Putting aside the largely awful minigames and pace-obliterating open world bloat, Rebirth is an absolute triumph when it comes to doing well by its story and characters, i.e. the reason I like RPGs.

It’s unfortunate that SO much of this game is a pointless slog full of wheel-spinning. At no point does any of the side content feel natural, and the few bits I enjoyed at first (Queen’s Blood, combat simulations) grew old LONG before I finished the game, to the point where about 2/3s of the way through I decided to make a beeline for the end because I was sick of the gameplay loop.

But like I said, the characters are wonderfully realized, and the story changes to the original spark that same sense of mystery and childlike wonder that I felt when I was eight, and that goes a long, long way. Maybe it's not a good game so much as a good collection of cutscenes, but that's what I play RPGs for anyway.

Also Aerith best girl. Obviously.