To start, you won’t be reaching New Game Plus for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth very quickly.

With the game taking place over multiple continents on the Planet, with a bunch of open-world areas to explore with your various party members, coupled with a large number of side activities and minigames to partake in, you are going to be playing this game for at least 50 to 60 hours minimum before you can see the roll credits screen. We managed to finish the game in 60+ hours, and only then were we able to finish all the side quests and some of the side activities.

But, let’s say you did manage to finish the game, you may still not be prepared to put down your good old Buster Sword after you finished the main story.

Fortunately, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth offers a New Game Plus experience that is unique to many other games, or even to Final Fantasy XVI. Usually for New Game Plus, we simply carry over our progress, then start a new journey with carried-over gear or level. But for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, things are not as simple as that.

So How Does New Game Plus Work?

After finishing the game, you’ll be asked to create a save file – though beware that you can only create ten of these, and this will act as your finished run save file. When you view the file, it will always be identified with a teal tag that reads ‘Chapter Selection’.

Because it would reveal some information about the last chapter, we won’t show the entire thing here.

Now this going to be your New Game Plus file from this point onwards. It will keep you on the game’s primary main menu, which displays your party along with several menu items including Combat Settings, Materia & Equipment, Item Transmuter, and so on. To engage in activities akin to those found in New Game Plus, navigate to Settings and then select Chapter Selection.

Instead of starting from scratch, players will be presented with a ‘Chapter Selection’ feature to repeat the desired storyline. Once a chapter has been selected, players can start with several options:

• Retain Current Quest Completion Data
• Retain Previously Completed Quest Data
• Reset All Quest Data

One of the most important features of New Game Plus in Final Fantasy Rebirth VII is the Hard difficulty mode, which is playable ONLY in New Game Plus. This is important as one of the requirements for the platinum trophy is to complete all the chapters on Hard difficulty. In addition, there is also a manuscript that can only be obtained on Hard difficulty.

Furthermore, there will also be a Play Log feature, where players can see the progress of their save file so far. For example, players can see how many Chocobo Stops they already found and how many Mini Games have been played. Or they can check combat stats, seeing how many Challenge Simulators have already been completed. There is much more information in the Play Log, making it a great tool for tracking your progress.

[Spoiler Alert, Beware]

We won’t directly spoil it here, but one thing that you should know is that there will be some cutscenes and events with ‘different people or reactions’ that would make you want to replay the chapter. So, the New Game Plus having chapter selection is a great addition, as it doesn’t force all players to replay from the beginning just to see certain moments.

Last but not least, Chocobo Ranches will now have changing booths, which allow you to change the outfits of your party members (such as maybe switching to a certain bikini outfit for a certain character) while finishing each chapter.

And that’s it, New Game Plus is very much end-game content for those looking for something extra after they finish the game. So get in there and enjoy the extra content that the game has to offer!

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is now available on PlayStation 5, you can also check out our other guides here.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth 

Publisher: Square Enix

Developer: Square Enix

Release Date: 2024-02-29

PlayStation 5

Cloud and his comrades escape the city of Midgar in pursuit of the fallen hero, Sephiroth. As they travel across the world, they find themselves on a journey that will decide the fate of the planet.