Fans have been waiting for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth for a while now, but the end of Summer Game Fest 2023 came with a very welcome treat for them; a new trailer, and some more information about what we can expect when the game comes out in 2024. One of the more interesting pieces of information is a confirmation that Rebirth will follow a very old Final Fantasy tradition, in that it’s such a big game it’ll be split across multiple disks.
Unlike previous Final Fantasy games from the Playstation 1 era, which stretched across three and even four disks, Rebirth will only come on two disks, but that’s still impressive when you consider this is only part two of a three game series.
The trailer itself reveals a lot about what fans will experience. Unlike the first game, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which was confined to the dystopian urban sprawl of Midgar, Rebirth will take the action outside of Shinra’s polluted city, showing us the larger world. But not all is as it seems, as Red XIII and Bugenhagen reveal in the trailer, as the planet’s Lifestream continues to be drained by Shinra.
But, like the original Final Fantasy VII, the focus of the game will now shift further away from Shinra as the ultimate bad guys, and towards series favorite (and apparent Pantene enthusiast) Sephiroth. It’s clear from the trailer that Rebirth will continue a broadly similar narrative as the original game, with Cloud’s murky past with Sephiroth being explored — but it also hints at potential changes. The trailer concludes with Sephiroth stating "you know that I killed her. So, who is she?" The obvious answer is Aerith, but the trailer is clearly teasing that Tifa could be the one murdered by Sephiroth — which would be an enormous change in the game’s storyline.
Also highlighted are some gameplay changes. As mentioned, there’s an open world to explore, but combat appears to have changed slightly too, with combination Limit Break special moves being showcased. Yuffie and Red XIII are shown as playable characters, and the game is set to visit some iconic locations, such as Cosmo Canyon.
There was no release date revealed, but the release window has been set as early 2024 for the PS5.