FFVII Rebirth at Tokyo Game Show '23 and media bonanza

[cold_spirit]

Lots of news and impressions coming in. Figured a new topic might be good. First and foremost, the news that is most pressing to me, a person with a Vincent pfp:

Vincent Valentine Will Be an 'Accompanying Character' in Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth

PS Blog:

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth hands-on report – playable Sephiroth, Chocobo exploration, Junon and more

Two-part Tokyo Game Show demo gives us a tantalizing taste of what’s to come next February.

blog.playstation.com

IGN:

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth: The First Preview - IGN

www.ign.com

Game Informer:

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Preview - An Hour With Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's Combat And Open(ish) World - Game Informer

We checked out two demos of the upcoming sequel and spoke to its principal designers to answer some burning questions.

www.gameinformer.com

Eurogamer:

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is Remake supercharged

One of my favourite things to do in Final Fantasy 7 Remake was to simply look up. Finally you could see the plates of M…

www.eurogamer.net

Push Square:

Preview: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Has a Playable Sephiroth

Our PS5 impressions from a hands on event

www.pushsquare.com

 

[cold_spirit]

Kotaku:

Kotaku | Gaming Reviews, News, Tips and More.

Gaming Reviews, News, Tips and More.

www.kotaku.com.au

Gamespot:

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Is Building On Remake's Gameplay In Smart Ways

In Rebirth, Square Enix is aiming to make meaningful additions to Final Fantasy 7 Remake's gameplay to tell a bigger story.

www.gamespot.com

VG 24/7:

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth takes you beyond Midgar

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth comes to PS5 next February and it looks to expand on the first game in every conceivable way.

www.vg247.com

Inverse (with interview):

'Final Fantasy VII Rebirth' Devs Tease an Expanded Story For a Major Villain

Tetsuya Nomura and Naoki Hamaguchi reveal new details about 'Rebirth's expanded story, minigames, open-world exploration, and playable characters.

www.inverse.com

Digital Trends:

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth jumps the dolphin | Digital Trends

We rode Chocobos and teamed up with a friendly dolphin in an eclectic first demo of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

www.digitaltrends.com

Dengeki and Famitsu have videos that capture most of the demos:

 

[Ite]

These are five reviews from YouTubers that launched exactly one hour ago, like a beautiful synchronized dance. They all have unique footage I think.

Maximilian Dood

SarahKey

ItsLazBoi

GameRiot

Jesse Cox

edit: after watching all that footage, I've removed the clickbaits. Based on what I've seen I liked SarahKeys video and then LaZBoi has a balanced look.

 

[cold_spirit]

From the Inverse interview. Big news for Rufus fans.

“With Remake, we went further in-depth into Avalanche in ways that were not done in the original,” Nomura tells Inverse. “This will be done for Rufus as well. He will have some sort of new episodes that do not exist in the original, where we will get to know more about him and dig deeper.”

Altogether, there's honestly just too much to process. Aerial combat, new materia (dual elements!?), climbing mechanics, new story beats and subtext, the aesthetic of the party menu. I'm toast.

 

[ph14basicbitch]

Hello. Me. I'm Rufus Fans.

Edit: Welp my friend is at TGS right now for Industry Day. He took a photo of the FF7 Rebirth line and it looks like it is 5 miles long.

 

[cold_spirit]

Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth Will Include a 'New Episode With Zack'

Kitase: "Furthermore, as you know, within the original Final Fantasy 7, the character Zack Fair is one that doesn't appear as much in the original title," he said. "However, we see at the end of Remake that he has appeared, which, you know, is quite a difference from the original title. And as for Rebirth, there will be a new episode with Zach, that will contain even more of him than the Remake. I'm not able to say much more than this as I would like for players to play and experience this with it in their own hands."

Outright confirmation that Zack will be playable? No. Absolutely looking like it? Yes.

 

[cold_spirit]

@ShinraArch has confirmed that Cid will be given the same treatment as Vincent and Red XIII, being AI-controlled. News comes via Dengeki's latest issue, which Shinra Arch is translating and posting in bits. Definitely give their account a look.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1704712821517308071

Also an update on Reno's role.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1704707641384034591

 

[Misterbadguy]

『FF7 リバース』インタビュー。前作からの謎や連携をはじめとしたバトルの新要素など気になるポイントを開発陣に直撃！ 新規ビジュアルも公開【TGS2023】 | ゲーム・エンタメ最新情報のファミ通.com

『FFVII リバース』のプレイアブル版や発売日告知トレーラーなどの気になるポイントを開発陣にインタビュー。

www.famitsu.com

Interview with Kitase/Hamaguchi/Nomura. Reiteration by Nomura that all locations from the original game will be included.

 

[ph14basicbitch]

Maaaaan, I almost wanna say that Fujikei is too recognizable to replace without it feeling weird... It's not like his work as Reno was his only big role. He dubbed over RDJ's Iron Man, he was the dad on Shin Crayon, he worked with Nomura on KH (Axel) and FF15 (Ardyn) too.

 

[Deleted member 13557]

Rebirth makin’ Remake look like a tech demo. Way more interesting gameplay shit in just the two demos.

 

[ForceStealer]

Hot damn this all looks so, so good. It needs to be February posthaste

 

[Deleted member 13557]

This is a separate, gameplay focused Rebirth video by Max. Not a duplicate of the one above.

 

[cold_spirit]

We've come a long way since our mid-2000s dream of a remake.

 

[Odysseus]

Stealing that

 

[Odysseus]

Also everyone get on your hands and knees and thank @TurquoiseHammer for staying up till 2 AM to translate all those interviews lol

 

[ForceStealer]

The fact that there's still a rainbow, 15-some-odd years since that original meme is just....well,

It's probably just the obvious think to do after all the water splashing around at sunset but...do you think someone on the team could really be refernecing that old-ass joke?

 

[cold_spirit]

Things I noticed watching the Dengeki footage. These are small detail things

• Can roll outside of battle
• On the equipment screen, items and armor are 3D, not jpegs like in Remake
• Materia Keeper Guardian is weak to fire, whereas in the OG it absorbed fire
• Firaga now takes 2 ATB to cast, but only costs 14 MP
• At the end of the Materia Guardian boss fight, Sephiroth has infinite MP. It appears to be a status as an icon is shown
• You collect crafting materials by running over them
• You can swap party members on the fly, even while exploring
• The World Report feature appears to have a narrator. They talk a lot.
• The lighting in the menus (which is now full 3D) changes with the time of day. Compare the lightning between the demos to see for youself
• Normal rabbits exist in the world of FFVII @Erotic Materia
• Rebirth is much more text heavy than Remake, both in menus and while exploring. It's so much information, it reminds me of Dissidia NT in battle

Going to watch the Famitsu videos later. Will share my notes for that too.

 

[Tetsujin]

Easy Allies preview:

 

[Makoeyes987]

Here are two videos of the complete demo without commentary. They're in Japanese.

The boss battle against Bottomswell Terror of the Deep is the Gigantepede boss theme from Episode Intermission. Got goosebumps hearing that again. So fucking good.

The fight against the Materia Keeper is amazing. LOL Sephiroth having to come to Cloud's help is hilarious. I love how in control Sephiroth looks through the fight, like he's just having fun. Also he has infinite MP because why wouldn't he? Double Helix is just perfect lolol

Just. February can't come soon enough.

 

[Wol]

Now this is the standard of exploration that I expected from VIIR1 and XVI. Looks really promising from the footage I've seen.

 

[cold_spirit]

• New "First Strike" mechanic. I wonder if the "First Strike" materia from Remake still exists.
• World Report feature is a handheld device

• Not an observation, but a thought: will there still be a CPR minigame? On Yuffie!?
• Famitsu footage has a visual bug throughout the Terror of the Deep boss fight where the dock forgot to load. Obviously this is a demo and not representative of the final game. Buuut considering Rebirth is bigger than Remake with a shorter turnaround time, I hope that didn't come at the cost of QA.

• Did not expect that you'll be able to swim in this game

• Weapons level up as well, just like in Remake.
• Looks like there's a "guide" mechanic to show you the way

 

[Deleted member 13557]

Can’t wait to play around with synergy skills and abilities. Simple stuff like Cloud being able to toss Tifa into the air with his buster sword to start aerial combos during normal combat is just so cool to me.

Interested in seeing more Red XIII gameplay. I guess he’s a melee tank while Barret is a ranged tank?

 

[Tetsujin]

The second gameplay vid from Max Dood has some good info. Every character now has a parry, which is pretty sick.
And there is double elemental magic materia (Fire and Ice)???
Interesting is that in addition to Barrier and Manaward there is also Protect and Shell...I don't know how these are effectively different although Protect/Shell seems to have passive protection when used with Warding materia.

Also, in the Sarahkey video I caught Red XIII mentioning Fort Condor as being on an island and that there is currently no way to get to it, which is some interesting lore for Remake. =p

 

[ForceStealer]

The Synergy abilties are also a smart way to create a bunch of character-specific special moves that they can tease out so they don't have to rush through all the original's limit breaks, which I wasn't sure how they could have avoided unlocking them all in this game, haha.

Interesting is that in addition to Barrier and Manaward there is also Protect and Shell...I don't know how these are effectively different although Protect/Shell seems to have passive protection when used with Warding materia.

That is interesting.

And the Fort Condor being an island is an elegant way to push that off. And also interesting from a generally higher ocean level in the Planet's high-res appearances. From the water seeming to come right up to Midgar in Advent Children, to Mt. Nibel's proximity to the ocean in this demo.

All this shit deserves another front page article but I honestly don't even know where to being, lol

 

[cold_spirit]

IGN interview asking the real questions:

IGN: So you mentioned that Zack has his own episode in Rebirth. What about any other characters from Crisis Core? Is there any world where Genesis returns to the FF7 Remake games?

TN: So, any characters beyond what is shown in the trailer, we're unable to speak on.

With that in mind, should we expect to see the Whispers of Fate again throughout Rebirth?

NH: So as you know, with Remake as well, Whispers are these beings that arrive at these pivotal moments within the story. And you know, we aren't quite yet announcing whether they will be gracing their presence within Rebirth as well. So this is something that we'd like for users to stay tuned for.

Really like the phrasing "gracing their presence".