Players trying to complete everything in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth are running into a roadblock at the very end of the game after the recent 1.020 patch broke one of the very last side quests. And until it’s patched by Square Enix, only those who own the game physically can complete the quest, get the trophy associated with it, and unlock the elusive platinum trophy for getting every other achievement in the game.
Let me tell you the story of a silly, dumb man who decided to commit to doing every sidequest and activity in Rebirth, Square Enix’s latest installment in its FF7 remake trilogy that released exclusively on PS5 on February 29. This man, who is very busy trying to play other games for his job and who doesn’t have as much free time as he did when he was younger, decided that he was going to play FF7 Rebirth only once. This fool has spent nearly every night for the past three weeks chipping away at this giant game. Then, in the end, with only one side quest left to complete before he pushed on to the finale, he discovered that it was impossible to finish the last side activity because it was broken. That dumb man is me. And the pain I felt at that moment was immense. Sadly, I’m not alone.
While I’m just discovering this situation, it’s been a problem for players since March 20, when Square Enix released patch 1.020 for FF7 Rebirth. It seems this patch broke the “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop” side-quest in one particular way. At one point in the quest, you have to beat the ultimate party animal’s high score on the G-Bike arcade simulator. However, try as you might, the game won’t recognize your score, making it impossible to finish the quest and therefore impossible to complete all the trophies, thus locking you out of the platinum trophy.
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You can find players warning others to not download the patch as early as March 22. Unfortunately, I think most folks are avoiding online discussions of the game to avoid spoilers, and haven’t seen the warnings. Checking Reddit, I’ve found hundreds of players across various threads and sites complaining that the quest is broken and then discovering that it’s glitched for everyone.
“Just happened to me too, Literally the last thing I have to do in the game before I complete my first playthrough. So annoying,” said one user.
“Dang I got super lucky. Beat this quest the day before the patch. Hopefully, it comes soon for you guys,” said another person.
How to complete FF7 Rebirth’s Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop quest
Reading through replies, there does seem to be a small chance that post-update you can still complete the quest, but it’s unclear if those players might not have updated the game to the version that breaks Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop. Regardless, there is a fix, but only if you own the disc version of FF7 Rebirth.
All you need to do is uninstall Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, disconnect your PS5 from the internet, and reinstall the game and the quest via an earlier save. Make sure you don’t load up a save where you’ve already encountered the bug as that won’t let you progress. You have to load up a save from before you played the G-Bike sim and got a high score.
Players have reported that this method is a viable, if a bit annoying, workaround that will let you complete the final side-quest in the game. Once you have the quest completed, you should be safe to reconnect the console and update the game.
For digital owners, like myself, there doesn’t seem to be a real solution beyond waiting for Square Enix to hopefully patch Rebirth to fix this bug. Kotaku contacted Square Enix and will update this post if we hear back. In the meantime, I’ll just finish the game knowing that I would have done everything, but a damn bug at the very end ruined my plan.
Update: 04/04/2024, 2:45 p.m. ET: Square Enix confirmed on April 4 that it is aware of the bug involving the G-Bike sidequest and plans to fix it in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s next patch.
“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused,” said Square Enix. “Thank you for your patience and support while we work to address this issue.”
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