I recently got around to finally starting Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. This game has been in my backlog for a bit since I’ve been playing through some other games. I’m happy to say it was well worth the wait.
Open World Elements
I was a bit skeptical of the open world part of the game. It wasn’t that I didn’t think they could pull it off, but more so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Sometimes you have open world games that have plenty of activities while others are just bland. I’m pleased to say that the open world elements work great. I feel like I’m getting something out of each side activity that I do. Some activities have you finding temples and getting data from them. Your reward for doing these activities directly relates to the summons you can unlock in the game. Just like the previous game you need to complete battles against summons to unlock them. Going to these temples will make the fight against the summon easier and unlock new skills for the summon.
Another side activity is finding life springs and scanning them. Scanning these offer you two different rewards. The first is getting some history about the specific area that you’re in. The other reward is unlocking a challenging enemy to fight.
Fort Condor Replacement?
In Final Fantasy Remake there is a mini game called Fort Condor that you can challenge NPCS to. Fort Condor has been replaced by an equally strategic game called Queen’s Blood. Queen’s Blood is a strategy where your goal is to end up with more points then your opponent at the end. The board has three lanes with five squares in each of those lanes. Each side starts with one spot available on the board. Playing cards will open more spots that you can place your cards on. Each card has a cost as well as a number of points that specific card gives. It’s honestly a bit hard to explain, but it gets easier when you actually start playing.
Just like you were able to buy more pieces for Fort Condor, you can buy or win more cards for Queens Blood. It’s honestly pretty fun and if you play Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, I recommend you giving the game a try. The game includes a tutorial to help explain the game to you.
Combat
The combat is just as good, if not better than the previous game. Some adjustments seem to have been made to character’s but I’m definitely not the best person to try and list the character changes. The biggest change is the addition of Synergy attacks. Synergy Attacks involve two characters unleashing an attack when both characters have a certain amount of the synergy gauge filled. Keep in mind that if you want to use a Synergy attack, you’ll need to have the appropriate character in your party. Try different party combinations and try playing each character. They all have their own unique play styles. If you want to learn more about playing a specific character, each character has a tutorial you can play as many times as you want.
Weapon Skills and Character Abilities
Another change is how weapon skills are handled. Each weapon you find gives a specific attack. The more you use the weapon, the more skills you’ll unlock to use for it. A new addition that was not in the previous games are folios. Folios are used to unlock new skills and abilities for each character. These unlock-able skills vary from new attacks to passive boosts. To unlock skills and abilities you’ll need SP, which can be earned through different activities such as leveling up and completing quests. You can also acquire SP by buying skill books. New Synergy attacks are also unlocked through this method.
Overall Thoughts
This game has been an amazing experience so far. It really shows just how far gaming has progressed over the years. If you would have told me back when I was playing my Game Boy that games could look like this in the future, I wouldn’t have believed you. I was very selective in what photos I chose to share because this is a game you should definitely experience for yourself. I’ve had so much fun playing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. I’ve been stopping and doing all the quests I can do, exploring each region, and playing Queens Blood against the different NPCs. I can honestly see myself finishing all side activities, which is rare for me. I’ve also been enjoying the photo mode.
As a side note the music and the voice acting in the game has been incredible. All the voice actors and actresses have done a great job and the composers have knocked the soundtrack out of the park. Below are some tracks I wanted to share.
As always thank you all for reading! Also if you discuss the game here please avoid spoiling anything. I’m on chapter 10.