Summary
WhenFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirthwas first confirmed to be an open-world game, fans wondered what form that open world would take. Would it look more like the sprawling nothingness of Final Fantasy 15,would it take inspiration from the sandboxy approach of a Breath of the Wild, or would it be something entirely new? Well, now we have our answer, and while it most certainly does a lot right, I can’t help but feel that it also introduces a number of issues - especially when paired with how the narrative is presented in Rebirth.
Every open-world game has to walk a fine line when it comes to control. They often sell you the idea of complete, unfettered freedom, but there are moments when they need to rip the reins from the player’s hands. Even Breath of the Wild, which will allow you to bee-line it to Ganon and fight him naked with a stick forces you to begin the game in a tutorial area andseverelylimits your traversal options during each shrine. And more to the point, every game with a narrative component will force linearity on the players during those select moments. It is par for the course, and I’d argue a necessary poison. But some games are better at this delicate dance than others, and Rebirth is particularly clumsy when it comes to this waltz.
Rebirth’s open world is vast - impressively so - and it provides players with an enticing amount to explore and uncover. You are given an opportunity to really spread your wings. But the story sections… well, they are a whole other matter. These are some of the most frustratingly limiting segments I’ve ever encountered in a game. Not only do they often place you on a narrow path, but the game seems determined to have you move through them at a snail’s pace. While forced walking sections aren’t new to the medium, Rebirth has some of the most painful examples. Forcing me to hobble through a village engulfed in flames does little to ratchet up the tension, which I assume was the intended effect. Instead, it ratchets up my desire to glance at my watch.
Having these sections feel so stifling is completely at odds with the open-world content that is always wedged in between these moments. Even if you love the open-world content, Rebirth has problems there, too. The immediacy of the story is frequently undermined by the ability to saunter around aimlessly. you may’t tell me that I need to escape the city, as Shinra is on my tail, only to then encourage me to spend the next ten hours pecking at the ground with my Chocobo and playing tag withmalformed Moogles.
Part of the problem here is that some of these story sections would have been poorly paced even in a tighter, more linear title. There is no world where the aforementioned Nibelheim incident wouldn’t have caused my eyes to roll aggressively. But pairing those extremely restrictive moments with expansive, free-form exploration is a recipe for whiplash. There needs to be a bit more balance to the approach.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying there is no merit to Rebirth’s implementation of its open world. I think there is a lot to love about the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach the developers took. If Square can dial in that push-and-pull of restriction and freedom, I’m confident that the third Final Fantasy 7 remake title will have everything it needs to be an all-timer in the open-world genre. However, it needs to better balance both aspects of the game, opening up the narrative sequences, and, in some cases, narrowing the open-world sections. The current approach feels like two games that have been crudely stitched together - like a monstrosity straight out of Hojo’s lab.
