Retrospective: A Year Later, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Remains Brilliant and Messy

Last year, after an extensive 132-hour playthrough, I reviewed Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth from Square-Enix.

In my review, I concluded: “In many ways, playing through Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth feels like the dream game many envisioned when they stepped out for the first time to a world full of wonder and possibilities back in 1997. With the way Rebirth hones in on the unexpected journey and builds up its world and its characters, I can’t help but smile at the delightful journey it took me on. And there are moments from this journey that will be seared in my mind as some of my favorites in any game ever, where even the most annoying late mini-game didn’t spoil the fun.”

As it usually is with a game of this scale and with the passage of time, more thoughts and opinions started being formed after I posted that review. Through extensive conversations and even two recorded spoiler casts and the afterglow results of the “Game of the Year” awards season, it was clear to me the game was going through the traditional Final Fantasy discourse cycle, where an initial glowing review period (in this case, the highest rated modern Final Fantasy game ever) started clashing with revisionism of its merits as its own game, or even stacking up against its previous entry or the most recent numbered Final Fantasy.

And as some of the criticisms leveled at the game kept piling up, I found myself in the funny position that I didn’t really disagree with many of the criticisms being leveled, understanding where some of it was coming from. But then I finally replayed it two more times. And one hard-earned platinum trophy later, I couldn’t help but notice that, even with the criticisms that I’ve come to understand, I may love the game even more despite them.

So, on the eve of the PC release for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, I kind of wanted to look back at some of my journey through this game, give context where I came from when I reviewed it, and give my perspective on some of the loudest criticisms it got (the latter of which will be spoiler-filled).

In the words of one Cloud Strife: “Less Mosey”

pREamble: My History with Final Fantasy

So, first off comes my background of where I stand with Final Fantasy as a whole.

Despite the glowing review I ended up giving to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, I was far from a longtime Final Fantasy VII superfan/fanatic. My relationship with Final Fantasy VII and the series as a whole started very late, having learned of the franchise watching a friend play the initial hours of this game back when I was five years old in 1998, and only off-handedly understanding its importance and the weight of its historic moments through retrospectives. I never owned or played the game myself until the PlayStation 4 re-release of the PC version. The Final Fantasy franchise was always one I experienced from the outside until finally taking the plunge during the zeitgeist of 2010’s Final Fantasy XIII, and the less said of that cursed entry, the better.

Ironically, the first time I ever beat a Final Fantasy game was 2016’s Final Fantasy XV. Even understanding that game’s 10-year long development cycle (I learned of that game during sixth grade and played it my final semester of college), it being a game that was built more towards my personal preference of action games over turn-based games (more of that later) was the push I needed to finally go through the entirety of one of these games. Was the game perfect? HELL NO. Was there something within it that still stuck with me despite its obvious, fatal flaws? HELL YES. Long live the Chocobros!

By the time we got to 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake, I definitely felt the excitement of approaching it as a newcomer and being doubly excited at it taking on a more “actiony” direction, which was more to my liking, while being internally sad I couldn’t share on the enthusiasm and excitement of the people that fully experienced it in ‘97. I definitely was hoping it could stand on its own two feet as its own project, and, for the most part, I found a pretty great game whose final hours felt like inside baseball, for those in the know. But as great a game as it was, I wouldn’t say at the time it made me a diehard Final Fantasy fan.

And then I finally played Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion at the tail end of 2022.

Playing Crisis Core served two purposes for me. Having never played it myself, I had always heard how loud sections of the Final Fantasy fandom (including my podcast co-host Paul) championed this game trapped so long on the PSP, which made its remake a miracle in and of itself and something I needed to see, eager to know what the fuss was about. It was also my opportunity to write my second review for this site, having just joined in as a contributor, so out I went, trying to kill two birds with one stone. And while criticism can certainly be leveled at its handheld origins and some of its overwrought storytelling, by the time its credits rolled and “Price of Freedom” was seared into my brain, I realized Crisis Core and, therefore, Final Fantasy, may have started altering my brain chemistry.

Immediately jumping on the opportunity to review Final Fantasy XVI a few months later while still being a relatively fresh newcomer, I got to experience the latest numbered entry, both as the intended fresh start for new audiences that Square-Enix wanted, and also as someone with a better understanding of what makes the franchise click (and putting that through its paces on an entry that also defied many series conventions). And, once again staring at 11:00 at night, bawling my eyes out during its emotionally devastating ending, I realized this franchise started meaning something to me. Immediately after, I made it a quest to go back to the beginning, buying the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters, experiencing them in the order the Americas did back in 1987 and the early 90’s (1, 4 and 6), and getting hit with the Danny Devito “I get it now” with 4 and 6 specifically. For years I heard these two games were some of the finest RPG’s ever made. Me, the turn-based naysayer who stopped playing after Pokemon Sapphire, clicked with the genre again through these two games and their quality of life. I was FINALLY getting Final Fantasy.

Which then led me to the moment of truth: finally playing and finishing the original Final Fantasy VII, a game I had attempted before and failed to get through after a couple of hours. There are no two ways about it: there is a big reason a remake of this game was always so highly clamored. It hasn’t aged very gracefully. But via the quality of life included in the re-release, it helped give me the opportunity to finally experience the game in its entirety. And despite those frustrations from its aged design, the magic of the game’s story, themes, and moments still hit. There is a reason Final Fantasy VII has endured in the minds and hearts of so many people, and while I preferred my experiences with 4 and 6 better, I could finally understand the fervor over Final Fantasy VII.

It finally gave me more appreciation for what Square-Enix was attempting with the wild swings they took with their Remake project, and it put me in an interesting position as I reviewed Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, not as a nostalgic fan that grew up with the original, but one that at least had knowledge of it and wanted to see how it could translate to this day and age, even with the controversial swings.

Re-Assessing The Strengths

The reason I started off with this context was to establish the angle in which I approached Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. For a game whose praise could be waived easily from a “reviewer loved it because nostalgia” perspective, my review absolutely came from someone that didn’t share on that nostalgia. I literally beat Final Fantasy VII for the first time in 2023, so instead of nostalgia goggles, I came in with that newcomer perspective of having that original experience fresh in my mind to see how it would be embellished in remade form in Rebirth. From that perspective, almost from every angle, I found Rebirth consistently impressive.

That constant comparison from the original to Rebirth is what carried me heavily during the majority of my playtime. I’d go “Oh we are in Junon now, and holy crap its upper city and its under section are fully rendered locales.” And this feeling went the same for Costa del Sol, the entire Corel region, the new reformed section of Gongaga, Cosmo Canyon, Nibel and so on. The art direction and design of these worlds showed Square-Enix at the peak of their game in creating maximalist worlds, and it’s something I hope they consider when they work on the next numbered entry, because this proves imaginative design can work with modern tech. And combining the maximalist approach with that godly soundtrack? It’s nirvana.

I could talk about all the strengths at length, no problem, and how I feel about them remains pretty much the same as I mentioned in my review last year (and even some of its visual issues have gotten updates with its impressive PlayStation 5 Pro update). But the reason why I wanted to do this retrospective was to give more thoughts towards the criticisms leveled at the game. Some I understand and have grown to share a bit as time goes on, but there are some other angles I don’t agree with from a certain perspective.

Stuffed Chocobo

Probably one of the most common criticisms you see about Rebirth is just how stuffed it is. There are no two ways about it: Square-Enix threw in the kitchen sink when they approached the design of Rebirth. I said it in my review, and it bears repeating: I don’t think many people initially grasped just how HARD Square-Enix went with designing this interconnected world, delivering massive scale that was just inferred in old-school Final Fantasy. It’s a sight to behold, especially once you unlock it all and realize you can go all the way from Kalm to the Gongaga airport with virtually no loading. And as big as that world is, Square-Enix packed it to the brim with plenty of things to do and made it in a way that’s not necessary to do it all, but designed it all in a way that worms into your mind to convince you to do it. It’s checklist nirvana.

It’s that checklist nature where I feel it’s definitely in the eye of the beholder. I love me a checklist game, so I had no problem just attempting all there was to it, and I feel the game, unlike most games in the Ubisoft mold, really attempted to create plenty of synergy between its world, its unlockables, and your systems to make the attempt worth it in the end (it’s not just a checklist to be checked). I feel where the problem lies is the fact the majority of those activities from Chadley remain the same in every region, and there’s so many of them, with the only big difference being some of the big beast hunts or the Proto Relic quest tied to Gilgamesh (the one quest from him that’s entirely different region to region). And I feel it’s a problem that’s just compounded if you get that “I need to 100% everything” kick. Not to mention if you also then do some of the mini-games (that were there completely optional besides the ones you do at Costa del Sol and Golden Saucer) and attempt high scores, that’s the clear pathway to the Dark Side.

During my second playthrough, I started a fresh save, and the only thing I did was the green side quests and the main quests, ignoring all of Chadley’s bloat, and I believe the game felt perfectly manageable just that way (though you can miss a few select great materia along the way). I remember reading Washington Post’s own Gene Park saying that he blitzed through the entire main story without having to do any side quests, but he only did that after 100%-in the initial Grasslands area. I don’t feel the game is one that you could blitz through entirely just main quest to main quest from moment one unless you play on Easy (good luck fighting Midgardsormr underleveled), but I feel it’s not an overly bloated game if you can keep yourself from getting dominated by your OCD and just do the main quests and green sidequests. Playing Final Fantasy VII Remake and this second one back to back, I’d even say they’re comparable in size just from that angle, with Rebirth suffering slightly less from the “you’re obviously stretching for content here” unlike Remake which had a taller task to fill its game compared to the original (though Rebirth does have that Cait Sith dungeon, which is indefensible).

Big Micro Storytelling, Thin Macro Story

“Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has no story”

Now this is a take that depending on who you are, you are either on board or you are dumbfounded at the suggestion of a game as massive and content packed as this could have that criticism leveled at it. Like many things in life, it’s a matter of perspective and preference and what constitutes storytelling for you.

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth is a fascinating project to analyze in relation to what it adapts from the original game. From moment one, the team behind the game mentioned that Rebirth would cover the events of the game from the moment you step out of Midgar all the way to the Forgotten City. For anyone that played the original game, that meant Rebirth would stop at the end of what was the first of three discs.

What’s interesting about the choice of what this game covers and where it stops is what it meant to Rebirth from a plot perspective. In the original game, the big Midgar chapter between Avalanche and President Shinra is wrapped up and then transitions towards a “Sephiroth has been revealed as the bad guy, and we must find him.” It’s a pretty simple inciting incident reminiscent of old-school RPG’s “hero’s must find the bad guy and save the world,” and the bulk of that time is spent going from town to town, trying to find clues to Sephiroth’s whereabouts. A lot of that conceit was pretty much carried to Rebirth, and where Remake embellished the point to point plot of its initial 3-5 hour Midgar section to make it work on a full game, Rebirth does the same but for the micro stories you find during all the places you visit in your pursuit of Sephiroth.

One comparison I made back then that I still stand strong with is the similarities Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has with Bioware’s Mass Effect 2. That beloved middle entry of the Mass Effect trilogy made the bulk of the meat of its content the stories of Commander Shephard recruiting and winning the loyalty of a crew that will accompany him to a suicide mission. Rebirth, via its initial Nibelheim flashback, reinforces the terror of the power of Sephiroth and puts the clear goal to stop him, but it uses Sephiroth as the throughline by which all these micro stories happen.

While there are plenty of things that happen from moment to moment and character to character (and plenty of those moments are pretty powerful), I feel where Rebirth falls short for some is when they’re asked what Rebirth is about, where many boil it down to “Cloud and company just going town to town walking around following black robes” that ignores the character-driven focus that embellishes its cast of characters and the towns they visit, which offer plenty of stories. I know there’s always been a schism between some that like plot-driven storytelling versus character-driven affair, and at least before Chapter 9, Rebirth leans less on the former, more on the latter. And your liking for this cast of characters and the mini stories of the world that surrounds it is the key to the enjoyment of this more insular approach to storytelling.

Denial Is A River In The Lifestream

While I have plenty of love for Rebirth’s excellent character-driven affair, when it comes to the more meta nature of the story at hand, I’ve grown more conflicted about one aspect of it while getting more onboard with another.

*SPOILERS TO FOLLOW*

Following the “defying fate” ending of Remake, as a big fan of Crisis Core, I was absolutely enthralled at the idea they found a way to bring back the character of Zack Fair back, specially considering how important his death was in shaping the events that took place in the original Final Fantasy VII. So you can imagine how excited I was for Rebirth to immediately pick up from that moment on this seemingly “divergent” timeline, get a taste of Zack’s movements and salivate at the idea of following him along in a new journey in this present world. But as exciting in concept as that was, I feel Zack’s inclusion in this game and the brief sections you check in on him as the very definition of “blue balls”.

It takes until the literal endgame boss gauntlet of the final chapter before he becomes playable, and the point of his sections felt like a very sporadic, convoluted attempt at establishing this game’s version of a “multiverse” that is either a real timeline multiverse, or supposed different existences within the lifestream. Regardless, for a character that’s literally in the box art of the game, I feel Rebirth suggested much bigger involvement for Zack than was delivered, and most of the time, a lot of what was happening in his parts were borderline nonsensical. Considering he’s still gonna be around based on the ending stingers, my hope is the third part makes his involvement considerably more substantial.

And then there’s the ending.

I feel for Square-Enix because I can imagine all the thought processes that led to this moment. The moment that Remake revealed itself as some sort of “Rebuild” of the story and not a direct beat for beat remake of the original game, it was clear where all this was headed. Chances are, if you know about Final Fantasy VII, you know about THE moment. I remember reading about it years ago because it was that significant years after the fact (it even made the front page of The New York Times). It’s the most spoiled spoiler next to the big moment in The Empire Strikes Back. And the way Rebirth handles the moment has definitely made me experience swaths of different emotions.

Rebirth doesn’t hide the fact you know Aerith’s death is coming. It was all over the trailers. It’s teased right at the start of Rebirth, and through different points of this story, starts making it very overt the moment you know it’s coming will happen. And then the moment arrives, and you think this will be the moment the deviation will happen. And then it does. And then it doesn’t. Suddenly, you are confused. You don’t know what happened and don’t know what to feel and what to believe. And describing it that way, it finally hit me what they were able to achieve.

In the original game, if you were not spoiled, Aerith being killed by Sephiroth comes as a complete shock and delivers a sudden emotional punch where you have to deal with the loss of such a wholesome important member of your party, and you carry that weight to the end. In Rebirth, it’s clear the developers intent came from knowing this moment for years has lost the element of surprise that helped add weight to the moment, and instead they tried to dial in with a different feeling: denial. And it’s equally messy and brilliant.

It’s a messy moment that doesn’t recreate the feelings of what it was like losing Aerith in the original game (a moment that even knowing it was coming, still hits), compounded by the fact the moment is followed by a 10-stage boss rush where you are not allowed to feel. But then they do something I didn’t realize as they let the final scenes playout. In the ending scenes, Cloud is in complete denial, thinking she saved Aerith while others clearly show they know she’s gone. And on the criticisms outside the game that either defends the moment as a master plan to pay off later to those that immediately think the moment is just forever ruined, I smell some denial from either side. Almost like if the player is kind of in line with Cloud’s state of mind, and the entire project completely becoming ensnared with the meta nature of what it means to remake this project.

Now, is the execution great overall? I don’t think so. I definitely lamented at the time the emotion was sacrificed, and led to the conflicting emotions I felt over the ending I mentioned in my review. I felt the ending sequences were epic and emotionally stirring and full of moments that would make any fan of Final Fantasy VII smile, but having that clouding the moment definitely soured some of it a bit. But once that washed over and I thought more about it, I felt like this new development of keeping Cloud in denial until Part 3 gives them an option to pay this off if executed right. While I know sudden loss is a powerful emotion, acceptance can be equally powerful if handled right. But whether they handle that right or not, is for the final part of the trilogy to deal with.

*END SPOILERS*

If this retrospective shows anything, it is just the complex, messy nature of Square-Enix’s latest opus, where you can find as many equally brilliant and aggravating moments that just paint the whole tapestry that is Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. Even close to a year out, its maximalism is something I keep admiring, and, for me, it hits more than it misses so much that, even having spent 335 hours on those three playthroughs on PlayStation 5, the newer PC edition already has me chomping at the bit to do it all over again. The problems are obvious and clear, and for anyone that dislikes or hates the game, I understand your feelings, even though its strengths to me put me in the other camp.

At a time where high budget AAA gaming is entering further turbulent waters, I feel games like Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, which maximize all of their aspects, are going to become rarer and rarer unicorns. On its sheer, maximal ambition, even a year later I can’t help but remain in awe at this game existing. Even without my affection for the original game like the most diehard of diehards, the fact I feel this way without nostalgia coloring my love says a lot, and I hope this reverberates as the game reaches the PC audience and beyond as we get to that final part of the trilogy.