Final Fantasy VII REBIRTH - Part 2 (Feb 29th, 2024 Release Date) - Reviews are Out! (NO SPOILERS - See Post 385)
- Thread starter The Crypto Guy
- Start date
Soli
Supervision Required
- Sep 8, 2005
- 21,752
- 11,237
I love the game, but the sheer amount of mini games is unbearable.
Jovavic
Gaslight Object Project
Yea, it's a bit much, but four player Rocket League was fun
Tw1ster
Registered User
How are you all approaching your playthrough? Are you clearing out all of the side content in a region before moving on? I’m currently slogging through the Grasslands doing all of the Chadley stuff and it’s taking a long time. Fun, but time consuming
Shareefruck
Registered User
Insisting on clearing the world map activities makes the game unbearable in my opinion. The town ones are okay (better than they were in Remake) but still not amazing or anything. You do get nuggets of character moments throughout, but I'm not sure enough to justify the absurd time sink. I'd recommend not being a stickler about completion and just having fun with whatever degree you can stomach without letting it get in the way of the main narrative's pace. You can always do everything afterwards anyways.
Jovavic
Gaslight Object Project
The Grasslands is a big area, I think it took me a little over 10 hours to do everything. The second area, Junon, is probably half that size so not every area will take that long. I'm approaching it the same way I do Assassin's Creed, I get to a new area and do the side quests and clear things along the way, instead of just wandering around, activating the towers and then doing whatever pops up. Doing the three door icons should be a priority if you want an easier summon fight, though.
Edit: Chadley and MAI are incredibly annoying, they don't get any better lol
I've done all grassland and junon shit before moving on. The fukin' fort condor stuff I switched to easy mode cuz I hate that game lol
Just got to costal de sol and will keep doing everything before moving on...
The Crypto Guy
Registered User
- Jun 26, 2017
- 26,573
- 33,814
I've only had time to play about 5 hours so far but I'm skipping past most of the side quests. I'll never finish the game if I do them. I just don't have the time anymore and I don't want to play the game for over a year to finish it.
KirkAlbuquerque
#WeNeverGetAGoodCoach
I’m doing every side quest .
Some of the mini games are too hard for me to make sure I get S rank on all of them though.
Some of the mini games are too hard for me to make sure I get S rank on all of them though.
I was doing everything until I had to put the game down for a few days due to side quest fatigue. Theres one area in the game that forces you to do a few side quests and that sapped the desire to press on out of me (you'll know when you get there. It was by far my least favorite part of the game to this point and I'm on chapter 10.)
Now I'm basically hitting the stuff that I want to and leaving some of the other stuff behind for now. I still end up covering around 85% of objectives before moving on.
I'm assuming that there will be a point of no return warning at some point so when I get that I'll go back and do anything I missed/skipped.
The Crypto Guy
Registered User
- Jun 26, 2017
- 26,573
- 33,814
Just won the Queens Blood tournament on the ship.
This game is so f***ing good.
This game is so f***ing good.
Tw1ster
Registered User
Jovavic
Gaslight Object Project
With a title that has a Yakuza level number of minigames, it is easily the worst. About as much fun as the Fanatics Tower from FFVI.
Shareefruck
Registered User
Initial thoughts after completion:
Rebirth is a messy mixed bag of a game with high highs and low lows. Despite improving on Remake in a lot of ways, I think it might actually be worse overall, due to lack of cohesion and flow + god awful pacing + convoluted nonsense. Ultimately, it still has a lot of the exact same strengths and weaknesses. I can't deny the enjoyment I'm getting from the good parts, but the review scores are severely overrating this game and overlooking its flaws in a way that feels kind of weird to me.
Like Remake, the combat, character moments, production value, and a lot of set pieces (including some absurd campy ones that are legitimately fun and make you feel like a kid again) are great. Character dynamics are very lovingly fleshed out, and are easily the glue that (almost) holds everything together.
The side-content and poorly paced bloat/filler content is actually worse than Remake, IMO. Very one step forward, two steps back. Improved the town side content only to introduce map side content which is several times worse. They improved a lot of the good sequences in the original by expanding on them (except for the Seto moment, which I think they butchered), but they also actively hurt the game by expanding largely forgettable nothing sequences from the original into unbearably long nothing sequences that bring the game to a grinding halt (every bit as hollow and tiresome as the sewer/train graveyard sequences in Remake, IMO). It's like a fantastic opening followed by hours upon hours of absolutely nothing areas/content dragging the game down before it finally gets to the next genuinely great/fun sequence/area.
The minor narrative deviations/tweaks are mostly great and welcome changes, but the dumb/childish MAJOR newly introduced narrative deviations are also worse than Remake, IMO (nothing to do with nostalgia/purism-- it's just generally sh*tty and infantile fan-fiction-level writing). On top of this, I would argue that the non-battle mechanics and gamification of everything introduced to Rebirth ultimately hurt more than they help.
Overall breakdown of areas (mostly in terms of narrative/storytelling pace):
Nibelheim Flashback/Night in Kalm: Excellent
World Map sequences: Absolute trash
Town side quests: Mostly bad
Mini-games in main story: Don't mind them (they're only bad/too much in the side content)
Chocobo Ranch, Zolom, Mythril Mines: Mediocre and time-consuming Filler that should not have been expanded
Lower/Upper Junon/Cargo Ship: Excellent
Costa Del Sol: Pretty good
Corel/Gold Saucer/Desert Prison: Excellent
Gongaga: Very contrived in how it gets there, but overall good/appreciated.
Cosmo Canyon: Looks/sounds great, but something felt off about it, it was just okay, I think.
Cave of Gi: Pretty bad
Nibelheim: Middling
Gold Saucer 2: Weak
Temple of the Ancients: Pretty good, occasionally awkward (mostly just the tail end)
All Zack/multiverse Sequences: Absolute trash. Easily the worst part of the game.
Ending: There were some elements that I liked, but just an absolute mess (especially when you don't factor in having knowledge of the original).
Rebirth is a messy mixed bag of a game with high highs and low lows. Despite improving on Remake in a lot of ways, I think it might actually be worse overall, due to lack of cohesion and flow + god awful pacing + convoluted nonsense. Ultimately, it still has a lot of the exact same strengths and weaknesses. I can't deny the enjoyment I'm getting from the good parts, but the review scores are severely overrating this game and overlooking its flaws in a way that feels kind of weird to me.
Like Remake, the combat, character moments, production value, and a lot of set pieces (including some absurd campy ones that are legitimately fun and make you feel like a kid again) are great. Character dynamics are very lovingly fleshed out, and are easily the glue that (almost) holds everything together.
The side-content and poorly paced bloat/filler content is actually worse than Remake, IMO. Very one step forward, two steps back. Improved the town side content only to introduce map side content which is several times worse. They improved a lot of the good sequences in the original by expanding on them (except for the Seto moment, which I think they butchered), but they also actively hurt the game by expanding largely forgettable nothing sequences from the original into unbearably long nothing sequences that bring the game to a grinding halt (every bit as hollow and tiresome as the sewer/train graveyard sequences in Remake, IMO). It's like a fantastic opening followed by hours upon hours of absolutely nothing areas/content dragging the game down before it finally gets to the next genuinely great/fun sequence/area.
The minor narrative deviations/tweaks are mostly great and welcome changes, but the dumb/childish MAJOR newly introduced narrative deviations are also worse than Remake, IMO (nothing to do with nostalgia/purism-- it's just generally sh*tty and infantile fan-fiction-level writing). On top of this, I would argue that the non-battle mechanics and gamification of everything introduced to Rebirth ultimately hurt more than they help.
Overall breakdown of areas (mostly in terms of narrative/storytelling pace):
Nibelheim Flashback/Night in Kalm: Excellent
World Map sequences: Absolute trash
Town side quests: Mostly bad
Mini-games in main story: Don't mind them (they're only bad/too much in the side content)
Chocobo Ranch, Zolom, Mythril Mines: Mediocre and time-consuming Filler that should not have been expanded
Lower/Upper Junon/Cargo Ship: Excellent
Costa Del Sol: Pretty good
Corel/Gold Saucer/Desert Prison: Excellent
Gongaga: Very contrived in how it gets there, but overall good/appreciated.
Cosmo Canyon: Looks/sounds great, but something felt off about it, it was just okay, I think.
Cave of Gi: Pretty bad
Nibelheim: Middling
Gold Saucer 2: Weak
Temple of the Ancients: Pretty good, occasionally awkward (mostly just the tail end)
All Zack/multiverse Sequences: Absolute trash. Easily the worst part of the game.
Ending: There were some elements that I liked, but just an absolute mess (especially when you don't factor in having knowledge of the original).
Last edited:
I'm at the end of the game. Left a few things undone that I just didn't feel like doing that I'll go back and do at some point. You DO get a point of no return prompt before starting chapter 13.
I tried to be super strategic and balance everything out and had no success after the first 2.
I threw out that game plan and just loaded the f*** out of the right side while occasionally spawning a defender or something on the left to keep the enemy pieces at bay.
Breezed through the 3rd and 4th FC quests with this method.
Temple of the Ancients was so beautifully done. While I wouldn't confuse it for a FromSoft game, it was as good as it gets for Square Enix in terms of level design. The trials section was filler done right. Was very happy to see both the Red Dragon AND Demons Gate fights! Wasn't sure that we were going to get the latter as it's a really silly boss but it was there and it was spectacular.
Literally saved and stopped playing in the Forgotten Capital after my game told me that I was at a point where I could no longer proceed. There are a string of pretty long sequences of cut scenes/playable but fixed sequences between the end of chapter 13 and 14 that felt like too much honestly. I feel like allowing us to walk around and do some stuff even if it was just simple exploration while splicing some of that stuff in would have worked better.
Literally saved and stopped playing in the Forgotten Capital after my game told me that I was at a point where I could no longer proceed. There are a string of pretty long sequences of cut scenes/playable but fixed sequences between the end of chapter 13 and 14 that felt like too much honestly. I feel like allowing us to walk around and do some stuff even if it was just simple exploration while splicing some of that stuff in would have worked better.
I tried to be super strategic and balance everything out and had no success after the first 2.
I threw out that game plan and just loaded the f*** out of the right side while occasionally spawning a defender or something on the left to keep the enemy pieces at bay.
Breezed through the 3rd and 4th FC quests with this method.
K Fleur
Sacrifice
- Mar 28, 2014
- 15,410
- 25,588
This is the game that is finally going to get me to buy a PS5.
Reviews sound like it’s great but still full of a bunch of Nomura nonsense.
Reviews sound like it’s great but still full of a bunch of Nomura nonsense.
Finished the game tonight, what an incredible experience the entire thing was.
I know the ending was 'controversial' in the way that the one for Remake was (fair) and some people called it messy but i didn't think it was really hard to understand at all (as long as you pay attention to the things that happen at the beginning of the chapter, it's pretty clear what happened and where they're going with this really only has a few possibilities.)
OTOH
I wish we got the next game within a year but I know its a likely 2028 release at the earliest. This game was f***ing huge, the next one will probably be even bigger.
I know the ending was 'controversial' in the way that the one for Remake was (fair) and some people called it messy but i didn't think it was really hard to understand at all (as long as you pay attention to the things that happen at the beginning of the chapter, it's pretty clear what happened and where they're going with this really only has a few possibilities.)
OTOH
back to back multi section boss fights was a bit much. I mean it was cool as f***, Especially the Bizzaro Sephiroth fight (I forget what he is called in this game, but its the same character model from the OG) but we went from a pretty uh, land mark point the game to a few sequences that took me like an hour to complete (and I only wiped once, which was totally my fault)
I wish we got the next game within a year but I know its a likely 2028 release at the earliest. This game was f***ing huge, the next one will probably be even bigger.
Shareefruck
Registered User
I don't think messy necessarily implies hard to understand, just that it's unnecessarily convoluted, awkward, and inelegantly laid out. It also helps when you've played the original and can keep track of which mysteries specifically have to do with it and the multitude of breadcrumbs of other things that don't.
I also think the fact that the controversial stuff complements a satisfying/cohesive/clear resolution to the main story in Remake helps it be a bit more consumable than the same trick being done in Rebirth, without having as cohesive/resolved of a main story to ground yourself with.
It's just a really tough sell, IMO. A product of making already somewhat convoluted source material even more convoluted.
I also think the fact that the controversial stuff complements a satisfying/cohesive/clear resolution to the main story in Remake helps it be a bit more consumable than the same trick being done in Rebirth, without having as cohesive/resolved of a main story to ground yourself with.
It's just a really tough sell, IMO. A product of making already somewhat convoluted source material even more convoluted.
Last edited:
Holy shit the Cait Sith section in Chaper 11 is making me want to end it all. What the absolute f*** were they thinking
Yeah this is one of the 2 chapters I straight up didn’t like.
Jovavic
Gaslight Object Project
I just got to Cosmo Canyon, chapter 10, clocking 55 hours so far, still enjoying it and glad I never have to go back to Gongaga with its awful music and map again
Jovavic
Gaslight Object Project
It gave me great anxiety to leave the Corel region before the relic quest line was finished, haven't been told to go back yet. Good luck with Gongaga, I had to use the internet to find the way to some things.
Moogles are really pissing me off in gongaga. Becoming less fun to do that shit. Just need the for my last Intel.
