Tokyo Game Show 2023

Playing as Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth Makes You Feel Like the Ultimate Badass

At Tokyo Game Show 2023, I was able to spend some hands-on time with the upcoming second title in the Final Fantasy VII: Remake trilogy, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. Players were given the choice of two possible demos to play. The first followed Cloud and the party and was set outside of the city of Junon. The second was the Nibelheim flashback. As only one of these gives you the chance to play as Final Fantasy VII's big bad, Sephiroth, you can probably guess which one I chose.

The Nibelheim flashback demo follows a younger Cloud, Sephiroth, and Tifa, as they climb Mount Nibel en route to the Mt. Nibel Mako reactor—along with a nameless, silent, masked soldier who will in no way become important to the story later. The basic gameplay remains the same as in Final Fantasy VII: Remake. You attack normally, block, and dodge while waiting for the ATB gauge to fill—which, in turn, allows you to do abilities and cast magic.

This section of the game, while lacking any real challenge, does a great job of showing off a few new additions to the game. There is more free movement throughout the game's areas. If any platform or rock face is at Cloud's height or lower, he can almost always jump up on top of it—leading to new paths and more chances for exploration. The blue markers that are used to mark these kinds of locations are now regulated to being at the base of climbable surfaces or to mark narrow, less obvious passages.

In combat, there are a few changes as well. The most obvious is that Cloud's dodge now doubles as an attack as he spins away with his giant sword. There are also a ton of new materia to play around with—and I enjoyed chucking waves of money at my enemies to do damage.

In boss battles, when certain damage thresholds are hit, the boss will become temporarily invincible—leading into a cutscene or a special attack. While the damage number still appears, the boss' HP gauge gains a special “don't attack” icon to let you know that you are no longer doing damage—i.e., to warn you not to waste your MP or special attacks. It's a welcome quality-of-life change from the previous game. The demo's boss also serves as the introduction to the new team-attack combo system—which leads us to the elephant in the room, getting to play as Cloud's partner for this section of the game: Sephiroth.

While playing as Cloud feels nearly identical to how it did in the previous game, being Sephiroth is an experience—you feel like an unstoppable badass while playing as him. His normal moves and attacks are fast, have massive range, and are instantly recognizable from his appearances in other media. His dodge is a nonchalant side-step teleport that, along with everything else, gives off the feeling that he isn't even really trying. Rather, he's simply letting Cloud show off a bit—and teaching him about high-level fighting in the process.

All this is some seriously excellent show-not-tell that lets you experience first-hand just how much stronger Sephiroth is than Cloud. This is what you need to catch up to—the true strength of the threat you're going to have to face. It makes Sephiroth a better, far more intimidating bad guy and lets you know you and your party are going to have to work hard to even get close to his level. I can't wait to revisit this section of the game when the full version is released early next year.

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth will be released on February 29, 2024, for the PlayStation 5.