'Final Fantasy VII Rebirth': the rebirth of the greatest story ever played

Let's talk a little about Tetsuya Nomura (Kōchi, Japan, 53 years old).

In the closing stages of the last century, a Japanese developer at Square Enix (the company behind final fantasy) knocked on the door of The Walt Disney Company with practically suicidal thoughts.

I wanted to make a video game that mixed the characters, mechanics and combat of final fantasy with the most iconic Disney characters. That is, a video game in which the protagonist lived an epic story in which he had to fight a dark force that threatened the universe… but whose companions were Donald, Goofy, Mickey and other classic characters. In some miraculous way, at the beginning of 2000, the developer, a then young Nomura, managed to convince all parties.

Kingdom Hearts came out in 2002. Its 35 million copies sold made it a meteoric success but, more importantly, its mix of exploring Disney worlds in three dimensions (the worlds of Aladdin, The Jungle Book, The little Mermaid, Peter Pan…) plus the identity signs of final fantasy They turned it into a universe that contained the potential of the works specialsthose capable of evolving in the collective unconscious until they measure up to the most mythical sagas: Star Wars, The Lord of the rings, Harry Potter. The protagonist, Sora, armed with his keyblade, could become an immortal character.

It didn't happen. The first two installments of the game were great, but in the 14 years between the second (2005) and the third (2019) there were a whole string of sequels, prequels, intersequels (358/2 Days, coded, Birth by Sleep, Melody of Memory, Dream Drop Distance) who sought to enrich the universe but only managed to entangle it until it became absurdly complex, throwing out a large part of their followers along the way. To top it all off, the long-awaited Kingdom Hearts III It was very disappointing. She had lost the magic.

In 2020, a long-awaited project that seemed like a lie arrived on the market: the remake of Final Fantasy VII, the game that changed everything, the game that in 1997 brought the Japanese role-playing game to the West on a large scale. And Nomura was behind. By then, his name already raised some eyebrows. The hopes of the franchise, in reality, were placed on Final Fantasy XVI (which came out last year) while the remake of the VII was one more, which would also only cover the first city of the original work: in total, the project of remake It would consist of three games. Furthermore, there was also a… how to put it? A kind of philosophical bet: Final Fantasy VII Remake it was too much animewith their hair standing on end, their giant swords, their lions speaking. Final Fantasy XVIOn the other hand, it was something serious, based more on Game of Thrones than in anything else. He exuded a seriousness, a maturity and an aesthetic sobriety that seemed to be the light that would guide the franchise from then on.

But then what happened happened. Final Fantasy VII Remake (which in a crazy semantic script twist was actually revealed to be a reboot, because it modified a substantial part of the plot) was liked much more than expected. The photorealistic graphics turned out to fit the aesthetics anime and the spirit of the game. Meanwhile, the XVI was the great disappointment of last year, a year of monumental works in which the XVI It was not up to par, especially due to a story that was hopelessly deflating in its final third.

Two weeks ago, journalists from all over Europe were invited to London to try out the game, including this writer. Some had already tried a preliminary version, but this time the one that is destined to be the jewel in the crown of the game (if it goes well) or its biggest failure (if it goes wrong) was accessible: the open world. The story takes place just as the group of heroes leaves the city of Midgard after fighting the mythical Sephirot, and covers the central part of the 1997 game.

Without hesitation: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth It couldn't look better. The exploration is complex and the open scenarios comply. The progression of the story (the relationship between the protagonist—Cloud—and Sephirot is told through flashbacks very well written playables) has a very steady hand. The combat is an evolution of the previous one, which was already in real time. And exploration has much greater weight.

But the most important thing is that, beyond exploiting a story and characters that have already been amply proven to dazzle people, and beyond mechanics that already convinced players in 2020, it is a candidate for best game. of the year is for unapologetically embracing that spirit anime that I saw with reluctance in the work from four years ago: now the animations are unceremoniously exaggerated, the cities are a fortunate mix of aesthetic references, and it accepts without complexes the dreamy and somewhat naive spirit of the 1997 game – and one of the best franchise games—to get to the heart of the Magic that the saga seeks so boldly. In short, solemnity has been banished and as of February 29, the purest recreational enjoyment that this business can offer awaits us players. Because, in short, everything seems to indicate that a new final fantasy is coming before the end of the fantasy.

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