It will be nearly impossible to evaluate Final Fantasy VII Rebirth outside of the trilogy as a whole in the years to come. But right now nothing is stopping us from doing so. To put it succinctly, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is one of the finest games in Square Enix's entire history.
What Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth does is challenge the idea that FF7 can't be topped within its own in-game universe; in my eyes, that's already been done, in the middle game of a trilogy no less, and now we'll just have to wait and see if Square Enix can stick the landing on what's been an incredible, must-play two-parter thus far.
What an amazing experience this was. As a fan of Open World games, I got to experience one of the densest and most fun open worlds in the past few years. As a Final Fantasy VII fan, I got to see one of my childhood games being fully realized with new cinematic cutscenes, bosses and more.
There are minor flaws, still, this should be a no-brainer for all fans of the series or for those who want to know what all the fuss is about. Part three can’t come soon enough.
In almost every way you can look at it, Rebirth is a huge improvement over Remake. It constantly surprises you with how far it’s willing to go to recreate the moments you love, and even a poor ending can’t undermine the incredible 100 hours it took me to get there. Some of the open-world stuff starts to drag toward the end – especially in regions where the topography is more complex and hoofing it around is like trying to find your way out of the backrooms – but most of that’s optional anyway. I did it because I felt rewarded with special character moments that expanded upon the original game’s relationships in meaningful ways. I don’t know where Square Enix will take things from here, but I’ll be ready to mosey.
I don’t regret the 100 hours (or was it more?) that I spent in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. In fact, I loved so much about the game. I loved the expanded party of characters. Vincent's my boy and he shows up in style, Yuffie's my girl and she brings much-needed energy into the main cast. I also loved visiting iconic locations like Costa del Sol and the Gold Saucer for the first time in their remade form. Most of all, I love and adore the work that Kazushige Nojima has done with the narrative (especially the ending that, once again, challenges everything we assumed about the FFVII plot), and he further entrenches himself as arguably the most innovative and creative writer in JRPGs with Rebirth. I just really wish that Square Enix had resisted putting so much padding and pointless distractions between all that good stuff. Why undermine the things you do best like that?
Square Enix has built a world that really is beautiful, filled with pleasurable diversions. But the contrast between the pleasure of playing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and the dourness of its plot often ends up confusing things. It’s less apocalypse now than apocalypse later.
Over 50 negative reviews with no text in just over 24 hours, so it’s clearly being review bombed (please fix this Metacritic!) but here is my honest review of Rebirth after nearly 200 hours.
No game has ever wowed me as much as this game. Every town, every NPC, every vista, and every interaction between the characters, has been crafted with such care and attention to detail that it is honestly mindblowing that the creators were able to pull this off. This isn’t just the best game of the year, this is one of the best games ever made. If you love RPGs you would be doing yourself a disservice by not playing this. This is honestly the closest I have even seen to a perfect game.
10/10.
I played the original FFVII back in the day so I went into Rebirth having certain expectations and was a bit disappointed with certain aspects of the game. I would not really consider Rebirth to be a remake, but rather an alternative rendition of the original.
The graphics and sound are breathtaking although I did have to switch from 'graphics' to 'performance-sharp' mode since 'graphics' mode had a terrible frame rate. Unfortunately, 'performance-sharp' mode introduced some blur, but I did get used to it and the game still looked stunning. Although the sound qualities are excellent, I do feel that there were only a handful of songs that I truly enjoyed. Most songs, unfortunately, did not capture the same feel of the original game, which was dark and serious. But in Rebirth, much of the music casts a more light hearted tone; sometimes quirky or childish, even. Too many songs were "over" orchestrated and slow compared to the original.
Maybe I'm just not that great at the game, but I had issues with progressing early in the game due to difficulty. I simply could not beat one of the early bosses on normal difficulty, so I had to change it to easy. But then, the game was too easy and essentially became a button masher and made some of the more special abilities less fun to use. On easy difficulty, I was able to progress through the game with no game overs and beat all mandatory bosses on the first attempt, with the exception of the final battle, which I beat on the second attempt. I wish there was a difficulty level between normal and easy.
I honestly miss turn-based combat. Although the combat in Rebirth is dynamic and fun, it can feel like a mindless button masher with little strategy or thought required. There's too much going on the screen at once, making it challenging to fully understand what is happening all the time. Multiple characters attacking, numbers popping up, special effects and explosions all over the place. Turn-based was stress-free, organized and strategic. And easy to process. I don't know why Square Enix abandoned turn-based after FFX as that is what made the series great.
The story, in my opinion, deviated greatly from the original and not really in a good way. There was a ton of padding and I was ultimately confused and couldn't really understand all that was going on. This is a multiverse plot, so there are multiple plots going on in different times and places with different characters, which confused me even more. Too many cinematics and too much dialog for my liking.
I found many aspects of the game's offerings to be unnecessary and worthless. For example, the combat simulator, relationships with other party members, most side quests and I couldn't care less for the card game, Queens Blood. All of this stuff to me is just fluff and padding. It amazes me that Square Enix reimagined a 10-hour segment of the original game and extrapolated it into a 50+ hour playthrough. The game is littered with tons of stupid minigames that are mandatory in most chapters and even one chapter that is mostly minigames. Another chapter is almost entirely a battle arena event.
I did enjoy exploring the various regions of the world, which had some fun objectives and discoveries, but they really didn't add too much value since they were mostly optional. I found Chadley to be a very annoying character who interrupted the gameplay on occasion.
The game is full of tutorials from start to finish because there are too many complexities to deal with. I found the character building systems to be a bit too complex and hard to understand fully. Experience points, ability points, skill points, weapon level, party level, weapon abilities, folio manuscripts, synergy abilities, synergy skills, materia and a ton of character stats. It's just a bit too much for its own good and to expect the player to articulate everything is too much to ask in my opinion. A game should be enjoyable, not a chore. Also, I did not like the weapon and armor shopping experience. They don't show by how much the weapon or armor stats will change if you equip them. They only show what the stat will be after you equip. This made the equipment shopping experience cumbersome and annoying.
Overall, I enjoyed my playthrough of Rebirth but really wish that certain aspects were better. I really feel that Square Enix is just milking the FFVII franchise and turning a 40 hour game into a 120 hour thing with padding, minigames, cinematics and excessive side content.
This was my first Final Fantasy (FF) game and I think I'll never buy any FF game after this series.
Square Enix lied on their FAQ saying that "No, each FINAL FANTASY has its own story, meaning you can start with FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH without ever having played another game in the series." I played up till chapter 4 in Rebirth, and every other line felt like a reference to something that happened in previous FF7 games. So I went back and played FF7 remake + the Yuffie DLC, and started chapter 4 again till the end of FF7 Rebirth so I could actually felt not left out in the game.
The game overall is great until you get to the point of no return. The mini games are fun (especially Queen's Blood), graphics are polished, great haptic feedback, some mystery here and there, and the relationships/banter between the members on your team are fun.
It absolutely falls apart at the very end though. I didn't know about the character that dies and apparently it's the most famous video game death is history. When it got to that part, I was just confused. It feels like they were trying to do everything all at once which made it extremely confusing. I read up some explanations for the end but honestly even now I couldn't tell you what they were trying to do. The scene lost all emotional impact because of the way it was structured. It feels like they prioritized trying to throw players who knew what happened off rather than try to write a good story. For players like me who are new to the series, it was just a confusing mess.
I hope the final instalment is called "Final Fantasy 7 Redemption" because they really need it after that ending.
It’s infuriating how the game force you to waste your time with silly main and side quests instead of expanding the original story…I give this a 4 for the technical aspect of the game, which is very good, but it’s boring as hell and I can only play for 20 minutes before I start wondering why I am still playing it….VERY DISAPPOINTING
There is as much good as there is bad in this Chadley simulator, who in their right mind puts god damn Chadley as the frontman if this game? Its a disgrace.
The open world thing is an epic failure and adds nothing fun to the experience. If you think its fun then you are lost souls sadly.
It does not matter that the actual story, wich the devs got for free btw, is compelling,when everything else is what I hate about modern gaming.
SummaryFINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH is the new story in the FINAL FANTASY VII remake project, a reimagining of the iconic original game into three standalone titles by its original creators. In this game, players will enjoy various new elements as the story unfolds, culminating in the party’s journey to “The Forgotten Capital” from the original F...