This game is a roadtrip in the best kind of way.
I gotta be honest, I was immensely sceptical when I saw that FF7 Rebirth was actually to be open world or at least sorta open world. This kind of world structure often leads to bloat and uneven story progression, but I really like how they did it here - even if it is not perfect.
Before playing this I always thought the story progression in the original FF7 was weird. Usually you just go some place and then some other for no apparent reason. Occasionally, you might have a vague hint to what the direction or the logic might be, but it mostly feels pretty random. In FF7 Rebirth you're actually provided context! Like following the Black Robes until the party looses their trace or some incident along the way, that actually leads the party to wanting to learn more about the planet and go to Cosmo Canyon for example. Now this episodic and somewhat random story progression actually makes sense! The party has a goal, but they are caught into weird shenanigans or come across a place of importance for a specific party member. Even though the story is still very much meandering about, now I finally have the context to understand and feel like it makes sense.
This meandering feeling of a roadtrip is also FF7 Rebirth's biggest strength. Characters get time to interact in funny, silly, or surpsingly heartwarming ways and it is believable that the group gets caught up in a lot of side hustles to finance their trip or just because it happens along the way. Especially the sidequests give a lot more character time between all them, making this feel like one of the best parties in RPG history. Even if it is just stupid stuff like Tifa pushing Cloud playfully into the Frog mini-game or Barret being all sentimental about Marlene eventually growing up.
Mostly the open world is really nicely designed too, with a lot of vehicles/ new chocobo breeds that give each area a new gimmick to spice up exploration. The biggest problem I have with this is Chadley though. Way too much is funneled through him. You can't find the Summons or their materia somewhere in the open world, but have to talk to him, to fight them in a simulation, even though they are heavily tied to the places you visit in the first place. Chadley's simulations made sense in FF7 Remake, where it would have been odd for Ifrit to be running around in the sewers of Midgar, but I could totally imagine Kujata running around somewhere in the Gongaga jungle. Chadley also gives you some of the best materia in the game, but you have to buy it from him with "exploration exp" that you gather by finding stuff in the open world, half of which is really basic like mako springs analysis points, "ubisoft towers" (though not as bad) and monster hunts. This can easily make the open world feel like a checklist you just have to work through. Which is a shame, cause I really liked how they stole so many elements from (what I've heard) good open world games like little chocobo chicks leading you to resting points that also act as travel points. Some of the sidequest like protorelic or this one quest in Cosmo Canyon can also be offenders of just eating up your time by maing you run back and forth for four times or so, even though the lore actuall might be interesting.
Talking about interesting lore, this game gives so much more information about the FF7 universe, some of which is new like the Old Republic that was in place before Shinra controlled everything or information that is old like the backstory of the Gold Saucer being founded by a former Shinra employee; Dio. Some of this stuff is really good in further emphasizing how the fantasy world of FF7 has really been shook to its core by the economic and political changes of Mako Energy, but also what Shinra's rise to power in general has brought about. Like Under-Junon being barely able to survive as their living space had been chosen to be the space of operation for Shinra's military endeavours.
This game is also better in foreshadowing Cloud's trauma and episodic flashbacks and how he is influenced by Jenova and Sephiroth making Tifa's distrust and anxiety around him actually a focal point that often gets discussed, while at the same time giving them more space to reconnect, making Tifa actually a way more active character.
I also really like theromantic relationship between Tifa and Aerith, such lovely roommates. (They are soooo gay!)
In general though every character gets some time to shine and they all have lovely relationships. Barret just acts like a father to spunky, teenage Yuffie and Cloud is her grumpy uncle. It's a found family on a road trip.
Another negative aspect is some of the bombast. In general I think the game knows how to present everything and I also like how new characters from FF7 Remake make a reappearance, however sometimes it does way too much. Many people lament that the funny fight against Palmers robot frog was placed poorely in the middle of Barret's backstory and I agree. It wasn't the most optimal placement.
Worse for me however where some of the boss marathons the game throws at you towards the end. One of them concerns the second fight with Rufus, which somehow felt really bad in this one. That fight was already hard in the original, but here it comes right after another fight and as it was changed to accomodate for Cloud being able to attack from afar just made it immensely obnoxious to me. Same goes for the final series of fights that just would not end and throw random party combinations you have to fight at you or even a character you had barely played before. (While the very last fight is actually pretty cool, that boss also has an attack I really hated.) In general, I wonder if this game was properly play-tested or how why the difficulty spikes and plummets all over the place at certain moments; some of Chadley's (rather early) challenge battles (another place where good materia is relegated to the Chadley checklist™), where also absolute bullshit, either because you have to kill an enemy before the others kill themselves or are easily killed by your companions or because some enemies just have the weirdest stunlock attacks or attacks that hit so hard you have to babysit and heal constantly.
Another minor complaint I have is that the timeline shenanginas feels a bit like bloat. It is nice to see Zack in between story chapters, but so far it's not really important to the story. The ending with Cloud and how he not accepts Aerith's death or how he is still able to perceive her through other timelines could just as well have been done via the Lifestream. But I guess this is the problem of the second part to a trilogy, it will up the stakes but not really give any satisfying conclusion.
Anyway, in general I think this is one of the best Final Fantasy games and I hope they improve on it's structural mistakes as I think the formular is pretty good to be worked upon for future FF games. And I'm still excited to see tits conclusion.
I gotta be honest, I was immensely sceptical when I saw that FF7 Rebirth was actually to be open world or at least sorta open world. This kind of world structure often leads to bloat and uneven story progression, but I really like how they did it here - even if it is not perfect.
Before playing this I always thought the story progression in the original FF7 was weird. Usually you just go some place and then some other for no apparent reason. Occasionally, you might have a vague hint to what the direction or the logic might be, but it mostly feels pretty random. In FF7 Rebirth you're actually provided context! Like following the Black Robes until the party looses their trace or some incident along the way, that actually leads the party to wanting to learn more about the planet and go to Cosmo Canyon for example. Now this episodic and somewhat random story progression actually makes sense! The party has a goal, but they are caught into weird shenanigans or come across a place of importance for a specific party member. Even though the story is still very much meandering about, now I finally have the context to understand and feel like it makes sense.
This meandering feeling of a roadtrip is also FF7 Rebirth's biggest strength. Characters get time to interact in funny, silly, or surpsingly heartwarming ways and it is believable that the group gets caught up in a lot of side hustles to finance their trip or just because it happens along the way. Especially the sidequests give a lot more character time between all them, making this feel like one of the best parties in RPG history. Even if it is just stupid stuff like Tifa pushing Cloud playfully into the Frog mini-game or Barret being all sentimental about Marlene eventually growing up.
Mostly the open world is really nicely designed too, with a lot of vehicles/ new chocobo breeds that give each area a new gimmick to spice up exploration. The biggest problem I have with this is Chadley though. Way too much is funneled through him. You can't find the Summons or their materia somewhere in the open world, but have to talk to him, to fight them in a simulation, even though they are heavily tied to the places you visit in the first place. Chadley's simulations made sense in FF7 Remake, where it would have been odd for Ifrit to be running around in the sewers of Midgar, but I could totally imagine Kujata running around somewhere in the Gongaga jungle. Chadley also gives you some of the best materia in the game, but you have to buy it from him with "exploration exp" that you gather by finding stuff in the open world, half of which is really basic like mako springs analysis points, "ubisoft towers" (though not as bad) and monster hunts. This can easily make the open world feel like a checklist you just have to work through. Which is a shame, cause I really liked how they stole so many elements from (what I've heard) good open world games like little chocobo chicks leading you to resting points that also act as travel points. Some of the sidequest like protorelic or this one quest in Cosmo Canyon can also be offenders of just eating up your time by maing you run back and forth for four times or so, even though the lore actuall might be interesting.
Talking about interesting lore, this game gives so much more information about the FF7 universe, some of which is new like the Old Republic that was in place before Shinra controlled everything or information that is old like the backstory of the Gold Saucer being founded by a former Shinra employee; Dio. Some of this stuff is really good in further emphasizing how the fantasy world of FF7 has really been shook to its core by the economic and political changes of Mako Energy, but also what Shinra's rise to power in general has brought about. Like Under-Junon being barely able to survive as their living space had been chosen to be the space of operation for Shinra's military endeavours.
This game is also better in foreshadowing Cloud's trauma and episodic flashbacks and how he is influenced by Jenova and Sephiroth making Tifa's distrust and anxiety around him actually a focal point that often gets discussed, while at the same time giving them more space to reconnect, making Tifa actually a way more active character.
I also really like the
In general though every character gets some time to shine and they all have lovely relationships. Barret just acts like a father to spunky, teenage Yuffie and Cloud is her grumpy uncle. It's a found family on a road trip.
Another negative aspect is some of the bombast. In general I think the game knows how to present everything and I also like how new characters from FF7 Remake make a reappearance, however sometimes it does way too much. Many people lament that the funny fight against Palmers robot frog was placed poorely in the middle of Barret's backstory and I agree. It wasn't the most optimal placement.
Worse for me however where some of the boss marathons the game throws at you towards the end. One of them concerns the second fight with Rufus, which somehow felt really bad in this one. That fight was already hard in the original, but here it comes right after another fight and as it was changed to accomodate for Cloud being able to attack from afar just made it immensely obnoxious to me. Same goes for the final series of fights that just would not end and throw random party combinations you have to fight at you or even a character you had barely played before. (While the very last fight is actually pretty cool, that boss also has an attack I really hated.) In general, I wonder if this game was properly play-tested or how why the difficulty spikes and plummets all over the place at certain moments; some of Chadley's (rather early) challenge battles (another place where good materia is relegated to the Chadley checklist™), where also absolute bullshit, either because you have to kill an enemy before the others kill themselves or are easily killed by your companions or because some enemies just have the weirdest stunlock attacks or attacks that hit so hard you have to babysit and heal constantly.
Another minor complaint I have is that the timeline shenanginas feels a bit like bloat. It is nice to see Zack in between story chapters, but so far it's not really important to the story. The ending with Cloud and how he not accepts Aerith's death or how he is still able to perceive her through other timelines could just as well have been done via the Lifestream. But I guess this is the problem of the second part to a trilogy, it will up the stakes but not really give any satisfying conclusion.
Anyway, in general I think this is one of the best Final Fantasy games and I hope they improve on it's structural mistakes as I think the formular is pretty good to be worked upon for future FF games. And I'm still excited to see tits conclusion.