It'd be fair to say Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's next-gen makeover of characters, monsters, and more from the 1997 original has been a spectacular glow-up. The modern console era has returned an iconic cast and world to us with a level of realism in gameplay that even pre-rendered cutscenes over 25 years ago couldn't match. We asked Square Enix if they could crunch some numbers and share some insight into the changes nearly three decades of technological advancement have wrought. Here, main character modeler and lead character artist Dai Suzuki walks us through a selection of characters, creatures, weapons, and more.

Dai Suzuki: When people think of Cloud, most think of his gigantic sword and his unique hairstyle. Because it is so iconic, we needed to put special effort into creating Cloud's hair for Final Fantasy VII Remake, to properly express his personality. The hair was an extremely high-priority element and in fact accounted for half of the total polygon count for the whole model. In Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the hardware has been changed to PS5, allowing for a higher polygon count to be used than in Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Back in September, we announced that 3 million of you had embraced your power washing destiny and the challenge of cleaning up Muckingham (seriously, how is that place still dirty?!). Well, since then, we've over doubled that figure, with a total of 7 million players to date! Whether you were sucked in by watching your favorite streamer play, reading the great reviews or by one of our collaborative Special Packs - thank you so much for playing! We've got heaps of awesome content coming in the remainder of 2023 for you to enjoy.

Kirsty Rigden, FuturLab's Co-CEO and the mind behind the original idea for PowerWash Simulator states: "With over 7 million players, we are honored that so many people have found their zen with PowerWash Simulator. The strength in our community is palpable. Since we launched into Early Access, the support for our soothing sim has been immense, and we are extremely grateful that this has continued to strengthen past release.

Free Update coming April 18th + 2023 Roadmap and Physical Release for PowerWash Simulator - The first few months of this year have been crazy. You've cleaned Croft Manor and de-mucked Midgar… wherever next?! Well, we'll take a look at what else is coming this year in a minute, but not before we've said a huge and heartfelt THANK YOU to you all for the community support so far this year. It has been incredible seeing your reaction to the new content on socials and our Discord.

What's coming this year? 2023 Roadmap - Hop in the van, we're going on a road trip! Throughout 2023, we'll be taking you to places near and far in a range of Special Packs and updates that traverse Muckingham and beyond. Behold, our 2023 roadmap! With each free expansion, we'll be revealing more of Muckingham and its stories, whereas the paid Special Packs will transport you outside of the Muckingham universe to all sorts of new and exciting places.