Final Fantasy VII REBIRTH - Part 2 (Feb 29th, 2024 Release Date) - Reviews are Out! (NO SPOILERS - See Post 385)

[Shareefruck]

^ There are tons of things that Rebirth alludes to but the recap doesn't remotely cover, though. Hell, it doesn't even remotely mention the weird Zack scene/

Spoiler

hint of possible diverging universe

shenanigans, which is confusingly the very first scene of the game.

I would play the OG first. I can't see you wanting to go back to play it after you've played Remake and Rebirth, and even if you did I don't think you'd appreciate it as much.

One reason I've seen people want to go back to OG afterwards is that they want more but can't wait four years for the rest of the trilogy. I am a little concerned that after the trilogy is done, this replaces OG for the masses, even though it deviates in such questionable ways, though.

I've seen a lot of modern players scoff at the idea of playing old games, fall in love with Remake, then hesitantly try OG, and the old game thing just completely clicks and dismissive skepticism washes away because the characterizations in Remake serve as really effective training wheels to help them fill in the blanks that old games leave you to read between the lines of, and they end up appreciating OG way more than they ever would have. It's really cool to see.

Doesn't really apply to McGarnagle, though, so who knows.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

There's literally a full recap of Remake in Rebirth.

if its the same one that existed in the demo it's like... cliff notes of cliff notes.

 

[Shareefruck]

Just started, the game made me play through the whole demo part again. Kinda annoying.

Apparently it's supposed to prompt you to skip the demo once you get to the mountain area, and you have to scan all the bonuses to get it. You still have to do the first town exploration bit though.

 

[Gardner McKay]

I've played maybe 12 hours so far and I'm still not as good as I was at the end of Remake. They added like three new systems and it's honestly kind of confusing. I'm probably not going to bother using Red or Yuffie (when I get her) much as I'm more comfortable with the four from the first game.

There are a few tough fights in Chapter 2, just have a Healing materia on everyone lol, no shame I'm dropping down to Easy, I've done it many times.

Yuffie is incredible. You may want to rethink that.

 

[Raging Bull]

Yuffie is incredible. You may want to rethink that.

I use her all the time too, having the option for close or ranged attacks is great.

 

[Jovavic]

Yuffie is incredible. You may want to rethink that.

I struggled with her in the DLC, I assume she controls the same?

Just started Chapter 4, the mines were a nice change of pace and having the party split for a bit was nice.

 

[Gardner McKay]

I struggled with her in the DLC, I assume she controls the same?

Just started Chapter 4, the mines were a nice change of pace and having the party split for a bit was nice.

It's been so long since I played the DLC I don't really remember.

 

[Shareefruck]

General non-specific thoughts so far up to Costa Del Sol:

Outside of the opening scene (which at this moment feels stupid rather than intriguing), the stretch between but not including Kalm and Junon (which I felt was slow, uneventful and full of meandering nothing distractions), and the things that the game gives you to do on the World Map (which seems like typical bad open world stuff that I have a really low opinion of), Rebirth's been pretty great.

They 100% nailed the combat, character moments, their characterizations/development/interactions, the sense of scale/majesty/full realization of the towns/cities, and the absurd/whimsical/endearingly dumb camp/humor (shockingly, nearly all of it works, IMO). I'm not super in love with Costa Del Sol either, but it's an okay break, given the source material they had to work with (if the whole game was like that, I'd hate it, though). A lot of what they adjusted and repurposed in general was done really cleverly/effectively and are significant improvements on what they were in the original, IMO (outside of the Zolom scene, which I think they fumbled). Nibelheim and Junon in particular are the standouts for me, although I guess that's obvious.

I am also feeling that the mid-game of FFVII doesn't work that well as a structured cohesively driving narrative-- It's basically an episodic (often Saturday Morning Cartoon of a) videogame (where the main plot is only vaguely in the background), which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Dolemite]

Dude. No spoilers

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Loving the game so far, just got to Junon, my only complaint is

TOO MUCH CHADLEY

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Yuffie is incredible. You may want to rethink that.

Yup.

Staple of every combo I decide to go with. Equally effective up close as she is from distance.

 

[Gardner McKay]

Just got to the Gold Saucer and...

Spoiler

My level of disappointment is off the charts. G-Bike is a muddled mess. The 3D Battler game is modernized and while cool, it is now not fun. They removed other little fun things like arm wrestling, basketball, etc, which is fine but man, add something else.

I hate how they changed the combat square. I missing being able to fight for decent rewards early on.

It sucks you can't access chocobo square now.

Speed square was painfully easy. 42,000 points on my first try.

It's bigger, prettier, with less to do and less fun.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Just got to the Gold Saucer and...

Spoiler

My level of disappointment is off the charts. G-Bike is a muddled mess. The 3D Battler game is modernized and while cool, it is now not fun. They removed other little fun things like arm wrestling, basketball, etc, which is fine but man, add something else.

I hate how they changed the combat square. I missing being able to fight for decent rewards early on.

It sucks you can't access chocobo square now.

Speed square was painfully easy. 42,000 points on my first try.

It's bigger, prettier, with less to do and less fun.

Pretty much how I felt about this portion of the chapter.

The second half of it? Wayyyy better.

Spoiler: Post Gold Saucer

Corel Prison was handled so well. The fight with Dyne was awesome and they handled this portion of the story masterfully. My heart broke for Barret.

 

[Gardner McKay]

Pretty much how I felt about this portion of the chapter.

The second half of it? Wayyyy better.

Spoiler: Post Gold Saucer

Corel Prison was handled so well. The fight with Dyne was awesome and they handled this portion of the story masterfully. My heart broke for Barret.

I'm almost where you are and I feel the exact same way about the second half. It was so much better than the original IMO.

 

[Shareefruck]

I agree, that stuff was excellent, one of the best parts of the game. I was concerned they might make it too in-your-face and screamy based on trailers, but turned out not to be the case at all.

The cosmo canyon thing

Spoiler

didn't hit me a fraction as hard as it did in the original, though, unfortunately. The music in particular just didn't capture that moment. I think they completely dropped the ball there.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Man the tutorial for Queens Blood is horrible. No idea what i'm doing. Going to have to find something better online.

 

[Jovavic]

Man the tutorial for Queens Blood is horrible. No idea what i'm doing. Going to have to find something better online.

Just wait till you get to the Fort Condor minigame in the Junon area

 

[Metroid]

Just wait till you get to the Fort Condor minigame in the Junon area

I hate that game lol

 

[Dolemite]

Just wait till you get to the Fort Condor minigame in the Junon area

This. This mini game was a great idea but very poorly executed.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

I can't imagine this would constitute a spoiler, but for Queen's Blood, the strategy that I have had success with is basically just trying to claim a horizontal row as quickly as possible. Maybe the AI for the computer is just random, but I have had a couple games where I can just lay 2-3 cards in a row and the computer doesn't block, and then as long as you are a little strategic in those 2-3 cards, it blocks off the opponent from even being able to play enough cards to win 2 rows, or even 1 sometimes.

This worked for me, even against the guy in the trading card shop in the grasslands who you have to beat to finish the one side quest.

 

[Metroid]

I can't imagine this would constitute a spoiler, but for Queen's Blood, the strategy that I have had success with is basically just trying to claim a horizontal row as quickly as possible. Maybe the AI for the computer is just random, but I have had a couple games where I can just lay 2-3 cards in a row and the computer doesn't block, and then as long as you are a little strategic in those 2-3 cards, it blocks off the opponent from even being able to play enough cards to win 2 rows, or even 1 sometimes.

This worked for me, even against the guy in the trading card shop in the grasslands who you have to beat to finish the one side quest.

Also heard, (haven't tried yet) but you can skip you first turn and let the AI go first since it won't try to attempt to mimick/block you.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Also heard, (haven't tried yet) but you can skip you first turn and let the AI go first since it won't try to attempt to mimick/block you.

This is the way.

My deck is strong enough now that it doesn’t matter (level 7) but skipping my turn got me through it he early stuff

 

[Shareefruck]

Opinion so far update (after Nibelheim, OG spoilers):

Writing-wise, starting to feel like this game is heavily front-loaded. Not in terms of quantity, but quality/execution. Outside of a few nitpicks here and there, everything up to Cosmo Canyon is absolutely incredibly well done and dramatically improved from the original (they NAILED the characterizations, to the point where any casual interaction between anyone is automatically great. Even Cait Sith is solid), and then suddenly the quality of writing and consideration appears to dramatically plummet from Cave of Gi onwards.

Lots of crappy, convoluted exposition, arbitrary unsatisfying "go here, then go here, then go here, the next destination is this" reasoning (I think even not giving a reason for what they stumble onto next might have been preferable), powerful/endearing moments from OG compromised into weaker versions of themselves or get abruptly cut off, lots of scenes that feel weirdly fan-servicey (including the two character introductions, which don't feel natural at all), and they weirdly seem to be giving away too much of the biggest plot twist (despite doing a perfect job with it up to that point). That kind of applies to the smaller Cait Sith plot twist, too (although that doesn't matter as much and I can imagine people missing it simply because it's so absurd).

So far, the good still dramatically outweighs the bad, but hopefully it snaps back to its early standard at some point.

PS. Saw someone do this earlier in the thread, and this method of spoiler tagging is so much better than the default one.

 

[Jovavic]

Up to Costa del Sol. The card game has clicked for me, skipping your first turn and letting the opponent go first helps. Fort Condor is easier if you change the difficulty to easy, the AP gauge fills up quicker. Using the long range weapons also helps. I'm horrible at the piano minigame.

 

[Nemesis Prime]

Finished the game, unsatisfying conclusion.

Spoiler

Seems they couldn't pull the trigger one way or another on killing Aerith. Having her around for only Cloud to see feels like a copout. Explains why they kept pushing the "link up with Advent Children" narrative before release. That movie is still ruining a good thing to this day. Remake trilogy could have been a nice self-contained retelling that actually takes chances instead of trying to shoehorn in crappy compilation elements. Now that AC is confirmed to be the endgame, it makes changes mean nothing.