Chocobos are the ultimate stress test for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s open world

polygon.com:

Meeting and riding a chocobo is a tried-and-true pleasure of a Final Fantasy game. The magical creatures pair the trot of a horse with the yellow plumage and stature of a dinosaur-like bird. Chocobos are my favorite fantasy chickens and it’s nowonder they have become one of the mainstay fixtures of the series. In Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, chocobos are back – and better than ever. You can ride different varieties and even dress them up. There’s just one issue: Riding these wonderful creatures pushes the limitations of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s open world.

Rebirth expands upon the world of Final Fantasy 7 Remake and introduces several regions that Cloud and his friends can explore. Each region is large – the developers stuffed these regions with hidden caves, sprawling fields, and jagged cliffs that overlook the ocean. From the get go, finding your way around the world can be a bit cumbersome on foot. Luckily for players, the game doesn’t waste its time in giving them access to their first chocobo.

A lot of aspects of riding the chocobo feel great. The bird has three different speeds: a slow walk, a trot, and a sprint. The sprint feels very fast and will have Cloud and his friends zooming along at a brisk 100 meters every 10 seconds or so, from my own estimation. In addition to speeding things up on land, chocobos can also allow Cloud and friends to traverse areas like swamps by swimming through them. And they’re still pretty dang cute. You can collect different gear sets to dress them up, and even customize the colors.

While I appreciate all the details the developers included as part of the game, the chocobos still struggle with perfectly navigating the wider world. At the fastest speed, it can sometimes feel like chocobos sprint too fast. You also can’t force the chocobos to jump, and it’s not always clear when a certain rock might be too tall to jump over it or on top of it. Because of this, I found myself bumping into stuff and ruining my riding rhythm as I