5/5 ★ – Gibbs's review of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

Phenomenal. This is one of the best RPG experiences I’ve ever had. A project like this has never been done in the history of video games as a medium, and yet they nail it. I love pretty much everything about FFVII Rebirth. And of course what I love most about this game is how it plays. The combat, once again, is excellent. What was already such a genius system in Remake is only taken even higher here. Having to slash, dodge and block my way through these fights, while simultaneously managing my ATB meter is just perfect. And each character is a blast, offering a unique playstyle that you can switch to on the go. Normal battles are fun, but every boss lets the combat system really shine, and I was immensely satisfied every time a boss was defeated. Rebirth not only improved upon our old casts’ play styles, but also introduced 3 new characters - and all of which are a blast. Red XIII’s defense rewarding bruiser play style, Cait Sith’s Moogle oriented and Luck based moveset, and Yuffie’s close and far range shuriken attacks are all an incredible blast. Getting to switch the teams up on the go, and unlocking more abilities as I progressed meant this combat never grew tiresome for me. Rebirth also vastly improved the air combat and adds new abilities, as well as introduces the much welcomed synergy skills and abilities, deepening combat even more, bringing some great strategy and allowing even for more fun interactions with our cast. And speaking of, I truly think this is the best cast in video games. Cloud is my favourite protagonist ever - I adore him. A perfect design, his backstory, his attitude, his awkwardness, and the way he interacts with everyone is just special. I loved his smaller peaceful interactions, his grand moments, and the times where we see him breaking down. Tifa and Aerith are two of the most likeable characters ever written for me, and I’d often just find myself smiling like an idiot during moments with them. They both feel so important and like such real friends to me. Barret is such a great anchor for the team, truly underrated as one of the best characters here, he’s so strong and you can feel his love and passion. Red’s wisdom is integral, and yet he has so much to learn. The perfect mix of cute and badass. Yuffie is just so much fun here, and a lot more nuanced than her previous interactions. Cait Sith adds such a unique quirk to the team. And while Vincent and Cid don’t get as much screen time, I love these iterations already and can’t wait to see more of them. I cannot get enough of the FFVII cast, and they are executed perfectly here. From the grand cutscenes to the smaller side moments, I found myself engrossed in whatever my party was up to. And God these beats are done so well. This is the most cinematic game I’ve ever played and I just could not look away. The opening sequence of this game brought me in like no other game has ever done, it’s shot beautifully, told eloquently, is incredibly flashy and has the score to back it up. The battle cutscenes from the first chapter to the very last are downright stunning and leagues beyond the industry standard. The bigger story beats are just directed in the perfect way to get the emotion across. Hell, even the smallest little side quests do this. Most games would just have your character stand still talking to the robotic NPC and the player sits there waiting for the dialogue between the two statues finish. Rebirth will play with the camera to show the developers actually want to SAY something with each line of dialogue, no matter how small. Your cast will even be doing unique animations and poses throughout these side sections as they talk, which is such incredible attention to detail. This game feels quadruple A, and no one is doing cinematics like this. Rebirth feels like it’s directed by an auteur of film. And the story it tells through these characters and this direction is pretty great too. I suppose on paper it’s simple - for 80% of the game it’s try to find Sephiroth as you explore the world. But it’s B-Plots, and individual arcs with its characters are what really shine. So even with the simple motivations, I was intrigued the whole way through. The beats with Cloud and his degradation are particularly great, but Barret, Tifa, and Aerith’s moments stood out to me too. But then it all leads up to the finale… The final sequence in the game left me with a lot of mixed feelings. Without getting into spoilers, I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first, and the huge boss gauntlet shortly after didn’t give me the time to process it either. Followed by some Fate/Multiverse shenanigans and rolling credits gave me this unsatisfied, confused, feeling that lacked weight. And yet…the more I think about it the more I like it. What we feel is exactly what Cloud feels in this sequence. No longer are we controlling low poly models that that have to tell the story through blue text boxes. Now, we’re seeing the finale through Cloud’s broken, delusional, degrading, rejecting mind. And so I praise what the game did here. I think it’s clear that scenes are deliberately left out and altered here (judging by the location of where the cast is afterwards), because of Cloud’s warped perception, and so when Cloud and the player gets their truths revealed it’s only going to hit harder. However, I do still think the Zack stuff is a little messy and leaves something to be desired. It wasn’t bad, and I liked playing as him for the short sections every now and then, but I have to see what they do in part 3 to form a real opinion on this. Another thing I’m a little mixed on is the ‘open world’ portions. They’re good! But not amazing or anything. I had fun with them personally - each of the little World Intel challenges being something enjoyable to break up the game’s pacing for you if you want. But I do get it if it’s not something you’re interested in. I went in with no intention of 100%ing this game, but I found myself just doing all of these things because I wanted to, and then before I knew it all the regions were complete. I think Square Enix were forced into a weird spot here. They couldn’t not make this game open world because the original was - so they had to create these sections. They couldnt stray too far from the original and include major story telling beats here. And so they were forced to create these open sandboxes with lots of fun exercises to do. I do think they could have made exploration a little more interesting, or done full on big unique activities in each area. But is this worth all the extra dev time? I was satisfied, and this FFVII remake is already looking to be a decade long project, so I think they landed on a great compromise here. Each of these areas have side quests too - and they’re all much better than Remakes’s - they’re genuinely fun, with unique bosses, OSTs, and flesh out the characters in such fun and interesting ways that you’d think you’re playing the main story. If you tell me that this game is Ubisoft or copy paste then to be honest I think you have ‘easily influenced by a youtuber’ syndrome where you saw a tower in the game and the buzz word went off in your head and you’re not being nearly as insightful as you think you are. This game is the opposite of a lazy endeavour. We have the best directed RPG with over 200 songs. There are random side quests with their own OSTS, Queens Blood has like 12 unbelievable original songs you will only hear once for the whole game, your cast has completely unique dialogue and character modelling for the smallest side quests there are, and you also get to play as each of them in their own unique unique dungeon. There are more skills in this game than you’ll ever need. This is just simply not lazy Ubisoft design philosophy. If you hate the open world sections then simply do not do them, they’re completely optional, and the linear portions of the story are fantastic enough to hold the game on its own. I know you’re a genius and so when you see a tower you think really critically about how that youtuber you watched said that when this appears in a game it means the developers weren’t trying. But in this case they’re just another piece of variety content in the already huge amount of things to do, not part of the core gameplay. And speaking of variety content - WOW there’s so many unique minigames to do in here, and 95% of them are fun. The variety is staggering, and offers everything from slower strategy to bullet fast action. Queens Blood is an absolute stand out, super fun and I could see myself playing a Gwent like solo game of this. There’s enough minigames here to rival a Mario Party game, and they all broke this long game up for me very well too. And just when I’d be a little tired of a minigame, I could move back on to the main plot. FFVII Rebirth takes an already special masterpiece and does it again in a completely unique way. It stick the landing on everything for me and has become one of the best games I’ve ever played, and it even throws in one of the best soundtracks in gaming. I haven’t stopped thinking about Rebirth’s characters, plot, and combat since beating it, and I’m extremely excited for Part 3.