Look, you’d have to be pretty absent from the internet to not realize the cultural juggernaut of Final Fantasy VII. Spiky haired anime boys with big swords fighting sultry bare-chested men who would be the namesake of so many internet pen-names, the game’s an integral part of anyone who grew up on the internet in the early 2000s.
With FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH, though, there’s a bit more to releasing the game than just coasting on legacy. It’s the second of the Remake trilogy, putting it into the same box that other sequels like The Empire Strikes Back or Desolation of Smaug might have- that is, how do you wow an audience that can’t be surprised?
More Of What You Love
The answer, it should seem, is more. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth understands a core conceit- that people who love Final Fantasy VII love Final Fantasy VII. It’s a chance to better hang out with your crew, with mechanics both incentivizing you building relationships with everyone while also just giving you more to do in the world.
Make no mistake, if you loved Final Fantasy VII everything you love is still there. The combat is still built around the incredibly clever ATB system, planting it as an in-between of a hack-n-slash and typical turn-based systems. Admittedly fights are a little harder for this- if you’re a master of action games you’re going to find yourself instinctively try to perfect guard or dodge attacks, only to eat a monster attack to the face.
There’s also the new synergy system- building on from Episode Yuffie, you’re now able to do team up moves with your party members with entire enemies having weaknesses built around them. It does get a bit much at times- it feels like having to manage everyone’s ATB stacks, health and remembering to use their Synergies can be dizzying, especially since at the end of the day you’re probably just gunning for each enemy’s weakness.
Still, I imagine every person who’s drawn a pointy-chinned Cloud in their school notebooks would be nothing short of thrilled- I’m sure everyone’s fantasized about their favorite characters doing cool team up attacks, like Barret yeeting Red XIII like he was Rinoa from FF8 to destroy a comically large snake.
It’s here that I realized what the point of FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH was (aside from continuing the story, that is). It’s specifically to cater to fans of the characters. It’s these people who want to see characters they know in new situations- they’re sure to get the most mileage out of Rebirth’s grand story and vast expanses.
Speaking Of Expanses…
Admittedly, despite being one of the marquee features I’d have to say the open world is easily Rebirth’s weakest element. There’s lots of things to do, yes, but not in a particularly engaging way. A lot of my time in the open world segments was purely out of necessity- I either needed a regional Chocobo, or more Summon Crystals to make the Summon fights easier.
It’s not really helped by the fact traversal itself feels dated- we’ve been spoiled by years of “Just walk in the direction you want and you’ll get there” that having invisible walls if you try to make Cloud leap off a cliff just feels frustrating in comparison. What’s pitched as an open world ends up feeling like an admittedly gorgeous, elaborate set of corridors.
Set against the contrast of the “dungeon” levels, so to speak, it’s night-and-day. Going through a mine, having the party split up so you’re forced to learn different character mechanics, pushing minecarts around- those are all excellent.
But I think in that feeling of wanting to keep the game in that realm of epic-feeling, some experiences had to be cut from the open world. You can feel it when your map tells you the next temple is right under you but you need to take a detour to get on the right path leading up to it.
More Time On The Clock
Overall, FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH is very much a game for the biggest fans of Final Fantasy VII. It’s borrowed from many JRPGs to give you the optimal experience of hanging out with your favorite characters- from quests for building your relationship that are more than just “help Barrett overcome his anxiety” to meaningful combat skills that make you perfectly fine with giving Tifa a permanent slot.
I mean, in one quest, you spend an entire trek watching Barrett mental-math his way from criticizing clingy parents to realizing he is one, before showing up to help a new parent with their own problems. This isn’t just a great character moment, it’s one that’s made great by the fact that during this entire process he’s talking it out with the gang.
The dialogue in the game is interesting because the characters themselves are well-written. Just having Cloud talk about his own upbringing changes the tone entirely from “idle quest chatter” to “so this is a teachable moment for the entire party”. There’s even segments where you Mass Effect-style your way through dialogue options, and instead of you being the almighty savior-slash-love-interest for their problems, characters take you to task for the stuff you do.
It’s a dialogue in the best sense of the word- and it’s actually helped by the density of game you’re presented with.
I do think that in that quest to give you more to do, the game starts to show a bit of its padding. The open world tends to fall into the pitfall of many similar titles, from lots of insignificant resources to quests that feel like busywork. It’s not like I hate hunting down combat challenges, but having so much of everything (conveniently unlocked by looking up outpost towers no less) really detracts from the core JRPG experience,
In a sense it kind of reminds me of The Hobbit- that was 9 hours of movie milked from 100 pages of book, and if you weren’t watery-eyed from the joy of seeing Dwarves be bros you’d start to notice just how many setpieces were a tad bit longer than they needed to be.
Still, if you loved FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE, REBIRTH has everything that game does well and more. Rather than use the sequel as a means to course-correct issues with REMAKE, REBIRTH instead appears to just be the next step forward- a window into “just how far can you go with these characters?”. The answer, it turns out, is pretty far. There and back again, some might even say.
Score: 9/10
Game reviewed early on PS5. Code provided by Bandai Namco Entertainment Asia and SQUARE ENIX.
