Synopsis

After escaping Midgar, Cloud Strife and his companions set out in pursuit of Sephiroth. For the first time since the beginning of their fight against Shinra, the enormous walls of the metropolis disappear behind them, revealing a world of which they have only seen a tiny fraction.

Their journey takes them across plains, mountains, cities and regions shaped by the exploitation of mako energy. While Cloud tries to understand Sephiroth's intentions and the troubling memories surrounding their shared past, his companions continue their own struggles against Shinra and attempt to protect a planet whose balance is becoming increasingly fragile.

But the road ahead does not necessarily follow the path that once seemed already written. Between Cloud's memories, Aerith's fate, Zack's presence and Sephiroth's manipulations, the group moves toward a future that is becoming increasingly difficult to predict.

Overview

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth begins precisely where Final Fantasy VII Remake chose to stop: in front of an open door. After spending dozens of hours confined to the streets, industrial sectors and slums of Midgar, Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret and Red XIII finally discover the world stretching beyond the metropolis.

This change of scale immediately transforms the adventure. Square Enix does not build a perfectly continuous open world, but rather a succession of vast regions, each with its own landscapes, cities, creatures, activities and means of transportation. The plains around Kalm, Junon, Costa del Sol, Corel and Gongaga give an entirely new dimension to locations that, in 1997, sometimes occupied only a few screens or a few minutes of travel.

Combat retains the hybrid system developed for Final Fantasy VII Remake. Movement, attacks and dodges happen directly in real time, while the ATB gauge allows skills, spells and items to be used with a more tactical dimension. Rebirth expands the formula mainly through Synergy Skills and Synergy Abilities, allowing two characters to combine their strengths and making party composition even more important.

But Rebirth does not merely attempt to make Final Fantasy VII bigger. It also seeks to deepen the time spent with its party. Conversations, side quests, reactions during exploration and choices made throughout the adventure influence Cloud's relationships with his companions. This attention gradually transforms the journey into something more intimate: before becoming a team destined to save the planet, these characters are still learning how to know one another.

And above all of this hangs a strange tension. Players familiar with Final Fantasy VII often know where the road is supposed to lead. Rebirth knows it too. Part of its identity lies precisely in this constant dialogue between what we remember and what the game may still decide to change.

Key takeaways

  • The second part of the Final Fantasy VII Remake project leaves Midgar behind. Cloud and his companions now travel through vast regions that reinterpret a significant part of the journey from the original 1997 game.
  • The hybrid combat system gains even more depth. Real-time action, ATB management, materia, character switching and new Synergy Abilities allow for a wide variety of party combinations.
  • Relationships between characters become a genuine part of the adventure. Certain conversations, quests and decisions strengthen Cloud's affinity with his companions and can alter several moments throughout the journey.
  • The world is deliberately packed with activities. Exploration, optional battles, chocobos, Queen's Blood and an impressive number of mini-games give the journey a level of variety rarely seen in the series.
  • Rebirth continues to play with the very idea of a remake. The game revisits familiar locations and events while constantly maintaining uncertainty over what must necessarily happen in the same way.

PANACHES review

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth sometimes feels like a game made by a team incapable of leaving an idea alone. A city appears? It will probably have its own activities. A character joins the party? They need their own mechanics. A sequence from the 1997 game lasted a few minutes? Someone, somewhere at Square Enix seems to have asked what it would become if it were given an entire hour.

That generosity could be exhausting. At times, it is. Rebirth piles up regional objectives, battles, mini-games, discoveries, systems and detours until it can feel as though an already enormous RPG stubbornly refuses to let the player simply walk down a road without offering something along the way. Some activities work wonderfully; others are reminders that “more” and “better” remain two very different words.

But this accumulation also possesses a much rarer quality: Square Enix seems to deeply love the world it is rebuilding. Kalm is no longer simply a stop along the way. Junon becomes an actual city. Costa del Sol is given enough time to embrace its absurdity. The Gold Saucer can finally resemble the monument to excess that imagination had already transformed into an enormous amusement park behind a handful of pre-rendered screens in 1997.

This transformation works above all because of the characters. Cloud remains deliberately difficult to grasp, caught between confidence, awkwardness and memories whose reliability becomes increasingly fragile. Tifa observes. Aerith sometimes understands more than she says. Barret can move from explosive caricature to deeply human vulnerability. Red XIII suddenly gains another dimension when his own past becomes part of the journey.

The combat system directly benefits from this emphasis on the group. Switching characters is not simply useful for exploiting a weakness. Every fighter imposes a different rhythm, while Synergy Abilities give a mechanical presence to the relationships developed by the story. The characters are no longer merely lined up inside a menu: they are literally learning how to fight better together.

And then there is memory.

Final Fantasy VII belongs to that particular category of works whose individual scenes have continued to exist in the collective imagination for decades. Rebirth uses that memory as a staging tool. It knows that many players are anticipating a place, an encounter, a line or an event. It can therefore stretch that anticipation, redirect it or simply leave open the possibility that something may change.

This approach does not always produce answers as elegant as the questions it raises. The desire to add new layers to the story can sometimes complicate a narrative whose emotions occasionally worked precisely because they were simple. Rebirth regularly risks replacing the brutality of an event with a much more abstract narrative mechanism built around destiny and its variations.

But its ambition remains difficult to ignore. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is not trying to restore a monument behind glass. It takes it apart, enlarges some pieces, moves others and asks the player whether they still remember exactly where each one was supposed to belong.

Sometimes it is too much. Often it is magnificent. And above all, it is a far more interesting way to revisit Final Fantasy VII than simply giving it new graphics.

Good to know

  • Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was initially released on February 29, 2024 for PlayStation 5. It is the second entry in the Final Fantasy VII Remake project, conceived as a three-game reinterpretation of the 1997 title.
  • A PC version was released on January 23, 2025 on Steam and the Epic Games Store, including PC-specific graphics options and support for resolutions up to 4K.
  • On June 3, 2026, Square Enix also released Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2, ending its PlayStation console exclusivity.
  • The Nintendo Switch 2 version is not listed in the plateformes field of this entry because the current PANACHES taxonomy does not yet include a specific nintendo-switch-2 value.
  • Naoki Hamaguchi is the director of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. The project also brings together several long-standing creators associated with Final Fantasy VII and its modern reinterpretation.
  • The game uses Unreal Engine 4, heavily adapted by the Square Enix team to meet the needs of the project.
  • Final Fantasy VII Rebirth won Best Score and Music at The Game Awards 2024. It was also among the nominees for Game of the Year.
  • The game can be discovered independently, but its story directly continues Final Fantasy VII Remake and benefits considerably from being played after the first installment.
  • The current SensCritique rating is 7.7/10.