Even though this game’s story was mediocre and boring, and the dialouge was wattpad levels of cringe, the gameplay more than made up for it. Really that’s what you should play this game for.
I never thought a first person, run and gun, platforming shooter would play so smoothly and fast and fun but here we are. Neon White promotes speed running so well.
The leaderboards, for one, really made me competitive and constantly drove me to finish a level with a better time than before to beat my PS friends. As I rewatch clips of some of my best runs, I realize “Oh shit, I probably could have beaten the level fast had I done this” and then I go back to the lab.
I constantly felt the need to get better, and I’d like to think I did. I found my self skipping entire portions of levels completely on accident sometimes. Not just that, you’re able to reset levels with the simple press of a button rather than going to the menu and selecting an option, which added even more haste when it came to subsequent runs of levels All the abilities were consistent with the level design, and something that I noticed as I played more was that every time a gun was left unused it was always to access a shortcut.
The vibes this game gave were also great. The environments ranged from an area like the final world from kh3 to majestic ruins to a complete hellscape. The geometry of this game was super well done. and man don’t even get me started on the music. I know nothing of machine girl but she went CRAZY for this game’s soundtrack.
All in all, play this game solely for it’s fun and fast gameplay. I guess you can try and fw the story but it’s nothing too special.

I have lots and lots of thoughts on this game, so many that it’s tough to know where to start. I will say this though: while this is a far from perfect game in every area, I feel pretty confident in saying that the full scope of this journey is significantly more competent than you might expect looking at its individual elements.

FFVII Remake is a game that I have relentlessly defended since I first played it in 2020. Where many criticized its admittedly overbearing padding and certain choices regarding the ending, I fell head over heels for its combat system and expansion of its world and characters. It’s not without its issues, but I’ve always believed it deserves to stand head and shoulders alongside the greatest action RPGs.

So it was extremely strange for me to start playing FFVII Rebirth and immediately get struck with the feeling that everything on offer was an immediate downgrade. The presentation is noticeably weaker than the last game, the opening chapter is quite poor in my opinion with lots of unnecessary dragging moments, and the open world was seeming to be far too big and generic for its own good. My first 10ish hours with the game were a fairly large disappointment.

And I want to hone in on that open world now, because it’s one of the strangest I’ve ever seen in the sense that the whole thing isn’t actually an open world at all. Regions are distinctly separated, the map feels like it’s tricking you into thinking each area is far larger than it is, and the first region is by far the largest in the game. The whole thing almost feels like it’s begging you to believe it’s a big open world that can compete with the expectations of AAA games today, when in reality its scope is much more controlled.

I really could’ve done without all the Ubisoft-esque World Intel… some of it like the protorelics and combat challenges were worthwhile and fun, but most of it just felt like checking off a checklist just because it was there. This was the biggest factor of my initial disappointment. Compared to Remake which is a linear rollercoaster without many chances to break off the main path, Rebirth has a significantly more open structure with way more side activities. And during that first section, I felt like I wasn’t making any progress and just wasting time filling out a meaningless checklist, and I hated that feeling.

However, the further into the game I got, the more this feeling disappeared. Call it Stockholm syndrome I guess, or maybe just bc I was so engrossed with the world and characters being presented, but I began to slowly cherish every moment I spent with the game. Exploration never did much for me but I loved seeing the enemies, doing the side quests (which are MUCH better than Remake’s I have to say), even all the minigames, there’s something really special about just soaking in everything this game has to offer.

And I have to stress that this is the game’s single biggest strength. There is SO much to do, and most of it is a ton of fun. It’s so varied, it rarely dips into copy/paste territory, and it really goes a long way into injecting this world with a palpable sense of life that I haven’t felt from a single-player entry in this series since Final Fantasy X… and I really mean that. Combine all that with the gorgeously expanded towns and in its best moments, FFVII Rebirth brought me back to the magic I experienced on my initial run throughs of all those classic FF games, a feeling that I thought the modern industry just wasn’t able to deliver.

As for the parts of this game that are an actual adaptation of the original game… it’s a mixed bag. Some sections are pretty incredible and I couldn’t stop smiling the entire time I was playing them out, such as the Upper Junon parade, the Gold Saucer visits, and the climactic trek through the Temple of the Ancients. The game excels when it’s cranking up the fun, the charm, and the spectacle, and all of these sequences are loaded with those.

Other parts left me disappointed and feeling like they were missing lots of the weight of the original game, like the opening sequence in Nibelheim, the scene with Barret and Dyne, and most unfortunately of all, Aerith’s iconic scene in the game’s finale. It’s not even that any of these are bad sequences on their own, they just feel sanitized and lacking compared to the hefty impact they all left in the original, and that’s pretty disappointing to me as the story of the original Final Fantasy VII is one that means a lot to me.

So even as a straight adaptation of this story, this game doesn’t quite match the original where it really counts. But as anyone who’s played this game or its predecessor would know by now… this isn’t a straight adaptation. And initially I found that exciting! It wasn’t what I wanted, but I was intrigued by the new direction and excited to see where things went. And that’s exactly why the direction of the original parts of Rebirth’s story confuse me so much…

I won’t get into specifics, but Rebirth has a significantly less ambitious story than I expected. The ending of Remake made it seem like they were gearing up for Part 2 to have loads of changes and spin off into an entirely new thing by the end of it, but that’s just not the case at all. Rebirth plays it very safe in terms of its overall structure. If you’ve played the original game, it’s going to hit every beat you expect and outside of a few brief moments that honestly don’t affect the outcome of things very much, there aren’t many surprises.

I won’t spoil the ending, but I will say that it leaves the game in a position where Part 3 is likely to take an extremely similar approach and stick to the original game beat for beat until the very last chapter where it goes completely off the rails in a way that ultimately pretends to have way more of an impact than it actually does. It leaves me in a position where I can’t understand what the point is because it feels like the new story adds absolutely nothing to the experience and just alienates the parts of the fanbase that would’ve preferred a faithful remake.

So story wise… yeah the direction of this entire trilogy is a mess and I sincerely doubt the third game will save it for me. But I know without a doubt that I will be there day 1 when Part 3 comes out because I do still LOVE these games despite not liking how they handle the story. It’s carried by everything surrounding it, the characters and their countless interactions, the incredible combat which has only been further refined here, and above all else the unbelievable scale and life of this world.

Although I was initially disappointed, ultimately I came around to like this game even more than Remake which surprised me. I went out of my way to do everything I could, it took me comfortably over 100 hours, and the grand scope of my whole adventure was a seriously entrancing experience. It helps that it has some really strong post-game legs too, I was immediately beckoned to come back for more once I hit credits, and now that I’m just one hard mode playthrough away from reaching the platinum trophy, I can very confidently say I don’t regret any of the time I put into this.

For reference, at the time of writing I’m nearly 130 hours in, and by this point in my Tears of the Kingdom playthrough I was starting to get pretty tired of the game and only continued to trudge through because I was so close to the end. I’ll surpass that mark pretty soon and I have no signs of fatigue or even wanting to slow down. Not saying this to dog on that game, just to show that this one has serious staying power for me.

It’s not as well realized or polished as something like FFXVI, but I still ended up preferring this in the end because of the massive beating heart at its core. FFVII Rebirth is deeply flawed in execution, even more so than its predecessor, yet it’s an unforgettable experience underneath it all.

Banger little indie game. Awesome ass vibe in music and is honestly nearly perfect. It has really no flaws in the game design, but it's also not crazy deep. It would be really cool if the game got multiplayer or something at some point because the only real issue and reason this game isn't 5 stars is because the AI can be really dumb and isn't quite challanging enough. This game is beatable in about 10-15 minutes, so keep that in mind if you're thinking about purchasing it. It also has a hard mode which unlocks after finishing it that I am about to play. This is an easy recommendation for me. Make sure to play with headphones on max volume to get the true experience.

This is a pretty fun game. Played it with Mr. Troy and we both liked it pretty much the same amount I think. We did have different backgrounds though, as I'm pretty sure this was his first Resident Evil game. I've played quite a few though including 4 and it's remake. This works pretty well as a sequel to that game, but if you're expecting nearly the same quality of that game, you're pretty much just gonna have a bad time. It is significantly more shallow and quite a bit easier due to the insane over-abundance of ammo. I was pretty varied throughout the entire playthrough, trying to use different guns at all times, and by the time of the final boss I had accumulated around 25 Rifle ammo, 100 pistol ammo, 40 shotgun, and around 15 magnum ammo. Troy spent all his money like every sub-chapter on explosive rounds for the grenade launcher though. He pretty much only used that and the stun rod when they both became available and there was a LOT of friendly fire. The strategy was pretty effective though so I can't exactly complain. Next, this game does have some pretty crazy difficulty spikes towards the end. For example, the first Wesker fight took Troy and I an hour, and the final boss had this mashing sequence we had to potentially cheat to get out of and he still had tons and tons of health once we did it the other way. There was also this really slow and frustrating puzzle around halfway through the game that involved lasers and mirrors and if the laser touched you a single time you would die immediately. It got pretty annoying at times.

Overall even though it took us over (RESIDENT EVIL) 5 months to finish, it was a pretty fun time. There's some good moments in the level design, and Troy and I are certain that some of the late game stuff is directly inspired by Twin Snakes. I recommend this game if you like third person shooters and have a friend to play with, but I can't promise the game would be too fun solo.

Troy's Review: https://backloggd.com/u/madeinheathen/review/1513236/

Don't feel like leaving a full review right now so here

•Combat was very fun with everyone except maybe Red XIII and Tifa
•All the new stuff is hit or miss, but all the old stuff is just FFVII but better
•Open world is fun but I stopped caring by the end because it just becomes busy work. Still did everything in the world except for the final Gilgamesh stuff at sea.
•Ending was just so meh I didn't really care and I don't think I care for the direction part 3 will seemingly be going in

Would've been a 10/10 for me if the ending stuck the landing but it didn't really. Also I think of the nibelheim flashback as part of the demo and not the full game because it's really bad.

9/10

Katamari has always been on my "want to play this someday" radar, but I never actually delved further into it - all I've known for many years is that it was supposedly about rolling up stuff to roll up even more stuff. But when I saw it for 4€ on sale the other day, I decided to just give it a try.

Surprisingly, Damacy Reroll already managed to set a record within the first 5 minutes in gameplay, where I was ready for nominating the game for the "worst controls of all time" award without even having finished the tutorial levels. Thankfully the award didn't go to Damacy and it didn't take me long to get used to the controls and enjoy the game properly. The twin-stick controls are really unique and simply describable as "easy to learn, hard to master", there's an additional layer of precision when you get the hang of them and it's quite satisfying to see.

The core gameplay is as straightforward as it gets - in the main missions, the Katamari (the ball you're rolling) has to reach a certain size within a certain time limit. Everything you roll over gets glued to the Katamari, so you'll have to start with coins and fruit first and when things get rolling (I'm sorry), you can roll over increasingly bigger things to a point where it's comical. It's so ridiculous, but Damacy Reroll does a great job at creating a sense of scale in each individual level. The side missions are also fun little challenges in the way that their main goal isn't having the biggest Katamari possible, but rather collecting a certain amount of something or having to guess your Katamari's size.

In terms of soundtrack, the dreamy songs fit the fever-dreamish vibe of the game's direction really well and are easy on the ears. Do yourself a favor and listen to Lonely Rolling Star. I think it's rather silly that the music is so cheerful and pleasant when there's a weapon of mass destruction mowing down everything in sight, but that's definitely part of the charm for me.

There's... not much else I have to say, except that I'm looking forward to playing We Love Katamari! Currently pretty engaged with Tekken 8, so my progress in Persona 3 Reload has been paused for the moment, but I'll get back to it soon. As always, thanks for reading my reviews!

with that mediocre ass ending out of the way, this game was overall an incredibly wonderful and fun experience.

when it comes to faithfully recreating moments in the original, this game does a great job in that regard, barret’s arc in corel prison and cosmo canyon are great examples of well done recreations, not only that, the added moments that weren’t present in the original were also really well done (e.g gongaga and kalm which didn’t have much relevance in the original) this game really solidifies the main cast as one of my favorites in any jrpg. they’ve done almost everyone so much justice. i especially like how yuffie and vincent were implemented considering the fact that rhey were optional in the original game. rebirth has a lot of funny and wholesome moments which i was super happy about.

the open world, a new feature that i was initially worried about was surprisingly really well done. obviously it has its flaws such as the scattered collectables being annoying if youre doing side content and going for the platinum and there being some jank in some areas, in my playthrough i didn’t go all in for the 100% but as i do more exploring in the post game getting this game’s platinum im sure that i’ll enjoy the open world even more.

the combat remains the same and the added features like synergy, the parry materia from remake being the default dodge and new abilities were really well implemented, i was honestly playing the game like i was playing hard mode (in a sense that i was avoiding using items and cure materia) which was funny to me.