Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Revitalizes The Original’s Jump To A Grand Adventure
It’s a little hard to fathom that it’s been nearly four years since the release of Final Fantasy VII Remake and its bold first step to “remaking” the seminal Square role-playing game. The first installment ended on a somber yet hopeful note, showing Cloud Strife and his allies departing Midgar in pursuit of Sephiroth and the mysterious entities that seek to prevent them from defying their fates. For those who remember the 1997 original, stepping out of Midgar for the first time was a profound moment, revealing that the opening hours were just one small corner of a larger world. And that aspect is something that the upcoming sequel, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, leans further into with its reimagined take on the original game’s second act.
I recently got to play over an hour of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which introduces a larger world to explore while revisiting familiar storylines with a new perspective. The demo I played focused on two scenarios: the Mt. Nibel flashback sequence, which centers Cloud’s memories of his first mission with Sephiroth, and an open exploration zone with the crew traveling to Junon. I really admired the 2020 remake, and so far, Rebirth has me really intrigued for what’s to come with the follow up.
What made 2020’s remake such a novel approach to revisiting the original game was that it not only recreated those iconic moments with impressive cinematic flair but also expanded upon them in ways that showed that Remake was, in actuality, a continuation of the larger FFVII mythos. Much like Neon Genesis Evangelion’s Rebuild series, Remake leveraged the original material to tell a more nuanced story about how the party of heroes is tied to fate, and question whether they can forge their own destinies. The 2020 game was a surprisingly subversive “remake” that introduced a lot of intrigue and mysteries while setting the stage for Rebirth.
FFVII Rebirth picks up right after Remake, with Cloud and his party of rebels seeking answers in the world beyond the steel city. Rebirth continues with the tactical action-RPG mechanics from the previous installment but with some refinements and upgrades that really showcase the party dynamics at work. The first section of the demo we got to play was a portion of Cloud and Sephiroth’s fateful mission in Mt. Nibel, at a time when the would-be enemies were instead allies in the Shinra Corporation’s SOLDIER program.
The original game’s flashback sequence was a memorable moment because it gave us some background on Cloud and Tifa’s relationship to Sephiroth, and depicted the chilling events that occurred before the game to set them at odds. That aspect is expanded upon in Rebirth, which now turns the sequence into an extended dungeon crawl with Cloud, Sephiroth, and Tifa learning about Mt.Nibel, the history of Materia, and debating whether Mako Reactors are causing more harm than good. Much like Remake, Rebirth builds upon plot beats and areas that were only brief moments in the original game, making for some intriguing storytelling that fleshes out the world further.
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