This is one of if not the best game I've ever played. I've enjoyed games over the few years but nothing has grabbed me the way that these Final Fantasy VII Remake games have done. I loved the first part and thankfully Rebirth is a natural continuation of that game and everything that it did well but with great additions such as the open world, new characters and the new synergy battle system, while it's very similar to the first part there is enough new here to keep it fresh.

The best part of this game is simply it's characters and there relationships with each other and how this whole game really allows for them to have great interactions with each other, this is helped of course by the open world which gives the game a lot of space to tell it's story and I think it really works as a juxtaposition to the first part where Midgar could feel dark and claustrophobic, this game is bright and open, I just love how much of this game feels like a hangout game with all these great characters, and while the open world can feel a bit bloated much of the side content is really fun to do and I rarely felt bored or like I was wasting my time doing them.

There are a couple of issues I have with the game however, While yes I mentioned that I loved much of the side content I think they could do with scaling it down a bit for the next game as there is too much particularly when it came to the mini-games and how many times it wants you to play all of them to a 100% everything, I did most of the side content until the end where I did get a bit frustrated by how much more it was throwing at me and it was driving me away from the story so I decided to focus on completing the game and then possibly come back to finish everything else. My other issue with the game is I'm not entirely sure about the multiverse different timeline stuff the game has going on with it's story, this generally is a story trope that doesn't work for me and here I'm having a couple of the same problems where it feels like they don't want to commit entirely to killing Aerith off, we'll have to see what they do in the next game but I think I'd prefer that they would make a more definitive decision even if they decided to be bold and change that part of the story as while that would be a massive change from the original games story I think that decision would feel more impactful, as I don't think Aerith's death hits with the same impact in this game because of all this multiverse stuff along with the boss fight that's placed all around it. A lot of this for me more depends on how the story goes in the next part and what they decide to do, I don't have the ending here but it does leave me with quite a few questions, Up until this point however I absolutely loved the rest of the story so it doesn't change how I feel about this game as a whole.

I cannot wait until the next part of this remake and I hope that it sticks the landing as we are getting close to having the best video game trilogy ever made, this is a must play game and I struggle to see anything else topping it for game of the year and as it currently is game of the decade.