Hands-on: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has action, but teases just as much RPG
I sincerely don’t envy the position Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is in.
The middle entry of a trilogy is always a precarious thing. On one hand, it lacks the opening act to introduce the cast and get players excited for the story. At the same time, middle entries also can’t culminate in the story’s ultimate climax. Combine that with being part of a remake of one of the most beloved RPGs of all time, and you have a game that really needs to come prepared to impress. After all, Final Fantasy 7 Remake already indulged us in seeing Cloud and friends in glorious HD. Can Rebirth leave a lasting impression after that novelty has worn off?
In search of an answer to this question, I attended an event hosted by Square Enix to play some of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth for myself. This demo took me through two distinct sections of the game, which showcased Rebirth’s story-focused moments as well as its semi-open-world. For the most part, much of what I saw can be summed up as “it’s more Final Fantasy 7 Remake.”
However, it’s what I didn’t see that interested me the most in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
The first section of the demo had me control Cloud and – gasp – Sephiroth on the mountain path leading to the Nibel Reactor. This is, of course, part of the original game’s flashback sequence explaining the Nibelheim Incident. I don’t know if the full game will start here, but it works shocking well as its own introduction. The mountain paths and caves all had explainers for basic mechanics in case it’s been a while since you played Remake, but it didn’t linger too long on its tutorials.
The big selling point of this whole sequence is, of course, playing as Sephiroth. And in truth, this was probably my favorite part of playing Rebirth. In the
Read more on destructoid.com
