Want to refresh yourself on Final Fantasy 7 Remake before Rebirth drops on PC? A new patch should help you out, even if one new feature is a bit of an odd one
Final Fantasy 7 Remake, not Rebirth, has a new patch, and it should help you speed through it ahead of the sequel’s arrival on PC.
Earlier this week during this year’s Game Awards, we got the surprise reveal that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is coming to PC, and with a release date right around the corner, there’ll surely be plenty of players that either want to get through Remake for the first time, or fit in a replay, ahead of its arrival. Of course, Remake is a lengthy RPG, running up to at least 30 hours in playtime, so that might not be the ideal way to spend your time especially around the holiday season. Lucky for you, Square Enix shared that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade had been updated to version 1.004, which came with a couple of useful changes to help you speed through it.
For one, when starting a new game there’s now a “Head Start” option – “When selecting ‘New Game’ on the title screen, you have the option to start the game with the character level and inventory already powered-up,” explains a Steam post. In terms of how that manifests, for starters every character will start at level 45, and you’ll have all the skill points you’d normally gain up to that level too. You’ll also get several materia at max level, every character will have gear and accessories normally found around the middle to end of the story, “a number of items useful to you adventure,” and 50,000 gil. Pretty nifty! This all applies to the Yuffie DLC, Episode Intermission, too.
Weirdly, though, there’s another feature that will help if you want to get through the game quickly, and still want to watch all the cutscenes, but wish they weren’t quite so long: a literal fast-forward option. The patch notes explain that you can set all the cutscenes to 1.5 or 2 times speed, and there certainly are a lot of long cutscenes, so those of you that just like to focus on playing rather than watching will be in for a better time (but maybe you should pick a different game).
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is due out on PC January 23, next month, so you’ve not got long to wait now! And yes, you’ll be able to pick it up on Steam as well as the Epic Games Store this time around.