
What we do know, however, is that "new comrades" will be joining Cloud in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth according to battle director Teruki Endo ( via GamesRadar). Since Final Fantasy 7 Remake ended with the defeat of the Whispers, this narrative decision by Toriyama makes a lot of sense. "From here on in the Whispers cannot act to maintain the destined timeline, so fans can look forward to seeing what kind of future awaits the team." "As it says at the end of the game 'The Unknown Journey Will Continue', and Cloud and his friends will be on that journey for a while yet," co-director Motomu Toriyama says in the final installment of Square Enix's FF7 Remake blog series (opens in new tab). According to a blog post in which co-director Motomu Toriyama spoke about Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, these ethereal meddlers aren't going to be able to keep the timeline in order this time around. The Whispers, ghostly antagonists keen on preserving the original Final Fantasy 7 timeline were a key element in Remake. Either way, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will be taking us out of the sprawling dystopian city of Midgar, across lush forests and foreboding badlands. Though Final Fantasy 7 Remake mostly stuck to the script of its original counterpart, there were a few significant differences that could take the plot in a different direction. If it were more of a straight-up remake, then we'd have a far clearer idea about where the narrative is headed. In terms of story, we don't know much about Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. I would like to leverage these, including other elements we tried out in ‘Intermission,’ in our next story." Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth story and setting "Additionally, with ‘Intermission,’ there’s another element introduced: combo moves where Yuffie and Sonon team up … which makes for a different feel in battle strategy.

"I am rather satisfied with this final form, in which the strategic element of the command-based battle from the original co-exists with the real-time, action-oriented battle," he said.

Speaking with The Washington Post (via VGC) in July 2021, Naoki Hamaguchi said that some of the combat and gameplay enhancements introduced in Intergrade will likely be in Part 2, more specifically, Yuffie and Sonon’s team-up moves from Intermission. For instance, it seems likely that aspects of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade’s Intermission chapter will feature in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, according to the game’s co-director.

That being said, it seems likely that the developers will implement some improvements. At a glance, we seem to be in for more of what we got with Final Fantasy 7 Remake: a satisfying action RPG with slick swapping between characters and a pause mechanic to help with decision-making. Both Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth trailers have shown off the game's combat mechanics.
