Ultimate Delusion 7 Rebirth preview: Section 2 of remake venture cuts unfastened

A contemporary document through Bloomberg detailed some soul-searching and scapegoating at Sq. Enix after a drop in its percentage worth and the perceived underperformance of Ultimate Delusion 16. Resources criticized disorganized control in a panorama of unruly “fiefdoms” led through unmarried, robust manufacturers. That can be true, and I wouldn’t wish to underplay the frustrations of builders running beneath the ones stipulations. However there’s additionally one thing to be stated for letting tremendously skilled, inventive, large personalities run issues how they please (is fairly). What they make won’t hold in combination completely, however it by no means feels designed through committee. It feels bespoke, obsessive, extravagant, and peculiar.

That couldn’t be truer of the Ultimate Delusion 7 remake venture, a sprawling, three-game reinterpretation and enlargement of the 1997 vintage, masterminded through manufacturer (and director of the unique) Yoshinori Kitase with an lend a hand from inventive director and Kingdom Hearts overlord Tetsuya Nomura. It’s indulgent fan carrier that’s in some way additionally prepared to modify the script; enthusiasts have been surprised through the slick real-time fight and it appears metafictional twists of the primary installment, 2020’s Ultimate Delusion 7 Remake, however no person may deny that Kitase’s crew used to be truly going for it.

Now we have now Ultimate Delusion 7 Rebirth, coming to PlayStation 5 on Feb. 29, 2024: a lavish, blockbuster restaging of the center little bit of an previous online game. As instructed through the extraordinarily full of life newest trailer, this sequel will lower unfastened in any case the scene-setting and moody iconography of Remake’s new edition of the choked, dystopian town of Midgar. Rebirth follows Cloud Strife and corporate as they apply antagonist Sephiroth’s path around the land, from barren region to coast to gaudy excitement park; showed places come with the army castle town of Junon, the Gold Saucer theme park, and the Forgotten Capital. They discover! They hunt! They trip chocobos! They play minigames! They trip Segways!

At a up to date hands-on consultation, I were given to play two sections of the sport: “The Fated Mt. Nibel Venture,” a flashback collection wherein Cloud and Sephiroth are playable in combination, and “The Open Wilds of Junon,” a taster for the extra open exploration and searching gameplay on be offering in Rebirth, earlier than the tale took me to Below Junon, a fishing village suffering within the shadow of the oppressive city.

Tale-wise, Rebirth is an immediate continuation of Remake, however in gameplay phrases it’s higher to think about it as a standard online game sequel: increasing the scope, including options, however cleaving just about what made the primary recreation tick. (Recreation saves and persona builds from Remake don’t raise over — Rebirth is a stand-alone recreation — however Sq. Enix guarantees some bonuses for returning avid gamers.) Battle performs out simply the similar as the primary recreation: a mix of issuing Lively Time Combat instructions, in an echo of the unique recreation’s turn-based device, and switching between characters to run round, assault, dodge, and block in real-time motion fight.

The key addition is Synergy talents that pair in combination characters out of your celebration of 3 for coordinated strikes. There are low-key Synergies to be had at any time whilst you hang down R1 to dam, however the principle Synergy talents are slow-charging showstoppers that regularly building up on their very own impartial gauge, similar to Restrict Breaks. They’re flashily animated and pleasing to make use of, plus there’s a amusing wish-fulfillment measurement to looking at those loved characters crew up in such quite a lot of mixtures. (I don’t know if each imaginable permutation from the sport’s playable solid shall be featured, however going through the demo, it kind of feels love it.)

Symbol: Sq. Enix

Symbol: Sq. Enix

Symbol: Sq. Enix

Symbol: Sq. Enix

My best hesitation about Synergies is that they will push an already extraordinarily busy, tiered fight device to the purpose of feeling messy and rushed. A brief recreation demo isn’t the most efficient atmosphere to discover these items, however greater than as soon as I discovered myself considering that if Rebirth gives the method to automate the real-time fight and simply focal point at the extra strategic instructions, as Remake did, I may take it. Remake and Rebirth’s brawling is okay, however Ultimate Delusion 16’s crisp, fluid, and subtle fight motion has moderately proven it up, anyway.

Synergies have been successfully proven off within the Mt. Nibel undertaking, which sees Cloud and Sephiroth in combination of their SOLDIER days, investigating a malfunctioning Mako reactor, accompanied through a tender (and no longer playable) Tifa. Sephiroth is intentionally tuned to really feel overpowered on this segment, dominating Cloud. It’s a nearly uncanny kick to govern this iconic persona, along with his outrageously lengthy locks, coat, and blade, in genuine time, because the pair faces a md struggle towards a scorpion-like Materia Mother or father monster.

Sq. Enix best presented a small segment of the wilds outdoor Junon to discover in the second one undertaking; as is frequently the case with the corporate’s video games, it felt like a condensed affect of an open international, such a lot in order that it used to be scarcely value mounting chocobos to discover and sniff out treasure (despite the fact that reps say the world within the ultimate recreation shall be a lot higher). Finally, the genuine amusing right here used to be experimenting with the 3 to be had celebration compositions — variations of Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret, and the newly playable indignant cat man, Crimson XIII — in hunts towards robust monsters (known as “fiends”) within the box. Those confrontations are replayable, and include not obligatory targets (pressuring or staggering your opponent, assembly a cut-off date, and so forth) that build up rewards. They look like a great spot to figure out the peculiarities of the fight device and absolute best your celebration methods.

Symbol: Sq. Enix

Symbol: Sq. Enix

Symbol: Sq. Enix

Symbol: Sq. Enix

After messing about with those for some time, I adopted a marker resulting in the shadowy lean-tos of Below Junon — a gorgeously rendered location that, possibly much more than anything else in Remake, appears like wandering into the hazy, low-poly maps of the unique, now totally discovered. Right here, any other boss struggle with an enormous aquatic risk, the Terror of the Deep, heralded the coming of the ninja Yuffie Kisaragi (offered within the Intergrade DLC), however the demo unfortunately ended earlier than I had a possibility so as to add her to my celebration.

In an interview with the PlayStation Weblog, Kitase and his crew famous that the order wherein places are visited will range from the unique, and the Gold Saucer may also be revisited to play minigames at any time. They promised an expansive international map with many places that aren’t even incorporated in the principle storyline, and Kitase stated the crew has challenged itself to be extra bold with new scenes that divert from the unique narrative. “I’m assured those new scenes shall be wildly stress-free for enthusiasts and inexperienced persons alike,” he stated.

I’m no longer as assured as Kitase that everybody in Ultimate Delusion fandom goes to like Rebirth’s diversions from the unique recreation. However the sense I were given used to be of a recreation that, much more than Remake, manages to be unfastened to be itself and feature some amusing — even because it hits the nostalgic notes everyone seems to be looking ahead to.