Following Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade's release on Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox consoles back in January, Square Enix will soon allow owners of these systems to continue Cloud's journey with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth from June 3. However, the first steps of this second journey can be taken right now thanks to a meaty playable demo that has gone live today.
Unlike the PlayStation 5 demo, which only covered Chapter 1 of the full game, the Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S demos are packed with more content, as it lets players not only experience the famous Nibelheim flashback but also the game's Chapter 2, providing the first taste of the open-world experience of the full game. The demo also lets you carry any progress to the full game when it launches in a little over a month.
Ahead of the demo's release, Square Enix invited select media and influencers to try out Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on Nintendo Switch 2, and the impressions are generally positive. "Coming from PS5 Pro, you'll notice a significant drop in resolution," said GameRiot in their preview based on the handheld mode version, "Still very playable, still looks great."
The footage of this video preview is from docked mode, and it does indeed look great, considering the hardware: resolution is clearly lower than the base PlayStation 5 version in Quality Mode which targets 30 FPS gameplay like the Switch 2 release, hair rendering still leaves a bit to be desired and there's some other visual glitches such as shadows flickering, but everything considered, this looks like a very good port and a more than viable way to experience one of the best entries in the Square Enix series. A more in-depth look, however, highlighted the visual cutbacks that had to be made, and some performance struggles in areas with a lot of NPCs
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth running relatively well on Nintendo Switch 2 is almost as impressive as seeingFinal Fantasy VII Remake run on a modded original Switch, and bodes really well for part 3. The final entry in the trilogy will be closer to Rebirth in both its Unreal Engine 4-powered visuals and open-world scope, and Nintendo Switch 2 can definitely look forward to a great experience as PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X users can.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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