An exceptional midpoint to the FF7 remake series. Wonderfully realized characters and world that tugged at some of my most nostalgic heart strings. I'm interested to see where the story goes in the inevitable sequel, as it's hard for me to judge before it's complete. Only a few things holding it back for me. The battle system got a bit of a facelift from the previous game, but still I wish they had tweaked it a bit to feel more responsive. It's not fun to get stuck in animations. My biggest complaint is the open world bloat, and along with that, some of the minigames are infuriating. I suspect if I didn't have such nostalgia value baked into this, I'd take off another half star.