Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is finally and out and if offers a considerably deeper RPG experience than Remake. This not only extends to the incredible amount of side activities and quests you can undertake but also your relationship with party members. As the game progresses, you’ll be able to raise and improve your relationship levels with specific characters like Tifa, Aerith, Yuffie and Barret. In this guide, we’ll show you how to raise those levels that could lead to romance and more.
Relationship levels in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth impact your friendships (and potential blossoming romances) with your party members. A character’s relationship level with Cloud will increase depending on the choices you make throughout the story. You’ll encounter certain dialogue sections with multiple options about what to say next. Carefully choosing these is what will ultimately raise your relationship level with them, as long as you consider what dialogue choice relates best to that character.
Thankfully the dialogue choices aren’t as complex as something like Mass Effect so all you’ll really need to do is be mindful of which options relate to certain party members. For example, you can increase your relationship level with Tifa by reminiscing of your past promise with her or reassuring her, or giving into Yuffie’s antics and outgoing personality. Naturally you’ll want to avoid options that you think party members would disagree with.
Eventually, your relationship levels with party members will impact the way certain story segments play out. For example, Cloud will take the character with the highest relationship level on a date in the Gold Saucer section of the game, though if your relationship level is high enough, this will trigger unique cutscenes that take your “friendship” to the next level such as romance.
Apart from dialogue, you can also raise your relationship levels by completing specific character quests in the world, usually marked with a ‘???’ icon. You’ll know which quest is related to a party member by paying attention to which character appears next to you during the first cinematic of the quest.
There’s a very simple yet intuitive way to check Cloud’s relationship levels with party members. If you walk up to them and press L1, it will bring up a smiley face above their head. The colour and shape of the face will give you an indication about how that character is feeling towards Cloud at any moment. A meter around the face will also give you an idea about how close you are to raising your friendship level.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is now available on PS5. Make sure you also read our guides on how to skip the Nibelheim chapter if you’ve already played the demo as well as a beginners guide to all the Final Fantasy VII media.
