Second Emulation

Behind the Buster Sword: A Deep Dive into Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

• Shawn Juarez • Episode 76

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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth takes players beyond the industrial dystopia of Midgar into a vibrant open world filled with possibility and mystery. The sequel to 2020's Final Fantasy VII Remake continues the ambitious reimagining of the beloved 1997 classic while introducing bold new elements that challenge our understanding of the original narrative.

The game masterfully builds upon the hybrid combat system from Remake, introducing exciting combination attacks that function as mini-limit breaks between party members. These create spectacular battle moments while adding strategic depth to encounters. Veterans and newcomers alike will appreciate the balanced approach that maintains the visual spectacle of modern combat while offering optional settings that simulate the methodical pace of traditional JRPGs.

Where Rebirth truly shines is in its expansive world exploration. Chocobo mounts and an intuitive fast-travel system let you freely navigate breathtaking landscapes, from the nostalgic hometown of Nibelheim to the golden shores of Costa del Sol. Each region feels distinct and alive, though some players may find the required activities—climbing towers for map reveals or completing numerous side quests—occasionally repetitive.

Most fascinating is Rebirth's narrative ambition, embracing multiverse theory to create a story that both honors and challenges the original game's iconic moments. The controversial handling of Aerith's fate represents this approach perfectly—a moment that simultaneously fulfills fan expectations while subverting them in startling ways. Meanwhile, Sephiroth receives deeper character development, suggesting he might be attempting to rewrite his own tragic history and possibly break free from Jenova's influence.

With its confident storytelling, refined gameplay mechanics, and stunning presentation, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth earns its 8/10 rating. Despite some structural pacing issues, it delivers an essential experience for JRPG enthusiasts that balances nostalgia with bold innovation. Subscribe to the podcast for our upcoming convention coverage and join the conversation about which timeline you're hoping to see realized in the trilogy's conclusion!

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 Hi, hello, and welcome to Second Emulation! Oh my God, you guys, I’m so excited for you to listen to this episode—like, it’s going to be so good! Your amazing host is about to take you on a deep dive into all things movies, anime, gaming, and pop culture. Seriously, it’s, like, the best way to spend your time. So, grab your favorite drink, maybe a latte or something cute, and get ready to have the best time. Okay, love that for you! Here’s your host!

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 Welcome back to Second Emulation. For our new and current listeners, this is a show where we dive into the latest video games and see what's worth your time. I'm Sean, your host, and today we're gonna be talking about Final Fantasy seven Rebirth, a new JRPG game that was launched last year in February on PlayStation console, and just recently now made its way to pc.

If you are a fan of the J-A-P-J-R-P-G style games and turn base, I think this might be on your radar. So stick around as I break it down, share my thoughts and give, an overall feel of if this game might be, one that you need to pick up to add to your collection or not. Alright, so let's get into it.

So for those who don't know, little brief synopsis of the game is that this is a direct sequel to Final Fantasy seven Rebirth, which in turn is a whole new trilogy based on the original game Final Fantasy. Now, this continues the story from remake. That was introduced in 2020. Now this Reimagines plot, overarching narratives, world's cast from the original final 57, which was in 1997.

The game took place on a planet that centers on the journey of main characters as a Sikh to end the tyranny of the Shinra Electric Company, which controls a mega opposites of Medgar by weapon, weaponizing the live stream and defeat sro. Who is voiced by Tyler Holin? A legendary veteran of Shira's Elite Soldier unit.

Who presumed dead and seeks to summon meteor to wound the planet, enabling him and attend godhood by uniting them with the lifestream rebirth spans the event from leaving mid guard to the forgotten capital. However, it, the order in which locations are explored changed from the original game.

This was developed by Tetsu Nour. Naura and published by Square Enex. So what I gave you was not necess, not an essential spoiler, but a brief synopsis of the game and. Pretty much everyone knows the story of Final Fantasy Seven, since it's a game that's cherished by everyone. But for those who don't know, I just gave a breakdown of what the overall arching story is, so that way we're not getting into any spoiler type territory with rebirth.

This is just common knowledge for those who are fans of this series. Okay, now we're gonna move on to since. What am I doing with reviewing the game? That's all gonna be because I myself purchased the game last year in February amongst everyone who was waiting for the game to drop. I, myself pre-ordered it and was able to play the game and started the journey like everyone else, the reason why it took so long to actually complete the game.

It was that I, myself, work and don't have the necessary time to dedicate as much as I would like to the game. And also we were also doing a stream of me playing the game on Twitch and YouTube. So we're also working that as well and trying to find the best time to play the game. And for me, it took a while to actually, beat the game because some of the things I wanna talk about is actually first impressions. Now, I went over this a little bit, but I was excited because I played Final Fantasy remake. And so this was just a continuation of that game and it brought over a lot of the same elements. In regards to gameplay.

Now, there were some ad additions and me personally, I've never completed Funnel Fantasy seven. Back when I was younger, I've always made it to the third disc. So I knew the story up to a point. But then I also, back then it was always word of mouth. There was no such thing as twitch and streaming or vds, so you couldn't really see gameplay.

You actually had to either. Play the game yourself or go over to a friend who was playing the game and kinda watch them play it. But I was excited about this game 'cause I did previously buy Final Fantasy seven remake and completed that game. So I was on board. Now, first impressions, there were a lot of different things in this game.

Some things that they improved on, like combat. That was something they improved on a little bit, like doing combination attacks with other team members, which were essentially like mini limit breaks. I. I thought they were very cool. So right out the gate, you were able to pick who, you're essentially team now.

Every chapter, you might wanna be able to play with a different character and do the combat, but I found myself really just focusing on my core characters, not, you do have it like implies for you to, use other characters based on like their skills that they have that kind of make your team work.

But one thing overall is that they continued, was that everyone leveled up. So experience wasn't just something that the core team shared, it's what everyone had. So experience earned from battle was applied to all your characters, so they were leveling up with you? I'm not sure, and I might have to correct myself or actually do some research, but I.

Don't know if that was a an element in their original game that they also pulled from. And for me, who've played other RPG type games, that is a plus because sometimes, if you don't use other characters and you just have the ones that you like, those three characters essentially level up, you know a lot.

And if you're in a scenario where, or. A part of the story where you cannot use those characters and then you're forced to use characters that you haven't played with, and they're just very under level. It could make the game harder. So I do like that they, they carried that over. Another thing is they added some new elements such as Queen's blood.

Into the game. I like their own card game, which added a different element. Two final Fantasy, which wasn't in the first one. A second is open world. The game itself was very open world where you can, the story kind of nudged you in a direction that you needed to do. A lot of it was, task oriented.

In order for you to uncover, information and explore the region that you are in, you were, had to do tasks and a lot of this, was informative and it was interesting and all of it had, ways to level up your characters, which I thought it was nice, an interesting way of doing it.

So you weren't just, grinding it out throughout the. Each chapter of the game. Now the game is also turn base for, and they do have that element, with the play style and you can have that function to simulate, turn base combat. You just have to go to the options and set that. And what that does it, it allows like a freeze time.

Essentially in combat, which allows you to be more productive, allows you to put your inputs and not have to worry about, being on a time limit. Now, this may be suitable. It might not take place of the, replace the original turn base element that you're so used to. But this. Is very evident.

Now, I myself didn't, did not play the previous game and this game in that turn base style. I think I might try to, but I felt like in order to really benefit from the game itself, you have to, go feet first into the action fighting style gameplay that you're seeing on screen, because a lot of the stuff there, you can only do, I feel like, geared towards the action sequence of gameplay, not more so of like the turn base.

Because one thing I've noticed as a first impression is that each character does have different attacks. Now, if you were to do it in turn base you'll select attack. You do that, and that'd be it. This allows for them to not only have a, I guess you would say, a heavy and a strong attack, and they also have skills or weapon skills that they obtain from certain weapons and those that can, those can be assigned to a a symbol button on the account by pressing L one and whatever symbol triangle, square circle X that you assign it to.

Now, I went over this a little bit, but what kinda work was that? The game was open world and it was more vibrant and alive in final fantasy rebirth. When you can, can you. Compare the contrast to Medgar from the previous game where everything was dark restricted to this one section.

It was almost like a track, like you were only able to progress a story by going in one direction and. Remake did make it feel like that there wasn't, no way to explore Medgar to its fullest. You were only allowed, entry to certain aspects as long as it progressed to story rebirth.

You have the option to. Progress the story forward and visit any region you want. Once you've completed those chapters, you can go back, to belheim and walk around, explore, just take it in. And I like that. I like that you, you had that ability to do so and the way they also did traversal with choke bows, so you weren't just walking on your feet most time when you developed.

I think a key. Opponent. It was fast travel they allowed, so there was a little bit choco stuff, which are also save points. And once you've completed or you helped put up the sign, which I thought was very unique, you then had an instant fast travel. Which I thought was pretty cool. So by working the area, finding all these, fast travel locations, you could, go to any location or any region you want as long as that fast travel icon was available with that sign.

So I thought that was a nice, neat element to the game. Now what didn't work with the game? And this is gonna be, I feel like I'm gonna contradict myself because what worked, when I said what worked, there'll be little elements that didn't work and that's gonna be that there was a lot to do in the game.

When you went to a different region in order to like progress and get more of the lore and kind of move the story on, you had to do tasks. And those tasks came in the form of mini games, missions beast Area, ma, monster Hunts, and some of those, were essentially key elements for you to like either craft new weapons, get new material.

Sometimes be able to craft potions. And so when you do that you felt like you were stuck in an area at one point where, yeah, I'm progressing. I'm, I like doing this. But it also became repetitive. One of the icons that you had to do was the towers. It was nice doing the first.

Two. But after doing, like in the first region, once the game starts, you start noticing that you have to do all of 'em in order to uncover the map and so to speak. And once you did like whatever main story in that area, there were, sub stories, sub categories or what they called mission boards that you had that also helped progress the story.

Now, given that this was a lot a content for the game, after a while it did become repetitive. And what I mean by that is using my cell phone as an example, is that I had a mission when I was going and, trying to do the towers or we'll say the relics they have, I would spend almost two hours even longer maybe doing one or two.

Towers and then maybe a relic. And I would say that they would have at least five towers I think max in an area depending on how big the region was. Or it could be bigger. And not only would you know, you would get there, but you sometimes you had to fire a creature. And they weren't like close together or in, proximity of each other.

You actually had to go and look and locate where these things were. So besides the essentially main arching. Storyline of Final Fantasy. I felt like in between progressing the story and what we had to do, a lot of the main focus did also, go into, doing the task within the region.

And I can see why a lot of individuals who got the game, who aren't really, final Fantasy seven, fans would. Either stop it or not continue because it is a lot to ask is that in order we want you to play our story, but in order to continue the main overall story of the game, we are going to put all these different things in your way that you have to complete.

And it's a lot. For someone. I completed the main story in the overall game, but I can tell you that I've, spent hours doing all these tasks just to complete an area so I can move on. And I know that a lot of people would not invest that much time into the story or into these side quests and, finding towers or prolo relics.

Then, diehards or casual gamers or just someone who's a. Passionate for the overall game. So I feel like that's the one aspect of rebirth that didn't really land for me. I didn't complain, I can played it, it just took me longer to do because again, those. Those type of tasks can go from 20 to an hour, two hours or three hours plus just trying to complete, several of those tasks.

So I'm hoping with, they will realize, with this game that, we'll take some events that, we felt that we. Did well and then did not do well, and then change 'em or adjust 'em for the next game. 'cause I'll be honest, there was one proto Relic that I did not do or wasn't able to complete in the story, and I ended up finding out that wasn't really needed.

I thought the proto relics were part of the regions. I was always doing 'em, but I skipped one and just focus on the main story only to find out that the proto relics. Are needed to for your region territory, but they're not needed to complete the overall story, so I may go back and complete them so I can get a hundred percent on the game, but I'm not going back anytime soon.

Now what we're gonna get into now is more like theory crafting because I played the game and there is a lot of gamers who finished the game who you know, are throwing some theories out. And the main arching story for Final Fantasy Rebirth is dealing with time. The multiverse and I did ask. A couple other content creators who played the game and they felt like they couldn't really get into the story, that they were turned off by the whole multiverse aspect of the game, and they didn't really understand it and they turned them away from the game.

And but there was many, who were really like in the weeds, who were like, we're so for this. And because of that it did bring up a lot of things that I was seeing when I was playing it that I noticed. It seemed off to me, but made me go down this rabbit hole.

So we're gonna talk about it a little bit in this review. Now he has a little spoiler warning. Just in case you haven't played it or you haven't played any final fantasy seven game in general is that this game's story elements key story elements do play out like the original. Now what ends up happening, I feel like a lot of people either got confused or just got turned off from the game, and that is gonna be around Eric's death scene.

There's a lot of debate around this because what we witness is like a fulfillment of what the fans wanted in a brief second, but the death still happened. And what I mean by this is that the game forces you to make a decision by pressing L one and R one, where your. Essentially at the city, the forgotten city, and you'll need to cloud with this bus sword.

If you press the buttons, you'll be able to strike her down and it would be cloud who kills. But if you hesitate and don't do anything, then sro, comes piercing down from the sky like he does in the original game. And cloud, is able to block his sword and in theory, save Earth.

Now I say in theory because. From the point of view of the gamer, you see it happen. Eth is alive, or eth is alive for that moment, and then we see a glitch and she's dead. There's blood everywhere, and earth still dies. But what we see is not, the earth that we know, but an heath from the original dying.

Game dying in that sequence because when you're brought back after that sequence ends a's not, she's not bloody, she has no stab wounds. She's just, her conscious has left. I. Now, there's a lot of controversy with this scene because within that same sequence, like a second or a maybe a minute into it, we see earth open our eyes.

Now, a lot of people have made the claim that maybe it is. Cloud Psyche has finally broken. He suffered too much grief and he's just broken and he's creating a version of Earth in his own mind. So he's seeing her, and no one else that he believes he had saved her. And that's his way of coping with this trauma because prior to that he saw both events, him saving her and then her dead.

And so maybe this is way of his, mind coping with it, or maybe not, who knows? But this also plays into the aspect that there's multiple universes of the game. Think of Loki and Kang from the MCU TV show that there is multiple different timelines with different scenarios. Some of 'em I. Going the way that you know Seth Ralph wanted and some not, because he wants to be able to control all the different universe.

He wants to be the Loki of it all control and write his own fate because he knows that he gets the bad ending, that he ends up being defeated and then coming back again in Advent children. And then he is also defeated again that there is no peace for him. There is no great ending overall for Sphero because we already know the story.

He's in the northern crater frozen. What we're dealing with is a remnant of sorts, yeah. So everything in this game has to do with the converging of timelines. It's almost like back to the future, if you think about it, that every moment, every decision that they made creates a new timeline. There is Zach, who's in his own timeline where the avalanche crew is dead except for cloud who wakes up, but there's a, the story craft for this is that they want to make you believe that you yourself can change the story by changing the actions, which is why they led us to believe that he can be saved, but she can't because for those who don't know. Eric has access to livestream, similar to sro. She can also manipulate the livestream, and she also exists through all the different multiverse.

Just like SRO exists in all the, they have A one U unique collect. Connection that allows her to transfer information back and forth, which is how she was able to, this era, see the future of the timeline and know that her sole purpose is to make sure that things happen according to plan. She knows she needs to die, and it's her purpose to die in order for holy material to be passed on and activated.

Sfr on the other hand, wants to prevent his death. He does not want to die in the crater. He doesn't want to exist in the livestream. He wants to be physical and not a memory, not like a mimetic in some way. He's essentially a disease. And he's stuck and he can't truly be killed off, and he doesn't want to exist that way.

He wants to live, and so he's trying everything he can to prevent what would appear his ultimate death, because we know in Advent children, he does. He only, he can only exist through the Genova cells, but that's not really a life living because he can manipulate, he can be a memory. He doesn't fully exist as a physical being.

And so essentially what rebirth is a, is all alluring to, is that. There are different timelines. Ro, has the ability to merge all timelines into one, and by doing so, he's gaining knowledge. He has knowledge of everything that's happened from the original game to now, or he has all the knowledge from the original game and he's trying to prevent that type of ending and earth.

Had that same knowledge and is trying to prevent, SFR from getting the ending that he wants because things need happen according to the plan. Now, things that done were done differently. I. And uniquely is that there are key characters that died, key events that changed. And throughout the story we were told that we could save Earth.

There was so much, so many different death flags on earth. But my understanding is that earth was always meant to die. It's in the story. We can't save her. We just have to accept that. And she herself. Accepts that in order to essentially stop the greatest evil in their realm, which is Soff, because he cannot be allowed to win.

But one of the theories that we're, that I've seen online is what if Genova slash. Sphero is using the image of Earth to manipulate cloud. Since cloud is the only one that could see earth, maybe that's what's happening in this instance, because Genova can manipulate people into seeing, utilizing the death of their loved ones, people who've passed away as tools to manipulate you.

Because Genova is a space being that can exist in death or as a disease and is always changing. And one thing that I noticed while I was watching. Maximilian Dude's stream when he was evaluating and listening to the music was that in the final battle, where it plays Earth's music is aggressively overtaken by Genova's.

Not sure if that's anything to note, but he did. He did hone in on it and dissect it. And I think that has something to play, something, a bigger part to be at play here, because again, Zach is alive who's supposed to be dead. He exists and other characters that we know don't exist are dead now.

So a lot of things are happening in the game and I. Would like to think, I like to think that it's all building towards something. And one theory I saw, which would make the most sense or in a direction that they're heading to is that SRO wants to rewrite his own history. And the reason for that is that we know the history Serah, everything started with him.

But Genova and him, for those who played cross the court, know that all the soldiers were given Genova cells and different projects, but he was the catalyst to I guess it's perfection He didn't show any signs of Mako macco poisoning or cellular integration. He didn't show any of those signs.

And so one theory is that SRO wants to, and this might be overarching, a bit, wants to rewrite his own history and purge the world of Genova. And there's some chatter about it that SRO may enlist the help of cloud, and there may be a battle involving Zach SRO and Cloud fighting Genova and like reading her or Gen Nova from the light stream.

Entirely and thus freeing SRO of. We can say it's clutches or it's manipulation because it's hard to say who's really in control. SRO who has a strong will, you know who doesn't want to die. But what we've noticed in Rebirth is that SRO was a good person before during the Heim incident, that prior to that he was a good person and he was worshiped by everyone.

He was good hearted, but it wasn't until something switched and the manipulation of Genova over him started to twist him. And maybe because he's more susceptible to mind control that he. became the arbiter of death and destruction because he had nothing else.

When he found out about the experiments that created him, he went crazy, thus creating despair and fear and doubt because Genova can manipulate. Can manipulate, those with a lot of despair. It gets powerful. And what is the one biggest thing of despair that happened to OV is when he uncovered his, the evidence and information around his birth and him coming into existence.

That he had no mother, he had no father. He was alone. And I think that would be a good, theory. I do see that, making his. Make it, its round as three craft, and that would be the most entertaining thing to do, to give the character such as SRO, who has the most tragic story of all, and let him have a win, free himself from Genova and allow him that to be at peace.

Now I want to  talk about the theories I feel like, talking about. But next we're gonna pivot to the overall rating. So I. After playing the game, taking me almost a year and a couple months to complete, I want to give final, Fantasy VII rebirth an eight out of ten. 

It's not a 10, it's not perfect, but it's definitely worth a playthrough to get, the overall story, if you played. Final Fantasy VII remake. Now, I'm not saying you should pick up this game and play it as a standalone, you should also play the prior game. But all in all, I feel like this game, if you do decide to just play this and not remake, can be played standalone even though it's not recommended.

But I do feel that it is. This game you should add to your collection of turn base RPGs or J RPGs. Because I feel like the story element is done very well and again, I'm a fan of Final Fantasy seven. I played Kingdom Hearts where there are a lot of final fantasy characters in there, and I feel like it's, they're doing something very big.

This doesn't get a 10 because there are some elements I did not like, which again, I discussed prior to the episode, but overall it is a solid eight out of five. Final Fantasy Rebirth is a game that you want to add to your collection. Again, if you're a fan of the J-J-R-P-G term base style games, and this is one that you wanna add.

I know that I've been on the hunt for the deluxe edition 'cause it does come with a steel box case for the game. I'm still trying to find one. I did purchase digitally, but I feel like this is a game that you can, play and have fun with, and there's a lot of content you can do in the game.

And it may just scratch your itch. For, action turn based games. If you're waiting on something to play right now, I know a lot of games that are coming out in the coming months and some of 'em, might not be interesting. You might not wanna play. This could be that game to like really just get you through until, if you're waiting for a GTA six.

Again, I just wanna thank everyone for tuning into this episode of Second Emulation, and if you enjoy the show, don't forget to, subscribe to the podcast, leave us a review, and  share it with your friends. Also follow us on our social media account, which will be a link in the. In the description of the podcast and provide us any video game recommendations that you wanna see us play and ultimately do a review on and tell.

Yeah. And we'd love to hear your thoughts. Next week we're gonna be, we're gonna be diving into our convention experience. For those who don't know, we. We've done a, we went to a convention, and our next week's episode is gonna be the Emerald City Comic-Con experience. And until then, happy Gaming and I'll catch you in  the next one.

All right, take it away, Emily.

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