Documentary Details the Creation of PS5's Critically Acclaimed Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Still a little surprised it got an 8/10 from Push Square. 25 hours in and I think it is the best game I've played on the PS5. I wonder, as the game is so large, reviewers just had to rinse it to get write-ups out - and burnt themselves out on it? There is a lot here (but I think pacing is always an issue with massive open world games. The overall high quality of gameplay is ridiculous in Rebirth). Metacritic user scores are solidly 9 (should always be cynical about user-scores but that is actually higher/on par with Balders Gate 3 - on 8.9).

The Gondola region is perhaps the most incredible setting I've seen in an open world game.

@MomsSpaghetti it has sold less than expected physically. It’s still one of the year’s biggest releases.
Also, digital release preorder included Remake for free, so a lot of people bought it digital

@Shepherd_Tallon absolutely - I just loved exploring it (same with all the regions if I'm honest). And the music (whole game): just incredible.

@add286 An 8/10 is still a great score, don't see what there is to complain about. For me it's lower because the ubisoft checklist open world and the mandatory mini games got tedious and unfun to the point where I took a break at Chapter 11 because I didn't want to go back to the Golden Saucer. Playing Dragon's Dogma 2 after it and I am actually having fun exploring an open world game again and have been binging the hell out of it.

I'll be honest I absolutely love this game. I don't understand the hate from some sections of the fan base. I get people not vibing with the checklist style but when people say it's soulless that's just blatantly not true. If anything it has given some fairly pointless locations in the original (such as Costa del sol) more life and meaning. And the areas all look amazing. I am in Gongaga currently and absolutely loving every minute of this game

Can’t wait to start on rebirth

It’s the most fun I’ve had with a game in a long while.

I've really had a great time with the game. The only section I did not like was Cosmo Canyon because traversing around that area is a real pain with all the "You can only glide off of these very specific platforms" bits. It also had the worst side quests and mini-games by a mile. I even didn't like the main quest here either. Honestly couldn't move on to the next region fast enough.

Everything else though is fantastic. If you take out the Cosmo Canyon section this is an easy 10 for me. Very good work Square-Enix.

@Nepp67 I think if Ubisoft side content was an issue with Rebirth, it would be reflected in user scores (which as I say, are as high as they can be on 9/10 on metacritic). lol I’m not complaining, like who cares? Point I’m making is that 8/10 seems miles away the commentary is at.

Also, glad you are enjoying DD2, different strokes etc.

Easily the best game of the year so far and will be hard to beat especially after Dragons Dogma 2 not doing do as great as people expected. This site's score was one of the lower ones with the majority giving it a 9/10 and some 10/10 scores here and there hence the 92 metacritic rating but people seem to cling to this site's score as a way to bash the game and will probably be brought up when it wins pushsquares game of the year like with a certain other game.

@add286 it's undoubtedly a great game and I really loved it, but the fatigue will start to hit you 65+ hours in when you reach Nibelheim and take on the protorelic missions.

After that, you still have to go back to the Golden Saucer, the Temple of Ancients, and the Forgotten Capital. The last two feel like some of the longest chapters in the whole game.

@Korgon Funny how these things work, as I thought Cosmo Canyon was a pleasant reprieve from navigating Gongaga, which felt like my own personal hell.

@idiotthechef defo - that's quite amazing if you got 65+ hours of brilliant gameplay before you feel it is time to give it a break. I I'm looking forward to those parts of the game actually!

You know, I think that this is an issue with modern games in many ways. The original FF7 is brilliantly paced but most modern games aren't? They are filled and filled - so I'm just used to it now. In practice, it means I play games slowly and take breaks with them otherwise, it burns me out. Even Witcher 3 (as ace as it is) just had so much content that it took me months. I still have not got through BOTW (lol it has been 4 years). I'll complete Rebirth over the year.

@idiotthechef
I didn't mind Gongaga as much though that area did also have some annoying traversal with the mushroom jumps. I liked most of the quests there though so I guess that's why it didn't bother me as much...although that chicken side quest...

You know your right that section was a bit rough as well.😅

Will surely watch it. Rebirth is the best game I played on PS5 imho. Can’t get enough and thankfully it’s a very generous JRPG serving.

@Korgon the ending of that quest though! 🔪 🐔 😱

I thought it was excellent, one of my favourite games this gen.

@Nei
It was a great ending! Made putting up with the quest itself worth it!😄

Not sure why reviewers forgive Rebirth’s open world checklist over Rise of the Ronin. I’m playing both and Dragon’s Dogma 2 and can confidently say that Rise of the Ronin’s open world activities are as good as Rebirth’s. And I’d place both those games above DD2, personally. Each to their own, but just found it funny how one negative for one game is a positive for another — when the quality of the activities are similar.

@Korgon Agreed. Even the most silly quests give you a worthwhile moment in the game but this was my favourite unexpected quest conclusion 😂

@Shepherd_Tallon Yeah man, i've been on this here internet defending Gongaga, I really enjoyed it. They tried to give each region some interesting level design, most of the mushrooms you need to use are actually facing the points of interest, nowhere near as convoliuted as people are making out.

Kotaku even posted an article hating on it, including slating the region music, I erased any trace of Kotaku on my computer and vowed never to set foot there ever again.

"And on this episode, we're going to outline how we made our players believe they can change fate and destiny by keep repeating that phrase in our marketing. But at the end of the game, we decided to kill off Aerith anyway so nothing change. We'll still give you your childhood trauma but this time in 4K and a PhD to understand our mess of a multiverse plot. Oh we'll make this another Kingdom Hearts mess and a worse graphic than Remake. Also here's Chadwick"

Trash game.

@Orochilocka I answered this before and I'm still surprised people can't see why most are hating on Rebirth's open world checklist.

Rebirth is a lazy attempt at open world designed with a closed-world map mindset. You can only climb where you are told, you can only glide when you are told, and your ex warrior superhuman still can't jump a short distance to go to a tower so he had to circle around a short cliff that was jumpable by any normal human standard.

Square Enix created a pretty good open world with FF15, but Rebirth was just a lazy attempt at recreating that with their arbitrary invisible walls. Open world doesn't work with Rebirth traversal and it's only frustrating.

Open World works with RoR and any AC games because they did give the freedom of exploration with their traversal. In an era where true open world games like Tears of the Kingdom and Xenoblade Chronicles exist, Rebirth was just a sorry excuse to pad the short story in order to earn more money.

@QiaraIris eh I don’t mind Rebirth’s world. I’m a massive Xenoblade fan and actually think Future Redeemed was the best implementation of exploration in an open world, as it directly ties to character progression. But comparing it to Tears of the Kingdom… I’m not seeing that. Anyway, a tangent! Rebirth is fine, but I don’t get the hate for Ronin’s world when Rebirth is the same thing, that’s my point.

For me the Final Fantasy series peaked with the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy. I played FF 15 and 7 remake and yes they are not bad games but they get frustrating and tedious at times. I didn't enjoy the focus on mini games in FF7 and the hard mode was just annoying. To get the hard mode trophy you need to play though every chapter were you can't use items and can't recover MP. It seems that rebirth added even more mini games which is not what I wanted. And I got so frustrated with the dialogue cut scenes which can't be skipped the second time around.

I'm still loving playing this game. I'm a huge FF7 fan so I guess I'm blinded by that, but this is def in my top 10 of all time.
Dont care for Push reviewers and their opinions, or the narrative they try and push that its some kind of failure, they are simply underlining how little credibility they have for me, and how little perspective they truly have. This is everything FF was with a cherry on top. Did they reinvent the genre - absolutely not, they stuck very much to the same ideals that I loved in the past. If you want a new style of game, don't play a remake of an old one.

Is there any major spoilers in the documentary if I haven't finished the game yet?

@puddinggirl I'm just waiting to watch it until I finish Hahaha I don't want to risk anything (even location spoilers). I never played the original FF7 and FF7Remake was my first FF ever. So stoked to watch this at some point.

@add286 If a game gets a 90+ for user score, then it has done something right. IMO, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the BEST PS5-only game of this generation.

@MomsSpaghetti Those articles are basically based on physical Japanese sales. A market where almost nothing sells physically anymore. Wait until the digital sales are reported. It's true that Final Fantasy isn't exactly the biggest seller these days, but Final Fantasy XVI and VII Remake both sold much better when accounting for digital sales. Rebirth is doing just fine.

Only an hour into rebirth atm so I’ll delay watching this video in case of spoilers.

Loved remake so expect to love rebirth just as much!

@MomsSpaghetti Think you have to look at long term sales but yeah, little early to be calling a game that just released a classic. As I played through, though, I thought this was a game that could stand the test of time. I think we've just been eating so well in this category that it will take a good drought before people pick some of these up.

@thechetearly Oh ya, probably location spoilers. Guess I'd have to wait too.