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122-486: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a 2024 action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix . The game is a sequel to Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020) and the second in a planned trilogy of games remaking the 1997 PlayStation game Final Fantasy VII . Like its predecessor, the gameplay of Rebirth combines real-time action with strategic and role-playing elements. Set immediately after Remake 's events, players control mercenary Cloud Strife and

244-593: A party of characters principally comprising the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE , who embark on a journey across the Planet to prevent the megacorporation Shinra from exploiting its life essence, the Lifestream, as an energy source, and defeat former elite SOLDIER Sephiroth , who seeks to unite with the Planet to achieve greater power. Rebirth entered production in November 2019 prior to Remake 's release, and

366-417: A "massive undertaking to reconstruct Final Fantasy VII from the ground up with the current technology" as the reason why a remake was not possible for some time. He went on to elaborate that fully remaking its content in a single installment would necessitate cutting various elements to suit the target hardware and gameplay design, by which point a remake would be considered pointless. He additionally expressed

488-446: A "role-playing shooter" due to the heavy RPG elements within the game, such as quest-based gameplay and also its character traits and leveling system. Half-Minute Hero (2009) is an RPG shooter featuring self-referential humour and a 30-second time limit for each level and boss encounter. Other action role-playing games with shooter elements include the 2010 titles Alpha Protocol by Obsidian Entertainment and The 3rd Birthday ,

610-593: A 1991 issue of Computer Gaming World criticized several computer role-playing games for using "arcade" or "Nintendo-style" action combat, including Ys , Sorcerian, Times of Lore, and Prophecy . In 1991, Square released Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden , also known as Final Fantasy Adventure or Mystic Quest in the West, for the Game Boy . Like Crystalis , the action in Seiken Densetsu bore

732-509: A Cetra ritual to thwart Sephiroth's plans, but he ambushes her. Although Cloud blocks his sword and disarms him, reality distorts into one where he succeeds in killing Aerith as the White Materia falls into the water. As the party battle Jenova, Cloud is separated from the others, his reality converging with that of an alternate Zack. Sephiroth banishes Zack back to his timeline, only for an alternate Aerith to arrive to aid Cloud. Sephiroth

854-572: A bartender at the 7th Heaven in Midgar and is a practicing martial artist. They are joined by Aerith Gainsborough (Briana White / Maaya Sakamoto ), a flower merchant who previously lived in Midgar's Sector 5 Slums and is the sole survivor of the ancient Cetra; Red XIII ( Max Mittelman / Kappei Yamaguchi ), an intelligent quadruped from Cosmo Canyon who Shinra held captive as a lab rat; and Yuffie Kisaragi ( Suzie Yeung / Yumi Kakazu ), an expert Materia thief and ninja from Wutai who resolves to join

976-421: A central pillar and a system of smaller columns, and a network of slums beneath the plate. The upper plate contains office buildings and similar complexes, as well as theatres, bars and various residences. The plate is divided into eight sectors, with each sector punctuated by two walls and a Mako reactor. The city's prosperity is due to the abundance of Mako energy near it, and the reactor complex meaning that there

1098-462: A childhood friend of Barret from Mt. Corel and the biological father of his adopted daughter Marlene; and Elena ( Piper Reese / Megumi Toyoguchi ), a new recruit of the Turks who seeks to apprehend Cloud and his allies. Following the events of the previous game , Zack Fair reaches Midgar with a comatose Cloud, and it is revealed that he resides in a timeline where the end of the world is imminent as

1220-456: A city" in the original. EGMNOW praised the themes of ecoterrorism and war and the prominent role Midgar had in the narrative. Nadia Oxford of US Gamer found that the visual upgrade of Midgar in Remake provides an unsettling observation on how Midgar's expansion damages the planet it is located in environmentally, as well as the parallels of "human excess and hubris" between the real world and

1342-403: A collectible statue of Sephiroth and downloadable content (DLC) keys for additional in-game items. The game was one of the first major video game releases to release on Leap Day . The Collector's Edition of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth includes access keys for downloadable content (DLC) items that can be equipped on the party earlier in the game. These include a Summon Materia DLC pack unlocking

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1464-458: A desire to expand on the original game's depiction of Midgar for one game, wanting players to explore various areas that were previously inaccessible in the original, with heightened detail due to the increased power of newer generation hardware. While Nomura understood the nostalgia behind the original game's story, he envisioned Remake as a reimagining that would "get the fans of the original version excited". Producer Yoshinori Kitase likened

1586-441: A few mentioned that the open-world design occasionally detracts from the main narrative's focus. In Japan, the game was the highest-selling new release during its first week, selling over 260,000 units. The game failed to meet Square Enix's sales expectations. Action role-playing game An action role-playing game (often abbreviated action RPG or ARPG ) is a subgenre of video games that combines core elements from both

1708-413: A fully three-dimensional map in Midgar along with expanded story content, is enough to cover an entire game. The story and scenario writer for Remake , Kazushige Nojima, said that stopping the game at the point the party departs Midgar would also allow for an adequate amount of planned story scenarios to be incorporated throughout its narrative. Midgar is located on a world referred to as "the Planet" by

1830-521: A grizzled pilot from Rocket Town and an ex-Shinra rocket scientist who is dedicated to achieving spaceflight. Other characters include Bugenhagen (Frank Todaro / Yōhei Tadano ), the elder of Cosmo Canyon; AVALANCHE member Biggs ( Gideon Emery / Shūhei Sakaguchi ), who, unlike in the original game, survives the Sector 7 Plate's collapse in Midgar and now seeks revenge against Shinra for the deaths of his friends; Dyne ( Dave B. Mitchell / Kenjiro Tsuda ),

1952-650: A heart monitor to represent the player's Attack Power and Armor Class statistics. Another controversial aspect of the game involved taking drugs (instead of potions) that increase/decrease attributes, but with side effects such as heart-rate increase/decrease or death. Origin Systems , the developer of the Ultima series, also released an action RPG in 1988, titled Times of Lore , which was inspired by various NES titles, particularly The Legend of Zelda . Times of Lore inspired several later titles by Origin Systems, such as

2074-661: A level or stage in various Final Fantasy spin-off titles outside of the Compilation metaseries. These include Final Fantasy VII G-Bike ; Dissidia Final Fantasy and its sequels Dissidia 012 and Dissidia NT ; Theatrhythm Final Fantasy and its sequel Curtain Call ; and Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade . Outside of the Final Fantasy franchise, Midgar has appeared in the Itadaki Street series,

2196-423: A lot of popularity on the 2010s with titles such as Warframe (2013), Destiny (2014) and Destiny 2 (2017), The Division (2016) and The Division 2 (2019). Midgar Midgar is a major aspect of the metaseries' industrial or post-industrial science fiction milieu with recurring appearances in related media, and is the centerpiece of Final Fantasy VII Remake . Midgar is considered to be one of

2318-488: A menu while gameplay is suspended around them. The "Synergized" mechanic, first introduced in the downloadable content (DLC) "Episode INTERmission" campaign for Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (2021), returns, allowing party members to synchronize their attacks. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth continues the overarching narrative first introduced in Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020), which reimagines

2440-538: A mission system and role-playing game mechanics, as well as MMORPGs with real-time combat systems. Allgame listed the following games released prior to 1984 as action RPGs: Temple of Apshai (1979) and its sequel Gateway to Apshai (1983), Beneath the Pyramids for the Apple II (1980), Bokosuka Wars (1983), and Sword of Fargoal (1983). Jeremy Parish of USgamer claimed that Adventure (1980)

2562-979: A more dialogue-heavy experience akin to the Baldurs Gate games and even older series like Falcom's Dragon Slayer/Xanadu series had its outing Xanadu Next with similar Diablo influences. The influences also come full circle when the first Diablo game was inspired by rogue-likes Umoria and Angband and in more recent years many games in the rogue-like genre are inspired by more classic dungeon crawler ARPGs that Diablo helped spawn. In this sub genre there are such recent titles as Path of Exile (2013), Grim Dawn (2016), Zenonia S: Rifts In Time (2015), Book of Demons (2018), Shadows: Awakening (2018), Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl Gold (2017), Titan Quest: Anniversary Edition (2016) and its expansions Titan Quest: Ragnarök (2017) and Titan Quest: Atlantis (2019), Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem (2020) and Minecraft Dungeons (2020). The prominence of Diablo 2 in

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2684-483: A more traditional RPG-esque system, including experience points and levels with action game elements. Unlike its predecessor, Zelda II more closely fits the definition of an action RPG. Another Metroidvania -style action RPG released that year was System Sacom 's Sharp X1 computer game Euphory , which was possibly the only Metroidvania -style multiplayer action RPG produced, allowing two-player cooperative gameplay. The fifth Dragon Slayer title, Sorcerian ,

2806-637: A power overload incited by Professor Hojo , the head of Shinra's Science Department. The game's ending cutscene reveals that the Meteor nearly destroyed Midgar, but it is stopped by the combined effort of a Holy spell summoned by Aerith and the planet's Lifestream. In a post-credits scene set five hundred years later, Midgar is shown to be abandoned and overgrown with greenery. In the prequel Before Crisis , Midgar experiences an insurgency waged by an earlier iteration of AVALANCHE. The story follows several Turk operatives working with Shinra's armed forces to combat

2928-403: A primary reason for their lack of clarification on how many parts the remake would have. Kitase explained that this was due to the difficulties in determining development scheduling due to the lack of understanding regarding the project's overall scope. The follow-up to Remake had begun active development by November 2019 prior to the game's initial release on PlayStation 4 . According to Nomura,

3050-578: A result of the Planet's mako having been depleted entirely. Shinra has captured Barret and Tifa, while Red XIII sacrificed himself to free a comatose Aerith. Zack takes Cloud and Aerith to Aerith's mother Elmyra's house to hide out and tracks down Biggs, the last survivor of Avalanche, who is revealed to be from the original timeline, having been transported to Zack's timeline due to the Whispers' intervention. After Shinra troops kill Biggs and Marlene gives an ominous prophecy that Sephiroth will kill Aerith, Zack

3172-580: A strong resemblance to that of Legend of Zelda , but added more RPG elements. It was one of the first action RPGs to allow players to kill townspeople, though later Mana games removed this feature. Arcus Odyssey by Wolf Team (now Namco Tales Studio ) was an action RPG that featured an isometric perspective and co-operative multiplayer gameplay. In 1993, the second Seiken Densetsu game, Secret of Mana , received considerable acclaim, for its innovative pausable real-time action battle system , and its innovative cooperative multiplayer gameplay, where

3294-480: Is Cloud Strife ( Cody Christian / Takahiro Sakurai ), a former member of SOLDIER's 1st Class who now works as a mercenary assisting the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE, which opposes Shinra's exploitation of the Planet and its resources. Accompanying him are two of its members: Barret Wallace (John Eric Bentley / Masato Funaki), its brazen but empathetic leader, and Tifa Lockhart ( Britt Baron / Ayumi Ito ), Cloud's compassionate but shy childhood friend who works as

3416-432: Is an exemplary JRPG setting which "stands as one of the best examples of world-building in the genre", and the "crowning achievement" of the entire Final Fantasy series. Tom Senior from PC Gamer perceived Midgar's "contradictory identity" to be fascinating in its level of detail, "a breathtaking vision of industrial living gone wrong". Joe Juba of Game Informer lauded the handling of the city in Remake , specifically

3538-544: Is considered the first example of an immersive sim , a genre that combines elements from other genres to create a game with strong player agency and emergent gameplay, and has influenced many games since its release. The engine was re-used and enhanced for Ultima Underworld ' s 1993 sequel, Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds . Looking Glass Studios planned to create a third Ultima Underworld , but Origin rejected their pitches. After Electronic Arts (EA) rejected Arkane Studios ' pitch for Ultima Underworld III ,

3660-460: Is defeated and retreats as Zack is confident that he and Cloud will cross paths again. Meanwhile, Rufus realizes that Sephiroth caused the recent tensions between Shinra and Wutai to distract him as more black robes congregate in Nibelheim. The party is left despondent by Aerith's death, with Cloud seemingly unaware that he is the only one who can perceive her, though Red XIII briefly senses her. As

3782-615: Is left conflicted on whether to focus on saving Cloud or Aerith. Back in the original timeline, Cloud and his friends rest in Kalm, and he tells them about his past with Sephiroth. Five years earlier, Cloud and Sephiroth were posted to Cloud and Tifa's hometown of Nibelheim to investigate its mako reactor. There, Sephiroth went insane after discovering that he was actually an artificial being created from Jenova's cells and set fire to Nibelheim, then murdered many of its inhabitants, including Cloud's mother and Tifa's father. Cloud pursued Sephiroth to

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth - Misplaced Pages Continue

3904-416: Is little to no vegetation within or near it. A commuter railway system carries workers to and from the slums, and security measures are implemented throughout the city. A network of maintenance platforms are suspended beneath the plate. Many citizens live in the slums beneath the sections of the plate. Most buildings there are made of collected scrap shaped into dwellings; most lack architectural planning, with

4026-860: The Princess Crown series, including Odin Sphere and Muramasa: The Demon Blade . Princess Crown had a more cartoon-like visual appeal. It still had quality visuals due to the George Kamitani style. LandStalker's 1997 spiritual successor Alundra is considered "one of the finest examples of action/RPG gaming", combining platforming elements and challenging puzzles with an innovative storyline revolving around entering people's dreams and dealing with mature themes. Ultima Underworld ' s influence has been found in BioShock (2007), and that game's designer, Ken Levine , has stated that "all

4148-477: The Super Smash Bros. series, Rampage Land Rankers , and PowerWash Simulator . Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children expands upon the original ending of VII , and reveals that the survivors of Midgar used debris from the city to build a new town called "Edge" on the outskirts of Midgar, though much of the population suffer from a plague known as "Geostigma". Julie Muncy from Wired noted that

4270-616: The Dragon's Crown Artworks foreword: "The motif within Dragon's Crown is all the fantasy works that has affected me until now: the PC RPG Wizardry that I first came into contact with as a student; Ian Livingstone 's gamebooks; games like Tower of Druaga , Golden Axe and The King of Dragons ." He also cites his early 20s work on Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom as "truly something that I had aspired for". Dragon's Crown

4392-790: The MMO vehicular combat game Auto Assault (2006) by NetDevil and NCsoft . Other action RPGs featured both hack and slash and shooting elements, with the use of both guns (or in some cases, bow and arrow or aerial combat ) and melee weapons, including Cavia 's flight-based Drakengard series (2003 to 2005), and Level-5 's Rogue Galaxy (2005). Other RPS games include the Mass Effect series (2007 onwards), Fallout 3 and subsequent Fallout titles (2008 onwards), White Gold: War in Paradise (2008), and Borderlands (2009). Borderlands developer Gearbox Software has dubbed it as

4514-599: The Steam version of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade , in June 2022 during the Final Fantasy VII 25th Anniversary Celebration livestream. In June 2023, the official social media handles for the game began posting a series of developer messages. Game director Naoki Hamaguchi promised that Rebirth would feature a "wide and multifaceted world with a high degree of freedom" with multiple story routes, in comparison to

4636-622: The XIII trilogy. He also anticipated each game in the Remake series to be approximately as long as one of the Final Fantasy XIII games. Kitase would subsequently reveal the Final Fantasy VII Remake project to encompass a trilogy, between Remake , its sequel, and a third, final entry. The development team had initially conceived of remaking it across two games rather than three, citing the indecision on direction as

4758-498: The action game and role-playing genre. Action role-playing games emphasize real-time combat where the player has direct control over the characters as opposed to turn or menu -based combat while still having a focus on character's stats in order to determine relative strength and abilities. These games often use action game combat systems similar to hack and slash or shooter games . The term "action role-playing game" may also describe action-adventure games , which include

4880-503: The first installment of its Ys series in 1987. While not very popular in the West, the long-running Ys series has performed strongly in the Japanese market, with many sequels, remakes and ports in the decades that followed its release. Besides Falcom's own Dragon Slayer series, Ys was also influenced by Hydlide , from which it borrowed certain mechanics such as health-regeneration. The Faery Tale Adventure offered one of

5002-414: The 1990 games Bad Blood (another action RPG based on the same engine) and Ultima VI: The False Prophet , based on the same interface. Also in 1989, the enhanced remake Ys I & II was one of the first video games to use CD-ROM , which was utilized to provide enhanced graphics, animated cut scenes, a Red Book CD soundtrack, and voice acting. Its English localization was also one of

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth - Misplaced Pages Continue

5124-519: The 1997 PlayStation game Final Fantasy VII . It begins after the events of Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020), following the party's escape from the metropolis of Midgar . Players primarily control Cloud Strife , a former Shinra soldier who joins the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE to fight Shinra, who has been draining the Planet's life energy, and is drawn into a conflict with the legendary SOLDIER Sephiroth , who has returned after being presumed dead. Like Remake , Rebirth reimagines elements of

5246-538: The Arbiter of Fate, allowing him to carry out "Reunion" by forcibly fusing them into one world to create the paradise he seeks to rule over. Aerith finds that the Whispers have depleted her ancestral White Materia, which can counter the Black Materia. An alternate Aerith summons Cloud to her world, where she confesses her feelings for him and gives him her White Materia as a replacement. Aerith attempts to perform

5368-495: The Moogle Trio and Magic Pot Summons for use in battle, and various accessories and equipment for the characters such as a Reclaimant Choker and Orchid Bracelet armor set. Additional Summon Materia are available as early unlocks to players who have save data from either Final Fantasy VII Remake on PlayStation 4 or Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade on their PS5 console when launching Rebirth . Players with save data from

5490-588: The Northern Crater after summoning the planet-destroying spell "Meteor". The cannon succeeds, but a simultaneous attack by a rampaging Weapon damages some areas of Midgar and destroys the upper floors of the Shinra headquarters. At the same time, Cloud's party infiltrate the city, defeating several of Shinra's remaining Shinra and disabling the Sister Ray, which is on the verge of destroying the city due to

5612-600: The PC-8801 computer in September 1984, it abandoned the command-based battles of earlier role-playing games in favor of real-time hack-and-slash combat that required direct input from the player, alongside puzzle-solving elements. In contrast to earlier turn-based roguelikes , Dragon Slayer was a dungeon-crawl role-playing game using real-time, action-oriented combat, combined with traditional role-playing mechanics. Dragon Slayer's overhead action role-playing formula

5734-637: The Shinra-occupied port city of Junon, the resort city of Costa del Sol, Barret's hometown of Corel, the Gold Saucer amusement park, Zack's hometown of Gongaga, Red XIII's hometown of Cosmo Canyon, where they learn Red XIII's real name is Nanaki, and a rebuilt Nibelheim. They also meet and recruit new members into their party: Wutai ninja Yuffie Kisaragi, remote-controlled fortune-telling robot cat Cait Sith, freelance pilot Cid Highwind, and ex-Turk supersoldier Vincent Valentine. During their journey,

5856-571: The aforementioned games can unlock the Leviathan Summon Materia from the start of the game, while players on PS5 with save data from the "Episode INTERmission" story DLC for Intergrade also have access to the Ramuh Summon Materia. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth received "universal acclaim" from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic . OpenCritic reported that 99% of critic reviews recommended

5978-521: The battle system for Rebirth and its sequel, remarking on its potential to multitask between physical attack techniques and magic casting, while expressing a desire to surpass the 'gambit' system used for non-controlled party members in Final Fantasy XII (2006). Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was announced by Square Enix as the third installment of the Final Fantasy VII Remake project, alongside Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion and

6100-453: The bombing mission into the streets was insufficient to convey the impact the destruction of Mako reactors has on people's lives. The developers also wanted to add nuance to the events before and after the explosion of the Mako reactor by making players question AVALANCHE's eco-terrorist activities and emphasizing that innocent people suffer regardless of who is responsible for the chaos following

6222-535: The camera to some degree. As such, these are often grouped with other "isometric RPGs". The popularity of the Diablo series spawned such franchises like Divinity , Torchlight , Dungeon Siege and Sacred . Commonly, these games used a fixed-camera isometric view of the game world, a necessity of the limitations of 2D graphics of early computers; The Diablo series spawned many terms like being referred to as "dungeon crawler" "slasher RPG" "hack and slasher",

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6344-481: The cells of the extraterrestrial life-form JENOVA ; Cait Sith (Paul Tinto / Hideo Ishikawa ), a robotic cat remotely controlled by Shinra's Head of Urban Development Reeve Tuesti (Jon Root/ Banjō Ginga ); Vincent Valentine ( Matthew Mercer / Shōgo Suzuki ), a former member of the Turks who Professor Hojo ( James Sie / Shigeru Chiba ) experimented on; and Cid Highwind ( J. Michael Tatum / Kazuhiro Yamaji ),

6466-570: The characters, and which is retroactively named "Gaia" in some Square Enix promotional material and by Square Enix staff. Midgar is originally formed from the consolidation of several smaller, independent towns in the distant past; each settlement made up one sector and gradually lost its original name. The city is ruled by the Shinra Electric Power Company and powered by Shinra's "Mako" reactors. The city has two principal components: an elevated, circular plate supported by

6588-456: The characters, setting the standard for first-person computer RPGs for several years. It inspired many other developers to make real-time dungeon crawlers, such as Eye of the Beholder and Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos . Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss , released in 1992, has been cited as the first RPG to feature first-person action in a 3D environment. Ultima Underworld

6710-569: The city in a way that made sense. The developers set out to make Midgar's environments realistic by adjusting its scale regarding the size between the buildings and the density. In Remake , Midgar's sights and locales references different types of world architecture and channel these influences through the developers' use of materials, light, and space. For example, the city's bus signs heavily resemble their real-world counterparts in New York City . Remake producer Yoshinori Kitase noted that

6832-447: The city of Midgar, along with characters like Cloud Strife and Sephiroth, have achieved a level of cultural impact far beyond the games they originate from and "exist with power outside of their context". Stephen K. Hirst from Ars Technica suggested that a major theme of Final Fantasy VII , which involves an armed struggle between members of the working class and a "hyper-capitalist machine hellbent on extracting every ounce of value from

6954-498: The development team decided to switch to the fictional city of Midgar. Yusuke Naora , the art director for Final Fantasy VII , designed many of the locations for the game. Contrary to popular belief that Midgar's steampunk aesthetic is influenced by works such as Blade Runner , Naora said that he had the image of a pizza in mind when he originally designed Midgar and its distinctive plate-like structure. Other in-game elements themed after pizza include Midgar's mayor Domino and

7076-493: The developmental team wanted to show a different design aesthetic which presents Midgar with strong elements of colour and variety, and the lighting and colouring used in Remake is intended to accentuate the uniqueness of the game world. The development team opted not to use a "photo-realistic approach", but instead something more stylized to honor the artistic designs and choices of the original game. Environment director on Final Fantasy VII Remake Takako Miyake noted that whenever

7198-487: The effects of the Meteor crisis, Midgar becomes a battlefield during the events of Dirge of Cerberus as the World Restoration Organization (WRO), led by Reeve Tuesti, battles the re-emerged Deepground forces. Final Fantasy VII Remake , the first in a planned series of games remaking 's Final Fantasy VII , is set in Midgar. The narrative of Remake covers the beginning of the original game to

7320-404: The escape from Midgar by the surviving members of AVALANCHE and their allies with expanded story content. The setting of Midgar in Remake is noted for its linear nature; while the upper plate regions were mostly inaccessible in the original game, Remake allows players to explore many of these areas and interact extensively with its residents through new story scenarios. Midgar has appeared as

7442-423: The expanded detail of its "political conspiracies, everyday desperation, and quiet hope". Marty Sliva of The Escapist approved of the developers' decision to expand the early hours of Final Fantasy VII into a "30-40 hours" experience, noting that he could experience a "new side of Shinra and Midgar", the latter now with its distinct district and fully realized populations instead of the "single amorphous blob of

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7564-538: The first to use voice dubbing . The game received the Game of the Year award from OMNI Magazine in 1990, as well as other prizes. Another 1989 release, Activision 's Prophecy: The Fall of Trinadon , attempted to introduce "Nintendo-style" action combat to North American computer role-playing games. Action RPGs were far more common on consoles than computers, due to gamepads being better suited to real-time action than

7686-448: The game is played from a third-person perspective. Players can customize their player character , which learns to cast spells, brew potions, and master combat abilities, eventually developing their own special combat style. In late 1987, FTL Games released Dungeon Master , a dungeon crawler that had a real-time game world and some real-time combat elements (akin to Active Time Battle ), requiring players to quickly issue orders to

7808-461: The game was designed with newcomers in mind. Nomura later stated in July 2020 that the intent was to produce a higher quality game than its predecessor, while also ensuring it was released "as quickly as possible". In regards to the technical improvements made in Remake 's enhanced 2021 port, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade , Nomura noted that while environmental effects such as fog were added to

7930-409: The game's mouse-based combat were mixed. In 1997 Blizzard's Diablo was released and became massively successful. It was an action RPG that used a mouse oriented point-and-click interface and offered gamers a free online service to play with others that maintained the same rules and gameplay. Diablo ' s effect on the market was significant, inspiring many imitators. Its impact was such that

8052-518: The game's release date of February 29, 2024. A new trailer was revealed at The Game Awards 2023 , which showcased the song "No Promises to Keep" by Loren Allred , as well as new gameplay footage, including Vincent Valentine and Cid Highwind . Also revealed at The Game Awards was a collaboration with Apex Legends . Rebirth was released for the PlayStation 5 on February 29, 2024, as a timed console exclusive for at least 3 months. Alongside

8174-404: The game's world. In regards to the remains of Midgar from Advent Children , Destructoid noted the message within its writing regarding the characters' lives in Midgar, as its people are able to move on with their lives, but Cloud is unable to due to past trauma. They compared this to how the team behind Final Fantasy VII and its fans are still attached to it and unable to move on. Kotaku saw

8296-437: The game. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is an action-RPG that builds on the success of Final Fantasy VII Remake . Critics have praised the game's expansive open world, enhanced combat mechanics, and nostalgic recreation of key moments from the original. The story continues to engage players emotionally, though some critics found pacing issues and a tendency to include unnecessary content. The game's sheer size impressed many, though

8418-585: The gaming market and its influence on the MMORPG genre later popularized the strongly used mouse-oriented point and click combat. While in the Diablo series this type of combat does not have a lock-on key, World of Warcraft and most MMO games uses some kind of key to target an enemy, usually TAB, to lock into it, usually referred to as "tab-target". In tab-target combat the player's character automatic do attack animations with some kind of regular attack, while

8540-478: The ground without needing Mako reactors to siphon it, which would increase Shinra's profits exponentially. Some time later, Shinra moves a large Mako-powered cannon from a military installation in Junon to Midgar. It is modified into a superweapon called "the Sister Ray" through its integration with the city's Mako reactor network, with the goal of destroying an energy barrier Sephiroth conjured to protect himself in

8662-521: The keyboard and mouse. Though there were attempts at creating action-oriented computer RPGs during the late 1980s and early 1990s, very few saw any success. Times of Lore was one of the more successful attempts in the American computer market, where there was a generally negative attitude towards combining genres in this way and more of an emphasis on preserving the purity of the RPG genre. For example,

8784-448: The largest worlds at the time, with over 17,000 computer screens without loading times. In 1988, Telenet Japan 's Exile series debuted, and was controversial due to its plot, which revolves around a time-traveling Crusades-era Syrian assassin who assassinates various religious/historical figures as well as 20th-century political leaders, The gameplay of Exile included both overhead exploration and side-scrolling combat, and featured

8906-448: The lives of Midgar's ordinary citizens to give players a better sense of it and its culture, which is why they expanded the roles of previously minor characters. The original game opens with Cloud's first bombing mission with AVALANCHE, as the intention at the time was to start the game in the middle of the action. Remake instead opens with mundane scenes of everyday life for Midgar's citizens, as it developers felt that going straight from

9028-437: The more structured, linear progression throughout Midgar in Remake . A gameplay trailer was presented on June 9 during that year's Summer Game Fest live show hosted by Geoff Keighley , unveiling the game's exploration and combat mechanics, teasing various story elements, as well as detailing characters set to appear in the game. Another trailer premiered during PlayStation's State of Play presentation held in September revealing

9150-421: The most memorable aspects of the original Final Fantasy VII , and has been well received by critics and the video game community for its cyberpunk aesthetic and dystopian setting. Midgar is featured prominently in discussions about Final Fantasy VII 's themes of class conflict and environmentalism . Final Fantasy VII was originally envisioned to be set in an alternate version of New York City , before

9272-485: The musical theme "Underneath the Rotting Pizza", which plays in various Midgar levels. Like other story elements in Final Fantasy VII , Midgar's name is inspired by Norse mythology. The 2020 video game Final Fantasy VII Remake focuses on the city of Midgar due to it being a highly recognizable symbol of the world of Final Fantasy VII . The iteration of Midgar for Remake had to be redesigned from scratch, as

9394-405: The next game, as he felt they made for a "different feel in battle strategy". Rebirth was revealed alongside Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion , a remaster of Crisis Core for modern platforms using Unreal Engine 4 which implements quality-of-life improvements to gameplay and presentation to bring the game in line with Remake . This includes Remake 's English voice cast, who replace

9516-437: The opening act of Final Fantasy VII in Midgar is the game's mostly fondly remembered aspect, and that the city recalls the cyberpunk themes of Akira and Blade Runner . Konstantinos Dimopoulos from WireFrame concurred, noting that Midgar is a "place that managed to define, encapsulate, and summarise a whole setting – a pithy urban symbol of FFVII ' s world". Jason Faulkner from GameRevolution opined that Midgar

9638-562: The original actors from other media in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII . Reunion was part of the Final Fantasy VII Remake project and served as a prequel to the main trilogy, with the remaster designed to familiarize players with the story of Zack Fair ahead of his appearance in Rebirth , where he would play a more significant role. Lead battle programmer Satoru Koyama spoke on the potential of incorporating improved party A.I. in

9760-407: The original game while expanding upon character development and the overall narrative structure. The game features real-time exploration and combat, with a more open-ended overworld compared to the linear progression of Remake 's Midgar . Objective markers appear in the heads-up display, highlighting main story quests and sidequests to complete along with their respective distances from the party in

9882-562: The overworld. In addition to walking on foot, the party can ride on Chocobos as a faster means of traversal. Rebirth expands on the hybrid of action-focused melee combat and the Active-Time Battle (ATB) system introduced in Remake , in which the player takes control of a party of characters that can be freely switched between during gameplay. During combat, characters use both physical attacks and magic, and can consume items for offensive, defensive and resuscitative purposes from

10004-464: The party discovers that Sephiroth's ultimate plan is to use the Black Materia to summon Meteor to destroy the Planet. The party races Shinra to a mystical fortress (known to Shinra as the "Temple of the Ancients") and obtains the Black Materia, only for Sephiroth to mind-control Cloud into handing it over. He tells Cloud and Aerith that countless alternate worlds were created following the destruction of

10126-604: The party discovers that the Planet has manifested its guardians, the Weapons, to protect itself, and that with the absence of the Arbiter of Fate, a schism has formed between the Whispers, with one side aiding Sephiroth and the other trying to protect the Planet. Rufus is inaugurated as Shinra's new president and continues the company's search for the Promised Land in a bid to surpass his father, as diplomatic relations between Shinra and Wutai worsen, threatening war. Eventually,

10248-572: The party prepares to pursue Sephiroth further north, Cloud fuses the Black Materia into the Buster Sword and parts ways with the alternate Aerith, who says she will stay behind to find a way to stop the Meteor. During the promotion of Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020), Square Enix confirmed that it would not cover the original 's complete story, but rather act as a standalone first game in "a multi-part series, with each entry providing its own unique experience". Game director Tetsuya Nomura cited

10370-586: The planet" to benefit Midgar's elite, resonated with a generation of players and inspired some to become environmentalist advocates and activists. The city is the namesake and inspiration behind Midgar Studios, the developer of the role-playing game Edge of Eternity . Midgar has been a popular subject of fan labor , with some fans attempting to recreate the city's likeness in a real world or fictional context. Midgar city has been digitally recreated by fans within other game worlds like Minecraft , and Second Life . Harry Mackin from Paste Magazine said

10492-746: The player can focus on activating other skills and items by pressing other keys. Usually this type of combat is not heavily based on aiming or hit boxes thus the player can hit enemies from different distances and even from a far. Some tab-target MMOs have other targeting options such as an "Action mode". Shooter-based action RPGs include Strife (1996), System Shock 2 (1999), the Deus Ex series (2000 onwards) by Ion Storm , Bungie 's Destiny (2014), Irem 's Steambot Chronicles (2005), Square Enix's third-person shooter RPG Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (2006), which introduced an over-the-shoulder perspective similar to Resident Evil 4 , and

10614-426: The player's stats, or as a currency to purchase items, and penalizing player deaths without imposing an outright failure state. It also incorporated online features allowing players to leave messages in the overworld that can be read by other players, to temporarily join other players' sessions to assist them cooperatively, or "invade" another player's session to engage in player versus player combat. Especially after

10736-508: The plot, world, and cast of the original Final Fantasy VII (1997). The game takes place on "The Planet" and centers on the journey of the main characters as they seek to end the tyranny of the Shinra Electric Power Company , which controls the megalopolis of Midgar by weaponizing the Lifestream, and defeat Sephiroth ( Tyler Hoechlin / Toshiyuki Morikawa ), a legendary veteran of Shinra's elite SOLDIER unit who

10858-433: The populace of the upper plate to Midgar's slum sectors prior to the ending of Final Fantasy VII , storms spawned by the intense gravity generated between Meteor and the Planet tore apart several of the city's upper plates. The main antagonistic faction of Dirge of Cerberus is Deepground, a SOLDIER sect developed as an experimental military project by President Shinra prior to his death. Trapped deep underground in Midgar by

10980-536: The port in order to, "further enhance the sense of realism and immersion in the world", he advised fans to wait for future entries that would take proper advantage of the PS5's hardware and features in both gameplay and graphics. Game director Naoki Hamaguchi separately expressed a desire to leverage the new gameplay and battle mechanics introduced in the downloadable content (DLC) episode INTERmission , such as team-up attacks performed by Yuffie Kisaragi and Sonon Kusakabe, in

11102-428: The process of converting the original's 2D backgrounds into a 3D space reveal many "structural contradictions". The planning process began with Midgar's original design, and from there, the team created architectural documents outlining how its various aspects should work. The development team aimed to make Midgar's environments larger and denser while taking into consideration their functionality, as they wanted to expand

11224-589: The reactor where Jenova's body was stored but has no memory of what happened afterward. Later, Tifa confides in Aerith that while the events five years ago did occur, she has no recollection of Cloud being present for them. The next day, Shinra forces raid Kalm in search of the party, forcing them to flee. They decide to follow the trail of the mysterious "black robes," former Shinra test subjects who Cloud believes are congregating towards Sephiroth's location. The party follows their trail through various locations, including

11346-420: The reactor's destruction. Director Tetsuya Nomura acknowledged that concerns were raised regarding the scope of Remake , but did not feel that expansion of Midgar as a setting would be problematic. He explained that while it takes about seven hours to go through the Midgar section in the original game, he said the overall gameplay of Remake , when taking into consideration travel time involved with traversing

11468-514: The release of its spiritual successor Dark Souls (2011) and its sequels, other action RPGs emerged in the 2010s that incorporated mechanics influenced by those of Demon's Souls , which have been popularly referred to as " Soulslike " games. In 2013, Vanillaware released the fantasy beat 'em up ARPG Dragon's Crown , a spiritual successor to Princess Crown and a "deeply moving product" of Vanillaware director George Kamitani. Kamitani cites many classic RPGs as his inspiration, stating in

11590-410: The remake's "multi-part" structure to Final Fantasy XIII (2009) being followed by Final Fantasy XIII-2 (2011) and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (2013). He stated that Remake 's structure would differ from that of XIII 's due to its nature as a remake of a pre-existing narrative centered on a central protagonist, Cloud Strife , as opposed to the multiple perspectives focused on across

11712-610: The same year. Jeremy Parish of 1UP.com argues that Japanese developers created a new brand of action role-playing game; these new Japanese games combined the role-playing genre with arcade-style action and action-adventure elements. Shaun Musgrave of TouchArcade also traces the genre's roots to Japan, noting that the "Western game industry of the time had a tendency to treat action games and RPGs as separate things for separate demographics". Jeremy Parish argues that action RPGs were popularized in Japan by The Tower of Druaga . It

11834-459: The second or third players could drop in and out of the game at any time, rather than players having to join the game at the same time. The game has remained influential through to the present day, with its ring menu system still used in modern games and its cooperative multiplayer mentioned as an influence on games such as Dungeon Siege III (2011). Most other such games, however, used a side-scrolling perspective typical of beat 'em ups, such as

11956-411: The series was also heavily criticized by players and media for not being a proper RPG due to it being focused more on fighting enemies and creating character builds than following a proper narrative and dialogue-heavy journey. After its success many other games tried to mix its influences with different structures and narratives, there are multiple games like Divine Divinity that were an attempt to have

12078-423: The setting of the opening section of Final Fantasy VII . The eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE, with assistance from Cloud Strife , engineered successful bombing missions that temporarily put two Mako reactors out of commission by the events of Final Fantasy VII . In retaliation, the Turks destroyed the pillar holding up the section of the upper plate above Sector 7's slums. This caused the plate to collapse and crush

12200-452: The slums as a whole littered with wreckage. At some point in its history, Midgar went to war with the nation of Wutai. Shinra developed a means of mass-producing and weaponizing "materia", small spheres of crystallized Mako energy that grant their user magical abilities, as well as an army of genetically enhanced elite military units called "SOLDIER". Shinra ultimately won the war and established Midgar as their seat of power and influence in

12322-470: The slums below, killing many residents. Shinra executives, hoping that all of AVALANCHE's members would be killed in the incident, blamed it on them to sway public opinion against them. Following Shinra's capture of Cloud's party during their raid on the company's headquarters, President Shinra reveals his desire to discover the supposed Promised Land, where a "Neo-Midgar" would be built. He claims this land would be so abundant in Mako that it would flow out of

12444-467: The standard edition, a physical Deluxe Edition was available to purchase from participating retailers, while a Collector's Edition was distributed in limited quantities exclusively through the Square Enix Store. Both editions bundle the game with a special steelbook case for the game discs, a mini-soundtrack CD and an artbook. The Collector's Edition includes the aforementioned content alongside

12566-506: The studio instead created a spiritual successor : Arx Fatalis . Toby Gard stated that, when designing Tomb Raider , he "was a big fan of ... Ultima Underworld and I wanted to mix that type of game with the sort of polygon characters that were just being showcased in Virtua Fighter ". Ultima Underworld was also the basis for Looking Glass Technologies' later System Shock . The 1988 Origin Systems title Times of Lore

12688-465: The team extracted Midgar's design elements from the original, they were "focused on combinations that unconditionally inspired excitement, consistency aside". In retrospect, the team praised Midgar's eclectic aesthetic from the original game, as they felt it was the most captivating aspect of its setting, and felt that it is important to ensure each area felt distinct to prevent it from becoming monotonous. The developers of Remake wanted to show more of

12810-405: The team to realize Shinra's downfall after losing her partner Sonon Kusakabe in a failed attempt to extract the "Ultimate Materia" from their headquarters. Supporting characters play roles throughout the story, including Zack Fair (Caleb Pierce / Kenichi Suzumura ), Aerith's former boyfriend and the previous wielder of the Buster Sword, who escaped with Cloud after Shinra experimented on them using

12932-620: The template for many future action RPGs, even though it does not strictly fit the definition of later action RPGs. In contrast to previous action RPGs, such as Dragon Slayer and Hydlide, which required the player to bump into enemies in order to attack them, The Legend of Zelda featured an attack button that animates a sword swing or projectile attack on the screen. It was also an early example of open-world, nonlinear gameplay , and introduced new features such as battery backup saving. These elements have been used in many action RPGs since. In 1987, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link implemented

13054-427: The temples to refuse to level him up. Xanadu Scenario II , released in 1986, was an expansion pack , created to expand the content of Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu . Hydlide II: Shine of Darkness (1985) also featured a morality system. Eurogamer cites Fairlight (1985) as an early action RPG. An important influence on the action RPG genre was the 1986 action-adventure The Legend of Zelda , which served as

13176-468: The term "action RPG" has come to be more commonly used for Diablo -style games, with The Legend of Zelda itself slowly recategorized as an action-adventure. Very commonly, these games used a fixed-camera isometric view of the game world, a necessity of the limitations of 2D graphics of early computers; even with 3D graphic engines, such point-and-click games are still presented from a similar isometric view, though providing options to rotate, pan, and zoom

13298-713: The things that I wanted to do and all the games that I ended up working on came out of the inspiration I took from [ Ultima Underworld ]". Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski also cited it as an early influence, stating that it had "far more impact on me than Doom ". Other games influenced by Ultima Underworld include The Elder Scrolls: Arena , Deus Ex , Deus Ex: Invisible War , Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines , and Half-Life 2 . FromSoftware 's Demon's Souls (2009) emphasized unforgiving enemies and environments, combined with risk-and-reward mechanics such as limited checkpoints, collecting "souls" that can be consumed as experience points to increase

13420-553: The third game in the Parasite Eve series, features a unique blend of action RPG, real-time tactical RPG, survival horror and third-person tactical shooter elements. Shooter-based RPGs include Imageepoch 's post-apocalyptic Black Rock Shooter (2011) , which employs both first-person and third-person shooter elements, and Square Enix's Final Fantasy XV (2016) , which features both hack and slash and third-person shooter elements. The online live service version gained

13542-427: The threat. During the game's events, Midgar is nearly destroyed by the large cannon stationed at Junon, which AVALANCHE had temporarily seized. Eventually, the original incarnation of AVALANCHE was crushed and its name was taken up by a new group that only consisted of a handful of operatives. Dirge of Cerberus reveals that while Reeve Tuesti , Yuffie Kisaragi , Vincent Valentine and the Turks managed to evacuate

13664-527: The wider world by the events of Final Fantasy VII . At one point, Shinra had developed a space exploration program, but following the war with Wutai and the discovery of how profitable processing Mako energy was, Shinra prioritized research on Mako and its applications and consolidated their operations around harvesting Mako energy, effectively cancelling the program. In Final Fantasy VII and spin-off media, player characters may visit multiple sectors within Midgar. Noteworthy sectors include: Midgar serves as

13786-478: Was also one of the earliest action RPGs. Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu , released in 1985 (billed as a "new type of real-time role-playing game"), was an action role-playing game including many character stats and a large quest. It also incorporated a side-scrolling view during exploration and an overhead view during battle, and an early "Karma" morality system where the character's Karma meter will rise if he commits sin (killing "good" enemies), which in turn causes

13908-508: Was also released that year. It was a party-based action RPG, with the player controlling a party of four characters at the same time in a side-scrolling view. The game also featured character creation, highly customizable characters, class-based puzzles, and a new scenario system, allowing players to choose from 15 scenarios, or quests , to play through in the order of their choice. It was also an episodic video game , with expansion disks later released offering more scenarios. Falcom also released

14030-433: Was an action RPG with an icon-based point-and-click interface. Bad Blood , another Origin Systems game from 1990, would use the same interface. The designers were inspired by console titles, particularly The Legend of Zelda , to make their interface more accessible. The 1994 title Ultima VIII used mouse controls and attempted to add precision jumping sequences reminiscent of a Mario platform game, though reactions to

14152-610: Was an action RPG. Bill Loguidice and Matt Barton claimed that the Intellivision games Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1982) and Treasure of Tarmin (1983) were action RPGs. Shaun Musgrave of TouchArcade notes that Adventure lacked RPG mechanics such as experience points and permanent character growth, and argues that Gateway to Apshai is "the earliest game I'd feel comfortable calling an action-RPG" but notes that "it doesn't fit neatly into our modern genre classifications", though came closer than Bokosuka Wars released

14274-483: Was an ongoing rivalry developing between the Dragon Slayer and Hydlide series over the years. The Tower of Druaga , Dragon Slayer and Hydlide were influential in Japan, where they influenced later action RPGs such as Ys , as well as The Legend of Zelda . Falcom's Dragon Slayer , created by Yoshio Kiya, is "the very first action-RPG ever made" according to GameSetWatch. Originally released for

14396-425: Was announced in June 2022. All of the previous game's lead staff return in the same positions, but with Tetsuya Nomura as creative director instead of director, and Naoki Hamaguchi as director instead of co-director. Rebirth was released for the PlayStation 5 on February 29, 2024. Upon release, the game was critically acclaimed. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the second in a planned trilogy of games remaking

14518-470: Was presumed dead and seeks to summon Meteor to wound the Planet, enabling him to attain godhood by uniting with the Lifestream. Rebirth spans the events from leaving Midgar to the Forgotten Capital; however, the order in which locations are explored is changed from the original game. For example, the visit to Wutai will be saved for the third installment. The protagonist and leader of the party

14640-575: Was re-released with a PS4 "Pro" edition in 2018. Assassin's Creed , a long-running Ubisoft franchise, also shifted towards the action RPG formula, inspired by the successes of The Witcher 3 and the Dark Souls series, with its titles Origins (2017), Odyssey (2018) and Valhalla (2020). Avalanche Software released Hogwarts Legacy in 2023. Set in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and its surrounding areas,

14762-403: Was released for arcades in June 1984, and was intended as a "fantasy version of Pac-Man , with puzzles to solve, monsters to battle, and hidden treasure to find". Its success in Japan inspired the development of Dragon Slayer (1984) and Hydlide (1984). Dragon Slayer , Hydlide and Courageous Perseus (1984) "vie for position as genre precedent" according to John Szczepaniak, and there

14884-571: Was used in many later games. T&E Soft 's Hydlide , released in December 1984, was created by Tokihiro Naito, who was influenced by The Tower of Druaga . It was the first action RPG with an overworld . The game was immensely popular in Japan, selling 2 million copies across all platforms. According to John Szczepaniak, it "cannot be overstated how influential Hydlide was on the ARPGs which followed it". The same year, Courageous Perseus

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