I *very* strongly recommend: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Review)

this video is brought to you by Channel partner 3 years running steel series get 12% off their award-winning range of headsets mics keyboards and more when you visit steelseries.com and use offer code skill up a checkout click the link below to check it out or stick around to the end of the video to learn more first of all this review is a spoiler review I'm going to spoil basically the whole game so if you are still working through it or you plan to play it at some point in the future then come back later reason for doing spoilers is because you know the game's been out for a month now everyone knows it's good so if we're going to have a interesting chat about it at this point it probably has to be in the context of spoilers Final Fantasy 7 rebirth is a game about the measure of will how strong is the will of cloud and his buddies to chase down Sethro and save the planet from his meteoric rise to omnipotence how strong is the will of Shinra and their goons to get in Cloud's way protecting their commercial hegemony while also maintaining their search for the promised land how strong is the will of you the player to push through over 100 hours of content available on just your first playthrough with plenty more hours on offer for those willing to chase that Platinum completion trophy most importantly I think this is a game about the measure of square enix's will to deliver something so massive so complete and so extraordinary that it becomes a watershed moment in sare enx history Final Fantasy 7 rebirth is so breathtakingly massive so incredibly dense so remarkably polished and so relentlessly inventive that I couldn't stop thinking about what it would have taken to make this video game at a company like Square enx this is a big Legacy game maker and publisher who have had far more misses than hits over the past decade they've made bets in the live service space that didn't pay off they've dabbled in the nft space they've sold off their Western operations to embrace a group they closed luminous studio just last year after fores spoken bombed they've announced just recently that they plan to reduce the number of games they're releasing and overhaul their process for making games You' think that all of this stuff would naturally lead to a more risk averse business one that wants to make safe bets limit development budgets and carefully control scope now look this review is not going to be a comparison of Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7 rebirth but I will say this 16 really did feel like that more limited carefully scoped project controllable party members cut expansive open worlds cut diverse side content cut voice NPCs and side quest cut meaningful itemization cut RPG systems cut final fantasy 16 was definitely ambitious in its new combat system its tonal shift and its spectacle but it also really felt like a product designed to ship on time and on budget in contrast I shudder to even imagine how much money it would have cost to make Final Fantasy 7 rebirth or what it would have been like to manage the team of people responsible for its disperate components team meetings would be like ah hey man have you finished designing that automated Mech miname that follows the wedge flashback sequences and ties into the 20 stage Gilgamesh Proto Quest chain oh no sorry boss I was doing the choreography for the Thriller inspired dance sequence at the end of the optional Queens blood tournament on the boat to Costa Del Soul I thought about this so much as I was playing through rebirth and as I did so I constantly felt this sense of gratitude whilst playing it right now we know the games like Horizon forbidden West and The Last of Us two cost $200 million to make and Spider-Man somehow cost $300 million the entire industry is being paralyzed by lack of investment resulting in not only layoffs but Studio closures and projects being cancelled like idos Montreal were working on a new DSX game but now they're not because that publisher felt it was too risky to invest the money to make it talented single player Focus Studios have been wasted forced to make live service goop that no one but investors asked for increasingly I just feel like every expansive ambitious polished AAA single player game without any in-game spending is a small miracle and it feels like they're going to become more and more rare as time goes on that's why I feel that feeling of gratitude when I play a game like Elden ring or balers gate or Allen wake 2 or Final Fantasy 7 rebirth having said all of that rebirth is at least in small part a victim of square enix's inexhaustible willingness to deliver the open world elements while always optional can become exhausting if you fall into the Trap of trying to complete all of them as even the impressive diversity of sign activities cannot fully saave off a sense of repetitiveness that begins to set in especially when you reach the single worst design open world space in the history of video games gone Gaga similarly rebirth is also victim to the inherent difficulty of adapting an original story delivered in a single 40-hour game to one delivered across three games of likely more than 150 hours it does often feel Meandering and padded and some of the more egregious pacing checks like ca Delo the golden saucer and the Kate Sith Le trip back to Shinra Mana really do great when you're trying to keep the story moving I wish I could say that none of these things dulls the impact of final Fant 7 rebirth but I do think it does or more specifically it may depending on your level of tolerance or patience for some it's going to feel like a great game made good owing to how far and thin it's been spread for others they may see rebirth as a rich Buffet where the only real enemy is your own gluttony personally I fall into the latter category as someone Who sampled every map marker every miname and every optional side quest I do think that rebirth could have been leaner and more focused and if I imagine a play where I only sampled the game's Essential Elements and best side offerings then some pacing issues aside rebirth would be as near to perfect as I could imagine this really is just a remarkable video game hearkening back to the PS1 and PS2 era of Final Fantasy games when Square anx Road high as not only the Undisputed masters of the jrpg but also one of the finest game makers on the planet come on [Music] [Music] he wants to reclaim his birth right and rule over the planet Final Fantasy 7 rebirth is the story of Chadley an omnipotent AI who manipulates a group of strangers into feeding him training data while also hurting them towards a showdown with Gaming's most problematic right winger SEO wait sorry I've just been handed the approved story outline courtesy of enx and apparently someone named cloud is the main character well how come Chadley has more lines of dialogue than anyone else in the game Square the person who speaks the most is usually the protagonist right but okay fine we play along Final Fantasy 7 rebirth continues the story of cloud an ex soldier who teams up with a bunch of eco- Freedom Fighters known as Avalanche what begins as a mission to disrupt shinra's energy infrastructure soon blossoms into a more elaborate battle for the fate of the planet with cloud and his buddies trying to save it Shinra trying to ring dry and Sethro trying to blow it the hell up now Square will tell you that you don't need to have played Final Fantasy 7 remake before playing rebirth and to be super clear that is a total lie this is a continuation of a story that began in the previous game a huge amount of the character building work for the core cast Cloud Barrett Tia and aith was done in that previous game it's expanded on here but if you were to jump straight into rebirth you'll likely be very confused about what the is going on but you'd also be missing the the unmissable story of how this group came together and what motivates them in this fight for the planet remake was criticized for the fact that it took a section of the original that played out over a few hours and stretched it out into a 25 to 40 hour game the argument being that it felt aimless and padded overly indulgent and ultimately was little more than a dating simulator where three girls all vied for clouds affections there's some truth to all of that but I think that criticism kind of misses the point of what Square were doing with remake it was a story about a group of eco- Freedom Fighters messing up Shinra and it was setting up the broader events that would play out in the next two games but more than that it was a very deaf introduction of each of the main characters remake took extraordinary care to introduce each character to explore their backstories to show their capabilities and to build indisoluble connections to cloud and to the group as a whole Square took a group of characters that we loved in a 32-bit 480p 3x4 context and filled them with such personality depth and emotion that we could love them again in this 4ast era remake is often praised for its presentation and combat both of which are astonishingly good but the real strength of that game was the writing and the performances and the artists and animators who made each of these characters feel so real and so worth spending time with with so much of that character building work done for the core cast rebirth fac an immediate challenge how do you continue that development well part of the answer comes in the form of new characters added to the roster namely red 13 yui Kate Sith and sort of Vincent red was obviously introduced at the end of remake but he gets a proper showing here in rebirth he's a full member of the party and just like everybody else he gets to ride the chokobo cuz we don't want our very good boy left out and also cuz it looks very funny and square absolutely rule for doing this red story line is one of the big standouts in rebirth we meet him and think that he's this Sage Elder until suddenly When we arrive at his hometown and we learn that he's just a pop with a different voice and everything hey guys it's me I'm back Moni I can't believe it it really is you his trial below Cosmic Canyon his Revelations about his father the connection to the ghee and their forging of the black materiaal the flashbacks to hojo's experiments Red's entire story arc is not only emotionally resonant but also integral to the broader plot and red feels like a character built with the same love and care that the core cast were the same cannot be said of yui admittedly she does get a pretty great introduction that sets her up as the comic relief you picked the wrong girl creep what after this though yui remains pretty one node constantly banging on about her material addiction at even the most inappropriate of moments so like all that stuff down there is Mako yep then it's got to be hiding some ginormous Materia woohoo oh I'm going to be so powerful it's scary it doesn't help that yui never really gets a moment in the spotlight here though that is likely to occur in the next game my main problem is that she's just kind of annoying and one-dimensional compared to the rest of the cast I get she's meant to be the silly Kawai one but when your Shinra executive controlled Mughal mounted cat automaton has more depth and emotional range than you I think you need some new hobbies outside of material hunting speaking of which Kate Sith joins the gang settling once and for all how we should pronounce Kate Sith despite the protestations of the Scottish luckily they did cast an honest to goodness Scotsman in the role and rather than it be an over-the-top and silly performance as you might expect from a character that looks like this it's actually a really Human Performance and Kate Sith exudes something very real despite being objectively the fakest member of the Party come on Pal give us a smell the gold saucer is meant to be a happy place filled with happy people don't you know so show those par wers Vincent is introduced but only briefly and then he just kind of hangs back for the rest of the game fair enough I guess he gets his time to shine later in the story and Sid highwind joins with various variations of the Bronco and the reveal of his name is delivered with endless amounts of charming heroic braderie we're flying no kid who do you think I am I don't know who president and pilot of Bronco Airlines s High WI pleasure having you board the new cast members all add their own color flavor and charm to the party and to the unfolding events but even in their best moments they still feel like seasoning sprinkled at top the core cast of Cloud aith Tifa and Barrett this remains primarily a story about those four people and even though a huge amount of character work was done in the first game there's more here and most of it is just as good Cloud continues bit by bit to open up he still very Cloud silent stoic impossible to impress but there are sometimes the little moments when that tough exterior cracks and those are the best cloud moments like this one when Cloud seeks to comfort Barrett after the death of his best friend Dy well we're here for [Music] you help take the load off I mean it man yeah starting to think you might moments like that really get me and I think it's the Rarity of them that continues to cement Cloud as a compelling character Tia becomes an even more Central character here in rebirth but in more subtle and interesting ways in the first game we dated Tifa but here Tifa becomes the lens through which we view Cloud sprawling Madness she's there with him in Cloud's imaginings of the events of neheim she knows how nuts he is but she won't tell him because she'd rather support him than confront him the fact that she's nearly killed by cloud is proof of just how Danger dangerous it is for her to stay this close to cloud while he's going through all this but she Remains unerring the absolute best story moments that rebirth delivers are barretts this is a man who loves three things protein the planet and his princess marene Barrett's imposing physical presence and quicke headedness have always been balanced out by his gushing love of his daughter and that same love is on display here in rebirth especially in this one exchange when he's talking about the day when Marlene will eventually grow up and leave home as much as I want to let a fly I don't know if I'll be able to let go when the time maybe I'll Panic get in away holding down all to keep us safe oh my I wish you could be my baby girl forever but his love of Marlene takes on new significance when we learn how Marlene came into his care and we learn that through the ballad of Dy it begins with Barrett's arrival at Carell when he's publicly mocked and Barrett always quick to act does nothing the layers are pulled back when we learn about Barrett's role in bringing Shinra to the town voting down his best friend who warned of shinra's corrosive influence it crescendos with a flashback to the moment when Barrett lost everything his hometown his best friend his wife and his arm and it concludes with a final showdown with Dy the biological father of Barrett's now daughter one that ends tragically for all involved I don't know about you guys but this chapter of the game really really got to me and I think that when it comes to depth of characterization Barrett stands hidden shoulders Above the Rest of the party in more ways than one D baby I'm home I feel like Square wanted me to be saying that of aith here in rebirth but I don't think they land it aith takes s a stage in rebirth for obvious reasons but there's a real disconnect between how important aith is versus how compelling she is as a character we get so much aith time during this game from backstory flashbacks to plot Centric exposition to Whimsical date nights and all of it is important and meaningful and well handled but I just never like hanging out with aith I she's just kind of boring she is very aware of her fate and she has a noble stoicism that stops her from despairing but that Relentless optimism makes her feel almost glass-eyed like you really want moments where her Humanity falters under the weight of her Divine Birthright but those moments just don't really come and a such arth seems to kind of vacantly Shuffle towards her fate in much the same way that the robes do it's partly for this reason that I really felt nothing when the big moment happened like that was meant to be the emotional climax of this entire game arguably the entire trilogy but I found this moment less affecting than it was when I saw it two decades ago and that's not because I knew it was coming mind you I think it's a testament to the greatness of this remake that we know most of what's coming but it still hits us like a truck because square has successfully reimagined characters and events to make them more effecting the big exception to that is erth's death and I think a lot of that is due to the fact that aith doesn't exhibit the the same depth and emotional range that the rest of the cast do like if Tifa or Barrett died I'd be inconsolable but er's piecing out and I'm like I'm kind of okay with that surely that is not where I should have landed after the extraordinary lengths that square went through to get me to care about ER let me finish the discussion on characters by saying this it's easy to pull out one character or the other and say this is good this is bad whatever taking a step back though when viewed as a whole rebirth absolutely continues the incredible characterization that remake delivered it's a little more patchy and it doesn't hit all its goals but this cast this party this group of people this is one of the best casts in any video game full stop it was back in 1997 and it is again here in 2024 and that's not because Square just copied what they did before because that wouldn't have worked our expectations for what a good character is are so different today and the technology required to bring characters to life is infinitely more complex Square really needed to keep getting this right because stretching out a single story across three games means that you're going to have a lot of downtime and you're going to fill those gaps with character moments they don't all hit as hard as you might hope but most of them do and it's these moments that you'll remember about rebirth most of all far more than the spectacle or the boss battles or anything else lead on yes the cat of the hour [Music] ha structurally Final Fantasy 7 rebirth is a vastly more ambitious game than what remake was delivering not only a linear main scenario but also a range of open world spaces to explore a huge number of side quests some of them spanning the entire game as well as Myriad mini games to muck around in for pleasure or profit the core of it though is that main scenario it's 14 chapters which play out over about 50 hours if you beline them that already makes it around 60 to 70% larger than remake's main scenario but not all of that play time feels entirely necessary and we'll come back to that later for now though I will say that most of your rebirth playthrough will be incredible owing to the spectacle imagination and diversity of gameplay that square have brought to bear remake was quite Limited in terms of what it served up sure there was a bike Chase sequence and we'll never forget how conflicted we all felt the first time we saw Cloud on a dress but on the whole the Remake was a lot of running through city streets and sewers and Shinra buildings fighting goons while waiting for the next cut scene to roll I loved it don't get me wrong but it had a predictability to it in rebirth you have absolutely no idea what's coming at you at any point in time one minute you're farewelling Barrett's closest friend and the next minute you're in a Mad Max style desert Chase with a giant Mech piloted by a Dotty Shiner executive one minute you're fighting to defend newborn chicklets one of whom has the same haircut as Cloud for some reason and the next minute you're in a mine cart trying to maximize your points by shooting carefully stacked Shinra crates one minute you're on a date with ath at the golden sorcer and the next minute you're in a QuickTime event theater production starring Barrett and red 13 as the bad guys the entire parade sequence in junon is incredible running around town to collect seventh infantry before leading them in their drills while shinra's new president watches on and I'll never forget the arrival at the golden saucer culminating in a virtual boxing match with the saucer own liver King Dio and I say that because Dio is definitely juicing hard let's be real rebirth is just Relentless in desire to surprise you and not just with flashy cut scenes that you watch but with new gameplay experiences that you participate in supported by new gameplay mechanics when Barrett and red are separated in the myal minds Barrett has the ability to Blast Away rocks opening up New Paths to explore when exploring the gongaga reactor yui gets the ability to use a grapple an ability that cloud gets hold of later on which opens up new places to explore in the open world it's not all good mind you I mean that shitty vacuum puzzle is back from the first game I certainly groaned when I saw this making a return but on the whole rebirths main scenario is characterized by its near Relentless inventiveness and playfulness it's also characterized by its spectacle which is Manifest in so many ways some of the best are the boss battles meeting midgard s in the grassland swamp just before you enter the mythal mines every battle with the Turks fighting Ro in junon and again outside Shinra Mana fighting Rufus in the arena at the golden sorcer and literally dozens of other boss encounters each of them delivering such highs not only because of how how good they look but also how well they play the playability of rebirth is so easy to overlook when you're seeing all the flashy cut scenes roll this is not a game that is dependent on its cut scenes to deliver the best moments it would much rather you keep your controller in hand having said that there are moments when rebirth is content to put on a show for you and it isn't always big flashy spectacle sometimes it's something quietly beautiful the festival of light in Cosmic Canyon is one such moment just something really nice to sit with [Music] it's not just visual Beauty mind you it's also a beautifully written game at times there's a line of dialogue from remake that got a lot of attention because it was patched and updated it was aith talking about the sky in the original she said I miss it the steel sky but Square patched it and now she looks up and says the sky I don't like it it's a subtle change but I think it sets up for this line of dialogue that comes in the grasslands got to say it's kind of nice looking up and seeing a blue sky beats a steel worm that's for [Music] sure though at least with the steel Sky you know your limits out here it's endless kind of get What er was saying now there's a lot in a line like that it's saying a lot without it saying it aloud and there were many such lines that I encountered throughout my playthrough where they just kind of drop in from out of nowhere and i' catch myself just sitting and thinking on them for a moment but as thoughtful and poignant as it can be rebirth can also be utterly ridiculous and really funny like this crazy Queens blood player you meet in calm people call me cry baby dead because the more tears I shed the better I get it que Blood please play around with me a trip to the gym is full of some unexpectedly colorful characters fet power through muscle fibers get lock liit eat that dick back to the tonberry dehumidifier in the horror Hotel was a real [Music] highlight the ability to shove the Rope dudes during one sequence was extremely cathartic and henceforth I hope that every single escort quest in every video game gives me this option but the comedic kemem has got to be the chicken Roundup quest which involves luring back a number of wayward chickens who you thought were beloved pets but it turns out they were dinner say good night pepp I don't think I've ever met such nice young people come back anytime you he there's plenty more scrumptious grilled chicken where that came from they they could have lived long and happy lives running free if I hadn't well we all got to [Music] eat tonally rebirth is such a brilliant smogus Board of the silly and the serious and combined with that other smus board of very optional side quest and open world activities rebirth had every chance of achieving the sort of Pitch Perfect pacing that would be the Envy of any massive RPG sadly though Square did not know when to say when and by far the biggest weakness of rebirth is that it's still a story told originally in one game now stretched out over three sometimes that gives the story room to breathe particularly when it comes to character work other times and often at the back end of this game it's very clear that square are working very hard to Pat out rebirth runtime these pacing issues manifest in two ways the first is a number of sec quences that just feel like they take too damn long Red's trial beneath Cosmic Canyon for example is a great story beat but it does feel like it could have been delivered in about half the time the trip through the cetra temple is obviously meant to be a big climax but did we really need to play through certain sections twice just to see the perspective of all party members the worst has got to be the trip back to Shinra Mana so you can get access to some special Shinra terminal I mean first of all the entire setup for that is just super weak it really does feel like calling it support would have been more efficient secondly getting in there and having to throw boxes in this annoying multi-level puzzle thing was just not fun in large part because it was clearly just a progression check at a time when the story was really meant to be moving at this point you just wanted to get to the cetra temple to begin what you know will be the climax of the game but instead you're steering this puppet around while he plays box toss the other main pacing issue is when the optional becomes compulsory I'm talking of course about the mini games and shenanigans at places like cadel soul and the golden sorcer CAD Del soul in particular feels like a real break check when you've just had this big epic escape from the clutches of shinus President himself and you're now in this new land ready to explore but instead you're riding around on a segue playing dog rocket League though to be fair this setting does play host to one of Tia's best moments in the entire game oh ta my life my love name my everything you're not quoting Johnny are you what a disappointment see I was expecting someone very different someone Metropolitan and sheep who lights up every room she walks into I have no idea what he sees in you um excuse me sto the tude it's fine I uh I get this all the time that some kind of humble brag in remake these Slice of Life Filler episodes fit more naturally because we were still getting to know these characters and once you sunk into the overall rhythm of that that game another hangout session with your buddies or another date night with one of the ladies just felt normal here in rebirth it's like we've got to do we've got to save the planet and instead we're doing mini gamess to earn coupons so we can buy swimwear so we can get down to the beach and sure the payoff is absolutely worth it don't get me wrong but it would have been better if sequences like this remained as optional as the rest of the game's other side content when it comes to this main story line there's the other elephant in the room and that's the way that square are looking to deliver a new version of this story in the remade Trilogy this is not a onetoone beat for beat retelling of the first game it's making some very big changes that are frankly hard to judge until we see where all of this lands and I think that in itself is kind of a failure like there's an entire section of this game where you play as Zach and it's cool that he's part of the story in some way it's cool that there's clearly some like Multiverse stuff going on I'm actually very into it but the little breadcrumbs we given during his sequences never really amount to much and his sequences just feel really unsatisfying I kept waiting for the moment when the prologue to Zach's story would end and I'd be oriented toward his new goals and would be able to begin working towards something but Zach's entire storyline here is a prologue to events that are sure to unfold in the final game that's interesting as a concept but the execution feels really clumsy and ideally these sequences should have been both satisfying in their own right while also setting up what's to come the handling of erth's death is also less impactful here in rebirth it lacks the finality that made the original game so affecting again it's an interesting twist to explore what cloud might say to aith after she's gone or more interesting still to imagine that afterlife erith is just another manifestation of cloud shattered mind but if those questions were to be picked up at some point I think it might have been better to do so at the beginning of the next game rather than at the end of this one it never actually felt like aith died here she is literally sitting next to you while you're mourning her death again I'm not against making changes to how events play out but for me this is one of the rare missteps of the Remake Trilogy weakening a moment where everything else felt strengthened and deepened the combination of these timeline changes the pacing issues and the overall need to lengthen this story out to cover three full games leaves rebirth in a similar position to remake in that the plot is less affecting than your relationship to the game's characters this remains a game that lives and dies by your connection to your party members and if you're all in on that then it's so easy to forgive or handwave away rebirths pacing or story issues because it's almost like that stuff is rather incidental to the various character Centric stories that play out within your party but if you're looking for something that's able to strike a better balance between main plot and character Exposition it's likely you'll find rebirth to be self-indulgent and unwieldy speaking of unwieldy let's talk about that open [Music] world [Music] all right I want to be really clear right off the top Final Fantasy 7 rebirth open world is one of the best open worlds in all of video games it is remarkable it's remarkable I know it's really easy to dismiss it for its repetitive structure across each Zone and how played out many of its activities are like climbing towers for example I've seen a lot of discourse being like Oh it's a shame they got Ubisoft to design the open world and it's like man have you played a Ubisoft game show me the Ubisoft game that has this many different activities to do this many enemies to fight this many funny rewarding poignant side quests that not only provide valuable rewards but also deepen your connection to both Main and Side characters this many musical tracks that go this hard and that seamlessly transition from low-key exploration music to explosive Combat music and back to the same exploration track without losing a single 44 beat like me the work that has gone into this open world is astounding and I will not stand for offhand dismissal of it because it has radio towers it is so massive and so impressive that it's hard to know where to begin talking about it but let me start at the highest level stuff first yes there are six open world spaces in rebirth and yes each of them are structured quite similarly Chadley Chadley he's your guide in these spaces marking points of interest on your map and sending you toward them so you can collect training data Chadley is an AI after all and like any good AI it's relying on other people to do the work so that it can then take credit for it the rewards for doing chat's work are pretty basic but they are compelling they're Materia that you can't get anywhere else in the game generally speaking and given how important material is to your combat repertoire you do want to chase these things but they are definitely not essential and furthermore you can pick the order in which you acquire this material so if there's one you really want you can just around in the open world for a little bit do a few activities collect the material you're chasing and then continue on your Merry way bottom line you're never forced to do anything in the open world and the incentive structure never subtly forces you to either it's always entirely optional obviously that's a very good thing on some level but at the same time some of the very best parts of this entire game are found in this optional open world content the Proto Relic Quest chain in particular is so good that I feel like it should have been part of the main campaign rather than something that people might miss entirely this is a quest chain that spans the entire game from the grasslands right through to the open ocean area that becomes accessible near the end of the game it's so wildly inventive at each stage and outside of the golden sorcer it is the best Showcase of just how Relentless Square have been with their desire to go above and beyond expectations it starts small in the grasslands with the return of those goofy bandits from remake it's more about comedic silliness than anything else here but it does hint at something larger when you get a sudden flash of a mysterious armored Samurai H up in a hidden temple things take a dramatic step up in junon where the fort Condor mini game is brought to life with Incredible visual charm and not for nothing but the tower defense is pretty tight and there's even an expert difficulty available if you want to push yourself after that we're mowing down cact in Carell and then we're in the middle of some Turk training program in gongaga finally we reached Cosmic Canyon and the gears and Gambit miname here is so thoroughly designed that you can save team composition loadouts in this miname it took Bungie 8 years to give us loadout in Destiny and square enx deliver them in a mini game this is also the quest chain that provides flashbacks to Wed shedding new light on who he was as a character and his fate that's what I'm talking about when I say that some of this stuff should have been on the golden path it's just too good and too important for people to miss the fact that all of this culminates in the reveal of a secret open world location and ingame Boss run challenge where you fight against the summon entities two at a time it's genuinely nuts how much work went into just this single optional totally ible open World quest chain and look I'm not going to pretend that everything else in the open world is as good as this yeah the radio towers are kind of lame we've all been there and done that many times before doing a little qte to help unlock new summons is equally unimpressive and I would have much rather those final showdowns with those summons happen somewhat other than the metaverse chasing spectral owls towards Marco crystals or baby chocobos towards rest stops is perhaps a little too close to the ghost of sushi my mar and don't even get me started on these Mughal and they're I could strangle each and every one of them by the end of my [Music] playr here you go but the monster hunts are a genuine highlight there's a really expansive best on offer here each enemy having a range of different attacks and Elemental weaknesses each of them becoming more interesting to fight when combined with other enemy types and each region culminates in a boss battle which is really unique and really worth while so the overall quality of these open world activities definitely waxes and waines but what's consistent are the rewards which again are not essential but they are worth your time the transmute system allows you to craft armor upgrades and consumables and I was able to maintain a regular supply of new upgrades and useful items by committing to the side content again I didn't need to but I found that I wanted to without feeling like I was being forced to and that incentive structure is exactly where you want to land when it comes to optional side content but the biggest rewards I got from doing optional content wasn't from the open world activities it was from the side quest the ones denoted by a green exclamation mark usually found in and around the townships these were the quests that weren't just giving me useful items they were also giving me great storylines that showed me something about the world and the characters that resided in it very cleverly each of these side quests thrust one of your party members to cloudside so this becomes a moment for the two of you to connect and solve a problem together and that's made even more interesting by the fact that most of the time you're doing something a little different there's one Quest where I have to escort a little little dog across the map that one's all about Parenthood which is why Barrett is the featured companion and that's the quest where he gives his little speech about marleene growing up and leaving home there's another one where I go out picking flowers with aith because flowers are kind of ath thing in Cosmic Canyon the flying Chocobo test course is a great moment for yui to cut loose while an absolutely ridiculous Fall Guys themed frog Quest thing showcases teeth as more playful and nurturing side in a game where she's often just very worried about Cloud's wellbeing ribbit ribbit hey ribbit ribbit ribit ribbit there are a few of these quests in each Zone and almost all of them deliver this careful balance of tangible rewards diverse gameplay and narrative payoffs it's just really great side quest design that made me feel excited to see more green markers pop up rather than groan to know that there were yet still more and that's a good thing because when you get to the final stretch of the game a whole new crop of side quests appear at each location on the map and they're often brilliant because they're like a farewell to the region reconnecting you with characters or locations you encountered earlier in your playthrough the final quest with the bandits in the grassland shows that they were never cut out for a life on the straight and narrow path you reconnect with seven infantry in junon to fail a dangerous fiend while the commander turns an affectionate Blind Eye to your presence and a trip back to under junon lets you do a more advanced version of the dolphin racing course you completed earlier it's a lovely final tour of the world that feels so generous like Square didn't need to do this by the time you you've reached this point there's already been about 90 hours of gameplay and some really high highs across both the main quest line and the open world Square would have been well within their eyes to be like no man we've we've we've done enough at this point but they never seem to experience that sensation at any point in this game's development and that's how we get an additional five or so hours of ingame side content that gives us a chance to say our final goodbyes to this massive world that we've spent so much time in these open world activities these side quests I get how someone might look at all this stuff and think Ah that's not for me and look fair enough I get it I really do but there's another dimension to this world design that isn't about quests or Rewards or pacing it's about the very bones of these spaces and how much effort square has put into making each of them feel distinct lived in and memorable I mean think of how many towns there are here some regions have two or three townships hell at least one of them is only accessible if you choose to do an optional side quest each of them are elaborately designed with unique architecture they're bustling with NPCs all barking unique dialogue lines these towns all feel like actual towns admittedly in a fairly static sense but it's still really interesting to arrive at each new one and see what it has to offer outside in the open world Square delivered a distinct layout and traversal system for each Zone the grass lands are pretty cut and dry but when you get to junon the map becomes multi-layered and vertical supported by chocobos who can climb up walls you can ride a segue in Costa Del Soul and you can drive a truck in the Corell desert Cosmic Canyon ch changes things up entirely by letting your Chocobo Glide and the entire location is filled with launching fans and racecourses neble is water-based and you can skim quickly Across the Water by doing this weird water pumping thing with your chobo can you think of another open world game that offers you a distinct method of traversal in each Zone with correspondingly unique level design to make use of that traversal mechanic I can't the nearest comparison I can come up with are 3D Platformers Square really brought some super Mario energy to the way they designed these open worlds of course it doesn't all come together gongaga is a genuine nightmare the oneway path into various hidden multi-level locations combined with the absolute worst mini map in the history of mini Maps makes this place impossible to navigate and the more time you spend there the more you want to delete this video game from your hard drive but I think it is a testament to Square's ambition that I forgave them even this like they were clearly trying to do something different here to deliver something distin versus everything else in the game and even though it absolutely sucks I do respect the hustle for me the thing that really seals the deal when it comes to these locations is the music this soundtrack in this game is unbelievable it is unbelievable there are over 400 tracks in this one video game and I swear to God at least 350 of them are bangers the neheim theme the Tifa and era themes the cosmic Canyon theme the various combat tracks hell there's a specific track that kicks in whenever you have to escort a dog somewhere [Music] [Music] [Music] I moved from one location to another and I did this thing where it was transitioning music and it held the final note of one track so it could seamlessly transition into the new [Music] [Applause] [Music] track [Music] it's a really really small thing but when you've got a game this large with this many components and yet the team still has energy to deliver a little tiny barely noticeable flourish like that that is that is crazy of course we haven't even spoken about the garnish at top all of these open world spaces the mini games between Queens blood the Chocobo GP the bike racing Ford Condor gears and gambits the situp contest at the gym the surprisingly robust piano player the list just goes on and on and none of it is phoned in or half asked there's like 2 to 3 hours of gameplay in just the Chocobo GP cups there's adjustable difficulties for the piano player there's Advanced modes for both Fort Condor and gears in Gambit each of the training courses in Cosmic Canyon have perfect lap completion goals held the team who worked on Queens blood did so for over a year and they were so addicted to it that they started playing it non-stop amongst themselves it's better than triple Triad from Final Fantasy 8 something I genuinely believed impossible and it has a game spanning Quest chain that ropes in half a dozen Main and Side characters and culminates in a tense Showdown with the blood Queen herself who was somehow demonically possessing a queen's blood player that you made a cruise ship like is there any part of this video game where Square enx just put their feet up and said that'll do the answer to that is no there is genuinely no part of this game where Square said that that is why I think this world that square have built here is an altimer you can't reduce it to just its radio towers and its map markers it is so much more than that it's a set of spaces that are uniquely laid out and that you move through uniquely it's purely optional Quest chains that span the entire game it's the selfs serious and sermonizing in one moment and it's the silly and screw ball in the next it's a brilliant balance of tangible rewards and meaningful narrative payoffs it's entirely unique gameplay mechanics built to be used for just a single moment and then tossed away never to be used again it's visual flourish and Splendor Horizons that stretch out infinitely accompanied by a soundtrack so voluminous that it feels equally infinite just when I thought I had the measure of all this and nothing else could surprise me the world would open up yet again revealing some new activity I'd never imagined or some entirely new location to explore or more things to discover at places I'd already been it just doesn't quit ever and while I think trying to sample all of it will result in some fatigue faue I think the overwhelming feeling you're going to be left with is one of awe a at how much there is to discover and a that square found the time budget and will to make it so thanks for coming to help this review would be incomplete if I didn't at least briefly mention combat now I know we're all likely to have different opinions about this game but i' like to think we can all agree that this is the greatest combat system in any jrpg and one of the finest in any RPG full stop they really cracked it with seven remake the Flawless Union of realtime basic attacks Dodgers and blocks combined with the ability to pause to issue ability spell and item commands combined with the ability to switch seamlessly between three party members combined with the elemental weaknesses that promote strategic play it was just perfect to really was and it's like how do you improve on Perfection and you sort of can't really but you can protect what you've got and you can Tinker around the edges on the protection side yeah all the same stuff is here Square knew not to mess with a good thing and so all of the fundamentals remain intact only now there are more abilities and spells to play around with and yet there's also yui red and Kate Sith to control there each a reminder of how much work the combat team has put into designing totally unique distinct combat kits full of mechanics specific to that character yui shuriken is a powerful Elemental weapon that can be thrown out and recalled at will red Sentinel stance invites a more defensive style of play and Kate s's Mughal Mount and roll of the dice style attacks breed genuine Chaos on the battlefield you don't understand how excited I am to be able to control Vincent in the next game like given how fantastic every member of the party is to play I am dying to St Pew peing with my boy I I genuinely cannot wait so those fundamentals are there those new characters are there but there there's also that tinkering around the edge stuff that I mentioned earlier and that comes in the form of synergy abilities and skills the big flashy Synergy team up abilities require you to charge your Synergy bar for each character and that's clever because incentivizes you to switch between characters rather than just stick with one those abilities also provide really useful temporary Buffs like infinite Mana or more ATB bars or longer stagger windows it's smartly designed stuff and if you're judicious with how you charge and deploy these attacks they make a really big difference in combat the moment to moment gameplay is also enhanced by these Synergy skills these are available all the time and they let you and a teammate quickly team up to do a thing so Barrett and Cloud might bum rush a Target aith might call Barrett or Cloud to her side to defend her while she casts a spell cloud might call aith over to charge his blade ahead of a massive swing it takes a little while to work this stuff into your combat Rhythm since there's already so much to stay on top of but when you do make the effort and begin utilizing this stuff regularly it's EXT extremely powerful and it really meaningfully deepens the real time aspects of combat which is a fantastic addition it would have been easy to just add more spells and abilities and that would have been fine to be honest but combat would have felt nearly identical to the previous game had Square done that the Synergy skills really do add something to the combat model without transforming it or Worse upsetting it the RPG side of rebirth is simple but very well executed and rewarding getting new weapons means something because it expands your combat repertoire getting new material not only allows you to cast new spells or abilities but allows you to shape your party members giving them more of a desired Stat or the ability to Auto cast spells without you having to command them different material socket configurations on your weapons and armor really matter because link slots let you enhance your material or link it to your basic attack damage or give you Elemental defense the big skill node map thing is pretty lame to be honest with you it's kind of just a big mess full of that feels really unfulfilling to put points into but it doesn't detract from the overall health of rebirth core RPG Elements which are very very healthy one thing I really really appreciated about combat and rebirth is that it can be quite challenging even on normal difficulty I remember making notes early in my playthrough along the lines of what the I died the combat challenges the boss encounters even some of the open world encounters they really demand that you pay attention to what's going on understanding an enemy Elemental weaknesses and their attack patterns so you can properly respond and with how many bosses there are and how expansive the best area is it's it's clear that square enx have put just as much effort into rebirths combat as they have every other part of the game hey up ahead I know we can figure this out I feel like the only way I can really finish this review is to give you a window into what my brain is like when I think about Final Fantasy 7 rebirth and it's kind of like random stream of Consciousness and it's basically stuff that I haven't even mentioned or properly covered yet in this video stuff like the rendition of the neheim incident that was so chilling and I don't think Square could have done a better job of recreating that moment for the modern era I absolutely loathe these Mughal but I cannot get enough of the boy tune that plays when I have to Wrangle [Music] them the reveal that red thir is the final combatant in the Queens blood tournament on the cruise ship and seeing him cosplay as a Shinra Soldier and dancing like Michael Jackson I was yelling at my TV when this was going on being like what the was Square smoking coasa Del Soul mini games were absolutely a progression break check but I loved every single one of them especially the pirate ship Shooting Gallery how much Riz has Hojo got to be able to land three swimsuit models without breaking a sweat and why do I not have the option to keep Barrett in the Sailor suit for the entire play through the CG cut scene that played while we're on the Gondola heading towards the golden saucer made me feel like I was a teenager again playing Final Fantasy 7 8 9 and 10 for the first time and the dance sequence that immediately followed that reminded me that I was playing a game that would only be possible in this modern era where the standards for things like graphical Fidelity performance capture and cinematography have been elevated to Heights we could only have dreamed of back in the PS1 and PS2 eras I desperately need that tonberry dehumidifier for my house ASAP and I would pay a king's ransom for it I cried during dy's end and I think Barrett may be one of the best written characters we've seen this console generation that sequence where Tifa was strapped in the live stream that was so interesting to watch for all of the Artistry on display I cannot believe they named a dude that looked like this bugenhagen I also cried when the statue of Red's Dad cried I feel dumb for doing that but it just got to me that he got to know that his son was finally proud of him after what he had sacrificed and finally and most importantly I remain extremely mad that my golden sorcer date sequence was with aith when I had clearly been team Tifa the entire time and I would have gladly settled for the night out with the lads that occurs when you're standing with both Tifa and aith are to low that's my brain when I think about Final Fantasy 7 rebirth I have to focus hard to think about its exceptional characters and writing its massive open world overflowing with stuff to do the diversity of Main and side content and its combat model which is hands down the best in the business I have to focus to think about that stuff because when I think about rebirth all of these other totally unbeing thoughts and memories bubble up to the surface and they're all about the little moments and the unexpected discoveries and the little eccentricities and flourishes that made this experience so special square built an exceptional video game here and then once they' done that they looked at every single part of it and then said okay what else can we do how can we go above and beyond to take this little probably forgettable thing and make it utterly Unforgettable to have found the reserves of creativity energy and will to constantly do that in a game this massive that's a remarkable achievement and that's why I think Final Fantasy 7 rebirth feels like a little bit of a miracle at a moment in time where we can't be sure that we're going to continue to get many more games like this in future for that reason and many many more I very strongly recommend Final Fantasy 7 rebirth to [Music] games like Final Fantasy 7 rebirth are a nice excuse to spoil yourself with some Hardware upgrades and what better upgrade than premium audio brought to you by this video sponsor steel series Final Fantasy 7 rebirth has over 400 tracks in its OST and you should be hearing every single one of them in award-winning High Fidelity audio that's where steel series's range of headsets come in and the best part is they've got something for every budget if you're looking for something that delivers exceptional value for money then the arctus Nova 1p delivers excellent sound fantastic Comfort great build quality and a flexible 3.5 mm Jack meaning you can use it on any device including a PS5 Xbox switch or PC these are great for yourself but also maybe for your kid who are just getting started and they need their own headset when playing the arctis Nova 3 takes things a step up offering a nice RGB inlay on the outer cup as well as a noise cancelling AI microphone which is a huge upgrade if you happen to play in a space with lots of room noise going on the arctus Nova 7p Wireless offers true high-end performance and functionality the Nova acoustic system features High Fidelity drivers for Superior audio quality and immersive 360° spatial audio it also supports simultaneous Wireless via Bluetooth allowing you to connect both your PC or console and your phone at the same time letting you take calls uninterrupted its versatile USBC dongle makes it compatible with a huge number of devices and it's 38 hours of battery life will let you game for literally days without having to use that handy USBC fast charging the crown jewel in the steel series range is this bad boy the arctus Nova Pro Wireless this is the one that I use enjoy premium High Fidelity audio with 360 spatial audio as well as active noise cancelling blocking out background noise so you can focus on the sounds that you want to hear the Infinity power system means that the Nova Pro Wireless comes with two batteries in the Box allowing you to charge one in the dedicated audio controller while using the other one meaning you will never ever run out of power it is hands down the single best gaming headset I've ever used go check out other reviews and you will see a bunch of people saying the exact same thing best of all steel series are a sponsor of this channel so they're providing a full 12% off any purchase at steelseries.com when you use offer code skillup at checkout that's steelseries.com offer code skillup to get a full 12% off any purchase no strings attached spoil yourself or someone else with the gift of premium sound comp and functionality thanks D serus for sponsoring the 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Channel: Skill Up

Views: 245,447

Keywords: skill up, skill, up, gameplay, games, guide, final fantasy 7 rebirth gameplay, final fantasy 7, final fantasy 7 remake, final fantasy 7 rebirth, final fantasy vii remake, final fantasy vii rebirth, final fantasy 7 rebirth walkthrough, ff7 rebirth part 1, final fantasy rebirth part 1, final fantasy 7 remake playthrough, final fantasy 7 rebirth ending, ffvii rebirth, ff7 rebirth, final fantasy 7 remake gameplay, final fantasy 7 rebirth gameplay 4k, final fantasy VII Rebirth review

Id: _LaI5Knv4wM

Length: 55min 51sec (3351 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 29 2024