Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was plagued by an incredibly fuzzy performance mode when it first released on PS5 in February this year. Obvious graphical limitations were put in place so that the RPG could run at 60 frames per second; it played very well, but it could look like rough outside of cutscenes.

With the PS5 Pro, Rebirth gained an additional graphics setting called “Versatility”. The goal is to maintain the smooth 60fps of performance mode, while providing a significant improvement in resolution.

Luckily, Square Enix has worked some magic here – at least on the surface. Renaissance looks dramatically better on Sony’s new system, sticking to that all-important 60fps while pushing the resolution to what looks like 4K, or thereabouts. It’s a stark day-and-night difference compared to performance mode on PS5.

But it’s not just the resolution. From what we can tell, the new setting inherits many, if not all, of the benefits of the title’s 30fps fidelity mode. The environmental lighting is more dynamic and surrounds the character models much more convincingly. Gone are the days when Cloud looked like some sort of strange clone of himself in the Shadow Realm.

Mid-range environmental assets also appear to have received a noticeable glow, so areas appear much more visually cohesive. And once again, you get all of this at an unwavering 60fps.

However, as the title of this article suggests, this Pro-exclusive mode has a disappointing downside. While browsing several locations for the sake of this cover, we couldn’t help but grab a lot pop-in. That is, assets – like vegetation and rocks – appear as Cloud gets closer.

Pop-in is especially prevalent in locations rich in grass and plants, as the game now makes a habit of rendering details and shadows when you’re only a few feet away from objects. It’s the kind of thing you might not even notice depending on the direction you look, but once you see it, it’s a hard problem to ignore – and it happens all the time.

Worse still, we discovered a number of areas where Remake and Rebirth’s signature texture issues remain, with larger assets struggling to load properly even at minimal distance. It’s a shame that this distraction is still present.

So, in conclusion, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth runs great on PS5 Pro. In terms of pure visual fidelity, it’s a colossal upgrade on the performance mode of the base PS5. However, there are some nasty pop-in issues at play here, and we can only hope that further improvements are made.

Will you play Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on PS5 Pro? What do you think of its “Versatility” mode? Grab your sword and go after Sephiroth in the comments section below.