Back when I reviewed Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, I wrote about how the JRPG had far too many minigames for its own good. This became a common criticism about the game after release, with many players believing it felt bloated in its amount of content and how much busywork was involved to achieve full completion. A lot of the game just wasn’t worth doing, and that included an excessive laundry list of minigames.
However, when I think back on my experience of playing Rebirth for the first time, it’s these minigames that stick in my memory the most. The narrative goes to some places I’m still unsure will stick the landing in Part 3, but when it comes to minigames, these games simply wouldn’t be the same without them.
How Many Minigames Are There In Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth?
During a recent interview with GamersBrave, Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi touched on the reasoning behind exactly why the game had so many minigames, and whether players should expect the third entry to receive a similar treatment.
“We understand when you introduce these different facets, some people would play it and really enjoy it, but some people would rather just get on with the main story. So it’s sort of a calculated move on our part to include all these different facets of the game. Whether it’s the amount of minigames or the pacing [with which] we introduce them, so on the creator’s side, it’s sort of something we have taken into account when we do the game design.
“So the original Final Fantasy 7 also had lots of minigames, and it was very famous for that. So, when [we] were entrusted with doing the remake, [we] sort of wanted to keep that spirit of the diversity of play within the title, so that people can have lots of different experiences the same way they did with Final Fantasy 7.”
I’ll be the first to admit that Hamaguchi and his team succeeded in recapturing the mood of the original game. Minigames that emerge pretty much out of nowhere and feel tonally discordant with the rest of the game have always been part of the experience. Just look at the terrible snowboarding minigame that had you hitting snowmen and chasing balloons moments after almost freezing to death. It didn’t control well or look very good, but damn was it adorable.
But the majority of minigames in Rebirth looked great, controlled well, and offered worthy rewards for players who decided to stick with them instead of progressing the main story. Like Hamaguchi says, the majority of these activities are optional and you will only need to interact with them on a surface level if you’d rather not sink deep into collecting stray Moogles or playing cards. Well, except for the Queen’s Blood tournament.
For funsies, here is a full list of every single minigame found in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth:
- Glide De Chocobo
- Moogle Mischief
- Hustle De Chocobo
- Run Wild
- Galactic Saviors
- 3D Brawler
- Pirate’s Rampage
- Dolphin Rush
- Cactuar Crush
- Crunch-Off
- Jumpfrog
- G-Bike
- Desert Rush
- Chocobo Racing
- Fort Condor
- Gears and Gambits
- Piano
- Queen’s Blood
Many of these are located in Gold Saucer and incredibly brief means to take part in side quests or grind for optional currency, while others are far deeper and more involved, like Queen’s Blood or Gears and Gambits. I hardly touched the latter during my playthrough, although I guarantee thousands of others did and had a lot of fun with it.
Final Fantasy 7 Part 3 Shouldn’t Hold Back When It Comes To Minigames
When Hamaguchi talks about honouring the spirit of the original Final Fantasy 7 through the remake project, he is referring to all three titles. Understandably, when you consider that so many major elements, like the airship and other parts of the world map, are yet to be shown off. We have no idea how Midgar and the parts of the world introduced in Remake/Rebirth will be folded into the final game, or if those locations will instead be left behind to focus on the story. If this ends up being true, a lot of minigames — aside from Queen’s Blood and few others — will be abandoned as well.
Part 3, whatever it ends up being called, is more than likely going to be stuffed with a bunch of minigames both new and old that players can spend as much time with as they want to. While I understand an excessive number of these is normal, I’d rather there was more than enough rather than too little. Without these distractions, I’d argue that generic shortcomings found in its open world or the convoluted nature of the main narrative are infinitely more noticeable. I loved constantly being surprised in Rebirth, or finally ticking perfectly with Queen’s Blood as I spent tens of hours collecting every single card.
I want to ride the airship, customise it, and spend time visiting locations both old and new in the next entry wasting time away while Sephiroth prepares to destroy the world. I know that Cloud and company have more important things to do than kill time playing cards and racing giant birds, but that’s the beauty of a grandiose RPG like this. Bring on the minigames.
