I played this game for 125 hours and I don't know what the hell to say about it. Maybe it's easiest to say something meaningful about it by way of comparison to the title it took so much inspiration from, by calling it a successor to Rance 10 or whatever.

But it's so much more than that, isn't it? NonStories doesn't merely take inspiration from existing works -- indeed all fiction does that -- but actively seeks to build something new using them. It interrogates narratives not so it can thumb its nose at them in derision, but because it is genuinely invested in finding new paths forward.

NonStories is a journey, an undertaking. It is committed to its vision in ways that will astound and excite and frustrate you. And it is this commitment which makes it genuine.

A game that I grow increasingly frustrated with as I look back on it. I loved how all of the main story beats were represented and fleshed out here -- but that was almost a foregone conclusion. As a kid I played FF7 over and over again, so some part of me deep down was always going to be satisfied just seeing moments from it revisited with spectacular modern production values. But in the end I'm human, I can't deny that I enjoyed seeing the game I grew up with re-imagined like this.

Everything else, though... well, I was mostly playing the game because it told me to play it, let's say. I don't think the quest design is completely banal, there were a number that I enjoyed, but in retrospect I barely remember what I was doing in this game other than going down checklists, checklists, checklists. Couple this with a battle system that is far too involved for how goddamn long the game is and by the end I was having a miserable time. I don't often turn down the difficulty in games, but in Rebirth I set it to easy towards the end simply because I wanted to get it over with. I wish I felt differently about a game that recreated part of my childhood but there's only so far nostalgia can carry you.