FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH

hardizack in the game omg

[h1] I normally don’t do this, but this review contains spoilers for both Rebirth AND the original FF7. If you have not played these games, I highly advise scrolling past this review. Thank you very much. [/h1] Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a game I did not go into hating. I’ve heard the polarizing opinions from both sides, which have people going “this is a great game!” to “this is the worst game of all time”. But for me, I didn't like this game. While I didn’t think Remake was a masterpiece, it did so many things I loved, and I consider that to be a 7/10 game; I just think it wasn’t a good FF7 game. But with Rebirth, I’m sorry, but my problem stems more from this not being a good game. I want to go off with the things I do like, which isn’t a whole lot, BUT the things I like are really strong. First off, I love the characters in this game! Aerith and Barret are the huge highlights for me; they feel extremely fleshed out, and while I am a Tifa fan through and through, Aerith in this game made me love her just as much. She actually is the main highlight of the game (I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hope so lol). The graphics are drop-dead gorgeous; I’m not a graphics guy by any means, but the graphics are some of THE best I’ve seen in the industry. The Gold Saucer is probably my favorite place; while I’m not a fan of the minigames in this game, it actually felt more alive than the original. The Loveless minigame sucked, but Aerith’s song, man.. That ♥♥♥♥ brought me to TEARS. I’m not afraid to say I cried at it, so what. The combat is much better, with it being more fluid, and the skill tree is actually fun and somewhat on par (not all the way) with the Materia system in the original. OST is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ phenomenal, like no wonder this won best soundtrack. Alright, now for the main reasons I don’t like this game. And sure, I could go straight for the easy criticisms: the Ubisoft-style open world, the endless fetch quests, the egregious filler, the tower climbing, Chadley. Those things absolutely hinder my experience. But my real issue runs deeper than side content or pacing. The last few hours encapsulate my problem not just with this game, but with the entire Compilation of FF7. Most people understand why Aerith’s death in the original FF7 was so heartbreaking. It was unceremonious, sudden, quiet, brutally final. There were no swelling monologues, no heroic last stand, no operatic farewell. And that restraint is precisely what made it devastating, and Cloud’s reaction is what truly sells it. After spending so long as this stoic, weirdo try-hard, he finally cracks. “My fingers are tingling. My mouth is dry. My eyes are burning.” It’s raw and confused and painfully human. And what makes it even worse is the timing, because you have to remember the last interaction he had with Aerith at that point was when he lost his ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥ over the Black Materia, and that unresolved guilt lingers. You can feel that authenticity (which is obviously influenced by Sakaguchi's personal experiences). The Jenova fight that follows doesn’t feel triumphant but really absurd. The world doesn’t stop for your grief; you suffer a sudden loss, and yet everything keeps moving, and in this literal case, you'll fight a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ interstellar parasite. Now compare that to Rebirth. The remake project operates under a different philosophy: "maximalism". There’s a sense that “keeping it simple” would underwhelm a modern audience conditioned for spectacle. So everything has to be bigger, louder, more complex. The developers seem obsessed with Fate, with destiny, timelines, multiverses. By transforming Aerith’s death into a grand, multiversal, hour-long boss spectacle complete with metaphysical layers and a definitive dreamlike goodbye, they turn a personal tragedy into a cosmic event. And in doing so, they fundamentally change its texture. It’s not that I think the developers misunderstand what made the original powerful. Clearly, they do understand. But they also seem fixated on subverting expectations, on adding narrative complexity for its own sake. It becomes commentary on itself. A meta-textual chess match with the audience. And that kind of sprawling, reality-bending convolution? That’s something I’d expect from Sora from Kingdom Hearts's escapades, not from FF7 at its most emotionally honest. Despite my gripes with this game and the first remake, I am genuinely curious about the story and will be playing Revelation and its DLC. 5/10, I wanted to like this game, but sadly I did not.