Summary
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirthmanages to be leaps and bounds ahead of 2020’sFinal Fantasy 7 Remake, which is no small feat. The game, thoughfalling short of Square Enix’s sales expectations, has been a massive critical success, with praise being heaped upon it for its ambitious iterations onRemake’s already impressive gameplay and RPG elements.
For the most part, everything that works inFinal Fantasy 7 Remakereturns inFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth. WhileRemakewas mostly a series of linear levels and somewhat open hubs,Rebirthpresents players with sprawling grassy fields, deserts, and jungles, which necessitates several different traversal methods. The game offers a diverse range of movement options for each region, but how they actually function can be decidedly less impressive.
The Next Chapter of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Needs to Polish Traversal
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Movement Options: Quantity Over Quality
Final Fantasy 7Rebirthfeatures a lot of different traversaloptions, which serve as exciting rewards for progressing in the main story of the game.Rebirthfeatures the following mounts and vehicles, all tied to specific regions:
The actual experience of moving through the game world via these various options is a bit rough around the edges. For instance, while the game’s Chocobos generally control well (theGolden Saucer’s Chocobo Racing mini-gameis evidence of this), they can easily get snagged on terrain or come to an abrupt halt when faced with a cliff’s edge.
What’s worse is that there’s little consistency when it comes to which obstacles are insurmountable, which can be frustrating and lead to issues with open-world navigation: it’s not uncommon to feel like a logical path to an objective is arbitrarily blocked by a ridge that’s just a bit too high to jump over, or a cliff that can’t be descended. The game often shoe-horns players down a specific path, but this comes at the expense of fluid movement and freedom and is at odds withFF7 Rebirth’s stunning open world.
The aforementioned issues also apply to Cloud’s on-foot movement, not just mounts and vehicles.
Some Minor Tweaks Could Make Final Fantasy 7 Remake 3’s Movement Much Better
Getting stuck on terrain and being forced to work around unnecessarily cumbersome topography are small inconveniences, but they can have a detrimental impact on the overall experience of playingFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth. These issues are a major part of what makesa region like Gongagafrustrating to traverse, as players are needlessly restricted and time is wasted.
Luckily, the next chapter of theFinal Fantasy 7remake saga could fix these issues without overhauling whatRebirthintroduces. A little more flexibility would go a long way, especially if part three plans to keep the vast open world ofRebirth.
Letting players jump off ledges and scale more obstacles would help traversal feel more fluid and convenient, making for a more frictionless exploration experience. Movement within specificFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirthmini-gamesoften feels great, so if that could be carried over to general gameplay, it would help make the next game’s open world even better.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
WHERE TO PLAY
Discover a vibrant and vast world in this standalone entry in the Final Fantasy VII remake project. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the second entry in the Final Fantasy VII remake project, which retells the story of the genre-redefining RPG across three distinct games. Iconic heroes Cloud, Barret, Tifa, Aerith and Red XIII have escaped from the dystopian city Midgar and are now in pursuit of Sephiroth, the vengeful swordsman from Cloud’s past who was thought to be dead. This new adventure can be enjoyed by all players, even those who have yet to play Final Fantasy VII Remake or the PlayStation original. Expect a new standard of cinematic storytelling, fast-paced combat and rich exploration across a vast world.
