Being an early pioneer of 3D RPGs, Final Fantasy 7's polygonal visuals haven't aged particularly well in the 29 years since its original release, especially compared to the timeless pixel art that defined the series up until 7, but there's no arguing OG Cloud and co. are some of the more iconic character designs in PlayStation history. That's why, even though Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth are objectively prettier games, there are still some old-school purists who want to play the remade games with the original character designs, and if this intrepid modder is successful, you'll soon be able to.
First spotted by The Gamer, prolific Final Fantasy modder Stepheroth, who seems largely focused on replacing various character assets in the remake series, is taking on what appears to be their most ambitious project yet. If successful, every character in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will look like they did during battle scenes in the original Final Fantasy 7. None of the mods are actually available yet, but Stepheroth has been sharing work-in-progress videos, and so far everything looks great.
Doing some cutscene testing!In gameplay he's pretty much perfect but once he enters a cutscene his legs act up it's the same for the SOLDIERs🤔Pretty weird#FF7 pic.twitter.com/N7YHMU5AeKApril 3, 2026
OG Tifa Lockhart#FF7 #TifaLockhart Ignore the random floating light lol pic.twitter.com/qnkrIUIGYYApril 13, 2026
https://t.co/cmoc83IFXp pic.twitter.com/b109dcrSFLApril 12, 2026
Recording is pretty laggy my PC was having a moment...Anyways heres OG seph standing in some fire.#FF7 https://t.co/jjRjD3oEvh pic.twitter.com/I4ukbXtz2gApril 11, 2026
The main cast is almost complete!3 to go: Nanaki, Cait Sith and Zack Fair#FF7 pic.twitter.com/tFfgBSmomqApril 11, 2026
Admittedly, it's a little jarring seeing the 1997-era characters mingling with environments built in the 2020s, but I can also absolutely understand how impossibly arduous it would be essentially remaking the entirety of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's open world, especially considering Stepheroth is just doing this as a side project.
There's no targeted release timing for the project just yet, but Stepheroth as been sharing a pretty steady drip of updates for a few weeks now and seems to be making quick progress. For now, you can check out all of the creator's work on NexusMods and Ko-Fi.
