Here we are again.. reliving a story we once knew.

Let me start off by saying Final Fantasy 7 Trilogy is beginning to become something interesting and exciting, as a long loving fan of the original game, it came at no surprise that a lot of people would be turned off by the thought of remake not being a 1 to 1 make of the game. After such had been released to the public and people took remake for what it is the picture was being set and things were about to change for a beloved FF7 world, in a good way I would say. CBU1 knew that a lot was depending on this trilogy, they couldn't mess up this story and everything was depending on the integrity of what they produced in the past.

Before I get into the details of the game that people are fighting over and expecting the worse from the it all, I would love to speak about everything to do with the combat. Combat was one of the fundamentals I believed was almost near perfect in remake with minor defects (air combat). Coming into rebirth with the addition of Air Combat, Synergy Abilities, Ally abilities that use no gauge and are STRONG. It was the one thing that was going to sell this game if it was not the story and that's the combat. Rebirths combat is an improvement at an extreme level and we still have one more game to go, who knows whats possible. Maybe we will have advent children level fighting and the whole party can take part against are fight to save the world.

Character development and voice acting was at the top of its level in this game, characters that i believed fell a little flat in remake had their attempt to bring it back in rebirth and they did exactly that. The development on Barret and his story with Dyne and having to relive his trauma in the temple of the ancients. Yuffie being the bubbly and annoying materia stealer that she is, her personality excels in this game compared to what was given to us in the DLC. She can be annoying at times but thats truly who yuffie is, as cloud once said on that elevator 'can you just shut up'. Red XII, or must say my beloved Nanaki. Boy or boy do I love this damn rat dog in this game, while it was expected for this game to give the backstory to everyone. Nanaki's story sticks out to me especially from the OG and Rebirth with the extension of how he acts around bugenhagen and the party, I enjoyed the hidden aspect of Red speaking in his younger voice towards aerith in earlier parts of the game and it being given off as someone random... once again them giving their nods to people who have played through the original. Cait sith, what can i say about this little robot cat? He was actually great. For a lot of people cait sith was hated and seen as pointless in the original game when it came to choosing him to fight with or even in choices of story but with the way I felt towards him in the original i wanted to try to give him a new thought of care and at first i still didn't like him, especially when the betrayal came which they handled alot better than the original, however that point when cait comes back and trys to have the party forgive him and show that he cares about them, there was a new found love that had grown inside me for him and im glad that came to happen for a character that i had previously not shown much care towards.

Even for things when it comes to character dialogue and conversations during set pieces, the relationship between different characters that don't involve Cloud, Red & Barret, Tifa & Aerith, Aerith & Red, Yuffie & Barret. All the bonding moments around the world builds more love and care for these people that you're going to spend so much time with.

Now i believe these next few characters deserve a new paragraph. I want to start off specifically with the two characters who are unplayable in this game, Vincent and Cid. For those that were upset with them being unplayable, i was indeed upset when it was announced before the game came out but after completing this game i couldn't even care and im even more excited to see what is done coming into Part 3, Cid was charming and still had a new flair to him. I don't really have much that comes to mind on Cid since he was primarily the man to fly the tiny bronco, there will obviously be more from him due Part3. Now onto Vincent, at points i almost thought i was going to control him however they did a lot more with Vincent in terms of implementing him into side quests & the main story, almost in the same way they incorporated yuffie into the story, with good amounts of humour and the hilarious moments of him trying to speak while being muffled inside his coffin, the genuine excitement of finally seeing vincent on screen and being the loner that he is it was good to finally be able to see the whole gang together.

Tifa Lockhart, with the addition of the new social mechanic where you're able to build bonds with characters it was quite enjoyable to have the control of who you're able to control and speak to in such manner. People who have played through the original and know of all FF7 material it is known that tifa is the one to save cloud with his delusion and its the ever ending eluding of that happening throughout this entire game. It continues to be prominent all the till credits roll. She is the pillar of bringing cloud back and she does just that as much as she can throughout the game. With of course the development of her not believing cloud because of the Nibelheim incident, the growth between Cloud & Tifa goes in a direction that i think we all expected it too and will continue to go in Part 3.

Cloud Strife, boy or boy cloud. its a homecoming. What a unbelievable way to make clouds mental illness, this game has made cloud schizophrenic. This isn't just mako poisoning anymore or him thinking he's someone else, this is genuinely a new point and approach to his mental illness and its something im scared but excited about, but this is a feeling I've been very much used to throughout this entire trilogy so far, Within the original game from the point of the Nibelheim flashback we know that cloud begins to lose himself to his mental illness and that becomes a problem for the party. With the approach that was taken in Rebirth, i was genuinely scared for anyone that stood in Clouds way. The influence of sephiroth and mental battle in this game is unbelievable, the constant reminder that every time those headaches begin something good dosen't come out of it. From points where cloud is quite literally spilling blood infront of his friends or him acting like sephiroth dodging bullets and slaughtering a whole platoon of shinra soldiers. Cloud is in a dark place right now, the trauma is building more and more and every moment seems to be getting worse the more Cloud is on screen. Big love to Cody Christian on his voice acting for Cloud, i genuinely had chills when it came to him speaking in that almost sephiroth/monotone talk. The presentation of cloud being someone completely different was done in a way i couldn't have expected but im thrilled to be experiencing.

Zack, im so sorry you had to relive having your heart broken to pieces for something that isn't your fault, he deserves all happiness in the world. And after all this he still cares and is selfless for others risking his life to protect them. No one deserved you zack

Aerith Gainsborough, alot of us were scared, alot of us are still scared. But let us embrace for what is to come, for what remake setup it seemed to be evident that aerith knew of things that she shouldn't know of, almost in the same that way that sephiroth's presentation was during remake. We knew that Sephiroth in remake was coming from Advent Children but what we didn't know is where Aerith gained any of the memories from. Throughout parts of remake aerith touched Red & Marlene and it showed no major plot points towards it, going into Rebirth it all began to make sense and things were starting to get out of control in things that we didn't expect. Aerith is 100% the staple of this game in which she has always been and im glad they stuck to that, She is constantly throughout the whole game giving hints and eluding to fate that is yet to come, From the point of her singing in the gold saucer it was set in stone that she was not going to make it at the end of this game. Cloud for what its worth with his poor mind pays no attention to any of it but for the viewer of this story, Aerith is trying her hardest to tell cloud and the viewer there is nothing thats going to stop what you know happening in this story so you must enjoy these moments and not feel bad for what will happen.

Onto the world of FF7, what we had all been wanting since the beginning. This game does everything for its world and it shows, this is what we all wanted. This is what i had been waiting for the most, remake was beautiful and Midgar was something i loved going through but for almost everyone when it came to the original the minute you stepped foot into the over-world the overall pacing of the game and the exploration that you experienced when it came to go visiting new places was beautiful, Rebirth keeps that exact feeling but for me amplifies it. Maybe that's because im able to see the game at a fidelity that's not the same as almost 30 years ago. It was hard to keep myself at not crying at every theme that played when going to a new area the music, the environments, the effort that went into making these places feel alive and full of life, this was nothing but amazing. Every zone held equally the same amount of effort and care and im sure as hell wondering what exactly could be done to push this even further going into Part 3.

I would love to point out as well when it came to NPCs the level of detail was a lot better than what was presented in Remake. It was evident that the only thing to be cared about in remake was everything centric around the story, going into Rebirth the team showed to put effort into all the things that lacked inside Remake. Side Quests, NPCs, Content outside of the story was nothing but amplified. Thank you SE for the amazing amount of black representation and effort into how everyone looks, Hairstyles and presentation, they did amazing.

As a mentioned before, the music. They had said 400 songs in a previous presentation before the games release and i didn't very much find that believable, was the game going to just have reused songs with the addition of what is new in remake? Yes. But its not the same, every song you believed was a reuse of what was in remake gained a new motiff, gained a new instrument, gained a new approach to the song that was different but somehow better than what was previously produced, Every song had a feeling inside it that i cannot explain. Once again amazing work towards to those behind the music of every FF game its something that is always evident for any game that comes out of SE, the music is always going to be some of the strongest parts of the game.

BOSS FIGHTS!!! WOW WOW WOW, Some of returning fights that got a touch of love and improvement from what it previously was, Some new faces too. Overall the amount of boss fights in this game and the way they're all constructed was nothing but fun, there genuinely wasn't a fight that i found irritating, annoying or down-right hard. I did get my ass beat quite alot of times when it came to doing the hard mode against fights that I believed we're easier when going through my first playthrough on Dynamic mode.

Onto something that I believe we all need to talk about and most likely what you're all wanting to read. The story.

I want to start off by saying, i like everything that this story has done. For alot of people right now going through the story, whether its someone watching or someone playing there is mixed reactions to what the ending sequence has come to. Going into rebirth, like many others we was ready to find out whether or not the death of Aerith will still happen. From start to finish the agenda of that happening is being pushed CONSISTENTLY especially when you get to the final set of chapters of the game it becomes more prominent. I was happily on the train of her still dying and im glad they stuck with it, the team behind the game know that they can't toy with the story to much to the point where people hate it for what it is. Everything leading up to that moment i believe was handled well, the usage of the PS5 triggers was probably some of the best choice for a moment like that. But let me not reminisce on those moments, lets talk about everything that happens after that. After which of course Aerith passes away and the world starts to go a little crazy with the whispers and it gives us a sort of hope that Aerith is alive, im still very much in acceptance that she is dead and won't know until the third game, what i did love from everything that happened with Aerith's death is the amplification it gave to Cloud's craziness which directly links into Cloud even worse in the final parts of the story but this time Cloud is quite literally the same as he is in Advent Children where he is the only one to see/sense Aerith. I don't believe aerith has cheated death or survived, maybe in a different timeline but im happily believing she's dead whether its a different timeline or not the main timeline that the game is following is what we should all follow on the basis if its not alive in this, its not alive anywhere else. The end of part 3 may have the same ending of Advent Children in which Zack & Aerith walk into the light after everything. The ending is messy i will say that, but its messy in a way that if a few scenes were taken out of swapped it would allow for a better development going into the 3rd game.

I wish they committed fully to an Aerith death scene or not. Doing both just emotionally jacked with me because now we have Cloud who thinks she’s alive with a team who thinks she’s dead, and he’s just oblivious. It also hurts so much that in chapter 13 and 14 he was pretty much a total asshole—especially to Tifa which really hurt after seeing their intimate scene on their date—and he never really fully owned it or made amends. Speaks volumes to the teams ability to love and forgive and accept him. And I understand why he was being that way. Sephiroth was hard fucking with his mind and using him, so it wasn’t fully Cloud. My first problem was going in hoping for a happy-ish ending but knew that wasn’t going to happen. What I got instead just hurts.

The same thing that happened with the Remake ending is happening with Rebirth, for those who genuinely love the story and want to know what happens will spend their next 3-4 years being psychopaths and building theories of nothing until we get actual information, others will have the same reaction to what they did with remake in which they hate it and say that it doesn't make sense and compare it to Kingdom Hearts. For people to always resort to Nomura being the butt of the joke whenever it comes to time travel has always been my least favourite thing to see, the approach of Rebirth with the culmination of CBU1 shouldn't be put all on Nomura's head because of him being Creative Director and i believe the way this story has been reimagined has been done in a way I've been happy experiencing and most likely many others.

I disagree that this game was written poorly. If you don’t like multiverse stuff, I can see it being considered poorly written. I don’t mind it, and the way they did it I thought was very good. The character development was phenomenal. Writing wise I do think Aerith’s end was just a lack of full commitment, and playing too much the “make everyone happy” thing. In one sense, it’s a great ending meaning it guts you and leaves you confused and frustrated and hopeful all at once. I did not come away from that ending unamused or outright angry only. In another sense, the ending just makes me hate Cloud for being a dick and insensitive. Again I understand why, I don’t need commenters ripping my post to shreds, just emotionally processing this game lol.

They delivered on the game, they delivered on the story and setup thoughts and speculations for the 3rd game as they did with the 1st, it is expected to be confused. All of us were confused when it came to the ending of remake and where the story will go and that exact moment is being relived through the ending of rebirth. Genuinely excited for what Part 3 holds, if done correctly and amplified for what this game has done in many ways it may end up as my favourite of the trilogy and one of the best reimagines of a story to be retold in a new era.

What I've noticed and find fascinating is the anger people show, but I don't think they understand why they are angry, the emotion they are feeling from the game is the frustration with how all that build up and they still failed. How the story is playing just like a 3 Act Play, this being their low point. It sucks for a story to end like that but you need the darkest moments in order for those brighter moments to shine and have more meaning.

The Finale has the potential to leave a big impact because the direness of the situation is in such a state that when the heroes are able to overcome it, and it's deserved, it will feel that much more rewarding to have been apart of that journey. Let us all rejoice for 4 years with theories until we get news on Part 3


No Promises Await At Journey's End.