Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: improving on what’s present

Final Fantasy VII Reborn It is the second part of three games that make up a complete remake of the original game that was released on PlayStation. This brings us to the continuation of the first part, which was very popular, although it left many unknowns about whether the game will be part of the game full of open world areas and numerous locations in the original title to maintain the level or even improve it compared to the first part.

Since Rebirth is now available on PlayStation 5 and we were able to test it, we will see the result that this part will achieve.

In Rebirth, Square Enix tells the story of Avalanche, a group of rebels trying to put an end to Shinra, a corporation that consumes vast amounts of the planet’s resources, generates energy, and secretly conducts dangerous experiments at the same time. to create samples from Genova, a creature from the ancient world that had great powers. In the first volume, Avalanche managed to destroy one of the Shinra reactors and escape from Midgar. Now it’s time to track down Sephiroth, a former Shinra soldier who, in addition to his extraordinary abilities, also has very twisted plans for the future of the planet.

A huge world to explore

So we start the game with a chapter where we learn more about the origin of Sephiroth’s plans. After this spectacular flashback, we jump right in to cut to the chase. In this way, we will have to explore locations, just as we could see in the original game, composed of cities and settlements, large open world areas and also dungeons.

In terms of locations, we will travel through Kalm, Junon, Costa del Sol and others where the main story will take place, closely following the original game’s plot. We will thus be able to relive the great moments that made Final Fantasy VII so successful, accompanied by various additions that delve deeper into the characters and history of the game universe. It must be said that the level of detail and recreation achieved in these locations is extraordinary. You can identify the iconic elements that appeared in each location of the original game, but they are much larger locations and with a lot more activities to do. And one of the big surprises of this game is the huge number of mini-games that we will have at our disposal, which will ensure us good fun.

Regarding the open world areas, it must be said that we will find many new features that were not in the previous game and that are common in other open world games. Tower control, hunting special monsters, searching for crystals, artifacts, treasures and even collecting materials. And now, based on these materials, we can synthesize all types of items, such as consumables or equipment. This is a new mechanic that will allow us to make better and better items as we gain synthesis experience and collect more and more types of materials, something we will appreciate at certain times when we are short of potions or other consumables.

All in all, the open world areas offer us a wide variety of activities. And of course, in order to explore this whole world, we will be able to use chocobos, which we will be able to catch on this occasion and call them to go from one place to another. As with many other aspects of the game, capturing chocobos is based on how it was in the original game. Once captured, we can fast travel through various key points in the open area, making exploration easier. But not all chocobos we find are the same, in each territory the chocobos will have a unique ability to travel through certain areas of the stage, meaning that each territory is explored in a different way.

In short, the scenarios of Final Fantasy Rebirth are very varied and extensive. And although all these secondary missions are beyond the plot of the game, they are quite fun and bring us worthwhile rewards.

A combat system that works but with new features

And as we travel through the vast world of Rebirth, we will of course encounter endless enemies to test our fighting skills. The combat system is very similar to the Remake system on this occasion: we can attack with the main weapon, take cover or avoid combat, and as the BTC bars load, slow down the time to perform a special action, skill, summon or, as a novelty, a synchronized skill.

Synchronized skills require our characters to learn skills that they can perform with another party member. This way we can perform one of these synchronized skills together with another character at the exact moment. These are skills that, in addition to being very attractive, are very powerful and on certain occasions become necessary to defeat the boss.

Fun mini-games are everywhere

Another thing that we will find during the game is countless mini-games. The original game boasted a large number of them, but this time we’ve lost count of all the ones we’ve already played. And be careful, because these are not simple and meaningless mini-games, but in general they are well-crafted and offer very interesting mechanics. A clear example is the card game Sangre de la Reina, which, while fairly easy to learn and play, offers fast-paced games that are quite engaging. It is also very important throughout the game. But there are many more examples: chocobo time trial, Fort Condor, playing piano songs, moogle hunting, a game similar to Rocket League with Red XIII, etc.

Due to the large number of minigames, the secondary missions are very restrained and better integrated into the character narrative, the game’s story or the world itself. They are quite varied and range from very simple to some that will give us access to areas of the map that can only be discovered in this way, which in turn will give us access to new missions. We certainly liked this approach a lot more than how it was done in the Remake. Of course, they sometimes only activate after we’ve completed some part of the main story, which means we have to explore the map multiple times.

A production with an unforgettable soundtrack

If Rebirth’s story and gameplay are top notch, technical section. First, we’d like to highlight the soundtrack. The original was already amazing and a great job was done at Remak. But this time the result is simply amazing. They masterfully complement any situation and make the most memorable moments even better. In addition, it is incredibly varied, there are a lot of themes and small pieces for the moments when the characters are listening to music there or you get close to the band playing. In short, a great piece of work, which for our taste is done better than in Remak, because on the previous occasion there was an area with a rather burdensome musical accompaniment.

Now yes goes to agraphic part, Rebirth looks to be of a high standard, especially in the environments and characters of the main story. It is common for video scenes to look like we are watching an animated movie. The level of detail of the protagonists is huge. In addition, the scenes are handled with very well-crafted camera transitions that allow us to enjoy the detailed environment.

For their part, the cities are very elaborate, with endless details that give each a unique personality. It’s worth looking around these places to enjoy all the work behind them.

On the other hand, there are open world areas and dungeons that also look very good, but leave something to be desired at short distances. Mainly because some of the textures are low resolution and the characters are rather bland.

A much more complete game and completely comparable to the original

All in all, Final Fantasy Rebirth makes us an adventure full of great moments that will remain engraved in our retinas, whether or not we are lovers of the original game, even if we have not played the Remake, because the story carries itself very well. independent of the previous part. It shows that there is a lot of care and work behind the game. They really made the most of the less than four years that passed from Remake to Rebirth.

Apart from that, we also really liked the way each character is highlighted as well as the friendship between them. We will put ourselves in the situation of many of them in different parts of the game, they will tell us many moments of their past lives, we will have to communicate with them by choosing dialogue options that will change our affinity to them. encouraged to use them in combat to make better use of synchronized skills and much more. However, each character is a protagonist during the game and not just a companion.

With reference to duration of the game, if we focus on the main story, it is possible to finish it in just over 40 hours. But if we want to complete a good part of the secondary missions, we can easily go over 100 hours. And in our opinion, there’s definitely a lot of other content that’s worth it, especially for the well-crafted mini-games and the fact that you can get all the summons and power-ups. Of course, there are some optional quests that we think went a bit over the top for us to complete because once it seems like you’ve done it, it turns out you haven’t and you have to do a new quest. . Something that admittedly sometimes gives the impression that the quest has been somewhat artificially expanded to generate more content.

You can buy Final Fantasy Rebirth on the Sony website or in the retail channel from 69 euros.