Recreating such an iconic game as Final Fantasy VII is a herculean task. Square managed to nail Midgar with Remake, and now they've somehow topped that scope and story with Rebirth. No game is perfect, but this one is damn near perfection in every way.

The world of Final Fantasy VII is one of my favorites besides Alrest in Xenoblade 2. The thing I was most excited to see was how they would change and expand upon things like in Remake. They do it consistently with every area of the game. Whether it's Junon and learning about the history of the republic that was once there and the people who live under the large base, or the vastly expanded Gongaga region and the whole dungeon at its reactor, every area has something going on that's either expanding upon the original game or adding something completely new that compliments it. The world is really brought to life. The only thing I'd like to see added in part 3 is just being able to change the time of day. Seeing places like the grasslands and corel desert at sunset was amazing. I'd like to be able to experience areas at different times whenever.

The gameplay is absolutely a step up from Remake. The combat there was already great, but could've used some more fine-tuning for certain situations where you just had to sit and let your ATB fill up. We saw the addition of two person moves in Intermission and sure enough they made that a focal point in Rebirth now. Since you have a big party you can do all sorts of awesome attacks that utilize 2 specific characters. I adore the synergy moves that don't cost anything to use. This fixed the issue of not knowing what to do to get ATB in some situations, and some of the attacks are powerful enough to fill an entire bar on their own which is great. This has to be one of the best combat systems I've seen and I really don't even know what to expand upon for part 3. Outside of combat there's so much to do I don't even wanna try to list it all. I overall loved the world Intel as it's completely optional and doesn't affect the story, but gives you so much more lore and is worth seeing through. The summon crystals powering up your summons and making them easier to obtain through the simulator, the lifesprings giving more info on the regions, the protorelics being completely unique scenarios that lead to great character moments, etc. There's so much game that you don't have to experience. But just like the original skipping out feels like a mistake. This variety is what 16 could've used to keep things fresh. I love all the different activities this game gives you to do.

Rebirth contains a large chunk of story from 7's narrative. You visit many places and a lot happens. The big thing everyone has been waiting on though is Aerith's death and what Sephiroth intends to do leading up to that. I was surprised by the fact that most of the game plays out exactly as you would expect. The way Remake ended had me thinking we could see a lot more new stuff happening or have locations/events taking place out of order even. Yet the story goes as you think it will, and we don't see anything out of Zack (outside of the opening) until pretty far into the game. If there's one thing I wish they did, it was to start hinting or feeding info to us over time. Because of the way they decide to reveal the many timelines and throw a ton of info at you after Aerith's supposed death… you end up feeling confused and maybe even frustrated because they're actively taking away from a huge moment of emotion. I think about how they could've still left us wondering (since most people didn't even understand what they were seeing at first in the endgame anyway) while giving us these little info bits over the course of the chapters. Stuff like Cloud getting flashes of future events or other timelines, or Sephiroth starting to slowly reveal things even though the player and Cloud wouldn't be able to fully understand yet. I just wish it wasn't all at once. But I still have faith in this deviation in the story. Everything they've been doing has been intentional and meant to subvert expectations. If they're going the route I think they are where Cloud can't accept Aerith's death and still thinks she's alive… I'm super invested to see his descent into madness. We won't know for sure what's happening for a few years. But even if we learn more and things don't look promising I'm just invested to see this through. This project has been insane and if they pull it off all the way through I will be extremely happy.

Plenty of people will be able to say it better than I have in this review… but this game is amazing in every way. Almost every area and activity had some new mini game or mechanic. Many quests have unique field and battle themes which is crazy to me(and man is the OST in general fantastic). The characters are all fun to play as and have great arcs and interactions. Rebirth has brought back the feeling and emotions of original Final Fantasy VII in so many ways it doesn’t feel real. The lines I always think back to as a way to describe this remake project perfectly are from the original reveal.

“The reunion at hand may bring joy… it may bring fear… but let us embrace whatever it brings. For they are coming back. At last the promise has been made.”

And contrasting that with the line at the ending of this game I think paints a clear picture that big changes are coming. And I couldn't be more ready to see it…

“No promises await at journey's end”

This game left me with a lot of thoughts. On the one hand I love seeing Zack's arc and how he ended up with the beautifully tragic ending he was dealt. His journey was the best part of this game. Seeing how he interacts with all the strange Shinra higher ups and other soldier members or townspeople was great. The Shinra experment aspect of the narrative is another highlight. I feel like the best part of any of this story is that it shows how messed up Shinra truly is. Through the abnormal shit people spew to you like it's an average day in the company to finding out about Project G and J... they do a good job (whether intentional or not) of making Shinra feel like a truly creepy organization. Their obsession with gaining power through any means necessary is fascinating. I ultimately don't have much to say on Genesis or Angeal. Angeal on the one hand is interesting considering he's like a brother to Zack in the beginning and ends up giving him the Buster Sword (And you get to hear a little about it which is nice). Genesis though... what a pathetic annoying character. Only good thing they could do for him if he comes back somehow in Rebirth is give him something... anything more to do. And SHUT UP ABOUT LOVELESS MY GOD. In the end I was just left feeling weird about the narrative because until the final chapters, where it actually ties into the main FF7 narrative, the story just does not matter. Like I stated Zack's interactions with everyone is what makes it any bit interesting.

The gameplay is... simplistic yet has potential. I understand this was a PSP game originally so everything was designed in a very simple pick up and play fashion. My main issue comes down to there being nothing you do outside of combat. There's some fun minigame moments but I just wish there was something more going on. The only thing you do is run down corridors and fight enemies for the most part. That's every single mission in this game. The simplicity extends to the combat itself as well. I really like the action oriented nature of it (my preferred RPG playstyle). But there isn't much more to focus on besides getting weaknesses of enemies, and hoping the DMW gives you what you want it to. Speaking of which the DMW is really sick and idk why they didn't give you more control of it. The way you get to see Zack's memories as a way to expand on his interactions with characters without having to fit it in the main story somewhere is unique. Now there are ways to pull the odds of getting certain actions in your favor I'm aware. I guess I mainly would've liked there to be more interactivity with it. Maybe have it change up certain combat mechanics. I feel like there's a lot of changes I'd wanna make for this game, but to keep it simple why not have you be able to affect the DMW through the use of certain moves or attack patterns. Something like that. I think the fact that you also can't do certain missions or sidequests with certain characters to affect Zack's emotions with them is what also is weird (granted you can get Materia or gear, I can't remember exactly which, to increase the odds of certain actions popping up so I guess they didn't even need to go that route). Overall I just wanted more to do in the world. Otherwise the gameplay is solid.

If there's anything to end this on it's that ending. Seeing the final scenes of Zack and Cloud almost making it to Midgar, the soldier ambush, Zack's final words... they did that whole ending so much justice in this game. Legit gave me goosebumps. I'm so glad to have finally played this game despite its issues, and now that I've watched Advent Children I feel fully ready for Rebirth.