The ambitious undertaking of Final Fantasy: Remake began a cycle of fulfilling a promise made long ago: to bring Final Fantasy VII into the modern era with the same amount of care and enjoyment that the original game could muster up in 1997.
At the end of Remake, fans found themselves polarized about the game. Some praised the action RPG gameplay, while others mourned the death of any possibility of having a turn-based system back in the game. Fans lauded the story changes, and detractors heavily criticized any changes, claiming that the game was nothing but a bait and switch.
Overall, though, Final Fantasy: Remake found itself on solid positive ground critically and commercially, with most players agreeing that the true test of worth would come in its second installment.
Final Fantasy: Rebirth certainly had its fair share of impossible expectations laid on it from the moment Remake finished. Fixing issues people had with Remake, expanding upon a story that could be seen both as sequel and remake (or neither), and opening up the world beyond the confines of its flagship city, Midgar, for a more expansive and wider-reaching gaming experience the original was able to cement in the mind of players back in 1997.
Surprisingly, Rebirth manages to do this with grace and continued unabashed ambition. Every aspect that worked in Remake is made better and more fluid in Rebirth. From graphics to gameplay, music to voice acting, Rebirth in every way proves that Square-Enix put a ton of care, thought, and attention into Remake's criticisms.
There's something for everyone in Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth: mini-games, engaging combat, interesting bits of new story, an adherence to the original story, and more. Though not perfect, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth is not necessarily trying to achieve a cookie-cutter good open-world experience. It's flawed in some places, as the original was, but it makes up for those flaws with a sense of sheer vastness that, at any time, anything is possible.
The new combat system rewards players who are quick thinking and willing to take chances, with enough customization to play your way but enjoy the intended experience. Fluid and fun characters feel as if they've been set from some chains that Remake put on them. Returning characters: Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, and Barret all play similarly to how they did in Remake but with tweaks that make sense both in the story and for a game that's pushing them forward. New characters: Red XIII, Cait Sith, and Yuffie feel perfectly suited to join the returning party. Synergy attacks make their debut in Rebirth and are akin to Chrono Trigger's dual-tech system. Every character has some sort of synergy attack with every other character, and those synergies are not only cool, but they feel exactly how those two particular characters would interact with each other in battle.
The open world is jaw-dropping and satisfying. In the first open section alone, I spent hours discovering, battling, upgrading, and being lost. Before I knew it, I had sunk more hours into exploring than I would in the entire first acts of other games. Each new area feels as big or bigger than the last, with tons of new monsters to battle, side quests to stumble upon, and secrets to unveil. So much so that in the later game, it becomes, dare I say...exhausting.
The story, for the most part, is identical to the original, only making changes here and there to alter the context of events or to make other parts of the Final Fantasy VII Compilation fit into the story of VII more convincingly. Without going into details, the game both ties itself to the original Final Fantasy VII while at the same time clearly moving beyond it in a way that will ultimately recontextualize the entire story into something more overall encompassing of the larger-than-life (but messy) story that Final Fantasy VII has amassed over the years.
As I said before, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth is not perfect. Its wealth of content becomes staggering at times, particularly at the end game, where every turn seems to push a new side quest or mini-game at you. Its traversal around the world is good but really the first of its type for a Final Fantasy game, and it shows good enough to get the job done, but with plenty that can be expanded and fixed upon and, lastly, with such a wealth of content, inevitably, some things work better than others so being forced into a mini-game you don't love for the fiftieth time doesn't inspire a desire to continue down that path.
That isn't an indictment however, for every moment of frustration, Rebirth offers ten more of awe. It's a game that continues to give its best and compels the player to continue on and unlock the secrets the developers have wonderfully built into the game.
All in all, the idea of nostalgia as a selling point has never gripped me too strongly, but Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth delivers this in a way that feels so authentic. Nothing could recreate the feelings I had playing Final Fantasy VII as a kid, but Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth does as good a job as any in getting to that point. The wonderment of discovering a world that feels like every stone overturned could uncover a new part of this world that will delight for decades to come is just as present as it was in the original Final Fantasy VII.
Its biggest flaw is that it feels like the third installment of the Remake trilogy could never really measure up, but if it does....we may be more spoiled than we could ever have thought possible.
My Verdict: 9/10
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