With how lengthy Closing Fantasy 7 Remake took to launch, it’s maybe a miracle that it’s getting a follow-up merely 4 years later. Closing Fantasy 7 Rebirth is out on February twenty ninth for PS5 and appears like an enormous enchancment over its predecessor. Exploration, fight, aspect actions, character interactions – a lot has been upgraded. Nevertheless, there are a number of features that we hope are improved over Remake. Try ten of them beneath.
Needlessly Drawn Out Sections
In comparison with Remake, Closing Fantasy 7 Rebirth guarantees 100 hours of gameplay as a result of sheer quantity of aspect content material. Nevertheless, the principle story is about 40 hours lengthy. Provided that some parts of Remake may turn out to be somewhat drawn out, there’s the priority that Rebirth may undergo from the identical.
The developer is revamping a number of sections from the unique, making them longer and extra advanced by default (just like the parade sequence), which is nice. Nevertheless, if the plot options an excessive amount of padding, it may drag issues out unnecessarily.
Intermittent Pacing
In fact, an extended foremost marketing campaign may additionally imply loads of sections the place the pacing can go awry. Closing Fantasy 7 Remake began explosively however had a number of lows when going from one main plot level to the following. A few of this was because of sure ranges that felt like they went on ceaselessly (extra on that beneath), and that gamers stomached them for the most effective bits is a testomony to the plot and characters.
Primarily based on the demo for Rebirth, the pacing appears fairly tight and snappy whereas spending sufficient time on character improvement, however as all the time, we’ll wait and see if that holds up within the full sport.
Well being Gates on Bosses
As a lot because the tankier enemies have been criticized, Closing Fantasy 7 Remake had an even bigger problem. When bosses shift phases, their stagger bar totally recovers. By itself, that is sensible – the issue is doing this once they have been already staggered.
You spend a large period of time increase stagger, burning Restrict Breaks when the boss is down, after which in the course of these, they stand up prefer it’s nothing, inflicting your assaults to deal much less injury just because it’s the following section. Closing Fantasy 16 additionally had well being gates and extra phases, however the boss would keep down through the staggered section earlier than initiating additional assaults. Perhaps Rebirth will provide the identical.
Simplistic Quests
There have been loads of excessive factors to Closing Fantasy 7 Remake, however a number of of the quests have been a little bit of a blended bag, typically devolving into busywork or overtly easy duties. The developer made aspect content material a precedence of Closing Fantasy 7 Rebirth with a big selection of actions, mini-games, quests the place different get together members turn out to be secondary protagonists and rather more.
All of it appears to be like nice, and whereas there should be some “Kill X monsters” or “Accumulate Y gadgets”, they might be inside a greater narrative context. It finally comes all the way down to the energy of the writing for its characters, so we’ll want to attend and see.
Restricted Character Customization
Closing Fantasy 7 Remake’s character customization boiled all the way down to leveling up and mastering weapons to unlock bonus stats and distinctive Skills. Every character equips a weapon and armor piece with Materia slots and an adjunct. Closing Fantasy 7 Rebirth is increasing on this with the brand new Folios, the place bonding along with your get together members unlocks new Synergy Skills and Expertise.
There’s additionally the brand new Materia, and new weapons, equipment and armor may present new passive advantages to combine issues up. Whereas it appears to be like higher than Remake, we’d like Rebirth to go even additional with its customization.
Extreme Loading Screens
The developer touts the seamless nature of the brand new world map, the place gamers can traverse from one area to the opposite with none loading. Even the quick journey is lightning fast. Witnessing sections within the latest demo, the place Cloud and firm needed to squeeze by a spot clearly meant to masks a loading display screen, didn’t present the most effective impression.
Closing Fantasy 7 Remake (and Closing Fantasy 16, to be truthful) had a number of of those, and whereas not the most important deal, it’s nonetheless a nagging level. Maybe Rebirth’s demo is among the few situations, and we’ll see so much much less within the full sport. Time will inform.
Overtly Linear Sections
As iconic as some ranges are, from the opening reactor to the climb to achieve the Sector 7 plate or infiltration of Shinra HQ, the linearity of some sections in Closing Fantasy 7 Remake left one thing to be desired. The Sewers are maybe probably the most egregious instance – a soul-crushingly repetitive expertise with the identical bland corridors that needed to be explored twice within the marketing campaign. Outdoors of the worst examples, it might even be good to have some extra branching paths and sections to discover.
Degree Layouts
With Rebirth having a extra open world and plenty of aspect content material with numerous areas, there’s hope for higher stage design general, particularly within the non-obligatory areas. The most recent official gameplay trailer showcased areas the place gamers may battle completely different Summons, like Alexander, and more durable foes like dragons.
If the degrees main as much as these aren’t too simple and provide distinctive puzzles to unravel or mechanics that require considering exterior the field, it might be one other enchancment over Remake. It’s to not say each main combat wants this, or all potential dungeons have to be super-complex. Nevertheless, given the potential for platforming and all the brand new instruments gamers have, it might assist break up the monotony.
Materia Administration
The brand new and returning Materia in Closing Fantasy 7 Rebirth appears to be like fairly good, particularly the blended Materia because it grants entry to 2 completely different sorts of elemental spells whereas taking over just one slot. It’s also possible to use Degree Increase Materia to rank up a linked Materia, getting access to highly effective stage 2 and three spells instantly (although you’ll be able to’t break the restrict, sadly). Nevertheless, one sorely wanted characteristic is Materia Loadouts.
Having a number of loadouts per character to modify on the fly can be nice. Not solely would this enable for rapidly switching between Materia that you really want leveled, however take away a lot of the tediousness of manually eradicating and inserting Materia. Granted, it’s not one thing that ought to be accessible in fight, however having the ability to swap completely different loadouts on the Retry display screen for a boss combat can be nice.
Graphical Points
Closing Fantasy 7 Remake launched on PS4 with its justifiable share of flat textures, which rubbed a number of the fallacious method. This was fastened with Intergrade, with a number of different options like improved volumetrics and results on PS5. Rebirth already regarded like a step up by way of graphical constancy, from the dimensions of environments to the quantity of foliage and particulars.
Nevertheless, the demo left one thing to be desired from its Efficiency Mode, which obtained complaints for being too blurry. The developer acknowledged the identical and promised enhancements with the following main replace (that provides a bit of Junon to discover). Whereas that’s excellent news, do not forget that Closing Fantasy 16 had efficiency points with its demo. There have been enhancements at launch, however it stays, even after a number of patches. As all the time, it’s “wait and see”, however on the intense aspect, Rebirth’s High quality Mode is on level with its picture high quality.
