Now normally I would make a little preamble, going into history & whatnot but I don’t think I need to go in depth about what makes Final Fantasy VII so beloved. It’s one of the most critically acclaimed JRPGs ever made. It’s revolutionary in more ways than one & it’s a very important game in the genre for several reasons which I would just be repeating what everyone else has said about it.
Though I can talk about my own personal experience. I first played FFVII Remake back in 2020 & I found it be really enjoyable even if I did play it before the original game which I do not recommend since I see it as more of a pseudo sequel if anything. Two years later, I actually played FFVII for the first time & while I do find it to be a great game, I think it is a tad overrated by fans (I would honestly say I prefer FFIX personally) & then when I got my PS5, I decided to replay FFVII Remake & found myself appreciating it a lot more because of my experience with the original game. So many more moments just hit harder because of that prior knowledge that I now had & while Remake certainly had its flaws, I really really do love Final Fantasy VII Integrade, especially with the added on DLC called Intermission with Yuffie. So after three years, was Final Fantasy VII Rebirth worth waiting for? In short. Yeah. It absolutely was.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is everything that I wanted it to be & more. I find it really difficult to put my thoughts into words for this game. It took everything that I loved about Remake & improved on that & the things that I didn’t really like as well. If you’re wondering if you can play this before the others, yeah no do not do that. There is a recap of the events of Remake but I would highly advise playing it first if not the original as well as was stated before to get the most out of Rebirth as a whole. I do not recommend starting with this one so please for your own sake play the other games that came prior.
So let’s talk about that story shall we? The narrative is excellent. It very closely follows the original much like Remake did for the Midgar portion of the story with some minor tweaks here & there. A lot of people found the pacing in Remake to have been a issue (mainly because it was a six hour section in the original game stretched out to 25-30 hours) though I will say I enjoyed how Remake expanded on Midgar even if I will agree it did drag on a little too much. However with that being said, the pacing for Rebirth is immaculate. It never felt too slow or too fast, to me it was just right mostly. Though I will admit there were some sections that I found to be a little worse than others, there was never a moment in the story where I felt it dragged on too much. I felt a lot of emotions throughout this game & seeing moments from the original felt so much more impactful because of the incredible performances of the cast.
Oh & the main cast for this game, I love them. All of them. Cloud, Tifa, Barrett & Aerith are still fantastic but I have to give a special shout-out to Red XII, Yuffie & Cait Sith also who have so much more personality to them now mainly thanks to their stellar performances & are implemented into the game so wonderfully with their story arcs. Especially Yuffie who was optional in the original game but this time I found that her inclusion felt so much more natural & I really enjoyed the dynamic she had with the rest of the party to the point she’s one of my favourite FF characters now. Cait Sith I didn’t care too much for in the original game but Rebirth made me love the silly little cat & I found him to be so charming & a lot of fun. And Red XII who was already one of my favourite party members is now even more endearing thanks to this game. It really is impressive how not a single character of this cast I dislike, they are all so loveable & full of life now & that makes me very happy.
Away from the main story though, each region on the map is expansive & filled with so much to do. I was actually impressed with just how massive each of them were & the amount of content that was packed into each area made it feel like one of the most rewarding open worlds I’ve ever experienced in a JRPG. And just comparing them to the original, seeing locations with so much detail like Junon, Cosmo Canyon & Nibelheim gave me so much serotonin it can’t even be described. Oh & there are SO many mini games. My personal favourite being the new card game Queen’s Blood which I would be fully on board with Square making it into a full game because it was just that addicting & I swear anytime I got the chance to play it, I always made sure to search for new players in towns & cities.
Also this game is absolutely gorgeous. And what’s even more impressive to me is even with how big these areas are, I saw absolutely no pop in whatsoever. That is truly incredible for a game of this magnitude (really putting that massive 145GB file size to good use Square Enix) the attention to detail is just immaculate & it’s one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played on the PS5.
The combat in this game is once again incredible. It’s pretty similar to Remake but with a number of quality of life improvements & gameplay tweaks which make it a lot more fun. You have synergy skills now where you & another party member can pull off a special team move whether it’s a power attack or a buff to increase your ATB gauges. Each character has their own defining gameplay style & it definitely is good to experiment with different team combinations so you can play to their strengths & weaknesses. Other than that though there’s not a whole lot new but as they say “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” & I think this is one of my favourite battle systems when it comes to combining strategy & action combat.
And of course I have to mention the soundtrack for this game cause it is once again absolutely fantastic. Misuto Suzuki & Masahashi Hamazu knock it out the park once again with their score & I loved hearing tracks from the original game with a much more modern feel to them, it truly put a huge smile on my face. I also really loved how each region of the map had its own unique battle theme, I don’t know things like that are just really fun to me & it makes the world feel so much more alive as I said.
Honestly FFVII Rebirth really is special. I didn’t think for one second this game would be anything short of amazing & yet it still managed to surpass all of my expectations. Even if I do have my issues in places, I can’t deny for one second that I wasn’t having a good time with Rebirth for a majority of my 60+ hour playtime.
I’m very much looking forward to seeing what they cook up for part 3 in this trilogy because I feel like after this game, we’re gonna be in for an absolute rollercoaster. And I’m gonna be on board for it all the way to the finish. Play FFVII. It’s well worth your time.
Final score: 10/10
Though I can talk about my own personal experience. I first played FFVII Remake back in 2020 & I found it be really enjoyable even if I did play it before the original game which I do not recommend since I see it as more of a pseudo sequel if anything. Two years later, I actually played FFVII for the first time & while I do find it to be a great game, I think it is a tad overrated by fans (I would honestly say I prefer FFIX personally) & then when I got my PS5, I decided to replay FFVII Remake & found myself appreciating it a lot more because of my experience with the original game. So many more moments just hit harder because of that prior knowledge that I now had & while Remake certainly had its flaws, I really really do love Final Fantasy VII Integrade, especially with the added on DLC called Intermission with Yuffie. So after three years, was Final Fantasy VII Rebirth worth waiting for? In short. Yeah. It absolutely was.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is everything that I wanted it to be & more. I find it really difficult to put my thoughts into words for this game. It took everything that I loved about Remake & improved on that & the things that I didn’t really like as well. If you’re wondering if you can play this before the others, yeah no do not do that. There is a recap of the events of Remake but I would highly advise playing it first if not the original as well as was stated before to get the most out of Rebirth as a whole. I do not recommend starting with this one so please for your own sake play the other games that came prior.
So let’s talk about that story shall we? The narrative is excellent. It very closely follows the original much like Remake did for the Midgar portion of the story with some minor tweaks here & there. A lot of people found the pacing in Remake to have been a issue (mainly because it was a six hour section in the original game stretched out to 25-30 hours) though I will say I enjoyed how Remake expanded on Midgar even if I will agree it did drag on a little too much. However with that being said, the pacing for Rebirth is immaculate. It never felt too slow or too fast, to me it was just right mostly. Though I will admit there were some sections that I found to be a little worse than others, there was never a moment in the story where I felt it dragged on too much. I felt a lot of emotions throughout this game & seeing moments from the original felt so much more impactful because of the incredible performances of the cast.
Oh & the main cast for this game, I love them. All of them. Cloud, Tifa, Barrett & Aerith are still fantastic but I have to give a special shout-out to Red XII, Yuffie & Cait Sith also who have so much more personality to them now mainly thanks to their stellar performances & are implemented into the game so wonderfully with their story arcs. Especially Yuffie who was optional in the original game but this time I found that her inclusion felt so much more natural & I really enjoyed the dynamic she had with the rest of the party to the point she’s one of my favourite FF characters now. Cait Sith I didn’t care too much for in the original game but Rebirth made me love the silly little cat & I found him to be so charming & a lot of fun. And Red XII who was already one of my favourite party members is now even more endearing thanks to this game. It really is impressive how not a single character of this cast I dislike, they are all so loveable & full of life now & that makes me very happy.
Away from the main story though, each region on the map is expansive & filled with so much to do. I was actually impressed with just how massive each of them were & the amount of content that was packed into each area made it feel like one of the most rewarding open worlds I’ve ever experienced in a JRPG. And just comparing them to the original, seeing locations with so much detail like Junon, Cosmo Canyon & Nibelheim gave me so much serotonin it can’t even be described. Oh & there are SO many mini games. My personal favourite being the new card game Queen’s Blood which I would be fully on board with Square making it into a full game because it was just that addicting & I swear anytime I got the chance to play it, I always made sure to search for new players in towns & cities.
Also this game is absolutely gorgeous. And what’s even more impressive to me is even with how big these areas are, I saw absolutely no pop in whatsoever. That is truly incredible for a game of this magnitude (really putting that massive 145GB file size to good use Square Enix) the attention to detail is just immaculate & it’s one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played on the PS5.
The combat in this game is once again incredible. It’s pretty similar to Remake but with a number of quality of life improvements & gameplay tweaks which make it a lot more fun. You have synergy skills now where you & another party member can pull off a special team move whether it’s a power attack or a buff to increase your ATB gauges. Each character has their own defining gameplay style & it definitely is good to experiment with different team combinations so you can play to their strengths & weaknesses. Other than that though there’s not a whole lot new but as they say “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” & I think this is one of my favourite battle systems when it comes to combining strategy & action combat.
And of course I have to mention the soundtrack for this game cause it is once again absolutely fantastic. Misuto Suzuki & Masahashi Hamazu knock it out the park once again with their score & I loved hearing tracks from the original game with a much more modern feel to them, it truly put a huge smile on my face. I also really loved how each region of the map had its own unique battle theme, I don’t know things like that are just really fun to me & it makes the world feel so much more alive as I said.
Honestly FFVII Rebirth really is special. I didn’t think for one second this game would be anything short of amazing & yet it still managed to surpass all of my expectations. Even if I do have my issues in places, I can’t deny for one second that I wasn’t having a good time with Rebirth for a majority of my 60+ hour playtime.
I’m very much looking forward to seeing what they cook up for part 3 in this trilogy because I feel like after this game, we’re gonna be in for an absolute rollercoaster. And I’m gonna be on board for it all the way to the finish. Play FFVII. It’s well worth your time.
Final score: 10/10