Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Review (PS5) | Push Square
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth feels like a natural progression. Free from the steel skies of Midgar and its corridor-style design, this direct sequel to 2020's Final Fantasy 7 Remake fully embraces that sense of adventure found in the original Final Fantasy 7, as Cloud Strife and his ragtag group took their first few steps out onto the sprawling world map. Rebirth goes big in terms of scope and scale — but it doesn't always stick the landing.
Rebirth isn't fully open world, but it is split into a series of vast environments, each with their own distinctive geography. You'll spend a healthy chunk of your playthrough sprinting — and riding chocobos — across the wilderness, but it's rarely in search of the next story beat. That's because Rebirth has an excessive amount of open world fluff — the kind of checklist activities that you'd expect to find in the most cliche of Ubisoft games.
Climbing copy-paste radio towers isn't something that we ever would have expected to do in a remake of eternal PS1 classic Final Fantasy 7, but here we are. It's difficult to justify such blatant bloat, but it's important to stress that the map's many markers are optional, and not all of the busywork is so braindead. There are, for example, cool fights to be had with unique enemy types and region-based bosses. At the very least, you've got an excuse to get out there and explore what is an iconic RPG setting.
Fortunately, Rebirth is a much better game when it's just… being Final Fantasy 7. For the most part, it sticks to the original's narrative structure, as the party sets off on the trail of big baddie Sephiroth. However, much like Remake, this sequel often greatly expands upon events, bringing additional context and allowing characters to better express themselves. Once again, the development team has done an admirable job of fleshing out the core cast, and that's important, because the overarching plot barely pushes forward in this second instalment.
Of course, this was also the case in the
Read more on pushsquare.com
