Don't worry, you don't need to play Final Fantasy 7 Remake to enjoy Rebirth
One less for the backlog, it seems.
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If you were wondering if you need to play Final Fantasy 7 Remake before Rebirth comes out, it turns out the answer is you don't!
Over the past few days, the official Final Fantasy 7 Twitter has been releasing some suitably vague question and answers from the various devs that are working on Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. It started out with the account telling us the fact that there isn't a release date set in stone just yet, but development is going smoothly. Yesterday we were even told that Rebirth will have a "chain of narrative developments," exciting stuff, I know. Today's post is slightly more interesting though, as it turns out that you don't even need to play Final Fantasy 7 Remake in order to enjoy Rebirth.
"Do I need to play Final Fantasy 7 Remake to enjoy Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth?" the post asks Rebirth co-director Motomu Toriyama, who responds by saying, "No - we have made preparations so that players who did not get a chance to play the first game can fully enjoy Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth." Who knows how this will actually play out, as Remake does set up some pretty big story changes from the original PS1 game that feel like they'll have a lot of weight going forward, but hey, I'm not the developer so what do I know?
It's not a particularly surprising choice that the game has been designed this way, as games are becoming increasingly expensive to make, and are taking even longer to release, so of course Square Enix will want as many people to play as possible. You can really feel that from Nintendo's latest in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, as you honestly don't need to play Breath of the Wild to enjoy its sequel.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was announced last year during a Final Fantasy 7 25th Anniversary stream, and was promised to release the following Winter, i.e. anytime between this coming December and February 2024 (roughly, anyway). Some fans think that these Q&As are leading up to a new trailer at the Summer Games Fest. There has been one every day for the last four days, so it could be assumed that on the seventh day, or June 8, the day of Summer Games Fest' live stream, is when we'll get it. Square Enix is confirmed to take part in the event, so we only have to wait a few days to find out anyway.