For any game reviewer, the decision to give out a perfect score is one of the toughest choices out there. Every game has flaws, even your favorite of all time. What is the line when those flaws are just completely swallowed up by everything else that you liked? It’s impossible to break down in a logical way. But there is an overwhelming feeling in your gut when you know that the game you are playing is a special one and one that needs to be put on its own pedestal.
Throughout my time with Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, I saw every flaw. I understood every complaint that people have with the game. But beyond everything else, from almost the moment I stepped into the open world, I knew this was set to become one of my favorite games of all time. That feeling did not fade as I journeyed through 70+ hours of game time.
I still remember where I was and how I felt when I played Chrono Trigger, The Last of Us, Final Fantasy 6, and Mass Effect 2. And I know I will also remember how I felt when I played Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth for the rest of my life. And that is why I view it as a 10/10 video game.
This Open World… It’s Real?
The biggest reason for my perfect score might very well be the open world. After spending forty hours with Final Fantasy 7: Remake in a lot of tight, cramped spaces, and then another five hours with the start of this game, entering the open world is one of the most thrilling feelings I have felt in any open world game ever. That thrill is quickly replaced by a feeling of disbelief that this game even exists. That might be a byproduct of thinking back to the original Final Fantasy 7 and realizing how far things have come in a relatively short period of time. But either way, it is damn amazing.
And while that open world is pretty, it ends up being surprisingly engaging as well. Rebirth hand holds to an extent and gives you all the places you need to go on the map after you do some Ubisoft-esque tower activations. But it doesn’t tell you exactly how to get to each of those spots. And there can be a fair bit of trickiness and winding on the map, so the game still retains an element of exploration. Most of the tasks you get to do in the open world are pretty ho-hum, but they are also relatively painless. I ended up viewing them mostly as a nice excuse to explore each of the beautiful biomes and hang out more with the incredible cast.
They also do a great job of continuously mixing things up in the various open world areas. First, there is a nice variety of areas as you progress through the game. You have your standard plains, jungles, desert, and mountain areas, but with twists, and they all look incredible. Rebirth also manages to do something different with navigation in each area. In one area with a lot of verticality, you have Chocobos that can glide. In another, you get to drive the buggy that made an appearance in the original Final Fantasy 7.
But perhaps the most important part of the open world is that I was always excited to jump into one of the many combat encounters that take place on the map.
Peak Final Fantasy Combat
After playing Remake right before this game, I was a little concerned that I would get burned out on the combat. My fears were unfounded. Rebirth made me feel at ease quickly with the same excellent mix of tactics and action, with just enough tweaks to keep things fresh and interesting.
While Remake had incredible combat, there were a few encounters that could be very frustrating. If you didn’t have the right materia equipped, you could run into fights where you had no real chance to stagger your enemy, and those battles were always complete slogs. Flying enemies were also pretty annoying to fight, as you could only land basic attacks against them easily with a few different characters.
This time around, pretty much no matter what, you should have the tools to beat any encounter this game throws at you. Rebirth gives you elemental attacks through your standard skills this time around, so even characters with a more standard attack build can exploit elemental weaknesses. You also have “synergy” attacks, where you team up with one of your allies to do an attack or special action of some sort. Doing these attacks can lead to bigger synergy attacks that feel like an extra limit break type move (basically, a big special attack that pauses the game). You also have the same type of flexibility that you had in the first game, where you can make almost any character more of a physical attack character or more of a magic user.
The amount of flexibility means that while the basic sound design, animations, and impact all still feel excellent in combat, the moments where you pause the game and try and figure out what to do next can be equally thrilling. Rebirth still has it where you don’t fully pause the game when you go into tactics mode, and things move in super slow-motion. This brilliantly leads to just a slight hint of tension when you pause the game to plan your next course of action. With so many options, there were a few tense moments where I was in a tough fight and was really weighing the pros and cons of each move before making a decision. The system is also set up in a way where MP is less important than ever, which lets you alwaya use the battle system to the fullest, whether it’s a boss fight, or a normal fight in the open world.
While this is still primarily an action game, the way they have managed to still pay homage to the past is incredibly impressive, and I’m not sure what they can do to enhance things for the next game, which is a huge compliment.
Next Level Storytelling
With how good the combat and open world are, it should be no surprise that Square also knocked the story out of the park. Rebirth takes place during a section of the original Final Fantasy 7, where a good chunk of the most iconic moments take place. Unsurprisingly, it nails almost every single one. Many of these moments are enhanced with more context, slight tweaks, and, of course, full voice acting.
The voice acting in Remake was absolutely top-notch. But with more play time and more big moments, pretty much every voice actor has at least one section where they get to shine. Max Mittelman as Red XIII, John Eric Bentley as Barrett, and Britt Baron as Tifa are all perfect in their roles in particular, but everyone here gives amazing performances. Because of them, moments that were incredibly special in the original game are all taken to another level. The good moments are now great moments, and the great moments are now transcendent moments.
The overall story in the the game is a bit meandering, and the ending did not work with me, but if I view the story as a bunch of mostly stand alone episodes of a TV show, almost every episode is an absolute banger. It’s such a sad game, but also filled with so much joy and so much absurdity, and it somehow balances all of that wonderfully. More than anything, you are going to want to hang out with this cast more, which is really half of the secret sauce that makes exploring the open world so compelling.
The World May Be Ending, But I Have To Get Better At This Card Game
But as great as the cast is, and as much fun as the open world can be, there are spots where things felt a little too shoehorned in or checklisty. While I am a giant fan of minigames, the game makes the mistake of forcing those minigames into the main story a bit too often. The whole point of minigames is to give the gamer a way to take a break from the main action, but when the minigames become the main action, especially when you are forced to play multiple in a row, it can be a bit annoying. While minigames are generally easy, there is a bit of a learning curve with anything brand new. Having to learn the mechanics for three brand new little games all within 30 minutes can be more frustrating than fun. This happens a few too many times for my liking, but luckily, the vast majority of the minigames range from pretty fun to fantastic, so it didn’t end up being a huge burden. When I was able to dive into these games more on my own terms, I had a blast with them.
The star of the minigame show is Queen’s Blood, which is a card game that I think stands right up there with any card minigame out there, including Gwent. Chocobo Racing and playing the piano were two other huge highlights for me. When you have multiple minigames that could have standalone releases, you know you have something special.
The only other slight pitfall in the game is the graphics. While the art direction and the scope are fantastic, there are some awkward glitches like pop in and some really weird looking character models when you have specific lighting. I think despite these flaws, the good parts of the graphics more than outweigh the bad. I spent hours just staring off into the distance and admiring the open world. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to go from completely ignoring photo mode to becoming a photo mode junkie. When a game changes how I play video games, it has done something truly exceptional.
Something To Remember
As the rest of this year goes on, I know I will think about Rebirth every time I decide to open up photo mode in a video game. When big story moments happen in other games, I know the main thing I will do is compare them to the biggest story moments from this game. When I explore open worlds for the rest of the year, I will likely be thinking about them in comparison to Rebirth’s open world. When I play other minigames this year, I will be thinking about how they stack up to Queen’s Blood.
Oftentimes, when a game stands this tall for me, there is one overwhelming thing that I love about it. With Rebirth, there are so many things that I love that it gets hard for me to just talk about one. This is one of the greatest video games I have ever played, and best of luck to Square Enix at coming close to this with part 3.
Score: 10/10
Big Nerd Gaming 
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