BODY: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is famously enormous — a 100-hour-plus epic stuffed with minigames, open-world chores, and Chocobo detours. So what happens when you fast-forward through it? One Japanese writer at AUTOMATON decided to find out, playing through the entire game on the newly added "Boost Mode."
Boost Mode debuted on June 3, 2026, alongside the Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S versions of the game. It has since rolled out to the original PS5 and PC editions via a free update, putting the time-saving option in front of the game's existing audience.
The headline result: a full playthrough clocked in at less than half the time of a normal run. For a game that demands a serious commitment, that's a dramatic shortcut — one that could finally make Rebirth approachable for players who bounced off its sheer length.
But speed has a price. The writer's verdict centers on immersion: blitzing through Rebirth's carefully paced cutscenes, character moments, and exploration risks flattening the very thing that makes the FF7 remake project special. The journey, after all, is the point.
The insider take
Square Enix has been quietly wrestling with a problem its own ambition created: modern Final Fantasy games are too long for many players to finish. Adding Boost Mode to a multiplatform relaunch is a telling move — rather than trimming the game, the publisher is handing players a dial to manage its bulk themselves. It's the same instinct behind FF7 Remake's earlier difficulty tweaks. For Japanese gamers juggling work and limited play time, this kind of "respect the player's schedule" feature lands well, even if purists wince at speedrunning a story built to be savored. Expect it to become a standard toggle in future Square Enix releases.
Originally reported by はてなブックマーク (Japanese).