’s worth taking a moment to get this done ASAP.
Other abilities in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth are learned through the folio system, replacing the weapon upgrade system from Remake. Almost like the Sphere Grid from Final Fantasy X, each character has a chart-like menu where they can spend points to unlock stat upgrades, boons, and new abilities. These might be elemental magic skills that don’t consume MP, at-will synergy skills that call upon a certain teammate, or Synergy Abilties, full-fledged tag-team moves with strong boons.
Certain Synergy Abilities raise the participating characters’ limit levels by 1, unlocking more potent Limit Breaks temporarily, and others split their ATB bars into three. I found it helped to prioritize these two kinds over the abilities that extend the stagger bar.
Check your folios at the bookstores or vending machines scattered around the world whenever you get the chance, and make it a priority to learn some synergy moves. There are many combinations, and the more party synergy options you have available, the better—especially if you rely on certain allies over others, when you have the chance. These skills are a fun addition to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and can turn the tide in tough fights.
Bonus: Pet the chocobo chicks at rest points
Tiny, adorable Chocobo chicks will guide you to new rest stops along the road in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Cloud can quickly repair these stops to add convenient quick-travel spots to the map. After each repair, the chick will stand by, and Cloud can pet it.
Do this every time. There’s no mechanical or material benefit to doing it; it’s just good karma.
