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On the final day of February 2024, Square Enix released the second part of their Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. This game was positioned to cover the rest of Final Fantasy VII’s first disc and give players their first true taste of what the world of Final Fantasy VII would look and feel like through the incredibly large scope these remakes are striving for. What was once a ten hour excursion is now a 100 hour+ adventure. Is Final Fantasy VII Rebirth worth playing? Let’s break it down piece by piece so you can make the call yourself.
Gameplay – 9/10
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth takes the combat system of the 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake and both expands upon it and increases the speed. While the combat system is fundamentally the same as what came before, it is filled with small changes that create an all-around better experience.
One of the first changes you’ll notice is how dodging with Cloud now causes him to shoot streams of wind at enemies for a short period of time. Allowing you to get a few free hits in after a dodge instead of requiring you to move toward an enemy doing nothing for a short few seconds.
While this change is small, it represents an overall philosophy with Rebirth’s design of making battles fly by faster. Regardless of if you’re winning or losing you likely won’t be spending long periods of time in a single combat encounter, with bosses being an exception of course.
Materia and magic are also significantly more useful in Rebirth. Unlike 2020’s Remake where nearly every enemy was weak to either Fire or Thunder, Rebirth features a much, much larger variety of enemies with their own elemental and pressure weaknesses. This expanded bestiary helps freshen up the battle system and makes you experiment with your materia much more than before.
Outside of battle, navigating the large world of Rebirth is significantly less of a hassle than one would expect. Due to a combination of quick movement options like chocobos, numerous fast travel points, and Cloud’s habit of jumping up any rock in your path traversing through the world feels much more like a brisk jog than a troublesome hike.
All of this leads to one of smoothest feeling open world experiences gaming has seen in a long time.
Side Content – 10/10
A huge part of why traversing through the world is such a brisk experience is how the game’s side content Is designed. While the world is filled with activities such as towers you would see in Ubisoft games and crystals you need to examine, you will rarely have to go out of your way for them.
The reason for this is because each side quest in the game will naturally guide you by several of these map icons while you do other tasks for NPCs. Each area in the game has only four or five side quests as well, so it never feels like you are being overwhelmed with busy work.
The game also wisely features natural phenomena in the world such as flying birds or magical stones which will guide you toward any map object which may not be marked on your map yet. Practically goading the player into exploring the world out of their own curiosity and not out of obligation.
Another form of side content this game excels at is its massive amount of minigames. The original Final Fantasy VII was always filled with short minigame segments that broke up the game’s pace and Rebirth takes that to its logical extreme.
Every area in this game, especially the Gold Saucer, is filled to the brim with minigames that nearly all have multiple difficulty levels and multiple rewards for doing well at them. The amount of these minigames genuinely rivals that of Sega’s Like a Dragon franchise.
Of course, we can’t talk about the minigames without bringing up a surprisingly stand out part of Rebirth: Queen’s Blood, one of the best card games in the franchise. Being both simplistic and full of depth, I have seen friends who hate FF card games somehow fall in love with this minigame!
Graphics – 10/10
To say that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth looks beautiful would be the understatement of the decade. The original Final Fantasy VII was one of the most profound and noticeable graphical leaps in gaming history and although Rebirth isn’t quite a jump from the last generation’s graphics, Square knew they needed to at least make the game stand out from its peers.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth goes with an art style of realism like most other AAA games, but unlike many others this game isn’t afraid to use vibrant colors to make its world and characters stand out to the player.
The world of Rebirth feels very warm, from the sun shining down on the ocean and grass to the green streams of mako in the air, this game gives off warm summer vibes as you watch your party of visually distinct character navigate these grasslands.
While the difference between real-time and pre-rendered cutscenes is very noticeable, these pre-rendered scene showcase the animation prowess of Square Enix’s cutscenes staff and are always a sight to behold. The Gold Saucer scenes in particular will likely stick in your head for a long time to come.
All of this results in an absolutely beautiful game that is never a strain on the eyes, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is easily the best looking Square Enix game of this console generation.
Performance 7/10
Despite being an incredibly beautiful game that takes place in a gigantic world which is loaded almost entirely at once, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth runs wonderfully on the PlayStation 5.
The game has a consistently smooth frame rate in both Performance Mode and Graphics Mode, with the game performing as 60 and 30 fps in each respective mode. However, it is currently recommended that you play on Graphics Mode as until a later patch fixes it, Performance Mode covers the game in a pretty ugly looking filter.
Throughout my entire playthrough on Graphics Mode, I encountered only a single moment of frame drops. This occurred during a fight in the Gold Saucer arena where there was a ton of particle effects going on as everyone attacked at the same time. If it takes a situation that chaotic to cause the performance to fail, then you have nothing to worry about for your own playthrough.
There is one other issue with the game’s performance that must be brought up though. In the more grassy areas of the game such as the Grasslands and Under Junon, there is some graphical pop in of ground textures during cutscenes. This issue seems to fade away though as the game progresses to areas like Cosmo Canyon and Nibelheim which lack this grass.
Music – 10/10
While one may expect a review like this to move on to the game’s story and discuss what may be the biggest spoiler of the decade, I would instead like to tell you all about the game’s absolutely phenomenal soundtrack.
With over 400 songs in the OST, every single action in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will more often than not fill your ears with a new remix you haven’t heard before. Some side quests are even granted their own songs that you will hear only a single time!
I couldn’t quite describe the amazement I felt upon realizing that each and every area of the game would feature its own unique chocobo theme. Because you spend a lot of the game on these birds, this amazing feature kept even that from getting old as the game progressed.
The genres of music you will hear during your playthrough will vary greatly area by area. One moment you may be hearing a soft orchestral rendition of Final Fantasy VII’s main theme and the next you may be hearing a very funky vocal song about following dogs along a path.
All of these songs are quite dynamic as well, as each area theme has both an exploration and battle variant which the game will seamlessly switch between whenever a battle begins. A small feature which goes a long way.
Overall, I cannot wait until this music gets posted online so I can share it with friends and examine truly how much of it there is. The Square Enix sound team provided nearly perfect work on this title.
Enjoyment – 10/10
Back in 1997, people around the world played Final Fantasy VII and asked themselves with amazement how a game could be so large and beautiful. Rebirth carries that feeling to the new generation. Even though the scope of video games has grown larger and larger over the past two decades, Final Fantasy VII has returned larger and more polished than all of its competitors.
There is something magical about Rebirth that is hard to put into words, every moment you’re playing this game it feels like you’re discovering something truly special for the first time. As if you are partaking in a milestone of gaming history. A feeling that I have personally felt from only a few games in the past such as Shenmue 3.
In fact, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth reminds me of Shenmue 3 in a lot of ways. It is the culmination of years of waiting and will undoubtedly rupture the fanbase in discourse for years, but it doesn’t worry about any of that. Instead the game embraces the small details of its world to create an experience tailored for those who are willing to take it slow and smell the flowers.
This game both respects the content of original disc 1 of Final Fantasy VII while also creating an identity of its own via its myriad of side content and world exploration. Creating an experience that will hopefully please fans both new and old.
I absolutely loved the 90 hours I put into Final Fantasy VII Rebirth over the past week. Despite its large length I never felt myself getting burned out or wanting to rush to the end. I heavily recommend that anyone who is a fan of the original Final Fantasy VII boot up Rebirth to give it a chance.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
