A great game that throws charming character interactions, goofy minigames, varied environments, cool boss fights and compelling cutscenes at the player constantly. The only big flaw is its bizarre desire to copy the absolute worst aspects of AAA western games with its insanely dull and repetitive open world side content. I think the most important aspect to get right when you want players to fill out an open world checklist is making traversal of said world smooth and enjoyable and Rebirth's is neither. It's really easy to get stuck on the environment and the stiff, slow animations for simple things like climbing rough terrain or going over chocobo-specific obstacles makes exploration feel jank and awkward. Thankfully it's almost all optional, but it was a tad annoying thinking about all the EXP and materia I was missing out on. The game also forces a ton of slow walking segments which don't end up wasting a lot of time overall but it ticks me off personally, especially since the PS5's SSD is supposed to make this completely unnecessary to hide loading times. The combat is still good and the synergy attacks are a nice addition. It's really cool seeing the inactive party members on the sidelines and I like how the game constantly switches up your party composition to make everyone feel more involved. I'm still not really sure what to think about the new story material since the time ghosts still feel rather unnecessary and Nomura really needs someone to rein him in for those ending sequences, but overall I had a very good time.