Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the sequel to the Final Fantasy VII Remake and is the second game in the Final Fantasy VII Remake Project. Starting immediately following the events of Remake this game follows Cloud and the party from leaving Midgar to the events in the Forgotten Capital. Before I get into more of my feelings and opinions of this game, it’s clear that the developers of the Remake Project expect players to have if not played the original and Crisis Core that you at least know the full story going in as there are things that might be confusing otherwise. At this point I will be discussing mild spoilers for the game.

You start playing this game as Zack who has just arrived at Midgar and is trying to find and save Aerith. From there we jump to Cloud and the rest of the party who are trying to track down Sephiroth to stop him from destroying the world. The game progresses like this where you occasionally play as Zack and try to find out what is going on with the timelines. Personally, I believe that there are three timelines/universes at play. We have the original game timeline where I think Sephiroth is from as there are times he knows or mentions things that he should not know or have a connection to, then there is the main Remake timeline with Cloud and the party that is more or less following the events of the original game but Aerith knows something about the Whispers and changing fate, and finally there is the timeline where Zack lived which is very different. Zack and Cloud in that timeline appear in the aftermath of the battle with the Whispers in a world that it seems like the battle was lost and most of the cast is now dead and the world is also dying.

Overall, I love this game and these characters. I terms of game play it’s mostly the same as Remake but there is added Synergized mechanic for team attacks and the Folio system to unlock new moves and other attributes. We also get new characters in Yuffie, Cait Sith, Cid, and Vincent. However, like Red XII in Remake Cid and Vincent are not playable. The other thing that I love is the emphasis on learning more about the characters and their back stories both in the main plot and in some of the side mission/content. This is one of those games that you can decide how much of the side quests and mini games that you want to do but I feel like it truly fleshes out the world. I didn’t enjoy all of these specifically the card game, Queen’s Blood but when I replay it I do plan to get through more of the side content.

Personally, I can’t wait for the next game and I hope we get answers to all the lingering questions about Aerith and Zack and the timeline changes. While this is a game for fans as long as you’ve played Remake you could play Rebirth without having knowledge of the original game but there are emotional scenes that will not have the same impact as those who know everything going in.