Like the best of bakers, in creating Final Fantasy VII Square Enix is obsessed with layers. Where the first game in this remake trilogy took us through the tiered industrial city of Midgar, where the top-dwellers grow rich from bleeding the planet dry while those below live beneath a plated sky, this massive sequel takes us on a journey that cuts through many more strata.
There’s Kalm, a sleepy, pretty citadel town that’s built on the ashes of its precursor, a casualty of the Midgar-ruling megacorp Shinra’s history of war. There’s Under Junon, a town of refugees, literally covered by Shinra’s weapon-of-mass-destruction-toting Junon fortress. There’s sunny vacation spot Costa Del Sol where, behind the Hawaiian-like shakas and wheelie scooters, the corrupt mayor grows fat on letting Shinra have the run of the town. More than just fresh twists on a theme, the varied towns make each region in this lengthy, globetrotting journey feel distinct and alive. Shinra’s Mako-siphoning is causing problems for all as the planet nears environmental ruin, but its effects are felt in different ways by its inhabitants.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a layer cake unto itself, the sweet icing of serious, epic melodrama hiding an often bizarre yet delicious stacking of strange characters and minigames, just like in the original source material. Rebirth excels at being faithful to its roots, while adapting, expanding upon, and deepening the original’s ideas to great effect. But bigger, more divergent changes are where the new version stumbles – a shame after the last game’s climax seemed more gung-ho about veering off the rails.
FIGHTING FATE
At the end of Final Fantasy VII Remake, destiny was in disarray. Rebirth begins knee-deep in that mayhem. The once-dead Zack Fair, rogue SOLDIER (a kind of superpowered agent for Shinra, enhanced with Mako) is now alive, kicking, and swinging the Buster Sword every which way as he safely delivers a young Cloud back to Midgar and busts a comatose Aerith out of Shinra custody. Rather than the escape we saw our RPG party make right before credits last time, things have gone south – but don’t expect Zack to make too much of his new, off-kilter existence. His situation doesn’t
