Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is emphasizing party bonds in both combat and story, aligning seamlessly with its overarching theme. This integration enhances the overall experience by intertwining the gameplay and narrative elements.
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00:00So Heather has played the first chapter and a lot of the second chapter of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
00:06Is Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth basically just Final Fantasy 7 Remake going open world?
00:11Like, now that you've actually played it, does it work? And is it any good?
00:16First off, it's very good. From what I've played so far, I would definitely say that fans of the
00:21original are absolutely going to love what they've done with, like, recreating some famous moments
00:25right from the beginning. But it's also, it feels so much bigger in terms of its scale to Remake,
00:32because obviously Remake, we were running around Midgar and we were quite confined in that space.
00:36It was still kind of a fairly big adventure, but obviously now we're going out into the wider world
00:40and it's done a really good job of recapturing the kind of magic of stepping out into that overworld
00:46in the original game for the first time. But now you're, like, looking out over this grassland area,
00:51which is the first open, sort of zoned area that you go in. Yeah, it definitely feels bigger,
00:56but it's also doing other things that make it feel grander in scale too. It's not just in the sense
01:03of its, like, size and scope. On the one hand, the map looks massive and there's, like, a nice,
01:07like, fog of war element where it's kind of like, when you first go and then you bring up the map,
01:11you can see how big it is, but you can't see there's anything there. But then on the other hand,
01:14to help you kind of navigate it, I've noticed that there's, like, a red flying bird and there's various
01:19little, like, golden elements and stuff that when you get close to something to discover,
01:23they'll appear and start leading you off into areas. So there's a nice thing where
01:27it looks like you can wander, but then if there is something to discover, like,
01:31they kind of, like, are pulling you in certain directions. So that seems to, like, help with that.
01:35Yeah, there's definitely, like, a sense of discovery where you're free to run around and find points
01:39of interest, but all of the markers are very clear. So you can definitely find your way, which I think is
01:44good, because sometimes in, obviously, this is more of an open zone-y type of experience,
01:51but in open world games, it can feel quite overwhelming of, like, where do I go? What do I do?
01:55This is very, like, you run around in the grasslands, you can fight enemies, but you can also
02:00find your way pretty easily as well.
02:03Yeah. Another huge thing for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth versus Remake is they've upped the
02:09interactions with party members. I think that the bar that we've now been set with something like
02:14battles get through with your companions and who you fight with is really high. Obviously,
02:19I'm not expecting them to necessarily hit those highs, but you mentioned that there is so much
02:23going on with the interaction with your party members and, like, upping your relationship with
02:26them and how that affects the story, the game, the combat, everything. Tell me about that.
02:30Yeah, so they've really gone big on party bonds in Rebirth. It's, like, one of the main themes of the
02:36game they're kind of positioning as. You not only have more chances to speak with them right off the bat,
02:42so you can go up and have conversation with them in calm, like in chapter two, pretty much
02:47very early on. They will ask you things and you have to make a decision that's timed and your
02:54relationship will change depending on what you choose to say to them. So they could be like,
02:57I want to go here with you, or does this remind you of something? And what you say will affect your
03:02relationship with Barrett, Tifa, Aerith, Red. And they'll bring it up later on?
03:06Yes. So yeah, depending on, basically, I decided to go somewhere with Aerith and then the team
03:12mentioned it later on. So you can see pretty much straight away how your choices are sort of
03:17affecting the group dynamics. They absolutely know what they're doing for shippers as well. I will tease,
03:23I don't want to spoil anything because I think the joy of discovering it for yourself should be for
03:27you to find out for yourself. But I'm definitely taking Barrett on romantic.
03:33And yeah, obviously, it's not just how much you interact with them in terms of conversation
03:38and story. It's also right in the combat too. It's baked into pretty much every feature of the game.
03:45And yeah, so we go to synergy moves, which is a new feature of Rebirth.
03:50They're kind of like cinematic limit breaks, but like tag team style. They look absolutely amazing.
03:55Yeah. And so is it a case of if you're if you have a better relationship with somebody,
04:00your synergy moves work better?
04:03Yeah, there's like a system that's when you go around doing quests and overcoming challenges
04:08together, your party level will increase. And so instead of like leveling up individual characters,
04:13you kind of you still level up individual characters, but all of their synergy moves level
04:18up with the party level. So you can unlock new skills that two pairs can use.
04:22Yeah, if that makes sense. But there's also synergy skills on top of synergy abilities.
04:28And synergy skills are tied to your block mechanic on R1.
04:33Okay, so you can do synergy blocks as well.
04:35PS5 controller. I just said PS1 controller.
04:39Heather's retro. She only plays PlayStation games with PS1 controllers.
04:43Oh my God.
04:43The amount of compatibility issues she has is insane.
04:45Yeah, so you hit R1 on the PS5 controller for your block, and that will bring up some specific
04:52synergy skills that each character will have. So for example, if you're fighting with Red
04:5713, Cloud will have synergy powers that sort of feed off of what he can do with Red.
05:03Yeah, it's obviously in episode intermission, which was the DLC with Yuffie and Sonnen.
05:09They had synergy abilities, which is basically the same thing. So they've sort of brought
05:16that forward. And that was one of my favorite things of the DLC.
05:19The thing with Yuffie in intermission was it was just the two of them. This is another level.
05:24Yeah.
05:24This is a whole nother level with all different characters. And we know there's going to be
05:27new characters introduced. And even people like Red 13 and stuff, you can see that he plays
05:32very differently. Especially something like Barret. He's much more fluid and moving around
05:36and stuff. And so we have different weapons. We have different abilities. We have different
05:42things that you can slot. We have different items. And now we have synergies, both attack
05:46and defense and different characters. It's that thing where if you're one of these people
05:49who loves to go into the weeds of Final Fantasy VII, the first, the original, and play with
05:54all the different things in the back end and really tweak everything and min-max stuff
05:57to your preferred play style, you're going to be suited down to the ground here.
06:01How did you feel that newcomers will come to that? Because they are positioning this,
06:05strangely, I don't really get it as a standalone game. So they're going to be targeting this
06:10to newcomers. How do you think? There seems to be a lot going on here. Do you think newcomers
06:14will be able to pick this up?
06:16Yeah. I mean, right away from Chapter 1, they tutorialize everything for you. So you're going
06:21to go straight in, being told how to make use of the different powers. You're going to
06:26combat quite early on in Chapter 1 with Sephiroth, which is very exciting.
06:30Sorry, what?
06:31Yeah. So you can fight with Sephiroth and you can control him as well. They have this
06:36feature, which is party leader. So you assign a character to be the party leader and whoever
06:41is party leader is who you will control when the battle starts. But you can switch between
06:46any characters as you're fighting. And Sephiroth is one of them. So you can control him, which
06:51is really cool. And you see him fighting with Cloud in Chapter 1.
06:54There's going to be so many people that are playing it going, oh, this Sephiroth guy is
06:57quite cool. I like him. Like if they haven't played it before. And then he'll be like,
07:01you said, hmm, okay, fine. Yeah. Okay. We'll talk about that later, but go on. Okay.
07:06Yeah. And then once you reach Chapter 2, it will also tutorialize all of the other systems
07:11like weapon upgrades, how your folios work, which is a whole other part of it, which is basically
07:16like the rebirth version of skill trees. So each character will have a folio with their
07:21own set moves. And this is going into the synergy abilities again.
07:25Yeah. I did notice that a couple of characters that when you meet them, they go, do you remember
07:28me? Wink, wink, wink. And it's like a yes, no answer. And it's clearly like, yes, I remember
07:33you. They'll go, okay, I won't tell you about how the combat tutorials work then or the Chocobos
07:37work.
07:38You can kind of see that with like meeting Chad Lee, for example, in Chapter 2.
07:42Chad Lee. The biggest Chad ever.
07:44Exactly. It's kind of, they've clearly done things to be like, if you've never played remake
07:48and you don't like, who is this kid? You have an option to be like, I don't remember you.
07:52Refresh my memory.
07:53He's a small annoying child.
07:54Yeah.
07:55Unless you can help him up.
07:56But nicely, you can be like, yes, I remember you, Chad Lee, go away. I don't want to do any.
07:59Yes.
08:00More importantly, let's go back to Sephiroth.
08:01Yes.
08:02You start the game playing as, is it Cloud and Sephiroth?
08:04Yeah, you're playing Cloud first. He joins the fray. He joins the fray.
08:08He joins your party, which is very exciting.
08:09And then you can play him in combat, which is really fun with, he has his sword and he
08:13has his own cool powers and skills.
08:15And moves.
08:16So they've brought back the same systems as Remake.
08:20So you can have like the classic mode or the action mode and you can pick whichever one
08:27you want.
08:28But yeah, it's still kind of the same systems as Remake in that sense.
08:33But synergy sort of ups it and changes it.
08:35So it is that thing where they have taken Remake and just made it bigger, better, faster,
08:41stronger, more complex.
08:42Like, you know.
08:43Yeah.
08:44I really love what they've done with Bonds above everything else, because you really get
08:48the sense that this is a unified party that are overcoming things together and they're
08:53really growing their relationships because of, you know, the fact that they're going through
08:58so much together.
08:59And I think that's such a big part of what makes Final Fantasy 7 so great.
09:04It would be really unfortunate if you built all those bonds up and then something happened.
09:08Anyway.
09:09Who can say?
09:10Oh yeah.
09:11Who knows where this story can go.
09:12You can see again why they've kind of done it for that reason too.
09:15Teasing probably.
09:16Wrench your heart out even more.
09:18We'll see.
09:19Like, I don't know if I like it because I'm just like, I know where this is going.
09:23Don't make me cry again.
09:25I'm very curious to see how much it will make certain moments affect you more potentially.
09:32But we'll have to wait and see because we don't know.
09:34We don't want to do it.
09:35I'm probably going to do the Bambi thing in Friends.
09:37And just before it gets to that point, be like, Anna, finish the game.
09:40I'm done.
09:41Done.
09:42Finished.
09:43Ignorance is bliss.
09:44Precisely.
09:45So it is coming out very soon exclusively for the PS5 on the 29th of February.
09:51There is an exclusivity window where it is coming to PC later in the year.
09:55But initially, if you want to get your hands on this and if you want to play it,
09:58you've basically only got the PS5 to play it on, which is unfortunate.
10:02But they're more available now.
10:04Just to summarize, it's good.
10:06It's fantastic.
10:07I really think if you're a fan of the original game, you're going to get such a kick out of
10:13some of the things that they've done right from the beginning.
10:16And it just makes me all the more excited to see some of the moments that I remember playing
10:20as a kid on the original version.
10:22But even if you're completely new to Final Fantasy or you started at Remake, Rebirth's
10:26a fantastic continuation or maybe a starting point, but I'd still say play Remake.
10:31I say play Remake.
10:32Anyway, very excited.
10:34Rebirth out the end of February.
10:36And we'll look forward to the review.
10:38Promise not to tell?
10:41When she wakes up, a scary man is going to kill her.
10:45find out.
10:47She's a very excited.
10:48man.
10:50You're the only chance to see her live after the game.
10:52Please ask, we see a clear one.
10:53Check out the target point dinosaur.
10:55She's going to tell her where she ain't even 누가 from there.
10:57Look.
10:58Aren't you still going to pull her theле?
11:00The return of her camera.
11:01The return of the game.
11:02How much banish is.
11:03She's got the try and have a good one.
11:04You can see a text, the image of one movie.
11:06What is it written for Legend of ?