Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth GameSpot Review

Final Fantasy 7 is a game about a struggle between fate and freedom but also the delicate balance between authorship and agency through gam playay systems that encourage exploration rebirth empowers players to discover the world around them and chart their path through it and through its story it presents a compelling narrative about the destructive impact of exploiting natural resources as well as the human causes and consequences of radical environmentalism but it's a story that ultimately is defined and destined to end in very specific ways for Better or For Worse the equilibrium between contrasting ideologies is rarely perfect and that's evident in Final Fantasy 7 rebirth a game that is rewarding for the dozens of hours it gives agency but is frustrating in the few hours that author the series's [Music] future and there it was the first step on our new Journey you coming while the events of remake were confined to midgar and largely linear rebirth pushes back the borders to let players EXP explore New Horizons on their terms across 60 plus hours Cloud Arif Tifa Barrett and a few other party members follow in the footsteps of the mysterious pale- skinned and dark robed individuals briefly encountered in remake their slow onward March is what plots the groups course through the game's various locals the Journey Begins in The Verdant fields of the grasslands just outside midgard which are Lush with quaint homesteads to stumble upon and dangerous Wetlands to negotiate it's all brought to life with an eye-catching vibrancy accentuated by a rousing orchestral soundtrack built on instantly recognizable musical motifs the grasslands are the ideal place to instill the sense of openness that rebirth uses to differentiate itself from the previous entry in the series while also driving home the magnitude of the task that lies ahead traveling between different areas initially involves navigating treacherous mythal mines and sailing on cruise ships as well as taking cable cars and other forms of transportation and the seams between these areas are noticeable even when it becomes possible to freely move around them but but it's never a problem because they are each substantial enough to create an overwhelming sense of scale it might not be an open world in the traditional sense but its vastness certainly makes it feel like one while it may be more appropriate to say rebirth is made of open zones the things you do within them are typical open world genre fodder what makes Final Fantasy Ser remarkable is that it executes a familiar design template in service of reinforcing key themes of the game it's all driven by World Intel which returning character and Hyper buff and chadly uses to build a database of the world in exchange for material rewards the gameplay Loop involves finding remna wave towers and activating them so they reveal more activities to do in the surrounding area from there you can do combat assignments grab treasure from excavation sites take on powerful fiends investigate sanctuaries or collect resources on paper it's an ordinary and uninspiring formula but its implementation is more thoughtful than it seems Final Fantasy story as a whole is about the damage a parasitic Corporation is doing to the planet by draining it of Marco which in turn is harming the life stream an ethereal energy that gives life to the planet itself remake explored the consequences of this on a small and very human scale by focusing on midgar and its people this perspective was essential to justifying the actions of avalanche who are effectively Eco terrorists by empathizing with people avalanche's actions and fight for the people became righteous rebirth broadens that perspective to show that the fight is also for the future of the planet to illustrate how much higher the stakes are it needs to show the impact that Shinra is having on the world Beyond midgar it successfully does this by engendering a deeper connection and understanding of the world in the player and each activity feeds into strengthening that connection to the world in exchange for character growth LIF springs for example are locations where the life stream has manifested as natural raw Marco and the areas around lifes Springs are small Pockets where nature is thriving with an abundance of natural resources that can be collected and utilized to craft healing items thus reinforcing the idea that the LIF stream and Marco are precious and lifegiving excavation sites require players to use a chocoo to sniff out buried transmuter chips that can be used to forge equipment but these locations are also the scars of so-called progress that comes at the cost of diminishing the power of the life stream combat assignments involve defeating specific fiends in the world but the player is presented with in-depth information about targets that contributes to an evolving understanding of the Ecology of the world and how abuse of Marco has transformed wared it the combat simulator meanwhile is where summons can be challenged and if defeated called to provide Aid in battle however they live up to their legendary status by being incredibly difficult to fight taking very little damage and even unleashing attacks that can instantly Wipe Out the entire party however one of the activities out in the world involves finding sanctuaries which contain crystalline knowledge of these mythical beasts gathering information from a summon designated sanctuaries makes the battle less punishing again this is an extremely smart way of taking a root activity imbuing it with narrative significance and also paying it off with gameplay implications the gameplay in these activities is repeated across each region and rarely takes unexpected turns into new territory or puts a unique spin on the process so it says a lot that even then there isn't a single part of rebirth Overworld activities that comes across as throwaway or pointless whether you enjoy doing them is a matter of personal preference but doing so consistently felt valuable to me the game largely plays the same as remake that is to say it's an expertly constructed Suite of systems that blend the responsiveness of a satisfying action game with the consed and methodical nature of a turn-based strategy game this hybrid was a revelation in remake and it's only been enhanced in rebirth the Improvement comes from a focus on the Synergy between characters which ratchets up the dynamism of combat while also introducing new mechanics to employ In the Heat of battle in rebirth the rate at which the ATB bar fills up is noticeably slower which means that each character will face more of of an uphill struggle when going it alone however rebirth introduces Synergy skills that combine the efforts of multiple characters and when used speed up how quickly the ATB bar fills up Synergy skills can be offensive or defensive and are free to use repeatedly they alone won't win you any fights since most aren't particularly damaging but they can have utility Beyond topping up the ATB bar quickly ath can for example request another character to step in front of danger for her and defend her giving her enough breathing room to use an item or fire offer spell uninterrupted Cloud can have his sword enhanced by tifa's destructive power or aif magic and deliver a Charged overhead slam these Synergy skills are essential to being successful in battle rebirth is noticeably harder than remake because it makes very specific demands of players the previous games pressure and stagger systems return but it's much harder to push enemies onto the back foot since the game is more strict about exploting weaknesses to reach the pressured and staggered States the only way to do it is to execute Synergy skills to quick quickly build ATB bars then fire off Elemental spells buff other abilities or put teammates in a position to do the same the use of certain normal abilities that are marked with an icon also builds towards the use of a drastically more powerful Synergy ability when two characters hit the required amount of synergy they can combine for a flashy cinematic move that looks cool but also deals significant damage and applies Buffs rebirth combat is built on a proven framework which means the underlying systems have been established and set in place however the addition of C allows the game to create conditions where careful strategies need to be employed with the result being battles that are more like combat puzzles Synergy can also enable ridiculous combinations of abilities that are borderline gamebreaking but so much fun to pull off the skill cealing is pretty high for those interested in really pushing the systems to their limits seeing characters rely on each other constantly and having back and forth as they tear down enemies brings an exhilarating new depth to the way combat plays feels and looks it also makes a narrative Dynamic the Lynch pin of its combat which is a little stroke of Genius new for rebirth are weapon skills and the folio system the former is the ability to unlock unique weapon skills by raising the overall weapon level while the L allows players to use skill points to grow their character the system is an open ended to the point where there are lots of possible builds and for the most part it's quite easy to unlock the majority of upgrades but it can be a slow process to do that as a result it's beneficial to focus on a more specific build and adjust for the situation by resetting and redistributing points the biggest question going into rebirth was how it would handle its story and characterization in particular if and how it would change the story that has already played out for the most part it doesn't make any drastic alterations and the broad beats of the story that happened after cloud and Avalanche leave midgar are the same except this time the aforementioned robed individuals are what draw them from one place to the next rebirth does what remake did and brings color and richness to the narrative that simply wasn't possible before by delving deeper into its characters the f seph off and save the world narrative thread gets pushed to the background and left dangling for significant stretches of the game so the main cast can take center stage and it works very well although remake alluded to Back stories and explored them on a very surface level cloud was always the main driver of the narrative this time he effectively plays a supporting role in the story of other characters up until something sephar of related happens much of his story is told to the lens of Tifa who as his mental state begins to spin out of control under the manipulation of sephar off serves as his anchor and it leads are some tender moments importantly the Back stories and the exploration of them don't do anything to diminish the characters and in fact make each character more human and deserving of empathy Barrett returns to his hometown and is met with a cold welcome his demeanor changes from the boisterous idealistic defacto leader of avalanche to being meek and unsure of himself it's not until his tragic history is laid bare that we learn why this is the case there's care and attention paid to these characters there's a reason Final Fantasy 7's character are so beloved and rebirth only strengthens that these individual stories are bolstered by moments that enhance the relationship between characters party members each have bonds with Cloud the strength of which grows depending on dialogue choices and more importantly side missions across each of the game's regions there are people in need of a helping hand these missions are RAR exciting from a gameplay perspective but they provide a nice tonal shift that brings some levity to events they also provide the opportunity to get a better sense of how Shinra has changed the world by speaking to people who hold different ideals and perspectives for every story of tragedy and loss at the hands of Shinra there is a story that inspires hope and a reason to fight on in between these moments is where the main narrative plays out and unfortunately it is much less consistent in quality and confident in its delivery I found the pacing of the game to be a significant issue and it's largely due to the middle stretch being too much like the original version of Final Fantasy 7 a significant chunk of the game becomes at best a distraction and at worst filler after building up steam the main story comes to a grinding halt as the gang essentially goes on multiple vacations and makes frivolous activities their main focus there are key moments within these chapters that move the plot forward introduce characters or carry a lot of emotional weight but they are held hostage by gameplay that is out of place the payoff of these moments is lessened by the exhausting process of jumping through hoops to get to them gold SSA is the most emblematic of the issue it's an iconic part of the original game and while the new version is undoubtedly impressive visually and how it captures the feeling of being in a themee park it primarily exists as a container for a bunch of mini games just like its previous Incarnation these are fun and nostalgic but they're also brick walls to narrative momentum and can't be bypassed I'm all for mini games and the amount of time I spent playing queen Blood a fantastic new in Universe card game that gave me flashbacks to Triple Triad is proof that I love a good distraction but here they're not the distraction they're the focus this kind of thing happens just enough times back to back to disrupt the pace of the game in a maj Maj way without spoiling how the story plays out I found myself confused and frustrated by the time I rolled credits it wasn't enough to spoil how much I enjoy the experience as a whole but enough to be worried that the story may be going somewhere that isn't currently inspiring much enthusiasm from me my biggest concern was that the setup at the end of remake and the implications of it could lead to the story becoming convoluted and sadly that's exactly what happens I can understand what squarex was going for and it's an idea that I like because it's full of potentially interesting narrative Pathways but its delivery is so poor that I don't think most people will see that potential there is one specific moment that has been the subject of will they won't they speculation for years and how it resolves manages to be confusing to the point of being incomprehensible for the original Final Fantasy 7 it became an iconic moment crystallized in the minds of millions by its emotionally devastating impact in rebirth it is bewildering and undermines multiple characters diminishing and obfuscating qualities that Define who they are the decisions they make and their motivations for doing so while also being unclear about what is actually happening aith in particular is robbed of a moment that is so crucial to her character by the messy delivery thankfully what Final Fantasy rebirth succeeds at eclipses what it fumbles it's a superbly designed gameplay experience that instills a sense of Freedom while also making exploration rewarding in a meaningful way refined gameplay that makes character Synergy a focal point Breathe new life into a slick and satisfying combat and all the while it reinforces the underlying themes of the story as a game that has the unenviable task of living up to one of the strongest legacies in the medium it's a worthy second chapter whether Square in can bring it all together in the third and final part will be the subject of much discussion from here on how just like at Destiny's Crossroads at the end of remake an unknown future beckons once again and anything is still [Music] possible [Music]

Channel: GameSpot

Views: 79,055

Keywords:

Id: tRBoMuOwk44

Length: 14min 9sec (849 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 22 2024