Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth is a game that I had no idea
Square-Enix was still capable of making. It feels, in many ways, like a modern,
next gen version of the Squaresoft Final Fantasy games on the PS1, and easily
the best Final Fantasy game that we’ve seen in at least 15 years.
I say this as someone who never quite connected with the
original Final Fantasy VII the way so many people seemed to, having played it
for the first time many years after its iconic release. Rebirth, the 2nd
part in the trilogy remaking Final Fantasy VII, shares some of the same
weaknesses with the source material, and makes an extremely unfortunate series
of storytelling choices during the game’s ending. But the game leading up to
the disastrous final bosses/ending is so incredible, beautiful, and memorable
that it’s almost impossible for me not to recommend it to anyone who’s ever
considered themselves to be a Final Fantasy fan.
Picking up from where the first part of the Final Fantasy
VII Remake trilogy ended, Cloud, Aerith, Tifa, Barret, and Red XIII escape from
the city of Midgar, resting in a hotel in Kalm, a flat and uninteresting locale
in the original now remade into a large, truly bustling town. After Cloud fills
the group in about his history with the game’s villain, Sephiroth, the group
sets off into the open world to look for him and to stop Shinra, the
corporation responsible for the slow destruction of the planet.
I wasn’t sure what to expect with this; for years, this
development team’s Final Fantasy games have been linear, corridor-like
experiences, with only tiny amounts of exploration or a sense of freedom. The
original Final Fantasy VII, of course, featured a world map to explore, and
open world games have come such a long way since then. But Final Fantasy VII
Rebirth succeeds in bringing the “world map” concept into the modern era in ways
that I wouldn’t have thought possible. Combining a strong, character-driven
narrative with the ability to venture off the beaten path and sink your teeth
into a world brimming with things to explore, quests to take on, and sights to
see is a format that the series largely abandoned after Final Fantasy IX, and
to see Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth modernize this concept so beautifully is
something to behold.
Each region you visit is gigantic and brimming with things
to do. Exploration is encouraged at every turn, with Towers revealing quests,
which often lead to other quests and to yet other quests. It’s easy to keep
track of all of this, and each Region has its own summon to unlock, providing an
incentive to explore each region as thoroughly as possible. Visiting Chocobo
Stops unlocks fast travel as well as a place to restore your HP/MP, and
unlocking each region’s Chocobo gives you not only a fast means of travel, but
also Chocobo abilities unique to each region that allow you to explore them
fully.
Certain regions are a little more frustrating to explore due
to their emphasis on tricky terrain; for example, areas accessible only by
having your Chocobo fly over specific gaps. These mechanics feel tedious and
dated in a world where Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the
Kingdom exist, games which allow you to climb up any wall and reach any areas
you see without having to find the exact “right path” or “right gap” to access
them. This is by no means unique to Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, but it’s a
design choice that I really wish open world games would find some way to do
away with the way Nintendo has so successfully done.
That said, the rest of the game’s regions have very minimal use of this type of thing, and even when they do, exploring’s always beautiful and interesting. The combat system has been pretty dramatically overhauled from where it was in Part 1 of the Final Fantasy VII Remake, and battles are fun, exciting, and addictive from almost start to finish. Your bonds with your characters and your party unlock cool Synergy moves, allowing you to link up with your party members to pull off major attacks. Limit Breaks, summons, and staggers are equally satisfying to pull off, and character movement feels fluid and natural. The frustrations I remember encountering in Part 1 seem to have been fixed here, and though it’s still frustrating that you can’t even use items while your ATB gauge is charging, it’s an issue that came up far less frequently for me this time around. As with Part 1, the AI characters remain pretty useless outside of basic attacks; these games are really designed for you to switch your controlled character repeatedly in battle when you want to use their special moves, magic, items, and limit breaks instead of relying on the AI. Thankfully though, Rebirth has a nice addition in the form of Materia that cause the AI characters to, for example, heal automatically. It’s definitely a nice touch. The new Folio system for unlocking abilities is also miles ahead of its confusing weapon-based equivalent from Part 1 as well. Only the radar system remains iffy; as with Part 1, you have the choice between the GTA-style radar in the right corner of the screen or the Elder Scrolls-style compass at the top of the screen, and multiple times I had to switch between the two to get a grasp of where I was supposed to be going.
Despite containing a fully modern, impressive open world
built into the experience, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth also puts a major focus
into its characters and storytelling, similar to the PS1 Final Fantasy games.
From the beginning, the plot is front and center, with the characters
interacting incredibly frequently with each other in the many cutscenes and
action scenes that occur along the way. Doing away entirely with the myth that
you can’t tell a strong story in a fully explorable setting, Final Fantasy VII:
Rebirth provides what should (hopefully) be the blueprint for Final Fantasy
games going forward, because it’s what they should have continued being all
along. The characters, as with Remake, are portrayed in ways completely
faithful to the original game, bringing them to life in ways only glimpsed in
the original. Their personalities, their dynamics as a party, and their
motivations are all brought to life here incredibly well. Moments where the
game makes major changes to characters are incredibly rare, but in one
particular instance (Cait Sith) Rebirth makes a major improvement to his
portrayal in a key scene, and it not only makes a lot more sense than in the
original, but it makes his character far more likable.
Unfortunately, other changes made to the narrative don’t
work nearly as well (at best) and feel like a complete train wreck at worst.
Despite its reputation for revolutionizing story-driven games back in 1997,
Final Fantasy VII was actually pretty thinly-plotted; Sephiroth spends almost
the entire game offscreen, with the main characters setting off from one
location to another searching for him with very little emotional drive pushing
them forward. Other than the handful of main, iconic set pieces, (usually
happening at the end of each disc) not much really takes place in the story.
This is a problem compounded by the decision to split the Remake Trilogy into 3
parts, even further necessitating the developers having to introduce new story
elements to fill in the empty space. Sephiroth shows up repeatedly in fairly
strange scenes, and though they make sense given Cloud’s often unreliable state
of mind, they get old pretty quickly and I can’t help but feel that they should
have left Sephiroth’s minimal presence the way it was. Rebirth also repeatedly
cuts to playable flashback scenes featuring Zack Fair, a character who had only
a minor (albeit key) role in the original Final Fantasy VII; though it’s cool
to get to experience Midgar again, these flashback scenes are incredibly
confusing and serve seemingly zero purpose. Evidently, they take place in a
“separate timeline,” but the game never quite makes that clear, so a lot of the
potential fun of these was ruined for me because I spent much of my time in
them trying to figure out what was going on.
In addition, Yuffie, a bonus character in the original Final
Fantasy VII who I hardly even remember encountering, is elevated here to being in
the Main Cast, and she dominates almost every scene she’s in. Though it
isn’t that I necessarily hated her character, her extremely cheerful
personality and endless “comic relief” results in a major shift in tone from
the dark, subdued, depressing original game. I suspect people will either love
her or hate her, depending on their views of this type of character. Similarly,
Red XIII goes through a change mid-game, including his voice actor entirely altering
the character’s voice; while faithful to the original, I couldn’t help but wish
that the actor had found a way to portray the character’s new personality in a
way that didn’t make him sound, well, kind of annoying.
The final point I’ll make in terms of narrative missteps in
Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth is in its ending, with the game coming to a close shortly
after featuring (and then entirely butchering) arguably the game’s most iconic
scene. I won’t go into detail so as to avoid spoiling it, but the changes,
aside from being terrible by any storytelling standard, effectively ruin what
was originally meant to be conveyed, which was a sense of cold, true,
indisputable finality. What it was replaced with is, for lack of a better word,
awful. It not only destroys the spirit of the original game’s groundbreaking
plot twist, but it even goes as far as to spoil what’s going to be the ending
of Part 3. It’s difficult to say what Square-Enix was attempting to accomplish
with this, but whatever it was they failed, miserably.
This comes after an hours-long gauntlet of final bosses,
ones which were challenging but completely beatable, before Rebirth pulls a
“gotchya” at the very end of the final one that requires an extremely specific
way to beat the boss in a very specific amount of time. If you don’t have the
right Limit Breaks, you’re totally out of luck. Even switching to Easy Mode
(which you can do and which will probably enable most people to beat the final
boss) requires you to start all the way back at the beginning of the slate of final
bosses again, as does the ability to make any changes to your party or
equipment. Yeah, really.
Thankfully however, and I can’t stress this enough, Final
Fantasy VII: Rebirth is so good that a nearly disastrous ending and final boss
doesn’t come close to ruining it. There’s something so surreal and magical
about getting to explore a fully open world version of Final Fantasy VII’s planet,
and there are parts of it that will stick with me forever; Cosmo Canyon with
its tourist traps and beautiful views, Costa Del Sol’s beautiful beach scene
(annoying mini-games aside), the energetic Gold Saucer, and just getting to
immerse myself in this huge, mysterious, and incredible world.
Some flaws from the original carry over in terms of an
over-abundance of mini-games, frustrating moments from the characters, and a
villain who feels more like a random annoyance than a key part of the journey,
while featuring new additions that either work or fall completely flat on their
face. But with one of the best combat systems I’ve experienced, an amazing
world to explore, a solid cast of characters, and a great soundtrack and voice
acting, there’s no question that Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth is the best RPG
I’ve played in years, or even possibly decades. It’s unfortunate that being the
Part 2 of a Remake of a game from 1997 may have limited its audience, but I
genuinely hope that with Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, we’re seeing the blueprint
for what will be the future of Final Fantasy. And if so, what an incredible
future it could be.
8.5/10
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