completely taken aback by everything this game is, especially after remake left me a little hollow with its bland side content and seemingly unmeaningful expansions to the middle parts of the story. rebirth is like, everything remake couldve been and more.

rebirth is probably the biggest game ive played that generally feels like it earned my time and more. i loved every second of the huge world and all the cool little distractions they throw at you. the combat is the same as remake but even more expanded on. the side quests are generally excellent this time around, opting to make interactions with specific members the main part of these stories with a ton of charm added on to the questgivers. the party is of course the best part of the game, all the banter and interactions are the best and i treasure everyone in this game more than i ever have before. the massive surge of minigames adds a ton levity and Soul to the world and i had fun with all of them, even if some are Pretty Bad. its the most PS1 move a PS1 game remake can do.
the ending makes me feel the same as remake in that i'll have brainworms thinking about it until we finally get closure in a very long time. just a lot of cool stuff to sit on, its fun to be excited about a game like this.

cooler conceptually and aesthetically than it is in practice as a game, but still alright. the puzzle sniping is very snappy and satisfying when it works, but oftentimes things like enemy placement or the physics required to kill are too obtuse and just requires bashing your head against a wall. the game never makes any sort of bullet drop or wind speed/direction clear, but there are multiple levels where a seemingly clean kill just flies way past them. the addition of armored enemies you have to Zoom the bullet at max speed to kill gets really confusing about when and where you have to shoot them from to get the right kill, so oftentimes it just feels graceless. there's a lot of fun ideas here but they get unfortunately bogged down in less than great puzzle design. also the final level is agonizingly frustrating and bad.

YOU HAVE TO LIVE




absolutely incredible. ichiban continues to be one of the most wonderful characters in all fiction, and the vibe of this journey is just so fun and engrossing to play from start to finish. the ending especially man... when the god damn sheena ringo song started playing i had chills up until i was back at the main menu again. beautiful story these games fill my heart

im still working through it but this game's core is solid and fun. it's really campy and the combat feels nice, with the game gradually opening more in all respects over a kind of long amount of time.

the corporate meddling worming its way into the game's model probably shot down a lot of this game's potential which is a real shame because its a very fun time. im very glad its on gamepass (and the community is active a month post-release) because it's a little hard to recommend a $60 live service coop shooter with a battlepass/lootboxes and progression locked behind a grind/ingame currency/DLC. just make it free to play at that point lmao