You don't need to play Final Fantasy 7 Remake before Rebirth

gamesradar.com:

If you haven't played Final Fantasy 7 Remake, you can still enjoy Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth just as if you had.

Earlier today on June 5, Square Enix published their latest in the "developer comment" miniseries on Twitter, where senior developers answer questions about Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. This time it's co-director Motomu Toriyama's turn to answer, and the lead revealed you don't need to have played Final Fantasy 7 Remake before tackling its sequel.

Final Fantasy VII RebirthDeveloper comment number 4#FF7R pic.twitter.com/vsmJZvDljwJune 5, 2023

You might scratch your head and go "wait a second, who would play Rebirth if they hadn't played Final Fantasy 7 Remake?" And honestly, it's a fair question. 2020's Remake launched to a gigantic install base of over 100 million PS4 consoles worldwide, while Rebirth is only coming to PS5. Add to the fact that this isn't so much part two of a trilogy as the second part of a single story, and it'd be even weirder to pick it up with no introduction.

Nonetheless, we can't knock Square Enix for including this feature. If there's even one player out there who picks up Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth without realizing it had a predecessor, then in Square Enix's eyes it's job done with this feature. Considering there's nothing to really distinguish Rebirth as a sequel to Remake from a casual consumer standpoint, this is probably a good feature to include as reassurance. 

Oh, and don't worry about Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth being a banger, because elsewhere in this miniseries, Square Enix has proclaimed it'll feature "stories" and "characters." I'd be seriously worried if the new Final Fantasy game didn't feature either of these things, and I think I can hazard a guess as to who these characters might