This is the only way to "enjoy" and discover:

- The First Soldier
- Before Crisis

Yep. With a gacha. That's how Square Enix appreciate and respect its fans.
Positive thing is that this is on Steam as well.

Like every gacha game, I turned on auto-combat the moment it became available so I can't comment much on the gameplay.

The visuals are stunning and it's great at evoking the feel of the 3D models on the PS1 while still being an upgrade. It's also pretty faithful to the original story and the bonus chapters feel much more well integrated than the new content in FF7 Remake.

Like every gacha game, unfortunately, there's too many currencies and menus and systems that aren't intuitive and unless you're really going to commit yourself to it, it's far too easy to fall off the treadmill and never come back.

the thing with this game is that, like, i think the story element is kinda cute, but the everything else is so horrendous that it really isn't worth it. like i can deal with some bad stuff but this is so bogged down in mobile game garbage that it's like borderline unplayable. like i think the episodic structure of it is nice, good for playing one when you have 5 mins to spare, and it gives a decent summary of the games if it's been a while since you've played them and want a refresher (though it does completely ruin any pacing of the originals by cutting out sections. i get why they did it but that doesn't mean i have to like it). the original story too i did like but again, genuinely horrible app experience, could not live like this. like the gacha i couldnt care less about it is what it is the rates are good compared to other games iirc, but you're constantly bombarded with microtransactions and timers and the events are grindy as hell
tldr they should have made the first soldier part of this a switch title or something and gotten rid of the rest

I have a bone to pick with this game.

Yes, the chibis of the characters are cute and the costumes are cool and all. But like, what is the point of this game? To make an extra buck in between Rebirth? Why do we need to see FF7 remade AGAIN? Hell, why the fuck does Crisis Core need to be remade again???? It literally just got a remastered version not to long ago.

I would really love it if this game brought back a certain game from the FF7 compliation that was only for the PS2, focused on a beloved side character, gave more lore to not just that character, but to the game and not to mention the literal villian. But nope. Because who cares about Dirge of Cerberus when we can get First Solidier! Because Mini Sephiroth!! If only Mini Sephiroth actually looked young and wasn't just old Sephiroth but with short hair. Oh, and don't forget if you actually want to keep playing through the stories, you have to have a bulky team, and you can't have that without spending over 20 dollars for all the good weapons and limited costumes!!!

This isn't a good game for those who want to gamble away, because it cost atleast 20+ doubloons for one ten pull. Not to mention you're almost never guranteed anything good. Even fucking Genshin Impact gives you a 4 star weapon/character after 10 pulls.

Cute chibis and cool costumes, but all for what.

i might not have even minded this game so much if it just didn't run like absolute shit and crash every other time i would try to launch it. really wanted to stick it through for the first soldier and (potentially) before crisis stuff but god is it boring.

menu after menu blasting you with information, hoping you'll just eventually give up and stop thinking about the numbers and just cough up the dough to get rid of the hassle. drip feeding you the tiniest rewards for completing missions after showering you with goodies for logging in for the first time, hoping you'll try and chase that high by spending your hard earned money to get the ACTUAL good shit.

and can we talk about fucking stupid of a premise this is as a gacha? "experience these fully released video games, only shittier!" it'd make a bit more sense if this was a game where it was recapping EVERY final fantasy game so there's a bit more meat on the bone to it, or if the gacha rewards weren't ONLY weapons. yeah, no, it's not even like hoyoverse games where you have a chance of pulling a character or something, you just get weapons. how do you fuck up a gacha game so badly that you make the main selling point so fucking lame.

shit, going back to that final fantasy series gacha, id play the shit outta that. you're thinking im not rolling for "firion in a maid outfit?" that might be the closest a gacha will ever get to having me pay for something in them.

also fuck this game for not allowing you to log in if you have a VPN enabled lmao, don't play this garbage, not even as a joke.

As someone who has played OG, Crisis Core and Reunion, Remake, and seen Advent Children, I feel like I can always just go on my phone and doomscroll while simultaneously playing the game. The game is very pretty for a classic-style remake of the OG and compilation. But the abridged structure that they went with to do a classic remake of the series (especially the original) is a bit rough imo. The game is free, so I don't think that's a huge detriment, but this is definitely not what I'd recommend to a newcomer who wants to experience the compilation for the first time. If EC was an actual 1:1 classic remake of the OG, then sure. But the rest of the compilation was told in cutscenes, many of them with lots of voice acting and also cinematics only doable in the style of CG cutscenes or a full movie. I guess as an OG fan I'm fine with this game; it does look super pretty and has amazing OST rearrangements after all. But the gameplay is honestly just so meh. The battles (at least early on from what I've played) are very easy to beat by doing almost nothing and no real strategy.

I have yet to play the exclusive Sephiroth side story. I intend to play it one day but not soon probably. To be quite honest I think it's pretty jarring that one of the most iconic gaming villains of all time has his entire backstory revealed and told to us for the first time in a free-to-play game that was originally exclusive to mobile (until the PC release three months later). If you really want FFVII players and the fans to like Sephiroth more than they already do, this is not the way I would have done it. Back when the Yuffie DLC for Remake dropped, I remember seeing people brainstorm a DLC episode for Sephiroth for Remake (or some other entry in the trilogy). And I think that would've been much more effective, and would've done pretty good numbers considering who we're talking about here.