In Final Fantasy VII Remake, players had the opportunity to fully explore the movements of Cloud, Barrett, Tifa, and Aerith through an extended stay on Midgar. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth adds several new playable party members. As for how Red XIII controls one of those new playable characters (read more here), this time we’re talking about another playable party member: the Kite Sith.
A cat creature joins the party during Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, following a brief cameo in Final Fantasy VII Remake. Similar to Red XIII, he will be a playable character for the first time in the remake trilogy in Rebirth. When the team began adapting an underappreciated character for a game suited to the Remake Trilogy and Rebirth in particular, they looked to the original Final Fantasy VII mechanics of the Kite Sith.
“For Kite Sith, we wanted to keep the really fun elements from the original, like dice attacks and the luck element in their battle drama; that’s also shown in Rebirth,” says director Naoki Hamaguchi. Game Informer. “Of course, given its very cute appearance, it will have a more quirky and extravagant fighting style as opposed to Cloud’s more traditional fighting style.”
Battle director Teruki Endo agrees with Hamaguchi’s desire to rely more on the basic elements prevalent in Kite Sith’s style. “It really goes back to the source to look at and analyze what’s at the core of these characters,” Endo says. “For the Kite Sith, there are these fate-based abilities; we really wanted to express these in Rebirth. Starting from there, we built it with commands and actions that we thought were appropriate for this character. It’s not just a case of (new additions) Kite Sith or Red XIII, but like Cloud or Barrett. Same games for other characters. Let’s see what fighting style or combat experience players think or imagine when playing as Cloud or Barrett, and then analyze it more closely and express it like we do in Rebirth.”
Kate Sith begins combat as a singular character, with the option to attack, perform a special ability known as Kitty Wallop, or use a luck-based command such as Lucky Roll. However, a key differentiator to Kite Sith’s combat style is his ability to summon a secondary character to lend his hand, completely changing his combat mechanics in the process.
“By summoning Moogle into battle, the Kite Sith’s battle style changes,” says Hamaguchi. “You can jump and control Kite on your own. In that case, Moogle is just an AI character that fights on its own. When the HP is depleted to zero, it disappears, but you can call it back to make it appear again. You can only make attacks when you are alone and not on Moogle, but Some you can only do while riding it.”
During a hands-off demo showing off a side mission (read more here), Hamaguchi, who is giving the demo, shows off the Moogle Mine, which is an ability that Moogle can use while on the battlefield. This ability scatters mines within a Moogle’s radius, damaging any enemy that gets close enough to one. While I’m not one to control the action, it seems like a pretty impressive moveE By Kite Sith and Moogle.
Red joins XIII Rebirth as a new playable character, bringing another distinct combat style
Like all party-character pairings, Kait Sith has synergy abilities with every character in the party. Sadly, I only saw one of Kite Sith’s synergy abilities, but if this is any indication, we’ll have some fun interactions with the other characters in the party. Hamaguchi activates a synergy ability between Cloud and Kite Sith. This is the result of the most trivial attack I’ve seen in the Final Fantasy remake trilogy up to this point. Kate summons a Sith Moogle, grabbing Cloud’s Buster Sword as Cloud rides on its back. Even though Hamaguchi calls it a match between Cloud’s more traditional style and Kite Sith’s over-the-top, extravagant style, their combination in this synergy potential feels natural and fitting, even if it’s completely wild and silly.
I can’t wait to play more of Kait Sith and learn how she interacts with the other characters when Final Fantasy VII Rebirth arrives on PlayStation 5 on February 29th. For more on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, be sure to check out our exclusive coverage hub by visiting the banner below!