4.5/5 ★ – Lazurus3P's review of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Review Review No Promises to Keep Pros: - This game man. What an experience. I can’t believe we made it, I finally played Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and have beaten it, after all that time anticipating its release and waiting to play it for months after it had already released worldwide. 121 hours later, I’ve beaten the main story, done every side mission, completed every mini-game, unlocked every tower, gotten all the enemy intel, visited all the Mako springs, fought every summon, powered up every summon, finished all the Protorelic missions, fought Gilgamesh, played everyone in Queen’s Blood, completed every cache, unlocked every Chocobo stop, collected all the Chocograsses, crafted every material/item/equipment, unlocked every weapon ability (including those in the folios), got an A-rank in every piano piece, finished all the Moogle houses, and did every one of Chadley’s basic simulations, plus 3 brutal simulations. The only thing I didn’t do in those 121 hours was beat 3 brutal simulations, all of the legendary simulations, replay the Gold Saucer dates, and of course replay on hard mode. I cannot believe that I played 121 hours of this game, it didn’t feel that long at all. It took me just over 2 months (64 days) to accomplish all of that. This is easily the biggest game I’ve ever played, trumping Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2. I cannot imagine how big Part 3 is going to be. - This game man for fuck’s sake. It’s so content rich I can’t believe it. There’s so much shit to do, it can be overwhelming. A lot of it is good, but naturally when so much is offered, there are going to be some misses here and there. But for the most part, everything is enjoyable and worth doing. The big thing is that everything is worth doing. Everything gives some kind of reward for completing it. It could be unlocking something else, like how completing all the enemy intel unlocks a boss fight in each region. It could be unlocking an item, like in the simulations. It could be just seeing cool cutscenes, or witnessing key character moments/growth. Or even hearing pieces of music that you otherwise wouldn’t hear. Or growing the lore of the world. Or fighting a unique boss. Everything has a purpose, pretty much nothing is not worth doing. Some side missions here or there could’ve been cut, but most of them are good. - The ending to this game has been on my mind for the past week or so. I initially was a little let down by it, as I had expected a huge emotional reaction to whatever was going to happen, whether it be that Aerith lived or died. Either outcome I expected to make me cry immensely, and I just didn’t. I was more confused and uncertain with what the hell was happening. But after playing it again and watching videos explaining it, I’ve come around to realizing it’s kind of genius, and very emotional. I cried the second time playing it, and even tear up thinking about it. Knowing that my issues with it will probably be resolved in the next game (which I predict will be called Reborn) helped me come around on it. I also have to respect the balls they had to kind of ruin the biggest moment in the original game, arguably the biggest moment in gaming ever. I can completely understand die-hard fans hating it, and even people who’ve never played the original but know about how big Aerith’s death was to people. This game doesn’t “remake” it as faithfully as some people probably expected it to, and that could be incredibly disappointing to some. But I trust that in Reborn they will have a proper remake of this scene, complete with Cloud putting Aerith in the pond. The ending is quite dark, eerie, and creepy, and makes you wonder what the hell is going to happen in the next game. I can’t wait for the first trailer for Reborn, I have no idea what they could possibly show to even begin to answer our questions. - I’ll talk about Yuffie now, who is a standout in the main cast. She’s funny, energetic and so unique. She’s the best to be honest. I love her dynamic with the rest of the party, specifically Barret. In combat she’s really fun to play as too. Really great, she’s up there with the rest of the party as some of my favourite characters ever. As someone who’s been kinda hesitant when it comes to Yuffie, I’ve definitely been won over now. - Barret, as always, is great in this game. He’s the rock of the party, and as such he’s always my go-to in boss battles. Love this guy. His moment with Cloud after Dyne dies is one of my favourite scenes in the game, more on that later. - Nanaki is great too, playing as him is very fun. At first I wasn’t really into him because of the whole vengeance mode thing, but eventually as I got to play him more I quite enjoyed him. His arc is great too, the whole Cave of the Gi section is excellent. Love that it was him and Barret going through that. I love that after this sequence, Barret never calls him Red XIII or Red, always Nanaki. A small detail that means so much when you notice it. And of course, the scene with Seto was beautiful, a standout in the game. It might be this game’s trademark Final Fantasy “turning point”. - Cait Sith is cool too, probably the most unique in combat. At first I really didn’t like him, but eventually came around on him. Story-wise, he’s fun and charming, and of course a big driver of the plot in the second half of the game. - The music man. As always, as you’d expect, they cooked with the soundtrack. Of course, a lot of Remake arrangements make a return here, such as ‘Flower Blooming in the Church’. They have new arrangements of Remake arrangements, that mostly add a badass drum kit, complete with a double bass. The soundtracks spans so many genres, it’s ridiculous. If you shuffled it, it’d be a rollercoaster of emotions and musical genres. Hell, even when you don’t shuffle it it’s a rollercoaster. The vocal track, ‘No Promises to Keep’, is truly a work of art. It’s deeply emotional, the lyrics resonate with the story and ending so well. I hope to god they play it at the TSO concert. Maybe not actually, as I will be in tears. - The combat overall has been improved from Remake. Again, there is so much shit combat-wise. Every character has a basic attack and triangle attack, complete with holding down each button too (usually). Of course, every character has a plethora of ATB abilities, like an insane amount. Spells too. Then you have new synergy skills, which I didn’t really get into. Then you have synergy abilities, which are basic small Limit Breaks that give you cool perks, like raising your Limit Level or unlimited MP etc. Then of course you have the Limit Breaks themselves, and then Summons too. Basically, there is so much shit you can do in combat, it’s astonishing. It’s overwhelming at first, which is why I never got into the synergy skills. I think on my Hard mode playthrough I’ll use those more. Between the materia and characters, there are so many ways you can play this game. Beyond just the basic offensive v defensive or physical v magic attack play styles, you can make crazy combinations with the materia. The magnify, elemental, dual-cast, precision guard, enemy skill, steal, jump etc. materia lend themselves to offering such unique ways to play. Couple that with the diverse character abilities, and you have an incredibly dense combat system. - Zack Fair. The best of us. This fucking guy man. He’s just the best. I wish we got more of him, but I trust that we will in Reborn. Starting off the game playing as him was a huge surprise, I’m so glad that wasn’t ruined for me. Two key moments in this game really made me fall in love with Zack. One of them is the scene where he’s talking to Marlene, both when she tells him about Sephiroth killing Aerith when she wakes up, and previously when he’s talking to her about Biggs I think. He kind of talks to Marlene as an equal, rather than an inferior child. He’s so kind to her and treats her so well, it’s very endearing. The second moment is I believe the same scene as Marlene’s psychic confessions. Zack looks over at Aerith, and then beside her where the White Materia and her ribbon are. I think you’re supposed to think that he’s going to take the White Materia, maybe because he thinks it might help him stop Sephiroth, or help in trying to save Biggs, or get a cure for Cloud. But one or two scenes later, this guy has Aerith’s ribbon tied around his palm. This guy, instead of taking this special-ass looking White Materia, that could potentially contain immense power, takes his girlfriend’s ribbon as a reminder or good luck or whatever. If that doesn’t perfectly encapsulate why this character is so beloved by so many, I genuinely don’t know what does. As I was writing this, I thought of a third reason. Zack kind of fills in the roles of the rest of the party, now that they’re all dead or sick or whatever. He acts as a protector to Marlene in Barret’s stead, a helper and company to Elmyra in Aerith’s stead, a carer of Aerith in Cloud’s stead, a carer of Cloud in Tifa’s stead, and a friend of Biggs in Barret and Tifa’s stead. I’m surprised they didn’t make this guy run around on all fours and smell chocobo tracks in Nanaki’s stead. I fucking love Zack. - Speaking of Zack, the first time ‘Theme of Crisis Core’ plays, when you meet Cissnei in Gongaga, is one of the highlights of the game for me. The guitar starts, you realize “oh shit this is the Theme of Crisis Core”, but you’re waiting for the theme itself to drop. The guitar continues, you’re eagerly waiting for it to kick in, and then it finally does. Fucking magic man. I couldn’t believe it, it was so well done, so beautiful. Maybe that was the trademark “turning point” actually. - I have to mention the sheer amount of “systems”, or “mechanics” in this game, that are either used for mini-games or one singular section of the game. Other than the obvious mini-games, the prison break shooting scene, pulling out Gongaga mushrooms, all the chocobo’s, grappling as Yuffie, throwing boxes as Cait Sith, going upside down in Temple of the Ancients, Aerith using the Lifestream, driving the Buggy, and so many more that I’m forgetting. Things like these make it hard to believe this game only came out 4 years after Remake, and it makes you wonder how many people worked on this game and what its budget was. - Queen’s Blood, this little card game is so goated. It’s a delight when you walk into a town and see that people are there to play Queen’s Blood with you. It’s like when you were young and you’d go over to your cousins house and they’re willing to play video games with you, that feeling of delight. The game is so fun and easy to pick up and play, it’s never frustrating except for the final battle and the final Gold Saucer challenge. It’s such a fun game and helps pace the game out. The questline wasn’t as hype as I expected it to be from what others were saying, but it was still cool playing against various characters we know throughout the story, like Nanaki, Tifa, Aerith, Chadley, and of course Vincent. - Using Summons is sick, are the Summon battles themselves are really cool and fun. - The Protorelic missions are great, really funny and charming. They each have their own mini-game and story. Anytime a mini-game wasn’t great, the story saves the mission thread, such as the Cosmo Canyon region mission thread. Speaking of… - Seeing Wedge, Jessie, and Biggs, hangout with Barret and Tifa in Seventh Heaven was one of the highlights of the game for me. All 4 (?) of those cutscenes had me in tears, I fucking loved them. Having the mission thread start with Wedge asking us to help him return to the planet (I think?) caught me so off guard, it made me so grateful that the people they have working on these games just get it man. It was such a beautiful questline, definitely one of my favourite “side missions” in the game. Seeing Jessie outside of the Loveless scenes was unexpected and really caught me off guard. Jessie is one of the best parts of Remake, and her death is so tragic. The dev team knew that so many players formed a connection to Jessie in Remake, and bringing her back in these flashback cutscenes was much appreciated. Made me cry every time. - Of course, I also loved what we’ll call the ‘Flowers Blooming in the Church’ side mission, which is the first side mission you can do in the game. This also caught me off guard, as you think you’re just going to collect some flowers for this bitch-ass little girl who’s sad about her parents dying. But then you head to the flower field with Aerith, and it’s close to Midgar. You kill all the enemies, and then ‘Flowers Blooming in the Church’ plays. This moment hit me like a truck, I was not expecting it at all. I was in tears during it, it hit me like an emotional truck. Such a fantastic moment, and it was a sign of good things to come. - Playing as Zack right at the beginning was a welcome surprise, which I think I might appreciate more upon a replay, since I’m always sorting out technical stuff when starting a game. - The opening Nibelheim chapter is great, playing as Sephiroth of course is going to be cool as fuck. - Vincent Valentine, this guy. Just the coolest looking guy of all time, I can’t way to play as him, either in Reborn or in a Rebirth DLC. - Seeing Sephiroth Reborn at the end, a game earlier than we should’ve, was very cool. And playing as the party, Cloud, and Zack was so sick. - Having the final fight vs Sephiroth being just Cloud and Aerith is so beautiful and powerful. - Of course seeing the Cloud and Zack team up was so hype, I wish so badly that it wasn’t ruined for me. - Costa del Sol is fantastic here, there’s so much shit to do in it. Just running around it is fun, it might be my favourite area in the game. And of course, Tifa’s swimsuits are amazing. - The sheer number of boss fights in this game is ridiculous, and I’m strictly talking multiple phase, cutscene filled boss fights. Including mini-boss fights, this game has to have a world record of some kind, at least when it comes to third person action games. The fact that most bosses have their own track to go with their fight is ridiculous too, but that’s to be expected considering this is the sequel to Final Fantasy VII Remake, the king of unique boss fight music. - Love The Turks, Elena is a great addition. I’m disappointed Reno wasn’t in it as much, but when he shows up it’s so hype. - I love that Barret has his sunglasses on when you’re in the Corel region. - I want to specifically point out the scene between Cloud and Barret after Dyne dies. Every line between them is pitch perfect, and makes me cry every time I hear them. This scene alone grows Cloud and Barret’s relationship astronomically, it’s honestly so heartwarming and beautiful. The music is also absolutely perfect, I can’t believe it isn’t on the soundtrack. One of my favourite scenes in the game for sure. - I want to speak on the returning characters from Remake. So many characters are back, many of which I didn’t expect to see here. Leslie, Wall Market training guy, Andrea, Madam M, Chocobo Sam, Johnny, Wedge, Jessie, even the amount of Chadley that’s here. All of these characters and more that I’m forgetting all have minimal roles in the OG, but they were more fleshed out in Remake, and now make a return in Rebirth. It’s great that they did is, it builds a connection to the characters and the world of FF7, and rewards you for building bonds in the previous game. I imagine Reborn will bring these characters back yet again, and it will be even more rewarding then. - Cloud’s aerial combat abilities and ranged attack are very, very welcome additions. - Cloud’s all-out murder scenes are great, never noticed the Sephiroth mannerisms until watching a video discussion. - Haven’t really talked about Sephiroth himself yet. He isn’t in the game super often, just springing up every now and then to taunt Cloud and stir some shit, same as in Remake. But man this guy is still scary as ever. He might not be as scary as in Remake, since that was the first time I was experiencing him, and he also looked scarier in Remake. But this guy will just show up out of nowhere and be so menacing and stoic. He’s a great villain as expected, didn’t really have any issues with him. I also really loved him showing up in the Nibel region protorelic quest, that was really fun and surprising. - Loved the variety in the chocobos, my personal favourites were the Cosmo Canyon and the Nibel chocobos. Traversing the world with these chocobos was really fun, once I got the hang of the Cosmo Canyon one. They really added a lot of verticality and ways to explore the open world in ways that I wasn’t expecting. - Fighting Vincent was super cool, wasn’t expecting that. Love that his boss battle theme is an arrangement of his theme, ‘The Nightmare Begins’. - The game runs at 60fps 99% of the time, which cannot be understated. I’m very appreciative of this. Cons: - The ending, upon first experience, lacks that emotional punch that I was expecting. For years we’ve been anticipating the ending of this game, and the answer to the question “will Aerith live or die?”. The ending is so confusing when you first play through it that you don’t really know how to feel. It’s also pretty fast paced, there’s no time for you to sit and think about what just happened, until you reach the end credits, which is definitely by design. It puts you in the shoes of the party (specifically Cloud of course), making you feel how they must feel, confused and not able to process what the hell they just witnessed. So, in some ways, I think this is a genius design decision, but I can’t help but feel a little disappointed with the lack of a emotional shock to the system, which I was definitely expecting. Hell, I made sure I had enough tissues on standby because I was fully expecting to be a crying mess at the end of the game. However, I was crying the second time I played through the ending, so replaying it does fix most of (if not all) these issues. - No Mining Town music. For shame. - No proper Forested Temple arrangement either. The Battle Edit is the closest, and the ‘Revival of Black Materia’ track, but I really wanted a 1-to-1 recreation of the OG track, or a close enough recreation, something that really captured that mysterious feel of the original track. - Not as much Reno as I wanted. I’m not sure if I buy the reasoning being that the Japanese voice actor passed away so they cut his scenes, that doesn’t seem like it makes sense to me. - The open world can be monotonous and overwhelming, like sensory overload, especially at the beginning of the game. Between how much shit there is to do, the music playing 24/7, switching into combat and the more intense music that that brings, running around a chocobo, Chadley/MAI talking your ear off, maybe the party talking. It can be overwhelming for sure, and makes my eyes get that feeling of tiredness or whatever. - The party doesn’t talk a lot in the open world, while you do side activities, other than side missions (and of course main missions), and the occasional Yuffie singing maybe. I really would’ve appreciated more random lines of dialogue, even if they’re repeated throughout the game, just to add to the realism of the party. This cast of characters is so good, I want them to interact with each other as much as possible, to know that they really care about each other as much as I care about them. - No triceratops-monster truck enemy. I was really looking forward to fighting that guy in a boss fight, probably in the colosseum, and I’m disappointed he wasn’t here. Maybe they’ll include him in Reborn? Considering how faithful the developers have been to the weird parts of Final Fantasy VII, I’m surprised they didn’t include this weird enemy. I’m not sure if he shows up in a section of the OG that isn’t in Rebirth and that’s why he isn’t here, so here’s hoping they have him in Reborn. - This is something that I felt during the first half or so of the game, that was a really big issue for me but it fizzled away as the game went on, as I expected. I was disappointed with the lack of Aerith character development and moments in the early to middle portions of the game. This game was supposed to be Aerith: The Videogame, and that’s not just my expectations of it, it was marketed that way. The thumbnails of the trailers were all Aerith, the trailers focussed on Aerith, all of which is to be expected considering this game was going to contain the death/survival of her, which is arguably the moment everyone has been waiting to see remade for years. It’s the moment that we knew this game was leading up to, that Remake was leading up to, that everything was leading up to ever since this project was announced. “What is going to happen with Aerith?” was the question on everyone’s mind. So, since Aerith’s fate is the main focus of this game, I was expecting the devs to really focus on her throughout the entire game. I expected side missions to focus on her, music, combat, and of course the story. But I felt that there wasn’t enough Aerith time in the first half of the game. I get it, since this game is so ambitious and contains so many characters, minigames, plotlines and whatnot that they need to balance, all while keeping die-hard fans happy, so they couldn’t completely focus on her. But I wanted more of her. All that being said, while I was dealing with this issue, I had faith that it would change either as the game went on, or when I eventually replayed the game I would either not notice the lack of Aerith time, or recognize that they did indeed have enough Aerith time, I was just blinded by my expectations. I was right, as the second half contains more Aerith time, especially the ending chapters (of course). And I’m still sure that when I replay the game I will hang on to every Aerith line and moment and realize that I was wrong, they did the damn thing. To be honest, I think that when I replay this game, I’ll love it even more, and it might end up one of my top top favourite games ever. - The Dyne stuff I was a little let down by, it didn’t hit as hard as I was expecting. Again, I think a replay will fix this though. And of course, the scene after his death between Cloud and Barret is an all-timer for me. - The visual fidelity/graphics of the game. The fact that it took me this long to remember this means that in the end, it didn’t really matter, it was just at the beginning of the game. The new character models took some getting used to, specifically Cloud. I think only Tifa, Aerith and Sephiroth look a bit different, Barret and others look the same (Barret of course looks great as always). But eventually, I didn’t even notice the difference, even when looking back at Remake cutscenes. The open world, specifically the Grasslands, didn’t look great to me. The Grasslands looked muddy and desaturated, which required me to turn up the saturation on my TV. Other areas don’t look 10/10 fantastic like a Ghost of Tsushima, or even a Final Fantasy XVI, but you either get used to it as the game goes on, or the areas genuinely look better. I think that daytime locations just don’t look good in this engine or something, as indoors/nighttime/other dark locations look great. The Mythril Mines come to mind as a great looking location. But yeah the Grasslands, some parts of Junon Region and Cosmo Canyon Region look okay to not great. I get that this game came out only 4 years after Remake and it runs at 60fps, so some hits needed to be taken, but still I wished it looked as good as Remake did in my head. Cutscenes still look great though, but again daytime cutscenes just don’t look as great as I was expecting. I still go back to the Rufus fight in Remake and how good that looked and the cutscenes looked, and honestly I’m not sure if anything in Rebirth looks as good as that sequence. At least this game doesn’t have the same talking animations as XVI did though. - Some frame drops when a lot of things are happening in combat. - The platinum trophy is good for the most part, except the Brutal and Legendary simulations. The Brutal ones weren’t too bad except for the one I stopped on, with the wolf with the ear-splitting howl attack. I’m sure if I tried again I would’ve beaten it, and subsequently beaten the rest of the Brutal simulations, but I didn’t want to risk getting frustrated as I was winding down towards finishing the game for good (until I eventually replay it on Hard). The fact that each simulation is 10 rounds is particularly annoying, as you need to restart everything if you lose. Each round isn’t too long though, but I’m sure in the Legendary ones they are, since you’re fighting Summons in some of them. I’m still debating whether or not I will go for the platinum after I beat the game on hard, or if I will give myself an ‘honorary platinum’ by getting every trophy other than the one for completing Johnny’s Treasure Trove. After all, I would’ve done literally everything else in the game, including some things that aren’t even required for the platinum. I just don’t want to have a bad taste in my mouth with this game, but at the same time I really want to have that official 100% seal of approval. But then again, it’s all useless bullshit, I need to get that stuff out of my head. As long as I enjoy the game and enjoyed it by doing what I wanted to do, that’s all that matters. Fuck these useless tactics that they use to keep you playing their games, no matter how much you loved the game. I love this game, but I won’t be its prisoner lol. - The fact that after Aerith dies and you fight Jenova, everyone still yells the same voice lines in combat as if nothing happened. Nanaki yelling in his playful voice is probably the worst. It kinda takes away from the moment, and I wish they recorded different lines for this one fight, it would’ve gone a long long way. Conclusion This game. This game man. This game gave me separation anxiety, I’m so glad we went to Vancouver after I played it, so I could distract myself from the gaping hole in my heart. I could genuinely write, talk, and think about this game for hours and hours. I will be thinking about it probably for the rest of my life to be honest. I doubt I’ll stop listening to the soundtrack ever, so yeah it’ll be a constant thought in my head. I can’t wait to play this game again, and also experience the TSO concert. I feel that I’ll like and appreciate the game even more on a repeat playthrough, since I’ll already know what to expect, and won’t be waiting for any surprises that I might’ve been expecting on a first playthrough. I’m eagerly anticipating seeing what the hell they’re going to do in the final game, but I’m also good to wait for that first trailer as long as is necessary. I trust that the team at Square Enix will cook up something truly special in the third game, and that they’ll stick the landing. They’ve given me no reason to think that they won’t do just that. That being said, this final game is going to be incredibly difficult to pull off. It’s either going to be the best game ever made, or an incredible failure. But I believe in them, it’ll be fantastic. It might be crazy that I’m putting these high expectations on the game this early, but the team has done that to themselves. They’ve delivered greatness countless times with these games, and they’ve given us no reasons to doubt them. I can’t wait, but I also can. It will come in good time. But yeah, this game is special. It was a special experience; I don’t think I’ll experience something quite like it ever again. They did the damn thing here. 9.3/10