Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is an utterly massive RPG pushed to its limit

After finishing Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, we now know why Square Enix was so hesitant to embark on the Final Fantasy 7 Remake project in the first place.

Pushing to one side the fact that Final Fantasy 7 is arguably the most beloved RPG of its generation, and undoubtedly Square’s most iconic title, the sheer scale of the task of translating the extremely long RPG into a PS4 (and now PS5) quality game can’t be understated.

We now find ourselves at the dark middle chapter, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, which looks to explain the first game’s multiversal ending, introduce us to the world outside of Midgar, and set the stage for one of gaming’s most singularly impactful moments.

Rebirth is another excellent, incredibly polished RPG from Square Enix that builds smartly on all of the best elements of the first game, even if some of its grander ambitions fall slightly short.

A transition to an open world brings many positives (and some caveats) and the game’s characters and writing are mostly excellent, especially in its quiet moments. It’s a game that can have your jaw dropped or tears streaming down your face from just a volley of strings and a single choral chant, then 10 minutes later, have you playing football as a talking dog vs a giant yellow chicken.

Buy Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5)

£67.95£69.99$69.99

It’s a Homecoming

Rebirth takes place immediately following the conclusion of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Cloud, Aerith, Tifa, Barret, and Red XIII set off after Sephiroth after the Midgar-destroying events at the end of the last game.

While the first game was bathed in the neon greens of Midgar and the seedy underbelly of the surrounding slums, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth takes an immediate aesthetic left turn by placing you in a lush open world of fields and fauna. After a flashback scene that adds colour to Cloud and Sephiroth’s relationship, you’re then invited to travel across the world, picking up odd jobs, killing monsters, and uncovering areas of the map.

This is, in microcosm, the inherent push and pull at the center of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, as, within the linear story chapters like the opening flashback, there are incredible visuals, performances, set pieces, and pulse-quickening moments of excitement. This is followed by open-world content that doesn’t feel quite as unique, especially if you’ve played this sort of game before (yes, there are even towers to climb to reveal map items).

Square Enix has taken a kitchen-sink approach to side content that is welcome in some sense because it gives you more things to do with the game’s incredible combat system, but there’s also a sense of scale for the sake of it. There are plenty of great side missions populating the large open spaces, and the game’s bursting with minigames (more on that later,) so this tier of content feels tertiary at best.

Thankfully, when Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is in its full stride with its main missions, there’s not much that can touch it.

The excellent combat from the first game returns. The active combat system means the game leans toward hack and slash rather than a turn-based RPG, and during the harder challenges, it presents a level of depth that you’re probably not going to encounter during the game’s main quest. The combat, which was already the best part of the first game, has been deepened in almost every aspect, to the point where there are so many different systems and mechanics that it can feel like you’re missing out on great moves, or combinations of status effects.

“Square Enix has taken a kitchen-sink approach to side content that is welcome in some sense because it gives you more things to do with the game’s incredible combat system, but there’s also a sense of scale for the sake of it.”

The expanded roster of characters means there are dozens of team compositions to try out, and the game often separates the gang into sequestered groups, which forces you to try characters you’ve perhaps neglected, which we found led us to include them in our traditional lineup (although it’s hard to beat Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa.)

Speaking of those three, the absolute highlight of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and the reason that it’ll stick in our hearts for a long time, is the time spent with the cast. The cast of Final Fantasy 7 was already some of the most iconic in history. There’s a reason every Comic Con has been filled with an eleven-a-side team of Tifas for decades, but what Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth does so excellently is carve out huge chunks of time to just hang around with them.

On the one hand, it contributes to some pacing problems that seemingly world-ending events can be put on hold for a beach holiday with the crew, but on the other, that’s exactly where the game shines.

The writing is excellent, it’s an extremely funny game, and every single character is extremely well realized. We found ourselves itching to find another piece of dialogue with any of them. The excitement we felt to simply unlock an in-game conversation was almost Persona-like. That’s where the heart of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is, and for lifelong fans of these characters, they’re never going to want to leave it.

The Long and Winding Road

Rebirth’s main plot juggles a lot of plot elements during the course of its 70 hours which, though there are many great story beats and all the individual characters get a lot of development, inevitably means that the overarching story is sometimes paced inconsistently.

The crew is going after Sephiroth because he’s going to do something cataclysmic. Cloud is suffering from delusions due to his degradation from being a SOLDIER, and that’s essentially the status quo for 90% of the game. Towards the end, the plot catches up with itself and starts to re-explore the multiversal implications of the ending of Remake, and does deliver a thrilling, if potentially controversial conclusion, but so much of Rebirth’s events don’t feel massively consequential.

While it’s difficult to highlight due to our inability and lack of desire to speak about the game’s ending and implications for the third game, some of the things that happen in the last few hours of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth are confusing.

It’s possible to handwave them away as things that will likely be resolved in the trilogy’s final chapter, but it’s easy to imagine someone who doesn’t know the 1997 game inside-out playing this and being left wondering what actually happened for the last 70 hours. Doubly so if they didn’t play the first game in the Remake project.

70 hours is perhaps being conservative because Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is an utterly massive game. It’s easily twice as long as Remake just to finish the main story, and you can easily add another few dozen hours completing everything else the game has to offer.

As mentioned earlier, these missions aren’t always sparkling, but the bespoke side missions dotted around every town are fantastic and well worth a pause on your travels to engage with. It’s on these excursions that you’ll run into the more than a dozen minigames featured in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

“70 hours is perhaps being conservative because Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is an utterly massive game. It’s easily twice as long as Remake just to finish the main story”

It’s staggering just how much work into things that Square Enix could have easily hand-waved away due to the work required to scale them up to modern standards. Even minigames that don’t make it in this time around are given loving nods if you know where to look, suggesting that the dedication to absolutely stuffing the game full of activities won’t cool off in a third entry.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t highlight the excellent Queen’s Blood, a surprisingly deep trading card game that’s found throughout the world of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. There are Queen’s Blood players scattered around, each of whom has a bespoke card that you’ll win if you defeat them.

As you defeat more players, your rank will rise and you’ll start to unlock a light side mission which brings the Queen’s Blood storyline to a fun conclusion.  We think Square Enix would be seriously missing a trick to not eventually add online support for Queen’s Blood, or release it as its own game, much like Gwent from The Witcher series.

The Friends We Made Along The Way

Once all three games are finished and the Sisyphean task of remaking Final Fantasy 7 is complete it will be interesting to see how Rebirth is reflected on by the series’ most loyal fans, especially in terms of narrative.

Mechanically, it’s a fantastic follow-up full of excellent, engaging gameplay that never bores, even after nearly 100 hours with the game. It’s also visually incredible, with some scenes comprising of best-in-class graphical might, and the game’s soundtrack is as iconic now as it ever was.

However, its main storyline, without the game’s closing chapter to bring some of its more confusing elements into relief, isn’t as strong as it likely will be once we have the context of an entire trilogy. There’s a chance this will change in hindsight when this is but a 70-hour middle chapter in what we can only assume will finish off as a 200-hour roundtrip, but for now, we’re left wanting more.

Buy Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5)

£67.95£69.99$69.99

It’s likely then that when players reflect on Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, it probably won’t be for the game’s main narrative (save for the ending,) but they will gush about the time spent with one of the best RPG teams ever.

Every moment there was a new chance to speak to the gang, we were excited. Every offer we got to include them in a minigame, every bombastic synergy attack, it’s impossible not to fall in love with being around these characters. So even if the journey isn’t the most thrilling, we’d sign up for another road trip with Cloud, Aerith, Barret, Tifa, Yuffie, Red XIII, and Cait Sith as soon as the credits rolled.