The unknown journey will continue.. those are the last words that appear on screen at the end of Final Fantasy VII Remake before the credits roll, and on February 29th 2024 that unknown journey did continue with the release of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
Before I begin my review I want to give a warning, in order to properly convey my feelings and opinions on this game I will be talking about spoilers for Final Fantasy VII original, Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core and Final Fantasy VII Remake, there will be NO Final Fantasy VII Rebirth spoilers in this review.
The Final Fantasy VII Remake project was given an impossible task, to recreate the magic of the original 1997 release, the announcement of a remake sent shockwaves throughout the community, it's something people had been demanding for so long. But we had no idea the direction things would end up going. Remake threw us a curve ball, with the introduction of the Whispers, ghastly beings whose purpose was to try and keep the canon of the original story in order. From that moment on it was clear which direction they would be taking this, but how far would they really go? We got our answer when at the end, we are treated to a series of cutscenes that shows Crisis Core protagonist Zack Fair surviving the fight that should have killed him.
This of course made the wait for Rebirth exciting, full of theories and speculation. I couldn't wait to FINALLY get the answers I had been asking myself. This leads me to the first section of my review, the story and characters.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's story is beautifully crafted, it shows it's respect to the original work very well while still doing its own thing similar to Remake, it's gripping and engaging, and that's coming from somebody who has consumed the vast majority of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII's content over the years. I genuinely couldn't stop playing, I wanted to know what happened next. The story starts off directly after Remake, it see's Cloud and company's journey to pursue Sephiroth. Like Remake this isn't the full story, it starts after departing Midgar and ends at the Forgotten Capital. I can't say much more for obvious reasons!
The side quests have surprisingly good stories as well, the amount of side stories that slowly unfold over time is genuinely impressive, and I found myself excited to tackle them, purely for the story alone! Even some mini games have their own little small stories, which was incredibly surprising. Just traversing Rebirth's large open zones and seeing how people are handling their lives outside of Midgar is a story in itself. Story is a big part of this game, and ones similar so it's a topic I won't go too deep into, but if you're interested in this game, I'm sure you know what you're getting into.
The characters, they've done such a great job with. I have never felt closer to a cast of characters before in my life. They managed to strike an amazing balance between silly and serious that you don't see executed very well too often these days. The voice work and animation come together to bring these characters to life in a truly remarkable way. Each party member has their moments, and they take Cloud's side during certain side quests to give you even more interaction with them, of course they all have their own moments in the main story too. Each character feels far more expanded than we have come to know from the original, Tifa and Aerith's friendship in this game really shines and I always looked forward to that friendship being expanded on.
Now on to Rebirth's world, it is made of up several open zones, which are littered with towers and objectives to tackle, think Ubisoft like world structure, I was a little hesitant at first upon seeing this but surprisingly it's fun! I found myself wanting to really take the time to explore every nook and cranny before progressing, seeing what this beautiful world has to offer. The objectives may seem varied at first, but they are mostly the same across each zone. Each zone has its own progress, you fill this meter by completing objectives, doing towers etc you know how it goes, this in turn will open up new challenges for you to face, and materia to purchase. It's a fun and simple system that I found myself engaging in heavily.. I mean might as well right? You're already running around doing those fun side quests, you might as well tackle everything else along the way!
Next I'd like to talk about the combat, the combat in Rebirth is significantly improved over what we saw in Remake. It's a mix of real time and turn based combat, the added mechanics really cuts down on the "down time" in combat. Synergy skills sees two party members team up to use a skill, these require no resources to execute and actually help build ATB! They also give you synergy charges, which can be used to execute synergy abilities. Synergy abilities are powerful abilities which sees two party members team up to perform a powerful ability, which typically ends in some sort of bonus. Things like raising limit break levels, unlimited MP etc. like I said before these really help cut down on the "down time" in combat and are a very welcome addition. It can take some time to really learn what all of these skills and abilities do, but once you do they can be a huge asset in combat.
Rebirth's performance is.. it's passible. The performance mode can look fairly blurry even after several patches that promised to address this issue, I opted to play in quality mode, which isn't something I typically do, but it was well worth it. The game looks stunning in quality mode. While technically a negative it wasn't a big deal for me personally.
In conclusion Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a fantastic entry in the Final Fantasy VII compilation, despite a few performance issues. This is a MUST play game in my opinion, and I cannot wait to see what is in store for part three. I can with confidence say as of writing this is my game of the year.
