Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is looking more and more impressive with each new reveal, and some additional details on the world map that have been provided in a recent interview highlight the extreme amount of care the development team is putting into the game.

　　Speaking with Press Start, Director Naoki Hamaguchi talked about the world map, revealing that the team took the map of the original game and recreated it all in a one-to-one scale, meaning that all towns, dungeons, and other points of interest are now included in the same space as one seamless map. Elaborating further on how players will get to explore such a vast world, Hamaguchi said that while the whole of the map will be available right from the start, the size of the world will actually grow as players make progress and learn new abilities that let them access previously unreachable areas.

　　While the latest gameplay footage, and an official document, hinted at this type of recreation of the original world map, it is nice to get a confirmation that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth won't feel as restrained as its predecessor in terms of exploration. Remake, in my opinion, managed to represent the scale of Midgar rather well, but the excessive linearity ended up hurting the experience a bit.

　　Final Fantasy VII Rebirth launches on February 29th, 2024 on PlayStation 4 worldwide. Learn more about the game by checking out Kai's hands-on preview.

　　From beginning to end (with a quick detour for an environmental puzzle involving powering on and navigating a cleaner robot to purify the air preventing Cloud’s troupe from accessing a necessary elevator), the chapter wrapped up in just under thirty minutes, including a boss fight at the end culminating against the Materia Guardian, a six-legged monstrous beast that puts both Cloud and Sephiroth’s fighting prowess to the test. A quick refresher on staggering the enemy is all that keeps players from jumping and defeating the guardian in melee combat, all the while Sephiroth churns out snide remarks reminding Cloud to take out the enemy’s legs or to get good and not get hit. Numerous cutscenes intersperse themselves with the boss fight, providing an extra level of spectacle to the encounter. Compared to the raw brute force of Cloud’s Buster Sword, Sephiroth’s finesse is almost dance-like as his blade flows as naturally as his lustrous locks (he must use Baten Kaitos’ Splendid Hair magnus).