Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Developers Talk the Meaning of ‘Rebirth,’ Returning Characters, and More [IGN]

We spoke to creative director Tetsuya Nomura, producer Yoshinori Kitase, and director Naoki Hamaguchi about everything we just saw in that trailer: Vincent, Zack Fair, chocobos, the Gold Saucer, the open world, and the name “Rebirth” all included. And while the game’s leads aren’t revealing every mystery right away, we did come away with some cool new details about what we can expect. Here’s a full, lightly edited transcript of our conversation:

IGN: To start off with, I actually didn’t know that Nomura-san was going to be here, but I wanted to ask, how involved are you on the project and what are you working on day to day?

Tetsuya Nomura: To put it simply, my involvement is, you know, not too different from Remake.

IGN: So from the preview session, it was very clear that although the path is familiar, there are slight changes – for example, the way that Yuffie is introduced to the party. Can we expect to see more moments like this that subvert the expectations of the players who know the past story?

Yoshinori Kitase: Okay, so, to comment on sort of the differences from the original work, you know, one point being that the order of certain events of the storyline may differ from the original, some may appear or some way, then what happens in the original, but overall, Rebirth will tell the story to the Forgotten Capital sequence, and overall, follow the original story. But as far as how characters join the party, like, with Yuffie, as you mentioned, has been reimagined in a way that sort of better suited for the modern audience.

Furthermore, as you know, within the original Final Fantasy 7, the character Zack Fair is one that doesn’t appear as much in the original title. However, we see at the end of Remake that he has appeared, which, you know, is quite a difference from the original title. And as for Rebirth, there will be a new episode with Zack, that will contain even more of him than the Remake. I’m not able to say much more than this as I would like for players to play and experience this with it in their own hands.

IGN: As you make these changes, I feel like it walks a fine line between for fans who want to see a faithful retelling versus the new changes and new story that you’re telling. So how do you balance making those changes and how much of the story is focused on subverting expectations for fans of the original, as opposed to a faithful retelling?

YK: I do believe that, and with Remake as well, we were able to tell the story and to express ourselves in a new way that doesn’t stray, or defy, the expectations of those who are fans of their original title.

And so, in terms of, you know, the question of balance, I do believe that a good balance between the two was maintained for Rebirth as well.

That being said, while the story that we follow is quite faithful to the original, as you’ve seen in the demo as well, in part one with the story of Cloud and Sephiroth and their journey at Mount Nibel, you see that it has been greatly kind of enhanced and improved upon the original whereas you know there’s sort of limitation based on the technology of that time whereas now we have just this much more like enhanced immersive experience with the voice acting that just adds another layer to these characters, the stunning visuals, and the acting of the characters that just show much more. So we have sort of the same episode that is now retold and invokes a new feeling, like a new deeper feeling within players.

IGN: So you mentioned that Zack has his own episode in Rebirth. What about any other characters from Crisis Core? Is there any world where Genesis returns to the FF7 Remake games?

TN: So, any characters beyond what is shown in the trailer, we’re unable to speak on.

IGN: In the trailer today, we saw a glimpse of Vincent popping out and saying hello. Will he be playable in this game or is he just a companion?

Naoki Hamaguchi: In terms of whether or not Vincent will be a playable character, he will be more of an accompanying character to the party in terms of Rebirth. So this will be similar to how Red XIII was in Remake.

IGN: I also saw some colored chocobos in the trailer today and I know that they were being used for traversal and everything, but will Chocobo breeding be back in Rebirth as it was in the original FF7? And if so, have there been any major changes or additions to the chocobo system?

NH: So to speak upon the chocobo’s role in Rebirth and how they will be utilized by the players within this game. It will be mainly sort of for world exploration, and by sort of using the chocobo, or riding the chocobo, they’ll be able to, you know, climb cliffs and sort of reach new areas that are, you know, not accessible as just by walking. So they’ll be able to explore deeper as you’ve seen in the trailer.

And as you may remember from the original title, one could acquire a chocobo by seeking that chocobo footprint, which was sort of the system in the original. And this time around, we do have a sort of a similar but enhanced new chocobo capturing feature that players can use to acquire the Chocobo that they can then use for world traversal and exploration.

And in terms of the breeding system that you mentioned, something like that does not exist in rebirth. However, for the Rebirth chocobos, each of them has their own unique name and they are able to enter the gold saucer races. There’s also equipment that is specifically designed for chocobos to equip that will enhance their stats and it will affect their performance in chocobo races.

In terms of the chocobo racing, has that been expanded? Are there any more tracks than the one from the original?

NH: Yes. So there are several race tracks that are available and just within the chocobo racing contest, there’s many varied courses that one could challenge. So, in terms of play hours that can be devoted, it’s quite, you know, copious amounts of hours that one could spend on chocobo racing.

One final chocobo question. How comfortable do you think that Red XIII is while riding a chocobo? He looked a little uncomfortable and might have some back problems from the way he’s hunched over.

NH: Yes. Thank you for this very great question, you know, as you noted, Red XIII and how he will ride a chocobo was very hotly talked about topic amongst the dev staff as well. So it was very discussed amongst ourselves and we kind of settled upon Nomura-san’s idea of how he should be riding the Chocobo.

And we really think that this combines both of the comical elements that alongside the serious plotline, that really represents Final Fantasy Seven series, and I’m really happy to see that this was really picked up in the trailer as well.

Speaking of moments from the trailer that are quite funny, we saw Cloud riding a Segway in today’s trailer and I have to ask: Where did that come from? And at what point in the game will he be riding the Segway? I didn’t know there were segways in the Final Fantasy 7 universe.

NH: Yes. Cloud riding a Segway in the trailer is also creating quite a buzz in Japan as well. And so for this, we were thinking of, while Cloud is visiting a lot of various locations throughout Rebirth, you know, Costa Del Sol, is this resort town.

So instead of walking and using a traditional mode of getting around this town, we were thinking to ourselves, is there a sort of a fun more exciting way for Cloud and the party to kind of traverse and get around Costa Del Sol.

So when thinking about this wheeled, hand-controlled transportation device, sort of this Segway-like machine came to mind, and we’re really happy that this is being noticed globally as well as in Japan.

So to finish up, do you have any clues for why this game is called Rebirth?

YK: So for this with the last title, Remake, we were just thinking of this concept of recreating, or reimagining. And so Remake was the title that we chose, and sort of in line with this, Rebirth was thought of as the next iteration that also kind of encapsulates this sentiment of reimagining or recreating.

With that in mind, should we expect to see the Whispers of Fate again throughout Rebirth?

NH: So as you know, with Remake as well, Whispers are these beings that arrive at these pivotal moments within the story. And you know, we aren’t quite yet announcing whether they will be gracing their presence within Rebirth as well. So this is something that we’d like for users to stay tuned for.

Alongside talking to the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth team, we also previewed the game, which you can check out right here. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth launches on February 29, 2024, and will be a PS5-exclusive…for the first three months, at least.