The ESRB released its rating summary for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which includes allusions to the beach resort of Costa del Sol. The game overall has been rated as “Teen,” and the summary focuses on its use of violence, alcohol and suggestive dialogue.
Costa del Sol is an area in the original Final Fantasy VII located on the same continent as the Gold Saucer, and it is a beach resort with villas and a bar as the name implies. We expected Costa del Sol to feature in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, as we’ve seen some segments from it such as Cloud riding a segway-like device around the area. However, the ESRB rating summary includes several mentions of revealing outfits, alcohol use, and a quote about a “bodacious beach bod” that seem pulled from events at the area.
The ESRB rating summary is as follows:
This is an action role-playing game in which players follow the story of a mercenary (Cloud Strife) on a quest to save the planet from evil. Players explore fantasy landscapes, perform missions, and battle monsters and soldiers in frenetic melee combat. Characters use swords, staffs, guns, and magic spells to fight monsters and human soldiers; combat is highlighted by impact sounds, cries of pain, and explosions. Cutscenes depict further instances of violence, sometimes with splatters/pools of blood: characters impaled or slashed by swords, sometimes with slow-motion effects; an assassin throwing a spinning blade at a targeted figure; characters shot by soldiers. Some female characters are designed with revealing outfits (e.g., deep cleavage); suggestive dialogue sometimes accompanies camera panning/close-ups of characters’ bodies/outfits (e.g., “Just admit it. You’re obviously captivated by my bodacious beach bod.”). The game contains some alcohol content: as Cloud, players can drink a version of moonshine while at a bar; cutscenes sometimes feature drunk characters slurring their speech. A handful of scenes depict characters smoking cigars or out of hookahs. The words “sh*t,” “as*hole,” and “pr*ck” appear in the game.
Apart from Costa del Sol, other scenes from the original game that are set to appear in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth include entering Mog House and Cloud playing the piano at Tifa’s home in Nibelheim.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is set to release for the Playstation 5 on February 29, 2024, with platform exclusivity to end in May 2024. Final Fantasy VII Remake is currently available for PC, PS4, and PS5.
