This review contains spoilers
Of course I loved this game! But I cannot deny, this really follows a trilogy formula I hate, and that's "the middle episode is 80% filler."
There were SO many mini games (I loved a couple of them - I loved Queen's Blood). And at one point, I turned on one of Chadley's towers while that lazy little android was STANDING THERE in the background. That kid can set up shop in every town before I even get there, and he can't turn on his own towers once in a while?? Ridiculous.
Anyway, I definitely cried in a couple places. More than a couple places, really. Jessie and the gang, Cait Sith (who I hated in the OG, but absolutely adored in this one) and his moogle, and of course, Aeris. Maybe Zack...?
The ending we all knew was coming didn't come nearly as soon as I thought it would, which built tension like crazy. And the two-timelines interjection at that point was like a surprise gut punch where I genuinely thought they'd decided to change the original storyline. The end-end... the "see you off" end was a mixed bag - like a comforting shoulder to cry on, but less tearjerky than other scenes - kinda made it not so sad, but I'm still tearing up writing this, so I dunno.
As for the play - all pretty good. I didn't like being interrupted with "hit square to attack with this character" tutorials every time I played a character for the first time, as if the square button isn't the attack button for ALL of them. Some mini games, especially the polygon games, were really clunky and I had no clue how to play them (one of the many reasons I didn't pursue Chadley's damn proto-relics, and why I probably won't bother trophy-hunting this one). I got really tired of the mini games about halfway through the world and skipped a lot of little things that I'll probably go back to eventually (some of them, anyway). And I didn't want to do to many more side quests because the girls' involvement in cutscenes were HYPER Shojo anime girlie-girls, far more than in the first one. I hope they'll lose that in the third.
And Tifa's a better actress than Aeris. But Cait Sith is the best. I said it ;)
There were SO many mini games (I loved a couple of them - I loved Queen's Blood). And at one point, I turned on one of Chadley's towers while that lazy little android was STANDING THERE in the background. That kid can set up shop in every town before I even get there, and he can't turn on his own towers once in a while?? Ridiculous.
Anyway, I definitely cried in a couple places. More than a couple places, really. Jessie and the gang, Cait Sith (who I hated in the OG, but absolutely adored in this one) and his moogle, and of course, Aeris. Maybe Zack...?
The ending we all knew was coming didn't come nearly as soon as I thought it would, which built tension like crazy. And the two-timelines interjection at that point was like a surprise gut punch where I genuinely thought they'd decided to change the original storyline. The end-end... the "see you off" end was a mixed bag - like a comforting shoulder to cry on, but less tearjerky than other scenes - kinda made it not so sad, but I'm still tearing up writing this, so I dunno.
As for the play - all pretty good. I didn't like being interrupted with "hit square to attack with this character" tutorials every time I played a character for the first time, as if the square button isn't the attack button for ALL of them. Some mini games, especially the polygon games, were really clunky and I had no clue how to play them (one of the many reasons I didn't pursue Chadley's damn proto-relics, and why I probably won't bother trophy-hunting this one). I got really tired of the mini games about halfway through the world and skipped a lot of little things that I'll probably go back to eventually (some of them, anyway). And I didn't want to do to many more side quests because the girls' involvement in cutscenes were HYPER Shojo anime girlie-girls, far more than in the first one. I hope they'll lose that in the third.
And Tifa's a better actress than Aeris. But Cait Sith is the best. I said it ;)