Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: PlayStation 5
Release Date: February 29, 2024
Price: $69.99 USD – Available Here $119.95 AUD – Available Here
Overview
Looking back, it can be a bit hard to believe that it has only been four years since Square Enix took their signature RPG and built it from the ground up to the surprise of all of their fans with Final Fantasy VII Remake nearly twenty five years after the original release. This might be helped a bit by the fact that a year later the company went on to release a brand new story focusing on entirely on Yuffie in the form of Intergrade but nonetheless this classic RPG saw itself given a number of brand new changes that many fans welcomed with open arms despite the many small but significant changes the company made to its plot. Now here we are again, continuing Cloud and the party’s adventure four years later in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth in what is likely the most expansive Final Fantasy game yet, featuring an open world packed with content and a storyline that is both familiar and new, written in such a manner that longtime fans will be eager to see it through its lengthy runtime even with some convolution along the way.
Story
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth picks up after the events of Intergrade with Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barrett, and Red XIII recuperating in the town of Kalm and telling the story of their past to the group. Cloud explains that his past as a SOLDIER saw him working alongside Sephiroth and that during a mission to his and Tifa’s hometown of Nibelheim, Sephiroth made a terrible discovery that warped him and set him on a path of destruction. Shortly after taking some more time to rest Cloud and the gang are forced to evacuate from Kalm as Shinra soldiers begin to search for any fleeing Avalanche terrorists. This is the kickstarter to their adventure to pursue Sephiroth through the Grasslands and five other massive open world regions and a few smaller others to try and prevent him from putting whatever his evil plans are into motion, even if it means having to deal with the mysterious Whispers along the way as they continue to manipulate and twist events in certain ways, almost as if trying to force destiny to follow a specific path.
To avoid spoilers, we won’t discuss any of the finer details about the twisting events that take place, especially past the halfway point in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, but it must be said that Square Enix’s writers are not afraid to take risks when it comes to taking this narrative down a different path. For every few elements and plot points that will feel familiar to longtime fans of the original game there will be a new twist or event that will throw a wrench into their memories, making this a wholly unique story that is almost always for the better as a result of these chance changes. Throughout their journey, which still follows the same general story beats as thee original, players will always feel like there is a chance that something might be amiss, or something could go wrong at any time and catch them off-guard entirely. Part of this is thanks to the way that the characters are written and their new interactions as well as the fact that certain characters like Yuffie and a certain vampire aren’t optional this time around and the grander storyline has been expanded to bring in various prequel game elements to help tie things together.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth may drop players into an open world most of the time when they aren’t exploring some of the game’s lengthy dungeons but that doesn’t mean that the numerous activities players can partake in are just busy work. Sure, some of it is, but a lot of it provides new and unique bits of lore and extra context to the journey that the players are on. Defeating certain creatures that are mutated versions of normal ones all while MAI speaks through the controller, scanning Lifesprings for historical information, scanning Summon Materia temples to learn more about them and obtain extra abilities during their fights, searching for Protorelics that reveal the history of the world, and far more. Sure, a lot of these start by literally going to a tower and activating it like any generic open world game but it is these activities called “World Intel” that make them feel actually worthwhile.
It also helps that compared to usual RPGs where players will only be out in the field with their current battle party, the entire party is traveling together out in the field at once, even riding on Chocobos of their very own should Cloud be riding one. This means that the entire party has the chance to comment on any landmark players might stumble across or choices that the player has made or interaction with a potential threat. Sure, during combat players are still unfortunately limited to only three active fighters, but having everyone in the field at once makes the journey feel a bit more personal and there is good reason for that as well. There are tons of new and unique moments throughout the game between the characters that have never existed before, this can include scenes with Aerith and Tifa confiding in one another, Barrett teasing Red XIII, and other types of bantering back and forth that makes this cast even more endearing on this lengthy adventure. It is also interesting to note that Square Enix’s writers have even included something of a “friendship” gauge in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth where Cloud can raise or lower his favorability with team mates depending on his answers to questions they might ask him during various interactions, whether or not he fights alongside them and utilizes their Synergy Abilities, and even take on various side-quests that almost every character can be involved with in some way.
The side quests in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth are highly enjoyable thanks to the wide range of activities that players will usually find themselves doing and, as just mentioned, how nearly every time at least one party member will chime in or partake in some way. In fact, one of the earliest side-quests can involve Red XIII trying to hide his jealousy of the group’s new Chocobo and the fact it is capable of sniffing out a target better than he can and completing said quest can raise his favorability with Cloud. Obviously we won’t spoil how these friendship levels play out but it is worth noting that they act an extra wrinkle of interaction to nearly every aspect of the side-content that makes it worth doing. That and the fact that a lot of the side-quests, especially in the latter half of the game, reveal important plot elements and developments that players might miss out on if they simply skip them, making the side-content feel highly important more often than not.
Thanks to some incredibly strong character writing, numerous brand new interactions for the cast, and an intriguing driving narrative keeping Cloud and the group moving forward, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth delivers an incredible new take on a familiar narrative as interesting as it can sometimes feel confusing thanks to the numerous twists and turns it takes and how it plays with player expectations while also factoring in potential timeline interferences. This remains a story that has incredible emotional highs with bright and exciting events like the ever memorable Golden Saucer being one obvious highlight only to leave players both emotionally and mentally drained as they experience the trials and tribulations that the group goes through during the many darker moments that permeate the story, and given how well developed the cast is throughout Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s new take on the story, these events hit all the harder in what remains a signature storyline that fans will be talking about for years to come, especially with more to come.
Gameplay
The most notable change that players will experience when it comes to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the impressive scale on offer once players leave the city of Kalm. While the previous entry was massive too, it was mostly linear and now players will find themselves in an open world as soon as they step into the Grasslands and capable of exploring nearly anywhere they want to. As mentioned before, a lot of this exploration will be available through the use of a Chocobo that, with different colors of Chocobo for each region, have different traversal abilities. Players can of course simply choose to head straight towards plot relevant areas and continue the story but will be missing out on the quality content that scatters the open world. This includes the aforementioned side-quests that populate many smaller settlements and job boards in larger towns, exploring ruins, and of course completing various small tasks for Chadley to help expand on his aforementioned “World Intel.” Many of these tasks are very familiar to anyone who has played an open world game before, with most of them even being revealed by literally activating towers scattered across the wilderness, but thanks to impressive world design, the fact that the characters are almost always commenting on things, and how entertaining and quickly paced combat feels, these small tasks feel delightful even if they are familiar.
Of course, not all of the content is the most exciting and a few of them have simple mini-games (more on that later) involved but they are almost always rewarding as they can often reveal improvements to Summon Materia, reward Research Points that can be redeemed for Materia, or even provide recipes for the game’s simple and straightforward crafting mechanic that allows players to take the numerous random ingredients they find out in the field and obtain from monsters and use it to craft everything from potions to pieces of equipment. Some traversal is a bit… obvious at times as the environment will often signify points where players can climb or shimmy through which can look a little out of place at times and even though the game marks exact locations for some places on the map directly, there are even owls that can fly to guide player’s to Lifesprings to make things easier. Of course, hunting down all of the treasures in a ruined location is still a challenge and often a worthwhile one as many contain decent equipment for the team.
Whenever players encounter enemies they will immediately enter combat right then and there and, despite having a larger roster of characters to choose from than ever, players are still limited to only three active fighters at a time. It is nice to note that non-participating fighters do appear to take pot-shots at enemies from a distance and, later, can even trigger a Synergy Ability should the need arise, but players will only be actively fighting with three characters at a time using a system that remains mostly the same as before. Players can select a Leader that they will always control at the start of the fight, swap between characters in their party at will during battle, and of course pause to use skills, spells, and items with the ATB gauge. The Pressure and Stagger system returns with players being able to Assess enemies to find the best ways to target an enemies weakness or a certain attack/defense that can send them on their back foot and give players the advantage in a fight.
New to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth are a few other attacking methods and these come in the form of Synergy Abilities as well as the way to obtain and upgrade them, Folios. Synergy Abilities are powerful attacks that include two characters fighting alongside one another that require used ATB gauges to trigger. These Synergy Abilities are powerful attacks that not only deal plenty of damage but also provide a useful bonus such as healing, lowering the cost of magic, or even giving an immediate Limit Break gauge. There are even Synergy Skills that can be used more readily and allow for things such as Barret tanking damage for Aerith or Red XIII launching off of Cloud to get into range of an enemy. These new options help give players more fighting abilities without worrying about only managing the ATB gauge and makes combat feel faster than ever. The aforementioned Folios work like a Sphere Grid where players spend SP to unlock perks and abilities for every character. These points can range from simply boosting a character’s stats to unlocking the Synergy Abilties which can then play a role in how players build their party as both characters must be in the party to trigger these skills.
It must be said that Square Enix has given a lot of love to the combat in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and while it may not be that different from before, it is fun to see that literally every character in the game has a distinct fighting style that is unique to them. Sure, players can equip Materia of different spells to every character but their unlocked skills and attack styles are all different, with characters like Red XIII being a faster fighter that can turn a defensive stance into a blitzing offense with his Vengeance ability or Yuffi’s special abilities and being probably the most mobile in the entire party. Players can have up to three party set-ups assigned at any given time, meaning they can swap between any three party set-ups while in the field but it is unfortunate that players cannot save equipment loadouts to match. For example, Yuffie paired with Aerith and Cloud shouldn’t be equipped the same as if she was fighting alongside Barret and Tifa instead.
When not fighting or exploring, players will find that they will be taking part in plenty of mini-games as Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is absolutely packed to the gills with mini-games. This ranges from simple ones that players will only do once, the many that are inside Gold Saucer, and of course tons of others scattered throughout the world. There are mini-games for countless events, be it Chocobo taming, moving equipment or boxes around, Chocobo racing, Moogle wrangling, and more. There is even a little 3D Brawler with low-poly versions of the characters to take advantage of and an arcade game stylized like the previous release’s motorcycle chase. Not all of these are winners and unfortunately some are actually quite terrible, though thankfully some of the worst are ones players only need to do once and can forget about forever. Perhaps the biggest minigame though is a full blown card game by the name of Queen’s Blood. Queen’s Blood is designed around territorial capture and features an entire side-story where players can purchase extra cards and beat other players to win cards from them, building a deck filled with powerful cards and unique skills meant to dominate the playboard. Queen’s Blood feels right at home with some of the other highly detailed card games that have been included in past Final Fantasy games and it is easy to see players sinking plenty of time into building the best cards possible to take down each player they come across, giving this minigame plenty of longevity outside of the main game.
Audio & Visuals
Back when Final Fantasy VII Remake released, the PlayStation 5 had yet to even be released and while it eventually released on the console with the Intergrade DLC, it was still held back a bit by being a late generation game and that is quite evident when compared to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Nearly every aspect of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is impressive looking, players will venture outside into the open world for the first time only for Aerith herself to celebrate her first steps into a new open world and it must be said that the open world is impressive looking and features a wide amount of variety across the six large regions players explore through including the numerous dungeons Cloud and the group will fight through. Even enemy variety is nicely diverse while the boss battles remain both impressive in design and cinematic transformations in many cases. The signature locations like the Golden Saucer are as over-the-top as one would hope and make great use of what the console can handle. It must also be said that the character designs for the core party are drop-dead gorgeous looking with high levels of detail and flashy performances for their special moves, including the more cinematic Synergy Attacks and watching Red XIII navigate various open world obstacles and ride a Chocobo will never not be fun to see. It is worth noting that the camera can be a bit unwieldy at times unfortunately and some of the faster enemies, especially bosses, cause the lock-on mechanic to struggle as the camera will fail miserably during some of these encounters, leaving players better opting to manually tracking these enemies to the best of their ability.
The voice cast throughout Final Fantasy VII Rebirth does an amazing job handling their characters here, with characters like Red XIII being given far more personality and interaction than ever before in the original while Aerith, Tifa, and Yuffie are truly delightful to hear them bantering. Even Cait Sith’s addition to the cast is handled impressively well, making the English voice cast an emotionally fitting group for even the most heart-wrenching scenes in the game alongside the funnier interactions found throughout the countless substories and even bits of humming here and there from the cast during the player’s travels and fights. Mitsuto Suzuki and Masashi Hamauzu’s handling of the soundtrack is an impressive one as they have lovingly recreated and put their own spin on many of the classic songs and background pieces that fans have come to know and love while also offering plenty of original music as well to make sure that this game sounds as impressive as possible. In fact, there are even some pieces of music that appear to only ever play once or twice throughout the game and are still given the same loving attention to detail as some of the most poignant tracks, showing just how far the staff was willing to go here.
Overall
Creating a game like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth had to place an immense amount of pressure on the developers. Not only must they live up to the reputation of the original release back in 1997 but also the numerous twists and turns that were implemented a little over four years ago in Final Fantasy VII Remake but it must be said that not only has the team managed to succeed, they have surpassed expectations here. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a remarkable follow up to an already incredible game and delivers an emotional rollercoaster of a story that isn’t afraid to be humorous at times and give every character a chance to shine while also preparing to tear away at the player’s emotions. With combat that is as fluid and fast-paced as ever and the impressive graphical improvements capable on the PlayStation 5, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth expands upon a world and story in ways that fans could never have imagined and is truly a standout RPG as a result.
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