Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Switch 2) Review – A Smooth and Stable Port

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Switch 2 Review

Nintendo consoles have always been a little underpowered compared to their competition. And while their first-party releases have more than made up for this difference, other games have been somewhat limited. Not every AAA game can find a home on the Switch, for example. But the Switch 2 has closed that gap, or at least narrowed it a great deal. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth seemed too massive to run on a Nintendo console when it first released in 2024. But somehow, this gigantic RPG runs on the Switch 2. It’s not perfect, to be clear. But I was still shocked at how smooth my experience ended up being.

I was genuinely impressed by Rebirth’s visual fidelity on the Switch 2. It turns out the secret to success is all about picking your battles. You can’t render every object on screen with perfect clarity. This console simply doesn’t have the juice. Instead, you choose the most important objects, the character models, and make sure they look their absolute best. I’d say they’re rendered at around 85% accuracy. The skybox is pretty pristine, the lighting effects look excellent, and the particles look great. After that, you can leave a lot of little things in rough shape, and the overall impact is more or less preserved. Books on tables, detailing on certain walls, distant buildings, and environmental details all come in at a solid 45%. But because the characters look good, the background stuff fades into obscurity, and the visuals somehow look pretty dang good. It’s honestly remarkable.

Crisp Visuals Where It Counts

Animation and framerates are equally essential for selling this to the player. While the framerate is definitely low, it’s also locked on that lowered rate like a heat seeking missile. The action comes in around 30fps, but I never noticed any dips. With one significant exception – the first time I switched from docked to handheld mode. We were moving in slow motion for a good 15 seconds. Then the whole game crashed. But after that point? Somehow, against all logic, it was fully smooth sailing from there. I saw some pop-in when moving through open areas, but even this was minor. Crowded scenes full of NPCs ran smoothly enough. No one was doing the robot walk, at the very least. Like the graphics, the framerate is reduced but very stable.

Load times were unobtrusive during my playthrough. They weren’t absent, but I never felt hampered by loading screens while I played. Battles felt smooth and slick, though my own focus on performance was admittedly incomplete. As well as Rebirth ran on the Switch 2, there were no adjustments to be made as I played. There’s no ‘performance’ or ‘quality’ modes to switch between. What you see is exactly what you get.

Shockingly Stable

If you’ve never played Rebirth before, you can check out my full review of the PS5 version here. It’s a direct sequel to Remake, which you can also grab for the Switch 2. This entry in the series follows Cloud and company as they chase Sephiroth all across the continent. It’s crammed to the gills with tense moments, wacky minigames, heartfelt connections, and incredible battles. Pure 10/10 stuff, if you’ve got any appetite for JRPGs. I only intended to test this version out (since I’ve played the PS5 version to death), but I got sucked in immediately.

Turns out when you port an incredible game to a portable system without any major hiccups, you get instantly hooked. I was trying to keep a close watch for any problems or rough patches, but there aren’t many of them. It’s quite remarkable, actually. The graphics are clearly and consistently inferior, but only in places you’re not paying attention to while you play. Even the larger, more complex environments have this kind of camouflage effect. All of the rough, muddy textures blend in seamlessly with the more detailed ones. If you pay close attention, you can easily pick them out. But as soon as you start actually playing the game, they’re practically invisible.

Perfectly Imperfect

The Nintendo Switch 2 isn’t the most powerful system on the market. But it is a combination of portable and powerful that’s hard to find anywhere else. It’s got enough juice that even a behemoth like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth can find a home on the console. I loved this game an unhealthy amount when it first came out two years ago. And although this is not the best way to play, the Switch 2 port is still remarkably stable. Rather than obsessing over what’s running at what framerate, I found myself instantly sucked into the game once more. It takes no time at all to forget that I’m playing a port. Which is high praise, especially for a Nintendo console. If you’re looking to play Rebirth, either again or for the first time, the Switch 2 version is a rock solid option.

***A Nintendo Switch 2 code was provided by the publisher***