Final Fantasy VII Rebirth - Review
I ve finished the game about 3 weeks ago but doing the review now because I just got the platinum after playing for 170 hours.
As someone who has not played the og (yet) I was greatly impressed by the characters and worldbuilding FFVII Remake introduced, along with the combat which tries to satisfy both the new generation of players and the older generation who grew with turn based games. I also think the soundtrack is simply mindblowing and it combines with the exceptional characters for a truly emotional experience. Rebirth however, manages to outshine its predecessor in every single way.
Rebirth focuses on developing the characters more than ever and that made me sympathize with an already incredible character cast even more. Cloud and each of his comrades are unique. One might say that Rebirth brought more questions than answers in terms of the overall storyline, but that was expected considering its the middle game in a trilogy. Still, it was filled with great moments that made me shed tears of joy and sadness. And yes, there was padding in Rebirth but a lot less common than in Remake, and even when Rebirth had padding it was made way more enjoyable than in Remake. Some things in the story are not executed perfectly so it may be hard to understand certain plot points but it all makes sense eventually if you pay attention.
The combat is incredible and so much better than Remakes. You can now perfect parry opponents, there are way more weapon abilities, materia, and the addition of synergy abilities ( basically combine with a party member for a stronger command which is either offensive or defensive ) but the biggest improvement is clearly that there are 7 playable characters (9 if we count zack and sephiroth for a very short time in the story + 1 combat simulation for each one) in comparison to Remakes 4. Also, for 80% of the game you are free to choose of which members your party consists so theres totally
more freedom in that aspect in comparison to Remake which party selection is always locked as the game is linear and makes you play with the characters the game wants.
Content wise, the game is impressive but not without its drawbacks. There are 7 open world regions, each one with a vastly different landscape design and traversal gimmick with the chocobos, but theres little to no sense of exploration as everything is quite literally marked on your map like a ubisoft game. Some activities came straight out of a ubisoft game, like climb the watchtower to reveal more points of interest on the map etc etc. The side quests are not amazing but not bad either there are some good ones, and the fact that your relationship with the other party members improves if you do certain quests is great. The minigames are really fun, with great variety theres music, shooting range, clash royale, fighting, racing etc etc. With the exception of 2 minigames which i found really stupid, i believe the overall quality of them was great. Lastly in terms of content there are some battles in the colloseum and the combat simulator which have great rewards and are very fun as you fight some incredible summon bosses BUT they get tedious after a while as there are some very frustrating challenges in the final 10 fights which are basically boss rushes of 10 rounds that the game throws at you the most unfair combinations of reused enemies ever.
The music is exceptional, just like its predecessor.
Now the visual quality is the biggest issue i have with the game. The cutscenes look amazing and you can tell a lot of work was put into them, but the graphics in gameplay in general are okayish. Some landscapes and buildings look great, but some textures even in 4k mode look terrible like they are in 480p. Perfomance mode is a complete joke, the game looks like 720p even tho the overall pixel count supposedly is even higher. I am not joking when i am close to the TV i can fucking see the pixels. Well at
least it keeps a consistent 60fps throughout the whole game. Additionally, in the gameplay trailers it was shown that when moving past foliage it reacts accordingly to the players movement for example grass moves when cloud is stepping near it. However in the final game Cloud is literally walking through bushes and grass. You can call that false advertising.
I am giving extra points to the game for not encountering any bugs throughout my 170 hours of gametime plus for being a really great deal buying the deluxe edition with so many goodies inside for only 100 bucks.
To conclude, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a fantastic game, eagerly awaiting for the 3rd part of what could be one of the greatest gaming trilogies of all time.

Finished playing Final Fantasy VII Remake, and what a great game it was. The setting of the game is really unique and it fits the storyline along with the really likeable cast of characters. Cloud has become one of my favorite protagonists mainly because you see his character develop throughout the game, and I am really curious on how his character will further develop in Rebirth. The combat system is amazing, I enjoy it a ton because of how cool some moves are and the banging soundtrack even in moments which you just button mash. But you really gotta have studied the combat a lil bit in order to beat some of the games hardest bosses and even tackle hard mode. You need to know the weaknesses of the enemies you are fighting and adjust your party's loadout accordingly. The set pieces and cutscenes are also really way directed and a pleasure to behold ( there are a lot of moments in which I took screenshots). The graphics have aged really well for a nearly 4 year old game and i think they are better than 16s, while surprisingly keeping a more stable framerate and displaying a higher resolution. Side quests were not anything special, but they were fun and not really a chore, its also recommended that one completes them as they reward you with equipment and XP which is really helpful for the games late game boss fights. As a downside I would say that the game has a bit of filler during chapter 9 to 12, like the game could ve been 2 or 3 hours shorter. I would argue that this is the best game of 2020 and one of the best playstation exclusives I ve ever played and recommending it to anyone who likes a game with great characters story and engaging gameplay. Lets hope that rebirth will be of the same quality of this game or even better surpass it.

In terms of rpg elements this is by far the best rpg i ve ever played, there are a ton of customizable options for your characters and abilities weapons etc etc, you can do whatever you want. Same goes for the story, you can kill anyone, you can alter the storyline as much as you would like there are a ton of different outcomes and dialogues
The game took me 95 - 100 hours to beat and i never felt i was doing unnecessary filler, everything in this game is quality content
The graphics and cinematics are good. There are a lot of characters that area interesting and very likeable, there are a lot of romance options too.
Turn based combat is not something i was used to however it grew on me and i liked a different prespective on gameplay i never had before. Still, a lot of fights in the game take you around 10 minutes because you gotta wait until everyone takes a turn and yeah, in my opinion this was boring, having to wait so long for almost every fight to finish.
Act 3 of the game has noticeably worse perfomance than the previous ones but that's sensible given that you are in a npc intensive city. Also, the game has glitches but nothing crazy at all. Act 3 is filled with tons of content with intertwining questlines which made the writing of those quests a bit rushed and clumsy compared to the previous acts, but they were still great nonetheless. Finally, the saving system in this game needs some work. Autosave happens every 40 minutes, with no option to make it more frequent. Cross saves between pc and ps5 sometimes work, some other times they dont. Its pretty inconsistent

To summarize baldurs gate 3 is a phenomenal game which every rpg fan and game enthusiast in general should play, the game is near perfect which is amazing considering its massive size. My minor issues are with most fights dragging out, saving system, and that act 3 could have been a tad better writing wise.