Anyone who has played Final Fantasy 7 Remake should be able to follow the story in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth quite well. However, MeinMMO editor Jasmin Beverungen quickly realized that she has numerous gaps in her knowledge – as she has overlooked the many spin-offs.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth follows Final Fantasy 7 Remake. The story seamlessly picks up from the finale of the first part and sends Cloud and his team into an open game world. To understand the story, the title provides a summary of the events from Part 1. So far, so good.
Since I had played the Remake just a few months ago and also checked out the INTERmission DLC shortly before the release, I felt well prepared. Thus, the experiences from Part 1 remained fresh in my memory, and I already knew who Yuffie was. I also watched a summary of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion. Therefore, I was well-informed about Zack’s past as well.
Who is speaking here? Jasmin Beverungen has played several parts of the Final Fantasy series. She has spent a lot of time in FF14, but also enjoys solo games like FF16, FF12, or FF3. After FF7 Rebirth, she can’t wait to continue with the third part.
But I had to find out that I was greatly mistaken.
During my playthrough, there were several characters seen that were not introduced in detail. There were flashbacks that left me with a big question mark on my face, and I had to research afterwards to find out who they actually were. In doing so, I came across a game that no longer exists today but provides the background for an important character.
The most important characters are visible in the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth trailer:
Failed Mobile Game is the Background of an Important Character
Throughout the game, Glenn Lodbrok appears repeatedly. He is a mysterious blond character who seems to be immortal. A flashback from the current Shinra president makes it clear: Glenn is already dead and has become a follower of Sephiroth, a grand villain. However, the scene conveys that the two know each other from somewhere – but where from?
After the game left me with numerous questions, I stumbled upon the mobile title Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-. The game was developed for the Japanese market in 2004 and was discontinued in 2018. There we learn that Glenn Lodbrok was regarded as the first SOLDIER and was shot by Rufus.
Glenn also had a bigger appearance in Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier. However, this game has also been discontinued – the servers were shut down on January 11, 2023.
There is still a way to at least partially catch up on the story: The mobile gacha game Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis combines the stories from Before Crisis, Crisis Core, and Dirge of Cerberus – about which I haven’t mentioned a word yet. However, not every player is into the gacha genre, and the events from The First Soldier are not relevant here.
But it doesn’t stop with Glenn Lodbrok: There are still some other characters like Nero and Weiss, of whom I have no idea who they actually are. This lack of knowledge didn’t take away my enjoyment of the game, but it did mean that I couldn’t follow certain cutscenes at all.
A Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
The fragmented story seems to be intentional by Square Enix. In 2003, the company announced the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. This includes smaller projects that are part of the main story of Final Fantasy VII.
These include:
- Advent Children (Film)
- Last Order (Film)
- Before Crisis
- Crisis Core
- Dirge of Cerberus
- the Remake and Rebirth
- The First Soldier
- Ever Crisis
As you can see, it takes a considerable amount of gameplay time to really understand everything in Final Fantasy VII. If you want to know completely what is going on in the current trilogy, you need to invest about 67 hours (via HowLongToBeat). That’s how long it typically takes to play through or watch everything – not counting the trilogy itself.
This fragmented structure reminded me of Kingdom Hearts. Even here, there are now so many spin-offs that I eventually decided to throw in the towel and stop following the series. I no longer enjoyed it because I couldn’t follow the story anymore due to missing important information from another game.
Fortunately, it hasn’t come to that with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth yet. I really enjoyed the story, and Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, and Co. have wormed their way into my heart. But I hope that the third part will take it easy regarding the knowledge from spin-offs.
When I put a video game in, I want to enjoy it without having to gather all the information from other titles as a hobby agent. I was expecting to need to know about the experiences from FF7 Remake and INTERmission.
That’s why I hope to enjoy the third part of Final Fantasy VII without any further background information. I am already looking forward to experiencing more adventures with Cloud and his friends.
