The wait is nearly over for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, launching on February 29th for PS5. We’ve heard about its size and scale, with an installation size of 150 GB and a plethora of new features and content, but how does it compare to its predecessor? Final Fantasy 7 Remake wasn’t built from the ground up on PS5 and thus faced some limitations, but how different is Rebirth? Let’s go over 15 big gameplay differences here.
Graphical Improvements
While it might not be the most immediately noticeable difference, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s are a big step up from Remake. Based on the gameplay showcased thus far, the former doesn’t have the bland or flat textures that plagued Remake’s PS4 launch. Foliage is more detailed and abundant (which is more due to the setting, but still worth pointing out), and character models have seen improvements. Even the facial animations look better, though a more extensive deep dive into everything is required. Long story short, it keeps to its predecessor’s aesthetic while delivering even more fidelity.
Red XIII, Yuffie and Cait Sith
Final Fantasy 7 Remake saw Red XIII as part of the group but not directly playable. INTERmission made Yufie playable but in a quest separate from Cloud’s party. In Rebirth, both characters will finally be a part of the main group, alongside newcomer Cait Sith. Red XIII is about guarding against damage and building up the Vengeance gauge.
Upon activation, Vengeance Mode grants him increased power, speed, and an attack to leech enemy health. Yuffie wields a throwing star, which can damage enemies as she unleashes elemental ninjutsu. Meanwhile, Cait Sith fights with cat-like agility and can summon a Moogle to enhance his attacks. Several of his moves are luck-based or focused on building the Moogle Meter.
Playable Sephiroth
Of course, there’s one more playable character for fans to get excited about – Sephiroth. While his presence in Remake was extensive compared to the same point in the original, Rebirth goes a step further by allowing players to actually play him. Granted, it’s in a flashback sequence, but he even gets Synergy Abilities and Skills with Cloud, which look fantastic.
Junon, Costa Del Sol and More
Final Fantasy 7 Remake concluded with the party’s departure from Midgar, and while it offered a significant number of areas to explore, Rebirth is bigger. Players will venture to locations like Junon, Costa Del Sol and more, with the story presumably concluding at the Forgotten Capital (the developer has already confirmed that the location order differs from the original). It should mean more location variety compared to Remake, complete with several new threats and challenges. Wutai won’t appear – that’s in the next part.
New Cities and Towns
As many changes as Remake made to the original’s story, it added quite a bit, including new locations like the Employee Housing Area. Rebirth looks to one-up it by introducing new cities like the Anti-Shinra town of Crow’s Nest. You’ll learn about it while visiting Junon, and it’s meant to “go deeper and create this whole worldview” for the title, as the developer described it to Game Informer.
Seamless Exploration
Seeing Midgar, from Sector 7 and its Slums to the bustling Wall Market, brought to life in Final Fantasy 7 Remake was great. However, it wasn’t seamless – there were loading screens and chapter-wise progression to access later areas. By comparison, Rebirth’s map isn’t fully explorable from the start – you still have to play the story to unlock new areas – but there are no loading screens between areas.
As the developer told Press-Start last year, the team took the original’s world map but “created it all in a one-to-one real scale. So all of the dungeons, cities, everything in that world is now included in the same space. One seamless map.”
Synergy Abilities and Skills
Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s INTERmission DLC introduced Synergy Attacks, allowing Sonon and Yuffie to attack together with special moves. In Rebirth, there are now two types – Synergy Abilities, where two characters unleash a powerful joint attack, and Synergy Skills, where two party members activate useful effects to aid in the fight.
While the Skills can differ depending on the active character, Abilities are the same for a duo, regardless of who initiates them. Every party member has different Synergies, and more are discovered as you progress through the game, adding even more strategy to the combat.
New Summons
Final Fantasy 7 Remake featured a handful of summons, like Ifrit and Bahamut but also added to the list with standalone Summons for Cactuar and Fat Chocobo. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will also feature some iconic Summons from the original that didn’t appear in Remake, like Phoenix and Titan. However, it’s also adding Bahamut Arisen, which seems to be Neo Bahamut from the original based on its red scales. Several other Summons are likely, though it remains to be seen which return from Remake.
New (and Many More) Mini-Games
In terms of mini-games, Final Fantasy 7 Remake had the likes of Darts, Whack-a-Box, Squats and Pull-Ups, not including side activities like the Shinra Combat Simulator and Combat Coliseum. However, Rebirth offers much more, starting with the new collectible card game, Queen’s Blood, and piano playing (with various sheet music to collect and a free play mode).
You can also tame Chocobo, go on treasure hunts with them and even partake in the Gold Saucer’s Chocobo Racing and Avatar Fighter Battles. There’s even a mini-game devoted to the parade in Junon, which is heavily expanded over the original game. Unfortunately, the snowboarding mini-game from the original isn’t coming back.
Chocobo Riding and Types
Aside from fast travel, Chocobo didn’t have a big role in Final Fantasy 7 Remake. On top of more activities in Rebirth, players can finally ride one and explore the vast map with them. There are also different types, from the default Yellow Chocobo to the Blue Chocobo, which can fly and the wall-climbing Black Chocobo. Each has different stats in Chocobo Racing and best of all, you can fully customize their feathers, saddles, caps and more courtesy of chocoboutiques.
More Extensive Side Content
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s side content is roughly double the main quest and much more extensive than Remake. There are new places, battles and stories to discover, but more importantly, the side quests build on the world and the relationships between the party members. Some will have party members acting as secondary protagonists with Cloud. Meanwhile, Chadley returns from Remake and will task you with gathering World Intel from all the exploration in exchange for Materia, providing another reason to tread off the beaten path.
New Materia
While plenty of Materia is returning from Remake, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth offers plenty of new options. Gil Toss returns, now known as Spare Change, but still lets you deal damage based on the amount of money consumed. There are also Materia, which combine elements like Wind and Lightning, allowing spells from both while only occupying one slot. You can also use Level Boost to increase the level of a Materia, and while it doesn’t work on maxed-out Materia, it provides even more strategic options.
Dynamic Difficulty
Final Fantasy 7 Remake launched with three main difficulty options – Easy, Normal and Hard. It also had Classic Mode, with gameplay more in line with the original game, though it was only available on Easy difficulty. Intergrade would change this to allow for playing Classic on Normal as well. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth adds a new Dynamic difficulty, with your enemies becoming stronger alongside Cloud and friends. It’s essentially level scaling and provides a challenge for those who want it.
Additional Outfits
If you enjoyed collecting the different dresses for Tifa, Aerith and Cloud in Remake, there’s good news: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will have more alternate outfits. The developer said at last year’s Paris Games Week that some outfits are “very well hidden”, while the developer promised more choices than Remake, satisfying those who enjoy modifying their party’s appearance.
Playtime
Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s playtime is no joke. It takes 33 hours to complete the story, per HowLongToBeat.com, and about 41.5 hours to do it with the side content. A completionist run, presumably including a Hard Mode playthrough for its exclusive content, takes 86 hours.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s story takes about 40 hours if you focus exclusively on it. Playing a “good amount” of the side content bumps that up to 60 hours, while those who complete all the side quests can hit 100 hours of playtime. Considering all the content, a completionist run may go even further beyond.
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