I think this game has a very strange premise for an open-world RPG, which if I oversimplify is – You have a few weeks to live and are trying to find a cure.

Now obviously it doesn’t really matter, you have as much time as you need to explore, but in my head, I’m thinking “Well if I’m V, and I’m in this situation, why would I fuck around doing odd jobs when I’m on borrowed time?”
I know that’s only really a problem in my head, and it’s besides the point because I tend to mainline these things, only doing a fairly small amount of side-content anyway, but that story really doesn’t help me want to explore.

The game and story are solid, sitting in this interesting middle ground between GTA and Deus EX. Though I would say the game seems to have a lot of systems and choices you could tinker with to make your character stronger or do different things… but they aren’t especially important if you’re playing on Normal as I was. Rare was it that I had any difficulty with any extended combat sections, and considering I wasn’t doing much side-content I would have thought I’d been a little weak. One of those situations where I’m torn between thinking I’m glad I wasn’t getting frustrated, but I feel like on normal I should be getting challenged and having to actually engage with the games many RPG systems a little more thoughtfully.

One other minor quibble – weird issue where quest steps involve waiting for characters to call you – but they do not for ages until I messed around trying various things. This was a mostly glitch-free experience for me playing it today, but that was a little strange.

Overall, though, the story and characters, and the basic gameplay loops propelled me along, even though I wouldn’t say it’s doing much that’s groundbreaking.

I enjoyed this a lot, but if I was writing some kind of reviewer’s tagline it’d be something like “The Sea is beautiful but not very deep.”

The game wears it’s influences on its sleeve, openly a tribute to classic SNES JRPG’s, so when it’s evoking the vibes of those games it’s all very nice and pleasant, but what that means is that by design the story, world, and characters, feel like they’re written that way to most emulate the feel of other games that you might have played in the past and liked.

If the starting point is “I want to make something that’s like this other thing.” Well then, it’s just not going to be as interesting as the more original work.

Maybe I’m being overly cynical and presuming too much about the writers’ goals, but it certainly feels that way, particularly when they’re putting in meta-jokes about JRPG tropes… you don’t need to undermine the reality of your own world with trite observations.

What all that means is moment, I’m enjoying the story, I’m liking the characters, but I also have this vague feeling that it’s mainly because it’s very deliberately like other things that I’ve also liked.

The Combat then – again enjoyable, it’s a good take on turn-based combat, it’s probably getting the “lock” mechanic from something else too although I haven’t played whatever game that is. I do sometimes find it irritating that enemies would suddenly go.

“Here prick, break 12 locks of every damage type in one turn!”

And I’m like

“Doesn’t seem fair?????.”

It is fine though, you can’t 100% break the lock every time by, but it can feel odd and like you might be missing something sometimes.

I do think if the game were any longer the lack of complexity would have started to be a big problem. There isn’t much you can do with character progression or builds in this game. When you level up you simply choose between what stats you want built up.

That’s fine, the combat is more puzzle and decision based, but I got through this entire game without dying (I did die once on a simple random encounter because I’d completely forgotten to heal after the battle before, and I’m absolutely cursing myself for this) There are relics you can turn on to make the game harder (and easier) and that’s all fine, and I’m not saying introducing lots more mechanics and character build variety would necessarily work in this game, it would probably just create other problems. But I think it’s a system that feels like it never quite gets out of third gear.

I feel like I’ve spent this whole time criticizing a game I really enjoyed and had very few complaints about, but that’s the thing. It doesn’t do much wrong, but doesn’t do much that’s amazing either… although that one bit where you traverse to a new area for the final third of the game, wow!

This was my first Insomniac Spider-Man, and it was a little overwhelming at first as it definitely assumes familiarity with the first game despite being a standalone release.

Personally fine with it being a shorter game, as I think I'd get bored if it lasted much longer and it's open world didn't seem to offer much variety to make me want to dig into it's content. Obviously, the main appeal is its traversal which is fun but because it’s so simple It’s a bit shallow.

You can see the inspiration from the Arkham games in the combat, but I find it strange how much the game pushes you towards stealth, because I don’t think it’s as much fun as the venom combat and the game seems to punish you not using stealth even if it’s not essential.

The little puzzle sections I generally wasn’t in love with, they often felt a bit unintuitive over what your goal is.

Ultimately, I’m not really the Sony AAA cinematic/open world guy. So, I knew going in a lot of these things would be issues to me and the story wouldn’t be very engaging as I’m not a Spider-Man guy. But I still got a fair amount of enjoyment out of my time with this, as a sort of free if you have PS Plus game, so I don’t regret playing it.

One of the strangest experiences I’ve had with a game where it was rare that I would say I was having a bad time or finding it a slog to get through, yet I’d also rarely say I was having a great time.

The only time I died in this game (playing on normal difficulty.) was during a train defence mission, and yet I frequently felt like I must have been ignoring some fundamental aspects of combat and levelling.

The battle system means that you would have to be deliberately negligent to have your whole team KO. If you’re well stocked on healing items it should never be a problem because eventually, you’ll chip away and win. It is an incredibly forgiving system that breeds bad habits in me because there’s no pushback against playing badly. The game hasn’t given me an incentive to be more optimal and improve my build, and it doesn't do a good job explaining some of your options. Also the AP needed for upgrades is bafflingly expensive, and while the game is very generous with XP. Very strange balancing.

Much has been said about how incoherent the story is. Interesting that a game originally called “Final Fantasy Versus XIII” seem to have all the opposite strengths and weaknesses to Final Fantasy XIII.

XIII starts linear and opens up, XV starts open and then (figuratively and literally) puts you on rails for the 2nd half.

In XIII there’s so much mythos and lore that’s told to you, yet you barely explore the world and see what a society shaped by these deities looks like.
In XV you explore a world that not dissimilar to our own that feels at odds with the fantasy elements that the game insists did shape it.

I almost found myself wishing this did still have the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythos attached because at least some shared proper nouns would have helped connect certain things.

It’s all frustrating because the open world does have some smart systems, even though the sidequests and hunts are all fine but dull, (the finding 5 frog type missions are very bad.)

The loop of doing these simple tasks, fighting monsters, banking XP, picking up ingredients that you can make meals that gives you additional boosts for doing more hunts all syncs up pretty well. In some ways it’s a more considered open world than seen in FF7 Rebirth. The world feels like a more natural believable space.

There’s more dynamic dialogue between the boys, so you can at least enjoy that while doing some of these activities, something that was sorely lacking in FF7 Rebirth and could have elevated that open world a long way.

Although ultimately it leads to tedium because the novelty of driving around soon wears thin, and you're left with a clunky fast travel system to circumvent it.

The thing most people love about this game is the boys camping road trip and bonding, and while I did like it, I can’t say that I felt as much for these boys as most other FF casts. I think because most of the game’s content is in its open world, the interactions that happen feel less meaningful.

The critical path is less than half the length typical of other Final Fantasy game. In some ways I can’t complain it’s briefness means I got through it without much issue, but Final Fantasy is where I want these huge sprawling stories, and in FFXV… well it might have been there in the design document but it wasn’t apparent to me playing it. When this stuff this does come into the story more I didn’t understand or know what anyone was talking about. Which just meant that all it’s biggest moments don’t really hit. And there are some good choices made at the end that feel wasted.

Ardyn was a great villain though, I’ll give him that.

Had a speed replay of this using the remaster speed ups and boosts, and it made me marvel at 14-year-old me for getting through this without guides, because I felt like I must have been missing some obvious with upgrading something, because I was so underpowered. I was obviously under level because of the nature of the playthrough, but I shouldn't have been that much lower.

Anyway, the main reason for playing again was to see how the story holds up, and there is a lot that I really like here, the themes and emotional depth, and cast of characters work very well.

I do think the fact that it's a ps2 games holds it back quite a lot though. There are some very strange directional choices, most scenes have this oddly slow stilted pace to them, or just odd bits of extraneous dialogue. And some very poor acting for some of the characters. It's a shame because the heart of the story is one of the series best, but this stuff does get in the way for me.

It does also feel like an unusually brief story for a FF game. I remember thinking the same at the time but playing it this way really did emphasize that there's not that many twists and turns along the way. Really did surprise me when I realized I was already in Zanarkand. I know it has some very extensive side and super boss content to explore, and it would have been good if some of that stuff was more integrated into the main story.

Much like Remake FFVII Rebirth is a game of highs and lows. My biggest issue with Remake was the absurd amount of padding - Sections like the walkways before the 2nd reactor, the collapsed expressway, going to the sewers twice, that other underground area. Some very dull sidequests.

In Rebirth the main path of the game doesn’t feel anywhere near as padded, and although some dungeon areas start to outstay their welcome (Looking at you, Cait Sith’s unwieldy box throwing.) The fact that you’re in different locations, doing different things, and the fact that the combat itself is improved meant I was never truly bothered.

However, there is a lot more bloat and padding in Rebirth than there was in Remake, it’s just been reformatted to the open world. That makes it far more tolerable because you can at least choose to do it in your own time, on your own terms, but overall, the “world intel” parts of the game do feel like a missed opportunity. There’s a very obvious comparison with the Ubisoft style of open world where it’s mainly a series of things to tick off in each region that are mostly the same. As regions become more complicated to navigate simply finding the way to the tower/lifespring/summoning stone/protorelic becomes quite a challenge itself and one that’s not very fun. It’s always feels just within your reach of doing, but always takes a bit longer than you expect.

The protorelic quests are most unique to each region, but this ends up kind of backfiring because there’s always 4 parts in each region and whatever mechanic they have usually starts testing your patience around the 3rd one and really becomes a drag the 4th time. But they’re they’re the most rewarding in terms of what you receive and because they have some actual cut-scenes and character interactions to them. Cosmo Canyon for instance has the most compelling quest because it features some extremely cute Avalanche Flashbacks, but they’re locked behind the most obtuse and complicated minigame, which I soon looked up solutions for to get through it.

The lack of dynamic character interactions in the open world is a real sore point for me. You’re running around the open world with Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret, Red, Yuffie, and Cait, and for the most part… none of them are saying a word. Just a few moments of chatter and banter between them at certain instances, would have gone such a long way towards making exploring the world its own reward. Instead, what you get is Chadley, Chadley, and more Chadley, and then MAI his AI Girlsona. I didn’t want to ride the Chadley-Hate train because it seems too obvious, but it’s just… he seems to be the main character of the game. Like sure he doesn’t interact with the main story much, but I think he has more dialogue than any other character. And most of it’s just completely unnecessarily over-explaining things. I understand why this happens, his dialogue is functional, to explain mechanics and systems. But if this game adopted Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen’s romance mechanics every player would be going on a gold saucer date with Chadley.

What does determine the gold saucer date however is a combination of dialogue choices and bond quests. Which to me highlights another issue. The side quests are mostly much better than they were in Remake. However, they’re all focused on one character at a time, because it’s there to serve the “who do you go on a date with later.” Mechanic.

So, what will usually happen is you’ll talk to a quest giver in a region, then one other character will pipe up and say something, giving Cloud a reason to accept the quest, while other characters stand silently in the background. Through this quest pretty much the only interaction will be between Cloud, the character the quest is tied to, and any other NPCs involved. This is good in a sense that Cloud has some one-on-one interactions with different members of the group, but equally I’m left wondering why nobody has anything else to say during these quests. No words or thoughts for the current situation. It feels strange, and another missed opportunity for more chatter with the cast. This would have been the perfect time for it when the current stakes in the world aren’t so urgent and would show the group developing a stronger bond.

It's certainly not as if this doesn’t exist throughout the main story of the game, because what is there is good, but there could have been so much more.

Everything I’ve talked about is ultimately not the biggest deal breaker but optional or not, it does still account for a significant amount of the game. Its importance is diminished because it’s not the main course, but it can’t be dismissed either.

When looking at the more crucial elements, combat is absolutely top tier. I never quite clicked with it in Remake, but some minor changes and additions of synergy abilities have transformed this into my favourite combat system of any JRPG.

When the game is following the main story path it’s so good. There’s no game where I wholeheartedly love the characters and world beyond rationality than FF7. For the most part, the slight changes and additions make a lot of sense – Sephiroth appearing to make Cloud doubt Tifa was a smart change, and gives a good reason, why Tifa is reluctant to question Cloud on his telling of the Nibelheim. Yuffie and Caith Sith are improved characters with better justifications for joining the group. Red XIII I’m less sure about, I think they overplay his change post-Cosmo Canyon. There’s a middle ground to be sat between him trying to play the wise old sage, and him loosing up so much he becomes a silly, dorky little child.

There are some changes I think are less good, Dyne didn’t have as strong an impact as he could have had. The backstory for the Gi tribe in Cosmo Canon, I think was a promising idea in theory, but I think it might have added a complication that wasn’t needed.

The real thing I have to talk about is the way the meta-narrative comes into things. I wasn’t initially happy with the way remake ended, but over time I accepted that it does create some intrigue and tension that a straight remake wouldn’t be creating. There were even times in this game where some of the “meta-narrative elements” worked perfectly and made for one of the best chapters in the game.

But after the end of the game, my God do I wish they were just doing a straight remake instead.

The only way to cope with the disappointment is to tell myself, that things can be salvaged in the next game, but I also feel like the way they’ve gone already confuses a particularly crucial narrative beat in the next game. There are other ways it could resolve and hit a similar strong emotional note. But it’s hard to trust the writing team after this. Maybe something can happen in part 3 that entirely recontextualizes things, but I’m not sure that is a good approach when if Remake to Rebirth is anything to go by, we’re in for a 4 year wait.

Can already suspect how part 3 will go, it’ll follow most of the same beats, pad some bits out, have some new bits some of which are worse and some which are better, and ultimately end in a similar way to the original.

It’s frustrating because I feel this review is predominately focusing on the negative which I swear I’ve not been trying to do. I don’t think I can quite express how much I enjoyed this game. Just how emotionally invested I was in this story, world, and characters. It really hit home how important and formative the original game was to me at the age I played it. I don’t think there’s any form of media that I’ve cared about more. I’m not typically fixated on nostalgia and favourite media from childhood but with FF7 that’s just some irrational emotion it hits for me beyond what my critical eye could defend.

And this game has the fucking audacity to actually improve a lot of it. It breaks my brain to think that the same people are responsible for things I love and hate so much and act as if they’re the same. We all have good and bad ideas, but this team take it to another level.


.

This is The Stanley Parable, with a heavy dose of The Beginners Guide added in, in the sense that it feels like Davey Wreden working through some things. And I appreciate the game a lot on that level, because it’s interesting to play a game where you’re essentially invited to explore someone’s head, and by the time of the epilogue ending I felt things had come to a very moving conclusion.

I don’t think I get on so well with the humor of the game so much anymore, I didn’t dislike it, but it’s more just mild smiles from me now, and everything regarding the bucket soon outstayed it’s welcome, which could probably be countered with “ahh but that’s the point.” But doesn’t really change the fact that I wish it had been something I found funnier instead.