Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's demo has some fans worrying about the JRPG's graphics: "At least it runs well, I suppose"

As fans dig into the new Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth demo, some players are expressing concerns over what they perceive as subpar visuals in certain areas.

It's worth clarifying that demo builds aren't necessarily representative of their respective full releases, and in this case, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth still has 20 days before launch for Square Enix to polish it up. Of course, it'll certainly receive patches post-launch that'll further improve visuals and performance, so these are definitely some premature judgments simply based on what's available in the demo. 

Nonetheless, a whole bunch of folks on social media are disappointed by the demo's visual presentation, whether it's the lack of interactive foliage, muddy textures, technical issues, or just the image quality overall.

It has some pretty surprising and serious issues. A lot of UE4 baggage but also some bizarre design choices in regards to how assets are jammed together. Image quality is not good in perf mode but at least it runs well, I suppose.February 9, 2024

It seems the visual shortcomings aren't specific to the demo's Performance or Graphics pre-sets, so it's not something you can fix just by tweaking the graphics settings. But regardless, it would be surprising to see a game built from the ground up for PS5 have to suffer such compromises just to maintain a steady frame rate. 

Meanwhile, the prevalence of complaints about the Rebirth demo's graphics has prompted this very entertaining Reddit thread I just couldn't help but share:

Some people are pointing out that similar visual inconsistencies were present in 2020's Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Although I can't personally attest to that having played some 80 hours of that game, it would be disappointing to see graphics flaws from a PS4 game persist in a PS5 exclusive. Regardless, I've reached out to Square Enix for comment and I'll update this article if I hear back.

Otherwise, we'll just have to see how things shake out when Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth launches