PlayStation and Final Fantasy have been closely linked for nearly the entire history of Sony’s console efforts. 1997’s Final Fantasy 7 was a touchstone in storytelling and computer graphics on PS1, and nearly every single mainline Final Fantasy game since then has made its console debut exclusively on a PlayStation system. That close relationship extends to Sony’s PS5 Pro, as this year’s Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has been overhauled for the new enhanced system. Plus, Game Boost should provide a bonus to older Final Fantasy software, even games that haven’t been formally enhanced for PS5 Pro. So exactly how does Rebirth fare on PS5 Pro? And can the PS5 Pro overcome frame-rate limitations in Final Fantasy 14 and 16?
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is widely acclaimed, but is also well known for substantial image quality woes. The game suffered from softer-than-usual imagery on a 4K screen, especially in performance mode, making for a somewhat unsatisfying 60fps experience. That’s not really a concern on PS5 Pro. In stills, the clarity difference is pretty enormous. We’re going from an image that appears quite 1080p-like – despite technically usually running a somewhat higher res – to a crisp, sharp 4K resolve on Pro. On a 4K set sitting from a normal viewing distance, the old performance mode looked obviously soft and lacking detail, while PS5 Pro is razor sharp, at least by the standards of modern temporal AA techniques.
A lot of this was obvious in the pre-launch preview we conducted a couple months ago – but it’s especially clear in the final game. When you can actually sit down and examine shots closely, you get a great sense of the benefits of PS5 Pro in this title. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth presents large, sprawling environments, and the base console just didn’t do a good job of resolving distant detail effectively.
Pixel counts show a mild Pro advantage, but that’s not particularly relevant: the new console is using Sony’s new PSSR upsampling technique to hit a full 4K resolution, while the base machine is using Unreal Engine’s TAA with just a naive upscale to 4K. That means that the Pro is actually resolving 4K-like detail despite its typically sub-native pixel count. The game looks pretty solid in motion as well, clearly resolving extra detail. That said, it’s not flawless, with some sub-pixel shimmer and moire patterns on some surfaces.