Review — Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
After their adventures in Midgar, Cloud and his friends continue their perilous chase after Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
You may not immediately realize it, but almost four years have passed since Final Fantasy VII Remake was released for PlayStation 4. This game would be the first installment in a trilogy that constitutes the remake of the beloved Final Fantasy VII. After Final Fantasy VII Remake gave us a retelling of the Midgar episode from the original game, we get the chance to once again enter the wide world of Gaia and continue the hunt for Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
Those who have played Final Fantasy VII Remake not only discovered a much longer drawn out narrative of the Midgard prologue, but also that the story took its own path in this remake. The events at the end of the game and the return of a certain character in a brief cameo and subsequent DLC, left players wondering quite a bit about the continuation of this iconic story. Fortunately, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth rewards the wait with an unforgettable experience that will be enjoyed by both newcomers and veterans who played the original at the time.
A Globetrotting Adventure
Of course, it is recommended to have played at least Final Fantasy Remake Integrade, and preferably also Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII — Reunion if you want to make the most of it. If for god knows what reason you want to dive into this game without having played the first part, there is a video available, both in-game and on YouTube, that briefly summarizes the events so that you’re still somewhat along for the ride. Indeed, Rebirth kicks off right after the end of Remake, with Cloud, Barret, Tifa, Aerith and Red XIII leaving the mess of Midgar behind. They arrive in the town of Kalm, where Cloud reveals the Nibelheim incident and his past with Sephiroth. The fun part here is that you get to briefly step into the shoes of Sephiroth yourself.
What follows is an adventure that will feel like a familiar homecoming for fans of the original game, yet you will also be surprised by the many new elements. Indeed, the structure of the game follows fairly faithfully the course of Final Fantasy VII from Kalm to the Forgotten Capital, where one of the most memorable and heartbreaking moments of the game takes place. How this event unfolds in Rebirth I am obviously not going to give away, as any self-respecting fan will obviously want to discover this for themselves.
Between these two memorable moments, you are taken on a wild ride past the many iconic locations that made the original so distinctive, such as Junon, Costa Del Sol, the Gold Saucer, Cosmo Canyon. For fans of the first hour, it is obviously great to return to these moments from the classic, and at the same time the changes ensure that you are sufficiently surprised and curious about what will come next. So on this front, Rebirth brings it better than Remake, which tried to stretch a four-hour moment into a thirty-hour experience, with mixed results.
The World As a Playground
The biggest change, of course, is that you get more freedom in exploring the game world. Still, you don’t get one large open world like in the original game. The game world is divided into a number of large regions that you are reasonably free to explore, and whoever says an open world obviously also says a lot of side activities. Each region has one central hub, often in the form of a city, and the surrounding area you can freely explore at certain times. What bothered me about this, however, is that the creators have learned the wrong lessons when it comes to the design of an open world. Instead of the elegance of Elden Ring or The Legend of Zelda; Breath of the Wild, we get an approach closer to the typical Ubisoft formula. That is, the regions almost become checklists of activities such as activating towers that indicate other points of interests on the map, collecting treasure chests, taking pictures at Scenic Spots, exploring Sanctuaries related to summons, repairing Chocobo Stops and so on.
In addition to the side missions and activities mentioned above, you will also soon discover that minigames are an integral part of Rebirth. The highlight of these, of course, is when you reach the Golden Saucer, which was also the case in the original game, but in addition, numerous other moments were translated into some form of minigame. Often your progress is even blocked by the obligation to play some minigames. Unfortunately, for me, this did sometimes bring down some of the experience of the story. But luckily , there are still some great minigames that I had a great time with, such as Chocobo Racing and, of course, Queen’s Blood. This is a completely new card game that immediately reminded me of Triple Triad from Final Fantasy VIII. I must admit that I did spend several hours on this.
Gameplay With a Lot of Depth
In other words, Rebirth is a very different experience from Remake, and it is immediately noticeable that at times it is a lot more light-hearted and even bizarre. Still, many ingredients from Remake remain, such as the resting points throughout the levels, Chadley’s virtual combat simulation and, of course, the great combat system itself. Rebirth builds on this real-time system, where the game pauses when you choose to use an ability or magic. Furthermore, this system was enriched with new Synergy attacks where two team members combine their powers. This is already a nice addition to let the player experiment with different compositions of your team, which is especially nice considering there are three additional playable characters in Rebirth.
Furthermore, there are some other interesting additions to the gameplay, such as the Item Transmuting system. Here you collect all kinds of resources throughout the game world that you can use to create items ranging from potions to new pieces of equipment to strengthen your characters.There is also a completely new system for obtaining skills and making characters stronger called Folios.Here, for example, you can buy not only new Synergy attacks, but also small upgrades in the form of extra HP, Mana or make your weapons do extra damage.There is also a new difficulty level for those players looking for an extra challenge, where the enemies match the level of your characters.In addition, there is also a relationship system, where you build the relationships between Cloud and the various characters through choices you make, completing side missions or using just those Synergy attacks. This relationship system is then important for going on date with certain characters, for example.
Pleasing to the Eye and Ear
Although open world games are often accompanied by a lot of bugs and glitches, this is thankfully not the case in Rebirth. There were about two moments where I got stuck in the scenery for a while. But this was also partly my own fault because I was trying to get somewhere in a way that was perhaps not entirely correct. Other than that, Rebirth guaranteed an almost flawless experience. Graphically the game is also an absolute winner and the detail that was put into the many locations is really commendable. The first time you explore Kalm or venture into the Grasslands, your mouth will probably drop open in amazement. Furthermore, Final Fantasy is also known for its excellent CGI movies and great music, and this is absolutely the case here as well. Moreover, the voice-acting is absolutely amazing in Rebirth, even in English. For example, I was an immediate fan of the English-language voice work for Cait Sith.
Finally, what is unfortunate is that the technical side does suffer somewhat from the PlayStation 5’s limitations. After all, you are once again forced to choose between two modes for the graphics, and neither is ideal.If you compare Performance mode and Graphics mode, you immediately notice that in Peformance the textures are significantly less sharp anyway. This even with the February 21 patch, which promised to improve Performance mode.When you then switch to Graphics mode you do notice a serious dip in frame rate and the images are clearly less fluid. Eventually you get used to both modes, but it is still unfortunately another case of “choosing is losing”. In the end, I did go for the Graphics mode because it does better justice to the splendor of this game.
4/5
Reviewed on PlayStation 5.
This review originally appeared on BeyondGaming.be.
