Summary

• FF7 Rebirth doesn't improve on every aspect of FF7 Remake, but it takes many strides forward.
• A greater variety in multiple key aspects makes for a more fun experience.
• Improvements to combat make a good system better.

As Final Fantasy 7 Remake's direct successor, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth takes it upon itself to improve in a variety of areas where the previous game was lacking. FF7 Remake did a largely irable job of translating the first segment of the classic RPG to a modern format, but it also had its fair share of shortcomings that sometimes threatened to overwhelm its strong points. Since sustaining momentum throughout a trilogy is necessary for the remake project to fully succeed, FF7 Rebirth failing to take some strides forward could easily lose the goodwill that the first game generated.

Some changes made between the games can ultimately just come down to player preference, like trading in the more focused area of Midgar for a giant world to explore. Others, unfortunately, are definitely for the worse, making FF7 Rebirth weaker than Remake in certain regards. When tallying everything up, however, it's easy to focus on the ways in which the design has evolved for the better, and they definitely make a difference throughout the course of the lengthy adventure.

10 NPCs Look Better In FF7 Rebirth Than In FF7 Remake

Although FF7 Remake is a visually stunning game in many regards, it drops the ball when it comes to most of the minor NPCs that litter the world. While primary characters look excellent and feature reasonably dynamic animation, the same can't be said for the average citizen of the Midgar slums. Waxy faces and stiff movement make them look like they're from a different world entirely, and it can be a bit jarring considering how immersive most other aspects are.

FF7 Rebirth makes huge strides forward in this regard, with everyone from Chocobo farmers to Queen's Blood opponents featuring significantly more lively and detailed appearances. Considering how much time is spent hobnobbing with NPCs, this can make a big difference, and it's nice to see that FF7 Remake's biggest visual shortcoming was directly targeted.

9 Upgrading Weapons Is Better In FF7 Rebirth

One of the more dubious additions made in FF7 Remake is the weapon upgrade system, which adds a generally uninteresting extra layer of leveling that can comfortably be ignored outside adding Materia slots. Each weapon used its own upgrades, but they didn't tend to be distinct enough to make this concept feel worthwhile, exacerbating the feeling of redundancy.

FF7 Remake throws this out in favor of the Folio system, which acts as a more standard skill tree for each character. The change doesn't suddenly make upgrading thrilling, but the incorporation of synergy skills and abilities into the Folios makes it feel more generally useful, and the process doesn't have to be repeated as often. It's not one of the most game-changing overhauls in FF7 Rebirth, but it is a general quality-of-life improvement that's easy to appreciate.

8 FF7 Rebirth Has Less Handholding Than FF7 Remake

One aspect about FF7 Remake that can quickly become annoying is its desperation to always keep the player moving forward. Although this helps the narrative momentum of the Midgar part of the story, it often goes too far, shouting out the solutions to things that can barely be called puzzles the moment that they appear. It's a big turn from the original game, which put a lot more trust in players to figure things out for themselves.

FF7 Rebirth definitely doesn't return to the 90s level of complexity in this regard, but it does ease off the aggression of handholding. Party are less likely to tell Cloud what he needs to do at all times, more frequently offering the opportunity to actually figure out the typically basic challenges. This extra bit of agency ends up going a long way, even if taking it further could continue to improve things.

7 Queen's Blood Is A Huge FF7 Rebirth Addition

FF7 Remake didn't have anything in the way of a recurring game to play against NPCs, with Fort Condor showing up in the important Yuffie-focused INTERmission DLC but not in the base game. FF7 Rebirth picks up the classic mantle of the franchise's tendency toward including card games by adding Queen's Blood, a three-lane challenge that even appears in a tournament in the main story. If this was just a perfunctory addition, it would hardly count as a notable improvement, but Queen's Blood ends up being extraordinarily fun.

Of all the minigames that show up throughout FF7 Rebirth, Queen's Blood is the one that's easiest to consistently look forward to, whether in the random opponents that litter the world or the unique challenges offered at Costa del Sol and the Gold Saucer. With an enormous variety of interesting cards to earn and decks to build, it's a robust game that definitely deserves the spotlight.

6 FF7 Rebirth's Environmental Navigation Is Better

Despite transitioning from the original game's pre-rendered backgrounds to the world of proper 3D, FF7 Remake still places some severe restrictions on the way that Cloud and other party can navigate an area. If a bit of debris lies in the way, they'll simply have to go around it, despite the fact that the party has the athletic prowess to easily handle some rough terrain.

FF7 Rebirth makes a big improvement in this regard, allowing the party to move up and down vertical surfaces and climb over objects within reason. It's not exactly the fluid verticality of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but it's a lot more than the first game offered, and it makes exploration more intuitive and authentic. Before long, jumping down small cliffs and clambering over rubble becomes second nature, which could definitely make it hard to go back to FF7 Remake.

5 Dungeons Are More Unique In FF7 Rebirth

Dungeons are a critical part of most RPGs, but finding ones that feel like copy-pasted filler can be far too common. FF7 Remake's dungeons suffer a lot from its handholding tendencies, as they don't tend to feature any real puzzles to solve. When combining this problem with a general lack of dungeon gameplay variety, even interesting sequences like Hojo's lab can end up dragging on for far too long.

FF7 Rebirth doesn't reinvent the wheel when it comes to dungeons, but it does alleviate the worst of FF7 Remake's issues. Many end up making use of different gimmicks, like a segment in Nibel that focuses on throwing blocks around to activate different triggers. The larger party also allows for more interesting party splits in dungeons, taking advantage of different dynamics to shake things up.

4 Synergy Makes FF7 Rebirth Combat Better

The combat system in FF7 Remake is one of the game's great successes, managing to merge intense action with remnants of the original turn-based menu commands for a consistently fun way to take down enemies. That being said, it doesn't take all that long to master, and there's definitely room to add another layer. FF7 Rebirth does just that with Synergy skills and abilities, which build on an idea introduced in INTERmission to let characters link up in exciting ways.

Amassing Synergy introduces an extra dose of strategy to combat, as characters need to use their personal abilities to build up the amount necessary to deploy cooperative ones. It's also just cool to see the party work together so directly in combat, reinforcing the idea of a tight-knit group that's better together than apart.

3 FF7 Rebirth's Party Formations Add Flavor

Another valuable addition to FF7 Rebirth's combat is the ability to customize the party formation, which plays into Synergy skills and abilities and virtually everything that happens on the battlefield. With a total of six standard playable party , FF7 Rebirth makes it possible to assemble a lot of different teams of three. Whether taking a classic approach with Cloud, Tifa, and Barret or bringing more unusual styles of play into the mix with Cait Sith and Yuffie, there's plenty of fun to be had here.

There's also a level of satisfaction to be found in coming up with a formation-dependent strategy to tackle a major fight in FF7 Rebirth, especially if it's one that takes advantage of unusual combinations. FF7 Remake's locked parties work out perfectly well, but the level of freedom introduced in FF7 Rebirth definitely elevates the whole affair.

2 Side Quests Are Improved In FF7 Rebirth

Most of FF7 Remake's side quests, unfortunately, aren't all that interesting, with generally uninspiring tasks and flimsy narrative elements that can make them feel like a chore. Some stand out as interesting, and later quests that interweave multiple threads feel rewarding, but it's not an inspiring part of the game as a whole. FF7 Rebirth definitely improves on this category, introducing a lot more creativity even as the overall number of side quests swells.

FF7 Rebirth's side quest glow-up is bolstered by the character bond system, as different party are attached to different side quests in order to offer Cloud a way to develop his relationships with them. From a practical standpoint, this helps manage the amount of party chatter in each, but it also gives everyone in the expanded party their time to shine in side content.

1 FF7 Rebirth Has Greater Gameplay Variety

One aspect of the original FF7 that made it stand out from most competing RPGs was the sheer variety found within its gameplay, which was never content to do any one thing for too long at a time. While turn-based combat was obviously the fundamental building block for a lot of it, combat sections were constantly broken up by other fun ideas. This kitchen sink approach made it hard for anything to ever drag, an ideal that FF7 Remake had trouble recreating.

FF7 Rebirth, on the other hand, commits much more wholeheartedly to the original game's variety. The minigames are obviously one aspect of this, as is the more thoughtful approach to dungeons, but it's a transition in game design that bleeds through to virtually every part of the main story content. Spending too much time on World Intel can still result in a feeling of sameness, but picking and choosing what to do makes Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth feel far more like the original grab bag than FF7 Remake did.