Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth isn't just a classic reimagined, it's one of the franchise's best
Remaking one of the most beloved JRPGs of all time meant Square Enix had a challenge on its hands.
But thanks to some bold decisions, Final Fantasy 7 Remake managed to flesh out part one of a well-known story into a deep epic with rich characters, an intriguing battle system and graphics that most Final Fantasy fans had been dreaming to see Cloud Strike draped in for some years.
Part two of this reimagining — or 'rebirth' if you will — equally has some big shoes to fill and expectations to live up to.
Thankfully, with the world-hopping adventure, political intrigue and fun side quests, including a wildly addictive card game, it's safe to say Square Enix has another win on its hands.
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Kicking things off by letting you play through the inciting incident of Sephiroth's heel turn in Nibelheim — as the legend himself no less — Rebirth initially follows a template that's similar to Remake, although refined. That isn't a complaint as Remake's blend of fairly linear exploration, fleshed-out storytelling and tight combat was great.
This, however, is a nice rug pull, as you'll quickly be unleashed into Rebirth's huge (and we mean huge) fully open-world map, which feels like a breath of fresh air after spending so much time in Midgar, as the game floods the screen with colour and your speakers with uplifting music that sets you on your stead.
There's much to explore and mountains to climb in the world, which after a trip to see Bill at his Chocobo farm, you can enjoy with a brisk Chocobo ride.
Each region of the world map will have its own unique Chocobo for you to catch via an enjoyable little sneaking minigame, and they can be called using a quick whistle, should you need a ride or help up certain tricky areas of the map.
As you'd expect, you're not alone in your travels and will come across a range of fiends ready to stop your adventure short, which makes being able to build your party to your liking crucial. Rebirth gives you a handful of load-outs you can build and switch to on the fly, so hopefully you won't get caught short when different enemies creep up on you.
The combat system itself is, as you'd imagine, a bolstering of that you'd have seen in FF7 Remake and is no less enjoyable and versatile on this time around.
Each enemy can be staggered, allowing you to deal some massive damage, but you'll need to take the time to learn just how you can do that for each enemy.
This keeps things feeling fresh and tense no matter if you're on fight 1 or fight 100, and also serves to make the boss encounters feel as huge as ever. During these multi-stage events, you'll need to switch things up if you want to survive, but you'll get some stunning and just extremely cool cutscenes offering you some breathing room in between.
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Synergy abilities are back, offering some great cinematic and powerful attacks to your arsenal, but perhaps the biggest addition is Rebirth's Folio system — which gives skill trees to each of your party members so you can buff their stats and unlock some unique combos. Teamwork really does make the dream work.
Early on, you'll bump into Chadley, everyone's favourite AI who was desperate for battle data back in the first part of the story. He'll task you with activating Remnawave Towers, which in turn unlock an array of missions dotted around the map. They don't feel too much like mindless filler content as the concept may suggest.
You'll do some fetch quests here and there, but battling fiends to fulfil specific requests was always a fun use of our time, as well as hunting for summon shrines and seeking out areas where the heart of the earth was purest lead to some stunning oases to scan and take in.
You'll want to get involved where you can too for the rewards Charley offers, as the battle simulator makes a return, allowing you to upgrade your material and summons for battle.
This balance of exploring and upgrading is thankfully held together with some of the franchise's more goofy elements allowed to be on full display, whether that's timing some tricky movements in a military parade, Chocobo racing, playing Ninja Warrior as a frog, or simply playing the piano. Those little moments to breathe are always a joy and what makes the series what it is.
There's also Queen's Blood, a unique card game that we became hugely addicted to and think it can even go toe to toe with The Witcher 3's people-pleaser Gwent.
Trying to fill the board with powerful cards to end with the highest number of counters, on the outset it seems simple enough. But with so many unique cards and manoeuvres available, it's difficult to be good at Queen's Blood and even harder to be great at — so you'll need to put the practice in and collect as many fresh cards as possible on your travels in order to be the best.
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We really, really don't want to ruin the story for returning fans or newcomers alike, so we won't dive too much into it, because it truly is what makes Rebirth stand out as such an impressive JRPG.
However, it's fair to say all of the characters get their time to shine and the crew develop some great relationships with Cloud, often pulling him through the toughest spots, despite his best efforts to remain as stoic as possible.
With some unexpected twists and turns along the way, plus some confident changes, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is utterly massive and really is the ultimate way to experience this much-loved story. It's a must for PS5 players.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is out on February 29 on PlayStation 5.
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