Watch 11 minutes of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth gameplay features — and the final trailer

Unlocking the world map.

Cosmo Canyon. Nibelheim. Dolphin racing. Vincent Valentine. A one-winged Sephiroth. Marlene’s dad Dyne. Mini-game after mini-game after mini-game to play. “The world will be saved, but will you?” asks the game’s trailer, with almost zero subtlety that the events of this game will determine Aerith’s infamous fate.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is coming February 29th, and both Sony and Square Enix want to make damn sure that fans know this game is a can’t-miss event — even though it’s not the conclusion to the remake of Final Fantasy VII and will have another game following it.

But as a huge fan of the original PS1 title who initially held out on playing Remake for that reason, I’ve gotta say the 15-plus minutes of video that Sony and Square Enix released today leave me pretty excited. A big world map with all those locations and mini-games and moments I remember! New companions and tag-team attacks like Cait Sith spinning around with Cloud’s sword! Classic blocky characters! 400 newly recorded pieces of Final Fantasy music! 4K graphics or 60fps, with higher-resolution assets than Remake thanks to the PS5’s SSD!

Did they really cram this much into a single game? I guess we’ll see in three weeks — or maybe starting today now that a playable demo has arrived. Then again when Square Enix updates that demo to include some of the Junon region!

They’re working hard to convince us.