Rebirth similar to its predecessor starts out on a thunderous note with an enthralling opening. Like Remake, Rebirth uses that opening to create strong opening in the first half of the game with a captivating story, enthralling music and a unique but very well executed combat system.

But also just like Remake, the game starts to wane and fumble in the second half, killing its own momentum with some brutal pacing and half assed story sections that act as padding.

So what went wrong? And why am I giving this game 4/5 stars despite what I’ve just said?

To start, the game introduces you to a new open world, divvied up into 7 unique sections with some being bigger than the entire playable section of Remake’s Midgar in Remake. This sounds impressive but it’s not inherently a good thing, the world at first is rather captivating with strong side content and fun things to discover from side quests. But you discover very quickly that this world is not what it was initially cracked up to be, there is virtually no exploration with everything being lazily revealed to you from Ubisoft esque radio towers that point out points of interest. From Junon onward you also discover that these points of interest don’t change from region to region, and are just slightly remixed, if you do all side activities in one region then you’ve done them all.

It’s not all doom and gloom though, as I mentioned already Rebirth does have a compelling story with strong characters and writing, it’s hard to mess up the slam dunk that is the original FF7 story so altering it rightly had people concerned. Fortunately I believe Square and CBU1 did an excellent job in creating a compelling pseudo reimagining/sequel to the original FF7, even in spite of some major pacing issues in the second half.

To follow up from that, what is wrong with the pacing? Initially nothing, but from chapter 9 to 11 or so the chapters drag pretty heavily, with boring mandatory sections and major padding.

To talk about my last major complaint the visuals are horrid, I was astonished to see how bad the texture work was, outside of cutscene the character models are atrocious and a downgrade from Remake. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not exactly picky when it comes to visuals, but when your game looks worse than the past 3-4 mainline entries of your game there’s a problem, hell FFXIII looks better in some regards.

Alright but what does Rebirth actually do BETTER than its predecessor? Luckily quite a lot, the combat is a good example, with far more party members to choose from and new mechanics allowing for far more player expression. Zero complaints from me, as someone who already quite enjoyed Remake’s combat Rebirth is just a straight upgrade in nearly every way.

The music was already a strong suit of Remake as well, but Rebirth has far more tracks used to great effect. Some of the most powerful and emotional moments in the game got a reaction out of me not because of the story but because of the music, it’s genuinely moving and powerful. One of the best soundtracks in gaming, I’d expect nothing less from an FF game.

I mentioned it earlier when talking about the world, but the side content, it can’t be understated how much better it is than Remake. Dozens of side activists with enough depth to keep you hooked while usually being optional, there’s so much here it would make a Yakuza game blush, it’s genuinely impressive how much is packed in here in that regard. Don’t want to do the main story right now? No problem, go Chocobo racing, or go play some queens blood, maybe go hunt the protorelics or fight summons.

As a side note the voice acting has received a major upgrade from Remake as well, with the actors receiving better material and direction. It’s not perfect and still suffers from some anime tropes, but as one of my annoyances from Remake I feel it’s worth noting it has received significant improvements.

To close this out, Rebirth is a game of peaks and valleys, what should have been one of the best FF games ever is bogged down by a poorly designed world and frustrating pacing in the second half. But the combat and genuinely interesting story with these beloved characters is enough to raise it up and keep it at a respectable 7.5/10 rating, with it being closer to an 8 than a 7.

Rebirth similar to its predecessor starts out on a thunderous note with an enthralling opening. Like Remake, Rebirth uses that opening to create strong opening in the first half of the game with a captivating story, enthralling music and a unique but very well executed combat system.

But also just like Remake, the game starts to wane and fumble in the second half, killing its own momentum with some brutal pacing and half assed story sections that act as padding.

So what went wrong? And why am I giving this game 4/5 stars despite what I’ve just said?

To start, the game introduces you to a new open world, divvied up into 7 unique sections with some being bigger than the entire playable section of Remake’s Midgar in Remake. This sounds impressive but it’s not inherently a good thing, the world at first is rather captivating with strong side content and fun things to discover from side quests. But you discover very quickly that this world is not what it was initially cracked up to be, there is virtually no exploration with everything being lazily revealed to you from Ubisoft esque radio towers that point out points of interest. From Junon onward you also discover that these points of interest don’t change from region to region, and are just slightly remixed, if you do all side activities in one region then you’ve done them all.

It’s not all doom and gloom though, as I mentioned already Rebirth does have a compelling story with strong characters and writing, it’s hard to mess up the slam dunk that is the original FF7 story so altering it rightly had people concerned. Fortunately I believe Square and CBU1 did an excellent job in creating a compelling pseudo reimagining/sequel to the original FF7, even in spite of some major pacing issues in the second half.

To follow up from that, what is wrong with the pacing? Initially nothing, but from chapter 9 to 11 or so the chapters drag pretty heavily, with boring mandatory sections and major padding.

To talk about my last major complaint the visuals are horrid, I was astonished to see how bad the texture work was, outside of cutscene the character models are atrocious and a downgrade from Remake. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not exactly picky when it comes to visuals, but when your game looks worse than the past 3-4 mainline entries of your game there’s a problem, hell FFXIII looks better in some regards.

Alright but what does Rebirth actually do BETTER than its predecessor? Luckily quite a lot, the combat is a good example, with far more party members to choose from and new mechanics allowing for far more player expression. Zero complaints from me, as someone who already quite enjoyed Remake’s combat Rebirth is just a straight upgrade in nearly every way.

The music was already a strong suit of Remake as well, but Rebirth has far more tracks used to great effect. Some of the most powerful and emotional moments in the game got a reaction out of me not because of the story but because of the music, it’s genuinely moving and powerful. One of the best soundtracks in gaming, I’d expect nothing less from an FF game.

I mentioned it earlier when talking about the world, but the side content, it can’t be understated how much better it is than Remake. Dozens of side activists with enough depth to keep you hooked while usually being optional, there’s so much here it would make a Yakuza game blush, it’s genuinely impressive how much is packed in here in that regard. Don’t want to do the main story right now? No problem, go Chocobo racing, or go play some queens blood, maybe go hunt the protorelics or fight summons.

As a side note the voice acting has received a major upgrade from Remake as well, with the actors receiving better material and direction. It’s not perfect and still suffers from some anime tropes, but as one of my annoyances from Remake I feel it’s worth noting it has received significant improvements.

To close this out, Rebirth is a game of peaks and valleys, what should have been one of the best FF games ever is bogged down by a poorly designed world and frustrating pacing in the second half. But the combat and genuinely interesting story with these beloved characters is enough to raise it up and keep it at a respectable 7.5/10 rating, with it being closer to an 8 than a 7.