Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the best Final Fantasy since X and easily one of the best FF games ever created. It does so many things right in preserving the Original story beats while still adding new flavour to it. The 2nd game of the "Remake" trilogy does everything that Remake already did good and made it 100% better.
First of all, the combat! It feels much tighter than Remake, there are new moves, new materia, synergy skills - there are more options than you can even use! It is super fast, you can still take "breaks" to think about your next moves and it offers a lot of variety. Especially the difference each characters playstyle brings to the table offers a lot of fun. Imo, the best FF combat we ever had.
The soundtrack is another absolute masterpiece as it beautifully combines the old tracks with new arrangements, creates variations from field to battle themes and offers an amazing experience.
The now open world does look beautiful and each area feels so alive. Places that you just passed through in the OG now tell an actual story and the world itself feels so much more interesting. Areas like Junon have some of the best environmental storytelling out there, showing what Shinra did to other areas around the world.
The best part however of the game are the characters! Characters that had little to no development get so much more dialog, writing and flavour. Characters I did not care about in OG at all are now my favourites. There is so much party banter and extra dialog to give these characters live and the writing is phenomenal.
The main story itself is very close to the Original - but it does offer some additions from side material and some new changes which I personally very much enjoyed. It feels much more focussed and clear than what Remake did.
The few things I did not enjoy:
The game does LOVE mini games, to a point where EVERYTHING is a mini game. Sometimes it feels a bit over the top. While FF XVI was "no mini game at all" FF VII Rebirth is the total opposite. So an in between would be nice here.
While the open world is beautiful and sidequests are very well done, there is also a lot of busy work that is just "there". Additional fights, combat simulator, towers - a lot of random open world stuff. The towers could be completely removed and instead there should be more intuitive exploration. For example: Sometimes an owl leads you to a place of interest, add more of that instead of multiple markers!
Final issue: Some game design choices. While the level design is much better than Remake and even the linear parts feel much more interesting, there are some strange design choices. Multiple instances of "push block slowly around" do feel extremely outdated in 2024.
Overall Rebirth has surpassed OG Final Fantasy for me, especially due to the amazing voice acting and character development the game offers. The combat is my personal favourite and I cannot wait to see what Part 3 has to offer!
First of all, the combat! It feels much tighter than Remake, there are new moves, new materia, synergy skills - there are more options than you can even use! It is super fast, you can still take "breaks" to think about your next moves and it offers a lot of variety. Especially the difference each characters playstyle brings to the table offers a lot of fun. Imo, the best FF combat we ever had.
The soundtrack is another absolute masterpiece as it beautifully combines the old tracks with new arrangements, creates variations from field to battle themes and offers an amazing experience.
The now open world does look beautiful and each area feels so alive. Places that you just passed through in the OG now tell an actual story and the world itself feels so much more interesting. Areas like Junon have some of the best environmental storytelling out there, showing what Shinra did to other areas around the world.
The best part however of the game are the characters! Characters that had little to no development get so much more dialog, writing and flavour. Characters I did not care about in OG at all are now my favourites. There is so much party banter and extra dialog to give these characters live and the writing is phenomenal.
The main story itself is very close to the Original - but it does offer some additions from side material and some new changes which I personally very much enjoyed. It feels much more focussed and clear than what Remake did.
The few things I did not enjoy:
The game does LOVE mini games, to a point where EVERYTHING is a mini game. Sometimes it feels a bit over the top. While FF XVI was "no mini game at all" FF VII Rebirth is the total opposite. So an in between would be nice here.
While the open world is beautiful and sidequests are very well done, there is also a lot of busy work that is just "there". Additional fights, combat simulator, towers - a lot of random open world stuff. The towers could be completely removed and instead there should be more intuitive exploration. For example: Sometimes an owl leads you to a place of interest, add more of that instead of multiple markers!
Final issue: Some game design choices. While the level design is much better than Remake and even the linear parts feel much more interesting, there are some strange design choices. Multiple instances of "push block slowly around" do feel extremely outdated in 2024.
Overall Rebirth has surpassed OG Final Fantasy for me, especially due to the amazing voice acting and character development the game offers. The combat is my personal favourite and I cannot wait to see what Part 3 has to offer!