Red XIII is only a guest character in Final Fantasy VII Remake

Square Enix has revealed that Red XIII won’t be playable in Final Fantasy VII Remake. The iconic character is returning from the original game, but players will only have him at their disposal as a guest character later in the adventure.

“We felt the point at which Red XIII joins the party in the story is very late on so we thought okay, if we’re gonna have him as a full character and try and get the player to enjoy his character development arc and growth as a character through that, it’s not really enough time to do that,” co-director Naoki Hamaguchi told VG247. 

“Normally throughout the game you’ll be playing as a three-man party, but you will have him as a guest character that fights alongside you during the last part of the story there.”

The playable characters in the game are Cloud Strife, Barret Wallace, Tifa Lockhart, and Aerith Gainsborough. Players will only control the protagonist Cloud during exploration, though.

The fans of the original Final Fantasy VII will still be able to relate to him, as Red XIII will “be using all of his old really nostalgic moves.”

Hamaguchi also hinted at chances to have a more in-depth narrative focusing on this character, as “we felt that was the best way of showing him off as a character and who he is.”

Red XIII was kept under wraps for a long while before players could see him in action, and that happened only recently with a trailer involving the Honey Bee Inn scene as well.

A Final Fantasy VII Remake demo is now available after a long wait and multiple rumors coming up from a PlayStation Store in the previous months.

The full title should have been released tomorrow, March 3, but the last-minute delay pushed the launch date forward to April 10.