Highlights

  • Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth stays true to the original game with iconic moments kept largely intact, side quests kept and extended, and familiar characters explored in more depth.
  • Despite promises of entering bold new story territory, FF7 Rebirth focuses more on extending core moments rather than introducing truly new content to players.
  • Fans of the original game will appreciate the faithful recreation while those seeking more risks and surprises may be a bit let down, though a third installment may provide them.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is finally in players' hands after a four-year-long wait. Players can do a lot within the game, whether that be exploring the rather large world of Gaia, playing a few rounds of Queen's Blood, or gathering intel for Chadley. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth puts the speed at which Cloud and company do things in fans' hands with plenty of freedom, but in terms of what's set in stone story-wise, there's surprisingly very little say in the matter.

When it came to FF7 Remake, players were told that everything beyond Midgar would be unknown territory compared to what would be expected, and developer comments leading up to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth teased the differences quite regularly. However, now that the game is out, it's clear that there are not as many deviations as developer comments and marketing may have led fans to believe, with almost all the core moments of the original Final Fantasy 7 remaining intact and wonderfully extended. It might make fans wonder when the truth to the story will hit, but having more of the original game's scenes than new ones is hardly a bad thing.

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Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Elden Ring, and Horizon Forbidden West
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Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is Arguably More of a Remake Than FF7 Remake Is

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Had a Lot of Ground to Fill, Not Cover

The idea behind the Final Fantasy 7 Remake project is to be just that; a remake. For many years, the developers at Square Enix had spoken about remaking FF7 on more current platforms, but had mentioned it would take immense resources, effort, and even multiple games to cover all the locations they managed to fit in with the help of images on the PS1 title. It seems that the idea of allowing the story to take as many games as it needs was taken to heart, as the first game focuses solely on the city of Midgar.

Midgar's main part of the original game is only roughly four hours, though, so Square Enix chose to focus on filling it with people and side quests galore as many famous scenes were extended, with Avalanche's Biggs, Jessie, and Wedge allowed to be a much bigger part of the main cast. Players not only experienced an extended adventure through memorable locations like Wall Market, but played through entirely new experiences with characters like Roche, and these big changes came with heavy implications that the next game might stray even further from what fans expected.

Truly New Stuff Takes a Backseat to All the Iconic Moments in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Starting up Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth comes with excitement for the familiar and apprehension for the unknown, but ultimately, there is very little unknown against the familiar. There's plenty of new material in FF7 Rebirth, but only through extending scenes far beyond the original, such as the Junon Parade becoming an entire character arc for Cloud. Many moments of the original PS1 game are heavily extended, such as Red's Infantryman disguise comprising an entire quest line, and the Chocobo chicks that players can find in Corel becoming an entire adventure rather than one screen.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth delivers on all the iconic moments that were in the original game, even fixing plotholes as Cloud and crew go from Kalm to the Forgotten Capital. It serves as a humbling reminder that even with the Whispers, the early inclusion of the Weapons, and the curious case of Zack Fair, the entire FF7 Remake project is just that; a remake project. It's great for fans of the original game, but those invested in the newer parts of FF7 Rebirth's story have to play the entire game to get answers. It could very much be said that there was room for a few more risks to have been taken in terms of the underlying story, but more surprises will likely come in the third game to wrap everything up.