Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director says reaching over 90 on Metacritic was “one of our goals” as the RPG sequel’s review scores surpass Remake

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s director says that reaching a Metacritic score of over 90 was one of the development team’s goals when crafting the second part of Cloud’s story. 

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth arrives on PS5 next Thursday, March 29, and from the review scores, it appears that the sequel more than lives up to the lofty expectations set by its predecessor, Final Fantasy 7 Remake. At the time of writing, Rebirth has a Metacritic score of 93. Remake, in comparison, has a slightly lower (yet still mightily impressive) score of 87, according to the review aggregator.

With Rebirth’s reviews out in the wild, game director Naoki Hamaguchi has taken to Twitter to celebrate the game’s success, revealing that the team always had its sights set on near-perfect review scores for the follow-up. “To reach review scores over 90 was one of our goals as a development team,” Hamaguchi says in a message posted on Twitter, “to reach fans and welcome new ones as well!”

The developer goes on to acknowledge the efforts and talent of those who worked on the game, as well as the community and others who’ve shared their support along the way. 

“This wonderful result was only possible thanks to the entire development team’s hard work and dedication,” Hamaguchi says, “so I’d like to thank them from the bottom of my heart. 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!”

Rebirth’s impressive score make it the series’ highest-rated entry in 23 years and the second highest scoring Final Fantasy on Metacritic overall. It’s managed to outperform last year’s Final Fantasy 16, which has 87, and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion, with the Zack Fair-fronted prequel reaching 78. Currently, out in front is Final Fantasy 9 with 94, just one point ahead of Rebirth.

In our Final Fantasy Rebirth review, we said “it’s a rare thing to see Square Enix make a direct sequel and it’s been made to count here with a second act that meaningfully improves the past and charts a course for a final act that promises plenty of twists and turns.”

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth fans are getting cooked by the Junon demo’s combat.