Final Fantasy VII Remake part 2, don't mind if I do! (Thoughts on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth demo)

 Hey friends! If you're anything like me, you've been getting excited for quite a few games that are coming up pretty soon, and one that has been sticking out is Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the second part of the trilogy that is remaking the original Final Fantasy VII. There's a lot that we still don't know about it, other than obviously picking up directly from where Final Fantasy VII Remake left off, and the interesting thing about that game was that it was about the first 3 hours from the original game, but they stretched it out to be 30 hours long at least. The next game in this series is looking to be much longer, since it's going to be largely open world, while the first game took place entirely in the Midgar section of the original title. I'm really excited for it, but let's get into what we can expect, and what the demo revealed!

You've gotta love flashbacks!

    For anyone familiar with the original game, Final Fantasy VII, You probably remember the part of the game where Cloud recounts to the party how he came back to his hometown of Nibelheim as a member of Soldier, along with Sephiroth, the great hero. In a lot of ways, this is a huge turning point of the game, and one that is returned to later on in the story with a different twist to it. It says a lot that this game seems to begin from this flashback sequence. It's such an interesting point in the game, where the Cloud in the story certainly isn't acting like the Cloud Strife that we've met so far in the game (or in this series so far, I should say), and it's unclear exactly why he's choosing to tell the story in the way that he is. Like in the original game, there are a few points where one of the characters asks Cloud, "Oh, did you open this chest?" and Cloud says yes, causing the Cloud in the story to open the chest, and other situations like this. Of course, the star of this flashback sequence has to be Cowgirl Tifa, who has always been a favorite of mine, but in this game, as it was in Remake, you can swap characters on the fly while in battle. Unfortunately, you can't use Tifa in this part (which makes sense, since the version in the story hasn't gone through enough training to fight monsters yet), but you can play as Sephiroth! I don't know why I didn't think that they were going to do that, but I'm so glad that they did. Of course, we know Sephiroth as the ultimate villain of the game, but this flashback does a great job of conveying exactly when things went wrong with him. Where he took his dramatic heel-turn into full blown villainy after discovering the origins of his true past. No doubt this is one of the most iconic images of the original game, leading to him always being associated with a wall of fire that he can walk through. It's a chilling image, and it's so much cooler now than it was back in 1996 when all of the polygonal models were so rudimentary and jagged.

    Beyond the basic premise and story backdrop of this sequence, there were a few stand-out moments , first of all being an unexpected rhythm minigame. You know I love rhythm games, you can see that from my platinum trophy for Theatrhythm Final Bar Line, but this has a real connection to the original game. In that game, in the flashback sequence, you have the option to go into Tifa's bedroom and play her theme on the piano, which will allow Cloud to remember it somewhere farther down the line for a really cool puzzle. This sequence has been changed into a full blown minigame, and the fact that you find sheet music for Tifa's theme makes me excited to see what other sheet music and what other piano pieces you'll be able to play in this game, maybe replacing the collectible music discs that you could get in Remake. It was a fairly challenging minigame, I will say, but it made me really get invested in it, plus Tifa's theme is just incredible, even though it does often get blown over for Aerith's theme. Another interesting addition to the gameplay seems to be more easily traversable environments, though the mechanics related to this are a little janky, often causing Cloud to suddenly barrel over a fence during my time playing the demo. It's not a major deal, and honestly, I kind of like the idea of being able to traverse the terrain more easily than it was in the first game, where you had to walk to one specific point to be able to climb a ladder or going all the way around a fence. It's an interesting convenience, and I hope they'll be able to make it work more smoothly in the full title.

    The one disappointing thing about this demo is that you could only play as Cloud and Sephiroth, and while Sephiroth is an amazing addition to get to play in this first hour or two of the game, I do wish there was some taste of some of the new party members like Red XIII or Cait Sith. I have no idea what the latter of the two is going to play like especially, but we'll have to see! I'm also really excited to see how Yuffie finally teams up with the rest of the party after her stand alone DLC. I wonder if they're going to give her the same introduction that she had in the original game, where she stole all of the party's materia and you had to chase her down. I feel like that would be annoying, but it would make sense with keeping to the same major plot and just changing a few things. Of course, going into the story, it's hard to predict what could happen, with the original plot of Final Fantasy VII being actively fought against by the main party as they face the time travel ghosts, and ultimately making this a different game all together. It's such a weird and interesting idea that I liked a lot in Remake, and I hope this new game will continue to make weird risks like that one.

    This demo took me about 2 hours to beat, and that's pretty crazy just for this intro to the game, and even crazier, beating the demo unlocked a second part of the demo which is scheduled to be released on February 21, which will focus more on the open world element in the main portion of the game. I thought about waiting for the second part of that, or even just waiting for the full release of the game, which is coming out on February 29, but I thought it would be nice to have some of these early impressions out here and build on them once I've played through the whole product. I'm really excited, and I hope Square does more remakes like this. I can only imagine what a Final Fantasy VI remake could look like, considering it came out for the Super Nintendo, though there have been some whispers about IX getting the remake treatment once they're finished with VII, but we'll see. So much discourse has come about based on remakes and remasters, but these games so far have been so far removed from the original PS1 title, that they truly stand on their own, and if you've played the original, you know a bit more about the context while you're playing through, which I think makes it even more enjoyable.

    Thanks so much for reading this post, friends! Are you looking forward to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth at the end of the month? What character are you the most looking forward to being able to play as? Feel free to let me know somewhere on the internet, and I hope you have a great week! Until next time, I'm Jonathan, your Self-Proclaimed Ex-Soldier, and I'll talk to you again soon!