Rebirth Piano

[Niobe Hennigan]

InFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth, my heart is pounding. My palms are sweating as I grip the PS5 DualSense controller like my life depends on it. My eyes are now laser-focused on the screen, with my thumbs constantly trained over both analog sticks. At this moment, I'm no longer sitting on my couch in my living room, I'm behind the virtual keys of a piano, and nothing matters more to me than hitting every single note at just the right time. With the left and right analog sticks corresponding to the melody and chords respectively, I watch for the yellow bars as they appear and fall down notes on either side. When they reach the end of the note, that's my que, and I start to fall into a flow state with every note I successfully play.

I catch sight of how high my combo is, but I can't think about it too much. If I do, I just know the pressure of not missing any notes will mount and I'll slip up. As the recognizable theme I know so well starts to wind down, and I successfully play the last few notes, it takes a moment for it to sink in. I've done it. A perfect performance. Loosening my grip on the controller and letting out a breath I didn't even realize I was holding, the exhilaration I then feel is unlike any other. Playing Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's updated take on the classic piano mini-game - which also featured in the original 1997 release - is giving me a greater rush than any boss battle or tough encounter. And as a result, I'm determined to try and perfectly perform each and every musical score I come across in the world.

It certainly won't be for everyone, but I just click with this particular mini-game. After many, many sessions with it throughout my time in Rebirth, I've come to the conclusion that I keep coming back to it thanks to my history with rhythm games. I've always found rhythm-based challenges to be quite relaxing, which I know isn't universal. But not unlike racing in games, I fall into a flow state as my attention hones in on trying to successfully hit buttons in time - or in the case of racing, reach the finish line.

One of the first rhythm games I played to death was actually Persona 4: Dancing All Night on my PS Vita. Some years later, I picked it up again on the PS4, along with Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight. I enjoyed them so much, I even went to the effort of platinuming them all, and in a sense, they trained me for the way you play the piano in Rebirth. With moves to hit on either side of the screen, the Persona games tap into the same kind of coordination as the piano mini-game, with you trying to press buttons or move the analog sticks in time to the music. It's not exactly the same, but I definitely think it's helped me quickly get to grips with the piano keys.

I'm not in any way musically gifted, and I certainly couldn't play a song without the yellow bar prompts, but after seeing so many fans get creative with the mini-game in the demo, I have an even greater appreciation for the updated design of it in Rebirth. It's a nifty little mini-game that feels very rewarding to conquer, and I have spent hours playing it. Being able to perform themes I know so well just makes it extra special, and with the promise of just a few more sheets of music to find, and some perfect scores already behind me, I know I'll continue to chase after the same rush my first perfect performance gave me.

I started out writing for the games section of a student-run website as an undergrad, and continued to write about games in my free time during retail and temp jobs for a number of years. Eventually, I earned an MA in magazine journalism at Cardiff University, and soon after got my first official role in the industry as a content editor for Stuff magazine. After writing about all things tech and games-related, I then did a brief stint as a freelancer before I landed my role as a staff writer here at GamesRadar+. Now I get to write features, previews, and reviews, and when I'm not doing that, you can usually find me lost in any one of the Dragon Age or Mass Effect games, tucking into another delightful indie, or drinking far too much tea for my own good. "}), " -0-10/js/authorBio.js"); } else console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); Heather WaldSocial Links NavigationSenior staff writerI started out writing for the games section of a student-run website as an undergrad, and continued to write about games in my free time during retail and temp jobs for a number of years. Eventually, I earned an MA in magazine journalism at Cardiff University, and soon after got my first official role in the industry as a content editor for Stuff magazine. After writing about all things tech and games-related, I then did a brief stint as a freelancer before I landed my role as a staff writer here at GamesRadar+. Now I get to write features, previews, and reviews, and when I'm not doing that, you can usually find me lost in any one of the Dragon Age or Mass Effect games, tucking into another delightful indie, or drinking far too much tea for my own good.

I've been completing 100% of everything the game has thrown at me from the beginning, but I hit a brick wall at the piano in Cosmo Canyon. I once got 16800 points, but now I can't get anywhere close to that again, let alone reach 17400.

"Two Legs" is slightly better than "Cinco de Chocobo", since Chocobo is a 5/4 piece and I am not used to odd time signatures. At least Two Legs is more musical and melodic than Chocobo. "Two Legs" is harder to S-rank in the sense that its input is more dense, and there are more transition between phases.

Last night I did Cinco de Chocobo with an A Rank with the first time speeding it up +1, then muted the TV and got Two Legs to a B Rank. I felt like taking a break and do other stuff, I'll get back to it in the next couple days. The other 4, I was able to do with no problem, but Two Legs is just crazy.

Agreed with this. Cino de chocobo i had to reduce to speed 2 to get an A rank, so it took me longer since I was playing on speed 3 from the start of the game. For two legs, i stuck with speed 2 but after 15mins or so, i chanfed to speed 3 and got it relatively easily. Foe rhe music minigames i either stand up or sit every close to the tv and drown the sound out and try to look at the centre of both dials. Since no one seems to be complaining about the last piece, I hope its easier or at least on the same level as these two.

Just tried today a couple times with my tv muted and it feels easier. Got a B only like 400 or 500 pounts down, so I'm positive that tomorrow I will achieve it. Or maybe I left this one until I find another song to play.

Btw, I do all six pieces with the lowest note speed (i.e. 1 out of 5), partly because it is slower (you don't say), partly because I input with body grooving and that provide sufficient preview of the upcoming input. Say for Yakuza's karaoke, I sit farther since the notes on screen is much more and longer. For FF7, sitting closer is better.

There is no reward for S-Ranking all pieces at the highest speed, but there are individual rewards for completing each piece at A-Rank at any speed. You can see the rewards for each piano music below, but in general, you'll get some Lv. 2 and Lv. 3 materia!

At the settlement, head for the wooden walkway between Maghnata Books and the Weapons Vendor to get up to the upper level. Directly ahead will be the Rock Bottom bar: head inside to find this piano on the opposite side.

One-Winged Angel is the eighth piece of Sheet Music, and is the hardest to obtain. To get it, you need to collect all 88 Collector's Items in the game. You can learn the requirements for each one by visiting our Treasure Trove Collector's Item page.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth consumed my life for about a month, serving as the grand, overwrought, and still incomplete finale to a dedicated run through the original FF7 and FF7 Remake that I started in January this year. It's an exceptionally long game, filled to the brim with both great bespoke content and a fair share of more generic tasks scattered throughout its world. Spending countless hours on a story's middle chapter can feel like a major time sink, one that's tiring in its worst moments but thrilling in its best ones.

Binging games has a way of making them worm deep into your head, a concept that might be best exemplified by the so-called "Tetris effect," where an avid player starts to map the parameters of a game onto their mind or the world itself, even when the game is boxed up on the shelf. With FF7 Rebirth, I wasn't struck by any images of swinging oversized swords or casting materia in my day-to-day-life. But I did get something unexpected out of it, and that could very well last me a lot longer than even the game itself did.

FF7 Rebirth's piano minigame isn't really anything like actually playing the piano, and although it's a good bit simpler than the real thing, that can also make it harder. The rhythm is always arranged to fit properly with the beat, but the ways in which it's sometimes streamlined from the notes actually being played occasionally threw me off. My experience with musical instruments is more thorough than my time spent with rhythm games, especially when it comes to the piano, which I played throughout most of my childhood and most of my adolescence.

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