Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Following the events of 2020's Final Fantasy VII Remake, Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret, and Red XIII have escaped the confines of Midgar and gotten rid of the Whispers, meaning the possibilities as they step out into the vast world depicted in the middle portion of the original Final Fantasy VII are endless. In contrast to the corridor-heavy structure of Remake, the openness of Rebirth is immediately refreshing, but as I found out during both my hands-on and hands-off demos, the improvements don't even come close to stopping there.

The exclusive portion of my demo – the hands-off part – takes place in the Junon region approximately 10 hours into the main story. The area is mostly made of grasslands but features some mountainous areas with cliffs as well. Driving this hands-off demo is director Naoki Hamaguchi. He pulls up the world map to show just how massive the explorable area of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is.

While each section of each region – in this case, Grasslands and Junon – is labeled on the map as separate areas, you can seamlessly walk between them. «We thought that it would be easier for players to go to just one region,and so from a U.I. perspective, we have it separated – Junon and Grasslands – but in actuality, you can traverse, and they're all connected with each other,» Hamaguchi says.

In this demo, Hamaguchi shows me the Crow's Nest, a new town not present in the original Final Fantasy VII. This sister town to Under Junon shares the same anti-Shinra sentiment and serves as a hub for sidequests and, as I soon find out, minigames.

«In Rebirth, we've added these types of cities like the Crow's Nest – totally new cities that did not exist in the original to go deeper and create this whole worldview of Rebirth,» Hamaguchi says. «We reach this area after completing a quest, and then this place unlocks. The residents already know Cloud and the party are a part of Avalanche.»

Sidequests play a huge role in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, but naturally, players