I was initially going to write a long section-by-section review of this, but I'm going to keep it short and simple—7 Rebirth is absolutely fantastic, and one of the best RPGs I've ever played. Following on from Remake, which I already absolutely loved, it improves on practically everything that game did, from a more fleshed out battle system with more toys to play with, to hugely better side content and large open areas to explore (worthwhile ones at that!), and continuing to develop these amazing characters in ways inconceivable in the original game. I spent over 90 hours playing this masterpiece, which is shocking to me as it sure did not feel like that—not a moment went by where I thought "this game is too long". There is plenty of worthwhile new story content which fleshes out areas and characters that were underdeveloped in the original game, which this game just does significantly better than Remake in my opinion. Not to say there aren't sections that miss—the box throwing dungeon is the definition of overcomplicating gimmicks and providing an all around miserable experience—but they are simply so minor that it doesn't really affect my opinion of the game.

I also have to give a shoutout to the surprising amount of gay couple NPCs; sure, it would be nice to have actual side quests about them, but the amount we got left me frankly amazed, and very hopeful for the future of this series in terms of representation. Speaking of which, this game does not even attempt to hide the camp of the original, instead embracing it and amplifying it to such an unprecedented extent, it's brilliant. Moreover, there's so much fun humour, bizarre PS1/2 era style side activities full of absurdity, Rebirth really seems to understand what make Final Fantasy so fun, fresh, and entertaining. If I have one minor gripe though, I do wish the affinity system gave you choices rather than forcing whoever had the highest, that left a somewhat bad taste in my mouth when the 'personalisation of your journey' was personalised against me, lol. Granted, the characters in this game are so amazing, I'll take bonding with any of them.

I have to give a special shout out to how they handled Red and his section at Cosmo Canyon, one of my favourite parts of the original. Not only did they restore his missing characterisation from the awful og loc, but they went above and beyond turning it into this magical place full of philosophy and pacifism, and delivering an even more emotional conclusion to his story. And that doesn't even begin to cover other additions, such as a certain heart-wrenching bonfire scene that I'm sure minorities of all kinds can relate to, as well as a significant expansion of lore mostly left uncovered in the original game.

The soundtrack is probably one of the best I've ever experienced in a video game, with such massive variety and outrageously good bangers, even for the most minor of moments. It might actually be THE best video game soundtrack for me, which is saying something—though I'll need to wait for the honeymoon period to end first.

I don't want to say much on the ending, but I have ended up on the side that loves it, contrasting Remake where I enjoyed it but felt the execution was pretty messy. The emotional core this time was massively more successful for me, and it makes me ridiculously excited to see how they bring this trilogy, no, entire compilation to its conclusion. Honestly, the only reason I can't give this game a perfect score is because it is admittedly fairly reliant on the next part sticking the landing, and I have seen many stories push resolution of unreasonable amounts of plot threads onto their finale, pretty much setting it up for failure in addressing them all satisfyingly. I have a lot of faith in Nojima and the rest of the team to tie it up well, but I'll keep my expectations in check for now.

After all... no promises await at journey's end.