Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Introduction

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is worth buying if you're already invested in this reimagined trilogy, but newcomers should temper expectations: this is a middle chapter that feels every bit like Empire Strikes Back—darker, more ambitious, and occasionally lost in its own scope. Square Enix has crafted a combat system that's genuinely among the best in modern JRPGs, wrapped in a world that's both breathtaking and exhausting to navigate. It's a flawed masterpiece that asks for 60 hours of your time when 40 would've been sharper.

This PS5 exclusive launched at £59.99 in the UK on 29 February 2024, and it's clear where that budget went. The scale dwarfs Remake's Midgar corridors—five massive open zones replace the linear structure, each crammed with side content that ranges from genuinely rewarding to transparently padding. According to Square Enix's official launch materials, Rebirth covers the story from leaving Midgar through to the Forgotten Capital, roughly disc one of the 1997 original. That's a lot of ground, and not all of it needed this much elaboration.

Gameplay

The ATB combat system from Remake returns refined and expanded. You're still balancing real-time action with menu commands, pressuring enemies to expose weaknesses, then staggering them for devastating damage. What's changed is the depth: each of the nine playable characters now has unique Synergy Abilities—paired attacks that drain a separate gauge and encourage constant party rotation. Red XIII's Overfang with Barret is a vicious AoE cleave; Aerith and Tifa's combo turns the healer into a front-line brawler for precious seconds.

Weapon upgrades have been overhauled. Instead of linear skill trees, each weapon now has multiple Folios—branching paths you unlock with SP earned through combat and exploration. Cloud's Hardedge can spec into raw damage or defensive parry builds. Tifa's Sonic Strikers let you focus on chi stacking or AoE pressure. It's a welcome change that makes loot drops feel meaningful even 30 hours in.

But the open-world design is where cracks appear. Each region—Grasslands, Junon, Corel, Gongaga, Cosmo Canyon—is dense with towers to activate, Chocobo Stops to unlock, and Expedition Intel to gather. Chadley returns as your quest hub, doling out combat challenges, photography assignments, and monster hunts. Some are brilliant: the Combat Simulator VR missions test your mastery with increasingly sadistic modifier combinations. Others are busywork: collecting mushrooms, playing awful minigames (looking at you, Fort Condor tactical battles), or herding Chocobos.

The piano performance minigame is the standout—a rhythm game where Cloud learns songs that unlock character backstory. It's optional but rewarding, unlike the mandatory Queen's Blood card game that the story insists you care about despite its glacial pacing and unclear win conditions. Gwent this is not.

Story & World

Rebirth takes shocking liberties with the original's plot, and whether that's brilliant or sacrilege depends entirely on your attachment to 1997. The Whispers of Fate are mostly gone, replaced by mysterious "alternate timeline" visions that Cloud experiences with increasing frequency. Sephiroth is omnipresent—too much so. Where the original doled out his appearances with restraint, here he's in every other cutscene, monologuing about destiny and reunion until the menace dulls.

The character work, though, is superb. This is finally Tifa, Barret, Red XIII, and Yuffie's time to shine. Barret's backstory in Corel hits harder with voice acting and facial capture that sells his rage and regret. Yuffie's recruitment in the Grasslands is expanded into a multi-hour subplot involving Wutai spies and materia smuggling. Red XIII gets an entire chapter dedicated to Cosmo Canyon that respects the original's themes while adding new emotional depth to his relationship with Bugenhagen.

Aerith remains the heart of the narrative, and the game knows you know what's coming. The entire final act is structured around that knowledge, twisting and subverting expectations in ways that feel manipulative at times. Without spoiling specifics: the Forgotten Capital sequence is divisive. According to interviews with director Naoki Hamaguchi published on the official PlayStation Blog, the ending is designed to be "open to interpretation," which in practice means frustratingly vague. The emotional gut-punch of the original is traded for multiverse ambiguity.

Pacing is the bigger crime. Chapters 8 through 10 drag mercilessly—hours of open-world busywork with minimal story progression. The Corel prison sequence, reimagined as a gladiator arc, goes on for three full chapters when one would've sufficed. It's bloat disguised as content, and it saps momentum just as the stakes should be escalating.

Visuals & Sound

This is a technical showcase for PS5. The open zones are vast without feeling empty—the Grasslands at sunrise, Chocobos grazing near waterfalls, is legitimately breathtaking. Character models during cutscenes rival anything Naughty Dog has produced. The facial capture during key dramatic scenes (Tifa and Cloud's childhood flashback in Nibelheim, Aerith's Gold Saucer date) sells performances that would collapse under lesser technology.

Performance mode targets 60fps and mostly holds it, though the Junon parade and Costa del Sol's crowded beaches see drops into the low 50s according to Digital Foundry's technical analysis. Graphics mode locks to 30fps with higher resolution and improved lighting—it's the prettier option but the combat feels sluggish after hours at 60. No VRR support at launch was baffling for a 2024 exclusive.

Nobuo Uematsu's original score gets the full orchestral treatment courtesy of composers Mitsuto Suzuki and Masashi Hamauzu. "Those Who Fight Further" during boss battles is goosebump-inducing. The Costa del Sol remix of "Cinco de Chocobo" is a synth-funk banger that has no right being this catchy. Voice acting is excellent across the board, with special praise for Briana White's Aerith—she navigates the character's forced cheerfulness hiding existential dread with heartbreaking nuance.

The Cosmo Canyon theme, however, has been Westernised in a way that strips out the original's Native American-inspired instrumentation, replacing it with generic orchestral swells. It's a subtle change but one that feels like a step back from the cultural specificity Uematsu originally evoked.

Performance

Beyond frame rate, there are quality-of-life issues. Fast travel exists but only between Chocobo Stops, not individual landmarks, meaning you'll spend累計 minutes riding across zones you've already explored. Loading times are decent—about 8 seconds between areas—but the frequency of loading tunnels (narrow passages where you squeeze through cracks) suggests the engine is struggling with asset streaming.

Autosave is generous, though boss battles don't checkpoint mid-fight. Dying to Demon Gate after 15 minutes and restarting from scratch is a throwback nobody needed. The Hard mode unlocked after completing the game removes items and increases damage—it's the real combat challenge for those who've mastered the systems, but locking it behind a 60-hour playthrough is a big ask.

No accessibility options for the rhythm minigames is an oversight. The piano performances have no timing assist or visual cues beyond the scrolling notes, which will lock content behind a skill gate for some players.

Final Thoughts

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a contradiction: a game with some of the best moment-to-moment combat in the genre, undermined by a compulsion to stuff every corner with content. The main story missions—the Nibelheim flashback, the Gold Saucer date mechanics, the entire Gongaga reactor sequence—are peak JRPG craft. But between those peaks are valleys of repetitive side quests that feel algorithmically designed to pad playtime.

The 8.0 score reflects a game that reaches a 9 during its highs but spends too much time treading water. If you adored Remake, this is essential—the combat evolution alone justifies the purchase. But if you bounced off Remake's pacing or storytelling choices, Rebirth doubles down on both. It's not the definitive way to experience this chapter of FFVII's story; it's a maximalist reinterpretation that trades focus for scope.

For £60, you're getting 50–60 hours of content if you engage with side quests, closer to 35–40 if you mainline the story. That's solid value, but be prepared to use a guide to separate the worthwhile content from the filler. The ending will leave you either desperate for part three or frustrated by its narrative sleight-of-hand. Either way, you won't forget it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is Final Fantasy VII Rebirth worth buying on PS5 if I didn't play Remake?

A: Absolutely not. This is chapter two of a trilogy that assumes intimate knowledge of Remake's story and character arcs. The opening drops you straight into the aftermath with zero recap. Even veteran fans of the 1997 original will be lost without Remake's context, as this version diverges significantly from the source material.

Q: How long does it take to finish Final Fantasy VII Rebirth?

A: Main story takes 35–40 hours if you skip most side content. Completionists looking at 100% will spend 60–70 hours, much of that grinding Expedition Intel and minigames. A focused playthrough hitting key side quests lands around 50 hours, which feels like the intended pace for the narrative.

Q: Does Final Fantasy VII Rebirth have New Game Plus or post-game content?

A: Yes, completing the game unlocks Hard mode with all your gear and materia carrying over, plus higher enemy stats and no items allowed. There's also a Chapter Select for replaying specific story segments and hunting missed collectibles. No additional story content appears after the credits, though several superbosses unlock through late-game side quests.

Pros & Cons

✅ Pros

• Combat system that rewards mastery and experimentation
• Outstanding character development for the extended cast
• Visually stunning open zones with impressive scale
• Phenomenal soundtrack blending nostalgia with fresh arrangements

❌ Cons

• Bloated with repetitive open-world busywork
• Pacing grinds to a halt in the middle chapters
• Narrative liberties that undermine the original's emotional beats

The Verdict

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a technically brilliant JRPG hamstrung by bloat and questionable story decisions. The combat alone justifies the £60 asking price if you loved Remake, but prepare for a 60-hour journey that could've been 40. It's an 8 because the highs are stratospheric—but the lows are fetch quests disguised as content.