Summary
- Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is a lengthy game at over 80 hours, with a robust main story and tons of side content.
- The mini-games in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth can be hit or miss, with some enhancing the experience and others dragging the pacing down.
- While enjoyable, the mini-games in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth can interrupt the story's momentum, requiring hours of play before continuing.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is an incredibly dense game. Coming in at around 50 hours to finish, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is the largest game in the FF7 saga yet, with its predecessor Remake taking around 35 hours to finish and the original 1997 Final Fantasy 7 taking just 30 hours to roll credits. That's just its main story, too, with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth containing an onslaught of side content, bringing the game's total length to well over 80 hours.
From gathering World Intel for Chadley and defeating Summons in the Combat Simulator to helping out citizens with various tasks or crafting new items and equipment, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth gives players plenty to do both before and after they roll credits. But not all of these side activities are equal, and that's especially true when it comes to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's mini-games, which end up feeling like both a blessing and a curse at different points throughout the experience.
How Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Nibelheim Compares to the 1997 Original
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth reimagines a wealth of iconic locations from the 1997 original, and Nibelheim gets a particularly impressive makeover.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Mini-Games Are a Double-Edged Sword
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Minigames Can Be a Lot of Fun
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is home to almost 20 mini-games, some of which are excellent modernized takes on some beloved 1997 originals, and some of which are brand-new to this remake. Undoubtedly Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's best mini-game, Queen's Blood is essentially the Gwent of the Final Fantasy universe, delivering an incredibly intuitive yet complex card game that'll keep fans hooked for hours. Following closely behind it is Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's modernized take on Chocobo Racing, which offers Mario Kart-like gameplay and a surprising amount of depth.
But not all of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's mini-games are equal. For every Chocobo Racing and Queen's Blood, there are a handful of mini-games like Jump Toad, Run Wild, and Galactic Saviors, all of which feel just a bit too simplistic and repetitive. In general though, even at their very worst, the vast majority of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's mini-games are enjoyable for a few minutes, and at their best, they can greatly enhance a classic moment from the original 1997 game.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Minigames Drag The Game's Pacing Down
However, while Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's mini-games can be very fun, almost all of them end up dragging the game's pace to a screeching halt. Throughout Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's main story, players will be forced to participate in a few very brief mini-games to progress, such as a rhythm game during Junon's military parade, and a quick dolphin ride beforehand. These mini-games are simple but quick, adding a nice layer of gameplay in a sequence that doesn't necessarily require it, so they aren't the core issue.
Instead, it's Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's minigame-focused chapters that really drag the game's pacing down, with the first example being the Costa del Sol excursion in chapter 6. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's main story takes a little while to get started, and once it finally does, Costa del Sol appears just to put everything on halt, requiring players to first play a round of mini-games as Cloud so that he can buy beachwear, and then play another round of mini-games as Aerith, Tifa, and Red XIII so that they too can purchase their own set of beachwear. The mini-games here are enjoyable enough, but forcing players to spend around 2-3 hours participating in mini-games before they can continue the main story is detrimental to Rebirth's overall pacing.
This isn't the only time that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth does this, either. A few hours later, just as Cloud's story with Sephiroth is picking up momentum and Barret is about to detail his mysterious past, players are once again forced into playing a multitude of mini-games at the Gold Saucer, and while they're mostly all fun, it again kills any momentum that the story had been building for the last few hours, with it taking a surprisingly long time to build it back up again afterward.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 92 /100 Critics Rec: 97%
- Released
- February 29, 2024
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Blood, Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
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.
- Franchise
- Final Fantasy
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PC
- Genre(s)
- RPG
- Metascore
- 93
