Vincent Valentine Will Be an ‘Accompanying Character’ in Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth [IGN]

Following a new Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth trailer featuring the exciting first appearance of Vincent Valentine, the game’s developers have confirmed that the red cloaked pseudo-vampire will indeed join the party in Rebirth in a manner similar to Red XIII from Remake.

This comes from IGN’s own interview with the developers, in which director Naoki Hamaguchi confirmed Vincent’s role:

“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,” Hamaguchi said. “So this will be similar to how Red XIII was in Remake.”

Specifically, this means Vincent won’t be playable in Rebirth, but he will be a party member of sorts. In Remake, Red XIII joins the group partway through the story and fights alongside them, but is not able to be controlled in battle or have his equipment changed. However, this doesn’t mean Vincent is permanently off the party list – Red XIII is playable in Rebirth, meaning Vincent might join the group for the final section of the trilogy (whenever that comes out).

Vincent’s appearance in the recent Rebirth trailer came as a welcome reveal, as the character is one of the more beloved party members from the original FF7. In the original game, Vincent was an optional party member met in Nibelheim, who joins the party on his own revenge mission. Vincent was popular enough that he got his own spinoff game, Dirge of Cerberus – though it received mixed reviews at the time.

We recently saw a major new teaser for Rebirth at a Sony State of Play, where we got a look at not just Vincent, but also Cait Sith, the Gold Saucer, and a lot more. Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth will apparently feature 100 hours of content, and will include one very specific scene fans are “dying” to see, per Square Enix. Rebirth is currently planned for a February 29, 2024 release date as a PS5-exclusive initially.

We also talked to producer Yoshinori Kitase and creative director Tetsuya Nomura about the role of Zack Fair in Rebirth, as well as how chocobos will work. You can catch up on the full interview right here, and our preview of the game here.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Additional reporting by Bo Moore.