Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Preview – Keep Kalm and carry on playing Queen’s Blood

thesixthaxis.com:

With just weeks to go before the release of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, we’ve had our second hands on and now, on the eve of the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth demo’s appearance on PS5, we can finally share our thoughts from the first few hours of the game.

We’re going to gloss over the first chapter, running around Nibelheim and the reactor mission, because that’s something we covered last year in our last preview. We all know what happened, though we will add that watching Sephiroth’s psychotic breakdown happen in real time, in glorious 4K, was a treat for lore-lovers like us. Square Enix has gone to lengths to flesh out an integral part of the story that was over relatively quickly in the original.

Plus, running around Shinra Manor in almost mouth-watering detail, is always going to be a treat. It’s like childhood, but swapping rose-tinted glasses for actual, prescription specs, and it is glorious.

But not as glorious as what comes next: Kalm.

Where Chapter 1 is retelling the story of Sephiroth at the Reactor for the party members who were absent (specifically Barret, Aerith and Red XIII), Chapter 2 is where the game puts meat on the bones.

What starts with watching Red XIII yawn in ultra high definition (we figuratively died from the cuteness), continues with fleshing out the world we find ourselves in. Half of your party thinks that you’re an asshole (which is totally fair) and you begin a slow process of building up those relationships. This also forms part of the tutorial process, introducing you to new characters and mechanics as you go.

As you explore the town, you come across possibly the most exciting addition to the game (I will die on this hill): the all-new card game Queen’s Blood (or QB as the cool NPCs call it).

Triple Triad fans beware: this game is a lot of fun, and feels like a pared down version of Marvel Snap. Not only do you get to play a mini-game involving the monsters of the land, but you get to spend your time in game collecting cards and ranking up to be