Final Fantasy VII is the best selling role-playing game (RPG) on the PlayStation 1, and the second best selling game on the platform overall. It was met with astounding acclaim not only as an RPG, but as a game as a whole. Its soundtrack, story, characters, and overall gameplay shaped RPGs for years to come, and the game has formed a large community around it. 

   Due to the popularity, in 2015 Square Enix, the developer of the Final Fantasy series announced the Final Fantasy VII remake project, a series of three games fully retelling and remaking the story of Final Fantasy VII. However, before this, they teased the project with the launch of the PlayStation 3 with the Final Fantasy VII Technical Demo For PS3. This tech demo ended up disappointing fans as it felt more like Sony was just using Final Fantasy to promote the PS3, and not that there was a real Final Fantasy VII remake. The first part, Final Fantasy VII Remake, was released in 2020 and was met with praise from critics and gamers alike. The game remade the Midgar section of Final Fantasy VII split up into 18 chapters.

   The second part, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, is releasing on February 29th for the PlayStation 5. It begins the story where Remake left off, with the protagonists having just escaped Midgar to save the world from Meteor. Rebirth is an open world title rather than the linear experience Remake was. It will feature a much larger world, closer to the original Final Fantasy VII, including more locations, enemies, characters, weapons, and more.

   Fans speculate that Rebirth will follow a similar trend to Remake, where the game changes a decent amount of story elements, potentially much more major events than what Remake changed. The section of the story Rebirth starts with has a lot more emotional and major events to it, and changing these in large ways could be very hit or miss with the Final Fantasy VII community. 

   Compared to the original Final Fantasy VII which had a turn-based combat system, Remake had a more action-oriented combat system with a heavier emphasis on attacking and dodging strategically compared to strategizing and hitting weaknesses. The newer combat system used in Remake is more similar to games like Nier: Automata than classic Final Fantasy games, but a lot of fans heavily enjoy the new faster combat.