Leading up to the highly-anticipated release of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Square Enix has dropped a slew of new details and footage, including artwork, screenshots, and a trailer showing off Cait Sith, Nibelheim, Junon, and more.
To start, the one-minute reel offers a closer look at Sephiroth and Cloud, alongside his party members in action. Classic moments from the original game are set to return, with Rufus Shinra’s grand parade and the fight against the Terror of the Deep boss (that longtime fans will recognise as Bottomswell) getting a spiffy visual revamp. It also teases familiar story beats, but with an intriguing twist — a new scene shows Cloud crying out for Tifa, in what seems to be foreshadowing a major event involving a certain someone.
Outside of the trailer, the publisher showcased more of the game’s fast travel system, as well as its fairly huge map. The clip, posted on X/Twitter, highlights how quickly players can warp between different landmarks, cities, and designated Chocobo stops.
The official blog post, meanwhile, outlines the fighting styles for new party members like Cait Sith and Yuffie. Returning from Final Fantasy VII Remake‘s Intermission DLC, the latter adopts a speed-focused gameplay, with her large throwing star inflicting raw damage, and the Doppelgänger ability allowing her to attack from two places at once.
Cait Sith, designed after his luck-based roots from the original Final Fantasy VII, can call upon a moogle to dish out higher-damage, but slower attacks. Doing so charges up the Moogle Meter, which applies buffs to allies once full. More notably, the Let’s Ride ability allows Cait Sith to execute a combo attack with his moogle, enhancing both his regular attacks and unique abilities.
The two characters are also confirmed to have their own Synergy Ability — essentially tag-team combo attacks — called Moogle Pinwheel. Not much else is known about it, but it will supposedly feature “a secret ninja technique”.
On the note of returning faces, Elena, the Turk who was missing in Rebirth, is set to debut in the sequel. First introduced to the Turks in the Mythril Mine in the original game, she seems to be directly related to the universe- and timeline-hopping happenings in the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, tasked to pursue the Whispers together with Rude.
“Though she may be a rookie, she’s as skilled with her fists and a gun as anyone else in the Turks unit of Shinra’s General Affairs Division,” reads her official description.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will also feature brand-new character Captain Titov, marking a departure from the 1997 classic. Instead of the cargo ship used by Cloud and friends to sneak across to Costa del Sol from Junon, players can expect to see a cruise ship called Shinra-8 in its place.
The anticipated follow-up is releasing 29 February on the PS5, with an ESRB rating teasing “deep cleavage,” a “bodacious beach bod”, pools of blood, and a clue to Aerith’s fate. It is the second entry in the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, which will end with a third game that’s currently already in development. A release window hasn’t been announced, however.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
