In the lead up to release, I'd seen flashes of Cloud, Tifa, and Barret detailed in old-school polygonal style in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Thanks to a helping of trailers and the gameplay reveal during the dedicated State of Play earlier this year, I couldn't wait to witness their retro look in-game and discover the reason for it for myself. But nothing could have prepared me for just how good the quest that brings their nostalgic forms to life actually is. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is nothing if not playful. With an abundance of mini-games to try throughout the RPG – with everything from battling with cards in Queen's Blood to playing the piano – there's no shortage of ways to spend your time outside of the core story.
I've absolutely loved trying to get a perfect score in front of the ivory keys, and beat as many Queen's Blood challengers as I can, but there's one mini-game I wasn't expecting to see make a comeback in the most memorable way possible – and it ties to the aforementioned polygonal forms of Cloud and co. I'm talking about Fort Condor, the tactical minigame that first appeared in the 1997 release, and later got an updated makeover in Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Factoring in the ATB gauge mechanic, you defend three major units while trying to take out the opposing side. I loved my time with it in Remake back in 2020, but I never expected to be thrown right back into in such a novel way in Rebirth as part of one of the World Intel objectives. There are plenty of callbacks to Remake and the original in Rebirth, but Fort Condor's appearance is one I just can't stop thinking about.
