Square Enix wants to reassure everyone that it designed Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth so gamers can enjoy it without playing the first game.
For the uninitiated, Final Fantasy 7 is one of the most popular and iconic entries in the storied Final Fantasy series. The OG title, which came out on the PSOne in 1997, was the first of Square Enix's company's multi-disc adventures. Square spread the entire narrative across three discs due to technological limitations at the time, using it to split the game into three acts.
The first disc ended with us discovering that Jenova wants to summon a meteor to destroy the world. And, well, Aerith dies.
This doesn't happen in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake (nor in its PS5-exclusive expansion) but we assume that the trilogy will address it later, presumably in Final Fantasy Rebirth. It's either the sequel will retcon it and let Aerith live this time around or she dies anyway because it's an event that has to happen.
Given that a lot of things happen in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake even if it's technically not a total adaptation of the first disc of the original game, fans wondered if you needed to play through it first to move on to the "second disc", which in this case, is Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. However, according to the game's co-director, Motomu Toriyama, Square Enix "made preparations so that players who did not get a chance to play the first game can fully enjoy Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.