Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Has a Playable Sephiroth | Push Square

pushsquare.com:

After the love-it-or-loathe-it ending of Final Fantasy VII Remake subverted fan expectations for what Square Enix could be planning as it brings Cloud Strife and pals back into the modern era, it was anyone's guess what the publisher might have to show during a recent preview event. Case in point: Sephiroth will team up with Cloud in flashback scenes — as he did in the original game — but the mic drop reveal is he's now playable. During combat, you can make the villain your main and perform all the sort of death-dealing attacks you'd expect from the famous antagonist. It was the highlight of an hour-long demo revealing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth expands its world just as much as it retains the linear corridors of the narrative's first instalment.

The PS5 demo we played was comprised of two different scenarios: one half toured Mt. Nibel as Cloud and Sephiroth investigate a failing Mako Reactor while the other opened up wider exploration around the plains of Junon. Combined, they represent how Square Enix continues its storytelling focus in the Final Fantasy VII universe as well as expanding what's possible when taking a detour from the main path.

Cloud and Sephiroth's journey through Mt. Nibel plays exactly like a scenario from Final Fantasy VII Remake: you follow extremely linear paths to the objective marker, claiming items and objects along the way and completing one-time minigames to progress. One we encountered involved moving about a machine to suck up all the Mako gas in the area. The minigame almost felt like a comedic moment within the restricted confines of the demo (as we don't know what other events came before it), with our mind casting back to the crane puzzles that litter the Collapsed Expressway in the