Square Enix, long celebrated for crafting self-contained worlds within the Final Fantasy series, now faces a different kind of challenge: how to welcome newcomers into the middle of an ongoing story. With Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the studio has quietly promised that the sequel to its 2020 Remake can be experienced fully without its predecessor — a pragmatic act of accessibility that raises deeper questions about what it means to truly enter a narrative already in motion.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Won't Require Playing Remake, Square Enix Says
Can you really experience the heart of Final Fantasy VII without the game before it?
Mark
Why would Square Enix make a sequel that doesn't require playing the first game? That seems to defeat the purpose of a sequel.
Mimi
It does seem counterintuitive, but the Remake project has always been unusual. They're not making a traditional sequel—they're reimagining the entire original game across multiple releases. Making Rebirth standalone might actually be the only way to justify that approach to skeptical players.
Mark
But what about continuity? Don't the events of the first game matter to the second?
Mimi
They absolutely do. The story continues, the characters carry their arcs forward. But Square Enix seems to be betting that you can onboard new players without forcing them through the first game. Whether that works depends entirely on what these "preparations" actually are.
Mark
Do you think it's just a recap, or something more substantial?
Mimi
Hard to say. A simple recap would feel cheap for a game of this scale. My guess is they're building the early hours of Rebirth to function as a soft reintroduction—letting the world and characters speak for themselves rather than relying on prior knowledge.
Mark
And the open-world design helps with that?
Mimi
Exactly. An open world naturally gives you more room to breathe, to explore at your own pace, to learn through discovery rather than exposition. It's a smarter way to onboard newcomers than a linear game could ever be.
Mark
So this is less about being generous to players and more about the game's structure?
Mimi
Both, probably. But yes—the design of Rebirth itself seems to be enabling this accessibility, not the other way around.
Il Polso
- Square Enix has broken from sequel convention by confirming that players can skip Final Fantasy VII Remake entirely and still fully enjoy Rebirth — but has not yet explained how.
- The mystery of these unnamed 'preparations' creates tension: a recap sequence, an in-game primer, or something more elaborate could mean the difference between genuine accessibility and a hollow promise.
- Rebirth's reported shift toward open-world design may be doing quiet structural work, giving newcomers the breathing room to find their footing without the weight of a linear predecessor bearing down on them.
- With a PS5-exclusive launch window of late 2023 or early 2024, the clock is ticking for Square Enix to reveal whether this gamble — broadening the audience by lowering the barrier to entry — will actually hold up.
Square Enix, long celebrated for crafting self-contained worlds within the Final Fantasy series, now faces a different kind of challenge: how to welcome newcomers into the middle of an ongoing story. With Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the studio has quietly promised that the sequel to its 2020 Remake can be experienced fully without its predecessor — a pragmatic act of accessibility that raises deeper questions about what it means to truly enter a narrative already in motion.
Square Enix built the Final Fantasy franchise on a liberating idea: each entry is its own world, requiring nothing from the ones before it. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, however, occupies unusual ground — it is the second chapter of a multi-game reimagining of the beloved 1997 original, a story already in progress, with characters mid-evolution and stakes already established.
And yet, the studio is insisting that none of that prior context is required. An official statement confirmed that players who never touched the first Remake can still "fully enjoy" Rebirth, thanks to unspecified "preparations" Square Enix has made. Whether those preparations amount to a brief recap or something more substantial remains unknown — a detail the studio has kept deliberately vague ahead of the game's expected late 2023 or early 2024 release.
The decision is pragmatic. Not every PS5 owner played the first Remake, and removing that prerequisite opens the door to a significantly larger audience. It also aligns with how Rebirth itself appears to be designed: the game is shaping up to be a more open-world experience, offering players a high degree of freedom — a structure that naturally accommodates different entry points and pacing needs.
Square Enix has also promised deeper character development in Rebirth, with players uncovering destinies and narrative threads that sit at the very core of the Final Fantasy VII story. Whether a newcomer can genuinely access that emotional core without the foundation of the first game is the question that will only be answered when the game — and its mysterious preparations — finally arrive.
Square Enix has spent decades building the Final Fantasy franchise on a simple principle: each game stands alone. You don't need to have played Final Fantasy IV to understand Final Fantasy VI. You don't need to know anything about Final Fantasy X to jump into Final Fantasy XII. It's one of the series' defining strengths—accessibility, a clean entry point for anyone curious enough to pick up a controller.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth upends that tradition in an unexpected way. It's the second installment of the Final Fantasy VII Remake project, a multi-game reimagining of the 1997 original. By any reasonable logic, you'd expect Square Enix to demand that players finish the first Remake before touching Rebirth. The story continues. The characters evolve. The stakes build. How could you possibly skip ahead?
Yet the company is insisting you don't have to. In a statement posted to the official Final Fantasy VII account, Square Enix confirmed that players who never touched the first Remake can still "fully enjoy" Rebirth. The company has "made preparations" to ensure this works. What those preparations actually are remains a mystery—whether it's a simple recap sequence at the start of Rebirth, or something more elaborate, Square Enix hasn't said.
It's a curious position for the studio to take, and it hints at something larger about how Rebirth is being designed. The game is shaping up to be a notably different experience from its predecessor. Recent statements suggest Rebirth will lean heavily into open-world design, offering players a "high degree of freedom" in how they explore and navigate the world. That structural shift may make it easier to onboard newcomers; an open world naturally allows for more flexibility in pacing and storytelling than a linear narrative would.
Square Enix has also teased that Rebirth will dig deeper into character development, promising that "players will witness a chain of narrative developments that lie at the very heart of the Final Fantasy VII story, while discovering each character's destiny." The language suggests the studio is using this installment to flesh out the ensemble cast in ways the Remake didn't fully explore.
The decision to make Rebirth accessible to newcomers is pragmatic, if unconventional. It broadens the potential audience considerably. Not everyone who owns a PS5 played the first Remake, whether due to time constraints, cost, or simple preference. By removing the hard requirement to play the predecessor, Square Enix opens the door to millions of additional players. It's a gamble—whether the "preparations" actually work, whether skipping the first game genuinely allows for full enjoyment of the second, won't be clear until the game releases.
Rebirth is headed to PlayStation 5 exclusively. Square Enix has indicated a release window of late 2023 or early 2024, though a specific date hasn't been locked in yet. As that window approaches, the studio will likely reveal exactly what these mysterious preparations entail. Until then, the question lingers: can you really experience the heart of Final Fantasy VII without playing the game that came before it?
Citazioni salienti
We have made preparations so that players that did not get a chance to play the first game can fully enjoy Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.— Square Enix, official Final Fantasy VII account
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