Just three months after 2024, PS players ushered in a king bomb.
A week after its release, the score of "Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth" has stabilized, with a high score of 92 points, it has entered the "must-play" hall, and temporarily won the title of the highest-rated game on station M in 2024.
In addition to the unanimous praise of the game, with the increase of players' game progress, more and more people have gradually reversed the slightly inferior first impression of the picture after experiencing the core charm brought by the plot. Thanks to this, the player rating of Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth has also risen to 90 points.
As a result, some players have started a discussion: Will Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth be Game of the Year this year?
As the first heavyweight to be exclusive to PS5 in 2024, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth is undoubtedly a success. Not only does it allow many new-age players to re-experience one of the best RPGs in gaming history in a more modern way, but it also brings out the best of the PS5 as a next-generation console. Games and equipment weave a feast for players.
In fact, the combination of PlayStation and Final Fantasy IP can be traced back to Final Fantasy 7 (FF7) 27 years ago, and since then, the Final Fantasy franchise has formed a wonderful relationship with PlayStation.
It all starts with Square's "job hopping".
The beginning of fate.
In the 80s of the 20th century, Square, which had just been established, suffered a bankruptcy crisis and could only survive by making some small games. In order to save the company that was on the verge of collapse, Square put its last hope on the cosplay field, which was all the rage in Japan at the time. Thus, Final Fantasy was born.
In terms of results, the Square gamble was undoubtedly a success. With just one Final Fantasy, Square Salted Fish turned over and completed a gorgeous reversal from an obscure small studio to a rising star in the industry.
Since then, Square has released five Final Fantasy titles on Nintendo's FC and SFC platforms. At the time, the cooperation between the two parties was already quite close, Square needed Nintendo, which was already the king of consoles, to provide the platform, and Nintendo did not want to give up the cash cow of Final Fantasy.
At that time, the JRPG audience was always limited to Japan, and although FF6 had ushered in great word-of-mouth and commercial success, it was still difficult for the entire series to enter the hearts of European and American players. It wasn't until the advent of Sony's PS1 that Final Fantasy finally ushered in this opportunity.
Nowadays, when we talk about PS1, we often say that it won the fifth generation of the "Three Families War", ending Nintendo's long-standing dominance in the console field. And FF7 is the number one contributor to helping PS1 bring Nintendo to the dust.
It's true that FF7 brought the PS1 a highlight that went down in gaming history. It fully exploits the functions of PS1 and the capacity advantages brought by CD-ROM, and brings cinematic storytelling maturity into the game, making up for the regrets of past works in terms of plot performance. Thanks to its excellent narrative and high-quality animations, FF7 has conquered European and American players who were previously lacking interest in JRPGs, and has created a sales myth of 9.7 million units in the past year, becoming the heaviest exclusive work in the PS1 era.
But we also have to admit that in addition to the blessing of excellent exclusive titles such as FF7, the success of PS1 is inseparable from Sony's business strategy.
For example, at the beginning of the PS1 release, Sony used its banknote ability to overtake in the publicity and distribution, first seizing the market with a low price of $299, and then inviting Michael Jackson as a spokesperson, using a series of blockbuster marketing campaigns to pry open the European and American markets.
In addition, Sony's close cooperation with third-party manufacturers has completely broken the "isolationism" pursued by Nintendo.
At that time, Nintendo's domineering royalty system made many manufacturers "suffer for a long time", while Sony advocated close cooperation with third-party manufacturers, they would not only provide manufacturers with certain financial and technical support, but also greatly simplified the development and review process of the game, which made many manufacturers fall to Sony, so that PS1 has a steady stream of fresh blood.
Between 1994 and 1996, more than 400 games were released on PS1, nearly double the number of games on the Sega Saturn and Nintendo N64 combined.
Since FF7, the Final Fantasy series has taken root on the PS platform, and for more than ten years, the "Final Fantasy" series of works will be present on all generations of PS consoles.
After entering the millennium, with the release of Sony's new console PS2, players also ushered in the tenth game of the Final Fantasy series. In terms of art, Square adheres to the normal realistic proportions of the characters, coupled with a more mature cinematic narrative style and seamless entry to the CG, which further enhances the immersion of the game. This also marks that the entire series has thrown away the "Dragon Quest", which is also a JRPG veteran, and entered the era of new consoles.
Looking back now, in a way, Square's comprehensive 3D strategy coincides with Sony's gaming strategy. At the turn of the millennium, after the popularity of the fifth generation of high-performance consoles, 3D gaming has taken root in the hearts of the people.
After Sony's big victory in the PS1 era, it is bound to further promote the development of 3D games, so when Sony announced the PS2, it put the "emotional engine", which could be called "black technology" at the time, in the first place.
After FF10, Final Fantasy launched FF11 and FF12 on PS2, and its gratifying commercial success made the Final Fantasy series a trump card in the hands of PlayStation. But after entering the PS3 era, Final Fantasy and PlayStation have each embarked on a bumpy road.
The first is that Square did not escape the fate of financial crisis after all, and after being acquired by Enix, Square's close relationship with Sony is gone. On the other hand, in the seventh-generation console war, Sony's weak position and Microsoft's "big coin" behavior also made SE waver and opened a cross-platform strategy.
It wasn't until 2015 that Final Fantasy and PlayStation came together again with FF7.
Just like that moment and then.
During the 2015 E3 show, Sony announced that a remastered version of ff7 would be released.
When the magic city of Midgar reveals its full picture with the camera, Claude's back with the big sword slowly unfolds, and the word "remake" finally freezes at the end of the film, the audience bursts into deafening cheers, and I don't know how many Final Fantasy fans cry with joy.
It's just that by the time the game was officially released, it was already five years later, in 2020. During this period, time has brought about changes like a sea of vicissitudes. With a strong first-party lineup, Sony won the eighth-generation "console war".
Final Fantasy 7 Remake (hereinafter referred to as ff7re), which has 7 million distributions, has not become a game-changing presence like FF7, but it has become a game that has witnessed two console wars.
What's more, for Chinese players, FF7RE has allowed many new-age players to come into contact with this classic in the history of the game in a new form.
In the past, due to many reasons such as language and network, the development of the console platform in China was not ideal, although FF7 has an extraordinary position in the history of games, most domestic players do not know about this IP.
Thanks to the changes in the domestic host ecology in recent years and the opportunity of FF7 remake, FF7RE has achieved a circle-breaking effect on the Chinese Internet. Not only have game and console sales increased dramatically, but memes such as "Jerusalem" have also become the talk of domestic gamers surfing the Internet.
After the launch of PS5, FF7RE also ushered in the update of the next-gen version. In addition to the update to Yufy's story, the next-gen version of the game has increased the resolution by 4K in graphics mode, providing more detailed graphics and adding a fog effect. The PS5's high-speed hard drive greatly improves the loading time of the game. It's fair to say that the hardware advantages of the new generation of consoles add an unparalleled sense of immersion to this legendary RPG.
Since then, Final Fantasy Origins and Final Fantasy 16 have both performed well on PS5. Now, SE and PlayStation are bringing Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (FF7RB) to the stage, and unlike the next-gen FF7RE, FF7RB is a game developed specifically for PS5, which perfectly demonstrates the comfort optimization of PS5 for the gaming experience.
Among them, the biggest improvement is that the clarity and resolution of the game screen have been greatly improved compared with the previous game, and it can be "loaded in seconds" through the high-speed SSD of PS5.
In addition, with the DualSense controller's adaptive triggers, haptic feedback and other functions, the player's sense of immersion has been significantly improved.
For example, when you unleash extreme skills such as slashing, magic, and even "teaming abilities" in battle, the controller will send a completely different feedback. There is also a clear difference between the vibration of the handle when manipulating and running and riding a chocobo, which makes us feel a more three-dimensional gaming experience.
What's more, FF7RB also maintains the usual high standard of the series, with tense performances and top-notch cinematic storytelling bringing players a unique adventure. Similar to the previous work, FF7RB has adapted the plot of the original work to a certain extent while maintaining the general framework of the story, and added some original bridges that are more in line with the setting.
Unlike before, FF7RB has a semi-open world design enabled on the map, allowing players to unlock a large map of a new region as they reach the main story. Here, you can put the story aside and venture out into the world – ride a chocobo ride to enjoy the scenery or play a variety of mini-games.
Epilogue. Looking back, in fact, for domestic players, whether it is guarding PS1 and gnawing raw meat in childhood, or opening PS5 to experience the new era of "Final Fantasy" like today. When we recall the fantasy adventures portrayed in Final Fantasy, we always think of a machine that has been with us throughout our gaming careers, and the familiar phrase "PlayStation".