He joins AVALANCHE, an eco-terrorist group trying to stop the powerful megacorporation Shinra from using the planet's life essence as an energy source. The gameplay combines real-time action with role-playing elements.

In the town of Kalm Cloud tells the others his tale of the Nibelheim Incident, or what happened in the town five years ago, but his story is filled with gaps. Cloud tells that five years ago he and Sephiroth had been sent to Cloud's hometown to investigate the local mako reactor where Sephiroth had found Jenova, a creature Shinra took to be an Ancient, and who had been called Sephiroth's mother. Troubled by the discovery, Sephiroth had delved into his past and the Jenova Project—from which he was born—led by Professor Gast and the deranged Professor Hojo.

Sakaguchi was responsible for writing the initial plot, which was quite different from the final version.[54] In this draft for the planned SNES version, the game's setting was envisioned as New York City in 1999. Similar to the final story, the main characters were part of an organization trying to destroy Mako reactors, but they were pursued by a hot-blooded detective named Joe. The main characters would eventually blow up the city. An early version of the Lifestream concept was present at this stage.

A battle scene with Cloud, Barret, and Tifa facing a dragon. In this given moment, the player must choose a command for Cloud to perform. At random intervals on the world map and in field mode, and at specific moments in the story, the game will enter the battle screen, which places the player characters on one side and the enemies on the other. It employs an "Active Time Battle" (ATB) system, in which the characters exchange moves until one side is defeated.[1][2] The damage or healing dealt by either side is quantified on screen. Characters have several statistics that determine their effectiveness in battle; for example, hit points determine how much damage they can take, and magic determines how much damage they can inflict with spells. Each character on the screen has a time gauge; when a character's gauge is full, the player can input a command for them.

This footage includes the world premiere of many unseen elements of the game: an overview of the world map, ways to get around the expansive world including a wide range of vehicles and mounts, varied exploration, minigames, and much more.

PSN confirms that a Final Fantasy VII Rebirth demo is coming tomorrow (says it's "out now" but I think the trailer was meant for tomorrow)

Shortly after the first trailer was revealed, producer Yoshinori Kitase confirmed the remake series will be a trilogy. Kitase shared this news and how it impacted Rebirth on Twitter, writing:

Locations are accessed through the world map hub. The world map has few places without random encounters, and less interaction with the environment. It can be traversed on foot, final fantasy 7 rebirth or through one of the many means of transport, most notably Chocobos and the game's airship, the Highwind. Minigames[]

"From here on in the Whispers cannot act to maintain the destined timeline, so fans can look forward to seeing what kind of future awaits the team."

Despite unforeseen obstacles forcing many changes to the plan, the three have made it inside Mako Reactor 5. Determined to make the second bombing operation a success, the group heads for the reactor's core.

AVALANCHE's mission is to blow up the eight mako reactors that ring the city. During a mission Cloud is separated from the others and meets Aeris Gainsborough in the slums.

Final Fantasy VII Remake manages to balance the introduction of new concepts with faithfully recreations of the original game’s most memorable aspects, but it also unnecessarily pads out this first installment in a larger story with too much downtime between its most striking moments.

Regarding the scope for the first part of the Remake, Nomura mentioned that many were worried about how the company would be able to make a whole game based solely on Midgar, but he didn't think it would be a problem. Nomura said it takes about 7 hours to go through the Midgar section in the original game, going through the same gameplay in the Remake with 3D map in Midgar and new scenario, plus the time it takes to go from one point to another adds up. The overall gameplay of the Remake would be well enough to cover a whole game.

Cloud is plagued by psychic disturbances, and at first shows little interest in AVALANCHE's cause; by his own admission, he is only interested in money.