Though this is a remake of a game from 1997, there are enough differences in the plot that spoilers from that game may not necessarily apply here. Whether you know the events of the original Final Fantasy VII or not, tropes below will spoil some of Rebirth's new twists and turns. Read on at your own risk!

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the second entry of a three-part Video Game Remake series of the timeline-breakingly popular 1997 PlayStation RPG, Final Fantasy VII, sequel to Final Fantasy VII Remake, and the eighth entry in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, developed by Square Enix for the PlayStation 5. Multiple members of Remake's team are involved in Rebirth, including creative director Tetsuya Nomura, director Naoki Hamaguchi, and producer Yoshinori Kitase.

Picking up where the last game left off as Cloud and his friends left the city of Midgar, Rebirth will reimagine the backstory of Cloud and Sephiroth during the Nibelheim Incident, the story of the mysterious black-haired SOLDIER Zack Fair, and the hunt for Sephiroth across the continents of Gaia.

The game is set for release on February 29, 2024 on PlayStation 5.

Previews: First Look, Summer Game Fest 2023 Trailer, Release Date Trailer

The game contains examples of:

• Adaptational Badass:
  • The Release Date trailer and TGS gameplay previews see Sephiroth and Cloud perform a combination attack on the Materia Keeper's counterpart, the Materia Guardian. Considering that the entirety of the compilation has made it clear nothing short of Cloud at his peak is anything resembling a challenge to Sephiroth, that is quite a jump for a mid-game boss. Slightly downplayed in that this is A Taste of Power and that Sephiroth does not consider the boss any sort of actual trouble.
  • TGS footage shows that Priscilla's dolphin stays around after the Terror of the Deep attacks, helping Yuffie get to dry land and giving Cloud a boost to deal the finishing blow.
• Adaptational Deviation:
  • The Release Date trailer shows that many events happen in different circumstances. Bottomswell - now named Terror of the Deep - confronts the party on a pier instead of on the beach. Cloud leads the section of the Junon parade he is in instead of being another member (interviews with the developers hint that Cloud can arrange the troops). Barret is alongside Cloud when first meeting Cait Sith, when Barret was the only party member that couldn't accompany him to see Gold Saucer. And the Materia Keeper - renamed to the Materia Guardian - is a boss during the section Sephiroth accompanies Cloud through the Nibelheim Mountains.
  • TGS footage reveals that Fort Condor is inaccessible after leaving the mines, being an island that cannot be reached at the present time.
  • The PlayStation Blog states that the game will end at the Forgotten Capital. The Release Date trailer shows that some staples of Final Fantasy VII are available before being unlocked in the original game, such as colored Chocobos with unique exploration abilities and the Alexander materia.
• Adaptational Modesty:
  • Tifa is wearing a black sports bra under her top once again, even in flashback scenes to the Nibelheim Incident.
  • A minor example, but unlike in the original game and Intergrade, the fly of Yuffie's shorts is buttoned up.
• Alternate Universe: The Summer Game Fest trailer implies that alternate timelines are at play, opening with the main characters save Cloud still in Midgar, their unconscious bodies being collected by Shinra troops in the wake of the massive tornado created by the Whispers at the end of the last game; only for the rest of the trailer to show them journeying through the wilderness after escaping from Midgar. Another part of the trailer shows Cloud in a state and robes like the Sephiroth clones in the Northern Crater chanting Reunion, hinting it takes place in the same timeline. The Release Date goes further, depicting Zack carrying a borderline comatose Cloud into Midgar and Sephiroth claiming universes will merge soon.
• Alternate Self: The Release Date trailer shows Zack Fair foisting Cloud, who is suffering from severe mako poisoning, onto a startled Kyrie Canaan after arriving in Midgar in the timeline where he survived. Meanwhile, the main timeline proceeds from where the previous game's story left off.
• Arc Welding: The "First Look" trailer makes pretty clear that certain themes and plot points from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII will be revisited and changed to fit with the new direction of the story given Zack's survival, when originally everything led to his death.
• Back-to-Back Badasses:
  • The Summer Game Fest trailer shows Cloud and Tifa doing this in a fight against Elena. It serves the practical purpose of hiding Aerith who is powering up an attack. They then separate and allow Aerith to blast her.
  • As shown in the "First Preview" gameplay trailer, Cloud and Aerith's synergy ability, Firework Blade, starts with them entering combat stance while standing back to back, followed by Aerith casting magic on Cloud's sword to turn it into a Spell Blade, which he then unleashes into a Blade Spam before they both finish off their enemies with a Sword Beam and fireball combo.
• Bag of Spilling: As pointed out in the PlayStation Blog, skills and abilities gained in Remake will not carry over. There will be bonuses given to those who have the original game.
• Card Battle Game: As revealed in an interview, one of the new minigames is Queen's Blood, a popular in-universe card game that can be played at many points in the story. New cards can be obtained to enhance your decks, and it also has its own side narrative.
• Combination Attack: The Summer Game Fest trailer showcases that all the party members can perform tag team moves called synergy abilities, which are essentially Limit Break attacks but done with two people.
• Contrasting Sequel Setting: Remake had gameplay solely inside the Shinra-controlled cyberpunk city Midgar. The "First Look" trailer shows that the game takes place all over the world in a much more open environment than Midgar's often cramped industrial setting.
• Costume Evolution: Key art of the characters shows Yuffie's buttoned up the fly of her shorts and is now wearing a belt.
• Dead Person Impersonation: In the Summer Game Fest trailer, Sephiroth declares that he killed Tifa during his rampage through Nibelheim five years prior, and that the Tifa traveling with the party is a Jenova doppelgänger.
• Driving Question: The "First Look" trailer posits a big one. "What is Sephiroth's endgame?" While Cloud believes it is to rule the world, Sephiroth's actions in Remake put this in question.
• Fake Shemp: Reno's Japanese voice actor, Keiji Fujiwara, passed away in 2020 due to his on-going battle with cancer. According to Nomura, the team received the news shortly before they could record for Rebirth, and out of respect for him, didn't wish to immediately recast the character. As a result, Reno's appearance in Rebirth is done using archived audio of Fujiwara's past recordings for the character, which will also reduce Reno's screentime in the game. Nomura promises that Reno will have a bigger role in the third entry.
• Fastball Special: TGS footage shows that a common move in synergy attacks is one character throwing the other.
• Flashback: The "First Look" trailer shows multiple scenes from Cloud explaining the Nibelheim Incident from 5 years ago after reaching Kalm. The Summer Game Fest trailer also shows Tifa attacking Sephiroth with the Masamune to avenge her father, with Sephiroth performing an effortless Bare-Handed Blade Block, taking his sword back, and cutting her down. The Release Date trailer shows Sephiroth pre-Face–Heel Turn, both fighting alongside Cloud and beginning the Sanity Slippage that kickstarts his descent into villainy.
• Flash Forward: The "First Look" trailer is intercut with graphically updated scenes from the original Final Fantasy VII of Aerith praying just before her iconic death and the Holy Materia falling to the ground.
• Freak Out: In the Release Date trailer, Sephiroth suffers a panic attack after discovering a facility hidden within the Nibelheim Mako Reactor where failed test subjects from Hojo's experiments with Jenova cells and Mako saturation were stored, leading to him starting to realize that he's a successful product of these experiments.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors:
  • The "First Look" trailer and promotional cover show that the traditional blue and green of the "Final Fantasy VII" logo are undercut by the sinister red of the Rebirth subtitle.
  • Promotional material like the cover art◊ emphasize the main trio being associated by their traditional colors, Cloud being surrounded by green light, Zack by blue and Sephiroth by Purple and Red. This time, however, Sephiroth is standing in the yellow light of the sun for reasons currently unknown.
• Guest-Star Party Member:
  • In the "First Look" trailer, Sephiroth is shown as a part of your party while Cloud explains the Nibelheim Incident 5 years ago.
  • According to the interview on the PlayStation Blog, some characters will join the party but won't be playable until the third part.
• Helpless Kicking: In the Summer Game Fest trailer, a young Tifa flails and kicks after Sephiroth effortlessly holds both her and the Masamune in a Barehanded Blade Block.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: In the original game, Tifa kept quiet about the disparities between her memories of the Nibelheim Incident and Cloud's recollection for a significant chunk of the game; but in the Summer Game Fest trailer, Tifa is up-front and open about Cloud's apparent absence when she discusses the Nibelheim Incident with Aerith.
• Mistaken for an Imposter: Discussed in the "First Look" trailer. Cloud mentions finding Tifa lying on the ground, seemingly dead, after she attacked Sephiroth during the Nibelheim Incident, only for Tifa to indignantly question if Cloud thinks she's some kind of imposter. This is echoed by Sephiroth in the Summer Game Fest trailer, where he states that the real Tifa is dead and that the Tifa traveling with the party is a Jenova offshoot impersonating her.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Elena's part in the SGF trailer has nods to her events in the original game. Elena can throw a solid punch and she and Cloud trade dodges, a nod to their interactions at the Icicle Inn, where she could lay out Cloud if he didn't dodge her punch.
  • While Tifa was not actually an impostor for most of the original game, Sephiroth did briefly impersonate her in one instance to distract the holder of the Black Materia, either Red or Barret, meaning that his claims in the Summer Game Fest trailer have some basis in truth.
• Old Save Bonus: Having save data from Remake and its DLC Episode INTERmission will get you Summon Materia for Leviathan and Ramuh respectively.
• Off the Rails: As Aerith discusses in the "First Look" trailer "The past is forever. But the future─even if it has been written─can be changed."
• Prolonged Video Game Sequel: While Remake already came on 2 discs, that was mainly because of the PS4’s disc size limit. Rebirth comes on two PS5 discs despite it having larger disc sizes^note Specifically, PS5 discs have a max size of 100 GB, twice the size of PS4 discs, giving a good idea of the game’s scope.
• Promoted to Playable: Sephiroth in the flashback sequences is now fully controllable instead of merely being an AI party member, as shown in the "First Preview" trailer.
• Punched Across the Room: In the Summer Game Fest trailer, Elena is strong enough to send Tifa and Aerith flying with punches and kicks.
• Retcon: The Summer Game Fest trailer shows that the game added a black sports bra to Tifa's cowgirl outfit compared to the same scene from Final Fantasy VII Remake. This change is retained from Crisis Core Reunion.
• Rule of Symbolism: The cover art◊ and second cover on the preorder page on the Square Enix goods Website shows a lot of the symbolism of each character. Cloud is situated under a green-tinted starlit sky that's usually associated with him (like in the opening act, the artwork/render of him looking up the Shinra building, the promise scene with Tifa, etc.), while Zack is under a calm blue sky (the same type of sky he died under in Crisis Core). Sephiroth meanwhile is under purple and red clouds that convalesce into a yellow sun, indicating his close ties to chaos and destruction to create a new world.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the Summer Game Fest trailer, Yuffie reacts with fear and then runs away when Sephiroth appears from a black portal that looks identical to the ones Nero the Sable uses. Understandable since she barely survived facing Nero back in Intermission.
• Signs of the End Times: Averted, as pointed out by Red XIII to Aerith in the Summer Game Fest trailer. Because there aren't any signs of the end times coming, people assume the world is doing fine, when it's actually barely hanging on.
• Take Over the World: Cloud's voiceover in the First Look trailer has him state that Sephiroth plans to reclaim what he sees as his birthright and rule over the Planet with Jenova at his side.
• A Taste of Power: TGS demo gameplay shows that, during the Nibelheim flashback, Sephiroth is playable with endgame stats and Cloud is nearly on his level. While somewhat downplayed from the literally invulnerable original, it is a very high leg up from what the party is capable of when the flashback ends.
• Thematic Sequel Logo Change: The "First Look" trailer shows that the logo now has red changing the logo from the bottom up.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The trailers for the game aren't exactly subtle about the fact that things are going to be different this time around. This is best shown at the end of the "First Look" trailer where a very much alive Zack Fair reaches the Gates of Midgar and made even clearer during the "State of Play" trailer where Zack and the comatose Cloud from his timeline are extensively featured.
• The World Is Just Awesome: The Summer Game Fest trailer has Aerith amazed by seeing fields of greenery.