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| The unknown journey continues. |
After the events of Remake, the party find themselves out of Midgar and exploring the vast world in search for clues on Sephiroth's whereabouts, who he plans on bringing an end to the world. So the group find themselves hopping around regions to catch up, while also evading Shinra's forces. Rebirth doubles down on Remake's idea of a "multiverse" and alternate timelines where certain characters live or die--- all of which is as you can guess is confusing initially. Without spoiling much, I wasn't too keen on the idea yet I'm eager to see where does it lead to.
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| Cloud and company's are in for a wild adventure. |
The characters were an amazing bunch as the likes of Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret, and Red XIII all receiving more prominent story arcs that were engaging. Yuffie and Cait Sith are also lovable characters with their upbeat personalities managing to lift the party's spirits up in many points. Cid and Vincent receive the least amount of care as they're introduced late in game, so their arcs are likely reserved for part three. The villains such as Rufus Shinra and his underlings were good and on many occasions, had awesome moments with the party. As for the main man himself, Sephiroth, he's still the confident, taunting force of nature seen in part one, but plays a more involved role in the story.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is an action-RPG where you control Cloud along with two other party members as you fight enemies, solve puzzles, and explore a gigantic open-world. The core gameplay of Remake remains unchanged as you issue commands to characters like them using special abilities, items, and spells when the ATB gauge is full. The Materia mechanic is here and they function as power-ups that you can equip on gear to unlock magic spells, healing, and physical attacks.
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| The action-packed gameplay's back with some additions. |
A new mechanic are "Synergy" abilities where two characters can team-up to launch powerful attacks or buff their ATB gauges to allow for more actions. Summons are back and they're magical entities that you can call to deal heavy damages against enemies. Honestly, the combat was extremely fun in Remake and it's just as fun here. It's fast, chaotic, and during the tougher boss encounters, strategic as you'll need to adequately mange your party and items. If there's anything that needed improvement, it's the enemy AI as it mostly focuses on the controlled character and ignores the others, which was annoying at points.
Rebirth boasts an open-world as the world of the original is now realized as it's vast and sprawling with incredible scenery. Locales like the Grasslands, Cosmo Canyon, and the Gongaga region all look amazing and inviting to explore. Sadly, they're littered with the boring open-world tropes like towers to activate, strong enemy variants to defeat, crafting materials to collect, and using a grappling hook to traverse through platforms. Each region has its own side-story and unique mini-game, but likewise, I found them boring. Navigating the world is made interesting as you get to ride a bunch of chocobo with different abilities, an off-road buggy, an airship, and boat by the end.
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| Combat has more variety thanks to three new characters joining the fray. |
Secondly, is the abundance mini-games present in Rebirth. Chief of them is "Queen's Blood", a card mini-game where you challenge NPCs in a strategic battle of cards, which was really addicting. If you've played Final Fantasy VIII's Triple Triad, then you'll feel at home here. Chocobo Races and Gold Saucer mini-games of the original are present and were fun to play. There's also 3D Brawler fights and strategy tower-defense mini-games where you play as the original low-poly version of Cloud and they were alright. Returning from Remake were the Colosseum fights and squat mini-games and they were nice to have. It took me around 70 hours to beat and that included me doing half of every activity in each region-- so the game's loaded on content if you're still interested long after the credits roll.
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| Explore the game's vast but admittedly boring open-world. |
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a stunning game and that improves upon its gorgeous predecessor. In Square Enix fashion, the character models are detailed, backgrounds were beautiful, and cut-scenes were simply jaw-dropping. Tech issues like clipping, a low resolution in Performance Mode, and muddy textures across were sadly noticeable. The voicework was terrific across the board with Yuffie, Cait Sith, and Cid being notable standouts this time around. The soundtrack remains mostly unchanged as it re-imagines classic themes while bringing some new tracks to the mix.
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| Glaring tech issues aside, the game looks stunning. |
It's clear that Square Enix have put in a lot of work in making the second part of the Final Fantasy VII experience with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. While it isn't an entirely faithful retelling of the original game, I still enjoyed many aspects of the story and grew to love its cast even more. The gameplay remains fun to play and engaging thanks to the new characters and added enemy variety. That said, the game's marred by technical shortcomings, boring world activities, and overabundance of mini-games. Still, it exceeded my expectations and has me excited for the final part. If you're looking to jump into the new world of FFVII, then it's best to start with Crisis Core- Reunion followed by Remake to get a clearer understanding of the plot.
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