StiffChicken40
This review contains spoilers
Had to sit with my thoughts for a bit before writing this review. I think the game is nearly perfect. The improvements in combat from remake to this is like night and day, it’s gonna be awful going back to remake after a this, lol. It’s so much fun that it was hard to stop playing. The story is really good, for the most part, there are some things that I miss from the og but it’s not a deal breaker. I liked the Nibelheim conspiracy in the og of, oh wait, did it actually burn down? Do cloud and tifa have false memories, and they get gaslit by shinra who rebuilt it and have just random people who love there being like, wtf you talking about bro? In this that little subplot is gone and it’s just like, yeah, they rebuilt the town and now they’re just doing experiments in the shinra mansion, like it’s fine, nothings wrong with it. Cid is like a completely different character it’s crazy. I like him, he’s fun, but that’s not FF7 Cid. Maybe he’ll change and get bitter in the 3rd game since they also cut rocket town, and so you don’t get his story about his love of space and wanting to finish his rocket, but I’m sure that’ll get added later on so it’s no biggy. The games biggest strength is all the downtime the characters get to grow and interact with each other, I love this little moments, it makes it feel like it’s a real group of friends making there way in an adventure. The open world is gorgeous and really fun to explore and get everything done( for the most part ), there’s ALOT to do in this game it’s fucking insane. There’s like 30+ mini games that you need to do for the 100% and it’s actually crazy. The plot, for the most part, follows the og pretty well, there’s a couple padding sections but not nearly as bad as remake so it’s a huge plus. The story goes fucking off the wall ape shit in the last 2 hours, cuz of course it does. I still don’t even fully comprehend what I witnessed, but, it’s definitely still peak, even tho it’s confusing it’s still go engaging and fun and it such a great time, especially starting the final boss with tears running down my face cuz they killed off one of my fav characters again :). And they somehow made it even more sad this time around with the multiple timelines and you not knowing if OUR Aerith lived or not since it keeps jumping around and showing different scenarios of what could’ve happened. I knew she wasn’t gonna make it tho, and it still hurts. I cannot wait for the conclusion of the trilogy, they’ve been cooking with these last two games and I can’t wait to see it finish, gotta fight god sephiroth at the edge of the universe in remake gameplay.
It is wild how my viewpoint on this game as flipped from when I first started to now that I fully finished it. Gonna get some cons out of the way first, the amount of backtracking this game has is a little too much for me. It’s not a complete deal breaker, but part 1 of the game has so much backtracking to your house and the library with not a lot in between, it makes it very slow and boring. The side quests are also not great. They’re very bare bones, just, collect this, which usually invovles a grind in some way too, and then bring it back for a couple bucks. I think I ruined my A run by doing almost all the part 1 side quests along with my other gripes with the time kinda put me in a bad mood while playing. The story does start to eventually pick up and it’s way better from there. Part 2 is definitely the highlight of the game for me, the story is at its peak, you get more combat options with the new weapon types, more interactions between the characters. Having to complete the game 5 times was definitely a turn off at first, but it’s really not all that bad once you’re doing it, the worst is definitely getting all the weapons and having to play part 2, 3 times in a row with endings A, B and C/D. But at that point you can pretty much speed run it in like 2 hours so it’s doable. The true ending E is absolutely beautiful and a perfect end to the game. You finally get answers to most of your questions and you get closure for most of the characters. The story, characters, and soundtrack (which is absolutely fucking beautiful btw, like how do you make something that good) is really what gives the game its rating for me, it truly is something special.
A very interesting remake of the first 6 hours of the original. This game is so full of filler, but like, I don’t hate it? Most of it is nice and adds more to the world and characters and it’s done quite well. Sometimes it overstays it’s welcome but it’s not too bad. The combat changes are so fun, I love the combat in this game, it perfectly blends the real time action combat with the turn based combat of the original.
Oh boy. I wanted this game to be better than the first so bad, and after finishing it, I convince myself that it was. But now, I don’t think so. There’s just too many problems that I have with it to justify it. The story is shorter, there’s less to do in the world, which is crazy since they made the map bigger, but they didn’t add more things to do in it. The swinging and combat are definitely better and if I do just want to sit down and swing around the city, I’ll boot up this one over the others. This is unfortunately a 3/4 baked game, and it rears its ugly head in the third act, where the story just arguably matters the most, and they fumble it hard. There’s still good moments don’t get me wrong, but the pacing, the writing, everything takes a nose dive, it’s crazy. There’s obviously so much that was left on the cutting room floor, they should’ve delayed it another 6 months and it would’ve been perfect. There’s also so many features missing on launch, that have been added now in the recent update, but, having those features not be added with the base game, when they’re in the other two games is so fucking wild it’s unbelievable. The game is still good, it has a lot of highs, but some big lows that just bring it down past the first one for me.
One of my favorite games of all time, this is almost perfect to me. The characters, the story, the gameplay, which, takes a little getting used to at first, but I still find very fun. It’s still fun to just turn on and ride around and just do your own thing whenever you want. The 100% grinds sucks tho and I’ll never do that again.
A much smaller experience than the first, but still a great time. This only takes a couple hours to finish the main story, and there’s less to do overall in the open world, but for what it is, I really enjoy it.
2023
A darker final fantasy game compared to the rest, which puts it away from the rest. Very influenced by western fantasy like game of thrones, which I’m a big fan of. The combat is very fluid and engaging. The story, for the most part, it’s really good and the highs of the big boss fights are amazing. There’s a lot of low points in the story that bring the pacing to a halt at some points and most of the side quests kinda suck. The game is still very enjoyable tho.
2021
Oh this will definitely be decisive. Yes, the ending isn’t the best, it definitely could’ve been done better. Does that ruin the rest of this amazing game for me? Absolutely not, it’s still my favorite game in the series. Everything this game does, it does so well. The combat got updated to have more of the rpg elements that the first game had, they cut the party members to 6 again, so they get more time to shine and develop. The story is, so depressing honestly. It’s the build up of two others games finally coming to a head and it’s just, so depressingly beautiful. This game is never not gonna hit me in the feels. I could talk about this game for hours, I highly recommend this series to anyone who’s interested, trust me, it’s so fucking good.
2011
Significantly better than the first. The story is better, the gameplay is better, the world is better. They approved upon everything from the first game and I enjoyed my time with this, should probably play second son at some point, lmao.
Meh, wasn’t the biggest fan of yuffie in the og and that hasn’t really changed now. It’s probably worse now since I find her super annoying in this. It’s short and fun tho so it kinda saves it.
Yeahhhhh, I kinda wish I skipped this honestly, but it is what it is. I finished it in one sitting so it’s not much. Same stuff as 2, it’s fun the play, and the concept is semi interesting, but that’s all it’s really got going for it.
This is my fav of the hack and slash era. The graphics got a huge upgrade, the combat feels more fluid and fun, the story takes a front and center seat for the most part, and Kratos actually grows as a character at the end, it’s all the best parts of the previous two put into one game. This is such and fun and enjoyable game that it’s on par with some of the DmC games for me.
2022
Objectively the best souls game, but I’m not sure it’s my fav. But man, it’s still so good. I love the open world and the bosses and the lore and literally everything. Can’t wait to replay it before he dlc.
2024
My first persona game, and it was phenomenal. I loved the characters, the gameplay, and most of the story. The story kinda dragged a little bit near the end, pretty much December and January, but the ending was so worth it. I have the urge to play the game again or get persona 4 and jump right into that, but I definitely need a little break after over 100 hours logged in. I’m so glad this was on game pass so I could experience peak.
Probably the best dlc I’ve ever played. All the new things added to the base game, including a new ending was such a nice change. The dlc itself was wonderful. The story is gripping and engaging and the ending is such a fucking gut punch no matter which one you pick.