While the internet has blown up because of the discovery of yellow paint in a Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth screenshot, some comments by Rebirth's director have snuck past under the radar. Specifically, he's hoping to surprise both new players and old with the new version of the game.
The comments came from game director Tetsuya Nomura, in an Automaton interview last week. According to the interview, Nomura wants to be able to surprise all players coming into the series, whether they're longtime FF7 veterans, or people who've begun their Final Fantasy journey with this particular title.
"There are people who have played the original and will play the remake trilogy, and on the other hand, there are players who started out with FF7 Remake. I also think there will be players who begin with Rebirth too", Nomura said. "We want all these different players to experience the same sense of surprise, regardless of their entry point".
It was clear since Remake hit the shelves that things were not going to be exactly as veterans remembered, with certainly elements within the game striking a discordant note, and rumors and speculation have abounded ever since. Nomura knows this is likely to cause some strife within the community: "I honestly cannot imagine what players will be thinking … I’m even more nervous about how people are going to react to some of the things in Rebirth than I was for Remake."
As an older Final Fantasy enthusiast who was glued to the series in earlier years, it's nice to see changes being made to make a remake actually worthwhile. After all, if I want to experience the original story again, I can do exactly that by loading up the old game. Instead, Final fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth are looking to change up established timelines and storylines, and give players something new to chew on. While there's no doubt there's an element of sacrilege here, it betrays a certain amount of effort that could easily be missing in a lazier port that just stapled nicer graphics onto the same storyline.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth lands on Playstation 5 on February 29. A PC port will likely come much later, so PC gamers will need to dodge spoilers if they care to find out the new storyline for themselves.