3.5/5 ★ – biggggg5's review of FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH.

This is not my game of the year. The sense of relief I felt when the credits rolled after playing since it launched nearly had me questioning if I had a good time in the first place. After sleeping on it I’m considerably less harsh, I did enjoy the vast majority of the game, but the parts I didn’t stick out like a sore thumb. The combat and rpg-ness of the game is fun, maybe moreso than Remake with the additional characters, weapons, equipment, Materia etc. and I’m not yet burnt out on the open world elements. I enjoyed the side quests and the exploring and the unlocking of towers… with the major exception of the Gongaga area. That part of the game was such a nightmare to navigate that when I did finish 100%ing it I put the game down for at least a month, maybe more I can’t remember. But I did return, and after getting over that hurdle most of the rest of the game was smooth sailing, up until the biggest road block that sours my opinion of the game as a whole: the minigames. Up to this point there were at worst some mildly annoying ones, (and at best the first time I’ve really enjoyed a Star Fox), but no more frustration than missing out on a Time Materia as a reward past my skill ceiling. Until the return trip to the golden saucer… and the chocobo racing. I’d go more into it but this is getting rambley but needless to say it took way too much time to do the racing prerequisites for the Chocobo Racing side quest, and then way too much longer than that retrying the race for the quest itself. But I thought again that finishing that would be the last of the minigame bullshit, only to be presented by the last side quest of the game: beat a bunch of gold saucer minigame high scores. That’s what killed the 100% run for me. And it snowballed from there. I went to do the last of the protorelic things, got my butt kicked, saw the recommended level and the 20+ level gap from where I was at, and moved on. I didn’t even do the last like 2 batches of Chadley’s VR battle simulations. I just went off to the end game area of no return. It was so frustrating it colored other parts of the game, I was regretting the time I spent on the chocobos, and I found myself impatient at the halting nature of the gimmick they gave Aerith for the final dungeon (the way I reeled at the audacity for there to be a tutorial explanation necessary that late in the game). And that’s not to mention the soft lock I got stuck in during the final boss. It’s one thing when a game challenges and frustrates you on its terms, but it’s another when it asks you to devote time and energy to git gud at something not relating to the main gameplay. It’s like if in a Zelda they asked you to do a horse race, and instead of using the horse riding mechanics you’ve been using all game to explore and get around, they plopped you in a Mario kart. Or if they gave you a shooting gallery but you weren’t using your slingshot or bow but gave you a gun you’ll never have outside the minigame. It’s not a bad game. There’s a time in my life when I was younger and had more free time I probably would have appreciated the length and variety. Like if you were stranded on a desert island with one game you could make a lot more worse choices than better ones with this game. But today, where I have to work 40 hours a week and new games insist on continuing to release, I just don’t have the time. That said, the story was really fun, certain trials near the end of the game brought me to tears. I think they did a good job in threading the needle of living up to That iconic moment, exploring it through the modern eyes and with hindsight of it, while also respecting its weight within the story and doing it justice. I’m not worried about any changes in terms of where it’ll lead the third game. I do wish I cared about anything Cait Sith said or did but that’s not new to the story we know. They need to take another pass at his gameplay for the third game, putting so much stuff on the moogle and then making said moogle cost an Atb to get out and then also not be able to dodge with it and just the slow clunkiness just makes him my least favorite to play. It’s a beautiful game, maybe too beautiful than what’s really necessary but I am still looking forward to whatever Re- word they attach or part 3