While it had its own fair share of pacing issues, overall I was pretty jazzed about FFVII Remake. Midgar is blown up into its own game, new characters are introduced, and beloved characters and pivotal moments were expertly executed on. The general idea seemed to be to take things in a new direction while still maintaining those critical aspects of the story and characters, and I was absolutely on board for this. While Rebirth continues this same philosophy, it still ended up falling short in a lot of ways.
Rebirth begins more or less with the iconic flashback before thrusting the players into the world beyond Midgar. There are several regions throughout the game with their own towns and checklists of open-world activities. Side quests and minigames are USUALLY pretty good, but everything else is a lot of filler. Towers to climb, special battles to fight, lifesprings to visit, and so on. It's novel in the first couple of regions, but then gets to become tedious when you are doing the same stuff over and over. They're gorgeous locations to look at for sure, but I can't help but feel like the slowest paced part of the original game did not need more padding. If you liked Chadley in Remake (like me!) you will be tired of him going through this game. If you hated him, good luck. On that note as well, if you are making an open world game that demands to have a coliseum, you get to have one. Not two, not three, definitely not 5+!
Combat is fairly similar to the first game with two new party members you get to control with their own unique styles and focuses. You can make up to three different combat parties, and most dungeons in the game will force you to play everyone so no one ever really feels benched. The complaints about aerial enemies from the first game was taken to heart, and now most characters do not struggle with flying enemies. Cloud can both shoot projectiles and straight up launch into the air for those sweet air combos, and Tifa can use the new synergy skills to have another party member launch her into the air to do the same. Overall it still feels good, and a lot of the late-game optional harder fights feel really satisfying.
Overall, the narrative is alright. I mentioned that this is the slowest part of the original game as it tended to focus more on individual character development (especially for Barrett, Red, and Cait Sith) so I can't fault it too much for that. Whoever was in charge of writing the characters really understands them and why they are so beloved; I cannot say enough nice things about the cast, especially Barrett and Cloud. But at the same time, they have utterly demystified and abandoned all subtlety in regards to Sephiroth. It's a bit of a bummer because that's really the only thing I felt he had going for him in the original (and a cool sword), but I guess that's just how it is now. Maybe this is a harsh comparison, but it's almost like how they did Vicious in the Netflix adaptation of Cowboy Bebop. Sometimes less is a lot more.
Maybe 3.5 stars is a little generous for how harsh this review is, but I genuinely do love all that they've done with the main cast in this game. At this point I am committed to slog through another 100 hour RPG to see where this journey leads, but while I left Remake feeling optimistic, I leave this one feeling very wary. Both in terms of the narrative and open-world, they really need to focus in and commit. Either be bold and commit to the new, or keep it faithful to the original plot. Either go more linear because there's still a lot of ground to cover, or let the player truly go on an adventure - because Rebirth felt a lot more like a guided tour.
Rebirth begins more or less with the iconic flashback before thrusting the players into the world beyond Midgar. There are several regions throughout the game with their own towns and checklists of open-world activities. Side quests and minigames are USUALLY pretty good, but everything else is a lot of filler. Towers to climb, special battles to fight, lifesprings to visit, and so on. It's novel in the first couple of regions, but then gets to become tedious when you are doing the same stuff over and over. They're gorgeous locations to look at for sure, but I can't help but feel like the slowest paced part of the original game did not need more padding. If you liked Chadley in Remake (like me!) you will be tired of him going through this game. If you hated him, good luck. On that note as well, if you are making an open world game that demands to have a coliseum, you get to have one. Not two, not three, definitely not 5+!
Combat is fairly similar to the first game with two new party members you get to control with their own unique styles and focuses. You can make up to three different combat parties, and most dungeons in the game will force you to play everyone so no one ever really feels benched. The complaints about aerial enemies from the first game was taken to heart, and now most characters do not struggle with flying enemies. Cloud can both shoot projectiles and straight up launch into the air for those sweet air combos, and Tifa can use the new synergy skills to have another party member launch her into the air to do the same. Overall it still feels good, and a lot of the late-game optional harder fights feel really satisfying.
Overall, the narrative is alright. I mentioned that this is the slowest part of the original game as it tended to focus more on individual character development (especially for Barrett, Red, and Cait Sith) so I can't fault it too much for that. Whoever was in charge of writing the characters really understands them and why they are so beloved; I cannot say enough nice things about the cast, especially Barrett and Cloud. But at the same time, they have utterly demystified and abandoned all subtlety in regards to Sephiroth. It's a bit of a bummer because that's really the only thing I felt he had going for him in the original (and a cool sword), but I guess that's just how it is now. Maybe this is a harsh comparison, but it's almost like how they did Vicious in the Netflix adaptation of Cowboy Bebop. Sometimes less is a lot more.
Maybe 3.5 stars is a little generous for how harsh this review is, but I genuinely do love all that they've done with the main cast in this game. At this point I am committed to slog through another 100 hour RPG to see where this journey leads, but while I left Remake feeling optimistic, I leave this one feeling very wary. Both in terms of the narrative and open-world, they really need to focus in and commit. Either be bold and commit to the new, or keep it faithful to the original plot. Either go more linear because there's still a lot of ground to cover, or let the player truly go on an adventure - because Rebirth felt a lot more like a guided tour.