Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s Latest Patch Promises Multiple Graphics Improvements

Square Enix has published a new patch for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which promises graphics improvements.

As we had reported at the start of the month, Digital Foundry corroborated fan suspicions that there were issues with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth ‘s graphics. In particular, they found that the game’s performance mode uses a poor solution for upscaling, in doubling the pixels. This made the game look softer than both Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade and Final Fantasy XVI.

There are also several smaller issues, such as noticeable low resolution models in certain areas, characters clipping through foliage, and a general lack of details in terms of characters, buildings, etc. Once again, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth compares unfavorably to Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade on this account, and it looks like this was a necessary compromise as the sequel shifted from a smaller set level design to an open world.

As reported by Gematsu, patch 1.020 is now live. They have provided this translation for the patch notes below:

• Fixed typos and omissions in some text.
• Fixed a bug that occurred on the map under certain conditions when controlling a character.
• Fixed a bug in battle in which Red XIII’s abilities “Lunatic High” and “Watcher’s Spirit” could be easily canceled.
• Fixed a bug in battle in which enemies would stop moving under certain conditions.
• Fixed a progress bug that occurred during quests under certain conditions.
• Improved frame rate and overall game stability.
• Added “Sharp” and “Soft” options to the Performance Mode display settings.
• Improved the graphics quality.
• The camera’s reverse setting is now applied when controlling a gliding Chocobo.
• The camera’s reverse setting is now applied to the sharpshooting mini-game camera.
• Enhanced guidance support while climbing the ivy in the “Mythril Mine” location.
• Added difficulty settings to the customization screens for the mini-games “Fort Condor” and “Gears and Gambits.”

As you can see, some of the issues that Digital Foundry identified in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth were addressed in these patch notes. We don’t know how far Square Enix’s patch goes to fixing these issues, as it has been about two weeks since Digital Foundry’s video and article on the topic.

Of particular interest is the choice of having sharp and soft graphics in Performance Mode. It sounds like having the game run on sharp graphics in this mode will still have some compromises. Otherwise, they would not offer the choice.

Once again, the reason this issue is perplexing is it looked like Square Enix mastered how to get the best graphics out of the PlayStation 5. In spite of these issues, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth does not look bad. It is, honestly, embarrassing for the studio that this issue even exists.