It's quite simply not a game, but that's not the issue; I didn't expect it to be a game. I bought it on deep discount for $1.49 and it still isn't worth it. Half of the option combinations don't even make sense: "Would You Rather: Lose a Family Member or Gain the Ability to Control Water?" or "Would You Rather: Learn English or Learn Chinese?" ...in a game that is entirely in English. Stuff like that pops up all over. Only good part is that you can very easily cheese a Platinum trophy for this game in about 10 minutes, like I did. Other than that, will likely never touch this game again.

The game was fun enough. It was akin to a Kirby game in terms of difficulty and vibe. There were some moments where the controls were a little jank and there were some QOL settings that would have been nice. It doesn't feel like it would be super rewarding to go back and try to collect all of the Sparkles as, sometimes, they are just missable due to a timing issue or the like, and there is no option to retry a specific part of a level, so you end up having to replay the whole level again to attempt to collect it again. Will I MAYBE slowly try to collect these in between games, just drip-feeding to completing the collection aspect? Maybe... but will likely not keep up with that as I move into other games.

Also, final boss was significantly easier than some of the other bosses, so the difficulty scaling was a little strange.

I'm going to keep my review spoiler-free. The meat and potatoes of it all is that I loved this game. I spent 111 hours beating it and it was a joy the whole way through. I completed nearly every quest/side mission, but Final Fantasy had to Final Fantasy, so there were some that were just unbearably difficult (I didn't have too much difficulty with most of the game, but it threw in a few battles in these side missions that were just ridiculous and I couldn't foresee myself enjoying the process of getting adept enough to beat them; I don't enjoy the frustratingly difficult battles and challenges that some gamers do, so I ended up begrudgingly walking away from a handful of these).

I thought the entire game was gorgeous, the cut scenes in particular, and I was fully invested in every character. There were many moments that strove for comedy and nearly always stuck the landing. There were many other moments that were designed to pull at the heartstrings, and it hit the target on those as well; there were definitely moments that had me getting misty-eyed. Finally, there were moments still that portrayed pulse-pounding action and they were riveting every time.

I also very much feel that I benefitted from playing Crisis Core: Reunion and the Remake DLC right before this game came out as it helped me keep up with the story beats (and were essential to understand a few brief storyline references, although not required for anyone trying to just delve into the game after Remake), and I'm sure that, had I replayed Remake more recently, certain moments would have been easier to follow.

The story was engaging, albeit a little confusing to follow at times, but, as with those difficult battles, Final Fantasy is going to Final Fantasy, so they couldn't have a straight-forward, easy to follow storyline the WHOLE way through!

Again, having only recently played the original FFVII (AFTER I played Remake, in fact), it was great fun to see the gang again, and I can imagine how extra special it is for those who played the original way back when.