The Ultimate Fantasy franchise is in impolite well being after the nice reception of Ultimate Fantasy 16 earlier this 12 months, and now followers have the second a part of its mammoth remake of Ultimate Fantasy 7 to look ahead to – Rebirth.

I used to be invited to a hands-on session with Rebirth earlier this month, to play a few sections from its huge-looking storyline, and to get a way of what to anticipate when it comes out in February.

Ultimate Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Impressions

Polished RPG enjoyable

From the hour or so I performed, Rebirth appears to be like like an excellent continuation of this remade trilogy. It is snazzy and polished, however nonetheless foolish and recognisable, however will clearly pack in loads of twists for even the most important followers. This might be one thing particular.

Professionals

• Beautiful visually
• Clearly taking story in fascinating instructions
• So many celebration mixtures
• Sounds manner larger than Remake

Cons

• Solely received to play for an hour
• Arduous to inform the true scope of open areas

Broadened horizons

From the bombastic trailer that it confirmed throughout a State of Play earlier this month, it is clear that Sq. Enix goes large with Rebirth, as the sport’s celebration of characters flees the extra restrictive environs of Midgar.

Cloud, Tifa, Aerith and the remaining shall be heading out into the open wilds, and that may deliver correspondingly larger areas to discover, with extra aspect quests and minigames to find.

At its preview occasion, I received to play by two discrete slices of the Rebirth. One, a mission known as “The Fated Mt. Nibel” was a flashback to Cloud’s youthful days.

In it, I used to be investigating an deserted facility with Cloud’s then-mentor Sephiroth, guided by an additionally youthful Tifa (the primary time she and Cloud have met, actually).

Sq. Enix

Later, we performed a few of a bit known as “The Open Wilds of Junon” because the celebration approached the armoured metropolis of Junon and hunted some beasts alongside the best way.

The primary mission, that flashback, is maybe the juiciest from a narrative viewpoint because it’s an growth of a a lot thinner part within the unique sport, and this time options a much more playable Sephiroth in fight.

He dices and slices with Cloud, shelling out barely ominous knowledge alongside the best way. The second mission gave a style of the kind of open space that Rebirth will provide up, with mobs of monsters to dispatch earlier than we made our method to Junon’s undercity.

Sq. Enix

Each ended with spectacular boss fights and gave sampling of Rebirth’s fight with some story sprinkled excessive.

In actuality, you may be taught extra about how Rebirth’s story is shaping up from that juicy State of Play trailer embedded above because it glides over a a lot wider slice of the sport than what I performed – however the place gameplay is worried, I received take a look at issues.

It is all about synergy

In practise, Rebirth would not really feel drastically totally different to Remake and Remake Intergrade – which is not any shock in any respect, because it’s clearly constructed on the identical basis.

Exterior of fight, you will management Cloud shifting round areas and ranges, choosing up assets whenever you discover them, with a bit of extra exploration doable than earlier than.

Sq. Enix

Rebirth hasn’t fairly received a leap button, however a contextual command will allow you to jump over hurdles and small gaps, though the truth that it is not a devoted button does make it barely janky.

Nonetheless, the true coronary heart of Rebirth – or the sections I performed – is in its fight system, which is drastically expanded. Whereas the primary sport gave you a handful of fighters to swap between and command (Cloud, Aerith, Tifa, Barrett and Yuffie in Intergrade), Rebirth will up that depend with extra controllable celebration members.

I used to be in a position to experiment with Crimson XIII and Sephiroth along with the characters from the final sport, and each had been enjoyable additions to the roster.

Sq. Enix

Clearly, Sephiroth is prone to be controllable solely briefly sections, however he is tremendous highly effective and serene-feeling, simply as you’d hope, with highly effective slashing and thrusting assault choices.

Cloud is a secure standby on the centre of your workforce, and after a couple of minutes remembering the movement of issues, fight turns into rhythmic and satisfying identical to in Remake.

There are actually a great deal of mixture assaults to discover, too (after their addition in Intergrade) – when two characters construct up sufficient cost you may unleash joint assaults which have fairly ravishing visuals to go along with them.

Sq. Enix

The digicam sometimes misplaced monitor of those across the edges of no matter area I used to be in, however that was the one actual (minor) problem I encountered.

With an enormous vary of magic-altering Materia to fit into gear slots per character and an expanded set of doable mixtures, it is clear that Rebirth will provide up a complete bunch of management for these itching to min-max their celebration system.

Particulars, particulars

If Remake was an excellent late-life showcase for the PS4, and Intergrade was demonstration of the PS5’s added beef, Rebirth is a continuation of that upward development – from what I performed, it is a ravishing sport to take a look at.

We might solely pattern the sport’s high quality mode, at 30FPS (there shall be a 60FPS-targeting efficiency possibility, too), and on that setting, each the caves of Mt. Nibel and the plains exterior Junon seemed merely nice.

Sq. Enix

Coming into the undercity of Junon (and sneaking into some retailers regardless of a urgent goal elsewhere) demonstrated that this shall be one other fantastically wealthy and detailed world, even at a much bigger scale total.

Cabinets are full of objects and each nook appears to function bespoke property. In outside exploration, issues had been maybe much less minutely crafted, however the visible high quality continues to be glorious total.

I moved across the Junon plains on a Chocobo, for which I might select (and earn) customized armour, and the plumage was one other nice instance of how spectacular this sport’s fashions are.

Sq. Enix

Fight, in the meantime, is an explosion of attractive particles and easy animation, with the newly added mixture assaults particularly, easily and bombastically stitching collectively the motion.

There’s additionally a tell-tale leaning towards the camp and enjoyable that may serve Rebirth effectively – my Junon mission ended with a boss struggle vanquished with the assistance of a dolphin, and a rainbow-soaked sundown to cap it off.

Impressions

What I performed of Rebirth has me very excited for the following slice of Cloud and his friends’ story-rewriting journey. It is already trying like a a lot larger sport than Remake, however the truth that it additionally appears to be like higher and has extra gameplay choices makes for a heady combine.

With the promise of dozens of hours’ value of aspect content material, minigames and collectables to uncover, together with what is going to clearly be a cultured method to its melodramatic story, this appears to be like set to be a blockbuster in early 2024.