Well this was a bit of a disappointment for me. Don't get me wrong it was good. If you have a fondness for the original or Remake it's probably worth continuing the series here and I'll certainly be there for the final chapter when that releases but this entry has problems.

I went back and read my review of Remake Intergrade and I complained that there weren't enough open areas with side quests and it felt like I was burning through the game too fast... Well they "fixed" that. The story beats are stretched incredibly far apart. At times I forgot what I was actually supposed to be doing because nothing of consequence happened for such long stretches. It feels mostly like padding with only a few actual story rich moments in the entire game. Sure you get the open world and side quests galore but they're mostly just MMO-style nonsense... "help me catch my chickens, go find this thing and bring it here".

The combat was still good. Felt balanced. I had fun switching the characters more this time instead of sticking to a core party. The music was an excellent rendition of the original tunes and the art style fit. It isn't a graphical powerhouse but it looks nice and the characters seem to fit well.

I guess this is a case of be careful what you wish for. Its a competent game but they overcorrected from Remake to here. The series still feels worthwhile but maybe not for new fans with limited time on their hands.

Unique story which I enjoyed. Very heavy on the philosophy and mystery of the world. The gameplay was physics puzzles... more variables that something like Portal but kind of the same general principal. I couldn't really wrap my head around a few of them and had to use a couple guides. Usually revolving around the record/play mime function. I stumbled upon a few of the Stars but getting them all felt like a bit too much to ask. Graphics and Sound we just satisfactory... I'll try the sequel though so not bad.

So this was great. I'm glad I replayed the first one in that recent remake. So yeah the first game is better. The story is just more cohesive and I'm a sucker for the "journey" type tales. I didn't mind the new characters but I prefer a more singular view for my stories and this one just didn't feel a since of resolution... I'm guessing they wanted to keep sequel potential wide open but I prefer more finality. This felt too safe. Gameplay was the same as the Part I remake... too hard but manageable with difficulty settings... seemed maybe some bad checkpointing were to blame for some of the near unwinnable encounters I found myself in.

So this was a good game but not a good Final Fantasy. Like most point out, it was all action focused and I just couldn't get into it. I played on regular difficulty but used the ring that let me auto-dodge and that felt a bit better but I still would rather a different combat system. Music was great as usual. Graphics were excellent. I actually enjoyed the side-quests so don't believe all the hate about those. They were fine and while some were pointless most fleshed out the story in a nice way. The lack of meaningful leveling or item management was a bummer but makes sense when they're making a God of War game instead of a JRPG. Bottomline- This is fine but I don't want to see this become a trend.

This was pretty unique. First the bad: I didn't care for the rhythm game part. Maybe it was just my setup but it felt too picky on the timing where Rock Band and other stuff on the PlayStation side never did. The rest was great though. Music was enjoyable without be repetitive. Level design was hugely entertaining and I got old-school, 3D platformer vibes that I apparently really missed. Decent story and characters were fine but really just poking around the levels looking for collectibles was nice. Wished it had a just straight brawler mode.

This was a nice chill game. As many have said before it is basically the climbing parts of other games like Uncharted but strung into a full experience. It is more nuanced than those games with different mechanics being added throughout so it never really gets stale. The story is kind of the typical "walking-simulator" type thing that gets explained through finding letters and junk left in the world. You're mileage may vary there but I found it pleasant enough and worth the short time investment.

Well they fixed the hair. It was a solid remake but I'm not sure it was necessary since I somewhat recently played the original and it was fine. Lighting was nicer this time around but even on Perfomance mode I noticed the Xbox Series X chugging a bit... and especially during cutscenes. Gameplay holds up but felt slightly tougher this time. I had to bump it down to easy at one point when I had an autosave that was low on health and ammo. I'd be interested in what this team does next though... hopefully something a bit more original or at least overlooked and needing a remake.