REVIEW | FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH

Finally! With the release of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, I think we have every mainline Final Fantasy title playable on Xbox! It’s no secret how much I adore this series. It’s part of my childhood, my identity and one of the rare new game releases that still excites me in a way that makes me feel like a teenager again.

This particular review will be done by checking the Xbox Series X/S release for major changes and improvements. Performance, issues and other such things mentioned below will be for the Xbox Series X version of the game, but other gameplay and story-related feedback will be from my prior experience with the PS5 version, as I had already completed the game there, and this is a huge RPG with 70+ hours of content.

If you want to also check my Final Fantasy Remake Intergrade review, HERE is the link!

Things I liked!

• Super likeable characters with perfect casting | I loved the FF7 cast way back when it originally released, but the Remake & Rebirth efforts really blew some life into them with perfect casting choices and voice acting that just matches the characters we’ve grown to love so incredibly well. Aerith especially has become infinitely more likeable.

• The party got bigger – In FF7 Remake we only got Cloud, Tifa, Aerith & Barret as playable Characters, with Yuffy joining in through her DLC episode. Rebirth also adds Red XIII and Cait Sith in the Mix for a total of 7 playable characters that each have visually impressive combos with each other and synergies ready to be explored.

• It’s a visual treat | This is one of the best-looking games out there with amazing art direction, stunning character designs, environments full of life and detail, and special effects that’ll make your eyes water. Especially during combat, where every second is a potential photomode treat ready to be framed. Sadly, it’s not all praise, and there were some porting hiccups that I’ll go into detail on later in this interview.

• The OST is GOD-like | Final Fantasy has perhaps my favourite music in videogames and FF7’s score is legendary. Not only did they improve on it in every single way by adding new original music, but the reworked classic songs also have tons of variations that perfectly adapt to the situation. It’s honestly mind-boggling how good the music is here. I could just hum along to Cosmo Canyon for hours on end and be the happiest person alive. It doesn’t get much better than this.

• The combat is best-in-class | If you don’t want to choose between turn-based or action, well, you don’t have to. FF7 Remake & Rebirth feel to me like they’ve perfected the gameplay to please all fans. The action is super satisfying, and on hardest difficulties you better learn to parry like this is a soulslike. Alternatively, you can make it a fully paused experience while you think through your next moves and plan the perfect follow-up attack. Between character upgrades and mastering weapons as well as Materia, there is a ton of customisation possible for everyone who gets a kick out of min-maxing everything or grinding for better stats.

• Tons of content | If you’re looking for a game to keep you busy for dozens of hours, you’ve found it. FF7 Rebirth has a ton of variety content, but just its story alone will easily take you 30 to 40 hours to beat. The open world is full of quests and optional goals to aim for. Hell, Queen’s Blood alone, the new take on the recurring trend of introducing card games in Final Fantasy, is probably my favourite ever, even surpassing FF8’s Triple Triad. There are even full-blown puzzles for it that’ll get you scratching your head for hours.

• Head start & Assists | I know these inclusions are a topic some people seem to dislike, but guess what: you can just ignore them. For those not in the know, you can start the game with a huge jump in your player level, and you can turn on assists like 9.999 DMG with every attack, infinite HP, infinite MP, X2 or X3 Exp or AP gain. All things that make the progress blistering fast. And also, not as fun. But if you’ve already beaten the game close to 100% before and just want to experience the story and some of the highlights again, this is very welcome. If you have any accessibility issues as a player, these will also make it possible for you to beat a game that otherwise has some challenging moments. Personally, I’m a huge fan.

Mixed & disliked!

• It’s pretty, but not without fault | FF7 Rebirth is a gorgeous game on Xbox Series X, but sadly the PS5 version looks far superior. I don’t know what went wrong, but in-game cinematics sometimes have motion artefacts, walking around in certain hallways has issues with lighting flickering, some objects that should be perfectly round are jagged, and some textures are blurry (yes, there is a blurry door again, just like in the original FF7 Remake!). Other times, there is noticeable texture pop-in, like Jenova’s skin being all smooth and then suddenly loading in details, or Cloud’s face suddenly having mud added to it mid-cutscene. These are all issues I didn’t encounter on the PS5 version, and while I understand the Nintendo Switch 2 not being able to handle some of this visual output, the XSX should be more than capable.

• Made with PS5 in mind | This is a minor nitpick, but just like with other recent Final Fantasy releases, you can clearly tell it was designed to be played with a DualSense Controller. The games have way too many “Hold LT or RT” moments because they are intended to showcase the adaptive triggers of the PS5 controller. I wouldn’t mind these still being in the Xbox release so much, if those moments don’t also make the game come to a literal crawl (the opening scenes in Nibelheim with Cloud crawling slowly on the floor are torture to me…)

• Open world level design is a maze sometimes – Aaaah minimaps. Super useful if you want to know where you need to go next. Just a shame they’re in 2D and we’re navigating a 3D world. I hate it when a game forces me to look at YouTube guides frame by frame, just to find out where I need to go, and there are a handful of such situations in FF7 Rebirth, especially when verticality and chocobo abilities come into play. I wasn’t alone in my frustrations:

• Story jumps the shark | When FF7 Remake hinted at going off the beaten path, I was cheering. I was totally excited that we weren’t just getting a prettier version of the original story, but that they had the balls to take a bold new stab at the story and that not everything would be quite the same again. And then with Rebirth they seem to introduce all these new elements, that I won’t spoil, but left me with far more questions than answers. For the middle part of a stand-alone game, that would be fine, but if we see Rebirth not as part two, but as a game on its own merit, then it’s like it’s going through an identity crisis multiple times throughout the adventure. I cared a lot about the characters, but the nonsense direction the story sometimes went in was a bitter pill to swallow. Maybe I’m just too dumb, but even on a second playthrough, I have no clue about some of the jumps the story took in regards to Zack Fair, or Cloud & Tifa’s memory.

• Too. Much. Padding. | Honestly, this is the one factor that made it hard for me to praise the game as a perfect sequel. FF7 Remake had a length that was just right and even encouraged me to replay it right after beating it the first time. Rebirth, on the other hand, falls into the category where I was already dreading slow sequences, unskippable minigames, or full sections of the game where all urgency seems lost, and the open world combined with my own FOMO/completionist mindset made me feel like someone with Stockholm Syndrome. Even in my first go-around with Rebirth, there were days I had to FORCE myself to play it. A game I had been waiting years for. I truly hope the very loud voices from the community were heard on this, and it’s something they’ll keep in mind for part 3.

How long to beat the story? 50 hours
How long with head-start & assists turned on? Probably doable in 35 hours
How long to 100% complete? 90 hours
You’ll love this game if you like these: Other Final Fantasy games, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, JRPGs in general

CONCLUSION

Score: 90/100 – An all-time great JRPG with amazing gameplay, gorgeous graphics, likeable characters and a legendary story. Sadly brought down a notch by meaningless padding and some technical porting hiccups. All things considered, Final Fantasy Rebirth is a must-play, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t super excited for part 3 of this epic game.