I adored Final Fantasy VII Remake despite never hunkering down and playing through the original. Upon going back to Final Fantasy VII I was struck by how aimless it felt for large chunks, just kind of meandering from one weird experiment to another in a bizarre multimedia project mostly held together by the strength of its cast. That's not to say that the original FF7 is bad, it's no doubt a landmark work, but this inconsistent quality that pervades the experience cannot be overlooked.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth begins as Cloud and friends enter into what is the most scattershot chunk of game from its namesake. In an attempt to capture that scattershot feeling that the original exudes just due to the circumstances of its creation, Rebirth hits on an even stranger balance. Seeing all the little diversions you'd expect of areas like the Gold Saucer with the modern level of polish you'd expect of a AAA video game somehow makes them less interesting. Yes, every minigame in this is technically more fun than they ever were in the original, though it comes at the expense of the novelty those minigames provided at the time. Each and every minigame is more fleshed out than it was previously, while also being featured alongside a bevy of new minigames and an avalance of Ubislop open world content, it's enough to make your head spin. Doubly so if this was the sort of stuff that never worked for you in the original FF7.
All of that is what loomed large in my mind while playing the game, but upon completing it most of that has been swept aside by an ending that left me with more thoughts than anything FF7 related has to date. I'm not going to get into spoilers here, but all of the bloat on display in Rebirth on top of a previous 40 hour outting with this cast, has endeared them to me at a level that few casts of any media have. Even if the story of Rebirth followed the events of FF7 to a tee, the emotional highs and lows would necessarily feel more extreme just due to this endearment. I do think that Rebirth is following the events of FF7 a little too closely at times, but that makes the deviations all the more impactful. That impact is felt strongly for me, I haven't been able to stop thinking about the implications of the last few hours of the game for the last day since I finished it, and even if there wasn't another game on the way to follow up on what I saw here, the metatextual elements alone are enough to chew on for a long time to come.
I love this game! it's messy as hell just like Final Fantasy VII should be, but that also means there are a lot of little gripes getting in the way of me wanting to experience this story again. Which is wild, because with a cast this strong, and combat this satisfying, it almost feels like you'd have to intentionally make huge chunks of the game bad to keep me away from it.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth begins as Cloud and friends enter into what is the most scattershot chunk of game from its namesake. In an attempt to capture that scattershot feeling that the original exudes just due to the circumstances of its creation, Rebirth hits on an even stranger balance. Seeing all the little diversions you'd expect of areas like the Gold Saucer with the modern level of polish you'd expect of a AAA video game somehow makes them less interesting. Yes, every minigame in this is technically more fun than they ever were in the original, though it comes at the expense of the novelty those minigames provided at the time. Each and every minigame is more fleshed out than it was previously, while also being featured alongside a bevy of new minigames and an avalance of Ubislop open world content, it's enough to make your head spin. Doubly so if this was the sort of stuff that never worked for you in the original FF7.
All of that is what loomed large in my mind while playing the game, but upon completing it most of that has been swept aside by an ending that left me with more thoughts than anything FF7 related has to date. I'm not going to get into spoilers here, but all of the bloat on display in Rebirth on top of a previous 40 hour outting with this cast, has endeared them to me at a level that few casts of any media have. Even if the story of Rebirth followed the events of FF7 to a tee, the emotional highs and lows would necessarily feel more extreme just due to this endearment. I do think that Rebirth is following the events of FF7 a little too closely at times, but that makes the deviations all the more impactful. That impact is felt strongly for me, I haven't been able to stop thinking about the implications of the last few hours of the game for the last day since I finished it, and even if there wasn't another game on the way to follow up on what I saw here, the metatextual elements alone are enough to chew on for a long time to come.
I love this game! it's messy as hell just like Final Fantasy VII should be, but that also means there are a lot of little gripes getting in the way of me wanting to experience this story again. Which is wild, because with a cast this strong, and combat this satisfying, it almost feels like you'd have to intentionally make huge chunks of the game bad to keep me away from it.