Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth Review
“Journey Into The Unknown” Written by: Hunter (@ReaperHunter23)
It's been four years since Final Fantasy 7 Remake invited a new generation of players to the city of Midgar and the world beyond. Ever since then there’s been no shortage of speculation on what direction Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was going to take. Whether it was on how the game was going to restructure to accommodate the world opening up. Or if the game would make good on the promise of rewriting the events of the original story. So let’s take a look to see how the unknown journey continues.
Image Credit: Square Enix
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth picks up shortly after the end of Remake with the group on the run from Shinra while also trying to track down Sephiroth. The story of Rebirth does a good job at outlining the overarching motivation of the game while also providing smaller, more personal stories that fill in most of the runtime. The ultimate goal may be to find and stop Sephirtoh, but most of the chapters will choose a party member or two to focus on and let us learn more about. I think this is a pretty solid approach. Very often with the PS1 era Final Fantasy games it could feel more like a bulleted list of things happening with very little connective tissue in between. Now it feels like there’s more synergy between the arcs of the characters and the overall narrative of the game.
Much like the previous game, Rebirth does a great job at expanding on the ideas that were present in the original versions of the areas we visit in this game. Elements such as the Junon parade or the Dust Bowl town beneath the Gold Saucer are contextualized much better in this iteration. Even some of the more innocuous areas from the original version such as Kalm or Costa Del Sol feel like more fully realized locales this time around.
The biggest strength of Rebirth is its cast. The game does a great job at giving everyone their own moments to shine. It also manages to do so in a way that feels consistent. As opposed to a case of giving a character focus for a chapter, only to have them fade into the background for the rest of the story. The dynamic of the main party is fantastic. Every combination of interactions is a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed Barrett and Yuffie’s dynamic as well as Aerith and Tifa’s burgeoning friendship.
The game’s wonderful cast is not just limited to the main party. There’s a plethora of other characters that serve to keep the world of Final Fantasy 7 interesting. The fun and charismatic antagonists such as Roche and the Turks make a welcomed return. We are also introduced to plenty of new walking fever dreams like Dio and Gus to make sure our time adventuring across the world is never boring.
Image Credit: Square Enix
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth does a great job at fine tuning the foundation that Remake laid out. The combat is now enhanced with the ability to do aerial combos and launch moves. As well as the new synergy attacks that will see two of your party members teaming up to perform a flashy double team maneuver. The materia system is still fun to engage with as well. I do think that the Folio system was a step down as far as stat progression is concerned though. Oftentimes I felt like I was just picking things that I had the points for rather than actually choosing how I wanted the stats of each party member to lean.
The major difference between Rebirth and Remake comes from how the game is structured. Rebirth has expanded and opened up from the predominantly linear experience that Remake was. This comes with its own set of advantages and drawbacks. For example there are now a lot more side quests that flesh out the world and will serve as a fun adventure to have with one of the party members. However there’s also a chance that every so often one of these side quests will require you to partake in one of the many less interesting overworld activities to be able to progress the mission.
The main missions were good at being the stage for a lot of the grand high action sequences. The Junon chapter is a good microcosm of this. It starts off by giving you a cool boss fight, then a mini game, followed by some story and some regular encounters as you work your way to the next beat. A lot of the main story chapters do a good job at making it feel like you are never doing too much of the same thing, or will make you do what you were doing in a different way.
This makes it much more noticeable when a sequence misses the mark. Certain chapters can feel like they go on for far too long. I feel like almost any time the game wanted me to visit a reactor I was there for way longer than I needed to be. I’d say that mostly comes down to the annoying obstacles that are present in these areas. Such as unplugged power sources or mako puddles that need to be cleaned up. I’m all for making the path through a dungeon more complex than a straight line, but I would really like for my time driving the Mako Zamboni to be as limited as possible. Other times, the story sequence really does get long in the tooth and could have probably had the fat trimmed down by quite a bit. Looking at you, Chapter 13.
The side content can be broken down into a few different categories: The sidequests, the world intel, and then miscellaneous tasks such as minigames and the photo collection. The sidequests are the ones noted with the green exclamation point and usually involve Cloud and a member of the group lending a hand to someone in need. These were worth doing. Having each quest choose a party member to make you buddy up with was a good way to give the characters some shine even if they weren’t necessarily receiving a lot of focus at that point in the main story. And they more often than not would provide an interesting look into the head of the party member in question and how they relate to the issue at hand. My favorite was Barret’s existential crisis while escorting the dog across the Junon region.
The world intel is a collection of mostly menial tasks given to you by Chadley in the name data collection. These chores could consist of anything from combat challenges to tower activation, to locating crystals to assist in making the materia for summons. The two bits of world intel that I found to be worth my time were the summon crystals and the Proto-relics. I found the Proto-relics to be worth trying mostly because they seemed to be like the other sidequests, just hidden away with Chadley’s chores rather than with the rest of the green exclamation points. They provided a bit more story intrigue than “Do it for the data” which was enough to keep me interested.
The minigames are as varied as they are plentiful. It seems like almost every town in the game has some kind of goofy avenue for you to sink your time into if it hooks you properly. This ranges anywhere from Dolphin riding to shooting galleries. And of course all of the silly distractions at the Golden Saucer have been reimagined in order to better steal your attention away. However, the most notable mini game in Rebirth was the Queen’s Blood card game. Queen’s Blood is one of my favorite side activities. I felt motivated to do every match. It was perfect at scratching the itch when I wanted a distraction from doing side quests or progressing the story.
Image Credit: Square Enix
Square Enix did not play around with the production value of this game. There were certain scenes that seemed like they looked impossibly good. On top of those instances the game just looks impeccable on a moment to moment basis too. The facial animations are perhaps the most expressive I’ve ever seen in a game. There is so much great attention to detail. The way that the game renders fabric is one that I especially enjoy. Sephiroth’s coat has never looked better. The environments all look lovely as well. Each region has a unique visual flavor and they do a good job at making the different locales within the regions look varied as well.
The voice performances are top notch. Everyone in the returning cast does such a great job at embodying their character. One example that has stuck with me is James Sie’s portrayal of Hojo. He did such a good job at making Hojo sound as unpleasant as possible. Everytime he was talking his mouth sounded inordinately wet. Just thinking about it would make me frown. The new characters also have great performances backing them as well. Standouts for me include Piper Reese as Elena and Paul Tinto as Cait Sith.
The music in Rebirth is nothing short of excellent. One of the first things I noticed was how good the game was at taking the familiar music themes from the previous game and putting a new arrangement to it in a way that makes sense. Hearing the new rendition of Hollow Skies in the western part of the first region put a smile on my face in just the first couple hours of play time. On top of this, the game is really great about using the music dynamically. The overworld music changes depending on the region you are in and where you happen to be in that region. Rather than combat always triggering a designated battle theme, oftentimes a battle version of the current overworld theme will play. The scoring for the area themes and cinematics are also all incredible
Image Credit: Square Enix
Summary
If what I like about Final Fantasy lines up with what you like about Final Fantasy, then Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is a must play. If Remake was the game that introduced us to the world of Final Fantasy 7 I would say that Rebirth is the game that asks us to live in it. Sure, some of the individual elements of the game can fall a little flat. But everything that it does right is done really well. The moment to moment combat and adventuring is a great vehicle for the journey that Cloud and the rest of the group embark on. This is one of the most likable casts I’ve ever encountered in a game. And when you compound that with a world that has such a captivating aura, it makes for an adventure like no other.