rookdorf
Starting with the positives: combat is a significant step up from 7. Leaning into positional requirements is a cool angle, and while manual movement is a great change, there's still a bit of frustration that can come from allies and enemies shifting around just enough to screw up what you were trying to do. Basic attacks being a powerful and viable option with combo attacks, back attacks, follow up, and SP regain is also fun to play with. Even though your strategies don't change a massive amount of the time (in late game, most fights had large packs, which meant I would use whatever strong skill hit as many enemies as possible, then clean up the rest), there's usually just barely enough going on to mix you up, like an enemy guarding and requiring a grapple break. If every job was as cool and in depth as Dragon of Dojima, this would be a pretty incredible game, because that's by far the most interesting and engaging one here. You can tell in the back of the RGG's heads that they still know that a brawler is just the right fit for these stories a lot of the time though, especially in that one moment in a certain boss fight. Also, a lot of the side content was pretty good, and Honolulu, while not my favorite RGG city, was a fun new environment to explore.
On a more critical note though, the story is easily one of the weaker ones in the franchise. For a lot of the runtime, it remained either frustrating or uninteresting to me. The first goal of the main plot remains the main goal for like 85% of the game (despite being achieved briefly in the middle) without really giving you quite enough of a reason to care as much as the characters seem to. This is especially true on the Hawaii side, which I was definitely into at the start, but failed to progress in a way that kept me super invested. The one big twist there was super poorly executed, especially after playing Gaiden, and the way it set back the characters' goals just kept me so checked out or annoyed. The Japan side is a little better, though honestly that's completely to do with Kiryu and almost none to do with the actual plot going on there, which has its own share of frustrating turns. Maybe I just don't like Ichiban enough for him to carry a plot in the same way Kiryu can; ironically, this game eroded my confidence in him as a protagonist who can stand on his own going forward.
A trend that I've picked up on that stands out as bizarre to me is the last few games completely lacking confidence or respect for what just happened in the previous game, walking back decisions and saying "actually that thing they did was stupid and doesn't work." Consequences and fallout that change the game's world are cool to see in general, but Lost Judgment handled a post-7 world in a much better way than 8 to me. This is especially frustrating as someone who really liked and respected 6, which it does not feel like RGG themselves do (which they already showed with 7). In some ways, this feels like a reactionary apology for some of the complaints that people had about 6, but pulled off in a way that just reinforces to me that they were correct to have 6 play out how it did. (Some vague spoilers ahead) Pulling in key characters from Kiryu's past only to have them not really do much other than get 1 more fight and then get a 5 minute spotlight feels like a "there, sorry we didn't do that before, are you happy now?" kind of gesture without much relevance or substance to me. And I get that part of the theme is letting Kiryu not have to be a stubborn solo hero, and having him push forward, but a more focused solo journey works a lot better as a sendoff to me. The Life Links and Memories of a Dragon were sort of in the same camp. Sure, it was nice to see a lot of characters and places from throughout the series acknowledged one more time and hear some brief thoughts from Kiryu on each, but the execution makes them feel all like a bit of a tease and not super vital to Kiryu's story. All of the Daidoji stuff is also done in such a weird way that sometimes feels in line with 6/some of Gaiden, sometimes feels totally irrelevant, sometimes bafflingly ignores other happenings in the story, and then eventually decides to recognize those developments without a word about doing so. It cheapens 6 and what came earlier in 8 itself in a very unsatisfying and frustrating way. I think there's a story in here, if you combine most of Gaiden and bits and pieces of 8, that would be a truly worthy follow up and sendoff for Kiryu, but it's buried under a load of other plots, fallout from 7's decisions, and incohesive twists. Where it eventually ends is a solid enough spot, but it got there in such a way that didn't deliver on almost any of its potential and has extremely little narrative or emotional payoff.
And a couple nitpicks that didn't fit elsewhere: this game made me realize how much I dislike Ichiban's suit (and most of the 7 cast's Japan outfits overall). Going to Hawaii was an instant improvement after the brief PTSD endured from (Chapter 1 spoilers) infiltrating the Seiryu base again, in the same outfits, with the same jobs, with the same underground dungeon and the same theme as in 7. I groaned when eventually the suit returned. Also, it feels like there is no good language to play this game in if you speak English. I played in Japanese, which was good overall, but major American characters speaking completely incomprehensible English really took me out of it, and one character in particular really suffered from it. This game also contained one of the best substories in the franchise (Let It Snow), perfectly showcasing their unique balance of goofy and emotional, but also a slew of just awful "romance" (literally just assault) substories. And finally, there were 1-2 standout new characters to me that I did generally enjoy overall and are probably what I'll remember fondly from this game as it ages (name spoilers): Yamai and maybe Tomizawa.
On a more critical note though, the story is easily one of the weaker ones in the franchise. For a lot of the runtime, it remained either frustrating or uninteresting to me. The first goal of the main plot remains the main goal for like 85% of the game (despite being achieved briefly in the middle) without really giving you quite enough of a reason to care as much as the characters seem to. This is especially true on the Hawaii side, which I was definitely into at the start, but failed to progress in a way that kept me super invested. The one big twist there was super poorly executed, especially after playing Gaiden, and the way it set back the characters' goals just kept me so checked out or annoyed. The Japan side is a little better, though honestly that's completely to do with Kiryu and almost none to do with the actual plot going on there, which has its own share of frustrating turns. Maybe I just don't like Ichiban enough for him to carry a plot in the same way Kiryu can; ironically, this game eroded my confidence in him as a protagonist who can stand on his own going forward.
A trend that I've picked up on that stands out as bizarre to me is the last few games completely lacking confidence or respect for what just happened in the previous game, walking back decisions and saying "actually that thing they did was stupid and doesn't work." Consequences and fallout that change the game's world are cool to see in general, but Lost Judgment handled a post-7 world in a much better way than 8 to me. This is especially frustrating as someone who really liked and respected 6, which it does not feel like RGG themselves do (which they already showed with 7). In some ways, this feels like a reactionary apology for some of the complaints that people had about 6, but pulled off in a way that just reinforces to me that they were correct to have 6 play out how it did. (Some vague spoilers ahead) Pulling in key characters from Kiryu's past only to have them not really do much other than get 1 more fight and then get a 5 minute spotlight feels like a "there, sorry we didn't do that before, are you happy now?" kind of gesture without much relevance or substance to me. And I get that part of the theme is letting Kiryu not have to be a stubborn solo hero, and having him push forward, but a more focused solo journey works a lot better as a sendoff to me. The Life Links and Memories of a Dragon were sort of in the same camp. Sure, it was nice to see a lot of characters and places from throughout the series acknowledged one more time and hear some brief thoughts from Kiryu on each, but the execution makes them feel all like a bit of a tease and not super vital to Kiryu's story. All of the Daidoji stuff is also done in such a weird way that sometimes feels in line with 6/some of Gaiden, sometimes feels totally irrelevant, sometimes bafflingly ignores other happenings in the story, and then eventually decides to recognize those developments without a word about doing so. It cheapens 6 and what came earlier in 8 itself in a very unsatisfying and frustrating way. I think there's a story in here, if you combine most of Gaiden and bits and pieces of 8, that would be a truly worthy follow up and sendoff for Kiryu, but it's buried under a load of other plots, fallout from 7's decisions, and incohesive twists. Where it eventually ends is a solid enough spot, but it got there in such a way that didn't deliver on almost any of its potential and has extremely little narrative or emotional payoff.
And a couple nitpicks that didn't fit elsewhere: this game made me realize how much I dislike Ichiban's suit (and most of the 7 cast's Japan outfits overall). Going to Hawaii was an instant improvement after the brief PTSD endured from (Chapter 1 spoilers) infiltrating the Seiryu base again, in the same outfits, with the same jobs, with the same underground dungeon and the same theme as in 7. I groaned when eventually the suit returned. Also, it feels like there is no good language to play this game in if you speak English. I played in Japanese, which was good overall, but major American characters speaking completely incomprehensible English really took me out of it, and one character in particular really suffered from it. This game also contained one of the best substories in the franchise (Let It Snow), perfectly showcasing their unique balance of goofy and emotional, but also a slew of just awful "romance" (literally just assault) substories. And finally, there were 1-2 standout new characters to me that I did generally enjoy overall and are probably what I'll remember fondly from this game as it ages (name spoilers): Yamai and maybe Tomizawa.
This review contains spoilers
A huge, densely packed, amazingly presented game. There's so much in here that even if not everything is quite someone's taste, they're sure to have a blast with the rest.
The world takes the forefront here. Taking 20 minute pitstops from the original game and turning them into huge, fleshed out, beautiful zones is a wonder and doesn't feel like padding or filler in any way. Tasteful changes with the context of the rest of the Compilation's existence, like Cissnei showing up in Gongaga, or the addition of Roche to really drive home degradation, are really cool to see as well. On the side activities: there was a moment where I found something that looked cool, but had nothing happening there yet. I was initially a little disappointed, since it felt like it wasn't possible to really explore and make cool discoveries on your own. But when I said that made the game world feel not super open, a friend made the comment that it's more like a checklist that you can optionally go through as you take in the zone, and that actually shifted my view a bit. I did enjoy all of the individual activities at least enough to full clear every zone as soon as it was allowed, and only by the very end was I getting a little tired of them (climbing feels pretty bad though). I think these open world sections could have been spread out a little better too, but it wasn't a huge deal. One other note is that the party interactions are some of the best parts of the game, and while you get plenty during the main story, exploration is pretty silent in comparison. I wish the party had more to say as you wandered around on came across certain locations.
Other side content, like minigames, is of course an enormous part of the game too. This is one of the biggest impressions I have from the original game, and I thought Remake was already following up well here, so this was really cool to see maintained as a huge part of exploring this world. Not all of them quite hit (Aerith Cactuars was a bit painful), or maybe they had slightly too high goals for just how many minigames there are (especially with Round 2 of many of them dumped all at once in chapter 12), but I enjoyed clearing all of them. Cactuar racing was probably my favorite, that's a whole Mario Kart with a bunch of course variety and music as a little side mode in this already massive game. Queen's Blood was also a pretty fun game that earned its "premiere sidegame" status for the most part, those the visuals could have had a little more flair. Quests are also a significant step up, none felt super plain or phoned in and it's cool to see each sort of spotlight a party member as a companion.
The combat is just great overall. Remake was already great here, and synergy abilities are a fun way to encourage controlling different characters even more. Every character is fun to play to the point where I like getting forced into certain parties for sections with characters I was underusing. There's a lot of systems, but nothing (pre-postgame sims) is so demanding that it requires mastering every system simultaneously; you can sort of pick and choose what to ignore. There's a ton of room for player expression too. I watched a friend play briefly and it was super cool to see that he chose basically none of the same actions as me and played with a completely different style that also totally worked.
The follow up to Remake's ending was sort of what I was most looking forward to all game. Most of the time though, the game seems content to let it lie under the surface and just straightforwardly play out the plot of the original game. This recreation was executed beautifully and was a joy to play, but it did leave me wanting more than the handful of 3 minute long Zack crumbs we got sprinkled throughout + hints at deeper happenings like the Tifa Weapon scene. Of course, this all comes to a head in the contentious final 2 hours of the game. I'm not as sour on this as others seem to be, but I also don't really feel like it left me satisfied as a big fan of Remake's changes (and I'm sure it wouldn't leave Remake haters satisfied either). I guess we'll see in 2028 or whenever, but since Rebirth didn't quite follow up Remake-specific points in the best way, I don't totally trust part 3 to do more than have us go to Northern Crater, collect Huge Materia, have some very odd modified Mideel/Lifestream sequence where Cloud re-figures out who Zack is despite fighting alongside him briefly already, and then have the entire party fight Sephiroth at the edge of creation again. Regardless of all this, I like that there's still open endings and things to speculate, but I wish it had been spread out better throughout the game and told more clearly. Being lukewarm on this section doesn't really spoil the other 98 hours I spent on my main playthrough.
On characters, I just want to say that Cait Sith had the biggest glow up by far (though they're cowards for pronouncing it that way), and Yuffie was a little too one note for how prominent she was, which was a bit of a let down after how great she was in Intermission. Also, what was the point of Reno being gone for almost the whole game?
And finally, the music has to be commented on. There's some amazing stuff here, with plenty of variety. The straightforward recreations of originals (Cosmo Canyon) are beautiful. FF7-themed mixes of classics (Battle on the Big Bridge) are great. Totally original compositions (Tseng & Elena fight, which continues the cool idea of each Turk having a musical "character") are amazing. Is every single song a 10/10? Probably not, but there's very little to complain about (slightly too many chocobo remixes), and this is one I'm sure to pore over and enjoy even more after the game. The one negative comment I have here is about how frequent musical changes happen as you go around the world in a normal exploring cadence. Maybe you get on a chocobo, maybe you walk by the moogle hut or Chadley, maybe you enter or exit a town or fast travel or get in the buggy, but all of these can disrupt what you're hearing, and it makes it a little difficult to fully immerse in the world. In Gongaga I would sometimes slowly walk around just to keep the atmosphere going, which was great when I gave it room to breathe. Cosmo Canyon (the town) was large enough that this was also maintained (aside from near Chadley), and this worked super well.
Overall, while not the most perfect game in existence, this is an amazing game that I was glad to have 110+ hours melt away in. I went for full completion in almost everything (have not finished postgame Chadley sims or Hard mode on most chapters, but pretty much everything else) and am excited to see where this trilogy takes us for its conclusion.
The world takes the forefront here. Taking 20 minute pitstops from the original game and turning them into huge, fleshed out, beautiful zones is a wonder and doesn't feel like padding or filler in any way. Tasteful changes with the context of the rest of the Compilation's existence, like Cissnei showing up in Gongaga, or the addition of Roche to really drive home degradation, are really cool to see as well. On the side activities: there was a moment where I found something that looked cool, but had nothing happening there yet. I was initially a little disappointed, since it felt like it wasn't possible to really explore and make cool discoveries on your own. But when I said that made the game world feel not super open, a friend made the comment that it's more like a checklist that you can optionally go through as you take in the zone, and that actually shifted my view a bit. I did enjoy all of the individual activities at least enough to full clear every zone as soon as it was allowed, and only by the very end was I getting a little tired of them (climbing feels pretty bad though). I think these open world sections could have been spread out a little better too, but it wasn't a huge deal. One other note is that the party interactions are some of the best parts of the game, and while you get plenty during the main story, exploration is pretty silent in comparison. I wish the party had more to say as you wandered around on came across certain locations.
Other side content, like minigames, is of course an enormous part of the game too. This is one of the biggest impressions I have from the original game, and I thought Remake was already following up well here, so this was really cool to see maintained as a huge part of exploring this world. Not all of them quite hit (Aerith Cactuars was a bit painful), or maybe they had slightly too high goals for just how many minigames there are (especially with Round 2 of many of them dumped all at once in chapter 12), but I enjoyed clearing all of them. Cactuar racing was probably my favorite, that's a whole Mario Kart with a bunch of course variety and music as a little side mode in this already massive game. Queen's Blood was also a pretty fun game that earned its "premiere sidegame" status for the most part, those the visuals could have had a little more flair. Quests are also a significant step up, none felt super plain or phoned in and it's cool to see each sort of spotlight a party member as a companion.
The combat is just great overall. Remake was already great here, and synergy abilities are a fun way to encourage controlling different characters even more. Every character is fun to play to the point where I like getting forced into certain parties for sections with characters I was underusing. There's a lot of systems, but nothing (pre-postgame sims) is so demanding that it requires mastering every system simultaneously; you can sort of pick and choose what to ignore. There's a ton of room for player expression too. I watched a friend play briefly and it was super cool to see that he chose basically none of the same actions as me and played with a completely different style that also totally worked.
The follow up to Remake's ending was sort of what I was most looking forward to all game. Most of the time though, the game seems content to let it lie under the surface and just straightforwardly play out the plot of the original game. This recreation was executed beautifully and was a joy to play, but it did leave me wanting more than the handful of 3 minute long Zack crumbs we got sprinkled throughout + hints at deeper happenings like the Tifa Weapon scene. Of course, this all comes to a head in the contentious final 2 hours of the game. I'm not as sour on this as others seem to be, but I also don't really feel like it left me satisfied as a big fan of Remake's changes (and I'm sure it wouldn't leave Remake haters satisfied either). I guess we'll see in 2028 or whenever, but since Rebirth didn't quite follow up Remake-specific points in the best way, I don't totally trust part 3 to do more than have us go to Northern Crater, collect Huge Materia, have some very odd modified Mideel/Lifestream sequence where Cloud re-figures out who Zack is despite fighting alongside him briefly already, and then have the entire party fight Sephiroth at the edge of creation again. Regardless of all this, I like that there's still open endings and things to speculate, but I wish it had been spread out better throughout the game and told more clearly. Being lukewarm on this section doesn't really spoil the other 98 hours I spent on my main playthrough.
On characters, I just want to say that Cait Sith had the biggest glow up by far (though they're cowards for pronouncing it that way), and Yuffie was a little too one note for how prominent she was, which was a bit of a let down after how great she was in Intermission. Also, what was the point of Reno being gone for almost the whole game?
And finally, the music has to be commented on. There's some amazing stuff here, with plenty of variety. The straightforward recreations of originals (Cosmo Canyon) are beautiful. FF7-themed mixes of classics (Battle on the Big Bridge) are great. Totally original compositions (Tseng & Elena fight, which continues the cool idea of each Turk having a musical "character") are amazing. Is every single song a 10/10? Probably not, but there's very little to complain about (slightly too many chocobo remixes), and this is one I'm sure to pore over and enjoy even more after the game. The one negative comment I have here is about how frequent musical changes happen as you go around the world in a normal exploring cadence. Maybe you get on a chocobo, maybe you walk by the moogle hut or Chadley, maybe you enter or exit a town or fast travel or get in the buggy, but all of these can disrupt what you're hearing, and it makes it a little difficult to fully immerse in the world. In Gongaga I would sometimes slowly walk around just to keep the atmosphere going, which was great when I gave it room to breathe. Cosmo Canyon (the town) was large enough that this was also maintained (aside from near Chadley), and this worked super well.
Overall, while not the most perfect game in existence, this is an amazing game that I was glad to have 110+ hours melt away in. I went for full completion in almost everything (have not finished postgame Chadley sims or Hard mode on most chapters, but pretty much everything else) and am excited to see where this trilogy takes us for its conclusion.
2019
Super well crafted little game. Despite being super short (which I liked a lot), you still had a real feeling of progression as you went. At the start, it was really an exploration adventure, and finding stuff everywhere and talking to everyone was great. And by the end of it, the whole island felt like a playground that you could do anything on and really master. Loved pretty much all the little side stories and activities, except maybe fishing. My only nitpick was that the directional controls as the camera moves (especially in the boat) felt pretty confusing, and that a little of the dialog at the peak didn't quite hit for me like everything else. A great 3 hour experience to 100%, will definitely stick with me. Also, at the very end, I tried toggling the pixel size from max to min and was blown away. It felt like you could really pick your own artstyle on a sliding scale, and it all looked great.
Enjoying this WAY more than I expected to. I don't have any particularly fond memories of Cata, and before replays, considered "Classic" to clearly end with Wrath due to the old world revamp. But in hindsight, a lot of the changes happened at interesting paces, with a lot of the "non-Classic" feeling stuff coming in Wrath, and the general feel of classes staying more old school than I remember in Cata to the point where they feel like a great midpoint between Classic and Retail (I enjoy both, for context). Worth noting I did not level through the revamped old world (started at 80) and avoided Uldum since I knew it was the peak of Cata humor being awful to me. So in this specific experience of starting with a level 80 Enhancement Shaman, going through Hyjal/Deepholm/Twilight Highlands, then gearing up through dungeons and raiding with some friends and clearing the whole first tier, I'm shockingly having a blast. I didn't really do much past leveling in the rest of Classic (though I really enjoyed those sections), so this is a pleasant surprise. Also, compared to MoP Remix which I played right before this, it was really nice to have a more grounded world where nothing scaled.