You Don't Have To Play Final Fantasy 7 Remake To Understand Rebirth, Somehow

Square Enix has spent the past few days revealing tidbits of information about Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, confirming today that you don't need to have played Remake to understand what's going on in Rebirth.
Rebirth's co-director Motoumu Toriyama dealt with this particular quandary. “We have made preparations so that players who did not get a chance to play the first game can fully enjoy Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth,” Toriyama confirmed. Exactly what those preparations are wasn't clarified.
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Final Fantasy fans were a little worried about Rebirth after it didn't show up during what some labelled a disappointing showcase. Understandable as even though it's still slated to be here before the end of 2023, Square has Final Fantasy 16 to focus on which is now less than three weeks away. To ease fears, and have a little fun with gamers in the process, the studio has been sharing some incredibly vague developer comments.
Square also revealed the next game in the FF7 series will have a story and characters. It's worded in a less blunt way, but that is effectively all developer comment number three confirmed in what was almost definitely a tweet intended to do nothing but troll those of us who want to know more.
As for how exactly players new to the FF7 games will be fine without having to play Remake, I'm assuming there will be a recap of some kind. Think of the comic at the start of Mass Effect 2 or the optional videos that can kick off Jedi: Survivor and God of War Ragnarok. Rebirth presumably follows directly from Remake's ending, which will likely be retold in a similar fashion, but without the context of each character, what they went through, and Cloud's arc over Remake, you'll probably be lost all the same.
Perhaps Square is acutely aware of all the other big games launching right now that build on a series and don't require the player to have played any prior entries. Diablo 4, Street Fighter 6, and Tears of the Kingdom can all be enjoyed whether you're new to any of those series or if you have been playing them for decades.
The same applies to Final Fantasy 16. Square is even considering ditching the Roman numerals to avoid confusion in the future. The studio admitted that notion has been discussed as it doesn't want people to think they need to have played all other Final Fantasy games to enjoy the latest one. Perhaps it fears that logic is being applied to Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth, although, in that instance, the logic adds up. This is Part 2 of an ongoing story, you probably should play Part 1.
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