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.
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.