Posted in: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy VII, Games, NYCC, Square Enix, Video Games | Tagged: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, nycc 2023

We Tried Final Fantasy VII Rebirth During NYCC 2023

Square Enix gave us a chance to try out a demo of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and here's what we thought about that experience.

Back during New York Comic-Con 2023, we got a rare opportunity from Square Enix to fly out to NYC and try out Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. In the middle of all the hype for the voice cast panel, and the major reveal of Matthew Mercer being the voice of Vincent Valentine, we were taken away from the Javits Center to a secret location where director Naoki Hamaguchi and the Square Enix team were allowing the media to check out a demo of the game. We sat down for a couple of hours to play it out, and here's our experience and takeaway from that event!

If you happened to be at Tokyo Game Show 2023, this is the exact same demo they were showing off to attendees. The demo we got to play came in two parts, as we got one section dedicated to new content that signifies the new timeline of the game, while the second part takes us down familiar territory with a pivotal scene. Both of them were designed to show off the game in a new light as we are getting new experiences with familiar characters and settings. We were highly encouraged to go with the first scenario to start our session with, so we dove into it. In case you're not familiar with where we're at in this game, at the end of Final Fantasy VII Remake, we discovered that the game was a brand new timeline of the iconic storyline, and it was revealed several other timelines involving the same group of people had been created from a singular point, all of them with different paths. Rebirth throws you into the deep end of a new experience with the concept that you're not in the original FF7 setup, and are going down a brand new timeline.

With that in mind, the first scenario is a completely original section as we find ourselves with Cloud, Tifa in her cowboy outfit, a Shinra soldier, and Sephiroth all working together! This section had us working toward a common goal, however brief it may be, as we were seeking out an issue within a mining area at Mt. Nibel. But it looks nothing like the original and doesn't have the same missions as before. Here, you could walk around and find just random pieces of Materia to put into your weapons and toward your skills, if you so desired to do so. This is the first time you really get to experiment with mixing and matching the right color combos to make your moves and spells do added damage and pay off with added abilities attached to them. We walked around from the shores of the area, up some ladders, and into one of the entrances of what is clearly a run-down facility. After solving a puzzle and doing some extra exploring, we came across the main purpose of the journey: fighting a Materia Guardian with both Cloud and Sephiroth.

The battle mechanics stay the same as in Remake, allowing you to swap between characters and choose your skills for each character to maximize your damage at critical moments. Making sure that both characters get in their hits while also healing when needed and doing spell casting for the added damage on top of the slashing. But really what it comes down to is eventually performing a special Synergy Ability move between the two called Double Helix, where they basically fight as a team who can predict what the other is about to do. At one point, I swear, they looked lovingly into each other's eyes. So let the new era of fan fiction begin with that design. Once the monster was defeated, that was the end of that section.

From here, we moved on to the second area of the game, which Final Fantasy VII fans will be deleted to see has returned as we make our way to Under Junon. This part of the demo really made our day as this is the first time in the new series of games we're able to work with Chocobos! We were automatically equipped with one to work with at the start as a form of transportation and let me tell you, they basically go everywhere. They run, they trot, they leap, they swim, they climb walls, they kinda fly (but not really), and yes, YOU CAN PET THE CHOCOBO! The area came with a few different things to explore before heading into the city area, as we fought a couple of monsters, restored a sign tow working order for a shop, got a golden plume, and discovered you need to buy pillows to rest on broken benches. We even visited a small Chocobo farm where you could snag a few items here and there to help with your own. They really went all out to please fans of the monster birds with everything you could ever want to do.

From here, we headed to the city and were quickly greeted by the town's mayor and sheriff, Rhonda. After dispensing with pleasantries about us not causing problems, we were free to roam around and see what the place had in store. The town looks really cool compared to the original, but like a dummy, I immediately fell for the trap of some kid yelling at us and asking for help. So, rather than exploring, we immediately dove into the first mission this town gave us. We followed her down to the water, where a monster was attacking the boats, where we found Yuffie in trouble. She was being attacked by a mysterious creature called the Terror Of The Deep. A random dolphin shows up to save her, but then we're left with the task of taking it out.

We had the choice of a few different characters to fight with, but for this one, we went with the default of fighting with Aerith and Red XIII. This was really the first chance we got to fight with Red XIII since he was basically a near-end-game tool in Remake and didn't offer any real chances to add him to the party. The monster was a pain in the ass as we had to fight our way through constantly being entrapped in water bubbles, and calling on Aerith for healing became a constant throughout the battle. But we managed to pull off the victory, which included Cloud riding that dolphin to score the killing blow.

Overall, the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth demo was pretty killer. It showed us they kept with the theme and have made subtle improvements to the gameplay compared to the first one. That said, this is but a small taste of what's to come. If the rest of the game is like this, it's going to be a pretty clear winner, even if it is in a different timeline from the original. We'll see what the game has in store for everyone when it's released on February 29, 2024.

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