JRPG developers love trying their hands at things they aren’t very good at. I appreciate the sentiment, but even in genre masterstrokes like Final Fantasy 10 there is always an abomination like blitzball ready and waiting to spoil the experience. There’s always a ‘mostly optional’ minigame that looks and plays like garbage, but has the nerve to make you go through a mandatory game or two before progressing the story. Get that rubbish out of here.
But Final Fantasy has come by leaps and bounds over the years. Final Fantasy 7 Remake is relatively light on minigames, while Rebirth is filled with so many great ones that it proves a little overwhelming. You have Queen’s Blood, Chocobo Racing, all the unique arcade games in the Gold Saucer, Fort Condor, Galactic Saviors, Run Wild, and that weird parade routine in Fort Junon. There is so much to do, and unlike past games, the vast majority of them are damn good fun.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth Have Too Much Filler
But with this increasing quality of minigames and side activities, the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy has subjected itself to a different kind of filler. The need to stretch one game’s story so far across three distinct games means new sequences were introduced, or existing locations or dungeons were extended for no rhyme or reason beyond increasing the playtime.
The first game is filled with moments like this, such as having to backtrack through slum tunnels, train graveyard, and sewer sections that go on for hours, or the utterly bizarre last-minute fight with a returning Don Corneo. All things that could have been removed altogether.
Rebirth stretches the experience into a large open world with plenty of worthwhile quests to be found, alongside minigames that are surprisingly rewarding to get invested in. But the main story still tries to stretch things out with extended dungeons, laborious set pieces, or a need to backtrack with different groups of characters just for the sake of it.
The Temple of the Ancients is a huge offender for this, and does some incredible damage to the final act pacing as you are switching perspectives and asked to solve puzzles that aren’t complicated, but an annoying barrier to progress. When I finally reached the Forgotten Capital, I hoped to actually explore it, but I was thrown into the final boss without a second thought. This was a moment that Rebirth could have afforded to slow down and take its time, but instead you’re not given any say.
Whoever Decided To Let Cait Sith Throw Boxes Needs A Telling Off
But the worst offender comes in Chapter 11 – The Long Shadow of Shinra. With the player back in Nibelheim investigating the evil corporation and their links to Sephiroth, you end up playing as Cait Sith, Aerith, and Barrett after falling down a trap door and being tracked by a hologram of Professor Hojo. It’s a fun, but ultimately redundant sequence that would be fine if Square Enix didn’t decide to introduce Cait Sith as a box-throwing puzzle solver.
You will need to pull switches, stand on platforms, and use an awful throwing mechanic to get boxes to hit electrical panels and progress through the underground corridors. I ended screwing up the box throwing so badly that I resorted to dumb luck at a certain point and hoped that no matter how I threw things, they would eventually hit their target. It feels bad, even worse when combined with Cait Sith’s sluggish movement and poor combat abilities.
If this sequence encompassed a single puzzle I might let it off lightly, but it goes on for way too long before being capped off by a boss battle where you have to fight as Cait Sith. And then there are more puzzles to solve and another boss battle where you thankfully team up with Aerith and Barrett. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is a great game, and easily one of my top of the year, but sequences like this remind me how diluted it becomes by triple-A design when it would be so much stronger by doing its own thing.
4.5/5
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH is the highly anticipated new story in the FINAL FANTASY VII remake project, a reimagining of the iconic original game into three standalone titles by its original creators. In this game, players will enjoy various new elements as the story unfolds, culminating in the party’s journey to “The Forgotten Capital” from the original FINAL FANTASY VII.