Closing Fantasy VII Remake set the tone for what gamers might anticipate from this three-part retelling of the beloved 1997 Sq. RPG. The wonderful updates to the fight system, the incredible expansions on character relationships, and the stellar manufacturing values informed us Sq. Enix will not be taking the duty of remaking one among its most iconic video games flippantly. Nevertheless, Closing Fantasy VII Rebirth appears to take a number of elements of the expertise to the following stage, largely due to its emphasis on aspect content material.
Following the occasions in Midgar, as depicted in Remake, the celebration emerges into an unlimited, open space. Within the unique sport, this was depicted by an overworld map, however in Closing Fantasy VII Rebirth, gamers stay in the identical perspective as the remainder of the sport as they transfer from one focal point to a different. After the extra restrictive method to Closing Fantasy VII Remake, the brand new sense of openness is refreshing, and one thing the group was deliberate in integrating, significantly when you think about how far more open this section is in the course of the unique title.
“Seeing that Remake is ready on this planet of Midgar, through which the participant can discover inside that space, we leaned closely on story parts and had been centered on a extra narrative-driven sport for Remake,” director Naoki Hamaguchi says. “Now that we’re getting into into the surface world and going ahead in that path, I’ve this need to depict extra of that feeling of exploration, and I very a lot really feel that this was capable of be achieved for Rebirth.”
Whilst you’re exploring, you must plan on having the chance to take pleasure in a ton of aspect content material. Hamaguchi estimates that roughly 80 % of Rebirth’s exploration-based content material is aspect content material, whereas the mainline story makes up the remaining 20 %. If that makes you are worried that Rebirth lacks story content material, Hamaguchi says you may loosen up; even merely specializing in the principle storyline, he estimates it should give gamers round 40 hours of gameplay. In the meantime, should you sort out an honest quantity of aspect content material, gamers can anticipate to spend round 60 hours in Rebirth, whereas essentially the most devoted sidequesters can sit up for upwards of 100 hours of content material.
But it surely’s not content material bloat for the sake of inflating these playtime hours. The developer additionally wished to make sure it delivered a various and significant expertise to gamers. “When these bigger titles in which there’s a extra expansive world that has these giant quantities of aspect content material, some gamers might really feel these have a big amount of aspect content material, however maybe the precise expertise will not be as different,” co-director Motomu Toriyama says. “For Rebirth, we took care of getting this choose variety of aspect content material, which we really labored to develop in depth. This was a big consideration for us, permitting gamers to expertise varied types of gameplay by the aspect content material. In that method, I consider we had been capable of obtain a particular taste amongst comparable titles.”
Once I ask Hamaguchi for his favourite RPG exterior of the Closing Fantasy sequence, with out hesitation, he names The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, CD Projekt Crimson’s 2015 masterpiece that many think about one of many best video games of all time. That title is thought for its significant aspect content material, which is so robust that its storylines even match these of the principle story.
“Relating to titles like The Witcher 3, which has that open-world role-playing sort ingredient, we did some in depth analysis into these kind of titles and checked out it as a baseline through which Rebirth must be a sort of title that may stand alongside it and have the kind of content material that will be satisfying to its gamers,” Toriyama says.
Those that performed Closing Fantasy VII Remake will acknowledge one of many distinguished sidequest givers: Chadley. The youthful researcher as soon as once more needs your assist studying about Materia, and he’ll reward you with extra summons. As you progress by the world, he asks you to look into sure happenings by occasions referred to as World Intel.
The rewards sound price it, however from every part I hear from the builders, the story often is the driving drive behind pushing gamers to sidequests. To make aspect content material extra significant, Sq. Enix expanded the affinity system. This under-the-hood mechanic takes your actions in the direction of a personality and interprets them into how sure scenes – such because the famed gondola date sequence – play out. Closing Fantasy VII Rebirth’s aspect content material is a important driver for this mechanic, with every sidequest bringing in a secondary protagonist from the celebration. Finishing a sidequest improves Cloud’s affinity with the given character (to be taught extra in regards to the sidequest I noticed, head right here).
“We wished to present gamers the liberty of selection in deciding whether or not they wished to dedicate themselves solely to the principle storyline and, like, no sidequests in any respect,” Hamaguchi says. “Or there is likely to be individuals who need to delve into the aspect content material and go actually in-depth into the character relationships and perceive the story deeper, or simply the steadiness of these two. We wished to present that freedom.”
The unique Closing Fantasy VII contains a ton of minigames – significantly throughout its center part – and Rebirth is not any completely different. One of the concerned and steady minigames is Queen’s Blood, a aggressive card sport you may play towards NPCs in Rebirth.
Whereas the group stays tight-lipped in regards to the actual mechanics, we all know it’s a strategic card battler with collectible and deck-building parts. “By way of the variety of playing cards, there’s a huge quantity – sufficient to be, like, its personal card sport virtually,” Toriyama says. “A part of the enjoyable will probably be accumulating these playing cards. Queen’s Blood is extra of a strategy-and-thinking form of card sport, however I took a take a look at a number of the gameplay when you find yourself towards the top, and you’ve got collected all the playing cards, and it has the potential to develop into a really flashy, fast-paced card sport; it virtually has the instant-ness of a taking pictures sport through which your opponent might put down a card, then you’ll immediately put down a card whereas placing down one other. It’s totally quick. After all, that is on the utmost issue stage of the cardboard sport, so I consider there are solely going to be just a few gamers that play at this depth stage.”
The opposite minigame I bought a take a look at is a piano exercise. Via exploration, Cloud can discover sheet music for compositions throughout the world. He can then sit on the piano and play the songs utilizing the 2 analog sticks and a few buttons. The piano minigame additionally contains a freeplay mode, which lets you carry out any track you need. I watched a developer play a well-known Japanese track utilizing the in-game piano mechanics. It appears prefer it’ll take quite a lot of observe to get that good, however the mechanics appear deep, and the group needs gamers to embrace the power to play any track they like and share their performances on-line.
I did not get a take a look at the chocobo racing, however the group touts its enhancements and modernizations to be extra in keeping with what gamers anticipate from a contemporary kind; gamers can equip their chocobos with stat-boosting gear, and the various kinds of chocobos carry out in another way. Toriyama tells me the Rebirth group even briefly thought-about collaborating with the builders of 2022 kart-racer Chocobo GP for the minigame however finally determined to go its personal route. With Gold Saucer and Fort Condor nonetheless but to be mentioned in-depth, I can solely think about the minigames ready for gamers after they enterprise to these areas.
Closing Fantasy VII Rebirth arrives on PlayStation 5 on February 29. For extra on the sport that took house “Most Anticipated” at this yr’s The Sport Awards, click on the banner under to go to our unique protection hub!
Elements of this text initially appeared in Concern 362 of Sport Informer.
