Final Fantasy VII Rebirth PC Review

At this point, what more can we say about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth that hasn’t been said? After numerous Game of the Year nominations and awards, Naoki Hamaguchi and the team have delivered an extremely massive experience and a worthy follow-up to Part 1 of the remake trilogy while setting up nicely for its conclusion in Part 3.

Although the game was impressive, it pushed the limits of the hardware on which it was originally released. The PS5 is a powerful console, but Final Fantasy VII Rebirth struggled to maintain a steady framerate in quality mode. While the gameplay was somewhat smoother in performance mode, the visual quality suffered considerably. The release of the PS5 Pro improved the experience significantly, but with the game’s recent PC release, it is safe to say that it is finally free from the constraints of limited hardware.

Now, on PC, the full potential of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth can finally be realized, supporting up to 4K 120fps, along with various improvements in lighting, overall performance, and much more. Calling this the best way to play the game is an understatement, but there’s no denying that you’ll need the best hardware out there to reach peak performance, something not many are capable of.

Related – Read our Final Fantasy VII Rebirth PS5 Review

Second Heaven

The story of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth continues from where the previous game left off, following Cloud, Aerith, Tifa, and the gang as they escape from Midgar in pursuit of Sephiroth. The narrative introduces new elements and plot twists while exploring the characters’ personal stories and pivotal moments, leading up to its thrilling climax at the Forgotten Capital.

The combat system in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a dynamic blend of real-time action and strategic planning, building upon the Active Time Battle system from the FF7 Remake and allowing players to switch between characters on the fly and utilize a variety of abilities, spells, and items. This was not enough, as Square Enix improved on this aspect further, adding features like Synergy Abilities and more team-based attacks that elevate its strategic aspect.

Another standout aspect of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is its masterful soundtrack that features classic tracks along with reimagined themes that complement all moments in the game. You’ll even hear several versions of one track, pumping up the total number of tracks in the game to astronomical numbers, resulting in a sublime auditory experience.

While the game has received praise for its slick and strategic combat system, breathtaking visuals, and expansive worldbuilding, it also has noticeable flaws. Complaints such as pacing issues and padding are rampant, and the gameplay experience was far from smooth. Despite that, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s parts are substantial, making up a whole that is worthy of all the praise it has garnered.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth PC System Requirements and Options

To find out if your PC can handle Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, check out the system requirements below:

Additionally, here are the various settings and sliders you can tinker with in the game:

The minimum requirements of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth are reasonable, requiring an RTX 2060 to hit 1080p at 30fps. The 50-series cards are coming, and at this point in time, 20-series cards are not a tall ask from players. Even at recommended settings, the game only needs an RTX 2070 to hit 60fps, so it’s safe to say that Square Enix has done a decent job of making the game as widely attainable across a wide breadth of hardware.

That said, if you really want to push the graphical limits of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, you’ll need a powerhouse RTX 4080 to hit 4K at 60fps. It’s understandable that not everyone may have the most powerful hardware, so it bears considering that maybe a cost-efficient way to experience the game at a decent visual quality would be on a PS5. If you have the hardware to back it up, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth would indeed look best on a PC.

A point of note as well is that there aren’t too many detailed sliders in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Compared to the likes of other PC titles like Spider-Man or Miles Morales, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has a decent suite of graphics toggles but lacks more granular settings like options to tinker with raytracing levels. This shouldn’t be too much of an issue for most players, so play away!

PC and Steam Deck Performance

Before anything else, here’s the system we used to play Final Fantasy VII Rebirth:

• Ryzen 5 5600x, 16 GB DDR4 3600 RAM, NVIDIA 4070 Super, 1TB NVMe SSD
• Steam Deck OLED

Using a PC with the aforementioned specs, playing at 1440p with high settings allowed us to hover at the 90-100fps range, just shy of sticking to 120fps. This is a highly playable build of the game, and it feels and looks generally well-optimized to merit purchase consideration even if you’ve experienced the game on the PS5 or PS5 Pro already.

While the character lighting is generally fixed from the PS5 version, where light hits the characters at unnatural angles that result in weirdly lit faces, rotating the camera at certain angles still breaks the overall lighting, turning the scene too bright to be playable properly. This is obviously a nitpick, but it’s disappointing to see that Square Enix has not fixed this yet.

Prior to launch, Square Enix confirmed that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is Steam Deck verified, and playing it on the hardware shows how much optimization work went into this game. Players can choose between several resolutions, even some odd 1600×900 ones in between, and playing at 1080p with low settings and no TDP limit proved to be surprisingly playable, with combat sequences floating at the 30~fps range with regular dips to the mid-20s in towns. It goes without saying that character models and textures lack detail, and pop-ins are a regular occurrence, but the fact that the game is playable on the go is a minor miracle in itself.

While lowering the resolution to 720p seems like the obvious choice, the visual quality suffers greatly, almost making the sacrifice not worth the trouble.

Verdict: Buy It!

The visual heights of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth are now fully realized in the PC version of the game, proving that this release is the best way to play this masterpiece. That comes with a big caveat, though, and seeing the world and characters of the game in all their glory will require a massive setup. Thankfully, the game runs well enough that even more players will finally be able to see the events that transpired before the final chapter comes along.

More impressively, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is Steam Deck Verified for players who are always on the move, so players can take the adventures of Cloud and the gang wherever they choose. While the visual sacrifice is apparent, there’s no denying that offering this option alone is genuinely welcome.

*Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was reviewed on a PC with a review code provided by the publisher.