Predicting Final Fantasy VII Rebirth – How Much Did We Get Right?
So back in 2021, post Intermission’s release, Finger Guns made some predictions on the basic story structure of what became Rebirth, what might hit the cutting room floor, and where endings might happen. Now that Rebirth has been released and 100 hours down, we’ve completed the bulk of it, let’s take a look back at what we got right and wrong. Spoiler Alert for Rebirth, Spoiler Alert for the original Final Fantasy 7, and Spoiler Alert for the eventual part 3. Just general Spoiler Alert – you have been warned.
Kalm and the Grasslands
So, true to our predictions, Rebirth began in Kalm, and recapped Cloud and Tifa’s history with Sephiroth for us and the rest of the team. Cue dark opening chapter and lots of foreshadowing! But Kalm itself had changed dramatically. The town and surrounding grasslands were a much bigger open-world hub than we expected, but we weren’t far off the mark. Quests, mini-games, a new card game, lots of stuff here that introduced all the systems going forward. We can admit there was much more Chadley than we predicted, or wanted.
Lamentably we weren’t right on Chocobo breeding being retained, or for Yuffie joining here (instead she joins the team in Junon). However we were right that the Mythril Mines would be retained and Fort Condor would largely be forgotten about (replaced with a Condor-related quest), relegated to a strange mini-game. The Turks make their appearance as expected, along with new recruit Elena, and then it was off to Junon.
Junon Area
The second open-world hub, featuring Junon and its surroundings, is almost the most intact area of the game from the 1997 original. All the major story beats of arriving at Lower Junon, jumping on a dolphin and then impersonating Shinra soldiers as you try to approach Rufus are all close enough, just with embellishments (like Yuffie’s assassination attempt). We foresaw Junon being a quest hub same as Kalm.
After Rufus inauguration, the team set sail on the gorgeous Shinra-8 cruise ship instead of the original’s cargo ship, and a welcome card championship onboard. There are some fights, but mostly with the black cloaks and Hojo’s experiments. Sephiroth is there in spirit only rather than travelling ahead of Cloud and the party, but he does throw Jenova Emergent at the team.
Costa Del Sol, Corel and Gold Saucer
Lamentably we also thought Costa Del Sol might get some cuts, but it was the beginning of the massive Corel hub, embellished to a dizzying extent beyond any expectations. The bit with Hojo at the beach was still in, and superfluous or not, Costa Del Sol became an essential area.
Corel and Barret’s backstory was all as expected albeit with some extras. Thankfully that section was dealt with using the darker brush strokes it needed. We predicted the next part Gold Saucer would be the crazy relentless thirsty hub of Rebirth, and it did not disappoint. From new versions of Dio and Gus, to more mini-games than you could count, from the Chocobo racing to the retaining of the wonderful dune buggy, Corel and environs became something incredible to witness.
Gongaga
Though we predicted correctly that Gongaga would become yet another open-world hub point due to its importance to Zack Fair and Cloud’s history, we could not have predicted just how expanded this section would become. The destroyed reactor, Tifa’s encounter with a Weapon, the incredible jungle and allusions to Cetra Ruins – this spot had it all.
Though we expected more of Crisis Core and the Compilation of Final Fantasy 7 content to be featured here, such as Deepground, Zero, Genesis, and Hojo’s predecessor and far more about Zack, one small part did make it through from Crisis Core. Zack Fair’s friend in the Turks, Cissnei, now protecting Gongaga village.
Cosmo Canyon
For many Red XIII and his story in Cosmo Canyon is a favourite part of the original game. In 1997 the buggy broke down outside and needed to be fixed, but in Rebirth we leave it on the beach in Gongaga. Cosmo Canyon couldn’t have been further embellished if they’d tried and instead of finding a quaint observatory and Bugenhagen’s ravings, we found a horribly modern spiritualist retreat making a mockery of the reality of the lifestream and mako. Bugenhagen didn’t even believe Tifa and the urgency of the mission at first, so jaded had he become by Cosmo Canyon’s transformation into corporate spiritualism.
Where we went wrong was assuming anything would get cut – indeed Nanaki’s trial in the Gi area and his father’s sacrifice were far more important to the story than they even were back in 1997. The Gi are now the creators of the black materia, a second alien race come to Gaia in addition to Jenova. Mind blown.
Nibel
To get to Cosmo and Nibel in the original you used the buggy, but Rebirth introduces Cid Highwind to the story early, making him your pilot long before he was originally introduced. Nibel is the focus for the final open world hub, remade as it has been by Shinra, as if Sephiroth never burned it down. In Rebirth, it’s now a retreat for the black cloaks.
Though there are parts of Rebirth that venture up the mountain and see the reactor it’s got a whole different emphasis in Rebirth, less about following Sephiroth and more about following the cloaks and the black materia we’ve now heard about. Scenes we remember don’t all play out.
We also expected a big emphasis on Shinra Manor, but instead of an embellished spooky mansion full of ghost-type enemies, the place is largely unexplorable. Instead you can go underground and there’s a whole dungeon area, we release Vincent, an ex-turk from his strange coffin, and then we depart, not much the wiser. None of the expected larger Crisis Core characters made any appearances either.
This is Not Rocket Town
In the 1997 original the Tiny Bronco is only found in Rocket Town, Cid Highwind’s home town. Rebirth did away with mentioning anything at all about the Shinra space program, replaced the funny fight with Palmer that used to happen in Cid’s backyard with one in Corel, and never let you go here. Looking at the world map Rocket Town is in the cloud-covered section just north of Nibel’s hub.
We didn’t get Rocket Town’s inclusion right, but we did predict Cid’s character being changed. Gone is the cynical, angry and downright abusive man from the original, replaced with one much happier with his lot and his flying, and doing much less glorified smoking. Lastly we were very right about the little house where you learn about the Keystone being ditched.
This is Not Wutai
As with Rocket Town, Rebirth chose to change the order of events again with Wutai. Yuffie’s materia obsession would have reached fever pitch here when she abandoned the team in the original and stole their materia. We guessed that Wutai would be planned DLC, which could still happen. With Remake and Rebirth making so much more of the war with Wutai, we now think this is more likely a hub in part 3 – after all this is where Don Corneo has gone to lick his wounds after yet another trouncing at Gold Saucer.
Will Yuffie steal your materia? Will Wutai feature prominently in part 3? We shall see.
Return to Gold Saucer
We got this whole section just the way every little kid wanted it back in 1997. A newly embellished arena battle section, Don Corneo and Dio, and the all-important date with whoever you’ve been nicest to throughout the adventure. Cue a massively overhauled reenactment of Loveless, cue the Skywheel date, cue more minigames and expansions than you could have ever asked for. Cue Cait Sith’s betrayal. We appreciate that’s a bad moment, but we couldn’t have been much happier with how it all played out.
The Temple of the Ancients
Chapter 13 and 14 of Rebirth cap off the story with an enormous amount of strange multiversal world narrative, that is hard to fully grasp. We were right to expect the beautifully embellished Temple as a huge final dungeon, and the inclusion of a favourite boss – the Demon Gate wall boss! The strange sleeping forest is shown in a cutscene, but with all the focus on Chocobos and digging on the open-world hubs for items, we were dumbfounded that there was no Bone Village, and therefore no Lunar Harp to dig up. Same with the Ancient Capital, pretty much only shown in the final scenes, and with a single corridor to walk down.
It wasn’t the ending anyone was probably expecting and kudos to the writers for managing to keep us guessing and further expanding their multiversal story beyond our imaginations. We got plenty of what we expected, and we also got plenty we didn’t expect, and perhaps nowhere is this more profound than with Aerith being both saved and not saved, existing in two timelines at the end of the game.
Back in 2021 we predicted one thirsty game, constantly concerned with the fated date night in Gold Saucer, and we weren’t wrong, but we could never have predicted quite the extent of mini-games there would be. So while other sites are trying to explain that ending to you, we are going to take another stance. Considering how much of Rebirth we got right, perhaps we should make some predictions for Part 3… coming soon.
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