i have incredibly mixed feelings on this game. i really enjoy the character interactions, but at times, characterization takes a backseat to prioritizing fanservice. i like the execution of many scenes, but some, in comparison to the original, are simply not as good or are straight-up missing (barret vs dyne, for example, suffers for its hollywood dramatization; missing pieces of the sleeping forest make it far less impactful, even though those changes make sense in-context; the absence of the water burial is keenly felt, and even if this is intended to be included in some manner later, i really doubt it can induce the same feeling in retrospect). it's fun to see characters like zack again, but those characters are so wildly out of place their scenes feel more comical than anything. the minigames can be really fun, but they're in excess to the point of frustration. the maps are beautiful and they can be fun to interact with, but some way outlive their welcome (looking at you, gongaga).

anyway, i don't know. i have a lot of complaints. i have a lot of positive things to say too. some of the new scenes, such as tifa's lifestream sequence and the temple trials, were genuinely well-done. there isn't a single track on the ost i didn't like. despite getting tired of some of the maps, i still had enough fun with the moment-to-moment gameplay to fully complete all of them. i could really talk about it all day, but i don't feel like doing that on here, so i'll just say that, for all its faults (of which there are absolutely many), i still very much liked it.