The original Final Fantasy VII is one of my favourite games of all time, so much so that upon hearing the remixed version of The Prelude at my first time of opening, I got a little emotional right off the bat.

The combat is fun and weighty but it's frustrating how worthless your party is while you're not controlling them. The music is incredible and the way they work the wind instrument motif from 'Let the Battles Begin' into almost every combat theme was always a joy to listen to.

The main gripe I have is with the story. While I enjoy how much more the characters are expanded upon, especially Cloud and Barret, the pacing is so horrifically slow that I enjoyed the second half of the game significantly less.

All 26 available sidequests are surface level and shallow and while none of them are tedious to complete, they do drag the momentum of the game to a halt as you have a very limited window to finish them in. Even without the optional side content, way too many chapters of the game are just stuffed with filler content, most egregious the two separate times you're flung into the sewers and your jolly haunt through the Train Graveyard.

Aside from the fluff they added to make this game 40~ hours, I do not enjoy the changes to the overall story especially the use of Sephiroth, the main antagonist from the original. I have grown to like the ending and implications it thrusts upon this universe the more I have thought about it, but as it's own game without the context of the second part, I was left unsatisfied by it.

At the end of the day, it's still Final Fantasy VII and it's still worth playing. It however is not a viable alternative to the original for me as it carves it's own unique story and as of now, I can only wait to see how it resolves. 7/10

A good entry in the Yakuza franchise
Most notably the story starts off with a really strong hook and for the most part delivers a really engaging narrative. It does however, as Yakuza tradition, pull its punches quite often and makes you question "if they're so scared to kill any of their likeable characters, why do they all get shot repeatedly?"
The gameplay is solid enough, I played on hard and for the most part it was very manageable up until the end where I felt I was going to have an aneurysm when you really start to notice the lack of I-Frames and unreadable attacks that can kill you in one or two combos.
Side content is solid as always. Almost all new gameplay mechanics surrounding the detective portion of the game, suck. Tailing missions will bore you to tears with how uninteresting they are and the ripped off Phoenix Wright search for clues/presenting evidence mechanics are so watered down they are almost negligible.
Overall, a fun time and the highs of the story make this game worth playing, 8/10.