Vincent Valentine Won't Be Playable In Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

21.09.2023 - 09:57 / thegamer.com / Red Xiii XIII (Xiii) / Naoki Hamaguchi / Vincent Valentine

Square Enix has confirmed that Vincent Valentine won't be playable in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and will instead fight alongside the party like Red XIII did in Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

Last week, Square Enix blew the lid off of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth with a lengthy trailer that not only confirmed the game's release date but also gave us our first proper look at characters like Cait Sith and Vincent Valentine. Since Cait Sith was revealed to be playable in the trailer, fans have been wondering whether they can also play as Vincent, or if he's just an NPC in the story.

Related: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Preview - Shinra’s Sophomore Slump

Sadly, it seems like Vincent Valentine stans are going to have to wait until the next game to play as the beloved edgelord, as Rebirth's director Naoki Hamaguchi has confirmed in an interview with IGN that he'll only be joining the party as an "accompanying character", similar to Red XIII in Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

Hamaguchi said, "In terms of whether or not Vincent will be a playable character, he will be more of an accompanying character to the party in terms of Rebirth. So this will be similar to how Red XIII was in Remake."

Interestingly, this is similar to what Tetsuya Nomura had to say on the matter during a recent interview with PlayStation Blog. In that interview, Nomura was questioned about Cait Sith and Vincent Valentine being playable and vaguely responded that some characters will appear in the game as "accompanying members" that will then become official party members in the next game. Although it was sort of obvious who Nomura was talking about here, IGN's interview confirms that it's Vincent Valentine.

Nomura said, "The original party members are all present in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. In the previous title, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Red XIII became an accompanying member in the second half of the game, but he will become an official, playable party member starting from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Similarly, there are characters who are accompanying members in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, that will become official party members in the next title."

We now know for certain that Nomura is referring to Vincent Valentine here, which confirms that he will at least become fully playable in the third and final part of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy. It's a little bit of a shame that he's not going to be playable in Rebirth, but we will at least get some time with him and see how he fights in battle, just like we did with Red XIII in the last game.

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