Game exceeded all of my expectations. I did discuss with a friend that I wish the combat was less souls like and actually used Eve's movement in the environment to help make it a bit more interesting, with things like aerial combat for example, but even what we got in terms of combat is very slick. I'd love to see what the devs do with a sequel to Stellar Blade.

The biggest flaws with the game can be some of the instant death minigames being kind of cryptic, the great desert area was kind of uninteresting, and the weird spike in difficulty for the last few boss fights.

I wasn't expecting to like the characters in this game so much, given how reviews panned out. Eve being on the spectrum with her refusal of requests that are too extreme, and the obsession with cans. Lily and Adam even get some time to be fleshed out. Story is a bit predictable, but even it took some unexpected turns and was enjoyable overall. The biggest flaw with this game was coming out in the same year as FFVII Rebirth because otherwise it would easily have been my GOTY.

After hating 7 I went into this cautiously optimistic from their promotions of this game, and it is much better in a lot of ways. Directional attacks can still not play out how you set them up, which is incredibly frustrating, and the game is an intense grind, for some reason the devs always want you to grind 5-10 levels for the final boss and only the final boss. There is also an insane amount of story padding with minigames, which is a new thing in the series, but overall I was still able to enjoy the game. The cast is great, the story was mostly entertaining, and I do like how we got more Kiryu content ontop of Ichiban. There is stuff that was present in 7 that I never really gave it credit for, due to my initial frustrations with that game, that were brought back here, such as the drink links and character interactions in restaurants. Given that we have Judgement and Gaiden, I'm a lot more accepting of the series being turn based.

Its been 20 years since I first played FFVII in January 2004. I was 11/12 and spent about the same amount of time on this game as I did back then exploring the world up until the end of disc 1. The flood of nostalgia for a lot of these areas, experiencing them in a way I could only imagine, is not really something I can put into words. FFVII has always meant a lot to me as a game and this is no different. How the hell did they churn out 400 songs for this game. How is there a whole song for a dog escort mission, how does it have it's own battle rendition?

FF titles defined what I always wanted in video games during my adolescence, yet each one after playing the PS1 titles, X, X-2, XI, and XII always felt like it was lacking in some department. I love most of the titles that have come out since then, but they were missing something. Trilogy decision aside, this game feels as though it achieves everything I want out of a FF title. I'm really not too sure how I feel about the story itself, but the experience is definitely close to perfection.

Its easier than ever to get into this game. I solo'd all of the original vanilla storyline with no issues. It also made going through Castle Zhval really fun and very final dungeon-esque. The story is very barebones until the final vanilla mission and the RotZ plotline, which you can now start at your own leisure, though I would recommend doing Rhapsodies of Vana'Diel simultaneously so you can get the benefits of cheaper teleports/more trusts out/etc. The story also works well in that aspect.

I'd still prefer a singleplayer/diablo-esque remake, or another form of preserving this game rather than keeping it in the way its currently available, but it does a lot to make itself accessible.