This game is a masterwork. You can tell that every mind behind it is deeply passionate about the source material. All of new minigames are so fun, I love seeing that funny autistic man be put in situations. Every new place that you go to has this whacky situation going on. I especially loved the card tournament and its final competitor, not to mention the card game itself with its crazy subplot. Every time i think "OMG are they gonna keep this from the original??" the answer is "Yes AND we made it ten times better." The combat has gotten a needed upgrade, I loved how the relationship mechanics tied into battle abilities. Every character is fun to play in their own way. Yuffie is amazing for putting in quick elemental damage, Barret staggers fast, etc. Every part of this story kept me guessing up to the end credits. The open world is actually amazing and full of fun places to explore and good excuses to explore them. Frankly, my only issues with this game, and the things holding it back from five stars, are towards the beginning of the game. the flashback chapter had really weird pacing during the fire and a QTE when there really shouldnt have been one. completely took me out of the experience. and i said i loved the open world, but that wasnt true until i got to the second zone; being dropped into open grasslands that are easy to traverse (every subsequent zone has a different breed of native chocobo and thus a different way to get around) made it feel as sparse as any ubisoft game, and the towers didnt help either. but once we properly got into the swing of things, i didnt have a complaint for the rest of the game.
any chump who tells you this is a mockery of FFVII's legacy or whatever, doesnt like enjoying things. they didnt like the beach section, or the sidequests, or the relationship mechanics, or the combat. they just want pure unaltered Final Fantasy VII (1997). they were never going to like this game no matter what, because the game that they ACTUALLY want to play came out 27 years ago, and theyre playing this instead of that. so ignore them.
This game, like Remake, by no means is supposed to replace the original. it complements it. it pays homage. its a labor of love. go in wanting to have fun and youll have fun. i know i did, and i WILL be 100%ing this game, just give me time.