Wark Digest #144 - Reborn, Revitalized, Reviewed
Welcome back to the Wark Digest, your weekly newsletter of new developments and historical insights from the Final Fantasy universe. I’m Chris, aka Hoogathy, and this week the (robot) cat’s out of the bag, as reviews for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth are out… and we’ve played it. Let’s take stock one more time before the game drops next week.
This week’s newsletter is 2005 words, a 10-minute read.
Reborn, Revitalized, Reviewed
Yesterday you might have heard a collective cheer sweep across the internet as the review embargo for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth lifted, debuting to one of the highest metascores in series history. (You might then have heard a collective silence fall over the internet, as people retreated in fear of spoilers.)
Let’s take a moment to discuss where the game’s initial reaction lands, including my own thoughts on the game after rolling credits—and rest assured, this will be a spoiler-free discussion!
What’s going on:
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has settled at a metascore of 93 on Metacritic from a polling of 119 critics as of this writing—the second-highest in series history to-date—and also a critic average of 93 (and 100% recommendation) on OpenCritic
Director Naoki Hamaguchi celebrated the acheivement on Twitter, claiming that exceeding 90 was a goal for the development team, and expressing his gratitude to his peers for all of their effort
Meanwhile Creative Director Tetsuya Nomura humbly asked for the community’s cooperation regarding spoilers as the game’s release draws nigh
On Wednesday the demo was updated this week to include “Dawn of a New Era In Junon,” a new segment where you can play as Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Aerith, and Red XIII in a version of the Junon region (modified slightly from the final game)
Progress in this segment of the demo does not carry over, but remember you can get special demo incentive items for having saved data from demo on your console
Be advised if you finish the demo, as a footage reel that plays afterward has shown more than a few players more than they wished to see ahead of time
What we thought:
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was, in my opinion, a triumph overall—a sheerly massive adaptation of the original game that handles the tall order of adapting, revising, and sometimes altering a timeless classic
Hamaguchi’s reports of the runtime appear pretty accurate: finishing the story, along with ~50-70% of the side content along the way, took me just over 70 hours
Rebirth expands, elevates, and improves everything I loved about Remake, in the same way Final Fantasy VII expands once our heroes leave Midgar—the combat, the presentation, the environments…
The world beyond Midgar features the best open-world experience Square Enix has produced to date, which (for my money) improves on many of the common flaws with open-world games in the industry today
I suspect this will be the most divisive topic for Rebirth’s gameplay, as some people have little tolerance for open-world questing, and others devour it; but to be fair, you can practically play as much or as little of that as you like
There are some genuinely great interactions in that side content, and the open-world “busywork” quests didn’t feel as busy to me personally
Red XIII, Yuffie, and Cait Sith expand the playable roster with the same level of care and authenticity that was given to Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Aerith before
Yuffie’s Intermission skillset has been blended well into the larger party; Red XIII has a blocking skill like Cloud, but with a very distinct twist; and Cait Sith is… well, he’s as quirky as his character suggests
The other characters who aren’t in your active party can still help out, and seeing them on the periphery during combat is so much more personal than how they’d just disappear in the original game
Story-wise, Square Enix continues to use the same philosophy as Remake: veterans will have a vague sense of the road map, but Rebirth will take you on some unexpected detours and deviations during its sprawling storyline
There are things I’d have done differently, and things I was excited to see them incorporate—just like any other remake
And of course, the soundtrack remains a highlight, continuing the seamless transition between the regular and combat versions of each track
What’s next? By this time next week, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will be on sale, and some of you may already have made some solid progress on it by our next issue. There’s still time to check with your local retailers about possibly preordering it, if the review scores have you hyped—especially if your retailer has preorder incentives like sweet trucker hats.
You can read my full (spoiler-free) thoughts in my review for CGMagazine here. In the meantime, you don’t have to take just my word for it: Darryl’s opinions are also out there in (the similarly spoiler-free) “The Ultimate Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Review!”
Cast Thundaga: It’s a Lightning Round!
The curtain falls on Dissidia Opera Omnia next week; as Rebirth lands, Opera Omnia will go dark, so if you have any last bits of unfinished business, be sure to get them done before Thursday!
Joshua and Krystal from Square Enix’s monthly community livestreams will be hosting one last “Farewell Edition” livestream on Monday, February 26, where they’ll be reminiscing and sharing stories from the dev team
These streams were a highlight for the community, so I’m grateful they’re going to play the game off (like the band on the deck of the Titanic)
Lucky theatregoers in the US got to attend screenings of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete this week, the first such showings in English, with some theatres featuring a brief interview with the devs beforehand
As reported by ProfNoctis, they referred to Advent Children as a “continuation” of FFVII, and the Remake Trilogy as a “reimagination” of FFVII that also incorporates the larger Compilation’s elements
There was also a subtle confirmation that Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo appear as the three Whispers in FFVII Remake’s 18th chapter
Meanwhile in still more FFVII-related news (sorry non-VII folks, it’s everywhere this week), Ever Crisis announced it has surpassed 7.77 million downloads, right in time for the Rebirth crossover event
This FFVII x FFVII crossover is the most ambitious synergy move we’ve seen since the director of FFXIV made a deal with the producer of FFXVI to arrange a collaboration event
Jokes aside, the blue crystals are flowing with login bonuses alone, so now’s a great time to hop on and perhaps unlock Tifa’s cowboy mountain garb
A Rose By Any Other Metascore
Rebirth caused ripples yesterday by skyrocketing to the top of the series’ Metacritic rating, debuting at 94 and settling at 93 as the majority of reviews came in. This puts it firmly in second place between Final Fantasy IX at 94. However, the reality of such comparisons can be a little more complicated than numbers alone suggest, so let’s take a moment to put things into context.
By the numbers:
The ranking of Final Fantasy (single-players) games currently sits as follows:
94 - Final Fantasy IX (PS1)
93 - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5)
92 - Final Fantasy X (PS2), Final Fantasy XII (PS2), Final Fantasy VI (GBA), Final Fantasy VII (PS1)
90 - Final Fantasy VIII (PS1)
89 - Final Fantasy Chronicles (PS1), Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (PS5)
88 - Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP)If you lump in the MMORPGS, Endwalker also scored 92, and Shadowbringers a 90
So, only six FFs have managed to break a 90 Metascore among critics, plus two MMORPG expansions
Separate platform releases broker different review scores, however, so these high scores can also potentially be affected if we consider more than these top scores:
FFIX’s PS1 version may be at 94, but its Switch version has a 76
FFVI’s Pixel Remaster earned a 87, while the Final Fantasy Anthology that included it got an 80, and the original isn’t ranked at all
FFVII Remake, by comparison, earned a 87, tied with Final Fantasy XVI
What we thought:
The disparity between different versions can tell an interesting tale—let’s take for example, Tactics
The PSP version sits at 88, the PS1 original at 83, and the iOS at 72
War of the Lions scored higher, though since launch, the inherent slowdown of the PSP has seen this version slip lower in fans’ esteem
Then there are oddities like Chronicles: how much of its 89 score comes from FFIV, and how much from Chrono Trigger?
It’s worth noting as well that the nature of game reviews has changed a lot over the last 10-20 years, moving from print publications with physical review copies to digital outlets with digital codes
Most of the scores for FFIX come from magazines and even newspapers, with a few sites like IGN in the mix as well
Newspaper reviews tended to have more pedestrian outlooks, which could either be a nice addition to the critical discourse, or a divergence from the intended audience’s approach to the medium
Scores from print sources may not be entirely archived on aggregators like Metacritic, either, with some potentially falling through the cracks
Nor does Metacritic have the scores from before the N64
These compiled review scores are a snapshot of a game’s reception at launch, and factors might change their reception over time (for example, how people warmed to Forspoken after the initial vitriol at its launch waned, and others gave it a chance when it was steeply discounted)
Does any of this mean that Metacritic or other review scores are worthless when it comes to games? Not at all
These figures can help consumers gauge their anticipated enjoyment of a project, if nothing else
Blindly trusting a number alone can be tricky, as each publication should have its own rubric or meaning behind their scores, and there’s a lot of variables that can go into them
These figures tend to stay more consistent overall than the user scores, which can be heavily influenced and skewed, as we’ve seen in so many recent instances
That being said, an aggregate score is not the definitive judgement of a game’s worth, as there are so many factors that can affect them
They’re one of the tools that we as consumers can use to make informed decisions
Of all the FFs, it’s poetic justice that FFIX is the one to hold the top spot after 24 years, designed as it was the be the ultimate expression of the Sakaguchi era
What’s next? Regardless, it’s encouraging that a FF has jumped so high right away, especially since it’s been some time (2007) since a new entry has cracked the 90+ club. For some, this could be a sign of “recovery” for the series, if not just a good sign about the next installment.
Around the Union
One of the things Final Fantasy has become notorious for is its endgame challenges—hidden, optional superbosses that can rival the challenge of the entire game. Our latest evolution video series will tackle these terrifying titans and see what makes this convention tick—so join us for “The Complete Evolution of Superbosses [Part One]",” which covers up through the top-scoring FFIX!
In the meantime, let us know: are you picking up Final Fantasy VII Rebirth?
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Until next time, kupo!