FF7 Remake on Xbox highlights Rebirth’s biggest shortcoming

Some of the best adaptations and remakes — or at least some of the most enjoyable parts of them, anyway — are those that surprise us with meaningful changes that maintain the spirit of the original. The first two installments of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy take plenty of liberties with the original game’s story as they explore a parallel narrative with branching timelines. Despite the many strengths of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, playing the Xbox Series X port of FF7 Remake recently reminded me of one reason why it’s better than the sequel: Jessie.

Outside Barret and Tifa in the original, the remaining members of Avalanche don’t get enough screentime for their personalities to develop all that much. Before we really get to know any of them well, they’re dead in a matter of hours when the plate drops on Sector 7 and the story kicks into high gear. FF7 Remake stretches out the original’s Midgar section into a full game that takes more than 30 hours to complete. A big part of that means lengthening all the game’s earlier sections, expanding roles for characters like Biggs, Wedge, and of course, Jessie.

Much has been said about Jessie’s glow-up from a barely-there side character to a bold and courageous scene-stealer in Remake. She brings energy to the experience, in contrast to Cloud’s dour demeanor.

Despite the act of domestic terrorism you’re party to at the start of the game, Remake’s early chapters are just plain fun, thanks in no small part to the fact that Jessie, voiced by Erica Lindbeck, is dripping with charisma and exhibits a playful flirtiness. Even in some of the game’s earliest scenes, she’s cracking jokes and asking probing questions about Cloud’s relationship status. She’s interested in him from the jump, well before Cloud reunites with Tifa.

In a lot of ways, the early chapters almost feel like a harem anime with Cloud as the hapless, immature focus of all these beautiful, more-mature women. Tifa seems happy to reconnect with her childhood friend and remembers the promise he made to her all those years ago to save her if she’s ever in trouble. Even though Cloud and Tifa are the canonical endgame, her pursuit of him is subtle, particularly at this point in the story. Heck, even midway through Rebirth, there’s still not much romantic connection happening.

Jessie, on the other hand, is just plain thirsty from the start. Chapter 4 in particular stands out as a real highlight, presenting a side quest absent in the original where Cloud teams up with Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie to steal a keycard from her parents’ house on top of the Sector 7 plate. They then use that to infiltrate a Shinra warehouse and make a daring escape by parachuting back down into the slums. There’s also an extended sequence where Cloud fights off Shinra troops while riding a motorcycle with Jessie clutching his back, serving as his “back-warmer.” (If you handle this sequence without taking too much damage, she’ll even give you a lil kiss on the cheek.) After Wedge is bitten on the bum by a Shinra attack dogs, Jessie gives it a quick inspection followed by a playful slap on his bare butt. You don’t get that kind of top-tier humor in Rebirth!

At the very end of this little side quest, Jessie embraces Cloud in an intimate hug and invites him over to her place the following night for some homemade pizza — because all of her roommates will be out. Cloud can only say two different versions of “no” here, but it hardly matters anyway; Shinra drops the Sector 7 plate on the following day. Still, it’s clear she’s hungry for more than pizza.

Image: Square Enix

Compare all of that to the start of Rebirth, which opens with a devastating flashback to events that happened in Nibelheim. Veteran players immediately recognize it as a pivotal moment: Sephiroth’s descent into villainy, the destruction of Cloud and Tifa’s hometown, and the origin of Cloud’s fractured memories, in which he believes he was someone else entirely. It’s a beautifully realized sequence, but the tone couldn’t be more different. Where Remake’s early hours crackle with energy, Rebirth begins with reflection and melancholy.

Not long after, Shinra forces the party to flee Kalm, thrusting them into the Grasslands, which is the first of many open-world-adjacent regions that define Rebirth’s structure. Where Remake was tightly paced and relentlessly character-driven, Rebirth is expansive and deliberate, trading intimacy for scale. That breadth is impressive — and so is the depth, for the most part — but it also means fewer moments where the game can afford to stop and simply sit with its characters.

Jessie works so well as a central figure in Remake because the game is willing to do exactly that: to stop, flirt, and breathe. No sequel built around constant forward motion in a vast, expanding world can ever quite replicate that feeling. Rebirth may be bigger and more of a spectacle, but Remake knew when and how to slow down. Jessie is proof that sometimes, that’s all a character needs to last forever.

Image: Square Enix

After dozens of hours traversing Rebirth’s regions, the party eventually reaches the Gold Saucer. While wandering the amusement park (on a date, depending on your choices), it’s easy to miss a small detail near the theater: a poster advertising a stage production. Front and center is Jessie Rasberry, dressed as an angel. (Insert crying emoji here.) Jessie was a top-billed actress at the Gold Saucer but gave up her career after her father was gravely injured working for Shinra. That’s what led her to join Avalanche and focus on saving the planet instead. We get a glimpse of the life Jessie never got to live.

If Tifa is with Cloud when you find the poster, she explains how Jessie took Tifa under her wing in Midgar and saved her. If Aerith is Cloud’s companion, she correctly recognizes that Jessie may have been more than just a friend to Cloud. If Yuffie’s with Cloud, she cracks a joke about him being “destined to be surrounded by smokin’ hot chicks.” In this version — and in the version where Cloud goes alone — he mutters about how he’s still waiting on that pizza date.

Image: Square Enix

Later in the game, you get to see her performance as Rosa in the in-universe stage play Loveless thanks to VR headsets. It’s an operatic, fragmented tale about a hero who leaves home, a promise that can’t be kept, and a love that exists only in absence. Rosa is often depicted with angel wings because she’s a symbol of devotion, sacrifice, and acceptance. She represents the love that shapes someone’s journey, even if that love doesn’t survive.

Seeing Jessie cast in that role feels more than fitting. She gave up her career as an actress to take care of her father after Shinra destroyed his life, and she died fighting that same corporation before she ever got her encore.

Rebirth is a bigger, bolder, more ambitious game, full of spectacle and scale. But replaying FF7 Remake on Xbox Series X is a reminder that sometimes the most meaningful changes aren’t about expanding the world. They’re about choosing to linger in it. In a trilogy obsessed with defying fate, Jessie is the character who proves that some losses still matter — and that some stories are unforgettable precisely because they end too soon.