The church within the slums, the Gold Saucer date, the slap-fest atop Junon’s Sister Ray cannon—Ultimate Fantasy VII has a heaping serving to of memorable setpieces. And few amongst them are extra iconic than Sq. Enix’s personal Rashomon—the Nibelheim Incident.
Right here’s the setup: After leaving his hometown to hitch the elite army pressure often called SOLDIER, Cloud Strife returns to Nibelheim accompanied by the legendary warrior Sephiroth. They’re investigating issues with the close by Mako reactor, when issues go very unsuitable very quick. All through FF7, we see this inciting incident from a number of views, studying new info every time. What occurred at Nibelheim is foundational to our understanding of Cloud and a significant purpose why FF7 continues to be so beloved greater than a quarter-century later.
Pre-order Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth: Amazon | Greatest Purchase | GameStop
Reimagining FF7‘s Nibelheim Incident
In a latest demo of Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth, the second installment of the three-part remake out February 29, I received an amuse bouche of Sq. Enix’s reimagined model of this sequence. Accompanied by path information Tifa and a faceless Shinra grunt, Cloud and Sephiroth ascend Mt. Nibel to the reactor, demolishing monsters alongside the best way. Within the 1997 model of FF7 this climb is the one probability you get to play as Sephiroth, and his immense energy relative to Cloud is communicated by way of his Large Boy HP stats and talent to hit for 9,999 injury with each swipe of his sword.
Rebirth communicates Sephiroth’s power in additional delicate methods, however they’re nonetheless impressively badass. He’s received a completely realized moveset that feels distinct from Cloud’s, and may warp quick distances within the real-time fights to keep away from injury or arrange combos. He and Cloud even have a cheek-to-cheek tandem assault that’s most likely already impressed numerous attractive fanfics. You positively come away from this reimagined sequence feeling like Sephiroth shouldn’t be somebody you’d wish to mess with.
Past the pyrotechnics, the storytelling in Rebirth’s riff on the Nibelheim Incident actually shines, including a stage of nuance that simply wasn’t attainable with the low-poly block monsters and textual content containers of 1997. The very first thing you’ll discover is that one thing about this model of Cloud Strife is off. It’s not simply that he’s youthful. It’s not the pie-eyed innocence, though that’s additionally jarring. What’s discordant right here is the simple allure, the pure self-assurance. Teen SOLDIER Cloud is, fairly merely, lovely. The Cloud of FF7’s current tense has none of those qualities—not but, anyway. He offers aloof responses, has a behavior of telling individuals to “stand again” so he can “deal with” issues, and is palpably scared of women.
Longtime Ultimate Fantasy dweebs will instantly clock the rationale for this disconnect, which I gained’t spoil right here. However I can simply see how Cloud’s clear persona shift could be compelling to of us who weren’t already aware of the sport’s difficult lore. Your complete sequence is cleverly and lovingly dealt with, and I can’t wait to see extra examples of this within the full recreation.
Exploring the outskirts of Junon
The second a part of my demo consisted of open-world exploration and monster searching within the space close to Junon, and golly, there was an terrible lot to take onboard in a half-hour or so. The true-time fight gameplay has been expanded since Remake to incorporate tag-team assaults and extra highly effective variations often called Synergy assaults. You’ll even have extra playable characters to select from, together with Purple XIII, whose low-slung heart of mass and speedy moveset make him a enjoyable pairing with combo monster Tifa.
Throughout fights, you’ll see members who aren’t within the lively social gathering bopping round within the background. So far as I might inform, they’re probably not contributing to the struggle, however it makes extra sense than everybody disappearing and reappearing, I assume. It wasn’t precisely immersion breaking, since I used to be largely involved with remembering the controls and combating kinds of every character, however I might think about ultimately getting irritated by Barrett doing pointless sprints on the periphery whereas I’m getting my ass handed to me in a troublesome brawl.
One of many largest questions heading into Rebirth has been how the sport would deal with FF7’s expansive world map. The environments stay true to the aesthetics of the unique whereas increasing the dimensions to account for the shift from the top-down overworld map of the OG PlayStation period to a seamless third-person expertise. You’ll have entry to quick journey by way of the in-game menu, in addition to chocobos to hurry up exploration. Thus far, so good. Although I’m glad to see each member of the social gathering get their very own noble chicken-horse to experience as a matter of precept, I did run into uneven visuals, whiplash digital camera motion, and a jumble of choco-butts whereas I used to be wandering round or turning all of the sudden. Hopefully the ultimate launch will easy that out.
The Junon part of my Rebirth demo felt way more cluttered than the Nibelheim stuff. I used to be buffeted by a Cyberpunk 2077-esque barrage of notifications about actions like monster searching, following chocobo chicks, and crafting. Mixed with new HUD components, the general presentation felt a bit crowded and cluttered in comparison with that of Remake. The complete recreation will seemingly profit from integrating these actions into the expertise extra regularly, slightly than overturning the toy field multi functional go.
If there’s one factor precisely nobody was asking for, it was including a crafting system to FF7. (Ultimate Fantasy XV’s magic-crafting system managed to be each deeply damaged and boring as hell.) Even so, I’m excited for Rebirth’s typically more-is-more strategy to this story. Within the basic authentic, Cloud’s doomed world is a superb place to get misplaced in, and that definitely appears to be the case on this fashionable reimagining as nicely. I could not turn into a grasp potion-maker anytime quickly, however I’m awfully excited to hop aboard my chocobo and go discover some bother.
Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth releases on February 29, 2024 for PlayStation 5.
Pre-order Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth: Amazon | Greatest Purchase | GameStop
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