Vincent Valentine will be a “companion character” in Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth

Following a new Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth trailer featuring the exciting debut of Vincent Valentine, the game’s developers have confirmed that the red-cloaked pseudo-vampire will indeed be joining the party in Rebirth in a similar manner to Remake’s Red XIII.

This comes from IGN’s own interview with the developers, in which director Naoki Hamaguchi confirmed Vincent’s role:

“In terms of whether or not Vincent will be a playable character, he will be more of a party companion in terms of rebirth,” Hamaguchi said. “So this will be similar to what Red XIII was in the remake.”

Specifically, this means that Vincent won’t be playable in Rebirth, but will be a party member of sorts. In the remake, Red XIII joins the group part way through the story and fights alongside them, but cannot be controlled in battle or change his equipment. However, this doesn’t mean Vincent is out of the party roster permanently – Red

Vincent’s appearance in the latest Rebirth trailer came as a welcome revelation, as the character is one of the most beloved members of the group from the original FF7. In the original game, Vincent was an optional party member he met in Nibelheim, who joined the party on a revenge mission of his own. Vincent was popular enough that he got his own spin-off game, Dirge of Cerberus – although it received mixed reviews at the time.

We recently saw a big new teaser for Rebirth at Sony State of Play, where we got a look at not only Vincent, but also Cait Sith, the Gold Saucer, and much more. Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth will apparently contain 100 hours of content, and will include a very specific scene that fans are “dying” to see, according to Square Enix. Rebirth is currently scheduled to be released on February 29, 2024 as a PS5 exclusive initially.

We also spoke with producer Yoshinori Kitase and creative director Tetsuya Nomura about Zack Fair’s role in Rebirth, as well as how chocobos work. You can follow the full interview here, and our preview of the game here.

Rebecca Valentine is a senior reporter at IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].

Additional reporting by Beau Moore.