Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi has heard player complaints about the game’s graphics in Performance Mode, and has promised an update to resolve them. Shortly after release, players took issue with the marked visual downgrade when using Performance Mode — a patch for which should be out soon.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth update will fix facial lighting

Speaking to One More Game, Hamaguchi said that he can’t detail the incoming patch just yet, but did say that Square Enix plans to address facial lighting as part of it.

“We’ve received a lot of feedback on whether the graphics in the performance mode will be improved or not,” Hamaguchi said. “We hear you, and we are currently working on an update patch to improve that aspect. I don’t think the release date would be far away from now.”

The facial lighting issue that Hamaguchi is referring to are complaints of character shadows looking “scary” under some conditions. When asked what his personal preference is between Graphics and Performance modes, Hamaguchi chose the former. “I like to play other games in graphics mode as well because I like to see better graphics,” he explained.

We’ll share Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth update patch notes as soon as we have them.

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Those who are waking up on February 29 with hopes of playing the rhythm game Theatrhythm Final Bar Line may find a bit of a surprise. It turns out there’s a glitch that’s preventing people from playing on this particular day. And only on this particular day.

Something Square Enix forgot to take into account

Users across social media and on the Theatrhythm subreddit have been having problems with their save file today. When they try to load up their game, they’re met by a black screen that never finishes connecting. While some feared that their data was corrupted, it’s thankfully not that serious of an issue. The issue is actually due to Theatrhythm Final Bar Line not recognizing the date February 29, as the developers failed to take leap years into consideration.

If you’ve experienced a similar problem with your game just loading into a black screen, a solution has been offered. Basically, if you change the system clock back to a prior date, it should work. It should also be fixed if the date is set after February 29 as well.

At the time of writing, Square Enix hasn’t come forward with a statement about this date-based oversight. However, it does appear there is a quick solution, but it may be in the publisher’s best interests to perhaps offer a patch for the game.

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line was released last February for PS4 and Nintendo Switch. It’s a rhythm game set in the Final Fantasy universe. It’s the fifth installment in the Theatrhythm subseries, with the first entry released back in 2012.

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It’s time to get out of Midgar. If you’re a fan of the original Final Fantasy 7, you know that game finally opens up in second half of the first disc, with Cloud and the gang setting off into the wider world of Gaia in pursuit of Sephiroth. As such, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is a tougher game to make as it comes with a lot of expectations, more content to recreate, and a lot of build-up from the ending of FF7 Remake. Square Enix has reinterpreted and refreshed all of the enemies, environments, and plot points while adding new, modern elements that still treat the original game with respect. The amount of work that has gone into FF7 Rebirth is truly staggering, and though several parts of the game feel stretched out and encumbered, it follows through on its potential.

The next world

This review will be purposefully vague on the storyline of FF7 Remake and FF7 Rebirth to keep spoilers to a minimum, though anyone who has played through the original game will more or less know what happens. FF7 Rebirth, as a direct sequel to FF7 Remake, comes with several lingering plot threads that are addressed throughout the story. A recap video of the events in the first game is available in the main menu in case you need a refresher.

New cutscenes, conversations, and side quests alter the original plotline enough that it still feels like a fresh take, while the general framework has mostly been kept intact. Revisiting all of the familiar story beats, while listening to modern orchestrations of familiar tunes, is delightfully nostalgic. The party worries about Cloud’s memory, Barret and Tifa want to take down Shinra, Red XIII wishes to return home, and Aerith hopes to learn more about her past. Short scenes involving another character are mainly spliced between chapters, lending an air of mystery on the overarching timeline. It’s not until the latter half of the game that events more significantly deviate from the source material, introducing various elements to the lore that weren’t there before.

The majority of the side quests and protorelic missions spread throughout each region of the world provide opportunities for the party to interact with new characters as well as NPCs from FF7 Remake. Completing these tasks, along with choosing specific dialogue options, also adds relationships points between Cloud and one of the party members. This impacts and provides more options for a particular cutscene later in the game — a mechanic which FF7 fans will recognize. The game doesn’t shy away from adding tongue-in-cheek humor either, especially when it comes to Red XIII riding chocobos and getting mad when humans treat him like a pet.

However, FF7 Rebirth has some trouble sticking the landing, particularly in the last third of the story. How some characters are integrated into the party feels like a missed opportunity and it’s done in an awkwardly deliberate way. Also, the ending reveals a lot of information, but it’s told in a tangled, murky, erratic sequence of events. While it tries to be intriguing by raising as many questions as it answers, it sacrifices clarity for the sake of complex plot structure.

Reforged in battle

Much of the real-time combat system from FF7 Remake has been carried over with a few additional mechanics like synergy skills and abilities. Hitting enemies with basic attacks builds the ATB meter and segments of this gauge can be used to cast spells, use items, and perform character abilities. Enemies also have a stun meter that builds quickly if you’re able to pressure them, typically done by exploiting their elemental weakness or evading their strikes with proper timing. Once it’s full, they become staggered for a long time during which any damage dealt is multiplied.

Each party member has different strengths, so changing which character you control during battle can be strategically useful. In fact, the story has numerous sections that force your group to split up, so you will want to be well-versed with how each character works anyway. Out of the starting party, Cloud and Tifa are strong at dealing single-target damage, Barret and Aerith have long-range attacks, and Red XIII has a multi-hit spinning attack that builds stagger and ATB quickly. 

In addition, each party member has access to limit breaks as well as a synergy meter that increases every time ATB is used. This fuels powerful synergy abilities that can give two members temporarily larger ATB meters, access to higher limit break levels, or unlimited MP for a short time. Meanwhile, synergy skills can be used freely and which ones you can use depends on your current party makeup.

FF7 Rebirth provides many opportunities for character progression beyond basic leveling. Obtaining a wide variety of materia and giving them AP from battles is vital, making materia slots on weapons and armor crucial for keeping pace with enemies and bosses in the long run. Every new weapon you find allows a character to learn an ability from it permanently, and various accessories you can purchase or craft from materials can increase base stats and grant immunities to status effects. Also tracked is Party XP earned by defeating story bosses and completing minor world intel objectives on the map. As this increases in level, your party will unlock new options on their skill trees that can be learned by spending skill points. 

The main weakness of the combat system is that it’s finicky on occasion. Evading homing attacks, particularly the swallow ability from land worms, is more difficult than it should be. Figuring out limit levels is tricky too since you have to learn the appropriate skill synergies on the skill tree and then track limit level increases on your own in battle. Since using items takes one ATB charge, using them in battle is a rough call when abilities and spells tend to be better options. It’s not until you earn the Item Economizer materia or have Mist potions on hand that using one is worth the action economy.

Overlapping audio is an occasional problem as well. As you explore a town, you’ll sometimes walk around a crowd of NPCs and all of them begin talking at the same time to the point that you can barely make out what they’re saying. In fiend battles on the map, a new AI character named MAI will interrupt the fight by spewing out facts about the enemy. It’s supposed to be helpful, but alongside the intense music and special effects, her dialogue is a distraction that you can’t turn off. 

Gold Saucer-eyed

One of the best parts of FF7 Rebirth is seeing every environment expanded to an incredible degree. The first town of Kalm has beautifully detailed streets and shops, while the opening Grasslands region has green rolling hills, watermills, and trickling streams. Those are merely starters compared to several cities later on, like Cosmo Canyon, Costa Del Sol, and the Gold Saucer, that are even more impressive. The level of detail just in the number of objects that fill each area is incredible. This remains consistent as you progress from one chapter to the next, even as regions become more complex to navigate.

Fortunately, dealing with the rougher terrain is by and large resolved by riding a chocobo. Not only are chocobos faster than walking on foot, but they also make grabbing resources easy and can sniff out hidden treasures on the map. Much of these are materials that can be sold for gil or transmuted into items and equipment. Specific regional versions allow you to reach restricted areas as well, like mountain chocobos being able to climb the side of cliffs. You can locate chocobo stops too that give you a chance to rest and provide another point for fast travel.

On the downside, around half of all the activities on the map amount to busywork. Similar to viewpoints in Assassin’s Creed, activating remnawave towers will reveal locations of nearby points of interest. But finding every tower, life spring, summon sanctuary, fiend battle, moghouse, cache, excavation site, and more is exhausting. The chocobo stealth activity and the Moogle Mischief mini-games are especially burdensome (and the Moogles look more like koala bears for some reason). Even if you aren’t a completionist (like I am), you are encouraged to finish as much as you can to earn Party XP, purchase powerful materia from Chadley, and unlock combat simulator battles.

Otherwise, most of the mini-games are enjoyable side diversions that add a lot of flavor. Queen’s Blood, a three-lane card game that’s similar to Triple Triad from FF8, requires a lot of strategy in placing cards on the field, and there are players in every town that you can challenge. Out of all the activities at the Gold Saucer, chocobo racing is the main attraction and plays very close to Mario Kart. In addition to Chadley’s combat simulations, there are a few other arenas for more intense fights. The piano performance mini-game from the demo appears throughout the journey too. Other mini-games from the original game have been recreated here, including the Shinra Junon parade and Fort Condor. Doing well at all these games awards strong materia, weapons, and accessories, so while many of them are optional, completing them is time well spent.

Completing the main campaign and every world intel mission takes around 100 hours, more so if you decide to tackle optional content that unlocks after you finish the story. Some chapters feel stretched out more than they should be, with some levels that go on for too long and activities that repeat themselves across every region. Tying the more mundane tasks to one of the party members, similar to how side quests are done, would have helped alleviate the tedium.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Final Verdict

Through its expanded story, fantastic graphics, and abundance of side activities, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth vigorously continues the momentum from FF7 Remake. While some parts of the game are too slow or padded for the sake of content, the majority of the experience is a pleasant ride through nostalgia. It will be curious to see how progress, if any, is carried over to the next game, given all the exploration and items that you can obtain here. At any rate, FF7 Rebirth lives up to its promise as a love letter to the original game and solidly sets up the third and final title in the trilogy.

Disclosure: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth PS5 code provided by publisher.

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Square Enix quietly released an update for Final Fantasy 7 Remake, with patch notes claiming to fix “several bugs.” However, it didn’t take long for players to realize that a small glimpse of an underage Tifa in the Nibelheim flashback scene has been “updated,” leading to some of them voicing their concerns over lost cleavage.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake update also makes a confusing script change

The flashback scene in question originally showed Tifa with a little bit of cleavage. Following the update, Square Enix added a black undershirt to cover her up. This brings FF7 Remake’s Tifa in line with her FF7 Rebirth appearance. The minor difference can be seen below:

Despite the fact that Tifa is meant to be, like, 15 years old in this scene, some folks are unhappy with the “censorship.” Steam community forums are littered with complaints, with some folks suggesting that they’ll use mods to undo the change!

Other than the above, Square Enix changed Aerith’s final voice line, for some bizarre reason. As noted on ResetEra, “I miss it. The steel sky” has been changed to “This sky…I don’t like it.” Fans are theorizing why that line has been changed but only Square Enix knows the reason behind it.

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Now that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth critic reviews are out, the game has settled for a Metacritic score of 93/100, earning universal acclaim and becoming the series‘ second highest-rated game to date. Rebirth’s development team is understandably esctatic, with director Naoki Hamaguchi taking to Twitter to release a statement about the game’s metascore.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth reviews shower praise at the direction

Hamaguchi revealed that Rebirth’s development team set a goal of achieving a Metacritic score of at least 90/100. Hamaguchi believes that earning universal praise will enable Square Enix to meet another goal: reaching new players and existing fans alike.

“This wonderful result was only possible thanks to the entire development team’s hard work and dedication, so I’d like to thank them from the bottom of my heart,” Hamaguchi wrote. “I’ve been supported by the press, community, influencers, and the PR team, and I can’t thank them enough. Let’s continue this positive momentum through the launch of the game, everyone!”

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will release on Thursday, February 29, exclusively on the PS5. Creative director Tetsuya Nomura has pleaded with players to not post spoilers without proper warnings. You can read his message in full below:

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Square Enix‘s Naoki Hamaguchi has dropped a hint about the release date window for Final Fantasy 7 remake’s part 3. The third installment, which has yet to be titled, might be out by early 2028 as it seems to be following the same trajectory as FF7: Rebirth.

Square Enix has made progress on Final Fantasy 7 remake part 3’s script

In an interview with YouTuber Julien Chieze (via GamesRadar), Hamaguchi was quizzed about FF7 remake part 3, to which he said that he’s unable to divulge too much but can say that the development team has made progress on the script.

“Of course, I cannot tell you what stage we are at, but we have already made progress on the script and we are thinking about certain developments,” Hamaguchi said around the 41-minute mark in the video below. “When we got to the end of the development for Remake, we started talking about a sequel with [writer Kazushige Nojima] and I think we can say that we are in the same situation today.”

FF7 Remake and Rebirth release dates are about four years apart, so Hamaguchi’s statement suggests that we’re looking at an early 2028 release window, if not sooner.

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Final Fantasy 16 actor Ben Starr has said that he would love to reprise his role as Clive if given the opportunity again. Unfortunately, however, there have been no calls from Square Enix, and it’s unlikely there will be any since the company has indicated that it has no plans for a sequel or spin-off.

Final Fantasy 16’s Ben Starr feels “personal attachment” to Clive

Starr, who earned praise for his role as Clive, made the comments above during a Video Games Chronicle podcast. “If anyone asked me to do Clive again, I would jump at the chance,” Starr said. “I feel such a personal attachment to him, as I said, and so if someone said we would like Clive to be involved in whatever thing, I would go, ‘yes, please let me do it’ because I feel a responsibility to do that.”

A longtime Final Fantasy fan, Starr also revealed that he’s had no communication from Square Enix regarding a potential role in Kingdom Hearts, which features Final Fantasy characters.

Producer Naoki Yoshida previously revealed that Final Fantasy 16’s development team has already disbanded, and there are no further plans for the game beyond its DLC and PC release.

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Square Enix has dropped Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth demo on the PS5, playing which will reward players with special in-game items. The demo features the Nibelheim episode from the game’s opening chapter. Players who complete the episode and save their progress can skip this section when Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth releases.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth demo details

The demo will be updated prior to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s launch on February 29. The update — which is expected to go live on February 21 — will add the Junon area episode that will give players an opportunity to check out the world map and experience exploration.

Do note that Junon area progress will not carry over to the full game because it’s specifically condensed for the demo to give players a taste of the content. However, in order for the Nibelheim episode progress to be saved and carried over, the Junon area update must be applied to the demo.

Finally, here are the rewards players can claim in-game when Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth launches:

• Kupo charm: An accessory that increases the number of resource items extracted at a set rate.
• Survival set: A selection of items to aid on your adventure, such as potions and ethers.

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Foamstars launches on PlayStation consoles today, February 6, but the game only has a relatively small trophy list that comes without a Platinum Trophy. While many players will be looking to try out the game as part of the new PS Plus Essential games that appeared today, many will be disappointed to find they can’t add to their Platinum tally.

Foamstars trophy list

There are just 12 trophies in the Foamstars trophy list and the majority can only be completed in public matches. You can see the full trophy list below.

Foamstars Gold Trophy

• We Are FOAMSTARS! – Reach player level 25.

Foamstars Silver Trophies

• The Best Squad – Clear a Squad Mission on Hard.
• Let’s Party! – Attend 25 parties. *Private parties excluded

Foamstars Bronze Trophies

• Smash the Star – Win in Smash the Star. *Private Parties and Ranked Parties excluded
• Rubber Duck Party – Win in Rubber Duck Party. *Private Parties and Ranked Parties excluded
• Happy Bath Survival – Win in Happy Bath Survival. *Private Parties and Ranked Parties excluded
• Give It Up For The Party Legend – Win in Ranked Party.
• Nice Save! – Score a Nice Save on a teammate. *Lounge and private parties excluded
• Foamed Up – Foam up an opponent. *Lounge and private parties excluded
• Nice Chill! – Chill 10 opponents. *Lounge and private parties excluded
• One To Watch – Win an award in any area.
• Nice Squad ! – Clear a Squad Mission on Normal.

What to expect in Season 1

Season 1 Starry Pop begins in Foamstars today and will include a variety of limited-time events. It’s worth mentioning that those wanting to complete the trophy list quickly need to make sure they play during the Ranked Party Tribe-Vibe event. This will be the first and only opportunity to obtain the Give It Up For The Party Legend trophy until Season 2 begins on March 9. Here’s when you can take part in the Season 1 events:

• Ranked Party Lonestar (February 9 until February 26) – solo player ranked mode
• Happy FriYAY Party Part 1 (February 9 until February 10) – an opportunity to try out next season’s character, Coiff Guy
• Extreme Party: All Mel T Party (February 17 until February 19) – all players are Mel T
• Extreme Party: Invisible Party (February 24 until February 26) – all players are invisible
• Ranked Party Tribe-Vibe (March 1 until March 4) – team-based ranked mode
• Happy FriYAY Party Part 2 (March 1 until March 2) – another opportunity to try out next season’s character, Coiff Guy

The Starry Pop season will run until March 8 and also includes a Season Pass with free and premium variants, each containing characters, skins, and other cosmetics.

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Square Enix has told shareholders in its latest earnings report that new games are either “marked successes” or “marked failures” — there’s no in-between. The company is planning to overhaul video game development with the aim of improving the quality of its games.

Square Enix is reviewing how it develops games

Square Enix says that the shift towards digital content and downloads alongside other “technological advances” have had a major impact on the market. Digitalization, in particular, has led to a rise in diverse business models including free-to-play. As a result, new games are either successful or bomb commercially, with players sticking to “a handful of major titles.”

“Monetization methods such as free-to-play, microtransactions, and subscriptions have also given rise to a greater diversity of business models outside the confines of traditional one-off sales,” Square Enix wrote. “As such, the consumer game market continues to grow. New releases tend to be met with either marked success or marked failure as players throng to a handful of major titles.”

Separately, Bloomberg reports that Square Enix is radically changing how it develops games in order to improve their quality. The company is currently reviewing its internal structure, and plans to announce a new structure by Spring 2024.

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