It’s rare for a game, especially an RPG, to be top-tier in everything they do, but Final Fantasy VII Rebirth still managed to do it. From the side content to the main story, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with every aspect of this game. After taking 112 hours to beat the game, I still find myself constantly thinking about it and itching to go back to the world of Gaia.

In terms of story, this isn’t the most insane plot due to this only being part two of three, but this still contains some very powerful and hard-hitting moments. The segments from the original game that are covered here are more impactful than ever. There are certain changes that I was unsure of at first, but slowly grew to like them and I trust in part three to utilize them in satisfying ways. The overall story isn’t a major focus of this part, but it instead is centered around the characters. This completely pays off, as all members of the main cast are fantastic and are some of the best-written characters I’ve ever seen.

Remake’s combat was already fantastic, but Rebirth adds even more layers and options to it, making it all that much better. Even Aerith, a character that I didn’t particularly enjoy playing as in Remake, feels a lot better to control with her new abilities. On top of the combat, there are plenty of other things to do. Side quests are really well done, as they have interesting character interactions and often involve unique content such as mini-dungeons. Also, I’m not usually a big fan of minigames in games like this, but I found a majority of the minigames here to be pretty fun (and there are a lot of them). Queen’s Blood in particular proved to be extremely addicting. I would buy an entire spinoff based on it.

One of the biggest changes in Rebirth compared to Remake is that it is a lot more open, with multiple expansive areas. They’re fun to explore, but I like that there are also markers for areas of interest to help you find important things without too much work. It’s also nice that there are linear segments spread throughout the game, providing a lot of variety to keep things fresh. Speaking of variety, it's insane how many unique music tracks there are. It's always a treat hearing a new song, because you never know what style or genre they'll pull from next, and they're always magnificent. This results in a spectacular soundtrack that I can't wait to be officially released.

It’s been nearly a week since I beat Rebirth, but I still find myself unconsciously thinking about how much I adore this game. It truly is an extraordinary adventure, one of the best I've had the pleasure of experiencing, and I cannot wait to see what the final part of this series has in store.

I'm honestly pretty torn on Side Order, because I feel like it doesn't live up to expectations but it's also weirdly addicting. I just expected more substance from a DLC campaign, especially following Octo Expansion.

It does have a lot of replayability, but it still results in a very similar and short playthrough each time. Once you've completed one run, you've pretty much seen most of what there is to see. I would have appreciated more variety, as repeat rooms are encountered rather early on. This is extremely unfortunate considering most of them are rather uninteresting layouts confined in a small square platform. More objectives would also have been greatly welcomed, as the five that are here boil down to very similar encounters with enemies.

Since most of this DLC is just combat, I ended up missing the other elements of Splatoon campaigns, like the parkour and slight puzzle elements. The other campaigns (especially Octo Expansion) also allowed for fine-tuned and hand-crafted level design, which is why I was hesitant on the idea of a rougelike Splatoon campaign.

Issues aside, it is still enjoyable to run through the tower, slowly becoming stronger and stronger as you go. There is a large variety of upgrades to choose from, which does help each run feel a bit more unique. It's also really fun to create a completely broken setup and feel unstoppable as you destroy everything in your path.