No Promises Await at Journey’s End

— Exposition —
I wasn’t a fan of Final Fantasy VII Remake. The story felt outdated and confusing, the pacing was all over the place, and the visuals and music were underwhelming. The only standouts that kept me playing were the characters and the combat. The game’s difficulty and balance were also a massive point of pressure for me.

— Introduction —
105 hours later (triple the length of my Remake play through), Rebirth improves and fixes almost every single thing I didn’t enjoy about Remake and then some.

There’s so much I could go into about this game, but I’m gonna try to compress it as much as possible. (Skip to conclusion at bottom for TL;DR)

— The Review —
Over three times the playtime, an open world that rivals some of the biggest I’ve ever seen, and one of the best stories I’ve ever experienced.

From the very start, I was immediately captivated by the story so much more than the original game, and by the end, I was in tears. While it was still huge and confusing, I never truly felt “lost” with the story. And oh my god these characters. I love them all so much and feel every single emotion they go through in this game.

The score is phenomenal though it still doesn’t rival some of Square-Enix’s other games for me. Aerith’s theme though will probably make me cry every time I hear it.

The game’s visuals and art direction are breathtaking, especially in comparison to the first game and the tech advancements behind it are even more impressive.

The open world is one of the largest, most diverse, and fun to explore in all of gaming. Almost all of the side content is really fun and engaging though does lack much in the realm of reward besides experiencing some really cool little side stories. There is a bit of an overabundance of side content in my opinion if you want to 100% complete the game. However, I really think you can skip the large majority of it and not miss out on much.

After all of this, is it a perfect game? Absolutely not. Unfortunately, my number one point that I did not enjoy about the game was one of the biggest issues I had with Remake as well. The difficulty and balance is awful and all over the place. One second I can be walking through enemies left and right, the next second I’m getting one shot by a boss and the only resolution is switching to easy difficulty. I can rant about this topic all day but TL;DR is that I really wish the game had more accessibility settings and more settings in general.

So if the game isn’t perfect, how is it a 5/5? Well, very few pieces of media are ever truly perfect masterpieces. Video games as an art have so many aspects to them that labeling one issue that caused me some minor inconvenience doesn’t negate the fact of how unfathomably good this game was; especially in a game as massive and nuanced as this one. Breath of the Wild’s lackluster narrative doesn’t make it any less of a masterpiece, y’know?

— Conclusion (TL;DR) —
Rebirth is a monumentally incredible sequel. A game that truly capitalizes on its prequel in unprecedented ways. A full package experience with nearly every single aspect nailed. Story, characters, pacing, visuals, game loop, combat, sound design, and score all come together to make for an emotionally devastating, epic, roller coaster of a journey that I will never forget. It’s hard to see how the third and final installment of the VII Remake trilogy could possibly live up to this game’s grandeur. But after the glow-up of Remake to Rebirth, I have faith that Nomura can wrangle the fate of this series and finish it out strong.

A masterpiece. It’s been a long time since a game has made be feel so absolutely enthralled all the way through. Now admittedly, it is only a hour long. But I believe this is one of those short indies that really are as close to a perfect video game experience as possible.

There were multiple moments here that gave my whole body chills, especially one particular moment in the middle of the game.

With this game being made by MrSuicideSheep, of course I expected the score to be phenomenal. But wow they went absolutely all fuckin out with the sound design. Genuinely industry leading. And the art direction to go with it is absolutely off the charts.

The gameplay is perfectly paced with a beautifully simple progression of platforming abilities. Nothing ever felt too impossible, poorly designed or balanced, or overindulgent.

I guess at this point, my only complaint is I wish it was longer? It’s really a perfect experience, but the platforming mechanics they have crafted here feel so good that I could easily go for another hour or two to be honest.

This game absolutely fucking ruled and is a perfect example of how much of a beautifully crafted piece of art video games can be.