Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth | Review

Initial Release Date: February 29, 2024

Platform: PlayStation 5

Mode: Single-player video game

Awards: The Game Award for Most Anticipated Game

Nominations: The Game Award for Most Anticipated Game

License: proprietary license

Composers: Masashi Hamauzu, Mitsuto Suzuki

Jason’s Key Takeaways and Score

• Beautiful retelling of the original game’s middle-section.
• All main character’s stories are more fleshed out with deeper, clearer, more emotional characterization
• Overall main story arc more coherent than the original Final Fantasy 7
• Gameplay overall was fun as well challenging with dozens of different materia builds
• 40 hour linear story with 100+ hours of solid open world side content
• Quality mode looked amazing but stuttered in dense towns and combat
• Performance mode was a solid sixty frames for 99% of my time
• The best Final Fantasy campaign I completed since the original Final Fantasy 7
• Sound design and music were amazing
• Rebirth stays true to the source material of the original just expanded upon with deeper more emotional storytelling, an open world and few twists and current gen tech
• Zack Fair is awesome!
• Boss fights at times are challenging even on Normal difficulty and played out spectacularly!
• Loading was instant between open world hubs
• Post death you are presented with a plethora of different starting and checkpoints options
• Chapter 13 is too long

JASON’S SCORE

10/10

INTRODUCTION

Yes ma’am | sir I played the original Final Fantasy 7 on launch day back in 1997 which in turn started my love for Japanese role-playing video games. I was absolutely invested in Final Fantasy 7’s world, characters and gameplay. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Playlist

As the years went by I always wondered what it would be like to play a new and improved version of Final Fantasy 7 with whatever powerful tech available at the time. Well. In 2022 I got a chance to play through and complete Final Fantasy 7 Remake which tackles the Midgard section of the original Final Fantasy 7.

Fast forward two years and we have a game that rivals the original Final Fantasy 7’s greatness and expands upon it. Granted, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is just the middle portion of the original game from a story standpoint.

With that said, it didn’t stop Rebirth from having over 100 hours of high quality content. This game is not only great, but massive in scale with an emotional roller-coaster nailed at it’s Reunion.

PRESENTATION

Square Enix presented Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth in a way that not only improved the original’s middle-game portion but also stayed true to it’s story and world building with today’s tech. Rebirth offers a real sense of depth in regards to it’s heroes as well villains this time time around unlike the original

Today’s technology offers voiced dialogue coupled with motion capture brought practically every talking being in Rebirth to life with depth. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s overall world is built across multiple large open hubs.

As the story progress you can fast travel across the world by Chocobo carriage or by Cid’s Bronco later in the story. Loading is seamless as it puts you into a beautiful area within a second.

I really don’t have anything negative to say about Rebirth’s presentation other than some minor issues with the performance and quality modes not being 100% pitch perfect. Oh, one thing that did fuck me up but it’s more me not paying attention was after you die available options.

When you die in Rebirth depending on the mission and story you can possibly lose hours of game time by choosing the wrong starting point when you die. I accidentally choose the wrong starting checkpoint and had to start at the beginning of the final Sephiroth battle which I almost completed already.

There were like four or five starting choices after I died while fighting as Cloud and Aerith against Sephiroth. I fucked up. It was my fault really. Too many choices isn’t a negative. Just pay attention after you die.

STORY

Multiverse. Meteor. Sephiroth. Black Materia. Cetra. Aerith. That pretty much sums up Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s story. Being serious for a minute I adored the story here as it was presented in a cohesive and coherent manor which I understood from it’s epilogue to it’s credits.

Granted, I beaten the OG Final Fantasy 7 which confused the hell out of me due to having to read so much text lol. Rebirth’s story had great writing with voice dialogue truely bringing characterization to the table.

I would say Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has “that” classic emotional roller-coaster story culminating in a grand Sephiroth finale. I really enjoyed Zack Fair’s doomed planet story-line even though it ALMOST left me in tears.

GAMEPLAY

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s gameplay is broken down into it’s open world hubs, materia main and side story content. Combat is a hybrid mix of action with button pressing pause mechanics.

Let’s say you choose to button mash through using quick commands to fill up your ATB Gauge unlashing Braver or you can select commands in menus pausing the gameplay. Next up materia. There are so many Materia that do different things for your character’s combat prowess.

Let’s just say there are so many builds you can do for Cloud or Aerith or any character using varying materia. Gameplay can be challenging during certain boss fights even on Normal difficulty. Preparation is key. Side Quests were more of the fetch quest variety with their own fleshed out storylines.

Open world activities had me activating Chadley’s Remnawave Towers, fighting specific fiends unlocking powerful monster battles scattered about the world. Chadley still has his training app you can use to create materia or unlock summons. Costa del Sol, Kalm, Nibelheim etc were all fleshed out in beautiful 3D. Just saying

Chocobos play in important role when traversing the various regions of the planet. You can unlock Chocobos by quests usually. Some Chocobos let you climb steep mountains. Some have water jets. Gongaga Chocobos can springboard off mushrooms into the sky.

What else can I type? I had a blast with the gameplay as well it’s content in Rebirth. The open hubs can become overwhelming if you rush this game. Don’t rush Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Just enjoy the scenery.

VISUALS

I played most of my playthrough with performance mode enabled. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth performed and looked great to my late forty year old eyes. I did notice a large jump in visual fidelity when playing on Quality mode.

The art, scenery and character models were stunning in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Most new mainline Final Fantasy video games are usually stunning and spectacular for their time. Rebirth is no different

SOUND | MUSIC

While playing through Zack Fair’s depressing multiverse timeline listening to Crisis Core’s “The Price of Freedom” hit me in the feels. The music in Rebirth features all of the classics we love with some added flair. I thought I loved the music in Final Fantasy 16. Rebirth is no joke!

Final Thoughts

If you love Japanese Role-playing games and have a Playstation 5 currently, buy this game. From what I understand Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will be launching on the PC which is great for gamers. That’s about it. Thanks for visiting JVGS. Later