Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

interesting

even though that game technically came out before before the the western like the like its western release was much later because i think about in 2019 in japan but then it took it like three years to come over here to north america which is kind of crazy to think about so next one I want to mention Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth which I know you haven't had a chance to play Garrett but like the mini games are probably the only thing holding that one back from me from being one of the best RPGs of the RPG cave era like that storyline is incredible the combat's great like it kind of fixed a lot of stuff I didn't like from the first game but also added some new stuff with the mini games that I didn't love so it's still like far from a perfect experience but I loved it um metaphor which might be on your list um

yeah

yeah i really really love metaphor a lot um it was my favorite game uh of 2024 uh when it came out um and it's still i still it's

narrative so far and that is distant with what we thought we understood about the relationship between the characters so far um so it's a nice it's a nice parallel uh should we i mean we brought you on partly to talk about video game remakes and and specifically the final fantasy 7 remake trilogy um i know we've the confection is just sort of like i think blown this conversation wide open in a good way so we we have to maybe do this we'll just have to touch on some of the questions here and issues and maybe return to them at a later point.

But I mean, I also am just dying to know what you thought of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which you were sort of like live tweeting for several months this past year.

And I think when you came on the first time with us, I gave my strong recommendation, even though it is a game that has proved to me surprisingly divisive, but I understand why.

I guess I understand why it's divisive, but I sort of felt like... well I'll stop I'll stop talking because I want to hear I want to hear what you what you thought I assume you finished it now right I

I'd never seen... being able to fly for one fly in 3d i mean this is back when 3d was a novelty and and at in most cases you were sort of ground bound you know um to fly anywhere uh and that you could then get out of your ship and walk i mean that's still amazing um to the point where in that i you know in the new in final fantasy 7 revelation the the third part that's coming out pretty soon i think um like it was a big reveal that there was going to be some kind of seamless integration between flying and traversing land, not wholly seamless because in games that are realistically proportioned, you can't just like, model an entire continent or world, you know, in oceans and then have, you know, unless it's like GTA can do that, but GTA is a different kind of world just on a basic interaction level than Final Fantasy.

But that's all to say, like, the...

The critique I've seen most often about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is that it just devolves into Ubisoft-style, like, repetitive open-world activities.

And that is true to a certain extent.

So that would be like a remake is Silent Hill 2.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and a remaster is Oblivion Remastered or something like Gears of War Reloaded.

And the important points include that players spent $1.4 billion on remakes and remasters in 2025 and the analytics group studied 42 titles released in 2025 and found that remakes generated 2.2 times more revenue So that's huge.

That's a lot of money.

a possibility for being on that level by just simply not saying that.

Yes.

And Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the only game where I'm like, I will entertain the idea that someone says that this is quadruple A.

This is the level of polish.

We don't talk enough about Queen's Blood.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth came out in 2024 from Square Enix Creative Business Unit 1 exclusively on the PlayStation 5.

Before we get to where it is on our personal lists, let's check this out.

Hello everyone! This is Naoki Hamaguchi, Game Director of Final Fantasy VII Remake Series.

Amazon Prime, you have Twitch

Prime.

Let's see where Final Fantasy VII Rebirth landed on our personal lists.

But I don't even know how you can enjoy this medium.

Like, okay, if you don't think Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is as good as I do,

that's a

different conversation.

No, no, that's where I draw the line,

Max.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a 10 out of 10 video game.

That is up there.