Well, this is going to be the easiest review ever. Not only is the original Final Fantasy VII one of the most beloved, replayed, and overanalysed RPGs of all time, but today’s continued reissuing of it has received two multi-hour demos. You’re probably pretty confident that you understand everything there is to know about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth at this point.
Or do you?
Obviously, with a remake that’s already shown its desire to go “full multi-verse” with the source material, the answer is a huge no on the story front. Likewise, there’s the matter of shoehorning to consider—just how much of that original three-disc article is Square-Enix cramming into each entry of this new trilogy?
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Lastly, there’s the ever-present danger of over-encumbering an iconic thing that’s already honed to razor perfection, possibly by slotting too much Modern Mechanic materia into it. Because hey, by all means, polish the old zweihander to make it gleam like never before, but the other edge of that statement is if it don’t need fixing, don’t limit break it.
Before we dive in, a brief recap is due, and I’ll need to assume you’ve clocked 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake. Also, the first demo of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which represents Chapter 1 of 14, is a flashback that introduces the basic combat/systems, plus Cloud’s halcyon-day sidekicking with future nemesis Sephiroth.
Final Fantasy VII Remake saw our band of eco-revolutionaries make a focused thrust through Midgar to the outer city limits. One of the biggest cliffhangers it left was the reveal of Zack Fair being alive and well, thanks to Cloud effectively thwarting the new ‘Whisper’ agents of destiny. The obvious flow on from this revelation: perhaps we can hope to forge a kinder fate for another famously screwed-over main character as well.
Word of warning to the Final Fantasy VII newbies; you should expect quite the tonal and visual departure from Final Fantasy VII Remake to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Eschewing the pokey cyberpunk streets, this adventure opens right out into the vast wilderness overworld that comprised the remainder of the original game’s disc 1 of 3.
Veterans, you can expect this jaunt to run right up until the Forgotten City, and that took me roughly 30 hours of main-quest concentrated effort. If you’re a stop-and-smell the Yellow Lilies type, that runtime can easily blow out to triple digits.
Replay-wise, there’s the expected Hard difficulty to unlock (plus some NG+ ‘encounter selection’ tweaks), which will warrant a second run-through.
By now, many of you will have wrapped your spiky heads around the returning turn-based/real-time hybrid combat and a few of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s new bells and whistles. Some of the big ones are the showy new Synergy Skills and Abilities, the former being useful double-team status effects and the latter being actual one-use assaults that apply super useful and unique buffs.
Note: repeated use of Synergy Abilities will increase their cost which encourages variety while reducing spam. Also, using Synergy Skills at least once will improve Cloud’s (now visually represented) friendship level with said party member, and when these moves connect they fill your ATB meter.
Plus you can constantly unlock newer techniques by essentially earning and using “finished side quest points” in per-character skill tree books. Basically, there’s a ton of new tactical depth introduced here, even before you start the usual chase of better physical equipment, slotting perk-giving materia in, and levelling up said baubles by having them on your person/cat when fighting.
Speaking of your pals, you’ll have a surplus of them more often than not. This means enhanced freedom to not only select the three you want now but also to preset three “quick-swaps” to solve specific overworld problems. Expect some sections where the choices are made for you, though.
I’m beyond pleased that Red XIII has been given direct playable status along with the folding in of Yuffie (who was part of Final Fantasy VII Remake’s Intergrade DLC). Red’s probably the more interesting one to use, being that his shtick is block-absorbing damage and building up a Vengeance gauge for ridiculously satisfying reparations.
I passed on the distance-savvy Yuffie a lot, having replayed Intergrade so recently. Nevertheless, I appreciated her comic relief. Especially in the moments when she tries to physically threaten the gruff, gun-armed tank of our crew. He just has to just grin and Barrett.
Additional kicks came from Cait Sith’s Scottish accent and using his unorthodox fighting style. Effectively a Master Blaster proposition, he’s a constant trade-off of speed and manoeuvrability in his base form versus making him hop on his tank-like Moogle to access heavier hitting Abilities and Limit Break attacks.
Call me The Gambler, but I dug using his luck-based moves to (literally) roll the dice and score perfect status effect pair-ups on an enemy. There is, however, some party pooping going here in the form of Vincent and Cid being Act 3 inclusions who aren’t ever usable. The best I got was having a low-stakes fight against the former, and the latter was kind of awkwardly shoehorned in as a means to (not freely and often not fastly) travel between the major regions.
Small consolation: they’re present in major cutscenes, but largely feel like fan-service fifth wheels with nothing meaningful to contribute. The same can be said of the bite-sized intermissions that involve Zack Fair.
More often than not, they just mess with the flow of the main story a bit too much for my tastes. Embargo restrictions prevent me from saying much more than this. However, I will say that it’s telling that an option to skip them completely appears for your second run-through.
When it comes to visuals and exploration, the vast overworld of 8 distinct continents is mostly seamless, thick with incidental enemies to hunt, and they’re a pleasure to trailblaze into. Square borrows the Ubisoft model of humping through a fog of war to activate tower nodes, at which point they’ll pinpoint the more lucrative points of interest.
Why should you go off the beaten path? Mostly because collected World Intel = data for Chadley, the nerd who crafts better VR battle challenges. Completed VR battle challenges = Summon unlocks or Battle Points to spend on some seriously OP Materia to clip into the God’s Own Letter Opener you carry on your back.
As you’d expect from a sequel that has cast off the shackles of cross-generational concerns, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is quite the visual glow-up over Final Fantasy VII Remake. The obvious improvements are the lack of load screens and lush, uninterrupted horizons that are better explored by a Chocobo, a weird six-wheeled car or the generously-noded fast-travel system.
It’s also not your imagination—the more powerful spells and abilities have escalated in over-the-top showiness and special effects. To confirm this, you need only look at the aforementioned Summon animations, like the crowd-pleasing returns of Phoenix and Titan who were conspicuously absent from Final Fantasy VII Remake.
When it comes to the overall production values of this title—be you out in the field, dicing in an arena, smashing out insanely elaborate QTE sections, or gawping at another in-engine cutscene—Final Fantasy VII Rebirthis rarely anything less than breathtaking.
On the topic of being overwhelmed, and in keeping in line with what you’ll remember of the OG title, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is awash with mini-games. That said, whoever decided to ditch the 1998-era snowboarding ought to be spoken to. Same too with whoever thought it was a good idea to strand the player on a ship and roadblock the main quest with multiple card games of Queens Blood.
Think a GWENT-like which all but demands you buy cards in the overworld to be reasonably competitive.
Those aren’t the only things that drag and grate in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Cait Sith’s puzzling section overstays its welcome with its switching between a fast-rolling but fragile tabby and his box-chucking but molasses-moving Moogle form. It’s the same deal when you enter a new region and have to earn the right to ride the local chocobo breed by going all Metal Gear Strife in these painfully slow stealth sections.
But you know what? I still feel that those minor gripes are massively offset by a cracking story that takes these beloved characters to strange and exciting new places. There are also a ludicrous number of actually enjoyable diversions to sniff out and/or grind for.
These include that ever-expanding Battle Theater, Moogle Medal / Golden Saucer coupons that earn collectables, and Queen’s Blood cards and tournaments to win. Not to mention an overload of mini-games like Dolphin / Chocobo racing, piano rhythm games, rock ‘em sock ‘em robot boxing, G-bike brawls, Space Harrier rip offs, Time Attack crate destruction, and more…
If Final Fantasy VII Remake was a bold statement of intent, then Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the first half of a promise on track to being kept. Its world scope and strategic complexity are beyond my expectations. It’s also a near-perfect blend of game design modernity and original article reverence, though I suspect some folks will not appreciate the cryptic nature of its conclusion. I did.
I cherished almost every hour I spent with this sequel, and I’m already Buster Sword hilt deep in a second run on Hard. Rest assured, the phoenix rise of this remake is still soaring on an upward trajectory.
My only burning question of concern at this point: how the hell are they going to melt those next 2 discs down into just one game?
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was reviewed on PS5 using digital code provided by Square Enix.
