Finally finished Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Hard to put thoughts into words following the credits given that there is so much going on, but I'll try my best. Spoilers ahead for the end of the game.
Spoiler
So ultimately, I feel both extremely satisfied and extremely frustrated in equal measure. There is absolutely a 10/10 GOAT of a game tucked away in here, but it's saddled with excessive bloat and crushingly, I'm on the side of the fence that feels that alterations to the story have been glaringly mishandled.
I finished Remake in 2020 hesitant, yet optimistic as to what direction the story would go in, but I do now wish that these games had simply been a beat-for-beat retelling of the original story. I can't knock Square's ambition, but ultimately, they've opted for Kingdom Hearts-esque nonsense that's convoluted, confusing and superfluous. In particular, Aerith’s death is suffocated by the lack of clarity in what they’re trying to do. The confusion as to whether she’s actually dead or not whilst the game clumsily dances around the concept of the merging of the timelines is egregious, and by the time the game clarifies that Aerith is in fact dead (following multiple boss fights with multiple stages including cameos from Zack and Aerith’s spirit), the moment is lost and the gut wrenching sadness of her 1997 death is never recaptured. Part 3 will inevitably burrow down this multiple timeline rabbit hole further, but with the most captivating moment of the original being what it is in Rebirth, I can’t say that my enthusiasm for the story going forward has been heightened.
The game is also simply too long. Sure, some may find value in the dozens of mini-games and hundreds of collectibles padding out proceedings to over the 100 hour mark, but I can’t say that I find this bloat to enhance the game in any meaningful way. Finding lifesprings in order to discover lore on the region, and finding crystals to make a VR fight with a summon slightly easier is not fun, and the verticality of many of the locations and how mountainous they are make actually reaching these locations a nightmare. Gongaga is an absolutely shitshow of a labyrinthian nightmare, and the roundabout way you need to reach certain areas is not obvious and extremely frustrating. The protorelic quests are also massively annoying. Half of the mini-games are not fun (Fort Condor, Cactuar Crush and Gears & Gambits can absolutely get in the bin), and Chadley’s constant piping up every 10 seconds to reel off inane drivel at Cloud is irritating enough to rival Navi from Ocarina of Time. And sure, these are easily ignored, but aside from the threat of missing out on some pretty cool materia and/or accessories, there’s also an extremely cool optional super-boss locked behind the protorelic sidequests. Gilgamesh is genuinely one of the highlights of the game, and it kind of sucks that such brilliant content is locked behind something so monotonous and frustrating. Also; fuck the part where you have to play as Cait Sith in Shinra Manor. What an absolute chore.
Obviously there are many positives here. It’s easy to focus on the negatives because expectations are so high given how beloved both the 1997 original and 2020 remake were, and therefore it’s easy to lament on the fact that it wasn’t the 10/10 all-timer that I wanted it to be. Firstly, the relationships between the characters are great. With the exception of Cait Sith (fuck Cait Sith), every character provides something in value both from a storytelling and a gameplay perspective. I enjoyed the majority of interactions between them, the dialogue is mostly very good (albeit often cheesy) and the characters grow in an impactful, organic way. Aerith is great as expected, but Tifa, Barret and Red all have moments too. I expect Vincent will be excellent in the next game.
Secondly, the combat is super slick. It’s challenging (and I’m not ashamed to say that I eventually reduced the difficulty to easy, but I don’t hold that against the game), but there’s a wealth of components combined to really flesh out what you can do in combat. There’s real-time skill and reflexes required, but also an array of abilities that can damage, buff, stagger or heal, and each party member is unique in how they operate. There’s also a boatload of materia, armour (which can be enhanced) and accessories to play around with, so each character is somewhat customisable in terms of what specific role you want from them in combat.
Lastly, every area is fucking beautiful. The design team went to town on this game, because every lived-in locale is a joy to explore, and every explorable region (navigation issues aside) has its own unique look and stands out against the rest of the world. Kalm, Junon, Costa Del Sol, Gongaga, Cosmo Canyon, Nibelheim and the Temple of the Ancients are all some of the best designed areas in games I’ve ever seen, and the fact all of them reside in a single video game is nothing short of astonishing.
Also, Queen’s Blood rules. It’s the one mini-game I was happy to sink loads of time into. It’s surprisingly fleshed out, all things considered. There’s a lot of options in terms of how you can win a match, and therefore how you build your deck. Addictive as shit too. Put it right up with with Gwent and Triple Triad in terms of card based mini-games.
8/10
