Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director threatens "close to 30 minigames" in the massive JRPG, including a card game so in-depth it had its own nerd club within the dev team

News
By published

Queen's Blood is the new Triple Triad

Aerith is surrounded by fire lanterns in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
(Image credit: Square Enix)

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has almost 30 minigames, including one developed by an internal team of "hardcore card game fans."

Speaking to Rolling Stone,  Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi  teased an abundance of mini-games, some of which you'll play throughout the course of the campaign and others you'll only have access to during certain quests or areas on the map. One of the mini-games is called Queen's Blood, and it's a card game that was developed by a group within the development team whose members were passionate card game fans.

"Within our dev team, there were numerous members that were very much hardcore card game fans," Hamaguchi said. "We formed this group where we could discuss the rules and how to develop Queen's Blood. I think we were able to create something that is going to be very satisfying to fans of card games."

Seasoned RPG players, and Final Fantasy fans in particular, will be well familiar with the idea of a card game serving as side content; Triple Triad from Final Fantasy 8 and Final Fantasy 14, as well as Tetra Master from Final Fantasy 9, come to mind. Rebirth's card game, however, has a whole backstory that ties into the sequel's broader narrative.

"It sort of presents, within Rebirth, [something] that's not just a card game that one could engage with, but there's actually an entire storyline that's developed around Queen's Blood, and we can go into the backstory of how this card game came to be, the history and what kind of role does it take in this world of Final Fantasy VII."

At long last, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth launches on PS5 on February 29, and its Metacritic rating is the series' highest since 2000's Final Fantasy 9. Our own 4.5/5-star review calls it "the beloved RPG series at its best."

After 27 years, a Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth book has reignited efforts to solve a mystery that's been lingering since the original JRPG.

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick
Staff Writer

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.