An ambitious and impressive game with a scope that is at times too big for its own good.

The combat system here is among my favourite RPG systems ever. It builds upon Remake while adding new elements like Synergy Skills and removes some of the annoyances of its predecessor. I love turn based RPGs but Remake/Rebirth are so good that if Square Enix uses this as the base for FF17 onwards I am fine with turn based never coming back to mainline FF.

Without going into spoilers I think the plot mostly works. There’s some messy scenes and moments where the game will leave you questioning what happened but I think that’s intentional. The characterization of the party is so good though. I’ve always liked the cast of 7 but the updated script and especially the performances bring these characters to a new level. Absolutely loved them.

The problem with Rebirth is that it’s too big and the open world sections fall into a very defined formula. Some maps are annoying to navigate, Chadley doesn’t shut up and MAI is insane, and not all of the side activities work. Look, I love Queen’s Blood and would legitimately play a stand alone client of it, but herding Chocobos and climbing Ubisoft towers aren’t working for me. When I was doing my 4th proto relic side quest and Gears and Gambits was introduced my eyes glazed over. Thank god they had an auto program option. Remake was a lot tighter in this regard and I really hope the next game reins it in a bit.

So scoring this for me is difficult. I think the combat is much improved, the story and characters are fantastic, music is amazing etc. Some of the side activities work for me and others don’t. I think I just hate open world busy work and my completionist brain worked against me. But when the game is doing its linear, main story line missions it absolutely rules. I’ve seen a lot of commentary online saying that this is the best Final Fantasy since the PS2 days, and if you don’t play 14 I’d have to say that’s accurate. Easy GOTY contender.

I feel like my head is overwhelmed with a ton of different feelings and thoughts on this game, 99% of those thoughts extremely positive and 1% of those thoughts, nitpicky small things that I don't really care about right now because I just loved this game with my entire heart.

The story is for sure a bit Nomura poisoned but I still had a really good time with it, I'm starting with it because I don't have a ton to say partially because spoilers and partially because it's confusing and insane and I'm not qualified to deep dive into all of the differences and what everything means. It's for sure much more well done and interesting than a Kingdom Hearts story but I get a similar feeling where I'm mostly just along for the ride and willing to let there be some bullshit.

The main thing about the narrative and writing that continues to blow me away with these remakes absolutely is the characters and all of the various interactions and moments they all get. I went from knowing and not particularly caring about most of these characters to all of them becoming one of my favorite casts of characters in all of gaming! I don't dislike anyone here, even characters I was a bit worried about being annoyed with like Yuffie or Cait Sith ended up being absolutely wonderful, Yuffie especially ended up being one of my favorites. I have nothing but absurdly positive things to say about each and everyone here, capped off with wonderful performances! I do find it can get a bit on the anime melodramatic on the voice acting side of things but as someone who usually doesn't love that stuff it didn't really bother me at all, again probably because I just love these characters so darn much. It's rare a game can juggle around so many characters and make me feel so intensely attached to all of them! Obviously I have favorites, but I don't think anyone is so far and away above anyone else and that's because they're all so insanely likable and interesting. I could talk for days about how I love all the little aspects of each character and all of the various dynamics like Barrett interacting with Yuffie, Red, or Cait Sith and how it always was a highlight or Tifa and Aerith's genuine friendship or Red XIIIs big character moment I won't spoil, or even Cloud and Yuffie's sibling dynamic but if I get into anymore detail I might never stop. I love all of these guys and even if the story can be a bit convoluted and overwhelming this is some of my favorite character writing in any game ever, it was something I already loved about Remake but it's tenfold here.

Gameplay wise it's even more fun than Remake which was already a pretty amazing Action RPG. It's not too different all things considered, but some new Materia, Synergy Attacks/Commands, and most of all the brand new characters in Red XIII and Cait Sith (not to mention some short really fun playable versions of a couple other characters) all come together to make an already astounding combat system that much better. Synergy Attacks/Commands were probably the biggest thing I kinda refused to learn until I realized they're really fucking good and fun as hell! They generally follow a couple guidelines but are extremely useful and a lot more powerful than I was giving them credit for. There's also a ton of returning and new weapon abilities that are a ton of fun to mess with. Finding a new weapon is always exciting even if the stats aren't great because it means you'll at least get a new attack to unlock and they're all pretty fun and worthwhile. The two new characters are a ton of fun as well! Red XIII pretty instantly clicked with me, but Cait Sith felt a bit awkward for a while. It wasn't until a section where you're forced to be only him did I actually put some time into learning him and end up finding him really cool! Still on the lower end for sure but once you get used to him he's also a ton of fun. Exploration was solid! Each region looks absolutely gorgeous and it's fun to do all the little tasks in each place. I can see someone finding them tedious but they all have an absurd Final Fantasy charm that I never really got bored. I'm also the kind of guy that just loves ticking away at a checklist and this game does it great. Control/Movement during exploration is pretty average, I think I would have preferred a Jump button cause it can feel a bit awkward but I understand why there isn't one. The various Chocobo and their gimmicks are fun to use and the giant monster truck thing you get is silly and fun to use. If I had one complaint it would be that Chadley won't ever shut the fuck up! It's a pretty annoying pace breaker the amount of times he stops you from playing to tell you that you got some good data and to keep up the good work. I wish it was kept to walking conversations or something, I actually like the idea of Chadley and your exploration fueling his research and working towards new materia and such but he stops you so much and it's pretty fucking annoying.

The other big aspect of the gameplay is the sheer amount of mini-games here. I'm a guy that absolutely LOVES stupid little mini-games and changing up the main gameplay here and there and this game does it a TON. It's almost all great too, I love how often they have you do a silly little mini-game like shooting boxes on a mine cart ride, a punch-out style fighting game with low poly OG FF7 models, a pretty fun Piano Rhythm game, Chocobo Racing which feels way more satisfying to control than it has any right to, and a ton other I could go on and on about. The two big consistent ones are the returning Fort Condor which is still lots of fun and I like the more offense-oriented changes they made and it also uses the great low poly FF7 models. The new one is Queen's Blood which is an insanely in-depth card game that's a ton of fun! There's over 100 cards and there's a good amount of variance in what they all do. It's pretty fun to make new decks and I always went to do all the new Queen's Blood matches available whenever I got to a new town because I liked it so much. I'm really excited to go back post main story and grind all of these mini-games cause they're genuinely so fun and there's way more than I would have expected.

The music is also WONDERFUL which like, obviously. It's a bit unfair having one the greatest OSTs as a base and a ton of it is pretty new to me but it's just so beautiful. I don't think I emotionally connect with Video Game soundtracks much, there's a ton I love and think are great but they don't grab me emotionally as much as I just think they're sick. This entire soundtrack felt so emotional, I don't know if I'll ever hear Tifa or Aerith's themes again without feeling a bit emotional. The way they weave character themes into the important moments for each character is so insanely beautiful. There's also obviously iconic songs like the battle theme which I'll never get sick of and the insanely beautiful town themes. It'd be pretty tough to find a video game OST on the level of this and it's one that'll stick with me for a long time.

I can't believe this game exists and it feels as large a step above the first game in the remake trilogy which was already a game that really surprised me with my love for it. Direct sequels pretty often end up amazing before later games try a bit too hard to be different and crazy so it shouldn't surprise me as much as it does, but fuck man it's a beautiful feeling to have a sequel absolutely crush it like this game does. For my tastes and opinions there's been a few of those the last few years and it's just so sick. I'm incredibly excited for the third game, it's gonna be tough to live up to this but no matter what I just can't wait to have more experiences with these characters. I could go on for way too long absolutely gushing about this game but I'll leave it at this already way too long review and say I'm so glad these remakes exist and got me into the FF7 universe.

Bom, terminei o FF7 Rebirth com 95 horas, tendo feito todos os informes, side quests, e desenvolvido todas as matérias.

Sinto que aproveitei tudo que o jogo pode me oferecer na primeira run, claro que há mais desafios como o próprio modo dificil no NG, ou os simuladores de combates + desafios no Gold Saucer.

Mas, para uma primeira experimentada no rebirth já estou 100% satisfeito, pretendo retornar para o Remake + Rebirth próximo do lançamento da próxima parte.

Mas, isoladametne o Rebirth é uma obra prima completa!
A forma com que expandiram o original e mesmo assim respeitando muito a obra é invejável para qualquer remake. Não tem jeito Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth é Must Play completamente!

Nota: 10/10

The direction of this game is amazing. Taking every memorable moment from the original and recreating them in imaginative and yet familiar ways is so fun.

I though the open world stuff was fine. It's kinda weird to me how people instantly make the comparison to Ubisoft games because it has "towers" I dunno. I guess I just don't consider the concept of touching a button to make other important spot appear on the map to be inherently good or bad? The reason I dislike Ubisoft games is that they're incredibly boring to me, they rarely have compelling characters, the writing is generally dogshit and they pad the hell out of the map with a billion activity icons.

In FFVII Rebirth when you touch a "tower" it reveals a maximum of three icons, often less. The open world is not a giant map, it's 6 relatively small maps seperated by more cutscene heavy setpiece chapters. I think that structure helps with the pace a lot.

The combat system is genuinely the most fun I've had in an RPG in recent years. They greatly expanded the range of gameplay styles. The materia system is really fun to figure out and the character action aspect is top notch.

I loved all the minigames. I think it's fun that most quest aren't just "go at map location and interact with thing". A lot have creative interactions attached to them. They all make you hang out with a member of your party and learn more about them.

I dunno I just don't have anything bad to say about it. When I streamed the game I tried to express all the things that annoyed or disappointed me but in the end they're all just tiny nitpicks about specific moments. I've seen a lot of complaint about the ending being way too "kingdom hearts" like in part 1 and, I don't know how to tell you this but Final Fantasy has been doing this stuff since the NES. I think it might feel weird here because those moments weren't originally meant to be endings within a trilogy.

Maybe it's all nostalgia hitting me very hard. I don't really know what this game feels like for someone who's never played the original but at the end of the day I had fun the entire time and I never put the game down until I was 100% finished. I think the game as a whole is fantastic and I cannot wait for part 3.

Tras el éxito de Final Fantasy VII Remake venía con muchas ganas de jugar a su secuela, y debo decir que ha cumplido mis expectativas con creces. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth es la continuación de una fantástica aventura que nos transporta al planeta de Gaia, donde la energía del planeta está siendo explotada y consumida por una empresa que gobierna la sociedad y nuestro grupo protagonista busca pararle los pies a la misma y al villano principal: Sefirot. A pesar de que la historia no tiene un hilo principal sobre el que tirar al principio del juego, conforme va avanzando la trama mejora sustancialmente. Lo mejor de este apartado son sus personajes, cada uno con una personalidad muy definida y arcos muy interesantes, permitiéndonos empatizar y encariñarse de ellos. A esto le sumamos un lore complejo y ampliado, que le otorga al mundo mucho más contexto e inmersión. La historia, que me ha durado unas 68 horas habiendo hecho parte del contenido secundario, viene acompañada por un apartado audiovisual excelso, llegando a una calidad gráfica pocas veces vista y escenas y animaciones espectaculares; con una magnífica banda sonora y a mí parecer una de las mejores de toda la historia. Desafortunadamente tuve que jugar al juego a 30 FPS en modo calidad porque el modo rendimiento perdía mucha resolución. La jugabilidad sigue siendo muy divertida, al igual que en el Remake, pero con adiciones y cambios que le han otorgado un enfoque distinto y mejora con respecto al anterior. Los combates son entretenidos y la estructura de mundo abierto le sienta como anillo al dedo. Los encargos y misiones secundarias suelen ser de mucha calidad, con algunas excepciones de algunas misiones tediosas de hacer o exceso de encargos en algunas ocasiones. Hay una cantidad inimaginable de minijuegos, todos ellos con sus mecánicas únicas y que dan un soplo de aire fresco a la jugabilidad. Mención especial al juego de cartas, probablemente de los minijuegos más divertidos y adictivos que he jugado nunca. En resumen, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth mejora a su juego anterior y consigue estar a la altura de lo esperado, consiguiendo una aventura emocionante e imprescindible para cualquier fan de la saga.
9,5/10
(05/2024)

FFVII Rebirth is the follow up to one of my all-time favorite remakes/soft reboots ever made, and an excellent reimagining of the classic RPG, Final Fantasy VII. Not only does Square Enix offer a HUGE world to explore and a plethora of minigames to experience, the main storyline allows you to spend a vast amount of time with your favorite characters and deepen your relationship with them. Combat is silky smooth, the Materia builds are intriguing to discover and implement, writing and performances (and the soundtrack) are strong across the board.

Some caveats and negatives would be that the ending stretches out perhaps a bit too long and can be confusing in a variety of ways, probably purposefully as theory-crafting is a popular past-time among the fandom. Some of the minigames felt super annoying and unbalanced and honestly affected my enjoyment of the game itself.

Overall, though, an absolutely worthwhile game to play and a contender for Game of the Year 2024.