Even should you’ve by no means performed it, there’s little question that you just’ve been impacted by Last Fantasy 7 in a roundabout way. It’s one of the vital influential video video games ever launched, and virtually each recreation that has come out after has been affected by it in a roundabout way. Plus, new individuals proceed to fall in love with Last Fantasy 7 to today throughout a number of spinoffs, cellular video games, remasters, and remakes.
Irrespective of the way you take a look at it, the world of Last Fantasy 7 is particular, and Last Fantasy 7 Rebirth actually needs you to know that. It’s a big-budget love letter to the collection made by followers, for followers, and its ardour for the supply materials is infectious. Rebirth is a theme park of Last Fantasy goodness, and whereas it doesn’t stick the touchdown in each regard, it’s a shining reminder of why individuals love Last Fantasy 7 a lot.
Last Fantasy 7, Expanded and Enhanced
Last Fantasy 7 Rebirth picks up the place Remake left off. After making their explosive escape, Cloud and firm commerce the bustling Mako-soaked streets of Midgar for the extensive open plains of the planet. On the run from Shinra, the social gathering travels the world over in pursuit of Sephiroth. Similar to within the 1997 authentic, there’s a ton of enjoyable and quite a lot of heartbreak awaiting them. Similar to its predecessor, nonetheless, Last Fantasy 7 Rebirth utterly reimagines the unique recreation, and there’s an entire lot extra to see and do on the worldwide sightseeing tour that the social gathering embarks on.
The tightly directed, linear nature of Last Fantasy 7 Remake was a key power behind its essential acclaim, and such a dramatic shift to an expansive open world might have been a trainwreck. Miraculously, Last Fantasy 7 Rebirth in some way matches the electrical setpieces from its predecessor whereas additionally providing one of many widest open worlds the franchise has ever seen.
Leaving Midgar within the authentic Last Fantasy 7 stays one of the vital liberating moments in any online game, and it’s one which numerous video games have tried to recreate. The impact is usually the identical going from Remake to Rebirth, solely the six-hour Midgar part from the unique was expanded right into a 40+ hour standalone RPG so the affect is far, a lot larger.
Every area has dozens of actions to finish and objects to gather. You’ll do the standard open world stuff like activating towers so as to add new icons to the map or combat teams of enemies at particularly marked areas, however the recreation rewards you with attention-grabbing issues like lore dumps or new summons like Alexander or Odin that can enable you out in fight. As you full extra actions, you’ll additionally be capable of trade your survey information for brand new Materia and objects you can’t get anyplace else.
Sadly, the transition to an open world is a bit an excessive amount of for Rebirth to deal with. The preliminary pleasure wears off throughout the first few hours and the facet actions begin to overstay their welcome fairly quick. Every zone is completely large, and the variety of towers, caches, and random fights wanted to fill every area is a bit too excessive.
Nonetheless, every zone has a handful of distinctive actions (the superb Fort Condor minigame from Episode Intermission returns in Junon, for instance) and new facet quests proceed to pop up as you progress by way of the sport. You solely need to do a handful of every area’s generic facet content material to get a lot of the rewards, anyway, they usually’re quick sufficient you can knock them out whereas engaged on odd jobs and extra necessary facet quests.
Deeper Technique, Tougher Fights
Whereas the actions accessible within the open world get repetitive pretty shortly, they continue to be a minimum of just a little attention-grabbing because of the sport’s stellar fight system. The fundamental framework stays the identical because it was in Remake, though Rebirth locations a a lot bigger emphasis on enemy selection and forces you to hone your technique with completely different social gathering compositions and Materia setups.
The Strain and Stagger mechanics are rather more necessary this time round, and enemies are a lot more durable to assault until you capitalize on their weaknesses earlier than happening the offensive. Avoiding sure assaults, exploiting elemental weaknesses, or urgent the assault on the proper time is vital to success in Rebirth’s battles. Due to this, it additionally feels just like the ATB gauge fills up extra slowly than it did in Remake, so that you’ll should be extra deliberate with spells and skills.
Battle methods are made even deeper by Rebirth’s new Synergy mechanic, which permits social gathering members to mix their powers for joint assaults throughout fights. Synergy Expertise can be utilized at any time with none ATB or MP prices, in order that they’re principally an extension of your fundamental assaults. Synergy Skills, alternatively, require social gathering members to earn Synergy factors throughout battles by activating talents or casting spells. These factors are basically a separate ATB gauge used particularly for Synergy Skills, and pulling one off will buff the collaborating pair of social gathering members in particular methods like growing Restrict Break ranges, including a 3rd part to their ATB gauges, or protecting enemies Staggered for longer.
Synergy assaults really feel like a gimmick at first, however understanding them is required to achieve Last Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Flying enemies are a lot more durable to hit on this recreation, for instance, however Cloud can deflect Barret’s bullets off of his sword to take them down from the bottom or one other social gathering member can launch Tifa into the air to combat them within the sky. There are different makes use of for Synergy Expertise, too. Aerith is extremely fragile, for instance, however she will be able to have somebody function a bodyguard and draw consideration away from her.
Mixing Synergy Expertise into your commonplace fight rotation makes the social gathering really feel like a coordinated unit and offers you much more management over the social gathering members that you just aren’t instantly controlling throughout gameplay. Plus, pulling off highly effective Synergy Skills at key moments just isn’t solely exceptionally satisfying, but additionally a simple strategy to flip the tide of a troublesome battle.
You’ll unlock extra Synergy assaults by way of the brand new Folios system, which is how characters are upgraded in Rebirth. Sadly, the Folios system is a large disappointment. Outdoors of Synergy Expertise and Skills (plus highly effective expertise that allow you to unleash elemental assaults with out spending MP), there simply aren’t that many attention-grabbing issues to unlock. I’d intentionally ignore improve stations very often even when I had SP to spend. It’s arduous to get excited a couple of 3% increase to assault harm.
Fairly a Colourful Forged
Whereas they could not all be playable, Rebirth brings all the Last Fantasy 7 social gathering collectively by the point the credit roll. Purple XIII, Yuffie, and Cait Sith are the three new playable characters in Rebirth, and everybody from Remake stays playable with new talents of their arsenal in addition. Vincent and Cid are right here too, however they’re being saved as playable social gathering members for the ultimate recreation within the trilogy.
Rebirth covers about half of the unique Last Fantasy 7 story, however every chapter is enormously expanded. Similar to within the authentic recreation, the seek for Sephiroth takes the social gathering everywhere in the world. Some chapters are dedicated to fleshing out sure social gathering members, whereas others are enjoyable for the entire social gathering. Corel and Cosmo Canyon are nonetheless extremely necessary to Barret and Purple XIII, for instance, however the recreation goes all out with locations like Costa del Sol and the Gold Saucer to make sure that everybody has their time within the limelight.
For the reason that elements of Last Fantasy 7 that Rebirth covers don’t have too many necessary plot moments, the sport locations the highlight squarely on its characters. It locations an enormous concentrate on attending to know every social gathering member and rising your relationship with them (and never simply to arrange for the long-lasting Gold Saucer date). As massive of a cliche as it’s, Rebirth is kind of actually concerning the associates we make alongside the best way, and that theme extends into each a part of the sport. The Synergy assaults aren’t simply there for present, in spite of everything.
The expanded content material isn’t all nice, although. When the sport is diving deeper into character growth and including new story segments, the brand new stuff is appreciated. A number of the new combat-focused segments actually drag down the sport’s pacing, nonetheless. There are fairly a number of linear dungeon sections in Rebirth, and a few segments that lasted beneath an hour within the authentic recreation (just like the Mythril Mine) have been became complete chapters with loads of padding.
The Verdict
In fact, even at its worst, Last Fantasy 7 Rebirth stands head and shoulders above most different video games on the market at the moment. It’s a tightly directed RPG with a solid and world which are not possible to not fall in love with. There’s simply one thing particular about Last Fantasy 7, which in all probability explains why it’s getting a trilogy of remakes.
After every little thing, Last Fantasy 7 Rebirth has accomplished the not possible. The unique Last Fantasy 7 is now put in on my PlayStation 5, and regardless of numerous makes an attempt to get by way of the sport earlier than, I now discover myself decided to see issues by way of to the tip after finishing Rebirth. Last Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s best power just isn’t the way it reimagines the unique recreation for a contemporary viewers, however fairly, the way it evokes a contemporary viewers to understand the unique recreation.
Whereas the transition to an open world isn’t totally seamless in Rebirth, its small stumbles aren’t even near being sufficient to hinder the general expertise. Even while you’re activating one more tower for Chadley, you’re nonetheless combating enemies with an extremely creative motion RPG fight system and listening to a number of the most stunning music you’ve ever heard in your life, all whereas hanging out with a number of the most iconic characters in online game historical past. Last Fantasy 7 Remake was a shining instance of why Last Fantasy 7 is so beloved to start with, and Rebirth is one more reminder of why individuals fell in love with this world all these years in the past.
