I’ve been sitting on making this review for a long time. I wanted to give it enough time to not be written by recency bias. So here we go-

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth feels difficult to review because…there’s not really much else that feels like it for better or worse. A sequel to a remake that was only the first slice of the game it was remaking. As well as not just an entirely different genre from the original, but even a pretty dramatic new direction from its predecessor alone. All on top of telling an ambitious story that tries to balance a remake with a new meta narrative at the backdrop. This game is…big. Overwhelmingly so at times. It’s difficult to compose my feelings.

As the 4 and a half star rating may spoil you, I like this game. Heck, I love it. I don’t love everything about this game though. There’s some stuff I actively dislike…yet there’s so so so much I love too. If you think this is going to be a mindless glazing session, then I urge you to read the rest of what I have to say. I’m not going to pretend this is a perfect absolutely flawless game. It’s not. Just because I rate the game this high does not mean I am blind to some of its critical flaws or never developed things I disliked about it of my own. I will be very honest and critical in this review. Hear me out. But if you’re expecting some essay to fuel your own hatred for the game because you watched a video essay on YouTube designed to specifically show the game at its worst moments, you aren’t going to find that here either. I think there’s healthy discussion to be had about what the game does right and wrong and not immediately let one side dominate the other just because one moment you really loved or the other you really hated.

I’ll start with something I think people would agree on the most. Rebirth’s presentation is absolutely stunning, and I mean that in a lot of ways. The set pieces, the music, the cutscene direction, just wow. I think a lot of the reason some other AAA games feel so boring is that they just have this stiff, artificial vibe to them. There’s a lot that goes into making them look pretty but rarely as much anything that makes them feel pretty. Rebirth never feels like it has this problem. The incredibly dynamic camera and very animated movements during cutscenes make them feel so alive. Extremely creative, inspired shots are frequent. Like seriously, I think this has some of the most inspired cutscene direction of any game I’ve played in the last few years. There is never a dull looking moment. All enhanced by the very grand soundtrack. There’s many times where the music and its classic motifs are timed with moments in the cutscenes as well as new songs that remix older songs into them. I absolutely adore this. That kind of extra work really boosts the production value of the game. Also as mentioned, the set pieces are stunning. Classic locations have been recreated beautifully. It’s stunning how they’ve transitioned these places from their pre rendered backgrounds to fully explorable environments. The Remake series so far has done a really great job at having these larger than life locations finally be fully realized. The amount of detail packed into these places just makes me speechless sometimes. A lot of this just kinda goes without saying since Final Fantasy is known to deliver on the spectacle, but they still managed to outdo themselves here. It’s a constant feast to the eyes and ears.

But what about the world? Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s immediate big draw compared to Remake is that it has a fully explorable open world as opposed to the linear design of Remake’s Midgar. A modern evolution of the OG FF7 opening up to its world map at this point in the story. The open world is…a mixed bag, although I found myself enjoying it enough. Despite all the evolutions we’ve had in open world gaming, Rebirth’s world design feels a bit archaic compared to its peers. That’s not to say it’s bad by any means though it is to say that there’s an occasional clunkiness to it and a lack of super engaging side content other than your usual open world 101. It’s nothing special, but I also find it pretty inoffensive. The game’s approach to side content is a high number of quick content rather than few but high commitment content. Not that it makes any of the side content any more remarkable, but the fact they usually take no more than a couple minutes at a time still incentivizes me to do them. Sure maybe I don’t think what the open world has to offer is excellent game design, but it was enough to have me keep playing and enjoy my progression. So I still say it does its job even if never excelling in it. The sheer variety and quantity offered in this side content just helps it to feel fresh and addictive. I’m not ashamed to say I was having fun. Also a big thing is just…an open world of this scale in a Final Fantasy game just feels fun. I like running around these beautiful landscapes with these characters, getting to hear their banter, and especially getting into seamless combat encounters with the game’s combat system. It just feels grand and beautiful, and getting to see a fully realized version of FF7’s world is breathtaking. I still would’ve appreciated if they got a little more inspired with the possibilities in the world as opposed to well…frankly the bare minimum, but it’s enjoyable enough and very far from the weakest one I’ve seen. It’s probably right in the middle, but the sheer quantity of things you can do helps it to feel slightly above average. That’s from a more critical lens though because as I had just mentioned, I think even at the bare minimum getting to have this large, beautiful sandbox to run around in a Final Fantasy game is just so enjoyable to me. I think what’s extremely important to emphasize though is that you still can play the game in a largely linear fashion. If you’re dreading the idea of having an open world you don’t want to engage with eating up all your time…well, you don’t really have to engage with it at all. The story still takes up Remake’s chapter structure, meaning the story is still 99% confined to linear set pieces and will have you going from point A to point B. That may be another reason why I don’t particularly mind some of the unremarkable open world content since close to none of it actually interrupts the main game. I think it’s great that you pretty much get a choice on how you would like to play.

There’s not too much I can say about combat, given its obviously following Remake’s combat which I’ve already talked about. I was already a big fan of Remake’s approach to combat, albeit with some minor complaints. I love the blend of action and RPG elements. The fast paced and quick switching nature of the action combat while having a series of more strategic commands you can choose from whilst time slows felt like a match made in heaven for an action RPG, at least in my opinion. Rebirth doubles down on this gameplay and polishes out some of the critiques I had whilst adding additional mechanics that add an even deeper layer to the flow of combat. There’s been notable tweaks to enemy behavior as well as the speed your characters move and execute attacks. Rebirth’s combat speed is faster than Remake’s. This helps characters feel way more versatile without too much heaviness slowing them down but not feeling overly floaty either. The most notable addition to the combat is synergy attacks. These are team up abilities that can range from small defensive abilities and quick attacks, all the way to these powerful limit break-type attacks that grant a special status effect. This encourages you to interact with your party even more during battle. With that and all the smaller tweaks they made, I didn’t know how much they could improve Remake’s combat until they did. The new playable characters in this game also feature their own extremely unique and fun play styles. Combat is just…such a blast in this game. Aside from a couple bosses I didn’t really enjoy, there was rarely a time I wasn’t locked in during fights. Probably one of my personal favorite combat systems in a game. It hits all the right notes, and that’s pretty important for a game where combat will be a large chunk of the experience.

Now…the big point of contention: the story. Remake made the bold subversion of expectations to not do a traditional remake and instead do a sort of meta remake that acknowledges its own existence of having already happened. This is largely what separates those who love Remake and those who hate it. The same case can be said for Rebirth, however I feel the case is…slightly different this time. Now I would consider myself indifferent towards the plot direction of Remake. It’s not what I wanted, sure…yet I was still very intrigued. It was an ambitious choice I didn’t expect and although it’s not what I would have asked for, I firmly believed that there was potential for an interesting story to be told. If the directors, writers had faith in the story they wanted to tell I didn’t really see any reason I should immediately oppose the idea. There’s been plenty of times where things we didn’t think of or ask for turned out to be great, so I figured I should let the ideas ride out before I drew any conclusions. Remake was really but a tease for these ideas, so it was too early to tell. So how did Rebirth follow up these ideas? I’m shocked to say that…they didn’t really follow them up at all? Like, I think it would be generous to say that the new plot elements take up even 5% of the story. It made me realize that they want to tell a new story but are too afraid to stop being a remake. Which at that point…I have to start wondering who the direction of this plot is even for? Like, anyone who was super engaged in the new plot will be disappointed to find that there’s maybe a little over an hour total of new story that only raises more questions instead of answers. And those who wanted a 1:1 remake will still just be upset that the 5% of new plot even exists in the first place. Rebirth is scared to commit to both ideas and in the end, it doesn’t fully commit to either. I hope it all comes together in the third game, but the fact we don’t get any answers until the very end feels…really disappointing and concerns me that the third game may feel very rushed.

But what about the rest of the story? I mean, if 95% of it is still a remake does it still do a good job at being a remake? I’m very thrilled to say mostly yeah! Emphasis on mostly. I feel that most moments have been translated beautifully. The presentation is always firing on all cylinders. The visuals, music, voice acting, really brings this story to life in a new way. It made me on the edge of my seat in a story where I already know everything that happens. I don’t want to get too deep into specifics for the sake of keeping this spoiler free, but things like Sephiroth’s influence over Cloud is one of many things that takes center stage here and thanks to the cutscene direction and voice acting, it’s twice as chilling here in ways that simply were not possible in the OG. This can similarly be said with moments like the Nibelheim story which for the same reasons feels far more of a convincing and haunting tragedy than it already was. I think there’s a ton of positive and negative discussion to be had about changes to classic moments and new moments altogether but when this game is adapting moments exactly as they were in the original, it adapts them excellently. Emphasis on excellent when adapting moments exactly as they were because some moments do have details changed for the worse. I’m not an huge fan, even dislike some of the tweaks they made to some scenes. I don’t think some critical scenes carry the same impact and that’s a shame. Whether this is due to actual changes or poor pacing. I don’t think this happens often…but it definitely stings pretty hard when it does. That being said, there’s also a decent amount of story tweaks that I found to be quite interesting, even beneficial. Some have additions that enhance the scenes, but I guess additions are in a different boat than actual changes. I found that most additions to classic scenes worked while actual outright changes did not. I think story changes here are a gamble. Sometimes they swing and miss, but sometimes they hit and gave me a deeper perspective on some characters and moments. There’s also a decent amount of entirely new scenes that I enjoy. Notably the many new scenes that explore Cloud and Tifa’s dynamic. Even the kind of stuff that involved Roche was pretty cool. But anyway. Honestly, I’m shocked and happy to say that Rebirth keeps so much of the goofier side of FFVII in tact! I feel too many remakes are trying so hard to be melodramatic to compensate for attempts at modernization, but Rebirth is never ashamed to embrace the fun, silly nature of a lot of characters and moments. This helps to keep the world and story feel so alive. Rebirth’s biggest strength in writing is by far its characters. The party feels at their best here. Their deep personalities all shine here in ways that even the OG just couldn’t beat. Rebirth solidifies them as one of the most genuine feeling casts I’ve ever seen, and brings a deeper bond to these classic characters that I and millions of others have resonated with over the years. Rebirth also makes a gigantic effort to give party members stronger bonds with each other as opposed to just their bond with the party as a whole. I loved seeing Red XIII grow a strong bond with Barret and Aerith. I liked seeing Yuffie and Barret tease each other. It’s these smaller moments that were severely lacking in the OG that Rebirth brings in full swing. I have nitpicks with certain scenes being changed in ways that drain some of the impact, but…I think it would be a shame if I let a specific few things I didn’t like completely dominate and overshadow my view on everything else this game does well. It just has so much heart. It was always making me smile, laugh, cry…and I think it’s an achievement if a game can resonate with you like that. And that’s the biggest thing of all. Rebirth resonated with me.

The best thing about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is that through its best and even in its worst moments, its heart never leaves. There was rarely a moment where I did not feel the sheer passion of this project shining through every aspect. No matter how much you and I may not like certain things about the game, I feel it’d be a downright lie to say these people don’t care about Final Fantasy VII. Everything about it is still designed with heart and honestly that’s more than I can say about many other AAA games released as of late. When the story, characters, gameplay, music, etc etc all feel at their best which is pretty often…it brought me a joy I don’t think I felt in a while, and no complaints about the ending or this or that is going to take that away from me. The fun I was having here felt so special. Like, not just any kind of fun. I felt personally moved with how much I enjoyed this game overall. Maybe because the world of FFVII has become something comforting for me over the years…but there’s a reason why that is, and Rebirth often reminds me why I care about this game(s) so much. Some of the open world stuff wasn’t too inspired. So what? I had a blast doing it. There’s story moments I wasn’t a huge fan of, some I even hated. So what? There was so many I loved. This game is just far too big to let certain things really bring my opinion down that much. It may not be a masterclass, but it’s pretty spectacular just how much this game has to offer around every corner all packed with an endless amount of genuine heart. It’s a grand adventure worth your time, and absolutely worth the wait in my eyes. It’s such a genuine drastic leap in scale from Remake that it almost makes Remake feel like a teaser in retrospect. No matter how you or I feel about it stacked against the original…it’s still Final Fantasy VII, and it largely preserves the spirit of why it’s special to me and so many others while providing monumental ambition of its own.