🎮 Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: the remake that becomes an unforgettable adventure and defies destiny
- officialgeekverse
- 20 hours ago
- 14 min read
There are games that are remakes: they rebuild an entire work from the ground up, using a new graphics engine, redesigned visuals, and mechanics adapted to modern platforms. Sometimes they introduce significant changes to the story, and other times they follow the original narrative while reinterpreting it with new elements. Nowadays there are many remakes, and sometimes people feel that some of them were not really necessary. However, Final Fantasy VII is a completely different case.
With the first installment of this project, Final Fantasy VII Remake completely reinvented the original game. In this case, a remake truly made sense because of the age of the original work and the enormous room for improvement that existed. FFVII Remake brought incredible ideas, outstanding visual quality, and gameplay that was anything but boring—challenging, dynamic, and full of variety.
Now we have the second part of this story: FFVII Rebirth, a game that goes even further than the first installment and improves on it in almost every aspect. This title expands the world of FFVII in a unique way compared to many modern games, proving once again that remakes can be a great idea when they are truly necessary and well executed.
Let’s take a closer look at everything new this game offers, its innovations, and how it contributes to this large and complex story that captured the hearts of so many players—and which surely is the reason it deserved a remake.
🌍 A synopsis of an adventure that is only beginning
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth continues the story immediately after the events of Final Fantasy VII Remake. After escaping from Midgar, Cloud Strife and his companions begin a journey across the world with the goal of stopping Sephiroth, a former hero who has become a threat capable of endangering the fate of the planet.
During their journey, the group—made up of characters such as Tifa, Barret, Aerith, and Red XIII—explores new regions, faces increasingly powerful enemies, and uncovers secrets that connect Cloud’s past with the origins of Sephiroth. At the same time, the Shinra corporation continues exploiting the planet’s life energy, known as Mako, further intensifying the conflict that threatens the balance of the world.
The narrative also dives deeper into the relationships between the protagonists, exploring their doubts, memories, and motivations as they move toward an uncertain future. Between surprising revelations and emotional moments, the journey becomes more than just a mission—it becomes a search for the truth behind the past and the magnitude of the threat that lies ahead.
As the second entry in the remake trilogy of the classic Final Fantasy VII, Rebirth expands the universe of the saga with a wider world, new stories, and events that begin to alter the destiny many once believed was already set.
🎨 A graphical leap that can be felt everywhere
Obviously, the graphics were always going to be better than those of the original game. Still, the jump in quality compared to Remake is very noticeable, partly because Rebirth was initially released for the PS5 and developed with next-generation hardware in mind.
This is evident in its almost instant loading times, a larger world, improved lighting, better textures, and overall performance. Map designs are bigger, and transitions happen without loading screens, making the game feel extremely fluid.
There is also a greater draw distance, meaning you can see farther and with more detail. On top of that, exploration and combat transitions are seamless, characters’ clothing has more detail, physics are improved, hair looks more natural, and environments feature denser vegetation, rocks, and structures. Water effects, reflections, particle effects, wind movement, and overall animation show clear improvements.
However, where the visual quality truly shines is during exploration. The different locations are crafted with incredible detail: mountains, vegetation, jungles, deserts, cities, and much more. The world is vast but never sacrifices quality, offering far more variety than many other games that feature huge maps but end up feeling repetitive.
Here, the map is large—but not excessively so. And that’s actually a good thing. In this case, quality matters more than sheer size, and Rebirth understands that perfectly. The world is divided into regions—Kalm, Junon, Costa del Sol, Corel, Gongaga, Cosmo Canyon, and Nibel—each with its own visual identity and atmosphere.
This regional division makes the experience feel far more diverse. A contrasting example, at least personally, would be Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. At first exploration is fun, but over time the world can feel repetitive and unnecessarily large.
Valhalla offers lots of greenery, villages, and Viking fortresses. The weather changes, but the architecture and environments often repeat.
Rebirth, on the other hand, offers grasslands, deserts, jungles, mountains, tropical coasts, a spiritual canyon, and even snowy areas. Each region feels distinct both visually and musically.
Another thing Rebirth does very well in exploration is enemy variety. There are many enemies, and they often require different strategies, preventing combat from becoming repetitive.
⚔️ Gameplay that is deeper, more varied, and more creative
One of Rebirth’s biggest strengths is how it expands and improves the gameplay of the previous game. There is more variety of Materia, allowing players to build very different strategies and adapt each character’s fighting style to their preferences.
Materia are magical orbs that can be equipped to weapons and accessories. There are several types: green for offensive or healing magic, red for summons, yellow for commands, blue for support, and purple for independent stat boosts.
This system was already interesting in the previous game, but Rebirth expands it with new options that open up even more possibilities.
Some notable Materia include Fire and Ice, Lightning and Wind, Gravity, Comet, Petrify, Reraise, Morph, Spare Change, Synergy Support, and others designed to optimize magic usage and resource management. All of this adds more depth to combat and allows players to experiment with different strategies.
Returning abilities from the previous game are joined by many new ones that further diversify combat, such as Cloud’s Firebolt Blade, Barret’s Bonus Round, Tifa’s Trinity Strike, Aerith’s Radiant Ward, and Yuffie’s Doppelganger. Additionally, new playable characters like Red XIII and Cait Sith bring new fighting styles and combinations.
Even weapon designs reinforce that sense of care and variety. It is clear that a lot of effort went into creating interesting visual and mechanical designs for each character.
🤝 The big innovation: synergy abilities
If there is one feature that clearly represents Rebirth’s evolution, it is synergy abilities. These allow unique actions between two characters participating in combat, creating special sequences that cannot be performed otherwise.
Here, Square Enix really showed creativity. Depending on which characters are fighting together and what each can do, different unique attacks and combinations are triggered. Discovering all these synergy combinations is extremely fun and shows how much effort went into ensuring the gameplay remains fresh.
Interestingly, the idea did not appear out of nowhere. It was first experimented with in the Intermission DLC with Yuffie and Sonon. From there, the concept was expanded and refined into one of the most engaging elements of Rebirth’s combat system.
Another major improvement is the expansion of Limit Breaks. Now they have three levels, and the difference between level two and level three is significant—not only in damage but also in the visual spectacle.
Certain synergy abilities can temporarily increase the Limit Break level or provide combat bonuses such as unlimited MP, faster ATB generation, or damage buffs, adding even more depth to combat strategy.
On top of that, the game introduces new summons. Familiar ones like Ifrit, Shiva, and Bahamut return, but new ones like Odin, Phoenix, and Kujata also appear. The battles required to obtain them can be extremely challenging and memorable.
🗺️ A massive world with open regions and endless activities
Compared to the previous game, Rebirth greatly expands its world. It is not exactly a traditional open-world game, but it offers something very close thanks to its structure of large open regions.
Much of the exploration revolves around Chadley, just like in the previous title, as many research activities involve him. Players can discover research towers, Mako crystals, materials for crafting items (transmutation) and Materia, and other incentives for exploration. There are also challenging monster encounters connected to Mai.
The game also expands its side content enormously. If some players felt there was not enough to do in Remake, that problem disappears completely here.
One standout activity is Queen’s Blood, Rebirth’s unique card game where cards represent enemies, creatures, units, and characters from the FFVII universe. Gold Saucer also becomes packed with activities: 3D Brawler, Chocobo races, Space Ranger, battle arenas, and many other minigames.
Each region also features its own Chocobo, each with unique abilities suited to its environment.
Additionally, Chadley’s battle simulator returns with tougher challenges, along with the Protorelic system, one of the game’s most unique activities involving exploration, combat challenges, and minigames.
The key takeaway is simple: if the previous game felt somewhat limited in side activities, Rebirth offers a massive amount of content.
🧩A story that becomes far more ambitious and mysterious
This is where one of the most interesting concepts of the remake project becomes most apparent. It does not simply rebuild the game from the ground up; it also introduces new narrative elements that expand or reinterpret certain events from the original story.
Thanks to new technology, the evolution of the industry, and a greater narrative ambition, the story has gained more depth and context. It could be said that it still follows the original structure, but it makes important changes that ultimately take everything in a direction that is both similar and, at the same time, different. This is where concepts such as destiny, the Whispers, and the possibility of different realities or alternate worlds become much more prominent.
In the original game, Sephiroth sought to gravely wound the planet so that, when it attempted to heal itself through the Lifestream (the vital energy of the planet), it would release an enormous amount of energy that he could then absorb. In this new trilogy, however, the situation seems to go beyond that. The new ideas introduced by the remake have made many people become interested in the story all over again, analyzing the villain’s intentions and the new meaning behind everything that is taking place.
Many fan theories suggest that Sephiroth already knows what will happen if the story follows its original course, and that this is precisely why he is trying to manipulate destiny through the Whispers. According to this interpretation, he is not only attempting to change the outcome he had in the original story, but also to interfere in different realities or parallel worlds.
That makes this new version of the story especially fascinating. One might think the changes would be small or subtle, but in the end Rebirth reveals enough elements to leave many people wondering what is really happening. It is a story that feels mind-bending, but in a good way. It maintains mystery and tension until the very end, and when those narrative possibilities finally begin to open up, everything explodes at once.
The scenes related to Zack, for example, sparked an enormous number of interpretations. Many people made videos analyzing what happens and proposing quite coherent readings of the events. Personally, I thought this was a very intelligent move by the developers. It is clear they wanted to create original material, a different and more daring story, rather than simply copying what came before.
Another very strong detail is that Rebirth continues secondary storylines that had already been introduced in the first part. Secondary mission of Leslie and the presence of the Avalanche HQ members whom Yuffie met in Intermission help reinforce that sense of continuity and world expansion. Unresolved questions are also revisited, such as what happened to Wedge, and the game continues to develop the stories of characters who, in other games, might have been forgotten.
On the other hand, the story also knows how to be spectacular. It has battle sequences, epic moments, romance, friendship, adventure, magic, villains, and emotion. Even with all of that, it still maintains a strong sense of balance. The cinematics, battle choreography, and music elevate the impact of those moments even further, making many scenes feel truly massive.
🧠 Cloud: one of the most complex protagonists in the saga
Another reason why this story is so interesting is Cloud himself as the protagonist. He is a complex character, emotionally blocked and with a fragmented identity. What happened in Crisis Core and the experiments he endured ultimately affected his memories due to degradation and the excess of Mako within his body.
Many of his memories are mixed with Zack’s, which causes part of his perception of himself to become distorted. That is why following his evolution becomes so compelling: the player wants to see the moment when Cloud will fully recover his memories and stop being manipulated by Sephiroth.
It is also very emotional when he begins to remember fragments of Zack, because it feels like an important step in his personal reconstruction. At the same time, depending on the influence of the characters surrounding him, it seems that Cloud may either move closer to the truth or become even more lost within himself.
By the end of the story, he is clearly left in an unresolved state. Sephiroth still influences his mind, and it can be interpreted that both of them remain connected through the Lifestream and the cells of Jenova. That connection—together with everything that Aerith represents within this conflict—remains one of the most ambiguous and important elements of the game.
From a more personal interpretation, it even seems that Aerith might still be able to intervene in some way within this conflict, almost as if she were playing a game of chess with Sephiroth. That could help explain why Cloud continues to perceive her even after what has happened.
👥 A massive cast filled with important characters
The cast of Rebirth is enormous. Playable characters include Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret, Red XIII, Yuffie, and Cait Sith.
Additionally, there are other characters that can be controlled during specific moments or game modes, although it is best to leave that surprise for those who have not yet played the game.
As in the first installment, Cloud’s decisions influence certain scenes, particularly in Gold Saucer, where different moments can be unlocked depending on which character he has developed a stronger relationship with. These relationships improve through decisions made throughout the story and through shared side quests.
Other important figures such as Cid Highwind and Vincent Valentine appear as well, along with the Turks - Reno, Rude, Elena, Tseng - , Cissnei, Zack Fair, Rufus Shinra, and Shinra executives like Hojo, Scarlet, Heidegger, Reeve, and Palmer.
Many familiar Midgar characters also return, including Johnny, Kyrie, Corneo, Madam M, Chocobo Sam, Andrea Rhodea, Marlene, Elmyra, and Biggs.
Among the newer characters gaining prominence in the remake project, Glenn Lodbrok appears to be particularly important, especially because of his connection to Sephiroth, the war hero and main villain of the story, and his possible role in the growing conflict between Shinra and Wutai.
🎵 A soundtrack worthy of the legend
On top of everything already mentioned, Final Fantasy VII once again stands out greatly for its soundtrack. If Remake had already left a strong impression with tracks such as Hollow Skies and Hollow, Rebirth arrives with a new set of musical pieces that maintain—and in some cases even elevate—that level.
Personally, some of the best ones include Junon Region, One-Winged Angel Reborn, The Turks, Custom Valkyrie, Cosmo Canyon Region, and above all the new version of Hollow Skies, both during exploration and in combat. This last one, in particular, feels like a piece that takes the original melody and elevates it to a new level.
Hollow Skies:
Hollow Skies Battle Edit:
Another highlight is No Promises to Keep, the new main theme, which is performed by Aerith in the game during a very moving and creatively presented scene.
In general, the world of Final Fantasy has always been characterized by its remarkable musical richness, and Rebirth is no exception. It features a wide variety of melodies and themes that complement the adventure extremely well, reinforcing both the emotional impact and the identity of each location and moment.
🏆 The best and the most tedious parts: my opinion after platinum
This is where the more personal opinions come in. And as someone who has obtained the platinum trophy for the game, I think it is also worth pointing out a few aspects that not everyone will necessarily see the same way.
First, the amount of activities in the game is enormous. On the one hand, this provides a great deal of variety, but on the other hand it can also become tedious if the goal is to obtain the platinum trophy. The issue is not so much the difficulty—because personally I enjoy a challenge—but rather that some activities feel too secondary to require completing absolutely all of them.
Doing them once can be interesting. In fact, several of them are quite entertaining. However, when some activities have multiple versions, several difficulty levels, or require being repeated multiple times, that is when they can start to feel exhausting.
Personally, I think some major activities such as the coliseum battles, the chocobo races, or Queen’s Blood do justify being important for the platinum trophy. But others—such as certain minigames in Costa del Sol or specific challenges in Gold Saucer—can feel overly mandatory for something that perhaps should not require so much completion.
For example, with the Protorelic quests, there are moments where you must repeat minigames across several locations and then complete them again at a higher difficulty. And for anyone aiming for the platinum, those cannot be skipped.
That said, I want to make something clear: the fact that it can feel tedious for the platinum trophy does not mean the content itself is bad. On the contrary, much of the side content is genuinely entertaining. The problem only appears when the game requires completing absolutely everything.
On the other hand, when it comes to the core gameplay—the standard battles with your team, your materia, and your strategy—I do believe the variety is guaranteed. Rebirth offers a huge number of interesting fights, especially for players who enjoy a challenge.
The battles unlocked in hard mode, particularly those tied to Chadley’s research, the coliseum, and other challenges, clearly surpass the difficulty seen in Remake. There will be moments where you literally have to fight two special summons at the same time. Depending on the type of player you are, that will either feel incredible or extremely frustrating. In some cases, the game genuinely forces you to search for a definitive strategy.
What I would criticize slightly is a certain portion of the coliseum in hard mode. Some enemies appear quite frequently there—especially the King Zu. Not only does it repeat often, but certain combinations with other creatures are reused as well, which ends up making several fights feel too similar to each other.
After several consecutive battles featuring repeated combinations, the difficulty stops feeling exciting and starts to feel tiring. It becomes, in a way, “challengingly boring.” And that can create the opposite effect of what one expects from a well-designed challenge.
That said, I want to clarify that I mainly feel this issue in certain battles within the Gold Saucer coliseum. In the rest of the game—main story encounters, Chadley’s simulators, and other challenges—there is a very good level of variety and a much better balance in terms of difficulty.
Because of this, anyone aiming to platinum the game should keep all of this in mind. Not only because of the number of side activities, but also because the difficulty of some battles—particularly Chadley’s—can be even tougher than the coliseum itself.
In short: yes, the game is quite difficult to platinum.
✨Conclusion: an adventure that truly feels magical
To conclude, what makes this game truly special is the feeling it creates. As someone who enjoys anime, I have always imagined what it would be like to experience a game that captures that same sense of adventure, emotion, and visual style—and FFVII is probably the closest thing to that experience.
More than anything else, what makes Rebirth stand out is the sensation that you are embarking on a great adventure. It feels magical, epic, emotional, and full of fantasy.
When a game manages to combine adventure, combat, magic, storytelling, and unforgettable characters so well, it becomes something truly special.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth does not just expand the world of FFVII—it expands everything that makes a great adventure unforgettable.
🔮 The unknown journey still continues. Will the third part arrive in 2027?
Recently, several news reports and comments from developers have suggested that the third installment of the remake project is already in advanced stages of development.
Although there is still no official release date, many fans believe that new information could appear sometime this year. Some even speculate that the game might launch in 2027, which would be symbolic since it would coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Final Fantasy series.
If that happens, the final chapter of this trilogy could become one of the most important moments in the entire history of the franchise.
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