There's One FF7 Rebirth Protorelic Quest You Have To Do

Summary Protorelic quests in FF7 Rebirth have unique challenges and rewards, but most don't add much to the story.

Cosmo Canyon's quest stands out by delving into emotional backstories of Avalanche members.

The Cosmo Canyon Protorelic quest should be a model for side quest storytelling in the future.

Protorelic quests might not seem like critical content to play in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, but there's one in particular that's well worth completing. As unique objectives that make up a part of the World Intel checklists found throughout the game, Protorelic quests task Cloud and company with tracking down pieces of ancient armor. Although this can lead to unlocking a powerful summon and gear late in the game, anyone uninterested in committing to the long haul could easily decide to ignore all the quests in favor of focusing on the main story.

Unlike most aspects of World Intel, Protorelic quests vary wildly from region to region. Each one consists of four key objectives that bounce the party around the area, but the type of challenge that they present shifts every time. Finding one particular style of gameplay engaging could be a good reason to check out an individual Protorelic quest, but the one that definitely shouldn't be skipped cements its status in a different way entirely.

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Cosmo Canyon's Protorelic Quest Add Flashbacks To FF7 Rebirth

Relive Moments With Members Of Avalanche

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One aspect of FF7 Rebirth's Protorelic quests that remains generally consistent is their lack of narrative significance, as they tend to focus on minor stories on the fringes of the story. This doesn't necessarily mean that they can't be interesting additions, but time and time again, any layer that's added to the plot can hardly be called significant. Cosmo Canyon breaks away from this standard, delving into a series of flashbacks that honor some characters left behind in Midgar in an emotionally enriching way.

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The Cosmo Canyon Protorelic quest starts with the party encountering a few members of Avalanche that return from FF7 Remake: INTERmission, where Yuffie works with them on a specific mission against Shinra. Although none of them have had much contact with the Avalanche splinter cell led by Barret, they did join up with Wedge during the infiltration of the Shinra Building. Like Biggs and Jessie, Wedge is implied to have perished in the events of FF7 Remake, even if the prior game never specifically confirms his death.

The shared emotional connection helps smooth over differences between Avalanche proper and its splinter cell for the purposes of the Protorelic quest, and the material ends up focusing on memories of Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie that Barret and Tifa carry with them. The first flashback covers how Wedge met his end, information delivered by the Avalanche members hanging out in Cosmo Canyon. The rest of the flashbacks cutscenes aren't showstopping events, but they probe some of the downtime that the Avalanche splinter cell spent in the Seventh Heaven bar and offer a little extra insight into relationships between the characters.

More Protorelic Quests Should Be Like Cosmo Canyon

FF7 Rebirth Side Quests Should Impact The Main Story

Cosmo Canyon's model for storytelling in a Protorelic quest arguably sets a standard that the others should aspire to, although not necessarily in the manner of combing the past for every bit of extra content. Instead, it showcases how much engagement can be added by hooking in an emotional thread, something that isn't as present in the other minor side stories. The greatest strength of the FF7 remake games might lie in delivering the original game's big emotional beats with modern production values, and probing elements that got a bit sidelined in 1997 can provide a lot of rich material.

Related Final Fantasy Fans, Definitely Do The Protorelic Quests In FF7 Rebirth FF7 Rebirth contains a great Easter egg for the seasoned Final Fantasy fan, but it’s locked behind a series of Protorelic/Phenomenon Intel quests.

There's a delicacy in balancing both forward narrative momentum and reflection on the past, and the original FF7 tended to opt for the former over the latter in most cases. Final Fantasy 15 exemplifies how trying to do too much of both can lead to wild swings in tone and some beats that don't quite land, although it also has its own moments that showcase unique strengths. Considering how much space FF7 Rebirth spends on idle diversions, however, there's no reason not to fit valuable additions like ruminations on love and loss into them.

FF7 Rebirth's Cosmo Canyon Questline Isn't Perfect

Gears and Gambits Isn't As Great As Fort Condor

All the same, the Cosmo Canyon Protorelic quest isn't without its shortcomings, and despite its status as the most obvious must-play, it's a weaker package overall than the more consistently engaging Junon offering. The attached minigame, Gears and Gambits, delivers bite-sized strategy that just isn't as interesting as Fort Condor's take on a similar concept. The tactics are much more focused on optimizing loadouts than smart in-the-moment play, which is enough of a headache at a glance to make picking a predetermined array and coasting through the fights more appealing.

The final game of Gears and Gambits is unsurprisingly the most challenging one, but picking the loadout that offers the cheapest bots to spam is the easiest way to win.

If something similar to Protorelic quests ends up returning in the final game of the FF7 remake trilogy, learning from the storytelling of the Cosmo Canyon quest and the more enjoyable gameplay of some alternatives could help hone them into something consistently exciting. FF7 Rebirth's approach to the world of Gaia feels like a first draft in many ways, and seizing the opportunities to tighten up side content and improve some filler will be necessary to make its successor everything that it could be.

Related FF7 Rebirth Brings Back Remake's Toughest Encounter (& It's Not Even A Boss) The most difficult challenges in FF7 Rebirth are often not the ones that appear in the biggest story moments, and one in particular can be brutal.

Many of the foibles of FF7 Remake are addressed in Rebirth, so there's some precedent for Square Enix learning from its mistakes when translating the classic to modern systems. There's also the possibility that the next game will abandon any equivalent of Protorelic quests altogether, which wouldn't be a massive blow overall. As things stand, however, the best Protorelic quests definitely stand out among the mostly lackluster World Intel in the game.

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Cosmo Canyon is a highlight of FF7 Rebirth for a number of reasons, ranging from Bugenhagen's densely decorated tower to the joy of discovering paths to difficult-to-access areas through gliding on Chocobos. The Protorelic quest definitely isn't the least of these draws, and its intangible rewards might do even more for it than the possibility of grabbing a Protorelic does. Skipping most Protorelic quests in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth won't miss out on any significant pieces of the game's story, but checking out the one in Cosmo Canyon definitely isn't a waste of time.