Final Fantasy VII: Remake, in my opinion, ended on a very strong point in the game. It covered a core early part of the game, setting up that this was a series that wasn’t just reiterating the story, but was also in dialogue with the concept of remakes and reimaginings, and the expectations that come with that. It set up a sequel in Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth that was more wide open, and which I was eagerly looking forward to. I was not disappointed.
Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth opens using Cloud’s flashback recounting of the incident in his home town that lead to its destruction, Sephiroth’s turn to evil (well, extra evil, since he was already working for Shinra), and does a great job both using that as a tutorial for the player, but also setting up a core narrative thread for the game. Specifically, re-emphasising that Sephiroth is in Cloud’s head, and it’s impacting his memories and his perception of reality. This was a lesser part of the original game, and was more present in Remake than in the original title, but still not as much of a narrative focus there as it was here. I think the concept is handled well in this game, and executed well enough to make for a good emotional climax in the third game.
From there, we get our journey across the overworld in pursuit of Sephiroth, with various expansive areas to explore, each with various side quests and monster hunting opportunities (provided by Chadley), plus summons to acquire. It can be overwhelming (to the point that I ended up not finishing the Chocobo racing questline, so my Gold Saucer date was with Aerith instead of Tifa), but the stories around those side quests are still fun.
Visually, the game is stunning, and when the Tiny Bronco goes into boat mode late in the game, it allows you to take it anywhere by sea. It manages to successfully live up to the promise of Final Fantasy games by giving you that moment where the world feels like it opens up, even though the game has Fast Travel, so you could do that backtracking anyway.
Where things feel a little ehh is in the chapter framing stories with Zach’s timeline. This ends up feeling like it doesn’t quite go anywhere until the very end. It’s a bummer because it took a moment from the end of the first game where I was asking, favorably, “Where are they going with this?” and had me repeating the question as a negative.
In all, I was satisfied with Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. The meta-narrative themes are carried over well from the first game, the controls are great, the story was a blast, and the world feels big in the way it should be. I’m absolutely looking forward to seeing how the story finishes.
Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth is available from Humble Store (Affiliate Link).
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