Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is confidently enormous and ambitious, a crazy leap from Remake, and shows a clear love for its source material pouring out of nearly every aspect.
I think the gameplay has seen the most improvement here, and I have to imagine going back to remake is gonna be difficult after this. It’s so much faster and more responsive, and gives you an impressive amount of options to play with. The loop of ATB into synergy attacks into better and better limits is absolutely excellent, and the increased tools to deal with distanced and flying enemies are highly appreciated. I still don’t quite understand how “Dynamic” difficulty works, aside from what I am left to assume from some strangely-placed difficulty spikes, but when it all clicks together it feels fantastic. I can’t wait to see what they do with this already excellent system next.
The story is quite good as well, it more directly follows the events of FF7 proper than its predecessor and continues to embellish and expand on those events quite well (perhaps better, even) with a clear understanding of why certain things worked. Its divergences are much more sectioned off which I think helps the game at large, give or take a couple weird placements of certain events, and I found said divergences to be much more interesting on their own merit. If I had to single out anything, I think the beginning is a bit rough as the game throws you straight into the action with next to zero effort to ease the player back into the universe, but that was my only real point of friction with it and I actually liked the ending of this one a bit more.
One of the most impressive things about it is how deeply they seem to have taken the criticisms of the first game’s side content, because almost everything here feels fun, substantial, and worth doing. Hell, in general I find it impressive that Remake’s formula worked so well in an open world format. Sure, you can rag on it for an “Ubisoft Open World” as has become the go-to (and to be fair, I think you could cut a couple lesser minigames and a good chunk of the small “World Intel” tasks and the game wouldn’t be much different for it), but most of it is content worth seeing at best and something you can probably do in 2 minutes and/or easily ignore while you’re traversing to the next objective anyway at worst. At times it can be a bit too much, I had to take a bit of a break around the middle because there the game is just A LOT, but much of the time it works, it’s smooth, and most importantly it’s good!
I don’t tend to drone on about visuals a whole lot, but this is the first game in awhile that has wowed me. There are scuffed textures here and there sure, but the game is extremely well-realized and a pleasure to look at, with a super indulgent and excellent soundtrack to match. It’s hard to describe, but some of these areas are a shockingly perfect translation of the graphics of the era into a modern style that somehow manages not to lose any of the original’s feel. However I do have to mention the graphics modes; there is clearly something really wrong with the performance mode here and hopefully it gets fixed eventually. Conversely, this is the first time I’ve used a resolution mode and it’s been consistent enough that I stuck with it, and I’m really glad I did. Also god have I missed big expensive CG cutscenes, we need to bring that back into vogue!
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth may have its issues, but rarely does a game come along that makes me feel like I’m a child on Christmas morning like this one did, and it’s hard to overstate the importance of that.
I think the gameplay has seen the most improvement here, and I have to imagine going back to remake is gonna be difficult after this. It’s so much faster and more responsive, and gives you an impressive amount of options to play with. The loop of ATB into synergy attacks into better and better limits is absolutely excellent, and the increased tools to deal with distanced and flying enemies are highly appreciated. I still don’t quite understand how “Dynamic” difficulty works, aside from what I am left to assume from some strangely-placed difficulty spikes, but when it all clicks together it feels fantastic. I can’t wait to see what they do with this already excellent system next.
The story is quite good as well, it more directly follows the events of FF7 proper than its predecessor and continues to embellish and expand on those events quite well (perhaps better, even) with a clear understanding of why certain things worked. Its divergences are much more sectioned off which I think helps the game at large, give or take a couple weird placements of certain events, and I found said divergences to be much more interesting on their own merit. If I had to single out anything, I think the beginning is a bit rough as the game throws you straight into the action with next to zero effort to ease the player back into the universe, but that was my only real point of friction with it and I actually liked the ending of this one a bit more.
One of the most impressive things about it is how deeply they seem to have taken the criticisms of the first game’s side content, because almost everything here feels fun, substantial, and worth doing. Hell, in general I find it impressive that Remake’s formula worked so well in an open world format. Sure, you can rag on it for an “Ubisoft Open World” as has become the go-to (and to be fair, I think you could cut a couple lesser minigames and a good chunk of the small “World Intel” tasks and the game wouldn’t be much different for it), but most of it is content worth seeing at best and something you can probably do in 2 minutes and/or easily ignore while you’re traversing to the next objective anyway at worst. At times it can be a bit too much, I had to take a bit of a break around the middle because there the game is just A LOT, but much of the time it works, it’s smooth, and most importantly it’s good!
I don’t tend to drone on about visuals a whole lot, but this is the first game in awhile that has wowed me. There are scuffed textures here and there sure, but the game is extremely well-realized and a pleasure to look at, with a super indulgent and excellent soundtrack to match. It’s hard to describe, but some of these areas are a shockingly perfect translation of the graphics of the era into a modern style that somehow manages not to lose any of the original’s feel. However I do have to mention the graphics modes; there is clearly something really wrong with the performance mode here and hopefully it gets fixed eventually. Conversely, this is the first time I’ve used a resolution mode and it’s been consistent enough that I stuck with it, and I’m really glad I did. Also god have I missed big expensive CG cutscenes, we need to bring that back into vogue!
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth may have its issues, but rarely does a game come along that makes me feel like I’m a child on Christmas morning like this one did, and it’s hard to overstate the importance of that.
Feeling pretty conflicted on this since The Rising Tide was positioned as the more significant DLC package of the two in the season pass, but it ends up being more like two Echoes of the Fallens in a trenchcoat.
This DLC has almost exactly the same structure as its predecessor down to the same number of major bosses (I don't count the Egi since it's recurring and is more a glorified ability tutorial) but stretched out to maybe twice the runtime. It also includes a handful of new sidequests that really do nothing but pad out its length and unlock features you already have in the main game. Gameplay-wise the new options are a good enough time, but everything else around it I found pretty uninspired, aside from the yet again best-in-class difficult boss fights. Other than that... Tonberries were cool, I guess? I was also somewhat disappointed that the proportion of interesting gameplay-altering accessories seemed lesser than Echoes.
While the story here is a little better and more pertinent to the main plotline than its predecessor, I still found it mostly pretty uninteresting give or take a couple small high points, and the ending really feels like they ran out of budget or time as the characters basically turn to the camera and say "this is why we're not doing this obvious thing" and then you randomly get granted a new ability that feels meant for when you would have possibly done that thing. I dunno!
Just... Man. I really do wish I liked it more. My heart says go lower but at worst its about at the same level as Echoes so... There it is.
This DLC has almost exactly the same structure as its predecessor down to the same number of major bosses (I don't count the Egi since it's recurring and is more a glorified ability tutorial) but stretched out to maybe twice the runtime. It also includes a handful of new sidequests that really do nothing but pad out its length and unlock features you already have in the main game. Gameplay-wise the new options are a good enough time, but everything else around it I found pretty uninspired, aside from the yet again best-in-class difficult boss fights. Other than that... Tonberries were cool, I guess? I was also somewhat disappointed that the proportion of interesting gameplay-altering accessories seemed lesser than Echoes.
While the story here is a little better and more pertinent to the main plotline than its predecessor, I still found it mostly pretty uninteresting give or take a couple small high points, and the ending really feels like they ran out of budget or time as the characters basically turn to the camera and say "this is why we're not doing this obvious thing" and then you randomly get granted a new ability that feels meant for when you would have possibly done that thing. I dunno!
Just... Man. I really do wish I liked it more. My heart says go lower but at worst its about at the same level as Echoes so... There it is.
I'm left mixed on this one. It has some cool concepts and aesthetics, finally some interesting accessories, more much needed party banter, and is host to a couple of the better (maybe even best?) boss fights in the game, but everything inbetween is pretty tepid and forgettable. This DLC screams "bonus" rather than another proper paid chunk of FFXVI. The story is conceptually cool, but it feels so far removed from the rest of the game and bereft of any stakes I may as well have forgotten it immediately after playing.
2024
finally they put lost planet 2 back on steam
Wildly exceeded my expectations, especially for a game that's been in development this long.
The gameplay is absolutely stellar, and the exciting story missions and excellent presentation raise the spectacle and strongly elevate this to a fantastic worthwhile action RPG. I loved the large selection of characters, each with unique traits and playstyles to change things up just when things start feeling a little stale. The story in itself is kinda average, it feels like it's missing a mission or two in the middle, characters get a bit overly-verbose explaining things near to the end, and... that's about the worst I can say about it, honestly!
I can see the meaty postgame keeping me coming back for a long time to come, and I sincerely hope they keep the game well-updated. Perhaps even do a "Rising"-adjacent version on top of that. I'll play as much as they put out for this game.
The gameplay is absolutely stellar, and the exciting story missions and excellent presentation raise the spectacle and strongly elevate this to a fantastic worthwhile action RPG. I loved the large selection of characters, each with unique traits and playstyles to change things up just when things start feeling a little stale. The story in itself is kinda average, it feels like it's missing a mission or two in the middle, characters get a bit overly-verbose explaining things near to the end, and... that's about the worst I can say about it, honestly!
I can see the meaty postgame keeping me coming back for a long time to come, and I sincerely hope they keep the game well-updated. Perhaps even do a "Rising"-adjacent version on top of that. I'll play as much as they put out for this game.
2024
it's got bugs and it's got quests, what more could you possibly desire? come for the bug quest stay to befriend the snail. dance to the groovy music. break out of jail. find DA SECRETZ. will the grasshoper make the jump? befriend ALL THE SPIDERS. absorb the forbidden knowledge. worm. worm. worm. worm. worm. worm. worm. WORM
2024
A faithful remake that's tweaked and added to just enough to make it feel fresh, snappy, modern, and approachable. I loved the improved Tartarus a lot, and it made struggling up its many blocks much more captivating in the moment to moment. Heck, the stellar new dub that covers much more of the game elevates the already great story and makes this version worth a look on its own.
The vibes are a bit different in a couple areas (mostly at the beginning and end) and your mileage may vary when it comes to those changes; I personally enjoyed them as a different take on familiar scenes. The rebalancing is also mostly a positive I feel, but it tends to lean a bit on the easy side, so I would recommend starting on a harder difficulty especially for veterans of the series.
I think they could have even been a bit more liberal with the tweaks even, maybe remix/rewrite/punch-up some of the weaker social links, perhaps alleviate the later months where they won't let you do a whole lot with more new events or more opportunities to do things. These aren't huge make-or-break things though, I respect that they wanted to go mostly as faithful as possible.
Good game, my new favorite version of Persona 3, and the one I would recommend to most people.
The vibes are a bit different in a couple areas (mostly at the beginning and end) and your mileage may vary when it comes to those changes; I personally enjoyed them as a different take on familiar scenes. The rebalancing is also mostly a positive I feel, but it tends to lean a bit on the easy side, so I would recommend starting on a harder difficulty especially for veterans of the series.
I think they could have even been a bit more liberal with the tweaks even, maybe remix/rewrite/punch-up some of the weaker social links, perhaps alleviate the later months where they won't let you do a whole lot with more new events or more opportunities to do things. These aren't huge make-or-break things though, I respect that they wanted to go mostly as faithful as possible.
Good game, my new favorite version of Persona 3, and the one I would recommend to most people.
These are definitely the best one(s) of the DLC bunch, and really the only ones I feel are worth playing. They're still a bit short (Yakou's especially feels like something they just threw in as an extra to tie up his story better) and they're both short story visual novel segments with zero mystery or traditional gameplay, but the stories they chose to tell are actually quite good and build on their titular characters, honestly better than some parts of the main story. Solid note to end their season pass on.
I've inflated my score a tad, but all-in-all I think this DLC cycle kinda dinged my already middling/high-middling opinion on the game. Still, I think there's a solid enough foundation here and I hope that now with everything released they can move on and eventually build upon Rain Code with something much more ambitious and interesting.
I've inflated my score a tad, but all-in-all I think this DLC cycle kinda dinged my already middling/high-middling opinion on the game. Still, I think there's a solid enough foundation here and I hope that now with everything released they can move on and eventually build upon Rain Code with something much more ambitious and interesting.
It's... aggressively fine? Maybe a little under that? To the game's credit, I like that it's a little more involved and interesting than the pretty bland but also "fine" original game, and some of the subject matter they chose to touch does give it some flavor. But I find it difficult to muster any thoughts of substance about it because, well... it's just kinda boring. It's not aggressively bad, it's definitely not good, it just. Exists.
Really the thing that stands out most is that this game is SLOW. Dialogue drags, and most cutscenes have these awkward pauses that accentuate their mostly bland direction. If they tightened it up into a snappy, breezy experience I think that would have gone a long way, but over the course of the game that was definitely the thing that wore me down.
Just... man. I think the concept is great, so it bums me out to see it simply exist at best and kinda fumble (the movie sequel) at worst. Even the cute little short they released with Tim having a little bit of friction with Pikachu over stolen dessert is more interesting than a lot of what they do with it in these games... I dunno.
Really the thing that stands out most is that this game is SLOW. Dialogue drags, and most cutscenes have these awkward pauses that accentuate their mostly bland direction. If they tightened it up into a snappy, breezy experience I think that would have gone a long way, but over the course of the game that was definitely the thing that wore me down.
Just... man. I think the concept is great, so it bums me out to see it simply exist at best and kinda fumble (the movie sequel) at worst. Even the cute little short they released with Tim having a little bit of friction with Pikachu over stolen dessert is more interesting than a lot of what they do with it in these games... I dunno.
2007
Yet another good game! Definitely enjoyed it a lot more having experienced Halo 1 and 2 now and I think it's about as solid as the others, but probably my least favorite of the original trilogy personally.
The biggest thing is that it just feels like a long finale for Halo 2, which isn't inherently bad, but it's not the best as a story on its own merit. Setpieces are constantly kicking in and things are always moving which has its own appeal, but it made me miss some of the slower moments and solid pacing of the originals. The gameplay is the best it's ever been at this point, but I felt it traded off for somewhat lacking enemy design and less balanced harder difficulties. I also really enjoyed that your AI companions have a lot more fun things to say and are generally more competent, and the shift back to more Halo 1-adjacent open levels was appreciated, even if there is still a bit of backtracking and design reuse.
And of course, the multiplayer is forever great. Wonderful memories doing custom games with buddies.
The biggest thing is that it just feels like a long finale for Halo 2, which isn't inherently bad, but it's not the best as a story on its own merit. Setpieces are constantly kicking in and things are always moving which has its own appeal, but it made me miss some of the slower moments and solid pacing of the originals. The gameplay is the best it's ever been at this point, but I felt it traded off for somewhat lacking enemy design and less balanced harder difficulties. I also really enjoyed that your AI companions have a lot more fun things to say and are generally more competent, and the shift back to more Halo 1-adjacent open levels was appreciated, even if there is still a bit of backtracking and design reuse.
And of course, the multiplayer is forever great. Wonderful memories doing custom games with buddies.
As with Frontiers proper, this makes me more excited for what Sonic Team does next instead of what I just played, just exacerbated to extremes. There are glimmers of promise here, I think the playable characters are solid or will be with a bit of tweaking, a lot of the levels are some of the best stuff in the game and magnify what's great about it, the revamped final boss is great, and some of the challenges are quite welcome compared to the main game. Then you have the tower climbs that don't respawn pieces for progression, awkward little "puzzles" and strange use of mechanics that don't feel particularly well-thought out or fun, 300% speed enemies, the awkward boss rush, I could go on... It's hard to know how to feel when I have whiplash from how often I went from "This is cool!" straight into "Oh, this is roooough...". Glad it was free at least.
The best DLC so far since it actually has a mystery and some tiny degree of intrigue and decision making... but as you can probably guess at this point, it's nothing special. The length of these things really hurts more than anything, yet again none of these ideas have had any time to spread their wings or offer anything particularly engaging or even fun to the player. I guess the final one is a "double-feature" so I can only hope that it offers something a bit meatier.
A decent improvement over the first DLC! But not a whole lot more to say than that. Still a bit too simple and hands-off for my taste, not to mention it's rather short again for what you're paying, but I actually enjoyed this one. If nothing else, it is nice we're getting new assets and cutscenes with these. Not quite a must-play, but a decent little side adventure with the master detectives.
2014
Great game. The weapon variety, vehicles, and moment to moment combat in general are an enormous improvement from Combat Evolved, there is significantly less backtracking, and the story was a lot more enjoyable for me. I didn't expect how Arbiter focused it ended up being and I really quite enjoyed how they put his story into perspective with Chief's.
On the flipside, the level and encounter design is mostly "just okay" with a couple standout areas, ending with 4 chapters that drag quite a bit and a fairly sudden and "eh" cliffhanger. But a really impressive sequel overall, you can absolutely see why this one was influential as well going back.
And the Anniversary updates were also improved! The art direction is kept much more intact in the updated version, and the new terminals actually give info that's interesting in the moment rather than talking lore and teasing sequels at you. I think either version of this one is worth experiencing!
On the flipside, the level and encounter design is mostly "just okay" with a couple standout areas, ending with 4 chapters that drag quite a bit and a fairly sudden and "eh" cliffhanger. But a really impressive sequel overall, you can absolutely see why this one was influential as well going back.
And the Anniversary updates were also improved! The art direction is kept much more intact in the updated version, and the new terminals actually give info that's interesting in the moment rather than talking lore and teasing sequels at you. I think either version of this one is worth experiencing!
The start is a bit rocky as it doesn't ease you back into the story whatsoever and the first area is probably among the weakest in the game at large, but once things get going this is the perfect reminder of why the RE4 remake is so excellent, all in one neat snappy little package. The original Separate Ways just kinda exists in a mildly positive manner compared to its base game in my brain, so the fact that the remake's spin on it is nearly as incredible as the 2023 version is a huge achievement in itself. Not to mention it offers some of the best value you can get for a DLC that I've seen in a hot minute; it basically adds a whole quarter onto the game. Loved it, absolute condensed perfection.