Put about 40 hours in and hit red ranks so I'm ready to say this is among the best fighting games I've ever played. I dug Tekken 7 but never played much of beyond getting all the trophies for some reason (they were easy to do?) and messing around with friends. The new touches in this all feel great and distinguish the game from its predecessors. I imagine in the coming days with more cheating and weird Tekken Coin or whatever purchasing people will start to swing harder against the game but I can't say either thing has affected me yet. Its so good I'm going to EVO for the first time to lose in the first round.

are you using your time to properly think and talk with art? are you listening? or do you plug your ears anytime it tries to talk with you, to challenge you and make you rethink what you're engaging with?

i don't think i have any common ground with most people who like videogames, actually. but i don't think this is just videogames anymore, this is endemic in all of the arts. people stopped being listeners, started being consumers. no long a plot twist will make your heart skip a beat, now it's the author "betraying" your trust. no longer can complicated concept be presented before your public, now you're "fumbling", "overdesigning" or whatever new word people will invent to use as analytical shortcuts. like, really, you spent 90h with this game and all you could get back from it was that it has "Ubisoft-like" design because it has towers? i don't care if you gave the game 4 or 5 stars or if that was a compliment, is it that hard to think more about it? am i setting the bar too high? probably.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is not a product, it's an art piece which you converse with (that's honestly 99.9% of games too btw). hefty admission price for sure, but it does not need to cater to you at any moment. it needs to be heard, seen, felt, I think running around the grasslands felt incredible and vibrant, i love how every map changes its whole design based on the chocobos, i love how sidequests have their own little songs to them with battle music included, i love how every character gets explored a whole ton more because now they have the time to do so, I love how Tifa can be herself instead of Cloud's past, I liked every change, I think this game is probably one of the most courageous games ever made and that will ever be made and people won't appreciate it enough, but that's fine because I will.

the more i think about it, the more i think about its last hours, the more i think how they handled -that moment- the more I like it. I like this and Remake for entirely different reasons, but Rebirth made me feel things I don't think i was even aware I could feel playing a game and I don't mean crying i cry for everything and i cried super hard at several moments in this game, it's something else, which i would only dare to explain if I had spoilered this text but i don't want to do so.

like i said i think i finally realized my lack of common ground is what makes it really hard to talk about videogames outside of my circle, people who only wear "videogames are art!!" as a mantle for feeling validated, but not really treating them much differently than the hamburger they'll buy for lunch. i don't mind if you didn't like the game but i only ask for something of substance, an interesting read, at the very least a personal perspective, not internet gaming buzzwords i can see in like 60 other reviews. i just want to think and challenge myself and i feel like i'm always going into a hivemind. but i guess that's fine i get to cherish good things when i see them at least.

i just need to remind myself of this

Absolutely on par with some of the lower end of FromSoft's Souls (better even; I'd rather play this than Demon's Souls pretty much any day of the week.) Certainly has its issues, namely that the incredibly fascinating weapon combination mechanic is sidelined by how good the boss weapons are and a little over reliance on the parrying mechanic. These are more than made up for by interesting bosses, lots of fun little weird mechanics (I particularly liked the timed Sakura Wars-esque lying choices and the record collecting) that give the game flavor beyond Italian Bloodborne.

SMT fan spaces and discussions have become so miserable that I had all but divorced myself of them at around the time this came out, so I missed all the reasons why people thought it was bad. I'm glad I ended up finally playing it; its pretty fun despite some noticeable issues and it scratched the SMT itch. Great cast and fun battle system, although could use some boss variety and the dungeons were anemic. Not worth the level of vitriol people spilled over it as is usually the case with this series. If they called it Devil Summoner: Cyber Demons or some shit I bet they could have avoided a ton of hate from people who pretended to care about Soul Hackers 1.

When I saw Spider-Man: No Way Home in theaters, during the post credits Tom Hardy cameo, a man leaned over to his girlfriend, pointed to the screen and said in the most matter of fact way "That's Venom." After this moment I have never not laughed whenever I see or think of the character Venom so this game was a hoot.

Pretty good! I don't play a lot of the big AAA Sony games but the trailer for this had several Spider-Man villains I like so I jumped in. Pretty sure I'm set for the next 4 years with this kind of game but glad I played it.

This is a tentative review, if the game gets a deep discount, or if the DLC is substantial, I will reevaluate.

Played this game on the free NSO trial, and I am glad I did because I can not justify buying the whole game, even for the sale price of $45 dollars.

I don't think that Fae Farm is a bad game, I enjoyed the time I spent playing it, but for such a huge price tag I can't get over how unpolished and unfinished the game feels. The game does have a lot going for it, I like how smooth traversal is, I love the double jump with wings to get around, quality of life features like automatically swapping to the tool you need or spells having utility with farming/mining are really appreciated, but none of that makes it a must buy.

The NPCs are completely lifeless, most just shop keepers that all repeat the same 2-3 lines of dialogue, and even the more story important characters are written in the same way so it sounds like every single character has the same "voice." There is little to dating in a genre where dating already feels shallow in some of the best titles.

Character creation has pretty few options which is unfortunate, I don't mind the My Sims look of the characters, but they don't give you a lot to work with. You also can't rename your character without making an account outside the game... the fuck?

Inventory management is annoying, with there being no rhyme or reason to the item stacks, and items not displaying names when you scroll over them so you need to click each one.

Those are more minor nitpicks I know. The farming and mining gameplay is fine, nothing groundbreaking, but without any investment in the story or world, it feels like I'm just grinding to grind... and I did kind of enjoy that in a lazy way, but with the game doing absolutely nothing special in any regard, I could get that same fix and also enjoy a game I care about.

To me, the game is just a shallow by the numbers farm game but at a premium price. Not bad, but not really compelling either.

A lot of people seem to like it, so maybe I am just spoiled off Starwdew Valley and Rune Factory, but I suggest at least waiting for a 50% off sale or until after both DLCs release before picking it up.

HOOOOOLY SHIT an actual good one
Ch. Vivia: Like the previous stories, there's little mystery, and few original assets... but UNLIKE the previous ones it doesn't dwell on the nothing burger it presents itself as. Vivia actually has someone to talk to! And reflect! There's actual drama! Actual character development! SUBTEXT! THEMES! AN ACTUAL MESSAGE!!!
Good shit all around.
Ch. Yakou: Really just a bonus they threw in to tell you that yes, this is in fact the only DLC worth buying. It's relevant to the main story, so it's actually worthwhile.
I was going to give this only 4 stars but then I saw Lyndax gave it that score and I knew I appreciated it more than them since their reviews of the other dlcs were marginally more positive than mine. Maybe I'm biased, maybe this isn't groundbreaking at all. Maybe any quality bump from the first 3 dlcs that actually uses the structure to its advantage would've made me give this response. I don't care. This left me on a note higher than anything in the main game. Maybe they'll even learn from these extra chapters and make a better game next time that uses its structure better.
Maybe...