This review contains spoilers
Between the release of Remake and Rebirth, I had come to accept that ultimately, no matter what it was going to do, the FF7 Remake was never gonna live up to the original. FF7 is such an absolute classic of a game that I kind of equate it to a book, and a Remake was always gonna be like a movie or tv adaptation. And even good adaptations are never quite as good as their original books. I like the early, good, seasons of Game of Thrones, but if you actually read A Song of Ice and Fire, you’ll realize that even they mangle up the story in quite a few ways.
With that said, the FF7R project goes beyond what adaptations usually do where they poorly translate a few things here and there, and it outright goes into weird timeline shit that really displeases a lot of people. Myself included. I mostly liked Remake but the ending just left a sour taste in my mouth. Even so, I went into Rebirth with the expectation “hopefully the damage isn’t so bad”. With that said, I came off rather satisfied off these expectations.
Points that are shared in common with Remake
+Presentation is top notch, game looks and runs great, voice acting is fantastic, characters act like how the characters I liked from the Original would act.
+Mechanically a solid RPG, with the in depth customisation of the original materia system mostly intact, but with the added benefit of each character being its own very distinct thing.
+Combat is very fun and rewarding, even more so in Rebirth with the speed receiving a noticeable boost.
+Whenever the game IS being faithful to the original, it does it insanely well and is a joy to behold.
-The filler is generally a nuisance, with it always coming off as interrupting the pace of the story.
-Short sections of the original being turned into hour long dungeons with shitty puzzles just sucks, sometimes less is more.
Points that are unique to Rebirth
+Side characters are generally improved, I found myself to enjoy most of the unimportant people in the story quite a lot more beyond just the avalanche crew.
+Sidequests are an improvement from Remake and 16, while not especially great, they do feel just “good enough” that I felt compelled to do them here and there.
+Yuffie and Cait Sith are massively improved from the Original. I enjoyed both characters quite a lot more.
+Queen’s blood is pretty fun
-While this may be fixed in Part 3, Cid seems to be massively whitewashed from his original portrayal.
-Ubisoft towers, no one likes these, just stops, just have the activities already on the map.
-While I like that unlike 16, the game isn't afraid to indulge in some mini game silliness here and there, having some of them so frequently mandatory does take away from their inherent nature as mini games.
-The party feels like the biggest bunch of enablers towards Cloud’s obviously unwell mental state to the point where it's hard not to see them as complete idiots. Him literally attacking Tifa results in absolutely nothing.
-Dyne’s death is absolutely butchered.
-The final dungeon is awful, like holy shit that was tedious, and the final boss sucks too besides the final final part with One Winged Angel playing.
-Remake’s confidant “THE TIMELINE IS FREE TO OPEN NOW” doesn't mean much when Rebirth still largely follows the plot of OG. And the few possible differences that could be interesting are either aborted (Rufus’s deal with Cloud), saved up for Part 3 (Glenn and Wutai), or just bad (changing Nibelheim from a skinwalker town to a refugee camp, thus making Shinra feel far less eerie).
-While not inherently a fault, I feel like this game puts off most of the load of the actual major deviations on Part 3, thus making that game have a far heavier load to eventually carry.
Now I want to say, what ultimately does leave a positive taste in my mouth with the game is…..strangely enough the ending. Which I hear is many people’s most hated part.
It’s not the same as losing Aerith the first time of course, it was never going to be, but what is there instead is equally as intriguing, as it is horrifying. Cloud feels like a more lost person than he’s ever been, which is what always drew me to his character. I get why a lot of people don't like it, but I don't care, for me it landed, far better than anything at the end of Remake.
Ultimately, I’m giving a fairly high score, but if Part 3 messes its landing, I will have to bring this down, because the entire FF7R project now rests on its shoulders, should they be able to carry the weight.
With that said, the FF7R project goes beyond what adaptations usually do where they poorly translate a few things here and there, and it outright goes into weird timeline shit that really displeases a lot of people. Myself included. I mostly liked Remake but the ending just left a sour taste in my mouth. Even so, I went into Rebirth with the expectation “hopefully the damage isn’t so bad”. With that said, I came off rather satisfied off these expectations.
Points that are shared in common with Remake
+Presentation is top notch, game looks and runs great, voice acting is fantastic, characters act like how the characters I liked from the Original would act.
+Mechanically a solid RPG, with the in depth customisation of the original materia system mostly intact, but with the added benefit of each character being its own very distinct thing.
+Combat is very fun and rewarding, even more so in Rebirth with the speed receiving a noticeable boost.
+Whenever the game IS being faithful to the original, it does it insanely well and is a joy to behold.
-The filler is generally a nuisance, with it always coming off as interrupting the pace of the story.
-Short sections of the original being turned into hour long dungeons with shitty puzzles just sucks, sometimes less is more.
Points that are unique to Rebirth
+Side characters are generally improved, I found myself to enjoy most of the unimportant people in the story quite a lot more beyond just the avalanche crew.
+Sidequests are an improvement from Remake and 16, while not especially great, they do feel just “good enough” that I felt compelled to do them here and there.
+Yuffie and Cait Sith are massively improved from the Original. I enjoyed both characters quite a lot more.
+Queen’s blood is pretty fun
-While this may be fixed in Part 3, Cid seems to be massively whitewashed from his original portrayal.
-Ubisoft towers, no one likes these, just stops, just have the activities already on the map.
-While I like that unlike 16, the game isn't afraid to indulge in some mini game silliness here and there, having some of them so frequently mandatory does take away from their inherent nature as mini games.
-The party feels like the biggest bunch of enablers towards Cloud’s obviously unwell mental state to the point where it's hard not to see them as complete idiots. Him literally attacking Tifa results in absolutely nothing.
-Dyne’s death is absolutely butchered.
-The final dungeon is awful, like holy shit that was tedious, and the final boss sucks too besides the final final part with One Winged Angel playing.
-Remake’s confidant “THE TIMELINE IS FREE TO OPEN NOW” doesn't mean much when Rebirth still largely follows the plot of OG. And the few possible differences that could be interesting are either aborted (Rufus’s deal with Cloud), saved up for Part 3 (Glenn and Wutai), or just bad (changing Nibelheim from a skinwalker town to a refugee camp, thus making Shinra feel far less eerie).
-While not inherently a fault, I feel like this game puts off most of the load of the actual major deviations on Part 3, thus making that game have a far heavier load to eventually carry.
Now I want to say, what ultimately does leave a positive taste in my mouth with the game is…..strangely enough the ending. Which I hear is many people’s most hated part.
It’s not the same as losing Aerith the first time of course, it was never going to be, but what is there instead is equally as intriguing, as it is horrifying. Cloud feels like a more lost person than he’s ever been, which is what always drew me to his character. I get why a lot of people don't like it, but I don't care, for me it landed, far better than anything at the end of Remake.
Ultimately, I’m giving a fairly high score, but if Part 3 messes its landing, I will have to bring this down, because the entire FF7R project now rests on its shoulders, should they be able to carry the weight.