Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Full Review (spoilers)

CriticalGaming

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Regarding Queen's Blood lore.... holy shit, how has this simple card game turned into a full-fledged dark ritual and hex stuff? Someone definitely read/watched yugioh a bit too much
Keep pushing man. You can save the open world stuff until you beat the game. But keep through the story and such.
 

FakeSympathy

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Ch. 11, Nibelheim.

You know, whenever a game makes me come back to an familiar area, it always gives me the feeling of nostalgia, things never being the same, what was once lost never being able to be found again.

And I should know, as someone who visits his country of origin from time to time, and always makes time to visit the specific area where he grew up in, watching Cloud and Tifa visiting their hometown hit me like a truck. ESPECIALLY finding out everything has been rebuilt. Because the exact same thing happened to my old neighborhood. And watching Cloud revisit his old home only to find all of this stuff not being there anymore, and someone else is living there, felt all too familiar.

It was crushing to experience this, and poor Tifa, she's taking this in way more thab Cloud.

Cloud finally remembers Zack. Holy shit... That's another thing I can relate to, as sometimes I remember something that I cherished from a long time ago.

Thanks FF7 Rebirth, for perfectly capturing how I feel about visiting my old town. Seriosuly, past two chapters has been a bit of a slog to play through, and this chapter his hard from the start.
 

CriticalGaming

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Ch. 11, Nibelheim.

You know, whenever a game makes me come back to an familiar area, it always gives me the feeling of nostalgia, things never being the same, what was once lost never being able to be found again.

And I should know, as someone who visits his country of origin from time to time, and always makes time to visit the specific area where he grew up in, watching Cloud and Tifa visiting their hometown hit me like a truck. ESPECIALLY finding out everything has been rebuilt. Because the exact same thing happened to my old neighborhood. And watching Cloud revisit his old home only to find all of this stuff not being there anymore, and someone else is living there, felt all too familiar.

It was crushing to experience this, and poor Tifa, she's taking this in way more thab Cloud.

Cloud finally remembers Zack. Holy shit... That's another thing I can relate to, as sometimes I remember something that I cherished from a long time ago.

Thanks FF7 Rebirth, for perfectly capturing how I feel about visiting my old town. Seriosuly, past two chapters has been a bit of a slog to play through, and this chapter his hard from the start.
Okay before you get mad, this area has the worst gameplay section in the game and I am SORRY about that. But it's theme's are amazing.
 
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FakeSympathy

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Okay before you get mad, this area has the worst gameplay section in the game and I am SORRY about that. But it's theme's are amazing.
I mean I am already getting some glimpse of that. Some of the newer monsters in the area so fucking annoying to deal with, especially those frog-gorgon-dragon ones where you have to break the jaw to get it pressured when they are doing certain attacks. Sounds easy on the paper, but despite very specifically targeting the jaw some of the abilities and spells doesn't seem to land? Only Cloud's Braver attack seem to hit.

Odin was also quite annoying to beat, even at 3rd level reduced difficulty. Summon Materia fights in general seems to have difficulty spikes; Pheonix, Kujata, and now Odin left me exhausted, while Titan, Alexander, and Bahamut Arisen were easy enough to handle.

Also, I don't mind crappy gameplay, as long as it's kept short and only serves to move the plot forward. How do you think I can tolerate Zack-verse?
 

CriticalGaming

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I mean I am already getting some glimpse of that. Some of the newer monsters in the area so fucking annoying to deal with, especially those frog-gorgon-dragon ones where you have to break the jaw to get it pressured when they are doing certain attacks. Sounds easy on the paper, but despite very specifically targeting the jaw some of the abilities and spells doesn't seem to land? Only Cloud's Braver attack seem to hit.

Odin was also quite annoying to beat, even at 3rd level reduced difficulty. Summon Materia fights in general seems to have difficulty spikes; Pheonix, Kujata, and now Odin left me exhausted, while Titan, Alexander, and Bahamut Arisen were easy enough to handle.

Also, I don't mind crappy gameplay, as long as it's kept short and only serves to move the plot forward. How do you think I can tolerate Zack-verse?
I'm not talking about combat, but if you are struggling in combat this bad at this stage in the game, you might need to watch some youtube videos because the game shouldn't be that difficult or annoying.
 
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meiam

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Cloud finally remembers Zack. Holy shit... That's another thing I can relate to, as sometimes I remember something that I cherished from a long time ago.
Wait they brought that forward? What is even left for part 3 then storywise?
 

FakeSympathy

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A fucking lot.
Which, btw, is gonna be a completely blind run for me; this part 2 I only had experience for the first seven chapters in the original, and the rest has been new so far.

I am aware of SOME stuff in part 3; Full control of the Highwind across all regions (hopefully?) Revisiting all of the old areas, having Cid and Vincent in the party, hunting for ultimate weapons, and of course the final battle with Sephiroth. Really curious to see how that's gonna be like. Knowing Aerith won't be there kinda hurts, as she was integral part of the crew in terms of both gameplay and story-wise.

But I feel that's only scratching the surface, and there's gonna be so much more stuff to do
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Which, btw, is gonna be a completely blind run for me; this part 2 I only had experience for the first seven chapters in the original, and the rest has been new so far.

I am aware of SOME stuff in part 3; Full control of the Highwind across all regions (hopefully?) Revisiting all of the old areas, having Cid and Vincent in the party, hunting for ultimate weapons, and of course the final battle with Sephiroth. Really curious to see how that's gonna be like. Knowing Aerith won't be there kinda hurts, as she was integral part of the crew in terms of both gameplay and story-wise.

But I feel that's only scratching the surface, and there's gonna be so much more stuff to do
Be a blind run for me too, I know about the Highwind and the weapons, but I stopped playing after all the chocobo breeding and getting the Knights of the Round summon.
 

CriticalGaming

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Which, btw, is gonna be a completely blind run for me; this part 2 I only had experience for the first seven chapters in the original, and the rest has been new so far.

I am aware of SOME stuff in part 3; Full control of the Highwind across all regions (hopefully?) Revisiting all of the old areas, having Cid and Vincent in the party, hunting for ultimate weapons, and of course the final battle with Sephiroth. Really curious to see how that's gonna be like. Knowing Aerith won't be there kinda hurts, as she was integral part of the crew in terms of both gameplay and story-wise.

But I feel that's only scratching the surface, and there's gonna be so much more stuff to do
Be a blind run for me too, I know about the Highwind and the weapons, but I stopped playing after all the chocobo breeding and getting the Knights of the Round summon.
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
 
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FakeSympathy

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Okay, did all the side activities in Nibel, which thankfully were all in close range of each other. Did around 80% of the region activities within a few hours.

On with the story, and Cloud remembers more about Zack; Great, now I wanna play Crisis Core (which also is gonna be a blind run for me), because I want to know just how close Cloud and Zack were. Yeah, I know the general plot, but really would be interesting to see what actually happened.

Both Cloud and Tifa are obviously suffering from PTSD and having a hard time at Mt. Nibel re-living that horrible day, but I find it super sweet that they are supporting each other.

Got through the Caith Sith section, and this was pain. Both of the bosses weren't too bad, but that double adjudicator fight was horrible. It really felt like counterintuitive to how Caith Sith plays. Had to re-try several times, and none were good times. I think I'm gonna use cheats next time

Honestly, I think Caith Sith as a character is hilarious and amazing (Scottish Accent FTW), but he's gameplay definitely seems to lean more towards situational support role, more than Aerith. Either I suck major balls with him, or maybe his mechanics takes really long time to get used to.
 

CriticalGaming

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Great, now I wanna play Crisis Core (which also is gonna be a blind run for me)
DO IT!
Got through the Caith Sith section, and this was pain. Both of the bosses weren't too bad, but that double adjudicator fight was horrible. It really felt like counterintuitive to how Caith Sith plays. Had to re-try several times, and none were good times. I think I'm gonna use cheats next time
This is the part i was warning about.

Honestly, I think Caith Sith as a character is hilarious and amazing (Scottish Accent FTW), but he's gameplay definitely seems to lean more towards situational support role, more than Aerith. Either I suck major balls with him, or maybe his mechanics takes really long time to get used to.
Character mechanics are not nearly as important as figuring out the materia system. Cait Sith is one of the best characters for crowd control. With the right materia he can freeze the enemies (even bosses) for the entire fight. Imagine fighting things that never fight you back.
 

FakeSympathy

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Posted this on the other thread by accident, so I’m posting here again + additional thoughts;

Okay, meeting Vincent was interesting, and his boss fight was fun. But I swear this bit was inspired by Castlevania Dracula; Vampires in their humanoid form turning into giant beasts? I almost expected Vincent to say "What is a man? Nothing but a miserable pile of secrets!"

And with that, chapter 11 is done! Honestly, everything was laid out around same terrain level, so they all felt easy enough to collect. I am happy with that.

Now back to the saucer for more minigames, QB, and definitely some more materias…..

…..aaannndddd I found out the entire ocean opens up, there are new Shinra-Wutai conflict side quests, and new prizes to win at both Costa Del Sol and presumably Golden Saucer.

In the past, i used to complain about open world games with sections of the game blocked up which gets accessible gradually, thinking they were immersion breaking.

But Ubisoft games and Zelda BOTW has shown me that allowing the player (or maybe just myself) to go everywhere overwhelms them, making them lose focus with story progression and easily giving them the burnout.

FF7 Rebirth isn’t a bona fide open world game per se, but it does gradual unlocks really well. Not to mention, the number of side activities and objectives on each map being just the right amount.

And I don’t think people realize how hard it is to get this right. I know I said i felt the burnout earlier, but it took way longer for this game to make me feel that way, compared to other open world games.

Really sucks that i won’t be touching this game for a few weeks, though. It’s vacation time for me! And hey, Japan happens to be one of the places i will be visiting, and i might pick up some FF merch there.
 
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CriticalGaming

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Really sucks that i won’t be touching this game for a few weeks, though. It’s vacation time for me! And hey, Japan happens to be one of the places i will be visiting, and i might pick up some FF merch there.
Bro if you find a really cool Tifa thing....please please please let me know. DM me, we can work something out.
 

CriticalGaming

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In the past, i used to complain about open world games with sections of the game blocked up which gets accessible gradually, thinking they were immersion breaking.

But Ubisoft games and Zelda BOTW has shown me that allowing the player (or maybe just myself) to go everywhere overwhelms them, making them lose focus with story progression and easily giving them the burnout.

FF7 Rebirth isn’t a bona fide open world game per se, but it does gradual unlocks really well. Not to mention, the number of side activities and objectives on each map being just the right amount.

And I don’t think people realize how hard it is to get this right. I know I said i felt the burnout earlier, but it took way longer for this game to make me feel that way, compared to other open world games.
This is part of the reason why I praise Rebirth so much. Like nevermind the FF7 aspects of it. The sheer content in the game, the way it continues to unlock more and more shit even when you think it's done with it, the way they make everything tie together so that no matter what you are doing you get some benefit out of it in a gameplay sense, all of these things combine to reasons why I think Rebirth is one of the best video games I've ever played. Unfortunately it's also one of those games that you need to play to really appreciate it and because it's the middle game in a trilogy I think a lot of people are going to miss out on this game when they would really love it if they played it.