Having won the award for “Most Anticipated Game” at the GameAwards the year prior, February 29th saw the release of “Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth”. Developed by Japanese game studio Square Enix, “Final Fantasy VII Rebirth” is the 15th installment in the multimedia franchise of Final Fantasy’s seventh game.

This sprawling franchise includes: “Final Fantasy VII” (1997), “Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII” (2004), “Final Fantasy VII Lateral Biography: Turks ~The Kids Are Alright~” (2005), “Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children” (2005), “Last Order: Final Fantasy VII” (2005 Japan release, 2007 North America release), “Durge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII” (2006), “Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII” (2007), “Final Fantasy VII G-bike” (2014), “Final Fantasy VII Remake” (2020), “Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier” (2021), “Final Fantasy VII Remake: Traces of Two Pasts” (2021 Japanese release, 2023 English release), “Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis” (2023), “Final Fantasy VII Remake Board Game” (2023), “Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete” (2024), and “Final Fantasy VII Rebirth” (2024).

Cloud Strife (left) and Sephiroth (right) pose in FF7 Rebirth’s photo mode (PlayStation Official Blog)Known for his work on the cult-classic Square Enix series “Kingdom Hearts”, Tetsuya Nomura collaborated with legendary “Final Fantasy” series director Naoki Hamaguchi for “Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth”. In its 34-installment series (however, most of this consists of spin-offs, remakes, and special editions), “Kingdom Hearts” has earned itself a reputation for having increasingly mind-boggling, convoluted lore. In 2019, LimitForm72, a YouTuber who specializes in the game analysis of Square Enix projects, made a video attempting to describe the timeline of the series in brevity– resulting in an hour-and-21-minute-long video essay. During Nomura’s time on the project, he has woven in his penchant for convoluted plotlines through the involvement of alternate timelines in “Final Fantasy VII Rebirth”. 

Furthermore, multiple reports from Square Enix say the $64.99 game will have extremely high fidelity regarding graphics and handling– with a significant improvement in the rendering department from the already-impressive 4K and 60 FPS of the 2020 “Final Fantasy VII Remake”. In addition, this installment will see various new mechanics, mini-games, and more fleshed-out environments. Most significantly, there will be four new playable characters: Red XIII, Cait Sith, Yuffie, and the game’s antagonist (also known for his highly-anticipated DLC feature in “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate”); the infamous Sephiroth. However, he’s only accessible to play during a flashback scene.

In addition, Square Enix has enthusiastically shared its advancements in seamless transition integration, faster rendering, and 3D audio– claiming in an interview with the PlayStation Official Blog that such next-gen integration couldn’t be possible without PlayStation exclusivity. In this interview, they also explained how they achieved such advancements, saying “We’ve actively incorporated haptic feedback and adaptive triggers in battles and cutscenes— game segments with strong action elements and cinematic presentation— so that everything conveyed through the graphics is also directly synchronized with the controller too.”

Both the physical and digital releases of “Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth” are now available for the PlayStation 5 at GameStop, BestBuy, and the PlayStation store.

Works Cited

Changes/updates: youtube.com access date: 3/24, update: 2/24; youtube.com access date: 3/24, update: 3/24; wikipedia.org access date: 3/24, update: 3/24; na.store.square-enix-games.com access date: 3/24, update: 3/24; gamestop.com access date: 3/24, update: 3/24; blog.playstation.com access date: 3/24, update: 3/24

Development: ign.com access date: 3/24, update: 2/24; wikipedia.org access date: 3/24, update: 3/24; finalfantasy.fandom.com access date: 3/24, update: 3/24; thegamer.com access date: 3/24, update: 11/23; youtube.com access date: 3/24, update: 1/19; thegameawards.com access date: 3/24, udate: 12/23