During last night’s Final Fantasy-focused State of Play, Square Enix dropped a brand new demo for the upcoming title. Focusing entirely on the events in Nibelheim, the demo lets you take control of both Cloud Strife and Sephiroth on their climb to the reactor. The first playable demo of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is out now, and if it’s any indication, this game will be an incredible experience.
The demo kicks off with the opening chapter of the game, right after the events of Final Fantasy VII Remake, continuing the Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy, with Cloud and the crew taking shelter in the town of Kalm after escaping the city of Midgar. Cloud starts to fill the gang in on his shared history with Sephiroth. We jump back five years to when Cloud and Sephiroth were part of SOLDIER. They’re sent to Nibelheim, a quiet town in the mountains, to investigate monsters around a reactor. Nibelheim is also the site of one of the original Final Fantasy VII‘s most iconic scenes. Making it a Nibelheim episode demo above all else.
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The Final Fantasy VII Rebirth demo, as a whole, faithfully recreates this section from the original game. Once you arrive in Nibelheim, you take control of Cloud as you explore the village. You can still go to Cloud’s mom’s house, with that scene in particular being more chilling than before. You can make choices on what to do as Barret, Aerith, and Tifa chime in from the present day as you explore. They egg you on to see your mom, get surprised when you go to Tifa’s and are rightfully upset if you decide to rifle through Tifa’s belongings in her room. I do encourage anyone to still go to Tifa’s room, as the piano minigame there is brilliant.
As shown off in the trailer, you use both sticks to hit notes as Cloud plays the piano. It’s a lot of fun and can be challenging. Tifa’s Theme is available for quickplay, along with a freeplay mode. The State of Play showed off a ton of minigames to engage with. If they can maintain this piano’s quality, I can’t wait to check them out.
Nibelheim itself feels bustling and alive. Kids run around playing. Townsfolk wander about their daily lives. You can find villagers doing stretches and routines outside, and there is chatter all around as you walk around. Return to the hotel, and you find a crowd of people unhappy with the monsters lurking outside. Nibelheim feels bigger and looks more beautiful than ever before. It has a sense of scale and identity that was missing from the original.
After a night of rest in town, Cloud, Sephiroth, and a cowboy hat rocking Tifa head up the mountain. This section reintroduces you to combat, and it feels better than ever. It took me a minute to slip back into the ebb and flow of the action combat, but quickly enough, I was blasting spells and slicing monsters. I loved the combat in Final Fantasy VII Remake, and it feels further refined here. Movements are snappy, transitioning in and out of combat is seemless, and it’s just a ton of fun.
The climb continues similarly to the original, but bigger. Everything about the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth demo feels similar to Final Fantasy VII Remake in its scale and expansiveness. There are areas to explore, monsters to fight, and treasures to find along the way. The one part of the demo that I didn’t care for was the momentum stopper, which was the mako purifier. You’ll need to grab the purifier and move it around to suck up mako deposits. While there wasn’t really anything wrong with these sections, they just weren’t very engaging. It reminded me a lot of dumpster moving in The Last of Us. The purifier is cumbersome and slow to move, grinding the pace to a halt. It’s not bad, just not very fun.
As you climb, you reach a long bridge suspended over a gorge with a river below. This scene is the same as Final Fantasy VII, as lightning strikes and you drop below. Picking back up in the basin, you’re given control of Sephiroth. Playing as him was the highlight of the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth demo for me. He feels like a bunch of razor blades in a blender, ripping around the combat arenas in a flurry of cuts. He’s fast, hits hard, and can teleport around to enemies with his dodge. You really feel like the legendary powerhouse in the encounters that follow. His combat kit includes special moves that you can use with triangle during his regular attacks. The attack changes depending on what part of the combo you use it in, ranging from a strong pierce attack to a flurry of quick cuts.
The demo’s combat culminates in a huge fight with the Materia Guardian, a hulking beast with multiple legs to climb and a massive tail to grab with. This encounter is a ton of fun, really pushing you to use everything you have to take it down. Synergy attacks are introduced here as well. You can use quick attacks that combo with Cloud here. It culminates with a massive attack to take down the beast. These additions are awesome, and I can’t wait to see how different party members combine to deal damage.
The rest of the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth demo plays out as expected. You find the reactor, Sephiroth snaps, and the Nibelheim incident meets its tragic end with his attack. Moving through town as Cloud is harrowing. Buildings burn, townspeople cry out, either for help or mourning the loss of loved ones. This scene hits harder than ever before, as the new graphics and voice acting really elevate it from the original. During the assault, Cloud limps, crawls, and moves slowly through town. Because of these movement choices, you really take in the horror of Sephiroth’s attack. The demo ends with Sephiroth in the iconic shot of him in flames.
The entirety of this demo really just highlights the design ethos behind the remakes. Compared to the original, everything is bigger, louder, and expanded on. Nibelheim in Final Fantasy VII takes anywhere from 30-45 minutes, while here, the demo took me almost two hours and is missing the ending to that tragic part of the game when you return to the reactor.
Graphically, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth looks stunning. I switched between both Graphical and Performance options, and both looked gorgeous. The trees on the climb to the reactor, the rushing water, the sweeping vistas – all looked torn out of a dream. Everything looks like how I imagined they did in the base game so many years ago. I opted to use performance for the sweet, sweet frames. I had no issues with frame dips during the gameplay, even when the particle effects turned up during battle.
Anyone who completes the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth demo can bypass this section of the full game when it comes out, along with getting a Kupo Charm Survival Set. There will be more added to the demo, too, between now and the launch, letting you take control of the party later in the game to explore the open world. Everything about the few hours I spent with the game felt confident. I didn’t want the demo to end, wishing it could have given me just a bit more. I can’t wait for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and if this demo is to be believed, we’re in for another incredible chapter in the Final Fantasy VII saga.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth demo is available now on PlayStation Store, and the full game will be released on February 29, 2024.
