And he’s got a 19 inch statue.
Final Fantasy 7 bad boy Sephiroth will be fully playable in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
A new release date trailer for the game was shown at last night’s PlayStation State of Play, which included a shot of Cloud and Sephiroth together in battle. In a follow-up interview on the PlayStation Blog, creative director Tetsuya Nomura confirmed Sephiroth will be playable.
“If you played the original Final Fantasy 7, I’m sure you can guess which scene I’m talking about,” he said. “You will be able to control Sephiroth in the same scene in this title as you did in the original.”
That scene is the Nibelheim flashback, in which Sephiroth joins as an AI-controlled temporary party member. This time he’s playable.
Between the trailer and the PlayStation Blog interview, a tonne of new details about Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth have now emerged. Let’s look at some details!
Familiar faces
Fans have been eagerly anticipating the reveal of the remaining party members and in this new trailer we finally get a first look at Cait Sith in battle. It looks like he will have two forms, both the black cat and giant moogle, with moves including Kitty Wallop, Lucky Roll, and Let’s Ride – the latter presumably combining both forms. We also got a glimpse at Vincent, who I hope won’t be optional this time.
One party member remains, though – where the hell is Cid? Perhaps there’s a hint from Nomura in the PlayStation Blog: “There are characters who are accompanying members in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, that will become official party members in the next title,” he said.
Traversal
We already saw chocobos being ridden in the previous trailer, but this new trailer shows chocobo of multiple colours. A black one can climb vertical surfaces, while a turquoise chocobo is seen flying – Hamaguchi said chocobos are unique to each region with different abilities. There’s also a quick shot of the buggy, used to drive swiftly over the world map, as well as Cloud in shorts on a segway in (presumably) the Costa Del Sol. He looks like a tourist in Barcelona.
Summons
Final Fantasy 7 Remake already had some spectacular summons – Shiva, Leviathan, Bahamut – but Rebirth is not only bringing back some old favourites, it’s adding new summons too. This trailer showed off the returning Odin with his iconic Zantetsuken sword, as well as the towering Alexander.
“There will be many other summons in the game, in addition to those that have already been revealed in our previous videos, with some also returning from Final Fantasy 7 Remake,” said director Naoki Hamaguchi in the PlayStation Blog.
“In fact, the lineup of summons has actually been fleshed out over and above the previous game, with new, extended side content based on a summon who did not feature in the original Final Fantasy 7 and even more besides.”
I can’t wait to see what Knights of the Round will look like.
Gold Saucer antics
Finally (finally!) we got to see the Gold Saucer amusement park in all its glory. The party is seen riding the gondola up to the neon lit wonderland, but we also got to see some minigames too. Spruced up versions of 3-D Battler, Chocobo Racing, and G-Bike were all seen in the trailer, with Hamaguchi adding that the scale of minigames has been increased compared to the original game. “Many of these mini games can be experienced in the main story, but we also have lots of unique games and challenges that appear as part of the side stories you can find as you explore the world map,” he said. “There might well be players who get so caught up in all the fun mini games that they find they aren’t making progress in the main story.”
Hamaguchi added that players will visit the Gold Saucer as part of the main story in the middle of the game, but are then free to return at any time. More minigames and harder difficulty modes will be added as the story progresses. Nomura additionally confirmed that the infamous date scene will make a return.
The trailer also showed the return of Andrea Rhodea from the Honneybee Inn, so I’m hopeful for a brand new dance spectacular.
Other details
The trailer showed off the parade section in Junon complete with marching minigame, which Hamaguchi said has also been expanded. We also see a Weapon for the first time, hints of the Reunion, and more of Zack than you might expect.
In the PlayStation Blog, Nomura also gave some new structural details. He explained the order in which locations are visited has been changed, which we knew before. However, he confirmed that Wutai will not be part of Rebirth and will instead be included in the next game, which I presume will be greatly expanded on.
As for how far Rebirth will go, Nomura stated: “Although there are some changes in the order of the locations, the locations depicted in this title extend up to ‘The Forgotten Capital’, where the greatest fate of Final Fantasy 7 awaits you,”
We know what that means.
Lastly, at the end of the trailer there’s an extra detail PC players will be pleased about. An asterisked addition states: “Not available on other formats at least until 29/05/2024”. This implies the earliest release date of the – presumed – PC version, meaning those players won’t have to wait so long this time around after the initial PS5 release on 29th February.
Final Fantasy 7 fans can now pre-order the game and its Collector’s Edition, which comes with 19 inches worth of Sephiroth statue that will set you back a whopping $349.99. It’s exclusive to the Square Enix store.
After the trailer reveal, Square Enix announced that Final Fantasy 7 Remake has now shipped and sold digitally worldwide over 7m copies. That’s across both the original release and the Intergrade follow-up on PlayStation consoles and PC.
