Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Review — The best jRPG of last year that you need to play on PC

Finally! Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, the second part of Square Enix's ambitious remake trilogy, has made its way to PC a year later, allowing players to fully enjoy one of the best Japanese role-playing games without technical limitations and blurred images. We deliberately chose not to review the original version for PlayStation 5 in 2024 to avoid spoiling the experience (and eyesight) and to get the most enjoyment from the most technologically advanced PC port of one of last year's best games. In this review, we will not only examine the plot and gameplay but also evaluate the graphics and performance of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on both platforms, helping you decide which version to pay attention to.

The main plot of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth continues exactly where Remake left off. In the main menu, there is a separate button with a detailed recap of the events if you, for some reason, missed the first part or have already forgotten the reasons for the main conflict. Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and Aerith are fleeing from Midgar after confronting the Shinra corporation and the mysterious «Whispers» ghosts. Now they must venture into a more expansive world with numerous settlements to find Sephiroth and uncover the «main secret» of the planet. However, Rebirth is not just a literal retelling of the second chapter from the original game. The writers have made bold narrative changes, introducing new plot twists and quest chains that not only expand the lore but also reveal additional details.

All key moments of the original story remain in place: the visit to Kalm, meeting Yuffie, Vincent, Cid, and Cait Sith, as well as the tragic events in the City of the Ancients and Nibelheim. The authors of Rebirth slightly reimagine these moments, adding a fresh perspective and enhancing the emotional component of the scenes. Thanks to the new storytelling approach, it will be easier to accept Cloud's psychological instability and understand the true reasons for Sephiroth's bitterness.

Due to the increased scale and vast «bright» territories for exploration, the game does not feel as dark and depressing as the first part. Yes, the sequel's plot doesn't stray much from the main canon, where themes of identity and sacrifice are the foundation of the second chapter, but the developers have tried to dilute all this «gloom» with tons of fun and endearing content. The well-thought-out arcs of Cloud's companions are the heart of Rebirth. New characters easily integrate into the party, and the «old-timers» receive significant character development. These changes were also present in the original game, but with a new perspective and refined storyline, they acquire a vivid hue.

Despite the numerous positive changes, Rebirth is sure to raise many questions among fans of the original. Some key locations have been cut from the main storyline, and the multiverse concept often presents controversial decisions. We were disappointed with the ending and the pre-final missions. It's clear that the writers tried their best to transform already known cliffhangers into something more intriguing, but ultimately spoiled the most emotional moments of the original. The story of Final Fantasy 7 was never cheerful and lighthearted, yet Rebirth turned out to be just that. Meanwhile, the first part of the remake trilogy more or less adhered to the spirit and atmosphere of the original. We'll see how the mood of the main plot changes in the third part.

If you played Final Fantasy 7 Remake, you'll easily grasp the gameplay of Rebirth. It remains a classic jRPG with an active action system and linear storytelling. Each character has their unique combat style: Cloud is a balanced swordsman, Tifa is a melee expert, Barret is a specialist in ranged weapons, and Aerith is an excellent support and strong mage. The new «Synergy» system allows heroes to unite for powerful combo attacks, adding new possibilities in battles.

Japanese RPGs can barely be called «role-playing» games; they lack obvious non-linearity and extensive progression. Nevertheless, Rebirth features a «Materia Customization» system that allows you to use new abilities and enhance characteristics. You just need to collect a certain number of magical orbs and insert them into equipment slots. It sounds quite simple, but thanks to new types of materia and possible combinations, you'll unlock more strategic options and improve the heroes' survivability in battles.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has a very flexible combat system with the ability to pause the game and select a specific ability from the command menu. This way, the player can simultaneously activate several characters' skills. Often, in battles with multiple opponents, you need to plan zoning in advance and assign roles to the heroes. For example, Barret quickly deals with flying and ranged opponents, while Cloud effortlessly «crushes» a whole crowd of small enemies with a sword strike. Aerith is better kept out of the thick of things so she can heal wounded party members in time and apply a magical debuff on particularly strong foes.

The game features two ability charge systems — active and classic. In the first case, each hit on an opponent gives a certain amount of ATB points, while in the second, the gauge fills automatically. Meanwhile, you can always perform simple and enhanced attacks, as well as block and dodge incoming damage. There's also the option to switch between the three members of the battle group, which is useful when filling the «Revenge Gauge» for the heroes. The latter allows you to use an ultimate ability at the most crucial moment.

Unlike the first part, in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, we have the opportunity to explore an open world. Yes, it is still divided into large areas that require traveling between them by plane, chocobo, and other vehicles, but it's already a big step forward compared to the linear streets of Midgar from Remake. Square Enix tried to fill the locations with a huge number of activities and even slightly overdid it. Not as much as CD Projekt RED with the «question marks» on Skellige, but still a lot. It's enough to just reach the nearest tower and activate a beacon that will highlight all available tasks in the region. Trust me — completing most activities can take twice as long as the main storyline.

The world and location design are some of the most impressive aspects of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. It's hard to imagine how much effort and time the developers spent creating such «juicy» and detailed landscapes. Once outside Midgar, you'll find yourself in the quaint town of Kalm, which feels like the coziest place on the planet after the cobbled streets and industrial dystopia of the metropolis. Then Cloud and his friends will head to the coastal Junon — a visual marvel with a towering Mako reactor and a bustling Lower Town. But the most striking places that can be admired endlessly are Costa del Sol, Gongaga, and Cosmo Canyon. Besides the big cities, Rebirth has a plethora of locations with diverse biomes and interesting visuals. Each is filled with side quests, hidden treasures, and puzzles.

And, of course, we can't forget about the mini-games, which in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth are almost more numerous than in the Yakuza series projects. The developers undoubtedly listened to the criticism of the first part for the absolutely «dead» Midgar and made as many activities as possible per square meter of location. At some point, they will literally overshadow the main storyline. Here you have the full-fledged card game Triple Triad from Final Fantasy 8, chocobo breeding, races, motorcycle rides, collecting Segways, sticker hunts, soccer, piano playing, and even interactive mushroom gathering. And we haven't even mentioned the huge amusement park «Gold Saucer», where mini-games are a major part of the level's game design. In short, forget about meaningless running from point to point and get ready for exciting entertainment for dozens of hours.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth turned out to be too big and rich in content. Completing the main story alone will take over 50 hours. Even without exploring the side content, you'll get a very dynamic adventure with excellent action, stunning visuals, touching characters, and unusual situations. Yes, it's hard to believe, but this is almost the first modern Final Fantasy where there's more gameplay than dialogues and pointless running. But if you decide to complete all the side quests with additional boss eliminations and mini-games for the best results, get ready for an adventure of 100 hours or more. Trust me — this game is worth your free time.

The music in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is simply extraordinary! The soundtrack, composed by Nobuo Uematsu with contributions from Masashi Hamauzu and Mitsuto Suzuki, is a perfect blend of nostalgia and innovation. Classic tracks like Aerith’s Theme, One-Winged Angel, and the main theme of Final Fantasy 7 are reimagined with modern arrangements while maintaining the overall mood and emotional tone.

For almost an entire year, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was a PlayStation 5 exclusive and looked not just bad, but terrible on it. Even Final Fantasy 16 did not suffer from such a high amount of «blur» per inch. To make the game work more or less well, the developers literally lowered all settings to minimum values. Let's visually compare the graphics and performance on PlayStation 5 and PC so you can understand how gamers who couldn't wait a year for the best version of the second part of the remake «enjoyed» the game.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on a regular PS5 delivers 60 frames per second in «Performance» mode. According to experts from Digital Foundry, the game renders at 1224p and stretches it to 1400p. But these are just tales, as the actual base resolution barely reaches, at best, 1080p, which is scaled using TAA. Just compare Rebirth with last year's Helldivers 2. The latter outputs the picture in 1080p resolution in performance mode, which is significantly less than the claimed 1224p by Digital Foundry. Meanwhile, the Arrowhead Game Studios project looks much better and sharper. It turns out that either Rebirth has serious upscaling issues, or the console simply doesn't pull the project with its power.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves and consider the «Quality» mode yet, as we still have the enhanced version of the Final Fantasy 7 remake for PS5 Pro. And on the new improved version of the console, the picture indeed doesn't look so bad. The terrible blur has gone to the background, and the overall clarity has noticeably increased. However, this is not due to the increased power of the hardware but the new exclusive PSSR upscaler. The native resolution remained the same — 1224p. It's nice that Rebirth very rarely encounters image artifacts from PSSR, and the ghosting effect is almost invisible.

In «Quality» mode, the game runs at a native resolution of 1800p and is stretched to 4K using TAA. Meanwhile, the performance drops to 30 frames, which is not a bad result for interactive cinema. But for dynamic scenes and battles in FF7 Rebirth, this is too little.

With the PS5 Pro, the result in «Quality» mode is even worse. Yes, the game is now capable of loading sharper and more detailed textures, but PSSR seriously spoils the final result. This is because artifacts and flickering from resolution upscaling are more visible at higher resolutions. By the way, PSSR in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth works better than in other games. For example, in Stellar Blade, artifacts, flickering, and glitchy lighting appear in almost every location, regardless of scene load.

As a result, console owners received a technologically advanced and very beautiful game that the PS5 hardware simply cannot handle. Due to the very blurred image from the upscalers, it is impossible to fully appreciate the graphics' merits. And it must be admitted, they are at a very high level. Here you have highly detailed textures, dynamic lighting, good character models, and very large locations with a huge number of objects.

At the end of January 2025, we received the best version of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth for the most flexible platform — PC. On it, the resolution and frame rate depend entirely on the available configuration. Moreover, the minimum build for smooth gameplay with graphics settings like on the PS5 will cost less than the first revision console. An Intel Core i3-8100 and AMD Radeon RX 6600 are quite enough for comfortable gaming. We tested the game on several configurations and were satisfied with the performance. Additionally, in a recent patch, developers improved stability and updated the DirectStorage library to the latest version.

On the RTX 3800 and i7-9700K at maximum settings, the game delivers more than 100 frames per second, with drops in heavily loaded scenes down to 80. With the popular RTX 3060 (12GB), you will get 90 frames in open spaces and slightly more than 70 in urban areas at maximum settings. If you slightly lower them and add scaling settings, you can easily get 120 frames. At the same time, the overall image quality will be much better than what we have on the PS5.

In addition to the obvious advantage in image quality, the PC version allows for mod installation. Besides the classic replacement of character models, there are already several configurators online that enhance performance and add improved upscalers for weak PC builds. Considering the number of mods the first part received, it can be confidently said that the second will not be left without attention either.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is one of the best games of last year, now available not only to PlayStation 5 owners. Square Enix took the conceptual foundation of the Remake and elevated it to a new level, offering fans a diverse, emotional, and unforgettable adventure. Every aspect of the sequel is superb: the graphics and music are truly delightful, and the flexible combat system and numerous mini-games keep you entertained every minute. We eagerly await the third part, which will conclude the story of the iconic Final Fantasy 7 remakes.