Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is a massive open-world game with plenty of things to see and do, and it can feel very overwhelming when you’re first getting started. We’re here to help you find your bearings, though. So here are seven things to do first when you begin your journey in FF7 Rebirth.
Choose Graphics or Performance Mode
Most modern video games these days give you the option to prioritize either framerate or resolution, and FF7 Rebirth is no different. You can do this before you start the game, or once you’ve already jumped into the campaign. The option is tucked away in your settings menu, and you can switch between these options whenever you want.
Personally, I preferred going with performance mode just because Rebirth can be a pretty hectic action game, and the emphasis on framerate can help with providing a smoother combat experience. Besides, the game already looks pretty damn good even without graphics mode.
While you’re at it, don’t forget to redeem any preorder, demo, or save data bonuses you might be eligible for. These will become available to you once you’ve cleared the tutorial chapter in Nibelheim.
Get Acquainted With the Transmuter
New to FF7 Rebirth is the Transmuter, which is a device that lets you craft items. Get used to this, because this is how you’ll get most of your new equipment and consumables. Basically, as you acquire crafting materials and resources, you can feed them into the Transmuter to get items. There are a whole host of new consumables in Rebirth, including Mist Potions, which let you restore HP and MP, along with other potions that let you heal the entire party at once.
Each time you craft something new, you gain Craftsmanship experience. And as your Craftsmanship level goes up, you unlock new recipes.
Pick Up Everything You See
Speaking of crafting, you’re going to want to pick up every single thing you see in the open-world. I suppose the nice thing about Rebirth is that it marks your item pickups so clearly, and you can grab them with a single press of the button, even while you’re on your chocobo.
Some materials can only be obtained through combat, but a lot of them can be found just scattered around the open-world. We’re not kidding when we say that most of your helpful consumables can only be crafted, so make sure you’re picking everything up.
Spend Some Time With the New Folios Feature
Another somewhat new feature introduced in FF7 Rebirth is Folios, which is kind of like an offshoot of the weapon upgrade system from Remake.
Think of Folios as your character skills; you can access them at stores in town, or at vending machines at a rest spot. Interact with them and tab through your characters with L2 and R2, then spend your SP to learn new Folios skills. These can range from synergy attacks between characters, to elemental-based attacks that only cost ATB charges and no MP at all, which is pretty insane.
Make Sure Your Materia Equips are in Order
If you haven’t touched Remake since it first launched, you may have forgotten that you need to set everyone’s Materia accordingly. You can let the game do this for you automatically, but we’d recommend setting them manually at least for your party members.
Make sure you have access to all the different elemental spells across your three active party members, and that you’ve got Cure on at least two of them. You may also want to consider putting on Auto Materia on the party members you don’t plan on controlling, just so they can auto-cast useful spells in combat.
Set Your Weapon Skills
Next, don’t forget your weapon skills either. Weapons will now level up alongside you in FF7 Rebirth, and each time they level up, a new weapon skill gets unlocked. Every weapon in the game comes with a different set of skills, so do spend some time looking over each one to see if they suit your play style.
As you progress, you may also be able to equip more than one skill, which is very handy. The nice thing about this system is that all weapons level up together, so you don’t have to worry about swapping between weapons just to make sure they’re all progressing together.
Be Mindful of Your Dialogue Choices
Finally, this is really more of a tip than a thing you need to do, but keep in mind that your dialogue options in FF7 Rebirth really do matter. Your responses to your party members will affect your relationship with them, and while the overall story doesn’t change, you may miss out on bonus cutscenes along the way.
In addition to that, the game doesn’t tell you this, but there’s actually a time limit for choosing your responses. Once that limit is up, the game will choose whichever option you happen to have highlighted, so don’t lollygag.
