Great sequel to remake, combat is improved in all the right aspects, although it leans more on real time combat than remake, but it worked for me. General gameplay is also much improved, with much more seamless movement and less artificiality in the worlds. Then open world is big enough to feel real, but not on a scale where it becomes a slog to traverse through.

Story wise it's great, sometimes it feels like there is a bit of filler, however it succeeds in expanding the original final fantasy 7 story, as characters are given a lot of time to shine and their relationships and personalities flourish constantly, through main quest sections and specially in the side quests, which are used to more intimately develop the party and its relationship to Cloud.

The open world does suffer from excessive side content, these are smaller missions which are used to fill up the world. For completion's sake they are horrible, a lot of stop-start action, but, if approached more casually, really enrich the walkthrough and allows you to enjoy the game's systems more, which is always good. You also have the minigames, which can be a bit more hit or miss, except the card game Queens blood, that stuff is addictive.

Overall one of the best games of this generation and a must play for everyone, even if you haven't played remake or aren't a fan of RPGs, it is a great game and it shines bright 99% of the time.