By breaking the original story of Final Fantasy 7 into three parts, the team behind Square Enix’s ambitious remake trilogy created a challenge for themselves. Remake has the iconic reactor bombing mission to kick things off, but how do you recreate that magic three times over? Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth opens with a dread-inducing sequence detailing the Nibelheim incident five years earlier.
Now, Final Fantasy 7 Revelation takes a similar, though more rapid-fire approach, steering headlong into Cloud’s fractured mental state at the end of Rebirth. During a roughly 40-minute hands-on demo of the game’s first chapter on a PlayStation 5 Pro, I ventured into the Northern Crater, took the newly playable Cid and Vincent for a spin, and watched Cloud tiptoe right up to the brink of collapse. The time flew by, and I came away ravenous for more — even if I remain mostly unconvinced that Revelation’s newest tweaks to the remake’s combat system are entirely necessary.
From what I can tell, Revelation picks up very soon after Rebirth leaves off, with Cloud and company departing the City of the Ancients to pursue Sephiroth at the Northern Crater. As the party ventures deeper, they begin to feel the intoxicating effects of all the Mako energy in the area (it’s like the Force, but also magic soul petroleum). Barret and Cid comment that they’re feeling tipsy.
Yuffie wants to go home to Wutai, fearing an imminent Shinra invasion. All the while, Tifa continues to unconvincingly ignore Cloud’s rapid deterioration, for her own sake as much as his. Most of the preview took place in the Northern Crater, which gets a splashy glow-up in true FF7 Remake fashion.
Whereas the PS1 originally depicted this area as an endless, green-black pit in the ground, it’s got more of a trippy, cosmic feeling here, with massive crystalline formations and shimmering aurora borealis ribbons weaving through the sky. In the original game, it’s a drab place where you spend a whole lotta time, so I’m pleased that there’s nicer scenery to enjoy this time around. As Cloud and friends journey to the center of the Planet, they get into a few fights along the way, allowing me to get acquainted with Revelation’s two new playable characters, Vincent Valentine and Cid Highwind.
Vincent functions like a hybrid of Barret and Red XIII, with long-range standard attacks that make him a nice option when the fighting gets hectic or Cloud is getting pummelled. Hold R1 for about two seconds and Vincent will transform into the werewolf-like Galian Beast, which is tanky and ferocious, if a bit slower than Red’s spinning sidewinder attacks. I found Cid a little harder to appreciate at first — until I realized if you simply hold down the basic attack button (Square on PS5), he’ll unleash a nonstop barrage of quick little stabs with his polearm.
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