A Staggeringly Unbiased Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Review 

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Theyre designed for streamer groups today, theyre not designed to be these introverted single player narratives like we had. Too many extra mini games and tasks and pointless wandering around.

I agree with you in that the characters and the fleshed out relationships between them really make this game shine. I felt it in Remake too, but Rebirth largely took it to the next level, and I love the moments that show the growing camaraderie and friendship not just relating to Cloud, but between all the characters. Like Yuffie and Barret driving each other mad, but her ultimately being the first to defend him from the townspeople in Corel. Or Aerith and Tifa consistently looking out for and taking care of each other (I'm SOOO glad they didn't fall into the trap of having them compete for Cloud's attention). Overall, I really enjoyed this game. The regions are unique and interesting, the side quests are largely far improved on those in Remake, and of course I love the continued expansion of Remake's combat system, which is one of my favorites in the whole series. Two things you didn't touch on that are personal gripes of mine, though. First, I don't know about everyone else, but I find the traversal mechanics to be kind of clunky and uncomfortable. This includes climbing, jumping from ledges, and even traveling on the Chocobo. I'd say these are things I sort of got used to over time, but imo they don't feel nearly as smooth as I think they should. Second, I'm little annoyed by what I feel is the undercutting of some of the biggest emotional scenes --- especially Dyne's death and Red/Nanaki's scene with his father. In Rebirth, Dyne's death scene is immediately interrupted by the arrival of enemies, and the Red scene is immediately interrupted by the arrival of the Gi. Like immediately. No break, no opportunity for the player to process anything. I find it jarring. And this sort of thing works fine for Aerith's death because the grief and the rage are still present in the moment during the coming fights. But with the others, it just feels like we're being forced to move on and focus on something else after these emotional things have happened. I'm a BIT more forgiving of the Barret scene than I am of the Red scene. I still had tears in my eyes the when Red was howling for his Dad, and suddenly this other guy showed up demanding my attention. Like what gives?

I had such a fun time with that game until I hit the 90 hour mark and still had a lot of way to go. It became such a drag after a while, that I just wanted to finally end it. There is so much fun stuff in it but it just overloads at some point. There is one thing I don't understand though, and nobody seems to talk about it: these scenes where you have to slowly walk and occasionaly hit the trigger buttons. I literally layed around on the ground when the good old sephi-village scene happened. And they just stood there. Nothing happened, zero consequence, except wasting time on cinematics that could have been in a cutscene. They only start moving if you crawl towards them. So yeah. It's a fun game, but there are some weird design decisions in the story that I just don't care anymore. I'm sure I won't buy the next entry. That ending was just....hmmmmmm. mhm. Hmmmmmm....

Playing through it right now but I can't wait to hear your thoughts on it. I have lots of mixed feelings.

Damn, I just got to cosmo canyon. Been busy with Elden Ring dlc, but I’ll save it to “watch later” because I’m really interested in what you have to say :p

Oh man I’ve been waiting for this review Jack. I’m excited

The more time passes, the more baffling the open world design in Rebirth is for me. Mechanically, it's one of the best open worlds I've played in a game. You don't have to use map markers to find most things, the side quests lead you to most of the objectives in a really organic way, and the enemy placement along those objectives are really good at acclimatizing players to their tactics. But outside of RPG-typical stats and resources, the open world is very inessential to the game. Dynamic difficulty allows you to bypass the resource grind altogether, and thus the entire open world, and still have a consistent difficulty throughout the main story content. Almost none of the story takes place in the open world. Every new area immediately presents the player with a fork in the road, go one way to continue the main story or go the other way to explore. Exploration is never on the way to the rest of the game. On the one hand, Rebirth can be played as a 100% linear game, more focused than Remake even, just by taking the main story path every time you get to a new area. But on the other hand, it makes the open world feel irrelevant and the overall world feel kind of small. in the end, I loved exploring the open world but I wish that exploration was actually part of the journey as depicted in the narrative.

The content rich vs content dense perception is great way to compare opinions on this game. Btw love that you will often balance your opinion with someone else's even if it's just a youtube comment you received, good take Jack.

I agree with you in many respects. Especially your last statement. This is an amazing game in spit of what ever flaws you consider it to have. You can say the exact same thing about the OG FF7. It's an amazing game worth its plays in history, despite its flaws.

It definitely has its faults and some gameplay things that can be improved but I love this game, one of the best games I’ve ever played

I believe they "overloaded" Rebirth because i think pt 3 will be more linear akin to Remake in order to focus on the conclusion of the overall because there is ALOT left to cover from the OG story, which they'll also add more content too. Then there will also be the added stuff about Zack. Like is the multiverse "real" or is it just an aspect of the afterlife he is experiencing? Or is it Aeriths doing? Etc... So that's why i think the game may be 50-60 hours long, but without 50 hours of side quest. Rebirth is roughly 40 hours from start to finish of the main quest with about 50 hours of side quests while Remake was about 30 for the maim quest.

Great stuff. Been loving your chats with the Birds of Play. Maybe next time you'll let Petur talk

They had the butterfly edge and *kinda* had Force Edge according to some people (Umbral Blade i think it was called). They just renamed them. I forgot which one was the butterfly edge, but I believe it was either the second or third sword you get in the game. (I’d have preferred they kept the name Butterfly edge, but yeah)

Yassssss you did another FF7 video ❤

I got annoyed when the game forced me to do side content in order to proceed through the main campaign. I like to save games and some side quests for A new game plus. Please don't force your side games.down my throat. But I loved the game and can't wait for 3.

Just as I finished Rebirth the other day this dropped. Loved almost every moment of it yes the game has some obvious faults but the other parts of it made up for it. I can see why this game has received such high critical acclaim It is truly a great game felt like I was back playing og FF7. I can’t wait for what is gonna come in part 3.

Isn’t the Igneous blade a redesign of Organics? It has some very similar design features & is even “organically” formed from magma.

I never played the original. I'm 40 so yes I was old enough when it came out but I've always been an asthetics guy and I couldn't get into the unrealistic interpretation of the sprites and never will.

I loved this game. Getting the platinum is a different story.

Hhmmmpp. It's a different game than og. If it wasn't a remake, didn't have that ff7 paint, I wouldn't want to play it. It's hard to copy or surpass perfection. But they didn't really do anything great except making a mediocre game that is carried hd og parts.

Og lets me get op but remake makes me grind twice....

I think everyone doesnt understand the remakes clearly expected you to have played the original. Remake literally spoils OG like 50 times. I feel like if people looked at it from that lens theyd see how amazing it actually is. I dont go watch a play and complain it was different from the film

🫶🏼🫶🏼

I hate those trashbag ring wraith dementor things.. It's a shame new fans are playing these games over the classics in the series.