In sad news for fans of legendary characters, Square Enix has confirmed to IGN what was likely always going to be the case: that everyone's favourite edgy gunslinger will be an AI companion in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and not fully playable, just like Red XIII in Final Fantasy VII Remake. The same goes for the chain-smoking pilot, Cid, who remains elusive, hard to define, and thus highly cool.
Of course, Red XIII will be playable this time around, along with Cait Sith (who we don't recall being very cool). Yuffie got her time to shine in the Intergrade standalone expansion and is confirmed to be playable and incorporated into the story more thoroughly than before (being an optional ally in the original). Even Sepiroth will be playable, if only briefly.
Zack Fair's also getting an expanded role in this re-imagined telling of a now-classic video game tale, which Rebirth producer Yoshinori Kitase described thusly: "We see at the end of Remake that he has appeared, which, you know, is quite a difference from the original title. And as for Rebirth, there will be a new episode with Zack that will contain even more of him than the Remake. I'm not able to say much more than this as I would like for players to play and experience this with it in their own hands."