After completing FF7 Remake, the first part of this remake project trilogy, I knew it was gonna derail from the original. I knew that whatever the writers wrote for this new journey would be something I won't like and would bring in convoluted concepts of fate and destiny, deterministic philosophy and multiverse theory that the original story didn't have in the first place, or atleast not in the forefront of the themes.
Let me say my negatives first; when I finished the game and say the ending, I didn't like it all. It was just like every other Square rpg where the 2nd half of the story would be convoluted and paced in a weird direction for the sake of ambiguity and for players to continually discuss with. A lot of the twists felt like the writers wanted the player to be emotionally confused and use those twists for the sake of shock value and fanservice. However, after some time thinking about it, I do appreciate the devs being this risky with this kind of story. It's like they trusted the players with their new vision of the game. Not many games this generation have ever went to this direction. When I finished FF7 Remake, I've already accepted the original FF7 that I've loved is gone and that whatever new stuff the devs bring to the table wouldn't be what I wanted but I'm still curious how things will turn out. Rebirth left me questioning more but wanting more. I know for a fact the next and final part will leave some unresolved plot points as red hearings but I've already accepted that. There's no getting off this crazy train.
Now positives; the gameplay and exploration is phenomenal. In terms of gameplay and graphics, this is by far the best square game they have made in the past decade or 2. I have spent so many hours just exploring every nook and crany, battling every enemy, just sucking out every enjoyable aspect that game has to offer. And the game throws in so many minigames and other activities to switch up the gameplay loop and because of this I was never bored. However, since this is an open world game I did experience some exploration fatigue and got a little tired doing the same quests over and over again, but again the switch up of gameplay sprinkled throughout the game helped alleviate this. I could easily go over the 100 hour mark This game made FF7 Remake look bad, like really bad. It's gonna be hard to go back to Remake. This game has even more strategy, more role playing aspects, more player expression, its the whole package. Another positive is how they basically nailed every character; each character as if I remembered it but in the modern age. There were some story beats that were actually better and more actualized in this game compared to the original because it added more character and understanding on each character, main or side. Scenes like the Dyne scene, cosmo canyon, and gold saucer in general where I genuinely felt it was better executed in rebirth than in the original.
I didn't hate this game, not at all. I did have expectations that I wouldn't like it after completing Remake, but I've gained an appreciation for this project and want to see more of the devs new vision on this beloved story. I'm just curious on how this will end, even if it does end up as a car crash or train wreck. This game did have too much going on, making the story even more convulted and messy than it should be. Any newcomer that hasn't played any FF7 game in the compilation would be completely lost in rebirth but I felt the basic, bare bones interpretation of the themes and message its trying to convey is there. But the complex ideas of psychology, theology, and philosophy from the original are present here but it's just different. That's one word I can sum for this game: "different." In a good and bad way. It has its pros and cons but I've learned to outweigh the pros from the cons and appreciate what the devs are trying to do. There's no getting off this train.
Let me say my negatives first; when I finished the game and say the ending, I didn't like it all. It was just like every other Square rpg where the 2nd half of the story would be convoluted and paced in a weird direction for the sake of ambiguity and for players to continually discuss with. A lot of the twists felt like the writers wanted the player to be emotionally confused and use those twists for the sake of shock value and fanservice. However, after some time thinking about it, I do appreciate the devs being this risky with this kind of story. It's like they trusted the players with their new vision of the game. Not many games this generation have ever went to this direction. When I finished FF7 Remake, I've already accepted the original FF7 that I've loved is gone and that whatever new stuff the devs bring to the table wouldn't be what I wanted but I'm still curious how things will turn out. Rebirth left me questioning more but wanting more. I know for a fact the next and final part will leave some unresolved plot points as red hearings but I've already accepted that. There's no getting off this crazy train.
Now positives; the gameplay and exploration is phenomenal. In terms of gameplay and graphics, this is by far the best square game they have made in the past decade or 2. I have spent so many hours just exploring every nook and crany, battling every enemy, just sucking out every enjoyable aspect that game has to offer. And the game throws in so many minigames and other activities to switch up the gameplay loop and because of this I was never bored. However, since this is an open world game I did experience some exploration fatigue and got a little tired doing the same quests over and over again, but again the switch up of gameplay sprinkled throughout the game helped alleviate this. I could easily go over the 100 hour mark This game made FF7 Remake look bad, like really bad. It's gonna be hard to go back to Remake. This game has even more strategy, more role playing aspects, more player expression, its the whole package. Another positive is how they basically nailed every character; each character as if I remembered it but in the modern age. There were some story beats that were actually better and more actualized in this game compared to the original because it added more character and understanding on each character, main or side. Scenes like the Dyne scene, cosmo canyon, and gold saucer in general where I genuinely felt it was better executed in rebirth than in the original.
I didn't hate this game, not at all. I did have expectations that I wouldn't like it after completing Remake, but I've gained an appreciation for this project and want to see more of the devs new vision on this beloved story. I'm just curious on how this will end, even if it does end up as a car crash or train wreck. This game did have too much going on, making the story even more convulted and messy than it should be. Any newcomer that hasn't played any FF7 game in the compilation would be completely lost in rebirth but I felt the basic, bare bones interpretation of the themes and message its trying to convey is there. But the complex ideas of psychology, theology, and philosophy from the original are present here but it's just different. That's one word I can sum for this game: "different." In a good and bad way. It has its pros and cons but I've learned to outweigh the pros from the cons and appreciate what the devs are trying to do. There's no getting off this train.