Highlights

  • Queen's Blood in FF7 Rebirth is a standout mini-game with depth and intrigue.
  • The lack of replay value and variety in Queen's Blood indicates a potential for improvement in the next FF7 Remake.
  • An endless mode or tournament feature could enhance Queen's Blood, keeping players engaged and offering fresh challenges.

After the resounding success of this year's Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, expectations are high for the third and final entry in the remake series. Though Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has some shortcomings, it introduces countless new features, mini-games, and other key tweaks that make it a massive improvement over its predecessor. One can only hope that the same can be said about its eventual follow-up.

Something about FF7 Rebirth that isn't a shortcoming is Queen's Blood. The in-universe card game is essentially Square Enix's take on The Witcher 3's Gwent, serving as a deceptively complex and rewarding side activity tied to its own intriguing quest chain. It would have been perfectly acceptable for FF7 Rebirth to include a shallow or forgettable card-based mini-game, but the fact that Queen's Blood is so enjoyable in its own right is a testament to Square Enix's panache, passion, and commitment to the Final Fantasy 7 remake saga—nothing feels phoned-in. Having said that, it's not perfect, but the yet-to-be-named third game in the remake series could make it so.

final-fantasy-7-rebirth-multiverse
Related
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Multiple Timelines Ensure Part 3 Will Be a Hot Mess, and That's a Good Thing

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth went all-in with its take on a multiverse, and this means that the final part of the trilogy could be chaos in the best way.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 Can Improve Queen's Blood With an Obvious Feature

Queen's Blood's Biggest Flaw

Queen's Blood is arguably FF7 Rebirth's best mini-game, but it feels somewhat underutilized. There's great novelty and satisfaction in climbing the ladder of various competitor NPCs while slowly uncovering the card game's mysterious past, but when all is said and done, Queen's Blood doesn't have a whole lot of replay value. Put another way, there's a cap on how much Queen's Blood can be played before it gets repetitive.

Players can always challenge Queen's Blood competitors to a rematch, but these competitors will always leverage the same strategy. This makes rematches useful for testing out new deck compositions and techniques, but that's about it. There's not enough variety for rematches to feel engaging and fresh over time. Potential Queen's Blood expansions could add more competitors, but this wouldn't resolve the core issue of limited content.

Why an Endless Mode Would Improve Queen's Blood In the Next FF7 Remake

The upper limit on Queen's Blood matches in Rebirth has detrimental knock-on effects for the mini-game as a whole: there's little reason to switch up Cloud's deck or experiment with different strategies, as the mini-game immediately becomes predictable during rematches or repeated playthroughs. But Queen's Blood can get longer legs with some sort of endless mode or procedurally generated challenge.

Rebirth 's hard mode cranks up the difficulty on Queen's Blood matches, which is nice, but still doesn't solve the problem of repetition—it just delays the point of exhaustion.

Something like an in-game tournament mode that rewards gil or crafting resources would be a great way to keep Queen's Blood feeling fresh. Players could work their way through ever-increasing Queen's Blood challenges, just like in Rebirth, but there just wouldn't be an endpoint.

The tournament mode could provide new competitors, each with their own randomized card loadouts and unique tactics, forcing the player to be constantly adapting and engaging with the mini-game on a deeper level. The next FF7 remake could even make Queen's Blood multiplayer, pitting players against each other to ensure constant variability in matches.

Slay the Spire, Inscryption, and Balatro have proven how well card games can pair with roguelite elements, so maybe a similar framework could be adopted with the next iteration of Queen's Blood. Whatever direction Square Enix chooses to take, it's clear that players want more Queen's Blood, so the next Final Fantasy 7 remake game ought to deliver just that, boosting the longevity and unpredictability of the mini-game. If handled well, Queen's Blood has the potential to compete with the best card-based video games.