I have reviewed Final Fantasy XVI, and Final Fantasy VII Remake. I thought Final Fantasy XVI is a hidden gem. Final Fantasy VII Remake is a beautiful remake of a game long dreamed by Square Enix. When Final Fantasy VII was released for the original PlayStation, it was restricted by technology. This review assumes that you’ve played Final Fantasy VII Remake, or is a casual player. Even though this review is aimed at first time Final Fantasy players, I will also assume that you’re a hardcore Final Fantasy player. Because I played Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on “Normal” mode. I almost gave up at the end of the game, and was ready to make it “easy.” My resolve to complete this review was part of the push to the end. I’ll talk about this under the “Difficulty.”
Right in the middle of playing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, I learned that Square Enix wants to expand Final Fantasy VII Remake and/or Rebirth to other consoles. Final Fantasy XVI is now on PC, and Final Fantasy VII Remake is also on PC. Currently, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is exclusive to PlayStation, but Square Enix thinks that the sales of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth didn’t perform as expected or projected. The review is here and will be here assuming the release (to other consoles/platforms) is imminent.
Alright, so Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the direct sequel to Final Fantasy VII Remake. It’s not a “sequel” in the traditional sense. It is actually, the second disc in the Final Fantasy VII storyline. The original Final Fantasy VII game came in 3 discs. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth takes place right after the events of Final Fantasy VII Remake. The following section is the “recap” of the story so far…
[Recap]
My playthrough of Final Fantasy VII Remake is here. And the full playthrough of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is here.
Gameplay
For the most part, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth retains most of the gameplay mechanics from Final Fantasy VII Remake. There are some new mechanics that are going under the radar, which is where most die hard Final Fantasy VII fans or Final Fantasy fans will love. There is depth to the gameplay beyond the usual hack n’ slash, action-oriented Final Fantasy VII Remake presented. The final battle with Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII Remake was a rehearsal for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. I thought I was gonna go into Final Fantasy VII Rebirth with all the ideas presented in Final Fantasy VII Remake, and beat the game. You will find out the hard way, that’s not the case. You will have to learn a lot from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, than Final Fantasy VII Remake.
There’s normal attacks, there’s normal magic attacks, and then, there’s upgraded attacks, and magic attacks. I discovered Cura, and Curaga only halfway through Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Once I learned that, I asked myself, what else can I do? Can I upgrade my magic attacks? Yup. Yes, you can. You can even upgrade your attacks with a button combination that allows you to take your original attacks, and evolve it to the point of subtracting HP at higher levels. This part is important as you defeat stronger bosses, and engage in tougher bosses. I’ll explain this in more depth in the “difficulty” section, but needless to say, gameplay is more complex than Final Fantasy VII Remake. This is not a joke.
If you enjoyed Final Fantasy XVI, and/or Final Fantasy VII Remake, I assure you – you will feel at home. Devil May Cry fans will also feel right at home with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
Difficulty
For the most part, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s difficulty is similar to Final Fantasy VII Remake in a lot of ways, however… I remiss if I don’t mention that there are tough bosses in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s world. Unlike Final Fantasy VII Remake, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is not exactly linear. It’s more of an open quadrant, open world Final Fantasy game. Most of the time, you’ll find enemies at the level of Final Fantasy VII Remake, but if you progress to the next phase of the game in chapters, you’ll realize that it gets harder, harder, and harder. I won’t spoil the story for you, but the storyline and the difficulty goes hand in hand.
By the end of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, you will now be in the realm of difficulty spikes start to go berserk. Elden Ring levels of difficulty. I’m not kidding. Right after you meet Vincent, you will start to feel like the difficulty spike to go higher, and higher as time goes on. From here, you can expect tougher bosses, tougher challenges. The moment you meet the final form of Sephiroth, you’re gonna get flustered. Because, at this point, you’re battling 3 phases of Sephiroth, with an ending that will only be described as “hair pulling” frustrating.
Here’s why: You learn halfway through Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, that you can upgrade your attacks, and your magic powers. For most of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, you can waltz through the game with “cure” magic, but after meeting Vincent and his Galian Beast form, you will need “cura” or “curaga.” But to achieve this, you need to upgrade your Materia to the point of unlocking these phases of magic. Each Materia can be upgraded to Max. And when you DO max out your Materia, you unlock 2 or 3 abilities each.
Besides Materia, you can link two Materia together to create bonuses without you knowing what you did. For example, if you mixed the “AP boost” Materia with “Healing” Materia, you can gain more AP for that Materia. This goes double for “Stagger boost” Materia linking with something else like “Level Up” Materia. Obviously, you can level up your Stagger via “Level Up.” You think that’s it? Nope. You can upgrade your fire Materia by itself, with help from something like say… “Level Up.” Fire spits out a fireball, Fira is an upgraded version of that. Firaga is obviously the maximum upgrade, which deals more hitpoints than Fire or Fira. Furthermore, you can press the “X” button and hold it for a stronger attack for the main attack button. This can be combined with elemental magic. So, say you have Yuffie – with Yuffie, you can combine your wind attack, with the strong attack button (holding “X” button.) So, to achieve this elemental magic going strong, you need to have wind as your Materia, then execute. To demonstrate this, go watch this video…
That’s not all. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has an advanced attack system, using the block button. Which is achieved by pressing the block button which is R1. When you press R1, this brings up two or more ideal moves. But you’ll need to hold the button for a stronger, more potent attack. Kinda like the other hold “X” button. Except, you’ll deal more damage, or stagger.
Story
As I mentioned before; Final Fantasy VII Rebirth takes place after the events of Final Fantasy VII Remake. I embedded a recap above for a reason. It’s because the storyline went off on the deep end. What started as Avalanche was trying to take down Shinra’s operation, by destroying Sector 5’s plate, which fell into the slums. Avalanche was framed for the attacks of Sector 5. From here, the group of Barret, Aerith, Tifa, Red XIII, and Cloud traverse a world where Sephiroth wants to destroy anything in his path, and anything in the world. That comes to a climax in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
Controls
I kinda covered this via “difficulty” section and elsewhere. For the most part, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has retained most of the controls from Final Fantasy VII Remake. But, as I discussed in the “difficulty” section, there are some refinement to the controls that elevate the gameplay. I hope this is refined in Final Fantasy VII codenamed “Part 3.” Just keep what is in Rebirth, and expand on it. I mean, “don’t fix what ain’t broke.”
Graphics
I think many players are divided on the graphics of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Personally? Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the highlight of the PlayStation 5 console. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth not only pushed Unreal Engine 4 to its ABSOLUTE limits, but Final Fantasy VII Rebirth also squeezed as much as they could get out of PlayStation 5. As of this writing, Sony has already announced the PlayStation 5 Pro to solve for the technical limitations of PlayStation 5. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has two modes – Performance Mode, which offers 60fps gameplay, but sacrifices graphics fidelity. Graphics mode brings the graphics fidelity, but sacrifices 60fps, and runs at 30fps. PlayStation 5 Pro is said to be fixing this to bring the best of both worlds, by having graphics fidelity, with 60fps locked throughout the game. Throughout my playthrough on my base PlayStation 5, I played on the default, main Performance Mode. Despite this, I thought that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth looks good, regardless, but we have some people who call Final Fantasy VII Remake… ugly. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth had some issues before the launch of the game, but this has been fixed in some respects. The best graphics comes later in the game. I promise.
User Interface
The user inferface has changed from Final Fantasy VII Remake. Just when I was getting used to the User Interface… gah. I actually got used to the UI of Final Fantasy VII Remake, and they changed it up in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. For the most part the UI is not complicated, but a little confusing. Just a little bit. My biggest confusion is where is the upgrades system? It’s been separated from the UI, and is now in a different menu. It’s known as “folio(s).” You find them at shops known as Maghnata Books, or stone tablets that is from Maghnata.
Music & Sound
As per usual, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has musical score is beautiful. It will go from 1 to 10, slowly, but surely. By the time you reach the temple where Aerith uses her cetra powers, that music starts to ramp up. Your heart starts to feel hyped up for a new boss battle. I did this during the final battles with Sephiroth, because the music is that epic. The sounds and music go along with the action on screen, they are loud as they are epic. They match up. I still recommend to raise the volume if possible.
Replay Value
The replay value for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is as high as it goes. Especially, as you play the game – because the game is an “open quadrant” game, with semi-Open World traits. It’s not completely “open world” in every sense of the word, but it has elements of it. You can either complete all the missions during the game, or do it afterwards. Your choice. Hindsight is 20/20, I would recommend doing all the missions as you complete the worlds that inhabits Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. For the most part, you don’t have to “paint” the whole map to actually complete Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Some games require you to “paint” the map to get 100% complete, like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, or Super Metroid.
You discover the rest of the maps via these towers with beacons, and it brings up “discoverable” points of interests – akin to games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. I thought this was a great addition to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Keep this mechanic going forward.
In addition to all that, Square Enix went to great lengths to hide a lot of the points of interests – most of them are marked, too – but they hid them. They added mini-games to the game to boost playtime, and played hours. Some of the mini-games were frustrating, but they added playtime for the player.
Is there any issues we need to know about? [Spoiler Warning!]
Actually, yes. They are small glitches, though. At one point, I was in a closed off docking bay, and the environment would flicker. This is small, but there are bigger glitches that would impact gameplay, so much so it frustrates players – it did for me. Spoilers ahead: Sephiroth’s final form has a long battle, but at the very last 20%, there is a stagger timer. You cannot get out of this timer in any other form other than depleting Sephiroth in large doses, and kill him quicker. I have two videos to demonstrate this, so I will link them for you – here and here. I have to warn you, though: This is a major spoiler, especially if you watch my completed boss battle with Sephiroth, here.
Carlos’ Verdict
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a masterpiece that is isn’t being highlighted enough. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth highlights Square’s dream video game. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth almost looks like a movie/film. Everything from controls, music, gameplay, story, and most importantly, graphics make Final Fantasy VII Rebirth the “dream” game. Square Enix improved every aspect of Final Fantasy VII Remake from the pacing, to a larger world, to missions that raise the player retention. There are some glitches, but they are miniscule.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth isn’t a traditional sequel, it’s the second disc. We are now waiting for the 3rd disc, to complete this storyline.
Rating: 90/100
