UPDATE
Do these insane review scores make you excited for the title? Are you getting it day one? Let us know below!
ORIGINAL STORY
There’s an important thing about reviews that everyone has to know. Specifically, it’s about how even if groups of people come together to “like something with all they’ve got,” that doesn’t mean you’ll like it. You see it with movies, TV shows, and, yes, video games. Sometimes critics will heap on the praise, and then you see it/play it for yourself, and you’re wondering why it got all the hype. For Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the hype has been building since the moment it was confirmed, and players have been dying to see what reviewers thought of it. Hint: they thought a lot of great things about it.
As of now, on Metacritic, there are 115 reviews of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth logged by professional sites. That alone shows how far Square Enix wanted to go to hype up their title; they sent review codes to every place they could! With those 100+ reviews, the game currently has a 93 score. That easily puts it above everything else that’s come out this year in the AAA category, and yes, we checked that out to ensure that it is accurate and definitively makes it the frontrunner for Game of the Year.
But you might be curious about what they’re saying about the title specifically. We can help summarize things.
Let’s start with the obvious: many of the reviews were perfect scores, and many of those perfect scores saluted how Square Enix was able to build off what they did with the original remake title on PS4 and then push things to new heights with the PS5. Square Enix revealed yesterday that they did various things to expand this new version of Gaia and make it feel seamless and full of life. Many of these reviewers noticed that and couldn’t get enough of it.
As for the narrative, reviewers were enthralled with the game’s story and characters. They praised how Square Enix honored the original PS1 title while also forging a new path that “kept them on their toes.” Multiple people spoke about how the game honestly made them emotional, showing how well everyone resonated with them as they traversed the game.
Given all of that, what were the “negative elements” that took seven points off a perfect score? A few reviewers noted that the game felt “less focused” at times thanks to its vast world, and others felt that the story was “anchored to the past” in a few key places.
Even with that, though, the scores speak for themselves, and given that a demo for the game is out right now, you can play the game and see how much fun it is before it arrives on PS5 on February 29th!
