They weren't ready for a white boy's unbridled whimsy and swag
Jannies.
This review contains spoilers
I skipped over a lot of Grasslands content to keep the story moving, but am going to slow my roll and work through some of the Junon quests and points of interest, maybe backtrack and do some cleanup. It hurts the pacing of the story, but I'm starting to get a sense that the story is itself about breaking FF7 open and how the desire to fill in the gaps of the story only creates more gaps.
- The Fort Condor quest line is what got me thinking about this. Like, maybe it is just a time-sink diversion to give the player additional XP and items. But you're also engaging with a part of the game world that has done the reverse: instead of filling in details on a story, it's taking a historical event (the Republic-Midgar War) and abstracting and gamifying it. It also implies, especially with the party turning into the SD versions of themselves, that the Fort Condor section of the original FF7 was part of this history, while also being a previous or separate iteration of this world and story. Similar thing as with Sephiroth spearing the Midgar Zolom.
- It still feels like it's distracting the characters from the pursuit of Sephiroth, which is nominally the direction the story is going. It's the Rockstar Games conundrum.
- Aerith would have been a much better driver of the quests than stupid Chadley, since she is both curious about the outside world and able to communicate with the Planet. That second part doesn't really become relevant until shortly before her death in the original, but since they're mixing things around here it wouldn't have hurt to give her some sort 'geopathy' early on.
- Although there's a lot of aged open world design going on, I wouldn't mind seeing this applied to a future FF game that could be more open-ended with its narrative. The freedom of discovery of Elden Ring married to the narrative depth of classic Final Fantasy would be a hell of a thing. Square would need to back off the high-end production values to make that feasible, though.
- The Fort Condor quest line is what got me thinking about this. Like, maybe it is just a time-sink diversion to give the player additional XP and items. But you're also engaging with a part of the game world that has done the reverse: instead of filling in details on a story, it's taking a historical event (the Republic-Midgar War) and abstracting and gamifying it. It also implies, especially with the party turning into the SD versions of themselves, that the Fort Condor section of the original FF7 was part of this history, while also being a previous or separate iteration of this world and story. Similar thing as with Sephiroth spearing the Midgar Zolom.
- It still feels like it's distracting the characters from the pursuit of Sephiroth, which is nominally the direction the story is going. It's the Rockstar Games conundrum.
- Aerith would have been a much better driver of the quests than stupid Chadley, since she is both curious about the outside world and able to communicate with the Planet. That second part doesn't really become relevant until shortly before her death in the original, but since they're mixing things around here it wouldn't have hurt to give her some sort 'geopathy' early on.
- Although there's a lot of aged open world design going on, I wouldn't mind seeing this applied to a future FF game that could be more open-ended with its narrative. The freedom of discovery of Elden Ring married to the narrative depth of classic Final Fantasy would be a hell of a thing. Square would need to back off the high-end production values to make that feasible, though.
Multiversal shenanigans made cloud 10 times more of a twink
This game is a Rebirth in the way that Buddhists believe you will be reborn as a hungry ghost with an enormous stomach and a tiny mouth as a punishment for leading a life consumed by greed and spite
changed my mind a lil bit, i still like the game a lot however i wish they changed less things. I think one of the main appeals of the original is the overall grittiness of it, and rebirth just lacks that unfortunately. definitely would've preferred a 1 to 1 remake
rufus is the type of guy that if someone broke his arm he'd put it back in place and smugly say "shinra health insurance... the best insurance money can buy"
dont know how part 3 can top this tbh. theres going to be a repeat of remakes ending controversy with this one for sure but the game overall is so well designed and full of heart from start to finish i dont know how it can be followed up.
I have forced myself to finish this game so I can properly warn everybody.
The graphics and music are good, and the gameplay itself it´s kind of fun but a little bit too repetitive, full of minigames that are hit or miss. But every good thing this game does it´s ruined by the plot and the writing.
It´s overly convoluted and doesn´t understand the appeal of the OG game. If you didn´t like the whispers before get ready for something 1000 times worse. They ruin some of the most iconic moments in gaming history.
The writing is even worse than in part one, everyone reverted to being oversimplified versions of themselves. Childish, overacted, and annoying, they are no longer the characters we used to love, especially Sephiroth. He is basically Ansen, appears out of nowhere says something cryptic, and leaves. The character is completely ruined.
Stay away from this game if you have any respect or love for the OG and good storytelling in general.
The graphics and music are good, and the gameplay itself it´s kind of fun but a little bit too repetitive, full of minigames that are hit or miss. But every good thing this game does it´s ruined by the plot and the writing.
It´s overly convoluted and doesn´t understand the appeal of the OG game. If you didn´t like the whispers before get ready for something 1000 times worse. They ruin some of the most iconic moments in gaming history.
The writing is even worse than in part one, everyone reverted to being oversimplified versions of themselves. Childish, overacted, and annoying, they are no longer the characters we used to love, especially Sephiroth. He is basically Ansen, appears out of nowhere says something cryptic, and leaves. The character is completely ruined.
Stay away from this game if you have any respect or love for the OG and good storytelling in general.
it's ok but it tries too hard to be drakengard 1
dude
Impressions after 30 hours (Chapters 1-3 complete)
Going above and beyond to right any wrongs and evolve far beyond its predecessor, after about 30 hours and only around a quarter of the way through the story – there’s a lot to do(!) – Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a game brimming with variety, depth and evolutions that go so far, they're actually a bit overwhelming. Despite that however, the quality of the offerings thus far is hard to ignore, and for only four-or-so years of development time, this is a title that is continuously leaving me in awe with nearly every passing hour of playtime.
There's a lot to be said about just how much this game shakes everything up. It's most definitely a sequel through and through, and probably the strongest and most evolved one I've seen in quite a long time. For as different as the game feels, it retains the core essence of Remake, now packaged in a sprawling open world setting that's nailing the map size, biome changes, and all the content contained therein. Rebirth sports a far-improved level design that suits the narrative progression of the title whilst delivering plenty to go out and do, all of which is of a high quality and variety, so far without feeling throwaway or mundane.
Some side content is light on story – in particular, the small checklist-style activities dotted around the map – however, many others are deeper and more involved than that. Whether that's introducing a fun mini-game, unique mechanic, or extra lore about the world or a set of characters, all of it feels rewarding in a multitude of ways, and very much worth completing.
Often it's also building on Remake and the current state of the world here in Rebirth. I heard somewhere that the developers said the side quests were improved upon from the previous game, and they certainly weren't wrong. They’re so good in fact, they might be some of the most inventive and fun I've seen in any game to-date. Despite the time investment thus far, the game continues to surprise and delight on the regular.
If I had one critique, it would probably be in regards to how the game has so much, it can actually feel a bit overwhelming. Throwing you into the deep end much faster than Remake, there are a lot of systems and features offloaded very fast, and that can be a bit much at first, especially when nearly every returning system is different and there's a bunch of new ones too. I'm also finding certain aspects of items not the most clear or effective – for example, an ability that says it ‘imbues’ attacks with an element that has a visual change to denote it, yet doesn’t seem to register consistently on enemies weak to said element. Maybe it is applying bonus damage, but further testing is needed to figure this one out.
These are very minor gripes however, and they're pretty easy to ignore because the rest of the game has been so good. The RPG systems are more complex, combat is deeper, more fluid and dynamic, and as far as I can tell, pretty much every issue Remake had is not present here. There's basically nothing I can really point to as a negative right now, and in many ways, this is feeling about as close as you can get to a perfect game. It’s a title that honours the legacy of the original, and video games as a whole with an extensively-diversified set of content that’s constantly surprising, executed in a way that only video games can do.
We'll see how it all shakes out as I play more, but for now, it's been a blast, and I've been very much looking forward to playing more every single day.
Going above and beyond to right any wrongs and evolve far beyond its predecessor, after about 30 hours and only around a quarter of the way through the story – there’s a lot to do(!) – Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a game brimming with variety, depth and evolutions that go so far, they're actually a bit overwhelming. Despite that however, the quality of the offerings thus far is hard to ignore, and for only four-or-so years of development time, this is a title that is continuously leaving me in awe with nearly every passing hour of playtime.
There's a lot to be said about just how much this game shakes everything up. It's most definitely a sequel through and through, and probably the strongest and most evolved one I've seen in quite a long time. For as different as the game feels, it retains the core essence of Remake, now packaged in a sprawling open world setting that's nailing the map size, biome changes, and all the content contained therein. Rebirth sports a far-improved level design that suits the narrative progression of the title whilst delivering plenty to go out and do, all of which is of a high quality and variety, so far without feeling throwaway or mundane.
Some side content is light on story – in particular, the small checklist-style activities dotted around the map – however, many others are deeper and more involved than that. Whether that's introducing a fun mini-game, unique mechanic, or extra lore about the world or a set of characters, all of it feels rewarding in a multitude of ways, and very much worth completing.
Often it's also building on Remake and the current state of the world here in Rebirth. I heard somewhere that the developers said the side quests were improved upon from the previous game, and they certainly weren't wrong. They’re so good in fact, they might be some of the most inventive and fun I've seen in any game to-date. Despite the time investment thus far, the game continues to surprise and delight on the regular.
If I had one critique, it would probably be in regards to how the game has so much, it can actually feel a bit overwhelming. Throwing you into the deep end much faster than Remake, there are a lot of systems and features offloaded very fast, and that can be a bit much at first, especially when nearly every returning system is different and there's a bunch of new ones too. I'm also finding certain aspects of items not the most clear or effective – for example, an ability that says it ‘imbues’ attacks with an element that has a visual change to denote it, yet doesn’t seem to register consistently on enemies weak to said element. Maybe it is applying bonus damage, but further testing is needed to figure this one out.
These are very minor gripes however, and they're pretty easy to ignore because the rest of the game has been so good. The RPG systems are more complex, combat is deeper, more fluid and dynamic, and as far as I can tell, pretty much every issue Remake had is not present here. There's basically nothing I can really point to as a negative right now, and in many ways, this is feeling about as close as you can get to a perfect game. It’s a title that honours the legacy of the original, and video games as a whole with an extensively-diversified set of content that’s constantly surprising, executed in a way that only video games can do.
We'll see how it all shakes out as I play more, but for now, it's been a blast, and I've been very much looking forward to playing more every single day.
The future is not set in stone.
This review contains spoilers
the entire dyne sequence is a perfect microcosm of every single problem with the reboot versions. barrett cant have his character moment because the games more interested in a) making every single character a Righteous Epic Hero Guy (so dyne spends the entire time after the fight shooting about 100 shinra soldiers), and b) so terrified you'll get bored because something hasnt happened in the last 5 minutes that immediately after dyne dies the game makes you do a pointless sweeper fight and an on-rails shooting section. dynes arc is like one of the most important subplots in all of ff7 to barretts character arc and they rush through it as fast as possible, mostly because they already removed all the point of any of his motivations in the first game (bc It Was Shinra's Fault The Explosion Was Like That, god forbid characters have moral ambiguity) so why bother.
i think yoshinori kitase should not be in charge of this franchise
i think yoshinori kitase should not be in charge of this franchise
Absolutely incredible. Games like this are why the Final Fantasy name carries the pedigree that it does. A truly magnificent, world-spanning epic.
The combat is flawless. The music is flawless. The visuals are flawless. I have no notes about any of them. The world feels so vivid and so alive; chock-a-block with delightful characters with stories to tell. You are truly convinced that this is a world worth saving.
Rather surprisingly, to me at least, this game is pretty funny. That is not really something I associate with this series, not even in the game that preceded this. All the charm that was missing from FF16 is here in spades. So many silly little moments that make this game the delight that it is.
Though, perhaps the biggest surprise in this entire game, to me, was that the side quests are good. FF16 has the worst side quests in any game I’ve ever played, FF7 Remake was not far behind, and to be honest, I can’t even remember a single side quest from 15, which I think says enough. Every side quest in this game however, is lovely. Bringing cute little character moments with your party. They are simply very fun to do.
And what a party to have those character moments with. God I love every party member in this game. I would die for like half of them. Barret is easily the strongest-written character in this game, and he gets some really incredible moments that flesh him out to such a wonderful degree. Tifa and Red get some lovely moments too, and the 4 new party members all have an opportunity to shine. Don’t tell anybody but I’m kinda eh on Aerith, she feels so dry and distant, but I far from dislike her. It's hard to talk about Cloud beyond him being cool because I don’t really know what was going on with him at the end, but yeah he’s cool like I said.
The story that accompanies this cast is serviceable, good even, but it’s not great. Honestly all the new stuff does is seem to muddy the game’s strongest moments from the original, but it’s not too bad; I enjoyed it. My one and only main gripe is that the ending makes absolutely no fucking sense, but this is part 2 of 3. Thus, for now, I will give them the benefit of the doubt.
In FF7 Remake, they established the tone, combat, and general direction for this trilogy, with relative success. With those hard parts done, this game goes absolutely wild and provides a sprawling adventure unlike anything I’ve experienced in this franchise. The training wheels are truly off, and I can only hope this momentum can carry forward to the closing act of Final Fantasy VII.
The combat is flawless. The music is flawless. The visuals are flawless. I have no notes about any of them. The world feels so vivid and so alive; chock-a-block with delightful characters with stories to tell. You are truly convinced that this is a world worth saving.
Rather surprisingly, to me at least, this game is pretty funny. That is not really something I associate with this series, not even in the game that preceded this. All the charm that was missing from FF16 is here in spades. So many silly little moments that make this game the delight that it is.
Though, perhaps the biggest surprise in this entire game, to me, was that the side quests are good. FF16 has the worst side quests in any game I’ve ever played, FF7 Remake was not far behind, and to be honest, I can’t even remember a single side quest from 15, which I think says enough. Every side quest in this game however, is lovely. Bringing cute little character moments with your party. They are simply very fun to do.
And what a party to have those character moments with. God I love every party member in this game. I would die for like half of them. Barret is easily the strongest-written character in this game, and he gets some really incredible moments that flesh him out to such a wonderful degree. Tifa and Red get some lovely moments too, and the 4 new party members all have an opportunity to shine. Don’t tell anybody but I’m kinda eh on Aerith, she feels so dry and distant, but I far from dislike her. It's hard to talk about Cloud beyond him being cool because I don’t really know what was going on with him at the end, but yeah he’s cool like I said.
The story that accompanies this cast is serviceable, good even, but it’s not great. Honestly all the new stuff does is seem to muddy the game’s strongest moments from the original, but it’s not too bad; I enjoyed it. My one and only main gripe is that the ending makes absolutely no fucking sense, but this is part 2 of 3. Thus, for now, I will give them the benefit of the doubt.
In FF7 Remake, they established the tone, combat, and general direction for this trilogy, with relative success. With those hard parts done, this game goes absolutely wild and provides a sprawling adventure unlike anything I’ve experienced in this franchise. The training wheels are truly off, and I can only hope this momentum can carry forward to the closing act of Final Fantasy VII.
それは完璧だ
This review contains spoilers
An overall really cool title, with some annoying quirks, mainly with the story and ending.
The gameplay is kinda more of the same as Remake, but that’s not a bad thing, it’s still really fun, and the dungeons are mostly better, even if some like Hojo’s (second) lab and Temple of the Ancients kinda drag, also a big fan of the characterizations, I’m sure not everyone will be into Red XIII and how his voice kinda abruptly chances after Cosmo Canyon, but I really loves how it highlights he’s younger nature personally. Cid is a lot more chill, Vincent is still a fun edgelord, I like Cait Sith for still being dumb and his betrayal is handled a lot better, and returning characters like Barret still get some great moments. I also love how much fun the game can exude, I love silly moments where it just lets the party have some fun, they were some of my favorite parts of the whole experience honestly.
It’s not all perfect obviously, Sephiroth continues to just be an awful villain that completely overstays his welcome, with motives that aren’t even true, and over usage throughout the whole thing, ruining a bunch of his ominous presence. Also wasn’t really a fan of how they incorporated Yuffie into the main plot, they relay on you having play INTERmission for her backstory and motives, and all the stuff with Wutai generally just feels half-baked, and you don’t even get to go there this part even though you could in the original game’s first disc, which is what Rebirth largely addapts.
Music is good for the most part, even if I do prefer the original OST, and there’s one thing that REALLY bothers me, they bring back Bizzaro Sephiroth, which is neat cause like if Sephiroth is gonna be the final boss in all 3 games (which is still dumb), may as well have it be a different version each time, but THEY DON'T HAVE A REMIX OF BIRTH OF A GOD, instead it's just a bunch of generic orchestra, which is insanely disappointing cause it would've fit with the atmosphere of the team coming together PERFECTLY, Probably my biggest issue with the game and I wish I was joking, as soon as thing comes to PC someone should patch that track in ASAP, but alright enough stupid fanboy talk, let’s talk about that freaking ending.
With Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, I, along many others, came in wondering one thing: Will Aerith still die? And this is something the game clearly knows. It toys with her A LOT, putting a butload of spotlight on her throughout the second half. I initially came in expecting her to actually survive this time, but after they had the scene where she sang the game’s main theme in an opera, it became pretty clear that yep, she’s a goner, but the game keep on trying to trick you, going back and forth on whether she’ll be saved or not, and honestly during the moment, it was pretty darn intense, the game probably makes the best use of the PS5’s stupid adaptive triggers gimmick when Cloud tries to stop himself from killing Aerith, and you have to much them while they’re hard to press, it was genuinely really strong.
But then after a really cool moment where it seems like Cloud was able to save her, the game pretty much just cheats and has her die anyways cause multiverse shenanigans, the whole ending is just way too messy, bringing Aerith back and killing her over and over, and going back and forth with all the dumb Zack stuff that barley even matters cause Aerith ends up dying anyways, at the end it’s barely even made clear if she’s fully dead or not, it’s so messy. I feel like they were trying to use her fate being ambiguous to their advantage and make everyone cry over her death all over again, with the game’s setup, the expected outcome has managed to become the subversive one. But the issue is that the game just tries TOO hard, to fuck with you, to the point where it barley even hits, it’s barley even made clear what’s going on for the most part which robs it of any of its emotional value, and leaves the ending just feeling hollow compared to the original’s disc 1 ender.
Overall I did still really enjoy my time with Rebirth, I’d say it has higher highs and lower lows then Remake, and I’d personally put it above that one, I just really love having all the main cast and exploring the world, when it was just that, it was a bunch of fun, but sadly all the original stuff still tended to fall flat, main party was great, but shit like the new Zack stuff that ended up amounting to nothing, and new characters like Glenn from the dead Fortnite ripoff mobile game just soured it sadly, still, I would recommend it if you like the original game, but obviously play Remake first
The gameplay is kinda more of the same as Remake, but that’s not a bad thing, it’s still really fun, and the dungeons are mostly better, even if some like Hojo’s (second) lab and Temple of the Ancients kinda drag, also a big fan of the characterizations, I’m sure not everyone will be into Red XIII and how his voice kinda abruptly chances after Cosmo Canyon, but I really loves how it highlights he’s younger nature personally. Cid is a lot more chill, Vincent is still a fun edgelord, I like Cait Sith for still being dumb and his betrayal is handled a lot better, and returning characters like Barret still get some great moments. I also love how much fun the game can exude, I love silly moments where it just lets the party have some fun, they were some of my favorite parts of the whole experience honestly.
It’s not all perfect obviously, Sephiroth continues to just be an awful villain that completely overstays his welcome, with motives that aren’t even true, and over usage throughout the whole thing, ruining a bunch of his ominous presence. Also wasn’t really a fan of how they incorporated Yuffie into the main plot, they relay on you having play INTERmission for her backstory and motives, and all the stuff with Wutai generally just feels half-baked, and you don’t even get to go there this part even though you could in the original game’s first disc, which is what Rebirth largely addapts.
Music is good for the most part, even if I do prefer the original OST, and there’s one thing that REALLY bothers me, they bring back Bizzaro Sephiroth, which is neat cause like if Sephiroth is gonna be the final boss in all 3 games (which is still dumb), may as well have it be a different version each time, but THEY DON'T HAVE A REMIX OF BIRTH OF A GOD, instead it's just a bunch of generic orchestra, which is insanely disappointing cause it would've fit with the atmosphere of the team coming together PERFECTLY, Probably my biggest issue with the game and I wish I was joking, as soon as thing comes to PC someone should patch that track in ASAP, but alright enough stupid fanboy talk, let’s talk about that freaking ending.
With Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, I, along many others, came in wondering one thing: Will Aerith still die? And this is something the game clearly knows. It toys with her A LOT, putting a butload of spotlight on her throughout the second half. I initially came in expecting her to actually survive this time, but after they had the scene where she sang the game’s main theme in an opera, it became pretty clear that yep, she’s a goner, but the game keep on trying to trick you, going back and forth on whether she’ll be saved or not, and honestly during the moment, it was pretty darn intense, the game probably makes the best use of the PS5’s stupid adaptive triggers gimmick when Cloud tries to stop himself from killing Aerith, and you have to much them while they’re hard to press, it was genuinely really strong.
But then after a really cool moment where it seems like Cloud was able to save her, the game pretty much just cheats and has her die anyways cause multiverse shenanigans, the whole ending is just way too messy, bringing Aerith back and killing her over and over, and going back and forth with all the dumb Zack stuff that barley even matters cause Aerith ends up dying anyways, at the end it’s barely even made clear if she’s fully dead or not, it’s so messy. I feel like they were trying to use her fate being ambiguous to their advantage and make everyone cry over her death all over again, with the game’s setup, the expected outcome has managed to become the subversive one. But the issue is that the game just tries TOO hard, to fuck with you, to the point where it barley even hits, it’s barley even made clear what’s going on for the most part which robs it of any of its emotional value, and leaves the ending just feeling hollow compared to the original’s disc 1 ender.
Overall I did still really enjoy my time with Rebirth, I’d say it has higher highs and lower lows then Remake, and I’d personally put it above that one, I just really love having all the main cast and exploring the world, when it was just that, it was a bunch of fun, but sadly all the original stuff still tended to fall flat, main party was great, but shit like the new Zack stuff that ended up amounting to nothing, and new characters like Glenn from the dead Fortnite ripoff mobile game just soured it sadly, still, I would recommend it if you like the original game, but obviously play Remake first
This review contains spoilers
I could care less about how the rest of the game turned out, but man, why did they handle Aerith’s death scene like that, it’s like the one thing I was hoping they wouldn’t fuck up here.
they Wark
This review contains spoilers
I still love this game don't get me wrong. It was very beautiful and well fucking made, but that ending.. oh my god aerith's death scene deserves better than that
Devil May Clive 16
Final Cry 7/Assassin's Fantasy 7
Yeah FF sucks
Final Cry 7/Assassin's Fantasy 7
Yeah FF sucks
And as expected, they delivered. 2nd part of 3 of a remake that’s far better than OG.
And better than the first part of the remake. Can’t wait for the final part. If executed right, it’ll be my favorite easily. Best part of the story imo.
And better than the first part of the remake. Can’t wait for the final part. If executed right, it’ll be my favorite easily. Best part of the story imo.
This review contains spoilers
Here we are again.. reliving a story we once knew.
Let me start off by saying Final Fantasy 7 Trilogy is beginning to become something interesting and exciting, as a long loving fan of the original game, it came at no surprise that a lot of people would be turned off by the thought of remake not being a 1 to 1 make of the game. After such had been released to the public and people took remake for what it is the picture was being set and things were about to change for a beloved FF7 world, in a good way I would say. CBU1 knew that a lot was depending on this trilogy, they couldn't mess up this story and everything was depending on the integrity of what they produced in the past.
Before I get into the details of the game that people are fighting over and expecting the worse from the it all, I would love to speak about everything to do with the combat. Combat was one of the fundamentals I believed was almost near perfect in remake with minor defects (air combat). Coming into rebirth with the addition of Air Combat, Synergy Abilities, Ally abilities that use no gauge and are STRONG. It was the one thing that was going to sell this game if it was not the story and that's the combat. Rebirths combat is an improvement at an extreme level and we still have one more game to go, who knows whats possible. Maybe we will have advent children level fighting and the whole party can take part against are fight to save the world.
Character development and voice acting was at the top of its level in this game, characters that i believed fell a little flat in remake had their attempt to bring it back in rebirth and they did exactly that. The development on Barret and his story with Dyne and having to relive his trauma in the temple of the ancients. Yuffie being the bubbly and annoying materia stealer that she is, her personality excels in this game compared to what was given to us in the DLC. She can be annoying at times but thats truly who yuffie is, as cloud once said on that elevator 'can you just shut up'. Red XII, or must say my beloved Nanaki. Boy or boy do I love this damn rat dog in this game, while it was expected for this game to give the backstory to everyone. Nanaki's story sticks out to me especially from the OG and Rebirth with the extension of how he acts around bugenhagen and the party, I enjoyed the hidden aspect of Red speaking in his younger voice towards aerith in earlier parts of the game and it being given off as someone random... once again them giving their nods to people who have played through the original. Cait sith, what can i say about this little robot cat? He was actually great. For a lot of people cait sith was hated and seen as pointless in the original game when it came to choosing him to fight with or even in choices of story but with the way I felt towards him in the original i wanted to try to give him a new thought of care and at first i still didn't like him, especially when the betrayal came which they handled alot better than the original, however that point when cait comes back and trys to have the party forgive him and show that he cares about them, there was a new found love that had grown inside me for him and im glad that came to happen for a character that i had previously not shown much care towards.
Even for things when it comes to character dialogue and conversations during set pieces, the relationship between different characters that don't involve Cloud, Red & Barret, Tifa & Aerith, Aerith & Red, Yuffie & Barret. All the bonding moments around the world builds more love and care for these people that you're going to spend so much time with.
Now i believe these next few characters deserve a new paragraph. I want to start off specifically with the two characters who are unplayable in this game, Vincent and Cid. For those that were upset with them being unplayable, i was indeed upset when it was announced before the game came out but after completing this game i couldn't even care and im even more excited to see what is done coming into Part 3, Cid was charming and still had a new flair to him. I don't really have much that comes to mind on Cid since he was primarily the man to fly the tiny bronco, there will obviously be more from him due Part3. Now onto Vincent, at points i almost thought i was going to control him however they did a lot more with Vincent in terms of implementing him into side quests & the main story, almost in the same way they incorporated yuffie into the story, with good amounts of humour and the hilarious moments of him trying to speak while being muffled inside his coffin, the genuine excitement of finally seeing vincent on screen and being the loner that he is it was good to finally be able to see the whole gang together.
Tifa Lockhart, with the addition of the new social mechanic where you're able to build bonds with characters it was quite enjoyable to have the control of who you're able to control and speak to in such manner. People who have played through the original and know of all FF7 material it is known that tifa is the one to save cloud with his delusion and its the ever ending eluding of that happening throughout this entire game. It continues to be prominent all the till credits roll. She is the pillar of bringing cloud back and she does just that as much as she can throughout the game. With of course the development of her not believing cloud because of the Nibelheim incident, the growth between Cloud & Tifa goes in a direction that i think we all expected it too and will continue to go in Part 3.
Cloud Strife, boy or boy cloud. its a homecoming. What a unbelievable way to make clouds mental illness, this game has made cloud schizophrenic. This isn't just mako poisoning anymore or him thinking he's someone else, this is genuinely a new point and approach to his mental illness and its something im scared but excited about, but this is a feeling I've been very much used to throughout this entire trilogy so far, Within the original game from the point of the Nibelheim flashback we know that cloud begins to lose himself to his mental illness and that becomes a problem for the party. With the approach that was taken in Rebirth, i was genuinely scared for anyone that stood in Clouds way. The influence of sephiroth and mental battle in this game is unbelievable, the constant reminder that every time those headaches begin something good dosen't come out of it. From points where cloud is quite literally spilling blood infront of his friends or him acting like sephiroth dodging bullets and slaughtering a whole platoon of shinra soldiers. Cloud is in a dark place right now, the trauma is building more and more and every moment seems to be getting worse the more Cloud is on screen. Big love to Cody Christian on his voice acting for Cloud, i genuinely had chills when it came to him speaking in that almost sephiroth/monotone talk. The presentation of cloud being someone completely different was done in a way i couldn't have expected but im thrilled to be experiencing.
Zack, im so sorry you had to relive having your heart broken to pieces for something that isn't your fault, he deserves all happiness in the world. And after all this he still cares and is selfless for others risking his life to protect them. No one deserved you zack
Aerith Gainsborough, alot of us were scared, alot of us are still scared. But let us embrace for what is to come, for what remake setup it seemed to be evident that aerith knew of things that she shouldn't know of, almost in the same that way that sephiroth's presentation was during remake. We knew that Sephiroth in remake was coming from Advent Children but what we didn't know is where Aerith gained any of the memories from. Throughout parts of remake aerith touched Red & Marlene and it showed no major plot points towards it, going into Rebirth it all began to make sense and things were starting to get out of control in things that we didn't expect. Aerith is 100% the staple of this game in which she has always been and im glad they stuck to that, She is constantly throughout the whole game giving hints and eluding to fate that is yet to come, From the point of her singing in the gold saucer it was set in stone that she was not going to make it at the end of this game. Cloud for what its worth with his poor mind pays no attention to any of it but for the viewer of this story, Aerith is trying her hardest to tell cloud and the viewer there is nothing thats going to stop what you know happening in this story so you must enjoy these moments and not feel bad for what will happen.
Onto the world of FF7, what we had all been wanting since the beginning. This game does everything for its world and it shows, this is what we all wanted. This is what i had been waiting for the most, remake was beautiful and Midgar was something i loved going through but for almost everyone when it came to the original the minute you stepped foot into the over-world the overall pacing of the game and the exploration that you experienced when it came to go visiting new places was beautiful, Rebirth keeps that exact feeling but for me amplifies it. Maybe that's because im able to see the game at a fidelity that's not the same as almost 30 years ago. It was hard to keep myself at not crying at every theme that played when going to a new area the music, the environments, the effort that went into making these places feel alive and full of life, this was nothing but amazing. Every zone held equally the same amount of effort and care and im sure as hell wondering what exactly could be done to push this even further going into Part 3.
I would love to point out as well when it came to NPCs the level of detail was a lot better than what was presented in Remake. It was evident that the only thing to be cared about in remake was everything centric around the story, going into Rebirth the team showed to put effort into all the things that lacked inside Remake. Side Quests, NPCs, Content outside of the story was nothing but amplified. Thank you SE for the amazing amount of black representation and effort into how everyone looks, Hairstyles and presentation, they did amazing.
As a mentioned before, the music. They had said 400 songs in a previous presentation before the games release and i didn't very much find that believable, was the game going to just have reused songs with the addition of what is new in remake? Yes. But its not the same, every song you believed was a reuse of what was in remake gained a new motiff, gained a new instrument, gained a new approach to the song that was different but somehow better than what was previously produced, Every song had a feeling inside it that i cannot explain. Once again amazing work towards to those behind the music of every FF game its something that is always evident for any game that comes out of SE, the music is always going to be some of the strongest parts of the game.
BOSS FIGHTS!!! WOW WOW WOW, Some of returning fights that got a touch of love and improvement from what it previously was, Some new faces too. Overall the amount of boss fights in this game and the way they're all constructed was nothing but fun, there genuinely wasn't a fight that i found irritating, annoying or down-right hard. I did get my ass beat quite alot of times when it came to doing the hard mode against fights that I believed we're easier when going through my first playthrough on Dynamic mode.
Onto something that I believe we all need to talk about and most likely what you're all wanting to read. The story.
I want to start off by saying, i like everything that this story has done. For alot of people right now going through the story, whether its someone watching or someone playing there is mixed reactions to what the ending sequence has come to. Going into rebirth, like many others we was ready to find out whether or not the death of Aerith will still happen. From start to finish the agenda of that happening is being pushed CONSISTENTLY especially when you get to the final set of chapters of the game it becomes more prominent. I was happily on the train of her still dying and im glad they stuck with it, the team behind the game know that they can't toy with the story to much to the point where people hate it for what it is. Everything leading up to that moment i believe was handled well, the usage of the PS5 triggers was probably some of the best choice for a moment like that. But let me not reminisce on those moments, lets talk about everything that happens after that. After which of course Aerith passes away and the world starts to go a little crazy with the whispers and it gives us a sort of hope that Aerith is alive, im still very much in acceptance that she is dead and won't know until the third game, what i did love from everything that happened with Aerith's death is the amplification it gave to Cloud's craziness which directly links into Cloud even worse in the final parts of the story but this time Cloud is quite literally the same as he is in Advent Children where he is the only one to see/sense Aerith. I don't believe aerith has cheated death or survived, maybe in a different timeline but im happily believing she's dead whether its a different timeline or not the main timeline that the game is following is what we should all follow on the basis if its not alive in this, its not alive anywhere else. The end of part 3 may have the same ending of Advent Children in which Zack & Aerith walk into the light after everything. The ending is messy i will say that, but its messy in a way that if a few scenes were taken out of swapped it would allow for a better development going into the 3rd game.
I wish they committed fully to an Aerith death scene or not. Doing both just emotionally jacked with me because now we have Cloud who thinks she’s alive with a team who thinks she’s dead, and he’s just oblivious. It also hurts so much that in chapter 13 and 14 he was pretty much a total asshole—especially to Tifa which really hurt after seeing their intimate scene on their date—and he never really fully owned it or made amends. Speaks volumes to the teams ability to love and forgive and accept him. And I understand why he was being that way. Sephiroth was hard fucking with his mind and using him, so it wasn’t fully Cloud. My first problem was going in hoping for a happy-ish ending but knew that wasn’t going to happen. What I got instead just hurts.
The same thing that happened with the Remake ending is happening with Rebirth, for those who genuinely love the story and want to know what happens will spend their next 3-4 years being psychopaths and building theories of nothing until we get actual information, others will have the same reaction to what they did with remake in which they hate it and say that it doesn't make sense and compare it to Kingdom Hearts. For people to always resort to Nomura being the butt of the joke whenever it comes to time travel has always been my least favourite thing to see, the approach of Rebirth with the culmination of CBU1 shouldn't be put all on Nomura's head because of him being Creative Director and i believe the way this story has been reimagined has been done in a way I've been happy experiencing and most likely many others.
I disagree that this game was written poorly. If you don’t like multiverse stuff, I can see it being considered poorly written. I don’t mind it, and the way they did it I thought was very good. The character development was phenomenal. Writing wise I do think Aerith’s end was just a lack of full commitment, and playing too much the “make everyone happy” thing. In one sense, it’s a great ending meaning it guts you and leaves you confused and frustrated and hopeful all at once. I did not come away from that ending unamused or outright angry only. In another sense, the ending just makes me hate Cloud for being a dick and insensitive. Again I understand why, I don’t need commenters ripping my post to shreds, just emotionally processing this game lol.
They delivered on the game, they delivered on the story and setup thoughts and speculations for the 3rd game as they did with the 1st, it is expected to be confused. All of us were confused when it came to the ending of remake and where the story will go and that exact moment is being relived through the ending of rebirth. Genuinely excited for what Part 3 holds, if done correctly and amplified for what this game has done in many ways it may end up as my favourite of the trilogy and one of the best reimagines of a story to be retold in a new era.
What I've noticed and find fascinating is the anger people show, but I don't think they understand why they are angry, the emotion they are feeling from the game is the frustration with how all that build up and they still failed. How the story is playing just like a 3 Act Play, this being their low point. It sucks for a story to end like that but you need the darkest moments in order for those brighter moments to shine and have more meaning.
The Finale has the potential to leave a big impact because the direness of the situation is in such a state that when the heroes are able to overcome it, and it's deserved, it will feel that much more rewarding to have been apart of that journey. Let us all rejoice for 4 years with theories until we get news on Part 3
No Promises Await At Journey's End.
Let me start off by saying Final Fantasy 7 Trilogy is beginning to become something interesting and exciting, as a long loving fan of the original game, it came at no surprise that a lot of people would be turned off by the thought of remake not being a 1 to 1 make of the game. After such had been released to the public and people took remake for what it is the picture was being set and things were about to change for a beloved FF7 world, in a good way I would say. CBU1 knew that a lot was depending on this trilogy, they couldn't mess up this story and everything was depending on the integrity of what they produced in the past.
Before I get into the details of the game that people are fighting over and expecting the worse from the it all, I would love to speak about everything to do with the combat. Combat was one of the fundamentals I believed was almost near perfect in remake with minor defects (air combat). Coming into rebirth with the addition of Air Combat, Synergy Abilities, Ally abilities that use no gauge and are STRONG. It was the one thing that was going to sell this game if it was not the story and that's the combat. Rebirths combat is an improvement at an extreme level and we still have one more game to go, who knows whats possible. Maybe we will have advent children level fighting and the whole party can take part against are fight to save the world.
Character development and voice acting was at the top of its level in this game, characters that i believed fell a little flat in remake had their attempt to bring it back in rebirth and they did exactly that. The development on Barret and his story with Dyne and having to relive his trauma in the temple of the ancients. Yuffie being the bubbly and annoying materia stealer that she is, her personality excels in this game compared to what was given to us in the DLC. She can be annoying at times but thats truly who yuffie is, as cloud once said on that elevator 'can you just shut up'. Red XII, or must say my beloved Nanaki. Boy or boy do I love this damn rat dog in this game, while it was expected for this game to give the backstory to everyone. Nanaki's story sticks out to me especially from the OG and Rebirth with the extension of how he acts around bugenhagen and the party, I enjoyed the hidden aspect of Red speaking in his younger voice towards aerith in earlier parts of the game and it being given off as someone random... once again them giving their nods to people who have played through the original. Cait sith, what can i say about this little robot cat? He was actually great. For a lot of people cait sith was hated and seen as pointless in the original game when it came to choosing him to fight with or even in choices of story but with the way I felt towards him in the original i wanted to try to give him a new thought of care and at first i still didn't like him, especially when the betrayal came which they handled alot better than the original, however that point when cait comes back and trys to have the party forgive him and show that he cares about them, there was a new found love that had grown inside me for him and im glad that came to happen for a character that i had previously not shown much care towards.
Even for things when it comes to character dialogue and conversations during set pieces, the relationship between different characters that don't involve Cloud, Red & Barret, Tifa & Aerith, Aerith & Red, Yuffie & Barret. All the bonding moments around the world builds more love and care for these people that you're going to spend so much time with.
Now i believe these next few characters deserve a new paragraph. I want to start off specifically with the two characters who are unplayable in this game, Vincent and Cid. For those that were upset with them being unplayable, i was indeed upset when it was announced before the game came out but after completing this game i couldn't even care and im even more excited to see what is done coming into Part 3, Cid was charming and still had a new flair to him. I don't really have much that comes to mind on Cid since he was primarily the man to fly the tiny bronco, there will obviously be more from him due Part3. Now onto Vincent, at points i almost thought i was going to control him however they did a lot more with Vincent in terms of implementing him into side quests & the main story, almost in the same way they incorporated yuffie into the story, with good amounts of humour and the hilarious moments of him trying to speak while being muffled inside his coffin, the genuine excitement of finally seeing vincent on screen and being the loner that he is it was good to finally be able to see the whole gang together.
Tifa Lockhart, with the addition of the new social mechanic where you're able to build bonds with characters it was quite enjoyable to have the control of who you're able to control and speak to in such manner. People who have played through the original and know of all FF7 material it is known that tifa is the one to save cloud with his delusion and its the ever ending eluding of that happening throughout this entire game. It continues to be prominent all the till credits roll. She is the pillar of bringing cloud back and she does just that as much as she can throughout the game. With of course the development of her not believing cloud because of the Nibelheim incident, the growth between Cloud & Tifa goes in a direction that i think we all expected it too and will continue to go in Part 3.
Cloud Strife, boy or boy cloud. its a homecoming. What a unbelievable way to make clouds mental illness, this game has made cloud schizophrenic. This isn't just mako poisoning anymore or him thinking he's someone else, this is genuinely a new point and approach to his mental illness and its something im scared but excited about, but this is a feeling I've been very much used to throughout this entire trilogy so far, Within the original game from the point of the Nibelheim flashback we know that cloud begins to lose himself to his mental illness and that becomes a problem for the party. With the approach that was taken in Rebirth, i was genuinely scared for anyone that stood in Clouds way. The influence of sephiroth and mental battle in this game is unbelievable, the constant reminder that every time those headaches begin something good dosen't come out of it. From points where cloud is quite literally spilling blood infront of his friends or him acting like sephiroth dodging bullets and slaughtering a whole platoon of shinra soldiers. Cloud is in a dark place right now, the trauma is building more and more and every moment seems to be getting worse the more Cloud is on screen. Big love to Cody Christian on his voice acting for Cloud, i genuinely had chills when it came to him speaking in that almost sephiroth/monotone talk. The presentation of cloud being someone completely different was done in a way i couldn't have expected but im thrilled to be experiencing.
Zack, im so sorry you had to relive having your heart broken to pieces for something that isn't your fault, he deserves all happiness in the world. And after all this he still cares and is selfless for others risking his life to protect them. No one deserved you zack
Aerith Gainsborough, alot of us were scared, alot of us are still scared. But let us embrace for what is to come, for what remake setup it seemed to be evident that aerith knew of things that she shouldn't know of, almost in the same that way that sephiroth's presentation was during remake. We knew that Sephiroth in remake was coming from Advent Children but what we didn't know is where Aerith gained any of the memories from. Throughout parts of remake aerith touched Red & Marlene and it showed no major plot points towards it, going into Rebirth it all began to make sense and things were starting to get out of control in things that we didn't expect. Aerith is 100% the staple of this game in which she has always been and im glad they stuck to that, She is constantly throughout the whole game giving hints and eluding to fate that is yet to come, From the point of her singing in the gold saucer it was set in stone that she was not going to make it at the end of this game. Cloud for what its worth with his poor mind pays no attention to any of it but for the viewer of this story, Aerith is trying her hardest to tell cloud and the viewer there is nothing thats going to stop what you know happening in this story so you must enjoy these moments and not feel bad for what will happen.
Onto the world of FF7, what we had all been wanting since the beginning. This game does everything for its world and it shows, this is what we all wanted. This is what i had been waiting for the most, remake was beautiful and Midgar was something i loved going through but for almost everyone when it came to the original the minute you stepped foot into the over-world the overall pacing of the game and the exploration that you experienced when it came to go visiting new places was beautiful, Rebirth keeps that exact feeling but for me amplifies it. Maybe that's because im able to see the game at a fidelity that's not the same as almost 30 years ago. It was hard to keep myself at not crying at every theme that played when going to a new area the music, the environments, the effort that went into making these places feel alive and full of life, this was nothing but amazing. Every zone held equally the same amount of effort and care and im sure as hell wondering what exactly could be done to push this even further going into Part 3.
I would love to point out as well when it came to NPCs the level of detail was a lot better than what was presented in Remake. It was evident that the only thing to be cared about in remake was everything centric around the story, going into Rebirth the team showed to put effort into all the things that lacked inside Remake. Side Quests, NPCs, Content outside of the story was nothing but amplified. Thank you SE for the amazing amount of black representation and effort into how everyone looks, Hairstyles and presentation, they did amazing.
As a mentioned before, the music. They had said 400 songs in a previous presentation before the games release and i didn't very much find that believable, was the game going to just have reused songs with the addition of what is new in remake? Yes. But its not the same, every song you believed was a reuse of what was in remake gained a new motiff, gained a new instrument, gained a new approach to the song that was different but somehow better than what was previously produced, Every song had a feeling inside it that i cannot explain. Once again amazing work towards to those behind the music of every FF game its something that is always evident for any game that comes out of SE, the music is always going to be some of the strongest parts of the game.
BOSS FIGHTS!!! WOW WOW WOW, Some of returning fights that got a touch of love and improvement from what it previously was, Some new faces too. Overall the amount of boss fights in this game and the way they're all constructed was nothing but fun, there genuinely wasn't a fight that i found irritating, annoying or down-right hard. I did get my ass beat quite alot of times when it came to doing the hard mode against fights that I believed we're easier when going through my first playthrough on Dynamic mode.
Onto something that I believe we all need to talk about and most likely what you're all wanting to read. The story.
I want to start off by saying, i like everything that this story has done. For alot of people right now going through the story, whether its someone watching or someone playing there is mixed reactions to what the ending sequence has come to. Going into rebirth, like many others we was ready to find out whether or not the death of Aerith will still happen. From start to finish the agenda of that happening is being pushed CONSISTENTLY especially when you get to the final set of chapters of the game it becomes more prominent. I was happily on the train of her still dying and im glad they stuck with it, the team behind the game know that they can't toy with the story to much to the point where people hate it for what it is. Everything leading up to that moment i believe was handled well, the usage of the PS5 triggers was probably some of the best choice for a moment like that. But let me not reminisce on those moments, lets talk about everything that happens after that. After which of course Aerith passes away and the world starts to go a little crazy with the whispers and it gives us a sort of hope that Aerith is alive, im still very much in acceptance that she is dead and won't know until the third game, what i did love from everything that happened with Aerith's death is the amplification it gave to Cloud's craziness which directly links into Cloud even worse in the final parts of the story but this time Cloud is quite literally the same as he is in Advent Children where he is the only one to see/sense Aerith. I don't believe aerith has cheated death or survived, maybe in a different timeline but im happily believing she's dead whether its a different timeline or not the main timeline that the game is following is what we should all follow on the basis if its not alive in this, its not alive anywhere else. The end of part 3 may have the same ending of Advent Children in which Zack & Aerith walk into the light after everything. The ending is messy i will say that, but its messy in a way that if a few scenes were taken out of swapped it would allow for a better development going into the 3rd game.
I wish they committed fully to an Aerith death scene or not. Doing both just emotionally jacked with me because now we have Cloud who thinks she’s alive with a team who thinks she’s dead, and he’s just oblivious. It also hurts so much that in chapter 13 and 14 he was pretty much a total asshole—especially to Tifa which really hurt after seeing their intimate scene on their date—and he never really fully owned it or made amends. Speaks volumes to the teams ability to love and forgive and accept him. And I understand why he was being that way. Sephiroth was hard fucking with his mind and using him, so it wasn’t fully Cloud. My first problem was going in hoping for a happy-ish ending but knew that wasn’t going to happen. What I got instead just hurts.
The same thing that happened with the Remake ending is happening with Rebirth, for those who genuinely love the story and want to know what happens will spend their next 3-4 years being psychopaths and building theories of nothing until we get actual information, others will have the same reaction to what they did with remake in which they hate it and say that it doesn't make sense and compare it to Kingdom Hearts. For people to always resort to Nomura being the butt of the joke whenever it comes to time travel has always been my least favourite thing to see, the approach of Rebirth with the culmination of CBU1 shouldn't be put all on Nomura's head because of him being Creative Director and i believe the way this story has been reimagined has been done in a way I've been happy experiencing and most likely many others.
I disagree that this game was written poorly. If you don’t like multiverse stuff, I can see it being considered poorly written. I don’t mind it, and the way they did it I thought was very good. The character development was phenomenal. Writing wise I do think Aerith’s end was just a lack of full commitment, and playing too much the “make everyone happy” thing. In one sense, it’s a great ending meaning it guts you and leaves you confused and frustrated and hopeful all at once. I did not come away from that ending unamused or outright angry only. In another sense, the ending just makes me hate Cloud for being a dick and insensitive. Again I understand why, I don’t need commenters ripping my post to shreds, just emotionally processing this game lol.
They delivered on the game, they delivered on the story and setup thoughts and speculations for the 3rd game as they did with the 1st, it is expected to be confused. All of us were confused when it came to the ending of remake and where the story will go and that exact moment is being relived through the ending of rebirth. Genuinely excited for what Part 3 holds, if done correctly and amplified for what this game has done in many ways it may end up as my favourite of the trilogy and one of the best reimagines of a story to be retold in a new era.
What I've noticed and find fascinating is the anger people show, but I don't think they understand why they are angry, the emotion they are feeling from the game is the frustration with how all that build up and they still failed. How the story is playing just like a 3 Act Play, this being their low point. It sucks for a story to end like that but you need the darkest moments in order for those brighter moments to shine and have more meaning.
The Finale has the potential to leave a big impact because the direness of the situation is in such a state that when the heroes are able to overcome it, and it's deserved, it will feel that much more rewarding to have been apart of that journey. Let us all rejoice for 4 years with theories until we get news on Part 3
No Promises Await At Journey's End.
Final Fantasy VII Remake project has absolutely no right working as well as it does, and Rebirth doubles down on what made Remake work -- and occasionally what really brought it down, with more unsavory additions to spare. But don't get the wrong idea, in Rebirth's extravangance and conceptually superfluous presentation exists the most actualized and engrossing take on the events of Final Fantasy VII's post-Midgar disc one that one could possibly even imagine, and I'm saying this as somebody whose love for the original is ironclad and unbreakable: Rebirth is probably going to end up being my favorite way to experience the moments tucked away in what was once a maybe 7 to 12 hour-ish section of a 25 hour long game -- with the 7 to 12 hour section now being close to 50 or 60 hours on average I'd imagine. That is to say, I've come to terms with a lot of the liberties Square has taken with the narrative and characterization and presentation, everything really; what made the original special to me, and most likely to many others as well, can't be perfectly replicated anyways, so I really do mean it when I say that the end result given here is bordering on a "best case scenario" for an adaptation of this vast a scope.
Much like Remake, characters that were once tableaus feel alive and truly connected as a group in a way the original just didn't have the ability to convey, just on an even more detailed and broader scale. And once again don't take that the wrong way, they're tableaus that I cherish dearly -- Final Fantasy VII's cast is my absolute favorite across like, all media -- but they're expanded upon so meaningfully: Tifa's self-destructive people-pleasing, Aerith's down to earth and fun attitude, Barret being the leftist extremist father figure we all know and love, Red XIII's deep loyalty, Yuffie's obnoxious little sister energy, Cait Sith's inopportune joviality, Cid's weird uncle vibes, and Vincent being the resident goth kid that has issues with authority. And their relationships with one other: Aerith's deep friendships with Tifa and Red XIII, Barret's new found friendships with Yuffie and Red XIII, and even the basic and immediate kinship many of them feel towards one other is more detailed and vibrant. I don't know man, I just love all these fuckin' guys, I constantly had the stupidest fucking grin on my face while playing this game it was honestly kinda cringe. Even side characters have so much more going on with them, certain characters that were previously throwaway will often give one a sense that there's something deeper going on with them as they continue to try to exist in this broken world, even the ones that are more comic relief than pathos-invoking.
The plot can often feel clumsy, but I'd say it's a lot more cohesive than the original's, pretty significantly too, the original occasionally feeling aimless and as it tried to find a reason to send you to the next exciting setpiece; even as somebody who replays the game often I find myself being confused which event flag I need to trigger next. And really the original Final Fantasy VII can be best-described as like, a bunch of Final Fantasy VI opera scenes strung together, and Rebirth leans into that so hard that I could see it being way too much for some people. If Final Fantasy XVI was way too dry for many, myself included, I could genuinely see Rebirth being perceived as excessively "wet" for others. Though, as a side note, when playing Final Fantasy XVI I'd often find myself unintentionally dozing off, whereas with Rebirth I actually had enormous trouble sleeping, both in finding a place I wanted to stop playing and the mild insomnia the excitement of getting to play the game again induced in my four day-ish long binge (which, I haven't done in a long fucking time without needing to take significant breaks, which happened quite often with Final Fantasy XVI, and as an adult in her 30s I think that's saying a lot).
On the topic of CBU1 styling super fucking hard on CBU3, god damn the combat in Rebirth is exactly what I wanted it to be, probably my favorite combat in general, from like, any video game? Like, it's not mechanically the deepest action game I've ever played, but it does expand upon Remake's systems in a meaningful way without upending what made those systems work in the first place. Final Fantasy has been focused on telling the player what any given character is about through how they play since like, FF4, and Rebirth's execution of that philosophy doesn't miss at all. Tifa is more fun than ever with an extensive aerial toolkit, I fucking love that she can juggle enemies and it kinda became my go to strategy at a certain point, which like Tifa was the blueprint for young Theia so I'm so glad they did her so good in this game both on a gameplay and narrative level. Red XIII I have to say feels a little bit busted!! I'm bad at playing as him, and he still seems really fucking useful even with unskilled play. Cait Sith I'm still trying to wrap my head around, but I wouldn't have it any other way than making Cait Sith a confusing mess to properly utilize. I wish Vincent was playable, one of like 10 or so boys in media that I actually care about, but I kinda understand why he isn't when he shows up so late that it was probably better to just focus on polishing the rest of the cast than implementing what's probably going to be a pretty unique kit on top of everything else going on.
There's a particular level involving Cait Sith that I'm pretty sure is gonna become like the third or fourth most contentious thing about the game, but I fucking loved it in a really fucked up Banjo-Tooieian way and nobody can take that away from me. The thing I can see becoming the second most contentious aspect about the game, what I thought would be the primary contention until I got to the ending (which I'll get to in a bit, and without spoiling anything, but if you don't want to know literally anything just be forewarned), is the open world game design elements. The best way to describe it is probably Xenoblade with some pointless Ubisoft shit, but it's not really as bad as it sounds, and much of it is entirely optional only providing secondary or tertiary benefits to character progression. As a "modern" interpretation of the original's wide, open, and mostly empty fields populated by sets of random enemy tables, I think it's probably a fair enough way to go about things. The life springs and towers I wasn't so much a fan of, like why do the towers play the BotW theme But At Home when you activate them, but the summon temple thingies felt a lot more meaningful than just picking up a materia off the ground, like how it usually worked in the original (seriously who was dropping all those bahamut variants and just leaving them there). The map designs themselves I did enjoy though, even if the Cosmo Canyon and Gongaga regions can be a little tedious at times, I honestly prefer having to mentally map out the geographical logic of an open world than the modern trend of empty fields with little identity and often no reason to engage with a game's environments and systems.
That said, the more linear "dungeon" levels are kinda mostly the same deal, but they did an even better job at making them feel like real places you're exploring this time 'round, as opposed to the modified FF13 hallway dealie in Remake. They're still largely linear, but the best way to explain why I think they work better is how the Final Fantasy standby of forked paths with option A being progression and option B being a treasure chest is more heavily obscured; I actually got a little bit lost in a couple of levels!!! Though sometimes that was the result of perhaps poor tutorialization of a level's specific gimmick or progress not being visually distinct enough, which like god damn the graphics are so fucking good in this game that it's almost hard to see anything unless I walked up to my TV (maybe I just need to invest in a larger screen for my old lady eyes but whateverrr), it's no wonder that there are several areas where the Uncharted climbing walls have the RE4R yellow paint on them. I know people are gonna slam the game for shit like that, which is like, yeah I can kinda get it, personally would've preferred more non-diegetic signaling over things that make me have annoying CinemaSin-esque intrusive thoughts about "who is painting all this shit out here in the middle of nowhere".
And you know, it's not gonna be the most discussed thing in the end, as uninspired as Rebirth's "structural quirks" may feel now, they'll probly become innocuous given enough time; that's just how these thing typically go. I wanna say the same will happen for the game's ending which... yeah. Not gonna say much here, but if you find yourself frustrated by it, I'd say give yourself some space and rewatch it on YouTube or something. It's a lot to take in, and I found it a lot more impactful after I had gotten some sleep and finally digested what was being shown to me. I don't think it was all exactly what I wanted it to be, far from it maybe, but there's something to be said about the way the entirety of Rebirth takes special moments dear to us and recontextualizes them into new special moments, sometimes even more special.
And a bit of a tangent, but I loathe the critic scores for this game. Not so much because they're necessarily wrong for enjoying the game, but because I'm starting to strongly believe that art, and especially interactive art, can't really be quantified on such simple terms, especially when people tend to have such viscerally opposed reactions to their experiences with any given work. What does a 10/10 even mean? On a personal level I could almost understand, but detached from the context of that personal experience how can we consider any piece of media to be in some arbitrary upper percentile of perfection? I guess I'm saying this because I know with scores like that people are going to come at this game with a certain set of expectations, but despite it being one of the most gorgeous and polished Final Fantasy titles that CBU1 has brought out in recent years, it's a deeply uneven experience. You will be frustrated, maybe you'll even get annoyed at the many side quests that suck ass and are total shit!!! Or something, maybe you'll hate the combat even if it's exactly what my brain has always wanted FF7's combat to be. But I guess like, when you look at a piece of art in its totality as opposed to a given qualification of Good or Bad, it's easier to just appreciate things as they are. Or even fucking hate them for what they are! People on this website tend to tear the shit out of really popular games and who's to say they're wrong for looking past consensus into a deeper inner truth, which you know, even if that comes from a place of unfounded contrarianism, good for them, man. Fuck video games!!
I hope it doesn't come off like I'm waffling or anything, I just really love this game, and I feel like the things I hated about it only made me love it more in a really fucked up way. I think playing Drakengard 3 for the first time a year ago gave me brain damage or something. Also like, on a final note, let me get more on brand here: there's some premier fucking queerbaiting going on here, and if that ain't more accurate to the actual single lesbian in her early 30s experience than any other AAA video game that has some fake ass porn-afflicted interpretation of sapphic romance where flesh puppets say sweet nothings at each other after completing a single questline or whatever the fuck, than I don't know what is. Anyways, sorry I had to make it gay in the end, but truly that is what the Final Fantasy VII was about all along: twinks with swords and bisexual women who can suplex kaijus. Which, you know, being able to do the latter is what's going to be main determinant if part 3 is good or not, so the ball's in your court now Square...
Much like Remake, characters that were once tableaus feel alive and truly connected as a group in a way the original just didn't have the ability to convey, just on an even more detailed and broader scale. And once again don't take that the wrong way, they're tableaus that I cherish dearly -- Final Fantasy VII's cast is my absolute favorite across like, all media -- but they're expanded upon so meaningfully: Tifa's self-destructive people-pleasing, Aerith's down to earth and fun attitude, Barret being the leftist extremist father figure we all know and love, Red XIII's deep loyalty, Yuffie's obnoxious little sister energy, Cait Sith's inopportune joviality, Cid's weird uncle vibes, and Vincent being the resident goth kid that has issues with authority. And their relationships with one other: Aerith's deep friendships with Tifa and Red XIII, Barret's new found friendships with Yuffie and Red XIII, and even the basic and immediate kinship many of them feel towards one other is more detailed and vibrant. I don't know man, I just love all these fuckin' guys, I constantly had the stupidest fucking grin on my face while playing this game it was honestly kinda cringe. Even side characters have so much more going on with them, certain characters that were previously throwaway will often give one a sense that there's something deeper going on with them as they continue to try to exist in this broken world, even the ones that are more comic relief than pathos-invoking.
The plot can often feel clumsy, but I'd say it's a lot more cohesive than the original's, pretty significantly too, the original occasionally feeling aimless and as it tried to find a reason to send you to the next exciting setpiece; even as somebody who replays the game often I find myself being confused which event flag I need to trigger next. And really the original Final Fantasy VII can be best-described as like, a bunch of Final Fantasy VI opera scenes strung together, and Rebirth leans into that so hard that I could see it being way too much for some people. If Final Fantasy XVI was way too dry for many, myself included, I could genuinely see Rebirth being perceived as excessively "wet" for others. Though, as a side note, when playing Final Fantasy XVI I'd often find myself unintentionally dozing off, whereas with Rebirth I actually had enormous trouble sleeping, both in finding a place I wanted to stop playing and the mild insomnia the excitement of getting to play the game again induced in my four day-ish long binge (which, I haven't done in a long fucking time without needing to take significant breaks, which happened quite often with Final Fantasy XVI, and as an adult in her 30s I think that's saying a lot).
On the topic of CBU1 styling super fucking hard on CBU3, god damn the combat in Rebirth is exactly what I wanted it to be, probably my favorite combat in general, from like, any video game? Like, it's not mechanically the deepest action game I've ever played, but it does expand upon Remake's systems in a meaningful way without upending what made those systems work in the first place. Final Fantasy has been focused on telling the player what any given character is about through how they play since like, FF4, and Rebirth's execution of that philosophy doesn't miss at all. Tifa is more fun than ever with an extensive aerial toolkit, I fucking love that she can juggle enemies and it kinda became my go to strategy at a certain point, which like Tifa was the blueprint for young Theia so I'm so glad they did her so good in this game both on a gameplay and narrative level. Red XIII I have to say feels a little bit busted!! I'm bad at playing as him, and he still seems really fucking useful even with unskilled play. Cait Sith I'm still trying to wrap my head around, but I wouldn't have it any other way than making Cait Sith a confusing mess to properly utilize. I wish Vincent was playable, one of like 10 or so boys in media that I actually care about, but I kinda understand why he isn't when he shows up so late that it was probably better to just focus on polishing the rest of the cast than implementing what's probably going to be a pretty unique kit on top of everything else going on.
There's a particular level involving Cait Sith that I'm pretty sure is gonna become like the third or fourth most contentious thing about the game, but I fucking loved it in a really fucked up Banjo-Tooieian way and nobody can take that away from me. The thing I can see becoming the second most contentious aspect about the game, what I thought would be the primary contention until I got to the ending (which I'll get to in a bit, and without spoiling anything, but if you don't want to know literally anything just be forewarned), is the open world game design elements. The best way to describe it is probably Xenoblade with some pointless Ubisoft shit, but it's not really as bad as it sounds, and much of it is entirely optional only providing secondary or tertiary benefits to character progression. As a "modern" interpretation of the original's wide, open, and mostly empty fields populated by sets of random enemy tables, I think it's probably a fair enough way to go about things. The life springs and towers I wasn't so much a fan of, like why do the towers play the BotW theme But At Home when you activate them, but the summon temple thingies felt a lot more meaningful than just picking up a materia off the ground, like how it usually worked in the original (seriously who was dropping all those bahamut variants and just leaving them there). The map designs themselves I did enjoy though, even if the Cosmo Canyon and Gongaga regions can be a little tedious at times, I honestly prefer having to mentally map out the geographical logic of an open world than the modern trend of empty fields with little identity and often no reason to engage with a game's environments and systems.
That said, the more linear "dungeon" levels are kinda mostly the same deal, but they did an even better job at making them feel like real places you're exploring this time 'round, as opposed to the modified FF13 hallway dealie in Remake. They're still largely linear, but the best way to explain why I think they work better is how the Final Fantasy standby of forked paths with option A being progression and option B being a treasure chest is more heavily obscured; I actually got a little bit lost in a couple of levels!!! Though sometimes that was the result of perhaps poor tutorialization of a level's specific gimmick or progress not being visually distinct enough, which like god damn the graphics are so fucking good in this game that it's almost hard to see anything unless I walked up to my TV (maybe I just need to invest in a larger screen for my old lady eyes but whateverrr), it's no wonder that there are several areas where the Uncharted climbing walls have the RE4R yellow paint on them. I know people are gonna slam the game for shit like that, which is like, yeah I can kinda get it, personally would've preferred more non-diegetic signaling over things that make me have annoying CinemaSin-esque intrusive thoughts about "who is painting all this shit out here in the middle of nowhere".
And you know, it's not gonna be the most discussed thing in the end, as uninspired as Rebirth's "structural quirks" may feel now, they'll probly become innocuous given enough time; that's just how these thing typically go. I wanna say the same will happen for the game's ending which... yeah. Not gonna say much here, but if you find yourself frustrated by it, I'd say give yourself some space and rewatch it on YouTube or something. It's a lot to take in, and I found it a lot more impactful after I had gotten some sleep and finally digested what was being shown to me. I don't think it was all exactly what I wanted it to be, far from it maybe, but there's something to be said about the way the entirety of Rebirth takes special moments dear to us and recontextualizes them into new special moments, sometimes even more special.
And a bit of a tangent, but I loathe the critic scores for this game. Not so much because they're necessarily wrong for enjoying the game, but because I'm starting to strongly believe that art, and especially interactive art, can't really be quantified on such simple terms, especially when people tend to have such viscerally opposed reactions to their experiences with any given work. What does a 10/10 even mean? On a personal level I could almost understand, but detached from the context of that personal experience how can we consider any piece of media to be in some arbitrary upper percentile of perfection? I guess I'm saying this because I know with scores like that people are going to come at this game with a certain set of expectations, but despite it being one of the most gorgeous and polished Final Fantasy titles that CBU1 has brought out in recent years, it's a deeply uneven experience. You will be frustrated, maybe you'll even get annoyed at the many side quests that suck ass and are total shit!!! Or something, maybe you'll hate the combat even if it's exactly what my brain has always wanted FF7's combat to be. But I guess like, when you look at a piece of art in its totality as opposed to a given qualification of Good or Bad, it's easier to just appreciate things as they are. Or even fucking hate them for what they are! People on this website tend to tear the shit out of really popular games and who's to say they're wrong for looking past consensus into a deeper inner truth, which you know, even if that comes from a place of unfounded contrarianism, good for them, man. Fuck video games!!
I hope it doesn't come off like I'm waffling or anything, I just really love this game, and I feel like the things I hated about it only made me love it more in a really fucked up way. I think playing Drakengard 3 for the first time a year ago gave me brain damage or something. Also like, on a final note, let me get more on brand here: there's some premier fucking queerbaiting going on here, and if that ain't more accurate to the actual single lesbian in her early 30s experience than any other AAA video game that has some fake ass porn-afflicted interpretation of sapphic romance where flesh puppets say sweet nothings at each other after completing a single questline or whatever the fuck, than I don't know what is. Anyways, sorry I had to make it gay in the end, but truly that is what the Final Fantasy VII was about all along: twinks with swords and bisexual women who can suplex kaijus. Which, you know, being able to do the latter is what's going to be main determinant if part 3 is good or not, so the ball's in your court now Square...
This game crushed my soul back into my body
“No Promises Await at Journey’s End”
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a fantastic game that not only moves forward from its predecessor of Remake, but expands on both that game and the original FF7 in ways that I had never expected, yet have still welcomed all the same and I’m glad to have went through the world of Gaia in an all new light.
I have a very strong connection with FF7 that has followed me for a long period of my life and Rebirth has further capitalised on this, from the care and thought given into
each region you explore with the party, with each of these said regions being accompanied by a plethora of side-quests that do a lot to build upon the relationships certain party members have with one another- a favourite feature of mine as someone who dearly loves the cast of FF7. As well as this, the expansions/changes integrated into the main story (most evident in areas such as Gongaga and Costa Del Sol), the new and improved upon mini-games (Queen’s Blood >>>) and most specifically the party bonding system are all things that Rebirth had blown all of my expectations out of the water with.
As for story content, I will not give an in-depth overview or analysis but more so discuss the emotions I felt throughout it, and all I can say is- wow. Rebirth covers some of the favourite story beats from the original FF7 and I can gladly say that said story beats are done in such a way in Rebirth that there were certain story areas that had me feeling left with a hole in my stomach, a smile on my face or just left in tears, and I couldn’t have asked for a better adaptation of these events.
Talking about characters now, I have and will always adore the cast of FF7 and has I’ve said countless times already in this review- I LOVE THE EXPANSIONS/CHANGES MADE WITH THE MAIN CAST SPECIFICALLY! A character like Yuffie- who I didn’t care for in OG FF7, is now a fan favourite of mine thanks to Intermission and Rebirth. Along with this, some stand-out characters of mine throughout Rebirth were primarily Barret, Tifa and Aerith- all characters that I think predominantly shined throughout Rebirth’s story and its side content- and the most important character of all to me in Rebirth was Zack.
I really loved Zack in Crisis Core, and all the way through the wait to Rebirth I was anticipating his role in the story and the fact we would be getting new content regarding him, and all I can say is that I am not disappointed in any right. He stays true to the character we met in Crisis Core and has his own standout moments that feel like a tribute to those who had played the prequel game, and all I can really say to people who haven’t experienced Crisis Core is really just to play it…it’s amazing…
Focusing again on the story, and more particularly the ending portion of this game from the Forgotten Captial onwards- it’s also one of my favourite final acts I’ve ever been through in any game I’ve played, there’s only so few things that have made me feel the flurry of emotions I experienced in those final chapters of the game and everything I had ever wanted out of this remake trilogy and much more and been fully catered towards in the finale.
This game was a one of a kind experience which reminded me why I love the story and world of FF7 an extreme amount, this entire compilation from the OG to the remake trilogy is so special to me, and I am both excited and nervous to venture into the final part of this reimagined story whenever it is ready.
Thank you Nomura, Kitase, Hamaguchi and Nojima.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a fantastic game that not only moves forward from its predecessor of Remake, but expands on both that game and the original FF7 in ways that I had never expected, yet have still welcomed all the same and I’m glad to have went through the world of Gaia in an all new light.
I have a very strong connection with FF7 that has followed me for a long period of my life and Rebirth has further capitalised on this, from the care and thought given into
each region you explore with the party, with each of these said regions being accompanied by a plethora of side-quests that do a lot to build upon the relationships certain party members have with one another- a favourite feature of mine as someone who dearly loves the cast of FF7. As well as this, the expansions/changes integrated into the main story (most evident in areas such as Gongaga and Costa Del Sol), the new and improved upon mini-games (Queen’s Blood >>>) and most specifically the party bonding system are all things that Rebirth had blown all of my expectations out of the water with.
As for story content, I will not give an in-depth overview or analysis but more so discuss the emotions I felt throughout it, and all I can say is- wow. Rebirth covers some of the favourite story beats from the original FF7 and I can gladly say that said story beats are done in such a way in Rebirth that there were certain story areas that had me feeling left with a hole in my stomach, a smile on my face or just left in tears, and I couldn’t have asked for a better adaptation of these events.
Talking about characters now, I have and will always adore the cast of FF7 and has I’ve said countless times already in this review- I LOVE THE EXPANSIONS/CHANGES MADE WITH THE MAIN CAST SPECIFICALLY! A character like Yuffie- who I didn’t care for in OG FF7, is now a fan favourite of mine thanks to Intermission and Rebirth. Along with this, some stand-out characters of mine throughout Rebirth were primarily Barret, Tifa and Aerith- all characters that I think predominantly shined throughout Rebirth’s story and its side content- and the most important character of all to me in Rebirth was Zack.
I really loved Zack in Crisis Core, and all the way through the wait to Rebirth I was anticipating his role in the story and the fact we would be getting new content regarding him, and all I can say is that I am not disappointed in any right. He stays true to the character we met in Crisis Core and has his own standout moments that feel like a tribute to those who had played the prequel game, and all I can really say to people who haven’t experienced Crisis Core is really just to play it…it’s amazing…
Focusing again on the story, and more particularly the ending portion of this game from the Forgotten Captial onwards- it’s also one of my favourite final acts I’ve ever been through in any game I’ve played, there’s only so few things that have made me feel the flurry of emotions I experienced in those final chapters of the game and everything I had ever wanted out of this remake trilogy and much more and been fully catered towards in the finale.
This game was a one of a kind experience which reminded me why I love the story and world of FF7 an extreme amount, this entire compilation from the OG to the remake trilogy is so special to me, and I am both excited and nervous to venture into the final part of this reimagined story whenever it is ready.
Thank you Nomura, Kitase, Hamaguchi and Nojima.
What a game, what an experience. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth sets a standard in what JRPGS should be. this is game as art and a must play candidate for one of the best games this decade. Phenomenal.
The game is massive, chuck full of content and just scratching off 60h and I still feel like I haven't gotten to explore everything. this is going to be on my PS5 for a very long time exploring the open world and fantastic characters.
The music is spectacular. the graphics are superb, it is the Final Fantasy VII I grew up loving only better.
The game is massive, chuck full of content and just scratching off 60h and I still feel like I haven't gotten to explore everything. this is going to be on my PS5 for a very long time exploring the open world and fantastic characters.
The music is spectacular. the graphics are superb, it is the Final Fantasy VII I grew up loving only better.
This is truly square enix's GOTY, been a long time since i enjoyed a game so much. Play it, its definitely worth ur time
give it a few weeks, people are gonna HATE this one
This honestly doesn't feel like a real game. Theres so much care put into each individual character, quest, open world, minigames, etc. I will wait for however long it takes for the final installment to finish the perfect trilogy. Theres still so much for me to do and so much to see in this game. So many callbacks and references to previous Final Fantasy VII media and if they can improve on Remake as much as they did for Rebirth I cant imagine what they have in store for us to come.
Till we meet again.
Till we meet again.