One of my favorite franchises in video games is none other than the Final Fantasy series, particularly I have a soft spot with my first I had ever played, none other than “Final Fantasy VII” back on the PS1. Almost 10 years ago now, back in 2015 it was announced that there would be a Final Fantasy VII remake and that was one of the most hype announcements I had ever seen before. It wasn’t until five years later that we got “Final Fantasy VII: Remake” and it was later mentioned that this game would be broken up into three to be able to fully give this story the love and attention it deserves. During the pandemic in 2020, I managed to plow through “Final Fantasy VII: Remake” and thought it was incredible. It managed to really stretch out (in a good way) the early stages of the story that take place in Midgar. Well, now the sequel is upon us and we have “Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth” and telling you “I love it” is not selling it enough.
I won’t be getting into much of the story, while this is a remake of an older game, there is a lot new here that I don’t want to ruin for people. That being said, “Rebirth” takes place right after the events of “Remake” and while they say this game could be enjoyed without playing the first part, I highly implore you play “Remake” first. It’s also nice to see that your save from the last game carries over to this one. While “Remake” was made during the PS4 era, this time around with “Rebirth” we get a game made for the PS5 and while so much of the first entry already worked so well, I’m amazed to say that everything here is somehow even more improved upon. Unlike “Final Fantasy XVI” where there are less RPG elements in favor of a more action-packed approach, here we get a nice hybrid where there is still a lot of action, but still incorporates an element of turn-based tactics mid battle by slowly down time. Battles still consist of you having a party of three, and now that the story expands to outside of Midgar, you begin to travel a vast open world and visit familiar towns and get some familiar faces to join your party.
There is a lot to do in “Rebirth.” The developers jam packed this game with a lot! So much so, that it can feel like a detriment that it can pull focus on the main story. There are a ton of mini games you will come across, particularly one, a card game called “Queen’s Blood” which is extremely fun and addicting in itself. I almost want Square Enix to release a mini spin-off game similar to what the Witcher series did with “Gwent.” But while the game can easily distract you and eat up so much of your time with side quests, mostly involving mini-games, these mini-games are done so well, there is a lot of thought and care into each one, that it’s hard to knock them for existing, if anything you’re getting more bang for your buck here. I just noticed that when I really wanted to focus on the main story and plow ahead, the game continued to want to distract me and start going in a different direction.
“Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth” is one of the most gorgeous looking games I have played in a long time. Everything about it feels incredibly expensive and filled with blood, sweat, tears, and love. There are so many familial melodies in the score that instantly hit that nostalgic button for me, but it’s nice to hear them in so many different variations during my play through. While the game’s story can at times get lost in everything it tries to cram in, it is all still incredibly engaging and leaves me wanting to know more about the third and final game. Luckily there are so many things left to do, that I will be preoccupied for tens if not hundreds of hours with this one in the meantime.
9/10
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Related: Nick Navarro Reviews
Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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