Ultimate Fantasy 7 Rebirth seems like a pure development. Free from the metal skies of Midgar and its corridor-style design, this direct sequel to 2020’s Ultimate Fantasy 7 Remake totally embraces that sense of journey discovered within the unique Ultimate Fantasy 7, as Cloud Strife and his ragtag group took their first few steps out onto the sprawling world map. Rebirth goes massive when it comes to scope and scale — however it does not at all times stick the touchdown.
Rebirth is not totally open world, however it’s break up right into a collection of huge environments, every with their very own distinctive geography. You may spend a wholesome chunk of your playthrough sprinting — and using chocobos — throughout the wilderness, however it’s hardly ever in the hunt for the subsequent story beat. That is as a result of Rebirth has an extreme quantity of open world fluff — the form of guidelines actions that you simply’d anticipate finding in probably the most cliche of Ubisoft video games.
Climbing copy-paste radio towers is not one thing that we ever would have anticipated to do in a remake of everlasting PS1 traditional Ultimate Fantasy 7, however right here we’re. It is troublesome to justify such blatant bloat, however it’s necessary to emphasize that the map’s many markers are non-compulsory, and never all the busywork is so braindead. There are, for instance, cool fights available with distinctive enemy sorts and region-based bosses. On the very least, you have acquired an excuse to get on the market and discover what’s an iconic RPG setting.
Thankfully, Rebirth is a a lot better sport when it is simply… being Ultimate Fantasy 7. For probably the most half, it sticks to the unique’s narrative construction, because the celebration units off on the path of huge baddie Sephiroth. Nevertheless, very like Remake, this sequel typically vastly expands upon occasions, bringing extra context and permitting characters to raised specific themselves. As soon as once more, the event crew has executed an admirable job of fleshing out the core solid, and that is necessary, as a result of the overarching plot barely pushes ahead on this second instalment.
After all, this was additionally the case within the unique PS1 launch — however Rebirth is the second title in a deliberate trilogy, taking you anyplace between 50 and 100 hours to finish (and that is with out even occupied with the arduous mode that is unlocked after the credit roll). It has little alternative however to lean on its characters, because the core story mainly boils all the way down to following mysterious robed males from city to city, again and again. The true narrative hooks come within the type of character improvement, as every member of Cloud’s gang have their very own enterprise to take care of as their journey takes them throughout land and sea.
Maybe that is why Sq. Enix noticed match to pack Rebirth with a lot stuff. To say the sport is padded could be an understatement, and that padding ranges from extremely satisfying, character-driven episodes to… effectively, the kind of pointless bumbling that might make Remake really feel like such a drag at occasions. Merely put, this is not a sport for the impatient. There are a few pace-sapping situations particularly — sandwiched proper in between major story sections — that despatched our eyes rolling.
Counting Rebirth, Remake, and even Ultimate Fantasy 16, Sq. Enix apparently has an issue with simply letting its video games movement. For each outrageous cutscene or blood-pumping boss battle, there appears to be a comparatively boring stretch of narrative filler, or a facet quest that stalls your progress. However that is exactly the place our frustration stems from; when Rebirth is firing on all cylinders, it is very good — similar to Remake earlier than it.
There’s an actual pleasure to seeing cities like Kalm and Gongaga — simply probably the most fundamental of prerendered backdrops within the unique launch — dropped at life as totally 3D places. Naturally, nostalgia performs a significant position in all this, however you’ll be able to’t probably be dissatisfied with how effectively realised Rebirth’s world feels. The sense of journey that was so prevalent in 1997 is reestablished right here, and also you get to take pleasure in it alongside beloved characters who’re extra textured than ever earlier than.
Rebirth retains its predecessor’s strengths; in its key storytelling sequences, its fight system, and its clear appreciation for the supply materials, it continues to be a beautiful reimagining. And if, like us, you’ll be able to abdomen most of the sport’s flaws, you may typically revel within the issues that it will get completely proper.
That brings us neatly to the hybrid battle system, which once more combines action-based motion and button-tapping assaults with command menus for once you wish to get tactical, or dish out some massive harm. The mechanics labored brilliantly in Remake and so they’re largely unchanged right here — which might be for the most effective. As an alternative of fidgeting with the basics, Rebirth merely provides to the system; there’s a formidable quantity of enemy selection all through the sport, and new synergy methods (learn: tag crew strikes) offer you much more moment-to-moment choices.
Rebirth additionally lets rip with more and more loopy fight situations, usually pushing the bounds of what you thought this battle system was able to. It goes with out saying that boss fights are nonetheless unbelievable, however there at the moment are so many various methods to check your celebration’s prowess, be it within the battle simulator or in one of many sport’s a number of arenas, the place problem matches can encourage a complete new stage of crew tinkering.
All the motion’s elevated by the returning materia system, which now sports activities extra varieties of materia for but extra character customisation. Relying in your geared up orbs, you’ll be able to form a celebration member’s position to fit your wants, and with a bigger solid of playable heroes, it seems like there is a strategic freedom right here that wasn’t fairly current in Remake.
Past the brand new depths of its fight, Rebirth takes a web page from the Like a Dragon playbook, and packs a formidable variety of minigames into proceedings. And, similar to in SEGA’s sandbox collection, you’ll be able to spend hours mastering these (principally) non-compulsory excursions. The headline acts embody Queen’s Blood — a reasonably addictive collectable card sport with its personal absurd characters and storyline — and chocobo racing, which is simply actually good enjoyable.
However not all minigames are made equal. A few of Rebirth’s most lamentable moments are once you’re compelled to partake within the title’s extra tedious minigames throughout the principle story, or in any other case partaking facet quests. To be truthful, these situations do not take up a complete lot of time within the grand scheme of issues, however they’re nonetheless responsible of murdering the sport’s pacing at particular factors.
Alright, so what about all the new story stuff that was launched by way of Remake? We can’t spoil something right here, however Rebirth does handle to supply up some solutions. Fortunately. Then again, nonetheless, it conjures loads of recent questions — which is able to after all have followers wanting within the path of the trilogy’s last act.
With that in thoughts, it does really feel like this sequel is caught in limbo — a minimum of to an extent. It is in regards to the journey and all that, however Rebirth lacks a correct starting and it lacks a correct ending. And, as you may anticipate, its story will make little or no sense if you have not performed Remake. This sequel is satisfying in its personal proper — because of its portrayal of Ultimate Fantasy 7’s world and characters — however some followers, particularly newcomers who aren’t conversant in how issues go down within the PS1 traditional, could really feel as if it is missing the general influence of its predecessor.
what else is missing? Rebirth’s visuals. Keep in mind, this is not a cross-gen launch. On the time of writing, it is a PS5 unique, however exterior of major character fashions and explosive particle results in battle, it may be tough on the eyes. We do not know what the precise reason behind this challenge is, however Remake’s texture issues are again, and so they’re in some way even worse. Just about any closeup of a wall, door, or inanimate object hits you with a number of the blurriest, low high quality textures you may ever see in a contemporary AAA launch. Baffling.
Having mentioned that, Rebirth can look good at a distance, or when it is in movement. The artwork path’s nice — we love the monster designs — and there are some screenshot-worthy vistas out within the open world.
However maybe extra importantly, the sport runs higher than it appears to be like. Efficiency mode positively has some dodgy decision scaling happening at occasions, however it permits a clean 60 frames-per-second for the overwhelming majority of Rebirth’s runtime. Graphics mode, in the meantime, is noticeably sharper when it comes to decision (it is arduous to not be), however you are caught at 30fps.
And lastly, we have to spotlight Rebirth’s music, as a result of it goes above and past. The sport incorporates a frankly staggering variety of tracks, to the purpose the place virtually each scene, each battle, each location, and each occasion of each minigame comes with its personal tune. A lot of them are simply enjoyable little beats that set the tone throughout facet quests or non-compulsory actions, however the fight themes — significantly people who play throughout climactic clashes — are excellent.
