Rating: 9/10
Four years after the release of its predecessor, Square Enix’s “Final Fantasy VII Rebirth” for the PlayStation 5 is finally out. The game improved upon many of the flaws of “Final Fantasy VII Remake” presented.
The game is the second installment in a planned trilogy remaking the 1997 title “Final Fantasy VII” released for PlayStation.
It follows Cloud Strife and his crew, who after leaving the city of Midgar behind must go on a quest to find and kill Sephiroth, a rogue soldier who wants to claim the planet as his own.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
While the first game followed more of a linear setup with missions following a guided path for the story and side missions, this title adopts a more open-world approach that allows the player to not only deeply explore the world around them but also lets them complete missions at their own pace.
The open world is massive and full of things to explore including minigames, side missions and character interactions that expand the lore of the world around Strife and his party.
The game makes way for “relationships,” a way to connect more with the other characters, which increases both your interactions with each other and options for combat.
The combat in the game is also more refined and feels as satisfying as ever with the addition of Synergy Abilities. These abilities depend on your selected party as well as the status of your relationship with that character.
All of these different additions and means to explore your path help add to the game’s idea of changing a future that already seems set.
Still, there is one apparent issue with the game: Its missions occasionally feel like bloated time fillers.
Although these specific missions were in the original game and helped to expand the world, they sometimes go on for too long, leaving players to just play along before the next major story development comes around.
If there’s one thing that “Final Fantasy VII” and the franchise as a whole are known for, it would be its incredible selection of music, and “Rebirth” is no exception.
Composers Mitsuto Suzuki and Masashi Hamauzu perfectly encapsulate both the whimsical nature of the game and the serious undertones that often arise in the game’s story.
When riding through the open world on a chocobo, it’s hard to imagine what the game would be like without hearing the music around you.
“Final Fantasy VII Rebirth” contains two different graphical modes including “Graphics” mode, which runs at a targeted framerate of 30 fps at a 4K resolution, and “Performance” mode, which runs at 60 fps at a 1080p or 1440p resolution, depending on the monitor.
Graphics mode is the recommended way to play, due to the fact that the framerate is extremely stable, with it only going under the 30 fps goal in very specific situations.
Additionally, the 4K resolution makes everything pop out and look incredible when seeing large landscapes and focusing on minute details.
On the other hand, running the game in performance mode proved to be a mixed experience, mainly because of the dynamic resolution resulting in an image that looks fuzzy and unpolished.
Although the game feels the smoothest in performance mode, the fuzziness of textures is extremely noticeable, especially when taking a moment to gaze upon the game’s landscapes and character models.
“Final Fantasy VII Rebirth” is an incredible experience that cannot be recommended enough for both fans of the series and newcomers.
Only time will tell when the next entry in the series will be released, but for now, this “reunion” is more than great.
