Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth won't let you import your save files from Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
Yesterday saw a big new trailer for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, along with a release date reveal set for February 29, 2024. Shortly afterwards in an interview with the PlayStation Blog, game director Naoki Hamaguchi revealed the new game wouldn't be incorporating save files from 2020's Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
"We have announced that the Final Fantasy VII remake project will be a trilogy and that each entry will be a standalone game in its own right," Hamaguchi said. "Because of this, each game's balancing is done independently and a player’s levels and abilities will not carry over from one game to the next."
It's easy to see why Square Enix made this decision. Considering there's been a pretty lengthy four year gap between Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth, incorporating aspects like character levels, weapons, and armor into the new game would be an absolute nightmare for Square Enix, let alone balancing the three core attributes against new enemies in the sequel.
"However, we have created some special bonuses for fans who played the previous game, allowing them to start with a little something extra," Hamaguchi concluded on the matter. A new Square Enix blog post confirms what these are: Leviathan Summon Materia if you've got Remake save data, and Ramuh Summon Materia if you've got Episode Intermission save data on your PS5.
We've known for a fair while that Square Enix is designing Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth as a standalone game from Remake. How it'll pull this off is anyone's guess, considering the events of the past game lead directly into the sequel. Maybe there won't be any call backs to the likes of Don Corleone or other Midgar-oriented characters.
It sounds like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth might end on one of the original game's most iconic scenes.
