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Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
This is one I bounced off a couple of years ago.
At the time I wasn't really into "movie games" or the like. I hit the first puzzle and called it quits because I thought it would be a waste of my time.
Flash forward to today, where I am older and wiser (and bored) I decide to give it another go.
And overall? I have to say I came out pleasantly surprised.
It's not a perfect game, but it is incredibly svelte and focused.
You can tell that there was a limited budget based off Senua being the only human character model and a lot of the characters from her past being represented with live action actors.
But in a way these limitations helped the experience for me because it caused me to entirely focus on Senua and her story.
And it's a pretty decent one at that. One that tackles complicated topics like grief, mental illness, isolation and abuse.
The way it tells its story is rather inspired as well. Details are drip fed bit by bit with a lot of space in between so you can ruminate on what you know so far.
The voices in Senua's head provide a great source of information and, more obviously, entertainment. Wearing a good pair of headphones and turning off subtitles really makes you feel like another voice in the chorus that is her head. There is an impressive amount of dialogue to pay attention to that is frequently overlapping which adds this layer of disorientation to the proceedings.
This game straddles three distinct genres: action, puzzles and horror.
First and foremost, the action.
Combat feels a lot more complete than I thought it would for the type of game this is. Realistically all it needed to do was be baseline adequate to help facilitate the story, but I think they made a valuable effort to make a pretty above average system for this experience.
It fits the game like a glove. Fighting an enemy is a 1 on 1 affair but a lot of the time there's multiple foes coming from every direction. It adds this sense of impossibility and working against the odds which mirror's Senua's quest rather well.
Enemies aren't tough to take down so the main challenge comes from positioning yourself in a way that you can react to their moves. The voices also help you out here, if an enemy is attacking from off screen you'll hear a call out from one of them.
A lot of the time games do this it can feel like a substitute for actually having a zoomed out camera, but I found it to be well suited here. After all, Senua is meant to be a person who can see the world in unique ways, and injecting that into the combat was a very smart move.
Speaking of Senua's ability to "See the world in unique ways."
Let's move onto the puzzles.
True to Senua's nature, the player can use her abilities to see patterns in the world around you. The most common usage of this is finding shapes in the environment in order to unlock doors. Other versions of this like viewing a fractured staircase from the right angle to rebuild it and archway door's which add/ remove objects in the environment.
I'm assuming this is where the game garnered the most criticism, and honestly I can see it.
Finding the right shape in the world can be repetitive. But they do admittedly use the gameplay to show instead of tell.
Instead of senua turning and monologing to the player "I can see things differently oh I'm so special" you experience it yourself. As the game goes on, it manages to vary up the format of "find shape" in some rather creative ways.
Namely, the third and final genre, horror.
This is one aspect I was really happy to see they utilized well.
As the game goes on and becomes more dower and grim, you progressively have to make your way through these dark and dreary nightmare scenarios. Such as senua's actual nightmares about her past, or even monsters you can't see but definitely hear.
There was one sequence where the visuals went incredibly blurry and dark where there were creatures all around senua and you can't make out exactly what they are. It was an incredibly effective little moment, namely because it happened entirely in gameplay. They never went back and showed you what those beings looked like also. It's true to the Lovecraftian mantra of the scariest concept being the unknown.
I'll use that to pivot to a complaint I had. While the game did an excellent job of maintaining horror by keeping the monsters out of sight, they do tend to show too much in other some cases.
There's a section where you're trapped in the dark with a torch, if you let the torch go out then this unknown monstrosity can see you and starts stalking you. I thought this was an extremely unnerving moment but unfortunately they show the beast soon after and it doesn't really match up to what your imagination can envision, because how could it?
That wasn't the only time I thought they could have held back on showing things. Senua's beloved "Dillion" is shown in live action and not only did that take away some of the poetry of her possibly not remembering what he looks like, but he also looked far too normal for the world he was supposed to inhabit.
Beard was well kept, clothes looked ironed and skin was too perfect for the Viking era this game is set in.
The other live action segments were usually better than that but they could have kept these characters off screen and purely focused on Senua's face while they were talking and I think it would have worked out better.
Where the visuals succeeded is definitely in terms of the art direction. There are some very gorgeous looking areas, some I would call "Wallpaper bait" in the best way possible.
The game wasn't afraid to look unappealing and sickly at times also. I realise the frequent use of filters may have been a bit overkill for people, but I thought they worked well in tandem with the voices to make an overall sense of ennui.
One final thing I'll praise is I ADORED how the game never tutorialized you on what the buttons did. It just let you figure it out on your own. No "Snake, press the action button to-" here which was appreciated, especially coming off 70 hours of a game rife with tutorials.
This was honestly exactly what I needed. A tight experience where every aspect worked together to tell a story.
I usually let games sit longer before I properly rate them so for now I'll just say that it was a worthwhile experience. Very good stuff.
At the time I wasn't really into "movie games" or the like. I hit the first puzzle and called it quits because I thought it would be a waste of my time.
Flash forward to today, where I am older and wiser (and bored) I decide to give it another go.
And overall? I have to say I came out pleasantly surprised.
It's not a perfect game, but it is incredibly svelte and focused.
You can tell that there was a limited budget based off Senua being the only human character model and a lot of the characters from her past being represented with live action actors.
But in a way these limitations helped the experience for me because it caused me to entirely focus on Senua and her story.
And it's a pretty decent one at that. One that tackles complicated topics like grief, mental illness, isolation and abuse.
The way it tells its story is rather inspired as well. Details are drip fed bit by bit with a lot of space in between so you can ruminate on what you know so far.
The voices in Senua's head provide a great source of information and, more obviously, entertainment. Wearing a good pair of headphones and turning off subtitles really makes you feel like another voice in the chorus that is her head. There is an impressive amount of dialogue to pay attention to that is frequently overlapping which adds this layer of disorientation to the proceedings.
This game straddles three distinct genres: action, puzzles and horror.
First and foremost, the action.
Combat feels a lot more complete than I thought it would for the type of game this is. Realistically all it needed to do was be baseline adequate to help facilitate the story, but I think they made a valuable effort to make a pretty above average system for this experience.
It fits the game like a glove. Fighting an enemy is a 1 on 1 affair but a lot of the time there's multiple foes coming from every direction. It adds this sense of impossibility and working against the odds which mirror's Senua's quest rather well.
Enemies aren't tough to take down so the main challenge comes from positioning yourself in a way that you can react to their moves. The voices also help you out here, if an enemy is attacking from off screen you'll hear a call out from one of them.
A lot of the time games do this it can feel like a substitute for actually having a zoomed out camera, but I found it to be well suited here. After all, Senua is meant to be a person who can see the world in unique ways, and injecting that into the combat was a very smart move.
Speaking of Senua's ability to "See the world in unique ways."
Let's move onto the puzzles.
True to Senua's nature, the player can use her abilities to see patterns in the world around you. The most common usage of this is finding shapes in the environment in order to unlock doors. Other versions of this like viewing a fractured staircase from the right angle to rebuild it and archway door's which add/ remove objects in the environment.
I'm assuming this is where the game garnered the most criticism, and honestly I can see it.
Finding the right shape in the world can be repetitive. But they do admittedly use the gameplay to show instead of tell.
Instead of senua turning and monologing to the player "I can see things differently oh I'm so special" you experience it yourself. As the game goes on, it manages to vary up the format of "find shape" in some rather creative ways.
Namely, the third and final genre, horror.
This is one aspect I was really happy to see they utilized well.
As the game goes on and becomes more dower and grim, you progressively have to make your way through these dark and dreary nightmare scenarios. Such as senua's actual nightmares about her past, or even monsters you can't see but definitely hear.
There was one sequence where the visuals went incredibly blurry and dark where there were creatures all around senua and you can't make out exactly what they are. It was an incredibly effective little moment, namely because it happened entirely in gameplay. They never went back and showed you what those beings looked like also. It's true to the Lovecraftian mantra of the scariest concept being the unknown.
I'll use that to pivot to a complaint I had. While the game did an excellent job of maintaining horror by keeping the monsters out of sight, they do tend to show too much in other some cases.
There's a section where you're trapped in the dark with a torch, if you let the torch go out then this unknown monstrosity can see you and starts stalking you. I thought this was an extremely unnerving moment but unfortunately they show the beast soon after and it doesn't really match up to what your imagination can envision, because how could it?
That wasn't the only time I thought they could have held back on showing things. Senua's beloved "Dillion" is shown in live action and not only did that take away some of the poetry of her possibly not remembering what he looks like, but he also looked far too normal for the world he was supposed to inhabit.
Beard was well kept, clothes looked ironed and skin was too perfect for the Viking era this game is set in.
The other live action segments were usually better than that but they could have kept these characters off screen and purely focused on Senua's face while they were talking and I think it would have worked out better.
Where the visuals succeeded is definitely in terms of the art direction. There are some very gorgeous looking areas, some I would call "Wallpaper bait" in the best way possible.
The game wasn't afraid to look unappealing and sickly at times also. I realise the frequent use of filters may have been a bit overkill for people, but I thought they worked well in tandem with the voices to make an overall sense of ennui.
One final thing I'll praise is I ADORED how the game never tutorialized you on what the buttons did. It just let you figure it out on your own. No "Snake, press the action button to-" here which was appreciated, especially coming off 70 hours of a game rife with tutorials.
This was honestly exactly what I needed. A tight experience where every aspect worked together to tell a story.
I usually let games sit longer before I properly rate them so for now I'll just say that it was a worthwhile experience. Very good stuff.
1 day ago
SSSatisfaction
reviewed
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
This review contains spoilers
This review will include full spoilers for remake, rebirth, the original title and any and all spin-offs in the FF7 compilation.
Final fantasy 7 is a game that took me a while to truly come around to. Initially I believed the combat to be a slog with an ugly and outdated aesthetic and writing that had been so poorly translated with a confusing story on top of that.
But somewhere along the line, the Stockholm syndrome set in.
Joking aside, every time I've gone back to replay the original entry I've enjoyed it more and more. There is a pointed fierceness to the politics it engages in and how confidently it slams its hand down and forces you to take notice of themes like global warming, imposter syndrome, the feeling of not being in control and more.
The characters were all so unique and interesting with arcs you couldn't see coming. The eco-terrorist remains true to his cause of saving the planet, but realises that destroying the reactors that were sucking the life out of the planet was also endangering real human lives. He learns that he has to think bigger than his own self serving sense of justice and work with other people of the same ilk to make a much larger systemic impact.
The main character is your typical cool guy with big sword archetype with two love interests he has to choose between, except as the game goes on you come to see that this is a front for not knowing who he is or how to function on a day to day basis.
He constantly has panic attacks and doesn't know how to handle them, he stole his identity off a man he doesn't even recall and lives his life like he's going through the motions of what he thinks he should do.
But the point of his arc is that he doesn't need to do any of that, he learns who he is fundamentally as a person and accepts that he's a dork like the rest of his crew. He takes the love and friendship that was shown to him and uses that to bolster their way to the finish line.
To get to this point he had to experience the grief of losing a friend, someone incredibly close to him. And it wasn't something one could possibly process at the time, when it happens he and his friends are thrusted into a fight. Barely having the time to understand the events that took place.
Aerith has now returned to the planet. And while she's gone, her impact still remains.
I know all of this is extremely scattershot and messy, and that's because this review has been stewing in my head even since I beat the game.
I've struggled with how to format this for a while now and I think I'll just continue typing until I reach a mythical word limit.
Now with all the interesting stuff out of the way, let's talk about the remake project!
The first entry of which released in April 2020 to great buzz and critical reception.
Initially I played it back when I wasn't too into the FF7 universe so I thought it was a fine enough game. Second time round, after I combed through the universe, I felt a lot colder on it.
The pacing felt so elongated with plot points being few and far between, instead of staying true to the pulse of the original's environmental message it felt more obsessed with the style and aesthetic of the universe. Which had its pros, there are absolutely some stunning moments in that game and a lot of really good meat and potatoes boss fights.
Instead of adapting the original 1 to 1 it added a lot of the compilation content and meta ghost elements to spice things up. Neither of which I cared for, but at the very least admitted was a gutsy move. In an admittedly clumsy ending it you with the promise of an unknown journey, one where fate could be changed and exciting new possibilities.
This was my charitable reading of it leading into rebirth. So, how did they choose to execute their new vision?
Well, in truth, they didn't. Every single event that happened in the original happens here, but instead there will be an incredibly awkward scene shoved in to pretend like something is different.
Red XIII's backstory is interrupted to introduce these new beings who want the black materia. How will this factor into things? It doesn't, they are never brought up again.
Zack is alive in a different world and in that world events are intertwined and all over the place. What creative gameplay and story moments will come out of this?
Absolutely nothing. The Zack content is fed piecemeal, separated with long stretches of forgetting he's even a factor. Despite the fact that he's on the cover of the box.
There are a plethora of more examples I could site, but my point ultimately is that I have to accuse this remake series of one thing and one thing only.
Cowardice.
They are not confident in their new vision so they play it incredibly safe and spend the entire runtime saying and doing nothing of note. There aren't really any themes to this tale, it is full bombast all the time.
There are scenes that break through and manage to resonate, the aforementioned Red XIII backstory and Barret's history with Dyne. But these moments are few and far between, they have done themselves no favours with what that have chosen to adapt and how they adapted it.
Aside from those two cast members, everyone else is completely lost.
"What's that, cloud is acting like a lunatic again and pushed Tifa into a mako lake? Well whatcha gonna do, that's cloud for you!"
Moment after moment the characters need to act in unbelievable ways so we can go back to the open world format. And dear god, let's get to that why don't we?
A world with so much potential for thematic richness and they choose to make a checklist out of it, with two annoying and redundant characters there every step of the way to re-explain objectives to you like you're a toddler.
Ubisoft towers, combat challenges with the same three objectives over and over, some of the worst traversal I have ever played and absolutely no reason to explore the environment outside of the icons on the map. We did it, everyone. A new revolutionary take on the open world.
I understand that I'm coming off as petty and dismissive, if anyone reading enjoyed said content then honestly I am happy for you. I just struggle to see the point in it.
Why does there need to be so much copy and pasted content like this. If the answer is "To give you a chance to test out the combat" then I have bad news for you because the enemies facilitated in the open world die in what feels like two seconds. There is even a quest in Gongaga with Yuffie where you are tasked with fulfilling three objectives when fighting three enemies. But the problem is that you kill them so fast that it is actually dumb luck if you can even get two of these objectives done before the fight is over, let alone three.
Some moments of this legitimately do not feel play tested. Who wants to do a box throwing dungeon as Cait Sith? Who wants to try traversing Gongaga with the horrible feeling Chocobos? Who wants to avoid engaging with the themes of final fantasy vii so we can do a copious amount of minigames?
Minigames, there's a topic to discuss.
Even the people who love this game agree that this aspect it incredibly hit or miss. And while you may be expecting me to complain about them, I actually don't have an issue with this aspect of the game really.
Yes, there are too many that are shoved into the main story. Yes, some DO feel horrible to control. But at the very least, you're doing something new.
You're not completing a checklist, you're not going through a belaboured regurgitation of kingdom hearts. You are engaging in bite sized content you can pick up or put down.
I want to take the chance to celebrate my favourite minigame and what could be my favourite thing in the game as a whole come to think of it. And that's Queen's Blood.
It is a staggeringly well made card game with an incredible soundtrack that I never got sick of. The best chapter in the game is where they set you on a cruise boat and let you partake in an entire tournament where you can choose your opponents and there are like 7 different songs.
Speaking of music, that is also an unequivocally excellent aspect of this game. So many good compositions and reinterpretations of the old soundtrack, and the new songs are no slouch either.
While it's fairly uninspired game design to have a dog escort mission, it does come complete with two songs dedicated to Stamp the shinra propaganda dog. One for traversal and the other for combat. There is a lot of work put into the ost that I would never attempt to discredit.
However, I do have to pivot into a complaint.
Remember when I said the best chapter was the queen's blood tournament?
In a way I think that exemplifies the strengths and weaknesses of this game.
Because short term? There is a lot of fun to be had.
If you focus on mainlining the content you like then there is a lot of fun banter and a joyous atmosphere to be had with hanging out with the characters and seeing what wacko minigame lies around the corner, not dissimilar to the Yakuza games.
However, when I say "short term" I do mean short term. Because viewed as a whole it is difficult to actually parse any type of forward momentum or themes this game has. I used "full of bombast" to describe this game and I want to elaborate on that.
It is not a game engaged with the original text of final fantasy vii, it is a game that uses the visuals and characters to present wacky moments in a world that feels more like a theme park than an actual place that is suffering.
The original presented a world that had been tainted by neglect and suffering. Everything is inefficient, so they suck up the resources from the planet to compensate. This only resulted in the world becoming emptier and colder every day.
Final Fantasy Vii was a sad game a lot of the time, it mourned
how easily people can mistreat the planet they inhabit and made a stance against that mindset.
Everywhere you went, you saw people suffering. Not enough food, not enough water, not enough gil.
Nothing was free and everything was tough, it was your job to upset the status quo and make an honest attempt to save what was left of the world before it was too late.
In Rebirth everyone is all smiles all the time. Planet suffering? What planet? Hey, why don't you run around as red and play some football? Come stay at the golden saucer that runs on the ever dying resources of the planet. Don't think about anything too taxing now!
Taxes, I wanted to get to that.
I think the number one thing that is indicative of how lazy the world building is just that, money.
Every inn, and I mean every inn, is completely free. You don't have to spend a cent of your gil once to sleep. This, to me, breaks the universe in two.
This is meant to be a society that is relying on the scraps of what's left to survive, no?
No, this is Disneyworld. Come look at the attractions.
The game almost shows its hand by having a cardboard cut-out of Rufus Shinra, because truly that is what this game is. A xerox of a xerox. A game that has no interest in making you re-evaluate how you effect the world around you but one filled with momentary whimsical distractions where they forget to drop the other shoe.
I have more to say but I think that's the greatest offence this game makes, it looses what was special about the original story and replaces it with cheap thrills.
It doesn't matter that there are 12 different worlds with 5 new timelines, what matters is an actual story. A worldview the creators wanted to communicate.
There is nothing like that here.
Mechanically there is fun to be had. Orchestrally it soars. You may have fun. But in the end, your life will be exactly the same as it was before you started.
The original endures through time.
Rebirth makes you endure it.
Final fantasy 7 is a game that took me a while to truly come around to. Initially I believed the combat to be a slog with an ugly and outdated aesthetic and writing that had been so poorly translated with a confusing story on top of that.
But somewhere along the line, the Stockholm syndrome set in.
Joking aside, every time I've gone back to replay the original entry I've enjoyed it more and more. There is a pointed fierceness to the politics it engages in and how confidently it slams its hand down and forces you to take notice of themes like global warming, imposter syndrome, the feeling of not being in control and more.
The characters were all so unique and interesting with arcs you couldn't see coming. The eco-terrorist remains true to his cause of saving the planet, but realises that destroying the reactors that were sucking the life out of the planet was also endangering real human lives. He learns that he has to think bigger than his own self serving sense of justice and work with other people of the same ilk to make a much larger systemic impact.
The main character is your typical cool guy with big sword archetype with two love interests he has to choose between, except as the game goes on you come to see that this is a front for not knowing who he is or how to function on a day to day basis.
He constantly has panic attacks and doesn't know how to handle them, he stole his identity off a man he doesn't even recall and lives his life like he's going through the motions of what he thinks he should do.
But the point of his arc is that he doesn't need to do any of that, he learns who he is fundamentally as a person and accepts that he's a dork like the rest of his crew. He takes the love and friendship that was shown to him and uses that to bolster their way to the finish line.
To get to this point he had to experience the grief of losing a friend, someone incredibly close to him. And it wasn't something one could possibly process at the time, when it happens he and his friends are thrusted into a fight. Barely having the time to understand the events that took place.
Aerith has now returned to the planet. And while she's gone, her impact still remains.
I know all of this is extremely scattershot and messy, and that's because this review has been stewing in my head even since I beat the game.
I've struggled with how to format this for a while now and I think I'll just continue typing until I reach a mythical word limit.
Now with all the interesting stuff out of the way, let's talk about the remake project!
The first entry of which released in April 2020 to great buzz and critical reception.
Initially I played it back when I wasn't too into the FF7 universe so I thought it was a fine enough game. Second time round, after I combed through the universe, I felt a lot colder on it.
The pacing felt so elongated with plot points being few and far between, instead of staying true to the pulse of the original's environmental message it felt more obsessed with the style and aesthetic of the universe. Which had its pros, there are absolutely some stunning moments in that game and a lot of really good meat and potatoes boss fights.
Instead of adapting the original 1 to 1 it added a lot of the compilation content and meta ghost elements to spice things up. Neither of which I cared for, but at the very least admitted was a gutsy move. In an admittedly clumsy ending it you with the promise of an unknown journey, one where fate could be changed and exciting new possibilities.
This was my charitable reading of it leading into rebirth. So, how did they choose to execute their new vision?
Well, in truth, they didn't. Every single event that happened in the original happens here, but instead there will be an incredibly awkward scene shoved in to pretend like something is different.
Red XIII's backstory is interrupted to introduce these new beings who want the black materia. How will this factor into things? It doesn't, they are never brought up again.
Zack is alive in a different world and in that world events are intertwined and all over the place. What creative gameplay and story moments will come out of this?
Absolutely nothing. The Zack content is fed piecemeal, separated with long stretches of forgetting he's even a factor. Despite the fact that he's on the cover of the box.
There are a plethora of more examples I could site, but my point ultimately is that I have to accuse this remake series of one thing and one thing only.
Cowardice.
They are not confident in their new vision so they play it incredibly safe and spend the entire runtime saying and doing nothing of note. There aren't really any themes to this tale, it is full bombast all the time.
There are scenes that break through and manage to resonate, the aforementioned Red XIII backstory and Barret's history with Dyne. But these moments are few and far between, they have done themselves no favours with what that have chosen to adapt and how they adapted it.
Aside from those two cast members, everyone else is completely lost.
"What's that, cloud is acting like a lunatic again and pushed Tifa into a mako lake? Well whatcha gonna do, that's cloud for you!"
Moment after moment the characters need to act in unbelievable ways so we can go back to the open world format. And dear god, let's get to that why don't we?
A world with so much potential for thematic richness and they choose to make a checklist out of it, with two annoying and redundant characters there every step of the way to re-explain objectives to you like you're a toddler.
Ubisoft towers, combat challenges with the same three objectives over and over, some of the worst traversal I have ever played and absolutely no reason to explore the environment outside of the icons on the map. We did it, everyone. A new revolutionary take on the open world.
I understand that I'm coming off as petty and dismissive, if anyone reading enjoyed said content then honestly I am happy for you. I just struggle to see the point in it.
Why does there need to be so much copy and pasted content like this. If the answer is "To give you a chance to test out the combat" then I have bad news for you because the enemies facilitated in the open world die in what feels like two seconds. There is even a quest in Gongaga with Yuffie where you are tasked with fulfilling three objectives when fighting three enemies. But the problem is that you kill them so fast that it is actually dumb luck if you can even get two of these objectives done before the fight is over, let alone three.
Some moments of this legitimately do not feel play tested. Who wants to do a box throwing dungeon as Cait Sith? Who wants to try traversing Gongaga with the horrible feeling Chocobos? Who wants to avoid engaging with the themes of final fantasy vii so we can do a copious amount of minigames?
Minigames, there's a topic to discuss.
Even the people who love this game agree that this aspect it incredibly hit or miss. And while you may be expecting me to complain about them, I actually don't have an issue with this aspect of the game really.
Yes, there are too many that are shoved into the main story. Yes, some DO feel horrible to control. But at the very least, you're doing something new.
You're not completing a checklist, you're not going through a belaboured regurgitation of kingdom hearts. You are engaging in bite sized content you can pick up or put down.
I want to take the chance to celebrate my favourite minigame and what could be my favourite thing in the game as a whole come to think of it. And that's Queen's Blood.
It is a staggeringly well made card game with an incredible soundtrack that I never got sick of. The best chapter in the game is where they set you on a cruise boat and let you partake in an entire tournament where you can choose your opponents and there are like 7 different songs.
Speaking of music, that is also an unequivocally excellent aspect of this game. So many good compositions and reinterpretations of the old soundtrack, and the new songs are no slouch either.
While it's fairly uninspired game design to have a dog escort mission, it does come complete with two songs dedicated to Stamp the shinra propaganda dog. One for traversal and the other for combat. There is a lot of work put into the ost that I would never attempt to discredit.
However, I do have to pivot into a complaint.
Remember when I said the best chapter was the queen's blood tournament?
In a way I think that exemplifies the strengths and weaknesses of this game.
Because short term? There is a lot of fun to be had.
If you focus on mainlining the content you like then there is a lot of fun banter and a joyous atmosphere to be had with hanging out with the characters and seeing what wacko minigame lies around the corner, not dissimilar to the Yakuza games.
However, when I say "short term" I do mean short term. Because viewed as a whole it is difficult to actually parse any type of forward momentum or themes this game has. I used "full of bombast" to describe this game and I want to elaborate on that.
It is not a game engaged with the original text of final fantasy vii, it is a game that uses the visuals and characters to present wacky moments in a world that feels more like a theme park than an actual place that is suffering.
The original presented a world that had been tainted by neglect and suffering. Everything is inefficient, so they suck up the resources from the planet to compensate. This only resulted in the world becoming emptier and colder every day.
Final Fantasy Vii was a sad game a lot of the time, it mourned
how easily people can mistreat the planet they inhabit and made a stance against that mindset.
Everywhere you went, you saw people suffering. Not enough food, not enough water, not enough gil.
Nothing was free and everything was tough, it was your job to upset the status quo and make an honest attempt to save what was left of the world before it was too late.
In Rebirth everyone is all smiles all the time. Planet suffering? What planet? Hey, why don't you run around as red and play some football? Come stay at the golden saucer that runs on the ever dying resources of the planet. Don't think about anything too taxing now!
Taxes, I wanted to get to that.
I think the number one thing that is indicative of how lazy the world building is just that, money.
Every inn, and I mean every inn, is completely free. You don't have to spend a cent of your gil once to sleep. This, to me, breaks the universe in two.
This is meant to be a society that is relying on the scraps of what's left to survive, no?
No, this is Disneyworld. Come look at the attractions.
The game almost shows its hand by having a cardboard cut-out of Rufus Shinra, because truly that is what this game is. A xerox of a xerox. A game that has no interest in making you re-evaluate how you effect the world around you but one filled with momentary whimsical distractions where they forget to drop the other shoe.
I have more to say but I think that's the greatest offence this game makes, it looses what was special about the original story and replaces it with cheap thrills.
It doesn't matter that there are 12 different worlds with 5 new timelines, what matters is an actual story. A worldview the creators wanted to communicate.
There is nothing like that here.
Mechanically there is fun to be had. Orchestrally it soars. You may have fun. But in the end, your life will be exactly the same as it was before you started.
The original endures through time.
Rebirth makes you endure it.
1 day ago