I'm going to lose hours playing cards in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

The grasslands lay out before me, the greens and blues seemingly luminous compared to the polluted, labyrinthine city of Midgar. The map screen is a tantalising glimpse of how sprawling this particular region is and icons at the top of the screen tempt me towards the main quest. But all I can think about is playing more cards.

The original Final Fantasy 7 had plenty of minigames, but not a card game. It was follow-up Final Fantasy 8 that introduced Triple Triad, which later found new life in Final Fantasy 14, while Final Fantasy 9 gave us the similar Tetra Master, later included in Final Fantasy 11. These card games are some of the most popular minigames in the series - there's now a real life trading card game too.

Which brings us to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Queen's Blood is this game's iteration: not just a fun diversion, but a key example of Square Enix stuffing the game with content to keep players occupied away from the main quest. Perhaps even too much.

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