Vincent and Cid Will Not Appear in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s Combat Encounters [IGN]

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will introduce characters Cid and Vincent to the remake trilogy’s storyline, but don’t expect to fight alongside them. Neither character will be present during combat encounters.

Talking to IGN, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi explained that “both Cid and Vincent are accompanying the party on their journey and they do help out, but they aren’t actually featuring in battle as guest characters. So they’re not really going to be involved in your fight.”

Last year IGN learned that Vincent Valentine will be “an accompanying character”, with Hamaguchi explaining that the character would be “similar to how Red XIII was in Remake.” In Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Red XIII was a ‘guest’ character and his actions in combat were handled by AI rather than the player. It was therefore easy to assume that both Vincent and Cid – characters confirmed to be starring in Rebirth by recent trailers – would also be controlled by AI in battle. However, Hamaguchi has now confirmed to IGN that the two characters won’t be present in battle at all.

“They’re going to appear in various parts of the story and scenarios where they play a role or they’ll help you out or assist you in some way, but they’re not actually fighting as guest characters in that sense,” said Hamaguci.

That means that Cid and Vincent’s combat abilities have been saved for the third and final game in the Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy. “If we used up all of the playable characters in the second part, then we would lose out on quite a lot of new surprises and new experiences for the player in the third game,” Hamaguci explained.

Despite not featuring in combat encounters, Cid and Vincent will still be significant NPCs in Rebirth’s story. “We do go deeper into their characters,” Hamaguci assured. “Not through the medium of the battle system, but through side quests where they’re going to be the main focus and you’ll learn a lot more about those characters.”

While we won’t be seeing Cid leap into the air to unleash Hyper Jump, or Vincent transform into a variety of monster weirdos, it’s good to know they’re still major parts of this second chapter. And we’re impressed with what we’ve seen already; Cid has had quite the glow up, and Vincent will be voiced by none other than Matthew Mercer.

With the release of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth being on the close horizon, we’re getting a sizable wave of news about the game’s approach to reinventing the original. Our latest hands-on preview takes a closer look at the new open world, and you can try it out yourself in the new playable demo that was announced as part of the recent Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth State of Play.

It’s an exciting time for FF fans, who will no doubt be theorising on what will happen, especially in the concluding chapters of Rebirth. Hints to that may be held in the ESRB rating for the game, which hints at blood, cleavage, and the eventual fate of Aerith.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.