Like many other epic RPGs these days, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth isn’t over when the credits roll. Though the game doesn’t have a traditional New Game Plus mode as seen in other games, it does offer you the option to go back and replay any part of the story. If you’re looking to revert back to the perfect time to finish up certain sidequests or find items you missed the first time through, though, the choices may be a little confusing at first.
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This guide goes over how Rebirth lets you revisit parts of the game, and which part you should fall back to in order to explore the open world more easily.
Yes, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (sort of) has ‘New Game Plus’
Once you hit Rebirth’s credits, you’ll unlock Chapter Selection. This will let you go back and play any of the game’s chapters in whichever order you prefer. While not exactly the “New Game Plus” many of us know from other games, it functions in a very similar way, but instead of needing to start from the beginning, you can warp to any point in Rebirth’s story.
Chapter Selection not only lets you play through parts of the story at different difficulties, and with all of your gear and leveling still intact; it’s also the perfect way to polish off open-world tasks you have left to complete (you know, because Chadley won’t shut up about them anyway). You’ll find this option in the main menu under System > Chapter Selection.
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If you wish to jump back into the game to finish sidequests and open-world activities, there’s one chapter in particular that works out perfectly for this: Chapter 12.
Select Chapter 12 to finish all open-world tasks easily
Once you’ve completed the game and are ready to take on the open world without concern for the overarching narrative, go ahead and select Chapter 12 as your new starting point. Return to Chapter 12 anytime you want to treat Rebirth as a fast-travel-rich open-world game. That said, there are a few things you should consider.
Chapter Selection takes you back to where said chapter exists in the narrative. So when you fire up Chapter 12, you will still have to play through the opening segment which consists of little more than a trip on the Tiny Bronco before docking at Costa del Sol. From this point, you can mostly treat the map like that in any open-world game (you can fast travel to virtually everywhere from the map at this point), but you should play just a little bit further in the narrative to open the game up a little more.
Once you dock at Costa del Sol, head on over to the Gold Saucer and follow the narrative up until Aerith and Cloud have a conversation with Dio at Battle Square. Fast travel will be locked until you do this. Once you chat with Dio, however, you can then go back to moving around the map, and will have the Gold Saucer to freely move around, too.
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If you progress past the date night, however, you’ll still have the opportunity to finish off various quests and tasks, but you’ll be missing a certain feline member of the party, which may not be ideal for grinding.
Quest progress reset prompt, explained
When you select a chapter from Chapter Selection, you’ll be hit with a not-so-clear prompt that asks you if you want to:
- Retain Current Quest Completion Data
- Restore Previously Completed Quest Data
- Reset All Quest Data
The first option will keep any sidequest progress from the current playthrough of the game (quests you didn’t fully finish will reset, however). The second option imports sidequest progress from a different save file. So if you selected New Game and started from scratch, once you gain Chapter Selection in that playthrough, you’ll be able to import the progress from a previous playthrough.
Other essential ‘New Game Plus’ settings
Once you complete a full playthrough of Rebirth, you’ll get an Extra Settings option in the System menu. These options let you tweak the speed of combat when in Tactical Mode (when you’re choosing options from the command menu), automatically pick up crafting resources, skip Zack’s side story, and choose who you’ll go on a date with in chapters 8 and 12.
Rebirth is an enormous game, so if you just want to focus on the main story for your first run, these tips will help you know where to roll back to in order to polish off any remaining sidequests and open-world activities.
