Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2024)

The more RPGs I play, the more I feel that "hitting an elemental weakness to gain advantage" is a dull mechanic in need of retirement. It's almost always just lock and key design that supplants nuanced decision-making with a clear and deeply repetitive dominant strategy. But it's such a genre staple that it feels like we might be stuck with it forever.

Diving into this now that it's on PC, I'm excited to finally meet back up with the fantastic cast from Remake! That game was both an exhilarating and exhausting ride for someone like me who's never played the original, so I'm really curious to see where I'll land on this second chapter.

Haven't even left Kalm yet cuz I'm just traipsing around taking screenshots of all the pretty scenery.

ENDING SPOILERS

This is me trying to talk about the ending. Not too much since it's still been an hour since I finished Rebirth and I'm just trying to come to terms.

I wasn't punched in the gut like in the original. I was moreso like "what the fuck?" at many moments throughout. The thing that sticks out to me is that Cloud is gaslighting himself over Aerith the way that he did about his "past". The Aerith we see touching Nanaki was the lifestream. In Cloud's mind, what happened to Aerith's corpse?

After seeing a lot of comments from PC players dissapointed and/or confused by the ending of the game, I decided to write an article explaining (well, more like my interpretation of what happened) the multiple timelines in the game, what are the whispers and what are attempting to achieve both Sephiroth and Aerith in the game.

If you're interested, here's the article. Its in spanish.

If you have a different interpretation of the lore or know something I missed, I'm all ears.

Smitten!

That's the word that most readily comes to mind when I think about how I feel about Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth as I enter Chapter 6.

I think I get it now. If nothing else, Rebirth is giving me the means to properly appreciate Remake retrospectively.

Rebirth is, thus far, and simply put, a proper romp. It's a delight.

Normally, sequences like the marching parade would feel like a chore for me and I would just be waiting for 'the next thing', whatever that might be. Here, I found it a memorable moment that deftly pulled me in. Having served in the military, I enjoyed the exaggerated "SIR YES SIR"-ness of the Seventh Infantry, and found their immediate and unquestioning devotion to their captain utterly endearing. My heart stopped when it appeared Cloud was about to eliminate them, and the relief I felt with how it was resolved was palpable.

The cruise ship sequence was next. I took great joy in seeing Kyrie run after the ship as it departed. Again, I would normally find this type of thing boring or would see it as filler, but this sequence hit the target with precision. The Queen's Blood tournament was cool, other than the "announcer" incorrectly stating who has the upper hand, but that's a nitpick.

When I saw Red XIII in a Shinra trooper's uniform, I almost groaned. But I didn't, and in fact, there was somewhere in that moment where I had an epiphany, and that epiphany was allowing myself to sit back and just engage with this art for what it is. I embraced it. I saw Red XIII up on the stage, dancing on his hind legs, everyone oblivious to the fact that this is clearly not a human, and I felt myself smiling as I said, "Let's fuckin go".

The cherry on the top was the soundtrack to that cutscene and the following Queen's Blood duel. It is one of the boppiest bops that ever bopped, and it illicits an emotional response when I listen to it - joy, hype, excitement, palpably so. I would love to get around to recording a guitar-based melodic metal cover of it.

I always knew Final Fantasy was a big deal, and I knew VII was even more so, but I never thought I'd be an actual fan. I enjoyed Remake and have complicated feelings about it, but I don't know that I would have considered myself a fan after that game; I played it more as a video game enthusiast, a la "let's see what all the fuss is about." But right now, in this current moment, I'm a bonafide fan. We'll see if that changes.

Fuck Balatro, give me a standalone Queen's Blood.

It’s raining remakes of games I love—games that RESPECT MY TIME and keep things simple. I own, but haven’t fully experienced or completed:

• Demon Souls remake
• Ninja Gaiden 2 remake
• RE4 remake

So why share this in my Rebirth update? Well, Rebirth is essentially part 2 of a remake. While I love its scope and aesthetics, it’s just too big for its own good. The story feels detached, and I’m not invested in what the characters are doing. Plus, the pacing and cutscenes are all over the place. I’ve read that sidequests are more important this time, but I cba... I'm putting this game on hold.

Lastly: Rebirth feels like it wants to be Like A Dragon and that series just NAILS story and cutscenes so well. Which highlights Rebirth's flaws even more.

Thoughts up to Chapter 4

The good:

• The open world areas in general
• The pacing. It's way better and makes it even more clear just how bad the pacing of Remake is
• The combat. Either I'm just finally coming around to it or I'm just more engaged by the types of enemies and the context of the battles
• It's gorgeous when it's running well
• The haptic feedback with a PS5 controller. My PS5 controller started malfunctioning, so I've had to swap between it and the Xbox controller in sections where the PS5 controller isn't cutting it, and the haptic feedback is a clear winner between the two (have since gotten a new controller hehe)
• The side quests don't feel quite as meaningless this time around
• Fort Condor and Queen's Blood (if I got those names right) are awesome

The bad:

• The fucking bandits, can we please fucking not with these guys? Spare me the crime that is forcing me to sit through their trite bullshit
• Some mini games are questionable, like the memory puzzle where you have to sync button presses, or timing the button presses when at a lifespring. Why? Either make them more engaging and challenging or get rid of them entirely
• The camera when on chocobo, your party members are up your ass and it really obscures the player's visibility on surrounding areas.
• Chocobo riding is not as smooth as I think it should be. I like the 'drift' ability it has, but navigating even the slightest bump or elevation change feels downright clunky PC performance is inexcusably bad. Digital Foundry has done a whole video that corroborates all the crap I'm dealing with. I've done all the tricks to reduce stuttering but the texture loading/pop-in is awful, and I do mean awful. It takes anywhere from 1 to 10 seconds for some textures to fully load