Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

 

I'm quite late to the Final Fantasy series. The first time I played any game in this series was in 2020's Final Fantasy VII Remake, and I didn't play it until 2024. I was well aware of the series, but generally am not a fan of turn-based games and thus didn't have much interest in the games. When Remake came out it caught my attention, however, because of how awesome the game looked during battle. Once I learned that it employed real-time action, it was on my radar. Once I got my PS5 and the game was accessible on Playstation Plus, there was no risk involved in trying it out and I absolutely loved the game. The timing worked out where Rebirth came out as I was playing Remake, and there was no question that I was going to play Remake after loving Rebirth so much. 

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth is part two of the re-imagining of the Final Fantasy VII trilogy (Remake being Part 1, while Part 3 is currently under development). Rebirth starts where Remake ends. Midgar has been destroyed and Shinra's president has been killed and the company is now controlled by Rufus. Shinra continues to look for the Promised Land to exploit the planet's energy source, Mako, in order to provide energy. Sephiroth, who we meet at the end of Remake, is looking for the same energy source to exploit for his own personal reasons. Cloud and the rebel group Avalanche are the main protagonists, this time joined by a couple of new characters: ninja Yuffie from Wutai, Cait Sith, a robotic cat and theme park mascot, and Cid, a pilot who helps you travel around the planet. The gang follows a group of robed men, failed Shinra experiments with Mako poisoning, in order to track down Sephiroth. Throughout the game there are flashbacks that occur and you eventually learn that there are multiple versions of reality and timelines that are occurring simultaneously, similar to a Final Fantasy multiverse. Honestly, any further explanation starts to get very convoluted and confusing. After finishing the game, I actually had to watch a 10 minute video explaining what had occurred in the final chapter, so I will pause on any further explanation. There are websites and YouTube videos that do a great job summarizing the entire plot, but what I said above is a decent high level summary of what occurred in the game.

Rebirth had all of the elements from Remake that I loved. The funny and cheesy comments from all of the characters were present, the excellent (though somewhat confusing) story was there, and excellent gameplay. The world expanded quite a bit in Rebirth, which was a nice addition. From what I can remember from Remake, it took place almost entirely in Midgar. It was nice to see different locations and visit different settings. The "wow factor" from Remake wasn't quite there for me with Rebirth, however, I think mostly because I knew what to expect from the characters and gameplay. When I played Remake I had no idea what to expect, and was shocked at how good all aspects of the game was. When I started playing Rebirth, my expectations were high, and the game delivered, but subsequently I wasn't quite blown away like I was when I played Remake.

Current games on modern hardware almost always look fantastic, so I don't often like to spend a lot of time discussing game appearances. However, I think the Final Fantasy series deserves special shoutout for this. The game and environments as a whole look fantastic, but the boss battles where there are multiple people on the screen at once that you can switch between are amazing. At times when multiple special attacks are occurring simultaneously, there is so much going on visually that I don't even know what is happening. What you see is an explosion of colors and rapid changing action that looks fantastic and without frame-rate drops. The bosses themselves are large and visually pleasing, and oftentimes the battles take place in environments with very busy backgrounds. It is one of the most impressive things I've ever seen visually in a video game, and I think deserves special call-out. The final scene involves Aerith standing next to a river with an airplane idling with its propellers running nearby. The way the water ripples in the river, and the way Aerith's hair and clothes blow in the wind from the airplane engine is just amazing. The entire game is just a visual masterpiece.

The last part of the game I'd like to call out is the music. The music is quite good, and in Rebirth you can find pianos that you can play in a Guitar Hero style mini-game. Some of the mini-games in Rebirth are a bit tedious, but I enjoyed the piano playing. My girls play piano and they've even downloaded some music from the game to play themselves, which is cool. I'm definitely looking forward to part 3 of this trilogy. I even purchased the original PS1 version of the game to play on the PS5 once I get a chance, which I'm looking forward to.