I rushed through Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth doesn’t get to exist without being in conversation as a part two, so my review itself may as well be the same.

Video games of the modern age are often Big with a trademark. Open maps sprawl for hours of meandering, collecting, battling, questing, with people and places to find. All the while, each new discovery unfurls new little markers on your checkbox menu and minimap. When the original Final Fantasy VII for the PlayStation One came out, we didn’t have points of comparison like “Assassin’s Creed” or “Skyrim with Guns”. The references were of Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, and an untapped potential of a world built in a 3D engine.

The environment in which Final Fantasy VII Rebirth releases is one that is very different. The implications of the expectations thrust upon 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake were a hill to climb on their own, but that game set a whole new precedent. Not only did the coveted remake of the game begin anew, it was an everything game. It was a remake, a reboot, a sequel, a reimagining, and throughout its runtime a visual feast of an action game with lovingly crafted environments bursting with detail and personalities to bring Midgar to life.

The magic of exploring a new world

The same is true for the newly opened up overworld. The same level of dense detail as in remake is on display throughout so many semi open environments. Between the two major continents that make up the locations of FFVII’s disc one and those of Rebirth, we get to see the quaint and bustling city of Kalm, the vast grasslands, the foggy swamps, the overbuilt military base above the cove of Junon, the deserts of Corel with sparkling beaches on the costa del sol, the deep jungle of Gongaga, the mega-mall maze that is the Gold Saucer, and the steep hills and cliffs of the elusive Nibleheim.

The name of the game is adventure when you sit down to play Rebirth. The exploration doesn’t seem riveting in conversation with its contemporaries at first as you pick up towers to unlock more points on the map, chase fiends and quick time events across the map for more materia data and bolstering your party level. There are two things that Rebirth does to compensate for the scope of the world not having the same wow factor as it did in 1997. 

The first is in the level of detail. Each zone clusters together small areas. Players can explore on foot, on Chocoback, by buggy, and by the endgame, Cid’s beloved Bronco in the sea and air. Sure, there may be notes from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Ghosts of Tsushima for following little cues in the world to find another copy of the same quick time event, but the flavor that is exuded each time you find a lifestream spring awakens the magic that is Final Fantasy VII’s flavor. The musical work by Nobu Uematsu does a lot of the lifting there, as the various overworld themes from the original game, much like in Remake, are recomposed in orchestral serenades and epic battle themes across the continents. 

Friendship and adventure

Each region is a dense biome through a big world. Each is jam packed with things to explore and debatably optional quests. Those quests are the second, and arguably more important thing that drives a player through the journey. This adventure happens at meandering pace as Cloud, Aerith, Tifa, Barrett and Red XIII travel across the map to help old friends from Midgar and new people who pepper the worldbuilding. Those interactions are most notable in the notice boards for each region, which unlock odd jobs across each.

Those odd jobs thrust a member of the cast alongside Cloud to solve a problem. A lot of them don’t have any plot reason to be relevant to that character, but naturally finds ways to make them relevant to their relationship with Cloud. Barrett will help escort a dog across Junon and lament his daughter Marlene growing up so fast. Tifa finds ways to use her compulsions to help people to good use even if they aren’t deserving of it. Aerith gets homesick for the Midgar slums and pushes Cloud’s buttons.

Square smartly breaks characters off into unique party pairings throughout the main story. This incentivizes players to put some variety into who they slot in for battling. The decision comes to fruition through the battle system, which remains the same as it was in Remake. But there’s a major change in the synergy skills, which allow for quick actions to allow friends to protect each other, or give a boon in an offensive scenario, like hurtling Tifa in the air to kick some flying enemies, or Barret and Aerith sharing some Bad Boys shades. 

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth is about a lot of things. At the end of the day, more than anything else, it’s about friendship and adventure. A journey like Cloud’s does not happen with brevity. It is a long, winding road where characters get to know one another. They’ll have differences and conflicts. Their past lives will unearth themselves. However, they will help each other to achieve their goal to stop Sephiroth and save the planet or die trying. This becomes clear out the gate as Cloud not only gets to go on dates with Aerith starting in Kalm, but each character has metrics visible at moments of respite so that players can keep track. The conversation system isn’t deep like those found in Persona and Mass Effect. But they do have small consequences if you favor one character over another. 

Of course, seasoned players will know that these relationships will culminate at the date segment on the Gold Saucer. It’s here where Cloud and his most cherished companion of the game attend a performance of the play Loveless. This is followed up by a solo date on the ferris wheel. Each engagement between Cloud and his date play out in their own unique way, specific to their conversations.

Yet, one of the most interesting turnouts is when the player doesn’t achieve these relationships with any of the key characters. The result is a boys night out with Cloud and Rebirth’s newest cast members. The new characters include the feline puppet Shinra employee Cait Sith, expert pilot and mechanic Cid Highwind, and the brooding security vampire Vincent Valentine. Not only are these versions of the characters more likable than their past counterparts as they brim with personality and earnestness (even the wicked ones), they each pry at a different aspect of Cloud’s cold exterior, which is frustratingly guarded throughout the game as he begins to open up, but is set back by his internal wrestling with Sephiroth skulking around in his thoughts (and his blood). 

These date sequences keep players driven through until they find themselves right on the line of the game’s ending. In fact, prior to the full search for the Black Materia and inevitable encounter with Sephiroth and Aerith’s fate, the Gold Saucer date could be seen as the thematic conclusion to Rebirth’s story right before the plunge into the plot. To get the most out of this game, players should spend as much time with these characters as possible. You need to take your time to do all the little things across the map. Essentially, moseying through the game, for lack of a better term.

Fear of missing out

Full disclosure, I spent most of the Rebirth rushing through. After reaching the game’s halfway point in the first weekend, I began to stall out. While progressing through the main story, I found myself getting frustrated by Chadley and his side quests. By simply exploring the map, I found the game’s most repetitive quests. From finding the lifespring wells, the Chocobo stops, wrestling with Moogles and fiend battles, the repetition is present. Mistakenly, I ended up skipping many of the beloved Proto Relic quests and the notice board quests after the first one or two in each region. Much to my dismay, I was missing out on what other players deem the best parts of the game. 

The time I did have with the game at a certain point wasn’t connecting with the characters, but the gameplay systems. Luckily, those carried me through as they’re phenomenal. It took entire evenings to achieve the materia for Odin and Bahamut, taking full advantage of the summon Materia from the classic game. I found these fights engaging and rewarding as I unlocked the summons. Even with thorough experimentation with Queens Gambit, item crafting, materia sorting and ATB skills, I was getting tired weeks into this journey.

As the Gold Saucer date approached I realized I was not giving the quests in the world the time of day. I was trying to play Rebirth like it was Tears of the Kingdom. I was discovering as much as I could on my own. Rebirth isn’t like that, for better and for worse. Instead of exploring a world independently like Link does in modern Legend of Zelda titles, Cloud’s exploration is dependent on people. Not only random people in the world, but his people.

The sense of urgency that I pressed upon the game to get it all over with clashed with the game’s admirable dedication to take the long way around to its ending. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a scenic route. It encourages players to make that route about people and not the stats. When I finally stopped looking at the level number required at minimum to start the next chapter, I looked at the game much differently. 

While I did make sure that I did just the right number of side quests to end up on a date with childhood friend Tifa (for the memes, of course), I was shocked to see the endgame statistics on how close I was with most of the rest of the cast. (sorry Yuffie, you’re still the annoying one.) Preparation for the sequence incentivized getting some extra side quests done to boost some hidden metrics. However, it quickly turned into wanting more out of Barrett, Red XIII, Tifa and Aerith. Each of these characters get their own dedicated sequences.

Tifa and Aerith get to go on their girls date in Costa del Sol, Barrett gets to reconcile with his former friend and hometown, Red XIII gets to return home after his capture and reveal his more childish side. I find myself thinking back most frequently on the smallest exchange with Cid and Aerith after he finds out she is Ifalna’s daughter. When he asks how she died, Aerith reveals she fell ill and pushed herself too hard. Insisting she passed on her own terms protecting Aerith, he leaves her with a word of advice:
“Even if she didn’t, you should honor her memory by enjoying the life she gave you.” They leave it at that, and quietly enjoy the plane ride.

A standout ending

I think about that simple exchange a lot and how it was a passing background voice over as the game loads the next sequence over the bay departing Nibelheim. Even in the smallest of moments, the writers at Square Enix and the English localization team keep the characters in this fantastical world grounded and human in their perspective and connection, and often tying into each character’s themes. The strength of that writing is the secret treasure amidst an otherwise overwhelming open world game. Somehow, that saves it.

Whether Aerith is really alive, or a ghost, or a part of the Lifestream, or a machination of Cloud’s delusions, the ending of the game achieves what it sets out to do. This narratve choice allows players to reenter the City of the Ancients with uncertainty of what would happen next, revolving around the biggest spoiler in video game history lording over it. It defies that expectations while so in an extremely messy way. In true Tetsuya Nomura fashion, those details don’t matter. A Nomura game is all about riding that emotional high as it connects people. The things about Rebirth’s ending that make it stand out apart from the original game is the final date that Cloud and Aerith get to go on; the way she makes him smile and break through his emotional walls like nobody else.

Just as much about these key friendships, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is about Cloud’s mental health. If not for the throughline, the discourse around the game would be nowhere near as interesting. It is yet another example of how Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth tries to have its cake and eat it too. The game attempts to have it all in almost every aspect, from narrative to gameplay. Nomura and company try to defy the fanbase by letting Aerith live, it tries to satisfy die-hard fans by having her die. It tries to have Cloud come into his own as his tough exterior duplicating Zack begins to crack, but it also has him zombified in a haze controlled by Sephiroth.

The big emotional drive of the game also comes at the price of spreading it throughout a one to two hundred hour campaign. The game is so big and ambitious that it’s rare that we’ll see a game with this scale next year, if not until next console gen. It belongs in league with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in conversation about the best open world action-adventures of a generation.

The scope of the game discussed here is so massive that I didn’t even talk about the minigames. While the combat system was top tier, and the character writing better than ever, Square Enix didn’t stop there. They went out of their way to build a robust card game and each individual minigame its own set of unique challenges. Square Enix may have made a messy game, but it is a big, beautiful mess. The game has so much character, flavor and content that there is no helping but to admire its ambition.

For any new players to this immense release, I implore you to take your time. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a game to relish in the details of, completed with a stop and smell the roses mentality. It’s best enjoyed when you mosey through the journey.

Featured image credit: © SQUARE ENIX