Enjoyed the newly designed chocobo races, very Mario Kart esque in design; customisable "vehicles", power-ups, even has drifting speed boosts! The trailer showed off plenty more tracks so I'm pretty excited to try them all out when I next get the chance.

The scene where Rude laments Reno not around with him was a nice and subtle way of acknowledging the passing of Keiji Fujiwara.

Whenever or not it was due to wanting to keep the age rating or just because they couldn't be bothered; the lack of dismemberment heavily lessens the impact of the flashback scene in Mt. Corel. Barret reaching out a still perfectly intact arm to Dyne's also untouched arm after having been shot dozens of times just led to the moment being more funny than anything. You could forgive the original for being an early PS1 game, but HD graphics make short-sighted mistakes like these far more noticeable.

I'm also mixed towards how the confrontation with Dyne was handled. In comparison with the original; his descent into madness is portrayed in a more sympathetic manner. You find him tied to a chair, which immediately puts him in a position of weakness, struggling to even walk awhile having delusions of his family being beside him. His only spurred into aggression upon noticing the mako infused in Cloud's eye, causing him to believe that Barret had still remained allegiant towards Shinra.

A far cry from the man intent on killing his own daughter so that she could be "reunited with her mother". While the original highlighted his weakening grip on sanity; he still possessed a degree of lucidity in his actions. Dyne represented a dark mirror into where Barret's extremism would take him, ultimately taking his own life as there is no turning back from what his become and his hands 'are too dirty' to raise Marlene.

In Rebirth he gets gunned by Shinra troopers in a valiant effort to save Barret; which makes him just yet another victim of circumstance severing the thematic connection to Barret.

I'll give the scene props for the outstanding performances, although I was taken out just a tad when Dyne goes for Nier:Automata and Barret affirms "You can still save him!" by...shooting him?

The fight with Palmer, albeit fun, should've been placed directly after the scene of Dyne dying. Fighting a gauntlet of Shinra troopers and then fleeing on the buggy would've sufficed. Surely there was somewhere else they could've placed it.