FF7 Remake Part 3 Needs To Learn From FF7 Rebirth's Worst Location (2025)

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has no shortage of great locations, but it also has some that just aren't up to par, and the worst offender should serve as a lesson for FF7 Remake Part 3. While the first FF7 Remake game focused on the memorable city of Midgar, Rebirth expands the scope to a much larger look at the world of Gaia. Globe-trotting tends to be a staple of classic Japanese RPGs, and bringing that to life in a modern game comes with an interesting set of challenges and possibilities.

In some areas, FF7 Rebirth arguably manages to outdo the original, like the early-game town of Kalm, which takes on a new life as a thriving cultural hub. The original PlayStation hardware that supported FF7 in 1997 obviously had its limitations, and immersive 3D environments with citizens milling lively streets just weren't possible. Beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds could still be weaponized to create some especially atmospheric spots, however, and FF7 Rebirth completely drops the ball when translating to one of them.

Shinra Manor Is A Letdown In Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

An Atmospheric Mansion Becomes Mundane

One of the coolest locations in the original FF7 is Shinra Manor, an abandoned mansion that drips with ominous vibes. Found in Nibelheim, the Manor is the location of some key reveals, and it builds up to its dark secrets well by capturing a unique tension from the moment that the party enters. FF7 Rebirth had the perfect opportunity to lean into that atmosphere and capture what made the original location special in 3D, but instead, it essentially delivers a nice-looking facade of the manor and then tosses it aside for a much more mundane dungeon experience.

The original take on Shinra Manor featured a number of unique rooms to explore, including a devious puzzle that could be hard to work out without understanding exactly where the game wanted Cloud to stand to trigger interactions. In FF7 Rebirth, however, there's very little to see beyond the basic setup for a creepy Victorian mansion. The party ends up hopping on an elevator to take them down to the freshly appended dungeon area, which gives Cait Sith a chance to shine but surrounds that opportunity with disappointingly boring design choices.

FF7 Rebirth Doesn't Handle Realism Perfectly

The Wrong Things End Up Stylized

Shinra Manor's elevator might be the most succinct summary of why the area is so frustrating, as it takes the place of a memorable spiral staircase in the original game. With a fixed overhead camera angle, Cloud's path of looping down rickety wooden steps gave the descent plenty of visual impact. An interview with FF7 Rebirth director Naoko Hamaguchi, available on the official Square Enix Games website, explains that the team attempted to recreate the staircase but struggled to make the scale work properly, running into particular issues with the camera functionality in the area.

It's a sacrifice made for the sake of enhanced realism, but it begs the question of how much value realism brings to the table in some situations. Many of the best moments in the original FF7 lean into a sense of unreality, letting a heightened style enhance fear and mystery. The fixed camera angles often contributed to that, presenting environments with the care of thoughtful cinematography rather than the incidental path of a camera following the characters.

The approach is particularly frustrating when considering FF7 Rebirth's tendency to heighten other moments in ways that end up feeling more silly than evocative. Sephiroth's more frequent presence and added theatrics tend to mute the impact of his appearances, for example, trading the evocative questions of the original game for scenes that would feel at home in any over-the-top action anime. The focus on realism largely applies to environments above all else, which feels like a move in the wrong direction.

FF7 Remake Part 3 Can Be Even Better Than Rebirth

It's Not Too Late To Deliver On The Trilogy's Potential

In FF7 Rebirth, it is what it is at this point, but it's not too late to shore up the way FF7 Remake Part 3 handles the equation. Although FF7 Rebirth covers a lot of Gaia, there's a strong lineup of evocative locations that are yet to come, from the Northern Crater to a hopefully more thorough exploration of the Forgotten Capital. The story's final stretch should have less of a focus on reveling in the fun of goofy mini-games than the middle chapter does, so nailing the mood of the unique environments will be more important than ever.

Changes could certainly be welcome in some cases, but they need to enhance what made the original locations great, not trample on those elements. Yuffie's homeland of Wutai, which was essentially only present in the form of a small village in FF7, is one area that could end up going either way. FF7 Rebirth lays the seeds for Wutai to play a much larger role in the final chapter of the story, but if the focus on the military conflict ends up tacking on more gray dungeons and less of the nation's culture, it will be a hugely wasted opportunity.

Fully embracing the strengths of the original FF7 will require the bold move of breaking the core gameplay loop in more areas, something that FF7 Rebirth struggles to do outside of its mini-games. Although the random encounters throughout aren't consistently innovative, the original FF7 is willing to reinvent itself at every turn, allowing every corner of its world to operate according to its own rules. Despite the movement options gettting shaken up in each region, FF7 Rebirth's need to make every area a zone full of checklist content significantly undermines this prerogative.

Even if FF7 Remake Part 3 decided to just coast on the success of Rebirth, it would probably be more than enough to satisfy many fans, which is certainly a testament to everything that the remake trilogy has achieved so far. FF7's legacy deserves the very best, however, and taking the final remake game to the next level will depend on its ability to move beyond Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's shortcomings.

Source: Square Enix Games

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

RPG

Franchise

Final Fantasy

Platform(s)

PlayStation 5

Released

February 29, 2024

Developer(s)

Square Enix