I spent a long time trying to figure out where to tackle this review. When it comes to Final Fantasy 7 in particular I am very much nostalgic over it, and it is incredibly difficult for me to be objective with it. I grew up with these characters years ago when the OG released in 1997. I cried at *that moment* that most of us know about. Square has given us a chance to reconnect with these characters, with modern graphics, and focused a lot more on developing the characters we all know and love.

So instead of trying to be objective with it, I will review this from the lens that I love this game. I love the characters. I love the setting. I was obsessed with them as a child, and I am obsessed with them as an almost 40 year old adult today. So I am just going to put down what I liked about the game and didn't, because the series and these characters really makes it hard to look at them any other way.



FF ReBirth overall manages to follow along with the events of the OG surprisingly well, considering what ReMake was like. On top of that, they focus on developing many of the characters personalities. We see more interaction with all of them really; Barret and Cloud, Cloud and Tifa too. Even Cloud and Aerith have a lot of development. Nanaki/Red XIII has a lot more interaction with the party too. And Yuffie doesn't feel like a haphazardly thrown in character. She actually has a place in the main story. However, none of that character development impresses me more than the relationship between Tifa and Aerith. The game highlights how close they are--they really feel like more than just best friends, but sisters and I am all for this. It makes something else much later hit so much harder too. I cried back in 1997 and I cried again in 2025. Damn you Square!

The gameplay is...overall great. The combat system is much improved over Remake, imo. I love the synergy attacks they added, and there is a lot of hidden depth in the combat system. If you try to button mash, you're gonna have a bad time. I was VERY skeptical of the combat system in the remake series, as I enjoyed the more turn based oriented combat, but I feel Square found probably their best combat system to date here.

The world itself feels great. Revisiting old places like Kalm, Junon, the Gongoga. Everything feels right, everything looks right. I especially loved Cosmo Canyon; and there are so many moments when I just had to stop and stare at my screen, enjoying these places just as my 12 year old brain imagined them back in 1997 when I first experienced Final Fantasy 7. I absolutely love their world building here.

The narrative...I appreciate what they are trying to do. Overall, as I said above, it sticks with the flow of the OG, and allows for a lot more character development. It hits the main beats of the OG, with some extra stuff thrown in.



There is something I can't say without spoilers, so I will spoiler tag it and if you have not gone through the game, DO NOT READ THE SPOILERED TEXT. Nanaki's voice. Unfortunately this DOES make canonical sense, but OMG do I hate what they did with it. That took me out so much. I eventually got used to it, but it's a huge negative for me.

They skipped over a couple things that I rather they didn't. Without too many spoilers here, they didn't include Bone Village. You just kinda go to the location after. That was quite disappointing, as I really was hoping we would see that.

Too many mini-games. I know, this criticism has been done to death; but it is a very valid criticism. Some of the stuff I liked, but things like scanning a rock? After the 5th one, it gets very old very fast. It adds nothing to the gameplay, and just made me roll my eyes every time.

Photo mode; WHY give us a photo mode, then lock our camera movement. If I want to get a good shot of one of the OTHER party members besides Cloud, I should NOT have to fight with it, and have to position Cloud nearby. If they were just trying to stop creepshots of Tifa and Aerith, too bad. It's a video game character for one, and for two, that's no reason to butcher a photo mode. You shouldn't need a mod to get the photos you want to get.

One other thing to note is there are reports of performance issues. I don't have a lot of issues, but there are moments I experience frame drops here and there. So I do think the game could be better optimized, though I didn't really notice too many; it was sporadic here and there in my case.


Overall I do NOT regret getting this game. I loved every second of it, and this is the first game in a very long time that I sank over 40 hours in the first 3 days I owned it. I'm now sitting at 91 hours at the time of this review, have beaten the game, and I jumped right back in. This game feels like revisiting old friends; a childhood comfort that I get to relive.

Square also gave us some fantastic moments that Crisis Core fans will pick up on; you can feel the love and care that went into this game and the respect they have given the characters. It may not be the 1:1 remake I originally wanted, but Square did something. They made me WANT us to be able to alter how the events of the OG play out, because I care that much about the characters now.

Excellent game. Objectively NOT a 10/10; it has issues, depending on what might matter to you as an OG player or even a newcomer to the FF7 games. However, with my background and love for the series, and how nostalgic I am for the game, the characters, etc. it is my personal ten.