Final Fantasy 7 RebirthandLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealthcame out a month apart. This might seem like a long gap between releases, but it really isn’t when you consider that each of them takes anywhere between 50 and 75 hours to beat.
What if you could only play one? Which is the better game to spend your time on? We weigh the strengths of each and crown a winner. If you have the time and money, there is no way to lose if you play both of them. They are certainly different enough that you won’t get bored playing them back-to-back.
10Infinite Wealth: More Accessible For Newcomers
It’s The Eighth Game, But Feels Self-Contained Enough
Both games are part of a series, but Infinite Wealth is a lot kinder to newcomers than Rebirth, even if you actually need more games for as much context as possible. The story does a good job of giving you enough to understand the characters and their motivations without bogging down the story with exposition.
Rebirth is the second part of a trilogy and really throws you into the world again, expecting you to have played 2020’s Final Fantasy Remake. This isn’t so much a dig at Rebirth, since it’s really just the nature of what it’s doing as a trilogy.
9Rebirth: The Party
Everybody Is Unique, And Everybody Matters
Infinite Wealth’s party is full of memorable characters, but only a few of them get the spotlight in the main story. Their stories are fleshed out in side quests and bonus dialogue, but you really miss out on a lot if you just go through the main story.
Rebirth, on the other hand, does a great job of balancing attention between party members. No one is left behind. Nothing exemplifies this more than seeing the whole party during exploration and battle, even if they aren’t one of the three you are controlling during a fight.
8Infinite Wealth: Minigames
Some Of The Minigames Feel Like Whole Games By Themselves
Both titles are brimming with minigames. You could go hours without actually engaging with the core combat mechanics as you run around doing various minigames attached to side quests. Even though Rebirth has the incredible Queen’s Blood, the rest of the minigames lack polish.
Infinite Wealth handles them better, giving you a hint of them before letting you progress. Rebirth is better if you compare Queen’s Blood to Sujimon,but Dondoko Island and the other minigamestower far and above what Rebirth offers.
7Rebirth: Post-Game Content
It Doesn’t Cost Anything Extra, For Starters
Infinite Wealth has plenty to do after beating the game only if you pay for it. New Game+ and several dungeons are locked behind a DLC purchase. Rebirth gives you multiple difficulty options out of the gate, putting plenty of replayability into the package without forcing you to cough up more money for it.
We’re not against DLC, but Infinite Wealth locking behind a paywall what so many games give you for free is a bad look.Letting you play any chapter again once you beat the game is also a huge plus in Rebirth’s favor.
6Infinite Wealth: Side Quests
They Have Emotional Payoffs
Infinite Wealth is packed with side queststhat you stumble upon organically. In addition to that there are the drink links where you more deeply get to know your party members. Rebirth’s side quest are similarly plentiful and many of them build up the world, but there is a little too much filler for it to compete with Infinite Wealth’s offerings.
Everything feels like it matters in Infinite Wealth, while some of Rebirth’s bonus activities feel like they fall into the traditional open-world design you see so frequently these days. It’s not necessarily bad, but it’s not as good as Infinite Wealth.
5Rebirth: Graphics
Fantasy Never Looked So Real
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is hands downone of the best looking video games out there, from the character models to the open-world landscapes. It helps really drive home the grounded approach to this fantasy world.
When you see summons and monsters with such fine detail, it is almost a spiritual experience to those who played the original Final Fantasy 7 in 1997. Infinite Wealth, by comparison, is not a bad looking game, but it is visually unremarkable.
4Infinite Wealth: Progression
You Always Feel Like You Are Getting Stronger
Infinite Wealth starts out very simple and progressively gets more complicated as it introduces new mechanics like thejob system. It all happens smoothly and you also always feel like you’re acquiring new toys to play with in battle.
FInal Fantasy 7 has weapon levels, Materia, and it lets you customize the party well enough, but there doesn’t feel like there is as much to work towards. Though the actual combat is always engaging due to the mixture of real-time elements, leveling up doesn’t feel as rewarding as it does in Infinite Wealth.
3Rebirth: Music
Somehow Improving Upon Perfection
Nobuo Uematsu gave Mitsuto Sazuki and Masashi Hamauzu solid gold to work with for Rebirth. The two composers take the original music from the 1997 game and give it new life while also adding plenty of new pieces to the mix.
The sheer amount of music in this game is commendable alone, and it is easy to appreciate all the more when most of the songs are absolute jams. Infinite Wealth has great music, too, and the songs in the karaoke are filled with engaging hooks, but Rebirth’s soundtrack has the weight of history behind it and lives up to its legacy.
2Infinite Wealth: Story
Try Not Crying While Playing This Game
Rebirth does a great job at introducing you to this world, or reintroducing if you are a longtime fan. Being the second part of a trilogy, though, it feels like the party is mostly wondering around for a large part of the game chasing a lead up until the last few chapters.
It feels better in the context of the grander story, but standing alone, it doesn’t surpass Infinite Wealth, which has a complete arc. While both games have their emotional moments, Infinite Wealth will have you in tears, especially as it wraps up Kazuma Kiryu’s story.
1Which Game Is Better? Infinite Wealth
Rebirth Is Fantastic, But Infinite Wealth Has An Edge Over It
This is an extremely hard decision to make, but Infinite Wealth beats out Rebirth for a couple of reasons. It’s a more even experience from start to finish and has the advantage of telling a more complete story.
Even if it is the eighth game of a massive saga, it has a definitive start and end, which works in its favor in all areas. Rebirth’s highs are better than a lot of what Infinite Wealth has to offer, but there’s also a lot of bloat that makes it harder to recommend over Infinite Wealth, especially if you don’t have a positive bias towards the game as a longtime fan.
