I wanted to love this game. Remake is one of my favorite games of all time, and I never played the original! Unfortunately, I did not love Rebirth, I just liked it a lot. The gameplay style from Remake adapts decently to an open world, but I found many of the side missions to be pretty boring open world filler. And I love open world filler!

It also doesn't help that I couldn't get 100% side mission completion without 1) completing every one of the mostly terrible arcade style mini-games on their hard difficulties and 2) beating several very difficult combo boss battles I had no real motivation to train for.

I did really like the combat though, the additions and changes made since Remake are fun. I really like the Synergy Abilities, I've been a sucker for that sort of thing since Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 let you bounce Iron Man's lasers off Captain America's shield back in 2009. The writing is also (mostly) great, I love hanging out with these characters, and making the relationship system an explicit mechanic was a nice addition because it let me see how happy Aerith was with me, which is the validation I need.

That ending though. Woof. I get it, how do you handle a redo of one of the most infamous deaths in gaming history, especialy when your whole remake series is about defying and/or abiding by fate? Do you have her die again? Have her survive? I don't know what I would have done, but I do know what I wouldn't have done is both, which is what they seem to be doing. I know this game has been in development for 4 years and its story has probably been mostly set since the start of Remake's development, but I'm so tired of multiverse shenanigans in media. I love Aerith and would have been sad to have her die, but I'd much rather that then this awkward half step.

Still very excited to see the finale. What are we thinking? FF7: Resurrection? Revolution? They can't use Reunion again. Re...novation? Relative?