Rev It Up!

Vincent's actual character quests will focus heavily on his humanity, like in Lament of the Damned. The end goal of completing all of his quests will be convincing him that he's still human and deserves redemption even after everything that's happened to him. Recent interviews mention the side stories having different endings depending on how you complete them, and so I think that's what the theme of Vincent's will be. A good end has him travelling the world and doing good, while the bad has him back in the coffin.

Obviously the crystal cave section is going to be expanded, and we'll get some dirge and protomateria lore there too. Knowing now that Galian isn't a limit break and is instead fully playable, and that they didn't show his actual limit breaks in the trailer, I wonder if his other transformations are still his limits, and appear for a single AOE attack or similar. It makes sense to limit them to a couple of animations rather than being fully playable to save time. Chaos is obviously going to appear, but could have a smaller role in the overall story and just be saved for Dirge stuff. If we have fully playable Chaos like Galian then it would be amazing, but it just feels like too much work for SE to implement.

Now onto the Dirge stuff lol. While I do think Nero, Weiss or something Deepground is going to appear in the game, probably when we go back to Midgar and kill Hojo, I just don't see how there's enough time in game to have it be meaningful. Yuffie has beef with them now too, and there's alot of story and meaning in Dirge that particularly for Vincent, doesn't fully make sense for him to explore while Sephiroth is still alive. I honestly think it's gonna be mentioned briefly and then expanded on in DLC, but I could be mistaken and SE might be able to do the whole thing amazingly in a 3 hour segment, who knows.

And the outfits, knowing that Vincent is going to have atleast 4 extra outfits for the classes and possibly more is sending me. He's so silly already, I want him in a stupid oversized hat, and I want Galian in an oversized hat too lol. We'll get Turk!Vinny in flashbacks, so it wouldn't surprise me if they give him that outfit unlockable aswell.

There are apprehensive looks all around as everyone triple checks their harnesses and the backpacks attached to them. Vincent had helped you put yours on, crossing the straps over your chest with a roll of his eyes and no comment as everyone shrugged them on like a backpack. You have no idea what the difference is.

A lot of pitiable looks are directed at you, but that's fine, understandable even, with your fear of heights and falling and all that. Except that the temple of the ancients beat the fear of heights out of you with trauma, but the falling, well, you're not quite sure how you're going to react to that.

"You sure?" you ask over the wind rushing across the Highwind deck, turning towards Cid.

"Of course," he grins, stepping closer to throw his arm around your shoulder. "I packed 'em myself and you trust me, don't ya?"

There's a few seconds pause between his words and the eventual, apprehensive nod of your head.

"Aww, come on now. I don't actually want ya to get hurt, even if you did defile my pilot seat."

Vincent laughs from nearby and then immediately tries unsuccessfully to cover it up with a cough.

"And if I'd known you were never gonna shut up about it," you reply, shrugging yourself out from underneath Cid's arm, "then I would have desecrated it"

"That's the spirit," Cid grins, slapping you on the back and stepping away.

You step up to the edge of the deck, Vincent beside you and stare over the edge. You're high up, but almost too high, the ground too far away to trigger any sort of fear. The rushing of the wind feels good, thrilling, the last bastion of leaving Midgar that you haven't yet conquered.

"Catch me if my chute doesn't open," you tell Vincent, not turning to look at him. It's not a question.

He nods, humming in the affirmative. "Try not to break a shoulder this time."

"Fuck you," you snap back at him with humour.

"Later," he deadpans.

“Hmmm,” you tease. “Last one to the ground has to steal Cid’s keys.”

The actual story stuff was iconic. Fuck. The canon, Tifa in handcuffs, Sephiroth and all that biblical imagery, a possessed Cloud. The way it's so subtly leaning into what we already know about multiple timelines and multiple Sephiroths while answering nothing. I love itttttttt. Hype, hype hype.

The one thing I love the most (except for Vincent) though is just, how much Aerith's absence permeates everything. I think that having had her in the party for 2 games now, 2 long games, and having seen how she acts in the open world and with her friends, like, you can just see what she would be doing and what she would be saying if she was still around. Everything about the plot is going to be so much more meaningful here than it was in the original because of that, and I'm so excited to see how everything plays out.

Okay, let's talk about Vincent. Incoherent Screaming

I love how Rebirth handled him, he just shone in all of the cutscenes he was in even though there weren't many. I love how we get like a minute of him in a trailer and it's exactly the same. He's so ridiculous, silly and over the top. There he is, superhero landing (and breaking his 60 year old knees) and so fucking extra shooting those massive rocks, trying to make us think he's a badass mother fucker when 2 seconds later he's Naruto running and coffin dropping out of the Highwind. Fuck I'm gonna suck his soul out through his dick.

I already knew he was gonna be a main staple in my party (not just cause of horny but you know, short/long ranged attacker with magic), but seeing him in combat, unffffff. I bet they literally introduced classes because they knew everyone would just use Vincent and Yuffie and never change. I assume the group will be split up a lot to force you to learn how to play as everyone, and the classes are a way to make that a little bit easier. I just wanna see, well, all of them, but Vinny in particular in new outfits, cause EC has not let us down so far. Need that old man's bare ankles in 4k on my Ps5 Pro lol.

And Galian, my beautiful Galian Beast. I knew he'd have synergy attacks, and I love them, I'm looking forward to how everyone else in the party interacts with him, and desperately hope the other transformations are in the game too. But, either way, I'll be here brushing out his beautiful hair after every battle, giving horn scritches and praising him, aaaand leaning how to photoshop my own face over Tifa's while she's perched on his shoulder.

Anyway, if you've got any specific questions or observations for me, just shoot me an ask. I'm so fucking excited my hands are still shaking and it's been hours. Let me write essays here so I have something to do with my hands lol.