Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth review: The price of freedom

When the Final Fantasy 7 Remake was announced nearly a decade ago, fans swelled with ideas and possibilities for what this could entail. Years later we’ve now received the second part of a trilogy of games encompassing the entirety of Final Fantasy 7 and its extended universe. The newest entry, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, ditches the linear structure of Remake for a more traditional open-world attempt.

Rebirth fits into a weird place, being an entire game built out of the middle of a different game. It’s not designed to have a complete arc or wrap a story. It attempts to build out of the concepts set out in Remake but feels like it’s going in a different direction. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s “It's not the destination, it's the journey” mantra works for better, and for worse.

Larger than life

Rebirth is a dense game. One filled with a plethora of mini-games, side quests, and characters galore. In many ways, it feels like Rebirth has made that PS1 instruction manual come to life like we could have never expected. Seeing a region like Cosmo Canyon not just built up and rendered better than before, but filled with activities and a culture that makes the world feel lived in.

Each area in Rebirth feels distinct but never loses sight of its relation to the larger world. Side characters will appear throughout your journey and have connections all over. The dense forests of Gongaga are drastically different from the mountains and desert of the Corel region, but each zone feels like a part of the same whole.

However, It can be frustrating trying to navigate these environments looking for World Intel or other side activities. The map isn’t always helpful, and oftentimes there is an intended path to get up on a high cliffside or cavern, which isn’t always clear to the player. It resulted in me spending a lot of my time looking for a weirdly placed rope or hidden Chocobo jump pad. Your mileage may vary though.

All that glitters

The Gold Saucer, a giant casino and amusement park built in the middle of the Corel region, serves as both a vacation spot for the party, as well as a location to engage in some activities like the card game Queen's Blood, a one-on-one fighting game, and even a spaceship shoot em' up. You can also enjoy some theater performances while you mosey around. 

The Gold Saucer is a standout experience found within Rebirth. It’s full of whimsy and spectacle but is also used as a minor tool to showcase corporate greed and interests despite the toll it takes on the economics of the surrounding area. It’s a perfect encapsulation of the rich get richer and is the antithesis of everything your fellow party member Barret stands for, which drives home his personal storyline in Rebirth more succinctly. 

Its gilded halls are a constant distraction from the evils and corruption that built it. A story that rings more true than ever today. The juxtaposition against the poor and rundown mining town speaks volumes to evil corporation Shinra’s intent on running the planet into the ground for profit. 

The Gold Saucer is just one of the many areas for you and your party to take a break from the trials of adventuring.

The open environments break up the pacing of the main story leaving you to explore at your leisure and uncover the stories told through its characters. Not everything has to be accomplished before moving on, and Rebirth doesn’t expect you to complete everything in one fell swoop. 

Some of Final Fantasy 7’s funniest moments are found in its side content, making it a pretty enjoyable experience to hang around with. Whether you're wrangling loose chickens for an old farmer or hunting down a debt for a downtrodden bartender, all of them feed into the struggling lives of civilians living on a dying planet. 

Is not always gold

However, while Rebirth revels in the goofiness fans love about the original, its core themes of environmental sustainability and breaking fate get lost in the shuffle. This is most present in the main narrative, which attempts to gameify cutscenes and otherwise simple scenes. Moments like the parade in Junon are a standout, where the gamification of an otherwise straightforward scene adds to the larger world and puts you front and center.

But when so much of this game's narrative thrust is pushed by sections of completing mini-games it feels monotonous after a while. There are moments of pure brilliance in Rebirth, but they are punctuated by sections of throwing boxes, playing a shooting rogue gallery, or something else. 

I will, however, use this moment to talk about the best mini-game in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Queen’s Blood. This new card game is of a similar ilk to Triple Triad or Tetra Master. However, it’s not just another side thing, it’s woven into the entire world in a smart and thrilling way. Each town has more players to face, more cards to collect, and more dark stories to unfold. 

The depth of Queen’s Blood creates some of the best “aha” moments in the game. Learning how to use the different styles of cards to craft the perfect deck against your opponent makes it a worthwhile endeavor. If you’re a fan of Gwent or any other card game found in RPGS, Queen’s Blood is worth seeking out during your time in Rebirth. Outside of standard matches, you can find skill challenges and other versions of the game in Costa Del Sol or The Gold Saucer, which frequently update their challenges through main story progressions, so always be on the lookout for more when you want a break from the narrative.

No promises to keep

Rebirth’s main story attempts to toe the line between being on a grand adventure and trying to hunt down Sephiroth to stop the impending doom at hand. It often feels like it gets caught up in the former. 

While the game deviates from the chronology of the events of the original FF7 it also expands on many aspects to a somewhat faltering degree. The game never knows when to let up on the gas which leads to weirdly placed boss fights and “Oh here’s one more thing” sections that feel like a step too far. 

This hit me after completing a lengthy section that consisted of throwing boxes to hit switches and open doors. It culminated in a one-on-one boss fight that felt needlessly difficult with instakill attacks and halted the momentum of the entire section. Then, just mere moments later, I was faced with another boss fight, and then a boss fight that is literally drop-shipped in from out of nowhere. These sequences are reminiscent of a child slamming together action figures, hoping something cool will come of it. After the dust has settled, you’re left with the scattered pieces of something special strewn out across the living room floor. 

Every moment of Final Fantasy 7 is someone’s favorite, and it’s neat that the team made sure as many moments and characters weren’t just included, but elevated. It just comes at the cost of letting some moments speak for themselves instead of being muddied by some other last-minute game or boss fight.

Interstitial cuts to other characters during key story moments break the flow and ultimately never reach a satisfying payoff. It’s a balancing act Rebirth fails to ultimately capitalize on. 

Many diehard fans will revel in these moments, many others will feel it constantly pulling the focus of the game away to something else entirely, and Rebirth spends so much of its time unfocused on the task at hand in lieu of keeping the moments of Final Fantasy 7 sacred.

The ties that bind us

While the main plot is loosely held together as you globetrot all over the planet, Rebirth’s strength shows in its characters. It doesn’t waste time retreading old ground or reintroducing them, they are a party, have been through a lot together, and behave accordingly. 

Whether it’s the tough exterior of Barret Wallace or the caring nature of Aerith, the cast of Final Fantasy 7 shines through in spades. Your party’s contributions to side quests and ambient dialogue while walking around help tell their story. While Cloud is the main protagonist, Rebirth never lets you forget that this is a team effort, and the rest of the party have lives, people they’ve lost, and deep emotional wounds that need healing.  

Even the nonplayable additions of Vincent Valentine and Cid Highwind round out the party in new ways: Cid’s go-getter attitude and charisma balance out Vincent’s broody loner mentality. While I wish we got more of both of these characters throughout Rebirth, I’m happy they fit so naturally into the party dynamics without feeling forced. Taking a group of outcasts and turning them into a found family is at the core of Rebirth's party.

It’s a cast of characters that I’ve grown even more attached to over the grand adventure, and one I can’t wait to see continue to grow in whatever the next game ends up being. The voice performances ring through strongly and provide moments of levity, heartbreak, and raw emotion. No matter if it's side content or the main story, Rebirth’s cast is easily the strongest piece of the puzzle.

The usage of character themes during crucial moments accentuates an incredible score and one that never stops giving different renditions of fan-favorite songs. Its ability to use just a few notes of a familiar theme and incorporate them into a new track helps drive emotions home in critical scenes. 

The emotional weight that the songs of Final Fantasy 7 carry cannot be understated, and Rebirth’s soundtrack doesn’t just evoke those feelings but uses these new arrangements with purpose. 

Let the battles begin

The same goes for combat in Rebirth, which feels dynamic and even more fluid than in Remake. Smart new additions like the Synergy Abilities and Actions allow each fight to feel more like a team sport rather than a solo act. The new Synergy actions give you quick access to some team-up attacks to build your Active Time Battle gauge and give your party some cool combos. 

These culminate in the more flashy Synergy Abilities which act in a Limit Break style attack providing your team with unique buffs like additional Limit Break options, increased stagger duration, or even unlimited Magic Points for a short duration. 

It’s another plate to spin on the battlefield and another powerful tool in your pocket for fights. They come in clutch in a difficult boss fight or trying to string together a combo that makes you feel like you’ve opened your third eye. It cannot be understated how much better the combat in Rebirth feels. 

While at first, it can seem overwhelming with all of the menus and shortcuts you have present at any given moment, you’ll quickly fall into the groove as you learn each character's distinct traits and systems. FF7 Remake NPC Chadley is back in Rebirth and he even has a combat tutorial for each party member to nail down the basics and take learning a character at your own pace.

Combat is hectic and keeps you on your feet, especially if you’re playing on the Dynamic difficulty setting which will automatically heighten or lower enemy difficulty depending on your skill level. It’s a neat feature that makes the game feel challenging without being overbearing and you can always swap down the difficulty settings at any point. 

New party members Red XIII, Yuffie, and Cait Saith all bring new and exciting abilities to combat. All of them feel like natural extensions of Remake’s combat system while adding their own spin. 

Red XIII’s Vengeance Mode focuses heavily on blocking and filling up a unique meter to unleash devastating attacks is vastly different from Cait Sith’s casino-style moveset focused on rolling dice and playing slots. I’ve never been one for gambling, but more RPGS should explore gambling as a job or class structure. Something about an entire party member relying on random dice rolls adds an incredible risk/reward to fights that kept me on the edge of my seat. Maybe that says more about me though. 

A broken world

While there is a lot to love in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, it left me disappointed in its main narrative. I wish it was more focused on telling the story set out in Remake and its constant need to push the kitchen sink into each plot beat wore on my resolve throughout the game. 

It’s hard to quantify Rebirth’s importance when so much lingers on the notion that this is only part of the story. Whether you’re a casual Final Fantasy enjoyer, an extended universe sicko, or an original FF7 fan, Rebirth provides a wide canvas of opportunity for you to paint upon, but one it’s ultimately afraid to permanently paint upon itself. 

Every plot beat or character written in pencil, waiting to be erased if it doesn’t fit the narrative ideas the Remake series tries to tie together. Rebirth’s narrative choices can feel inconsistent at times, and often questionable, but its heart carries through.

Despite it all, a stellar combat system, evocative soundtrack, and extensive cast of characters make this a journey worth seeking out, even if the pieces don’t fit perfectly. I look forward to seeing how they tie this story together and hope that its third entry is more focused on what makes this series special. 

This review is based on a PlayStation 5 review code provided by the publisher. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is scheduled to release on February 29, 2024 on PlayStation 5, 

Jesse Vitelli

Contributing Editor

Jesse is a freelance games journalist who can't get enough of FFXIV and other RPGs. He has collaborated with Game Informer, Giantbomb, Prima Games, and more. He loves playing games together with friends and family and can be found doing mundane tasks like fishing or cooking in games. You can follow him on X (Twitter) @Jessevitelli.