Editor’s note: Whacking a big old spoiler warning right at the top. This KotUS piece contains instructions regarding the earliest part of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Some of this will be familiar to you if you’ve played the demo already. If you haven’t, it will be altogether new to you. In either case, proceed with caution if you’re trying to avoid the spoils. — David.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, part two of the ambitious project to remake 1997’s Final Fantasy VII, arrives tomorrow, February 29. Fans eager to play this new entry have likely spent some time in the game’s demo, which launched on February 6. Should you play the demo, you’ll get the chance to skip a large section of the opening scene—but not all of it.
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Firing up Rebirth for the first time after playing the demo, you will still need to play portions of Cloud’s flashback. You’ll be given the option to skip the majority of it eventually, but don’t get too trigger happy, as you can very easily miss some essential story content if you’re not careful. Seriously, don’t ruin this experience for yourself because you’re impatient.
You’ll still have to play parts of the Nibelheim flashback
While you can skip a major chunk of the flashback after playing the demo, Rebirth will still force you to play the opening and conclusion of Cloud’s traumatic memories in the full game.
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Even if you played and finished the demo, you’ll start the game (following a separate prelude) with Sephiroth’s first fight against a fiend in the rain. You’ll then go to Nibelheim, where Cloud can visit his mom, eat a sandwich, and check out Tifa’s house. You won’t be able to skip anything until you go on a brief trek with Tifa and Sephiroth outside the town where you’ll fight a single pair of monsters. Following this, you’ll receive a prompt to skip the trip through Mt. Nibel and all of the fighting that leads up to it, including Cloud’s first visit to the reactor.
From here you can skip the core of the flashback, avoiding a lot of fights, climbing sequences, and the showdown with the Hexadragon (known as the Materia Keeper in the 1997 original). You will still have to stumble around through the flames again after speaking with Sephiroth in the basement of Shinra Manor, and I’m sorry to say that you’ll need to painfully move through that whole scene where ya gotta hold down L2/R2 while people stand around Sephiroth holding and never using their guns (you and I both know that wouldn’t have stopped him, but it still looks silly).
Be careful of which cutscenes you skip!
Here’s where things get tricky. If you’re eager to get on with the full game, you might be in the mood to skip as much of this as you can. And I don’t blame you. In general, you can skip cutscenes in Rebirth by hitting the pause button and choosing “Skip” (non-skippable dialogue scenes can be sped up by mashing circle).
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Should you skip the iconic scene where Sephiroth turns to walk into the flames before running off to see his mommy, you very well may end up skipping what comes after that: Cloud’s confrontation with Sephiroth in the reactor.
This is an essential part of the story that’s not in the demo and is very easy to skip if you’re eager to get on with Rebirth’s main serving. If you want to fast forward through other parts of the flashback, that shouldn’t be a problem. But once you’re up to Sephiroth’s “look at me walk through fire, I’m so cool” moment, just let the game play out so you don’t abruptly skip to Kalm and miss some critical story moments that will be called back to frequently throughout Rebirth’s story.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth features many highlights, like its massive open world and thrilling battle system. For many, if not most, the story is what really counts however. So take care if you’re a bit too eager to join the party in Kalm after Cloud’s sad origin story.
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