Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's anticipated launch is approximately six months away, and a recent hands-on preview offered a glimpse into the early stages of its narrative and combat. While previous previews highlighted the open-world exploration, this specific demo focused on more linear, story-intensive sections, beginning early in Chapter 1 as the party arrives at the North Crater.
Materia Progression and Item Transmuter Enhancements
Within the game's menus, a new method for leveling up Materia was revealed. Players can now consume Materia fragments to grant AP ratios, a departure from the gradual absorption through combat. While the acquisition method for these fragments remains unclear, the demo provided a starting cache that allowed for immediate experimentation, such as enhancing Fire Materia. The Item Transmuter, also returning from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, features a significant quality-of-life improvement: the auto-loot option for gathering crafting materials is enabled by default, streamlining the collection process compared to its predecessor.
Combat and New Character Mechanics
The demo featured Cloud, Cid, and Vincent as the default party. Cid's combat style was notable for its rhythmic nature, chaining standard attacks with empowered strikes activated by a blue mist. These stronger attacks proved effective at staggering standard enemies. The game's director, Naoki Hamaguchi, has indicated an approach to make platinum trophies more accessible, which appears to extend to combat difficulty, as many standard enemies were dispatched quickly. Even larger enemies with mini-cutscenes were overcome with a few ATB abilities.
The FITS system, which allows for job assignment, was also showcased. Cloud was equipped with the Summoner job, enabling the use of Ifrit, Shiva, or Titan. The appeal of these summons lies in their Synergy attacks, which can be initiated with a single character's ATB meter. However, many enemies in the demo were defeated before these powerful abilities could be fully utilized.
Boss Encounter and Narrative Focus
As the player progressed deeper into the crater, encounters with Sephiroth clones led to a vision sequence for Cloud. Later, these clones fused with creatures to create more formidable enemies, culminating in a boss battle against Gigas. This fight allowed for the testing of synergy abilities, such as Cloud and Ifrit's combined Hellfire and sword attack. The demo concluded with a challenging three-phase boss fight against Jenova Deathmourner, a creature that utilized fire-breathing tentacles to create invulnerability phases. This encounter finally provided the opportunity to execute multiple synergy abilities from different party members.
Despite the demo's relatively low difficulty, attributed to its early placement in the game, the linear, story-driven segments retained the dramatic intensity seen in previous installments. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is set to conclude the remake trilogy, suggesting that content potentially rushed in the original PlayStation title will be expanded significantly.