Easily one of the most anticipated games in the beginning of 2024 is the next chapter in the Final Fantasy VII Remake project is Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. The game is currently the Cover Story of this month’s edition of Game Informer. So far, new details of an extended gameplay demo were talked about, more information on how the devs are approaching the open-world, side quests, and how Caith Sith’s combat works. Today, a new interview was released where the devs discuss how they are approaching Sephiroth in the sequel.

Following his role in Final Fantasy VII Remake, how will Square Enix handle Sephiroth in Rebirth? We talked to various members of the development team to learn more. https://t.co/dVdthcydQm pic.twitter.com/VXoNmzvVxF

— Game Informer (@gameinformer) December 27, 2023

“Remake covers your encounter with Sephiroth, and now within Rebirth, we wanted to make Sephiroth this very clear antagonist and target for the characters to go and pursue through their journey in Rebirth,” producer Yoshinori Kitase says. The devs talk about how they wanted to change people’s perspective of Sephiroth in this game compared to the original. At this point in the original game, Sephiroth was very understated. He was talked about, but we didn’t interact with him. “Within the original game, Sephiroth was not seen very much in the world map, but in this title, we put this element forward.”

Battle director Teruki Endo talked about how they developed his fighting style and how he functions as a playable character. “When developing Sephiroth as a character who players are able to control in a limited area, we’re still considering that you’re able to play as this very iconic character. Taking this into mind, I really took care into providing the sort of resources and cost as equal to those of other playable characters into developing Sephiroth in a battle sense.”

The devs were cautious in how they handled Sephiroth since he is one of gaming’s most iconic and influential antagonists. “We felt it was necessary to have this very clear depiction of how he came to be the person that he is now in Rebirth,” director Naoki Hamaguchi says. “Even as a developer creating this game, seeing Sephiroth discover the truth and fall further and further into darkness – like falling from grace – and depicting this in his expressions, I could truly feel bad for him. Throughout the course of Rebirth, I believe players will not only grow to relate to and understand Cloud, but also Sephiroth through this game much more.”

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is set to release for PlayStation 5 on February 29.