FF7 Rebirth: Journey Into the Known Unknown

After seven months I have finished Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. It’s a masterpiece, and now it’s done. I don’t know what I’ll do with myself.

Expectations were high when the Remake trilogy was announced. Rightly so. You can’t casually put together a new version of one of the best loved games of all time. Remake proved the concept, Rebirth perfects it.

Spending half a year or more with something makes it hard to walk away from. This was a world I’ve lived in. These are characters I’ve known. Really, I’ve known them for 25 years. Rebirth has allowed them to grow. Not just individually, but as a collective. The relationships are stronger and more important than they ever were in Final Fantasy VII.

By building on top of the original game, Square created something new and nostalgic all at once. They created a journey into a known unknown. Whatever happens in the next 70 hour adventure – presuming they get the budget to make it that long – it will end exactly how we expect it to. The world will be saved. The planet will heal. Anything else would be a let down. The bittersweet ending to the original adventure, a glimpse at a world beyond those who hurt it, will ultimately come to pass. In the game, and in reality. It is all just a matter of time.

Beyond that? Anything could happen. It will follow the original story beats, no doubt. We all know roughly how things are going to go. And yet I’m not sure we know anything at all.

Changing the World for Rebirth

The opportunity to move on from something truly epic is rare in games. Maybe because there aren’t enough strong narratives, where time and distance feel real. Games too often fall back on a narrative centred around one very bad day. A baddy appears, there are some set pieces, a nice mix of biomes, you kill the guy, you get some victory music, you go home. What is often lacking is the depth of character, the shift of moods, the constant reminder that this is a place and not just a digital playground.

Rebirth isn’t alone in this. Red Dead Redemption 2 is another relatively recent example of a game with that kind of delivery. High quality or low, busy work or story-driven missions, there is a reward for those willing to invest in the time and energy. It’s how open world games should feel.

Rebirth isn’t flawless. I have questions about how we move on from here too. How do Square stop Final Fantasy Remake 3 being Final Fantasy Rebirth 2? When the leap between the first and second title was so vast, what can be added to make the third game different enough to justify its place as a third title in a trilogy? There was already unjustified anger about Square daring to split Final Fantasy VII into three. They need to stick the landing.

But when they have twice surpassed my expectations, it’s hard to feel too worried about the future.