Final Fantasy VII Rebirth won't support importing save file data from Final Fantasy VII Remake, according to director Naoki Hamaguchi.

In an interview with the official PlayStation Blog posted after a new Final Fantasy VII Rebirth trailer debuted as part of Sony's latest State of Play presentation, Hamaguchi stressed that these new takes on the story of Final Fantasy VII are a trilogy of standalone games, not one game split into three parts.

"Because of this, each game’s balancing is done independently and a player’s levels and abilities will not carry over from one game to the next," Hamaguchi said. "However, we have created some special bonuses for fans who played the previous game, allowing them to start with a little something extra."

That "something extra" is summon materia for those who have save files on their PlayStation 5 for Final Fantasy VII Remake and/or Final Fantasy VII Remake's Yuffie-centric DLC, Episode INTERmission, according to an official Square Enix blog. Remake players who dive into Rebirth will score a Leviathan materia, while those with INTERmission saves will earn a Ramuh materia. It certainly makes sense that players won't be able to bring their max level characters from Remake into Rebirth, but at least fans who have played the previous entry will get a little bit of an early power boost as a reward.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's new trailer gave fans their best look yet at the next installment in the trilogy. The jam-packed trailer showed off the return of iconic locations like the Golden Saucer and Costa del Sol, new open world traversal mechanics, enhancements to Remake's battle system, a slew of minigames, glimpses of summons like Odin and Alexander, and much, much more. Characters that weren't fully playable in Remake, like Red XIII, will be playable in Rebirth, though additional characters that join the party over the course of Rebirth's story won't be playable until the unnamed third entry in the trilogy, according to Hamaguchi.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will be released on February 29, 2024 for PS5 and will come with two discs. It's available for preorder now.