If only Final Fantasy fans could cast Haste on time and make it go faster, because Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's release on the PlayStation 5 on February 29 couldn't come any sooner.

If it's any consolation though, January 31 is just right around the corner and it's a pretty significant date for franchise fans.

For those who don't know, January 31 is "FF7 Day", a registered date with the Japan Anniversary Association, which is a Japanese national organization that tracks dates of significant cultural importance. January 31 marks the day that Square Enix originally released the first FF7 game in Japan in 1997.

January 31 is a big deal in Japan.

Square Enix is one of the few developers that release demos of their upcoming games despite risking backlash. The latest mainline entry in the series, Final Fantasy 16, had a demo ten days before its official release (the game was made available on June 22) last year. On the other hand, FF7 Remake's demo came out on March 2, well over a month before the game came out on April 10 in 2020.

Thus, fans were always expecting Square to release the FF7 Rebirth demo sooner rather than later.