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“This can be a homecoming.”

This phrase is thrown round so much within the again half of Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth. Although the road itself has a particular context, the reference to “homecoming” leaves me enthusiastic about how a lot the idea of “residence” runs by way of the second installment of Sq. Enix’s multi-year try and revisit Ultimate Fantasy VII, arguably certainly one of its most beloved and influential video games.

Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth’s deal with residence and homecoming makes for an attention-grabbing distinction to the earlier sport, 2020’s Ultimate Fantasy VII Remake. Remake was located fully within the huge Mako-powered metropolis of Midgar. However few, if any, of the important thing characters within the sport actually name Midgar their residence.

Protagonist Cloud and his childhood buddy Tifa spent their youthful years within the sleepy hamlet of Nibelheim, which was razed to the bottom by the previous hero Sephiroth in an incident one can discover in nice element through the Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth playable demo. Barret, the gun-arm toting eco-warrior, is estranged from his own residence, an impoverished mining city within the drier, dustier elements of the huge Corel area, whereas Cait Sith, the fortune-telling cat-robot, joins the celebration from Corel’s glitziest attraction, the Gold Saucer amusement park. Crimson XIII, the speaking leonine former check topic making his debut as a playable celebration member in Rebirth, hails from the mysterious settlement of Cosmo Canyon. Even Yuffie, whose fatherland of Wutai is so far-off it doesn’t even function within the sport (not less than, not in this sport), is motivated by her want to guard her residence, and is given bleak reminders of the menace it faces as a brand new struggle with Shinra looms.

All all through Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth, characters return to their houses, lose their houses, regain their houses, and discover new houses. Some even despair on the realization that the planet they stay on could by no means be their residence.

Taking part in Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth jogs my memory of residence as properly. Extra particularly, it jogs my memory of the very residence I’m dwelling in proper now, which occurs to be the identical residence I performed the unique Ultimate Fantasy VII in additional than 25 years in the past, utilizing pirated discs on a borrowed PlayStation. Rebirth surrounds me with photos, names, and phrases I first skilled as a toddler. However on the identical time, Rebirth is stuffed with reminders that it’s not the identical sport I performed a long time in the past. Simply as I, and the house I’m sitting in, are usually not the identical as we had been again on the time of the unique sport’s launch.

For one, Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth is excess of the “remake” initially implied by its predecessor. If the occasions of Ultimate Fantasy VII Remake hinted that issues gained’t fairly end up as they did a long time in the past, Rebirth’s narrative virtually makes this specific. For causes I gained’t spoil, Rebirth confirms that it’s as a lot a sequel to as a revision of the unique sport.

Don’t get me improper: Issues do transfer roughly as they did within the authentic, narratively. The celebration begins its journey in Kalm, on the outskirts of Midgar. Cloud recounts what occurred in Nibelheim years in the past, and why they need to now observe down Sephiroth – wherever he’s gone – to cease him from doing…no matter it’s he has deliberate. The characters undergo these motions and arrive in comparable locations to the place they’re supposed to be, however how they get there, and what they’re feeling after they get there, is the place the adjustments lie. The narrative is permeated by a obscure sense that there’s aught amiss, a data that one thing’s improper, however not what, precisely, is improper, or why. In such circumstances, the one plan of action left is to play issues by ear, pursuing their targets as they had been as soon as destined to.

The aim at hand is to observe Sephiroth’s path, similar to earlier than. However as a substitute of following rumors of a person in a black coat, this time round, the celebration follows a path of Black Robes: Enigmatic, zombie-like people wearing ragged cloaks, bearing some connection to Sephiroth himself, and seemingly in a position to shut in on his eventual place like tragic, humanoid homing pigeons.

That’s really it, in so far as Rebirth has an overarching plot construction. In a macro sense, all Cloud and the celebration do for the entire sport is observe the Black Robes all over the world, finally to Sephiroth, for the eighty to 100 hours it’ll take to perform an intensive first playthrough. This lack of a robust narrative throughline isn’t Rebirth’s fault, to be truthful: The unique sport had that drawback, too. Solely again then, this sense of aimlessness wasn’t as apparent and handed extra shortly, as a result of sport’s linear circulation. Now, it’s that rather more obvious when stretched out over six huge open-world regional maps and dozens of facet quests and actions.

All an important plot actions within the story thus far really feel like they both occurred earlier than the celebration left Midgar in Remake, or are being saved for no matter sport is coming after Rebirth. The plot developments that do get added to Rebirth to attempt to wrinkle the story a bit extra don’t fairly paper over these cracks, leaving one with the distinct sense that Cloud is spinning his wheels greater than the desert buggy he drives by way of Corel.

And but, all of it works out, due to how properly the event group has been in a position to weave robust character-focused moments and expertly crafted fan service into each layer of the sport. I don’t assume I’ve ever performed an RPG the place each character within the core celebration felt as constantly “current” within the circumstances as they do in Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth.

As Cloud walks by way of every of the sport’s zones, the entire celebration follows, not simply the energetic fight group. Even in fight, the “backline” members lend some token support (like Barret capturing a couple of bullets right into a battle from a distance). Thus, everybody’s able to remark or contribute when one thing attention-grabbing occurs. It’s a superb resolution on the a part of the group, as a result of it removes the fear that you simply may miss out on some selection banter simply since you desire completely different members in a battle.

To wit: I bear in mind as soon as regretting my class selection in 2018’s Dragon Age Inquisition as a result of my private class desire for fight (a Knight-Enchanter) meant that my “optimized” celebration members weren’t my favourite characters, main me to sacrifice hanging out with my besties on the altar of victory in battle.. Rebirth’s strategy to celebration member presence preemptively solves that subject, and drives residence how properly the group has managed characterization in-game.

That is additional enhanced by Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth’s signature addition to fight: Synergy. Whereas the core mechanics of Remake’s hybrid action-RPG fight system are intact for Rebirth, Synergy provides a welcome complication that underlines the sport’s deal with intraparty dynamics.

Each character has an array of Synergy Abilities and Synergy Skills. Synergy Abilities might be known as on at any time, as long as a suitable celebration member is current. Abilities vary from a strong charged slash to a “bodyguard” mode the place a celebration member’s “accomplice” intercepts incoming injury and provides their assaults to the managed member’s.

In the meantime, Synergy Skills are successfully on-demand Restrict Breaks which are powered by factors gained utilizing talents in a given battle. Synergy Skills even have quite a lot of results, from granting non permanent infinite MP to unlocking entry to higher-level Restrict Breaks. The animations for the Synergy Skills ooze with persona, taking part in off the celebration’s relationships with one another. This even has a literal impact in Cloud’s case, as activating a Synergy Talent or Capacity for the primary time supplies a lift to Cloud’s bond with that character. The core celebration in Rebirth could not at all times come throughout as tenderly because the boys in Ultimate Fantasy XV do, however Rebirth’s grasp of characterization throughout its group, and its means to underline this sense in fight itself, is unassailable.

That fight is supported by a revamped strategy to character development. Whereas Rebirth’s Materia and tools system is essentially an identical to Remake’s, the way during which characters enhance for fight has seen vital change. A lot of the perks and bonuses beforehand earned by way of weapon upgrading have been folded into Rebirth’s signature development system, Folios. Powered by SP factors earned from finishing quests, Folios are paying homage to the Ultimate Fantasy X sphere grid: Gamers can spend earned SP to unlock nodes that themselves apply numerous everlasting bonuses. The bonuses embrace statistical boosts, however additionally they unlock new Synergy Abilities, Synergy Skills, and a key new set of instructions – free elemental jolts.

Because of the Folio system and the nodes inside it, characters can now be specced out to have entry to a collection of elemental assaults that value no MP and wish no Materia for use. These assaults don’t do a lot injury, however they’re out there for when an enemy might be pressured or staggered by tickling its elemental weak spot. The addition of those talents frees up quite a lot of Materia slots that may’ve been used to make sure a personality can assault enemy components. Rebirth’s refinements to character development enable for a a lot higher number of builds and Materia setups, now that not each character must be packing certainly one of every elemental spell Materia.

And there are extra unique Materia in Rebirth than earlier than. Many are earned out on the planet by way of “intel gathering.”  Rebirth’s open world actions are managed by Chadley, who returns from Remake not simply because the arbiter of the fight simulator, however the purveyor of recent Materia and the ever-present supervisor of all of Ultimate Fantasy Rebirth’s “World Intel.” Cloud and crew will collect intel for Chadley through his customized instrument, the CHAD Module. Six of the sport’s seven playable areas are full of a definite set of actions indicated by map icons.

The actions themselves have little variation: You’ll battle distinctive enemies, climb towers to populate the map, undertake a surprisingly concerned world-spanning questline in quest of “Protorelics”, scan Lifesprings for native historic info, scan temples to the native Summon to enhance their materia, and excavate ruins for brand new recipes to make use of in Rebirth’s crafting system, Merchandise Transmutation. Chadley’s Fight Simulator additionally returns, bringing rewarding battles and among the best-designed encounters within the sport: The fights to unlock numerous Summons, together with Kujata, Phoenix, Odin, and Bahamut Arisen.

Although considerably missing in selection, this to-do listing for every area nonetheless manages to weave in character moments, not only for the celebration, however the world. Regional info-dumps flesh out among the backstory behind Shinra’s rise into a company superpower. Fiend hunts check the celebration’s fight prowess, and the distinctive fiend varieties featured are launched with a voiced intro courtesy of Chadley’s peppy new assistant, Lady Chadley MAI. World Intel deepens the participant’s understanding of Ultimate Fantasy VII’s world.

In the meantime the sport’s many facet quests deepen Cloud’s relationship together with his celebration as a lot or greater than the core plot. All the sport’s facet quests contain the celebration, usually with a number of members being Cloud’s key companion for the length. In combination, it offers off the impression that the entire group is collaborating in an journey collectively, quite than this being “The Story of Cloud Strife and his Six or Seven Pals.” The sense of camaraderie and relationships that constructed up over the course of this very lengthy sport was so vivid for me that I needed to revise the outdated truism “Even dangerous video games are enjoyable while you’re taking part in with associates,” to “Even considerably tedious open-world busywork is cozy while you’re dealing with it with Barret, Tifa, Aerith, Crimson, Yuffie, and Cait Sith.”

Talking of relationships, these bonds are additionally affected by the various decisions Cloud’s given in interacting together with his buddies. On a number of events, gamers can deepen Cloud’s relationship with the celebration by way of dialog decisions, facet quest completion, and even minigame efficiency.

Minigame efficiency can be a surprisingly prevalent facet of Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth. There are a mind-blowing quantity of minigames in Rebirth. Gamers can race in a Chocobo Racing minigame that feels higher to play than Sq. Enix’s personal kart racer Chocobo GP. They’ll bust heads in a Punch-Out-like 3D Brawler that includes characters rendered within the outdated low-polycount PS1 fashion. They’ll play a model of Remake’s motorbike chases, this time rendered as a score-attack arcade sport. They’ll play great piano preparations of key Ultimate Fantasy VII musical themes. And naturally, there’s Queen’s Blood, a brilliantly designed card sport primarily based on territorial seize, and the perfect full-fledged RPG minigame since Ultimate Fantasy VIII launched Triple Triad. In an period the place seemingly each big-enough RPG develops its personal collectible card sport to spin off, Queen’s Blood is the one I’m really most occupied with taking part in individually from its host sport.

However even past these “formal” minigames, Rebirth’s many facet quests and map actions are bursting with one-off, personalized interactions. There’s a lot one virtually wonders if it’s an excessive amount of. Will we actually want a minigame for choosing mushrooms that’s solely used for one facet quest?

The reply to that query is “In fact, we do.”

The ubiquity of minigames in Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth speaks to an older sense of sport design, the place having quite a lot of assets to spend on manufacturing meant making a ton of bespoke actions or seemingly superfluous, but lovely mechanics. If Rebirth’s icon-festooned open world map is the signal of a really trendy strategy to so-called “triple-A” sport design, its love of minigames and deal with character looks like a holdover from earlier, extra indulgent instances, earlier than genres and risk-taking calcified right into a set of well-trodden finest practices and calls for for “polish.”

Backing this all is an all-time soundtrack. After Remake featured so many sensible rearrangements of iconic themes, I didn’t assume Rebirth would be capable to prime it, however the sheer sense of luxurious, or doing one thing “simply because it’s cool” permeates Rebirth’s musical choice as a lot because it does the remainder of the sport.. Nearly each exercise appears to be set to a definite banger of a observe. There’s even a particular, distinctive musical accompaniment that’s solely (solely!) used when Cloud and the celebration are following an excellent canine about his enterprise. That that observe even has a battle variant speaks to how endearingly indulgent the sport’s music might be.

However for as engrossing as Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth might be for a lot of the many hours I spent taking part in it, I wasn’t with out my very own complaints. Whereas the sport integrates its open world actions properly, navigation can depart one thing to be desired. The in-game map and compass are merely less than the duty of guiding a participant by way of its extra advanced terrain layouts – you, Gongaga! A couple of menu hundreds and animations can chug or hitch visibly, notably once I use the sport’s high-resolution “Graphics” setting. The sound combine can appear off in spots, too, with the music usually drowning out the dialog except you regulate the quantity tracks your self.

Some fight encounters don’t really feel fully well-tuned, both, with some fights having goals or issues that actively work towards the design of the battle system. And whereas the fundamental tickler talents assist characters goal weaknesses with out resorting to spells, some characters don’t appear absolutely geared up to sort out issues like flying enemies (particularly since characters not robotically fly as much as aerial foes the way in which they did in Remake). For all the sport has carried out to make sure that each character feels viable and distinct, seeming oversights like this restrict the sport’s group composition potentialities.

On the comfort entrance, I additionally discovered myself wishing for saveable “loadouts” that I may use to swap between particular Materia and Tools alternatives, seeing as completely different celebration members can have completely different builds. In any case, the Barret I take right into a Cloud-Tifa-Barret fight group gained’t be the identical Barret that I’d use for a Cloud-Yuffie-Barret group.

Nitpicks and minor annoyances apart, Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth is a grand enlargement of the sense of chance birthed by Ultimate Fantasy VII Remake. Not solely does it builds on that earlier promise of Remake as a story grappling with Ultimate Fantasy VII‘s higher impression, however as a sport it’s a singular, lovingly-crafted synthesis of design philosophies each previous and current, augmenting trendy scale with a deep and long-lived appreciation for its characters. I can’t wait to see what they’re planning subsequent.

Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth launches on PlayStation 5 on February 29, 2024.

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