General Gaming Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Remake Part 2) - "An Excellent But Inconsistent Experience" (Digital Foundry Technical Review)

[SaysWho?]

I could go to the Gold Saucer right now, but I'm clearing up some side quests in the area before it. Also did some piano playing and Queens Blooding.

[BloodyHell]

On 3/21/2024 at 5:38 PM, best3444 said:

I tried B lining Rebirth and it's impossible because you get interrupted with mandatory mini games. Terrible game design. 

It’s definitely not terrible game design, you might not like it, but it’s not bad game design. It’s also FF7. Mini games are a huge part of it.

[best3444]

6 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

It’s definitely not terrible game design, you might not like it, but it’s not bad game design. It’s also FF7. Mini games are a huge part of it.

 

Yea I understand. That was me being frustrated. I stopped playing it all together and will get back to it with a fresh mind. 

[Firewithin]

do you need to win the queens blood tourney to advance ch 5???  what a dumb fucking mini game.  no matter what deck i use i can get past regina

 

edit: and as soon as i post i win lol

[Slug]

OMG the Condor game can eat a bag of dicks. My fun has come to a screeching halt. 

[BloodyHell]

1 hour ago, Slug said:

OMG the Condor game can eat a bag of dicks. My fun has come to a screeching halt. 

Use gambits.

[BloodyHell]

I really want to replay this again soon, but just the main story. I absolutely loved this game. So much so that I have no interest in Dragon’s Dogma right now. There is nothing I want to play except the final game. 

Spoiler

replayed the final chapter, watched it with clear eyes. Sephiroth clearly explains to us like children how new realities are created, and it’s Clear a new reality was created when Cloud tried to save Aerith. 
 

so there are at least 4 realities now, the OG, the current reality, a reality where Aerith lives, and Zacks reality. But as Zacks reality was being destroyed, I THINK he was sucked into new Aerith’s reality, where it’s her and Zack instead of her and cloud? So 3 realities, but maybe even just 2 that are important?

 

It definitely seems like they are going to bring it back to a single timeline by the end, and wrap up the FF7 main story for good into a single ending. 
 

that’s all me babbling. But I do think Sephiroth converged a bunch of timelines at the end when he separated Cloud and Zack. 
 

I know there were 6 realities (and 6 stamps) hinted at overall, but I don’t think most of them matter.

 

Every Biggs now seems to be dead?

 

I didn’t think of trying to save Biggs when it asked me to choose second go around for some reason. Makes me wonder if anything changed in the events? I know it shows you the other side anyway, but im still curious. 

So yeah, the further I get from the end, the more I absolutely love the game. 

[legend]

4 hours ago, Firewithin said:

do you need to win the queens blood tourney to advance ch 5???  what a dumb fucking mini game.  no matter what deck i use i can get past regina

 

edit: and as soon as i post i win lol

 

Sounds like you're fine, but the answer to your question is no, you don't need to win  You could have resigned at any level.

 

But winning is totally worth it for the cutscene at the end.

 

 

2 hours ago, Slug said:

OMG the Condor game can eat a bag of dicks. My fun has come to a screeching halt. 

 

Yeah this is the only one I didn't enjoy, but did enjoy in intergrade. They fucked it up.

[MarSolo]

I’m now running around with Tifa, Aerith, and Red trying to take photos of Cactuar paintings. Speaking of, there’s a shot in a cutscene of Cloud and Barrett on the beach that I wish I gotten a screenshot of that was so hilarious; Cloud in his swim trunks and Barrett in his sailor uniform.

 

Also, I accidentally glimpsed a spoiler about the voice acting but I’m glad I did because it’s something I should have noticed sooner:

Spoiler

Red’s real voice that he only uses when he talks to Aerith in private.

 

[SaysWho?]

Been playing Ch. 8. Man, is 

Spoiler

Gold Saucer beautiful. Apparently, I'm closest with Tifa, so I've been hanging out with her.

 

Can't believe I still have a bunch of other places that I'm assuming I'll tackle, such as 

Spoiler

Nibelheim, Gongaga, Rocket Town, I'm assuming Temple of the Ancients, and I've no idea how THAT scene ends from the original.

 

Also, apparently I and some others were spoiled elsewhere on the internet. Someone posted on a non-spoiler thread thinking they were in a spoiler thread. Understandable mistake, but I didn't need to hear it.  I heard 

Spoiler

the Tiny Bronco actually travels around the world map like an old-school FF game. That would have been cool to discover since I didn't think something like that would be in a new FF game. 

 

My friend told me if that's all that was spoiled, I'm one of the lucky ones, so hey!

[MarSolo]

In regards to that last one, um, holy shit, I’m trying to image how that even works.

[SaysWho?]

1 minute ago, MarSolo said:

In regards to that last one, um, holy shit, I’m trying to image how that even works.

 

I take it you don't mind having some stuff told to you beforehand? At least we're both in the same boat, now.  

[MarSolo]

4 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

 

I take it you don't mind having some stuff told to you beforehand? At least we're both in the same boat, now.  

Little things like that, definitely, since it’s more of a gameplay thing and not a story thing.

[legend]

13 minutes ago, MarSolo said:

In regards to that last one, um, holy shit, I’m trying to image how that even works.

If you want to know…
 

Spoiler

It’s restricted to the ocean in boat like form and is in third person view form behind. 
 

For the third part, Square said one of the big challenge they’ll have is how to support the air ship across the whole world, which sounds like it will be awesome  

 

[BloodyHell]

On 3/25/2024 at 2:00 PM, SaysWho? said:

Been playing Ch. 8. Man, is 

  Hide contents

Gold Saucer beautiful. Apparently, I'm closest with Tifa, so I've been hanging out with her.

 

Can't believe I still have a bunch of other places that I'm assuming I'll tackle, such as 

  Hide contents

Nibelheim, Gongaga, Rocket Town, I'm assuming Temple of the Ancients, and I've no idea how THAT scene ends from the original.

 

Also, apparently I and some others were spoiled elsewhere on the internet. Someone posted on a non-spoiler thread thinking they were in a spoiler thread. Understandable mistake, but I didn't need to hear it.  I heard 

  Hide contents

the Tiny Bronco actually travels around the world map like an old-school FF game. That would have been cool to discover since I didn't think something like that would be in a new FF game. 

 

My friend told me if that's all that was spoiled, I'm one of the lucky ones, so hey!

I managed to completely quarantine myself from spoilers of any kind. I only saw the very first Rebirth trailer where they announced the date.

 

otherwise I went in completely unspoiled, and finished that way.

 

I also read A Tale of Two Pasts, which is a canon novel by Nojima about Aerith and Tifa’s background. Aerith’s doesn’t break a ton of new ground, mostly expands on what we know. Tifa’s tells a whole new story. We get retelling of her childhood first, then the story of what happened from Nibelheim to the point we meet her at 7th Heaven. 
 

It’s certainly not high brow quality fiction or anything, but it’s a ton of fun, and is about characters most of us love. 

[best3444]

Getting myself ready to play this again. I will have to probably start over but that's fine. I just really have to prepare myself for mini games this go around. 

[Biggie]

2 minutes ago, best3444 said:

Getting myself ready to play this again. I will have to probably start over but that's fine. I just really have to prepare myself for mini games this go around. 

I need to play some but DD2 has my total attention 

[best3444]

1 minute ago, Biggie said:

I need to play some but DD2 has my total attention 

 

Well I have plenty of time so I have no excuse. 

[Keyser_Soze]

They put this 4 part making of which are around 15 minutes each that discuss various aspects of the game. It's an interesting watch. There aren't any spoilers so to speak but it does occasionally talk about locations and characters compared to the original so if you want those to be a surprise for you and you haven't gotten through a good chunk of the game then maybe refrain from watching. But there aren't any huge story spoilers.

 

 

 

 

 

[SaysWho?]

Well well well, chapter 10.

 

Spoiler

You sure went fucking apeshit with the two bosses and Tifa getting eaten by a Weapon, didn't you?

 

Also, what they did to the 

Spoiler

Arsenal boss theme when fighting Scarlet

was excellent.

[SaysWho?]

This game's so fucking good that somebody asked me hey is FF7 Rebirth really good and I said yeah

[BloodyHell]

48 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

This game's so fucking good that somebody asked me hey is FF7 Rebirth really good and I said yeah

High praise!

 

It really is though.

[BloodyHell]

On 3/29/2024 at 5:20 PM, SaysWho? said:

Well well well, chapter 10.

 

  Hide contents

You sure went fucking apeshit with the two bosses and Tifa getting eaten by a Weapon, didn't you?

 

Also, what they did to the 

  Hide contents

Arsenal boss theme when fighting Scarlet

was excellent.

Chapter 10 is when the train starts picking up steam. 12/13/14 are a trip.

[MarSolo]

Man, I’m trying to beat Jules at crunches and I just can’t. 
 

I want that Champion’s Belt!

[crispy4000]

52 minutes ago, MarSolo said:

Man, I’m trying to beat Jules at crunches and I just can’t. 
 

I want that Champion’s Belt!

 

That's the hardest mini-game so far for me.  Was still doable to beat him, but definitely not easy.

[crispy4000]

On 3/30/2024 at 6:05 PM, BloodyHell said:

Chapter 10 is when the train starts picking up steam. 12/13/14 are a trip.

 

Nice, just got to Chapter 9.  I'm ready.

[Spork3245]

2 hours ago, MarSolo said:

Man, I’m trying to beat Jules at crunches and I just can’t. 
 

I want that Champion’s Belt!

Yea, that’s a rough one, but the frog mini game is worse. It’s the only one I gave up on  

[MarSolo]

19 minutes ago, Spork3245 said:

Yea, that’s a rough one, but the frog mini game is worse. It’s the only one I gave up on  

Likewise, once I realized all the rewards were the same I peaced out after the second tier.

[Spork3245]

10 minutes ago, MarSolo said:

Likewise, once I realized all the rewards were the same I peaced out after the second tier.

I kept coming 1-2 seconds off from the top tier and just noped out after the 6-8th time  

[crispy4000]

Jules was still harder for me. You can course correct somewhat in the frog game if you find yourself out of rhythm from the spinner.

 

I figured there would be a good reason to have three of those rings at some point.  Actually I just got to a point where it did make some sense to complete all fiend objectives.

[crispy4000]

Gongaga region giving me Xenoblade 1 Makna forest vibes.  (Definitive edition pictured below)

 

 

Definitely not complaining.  I love jungle environments in JRPGs.

[legend]

I've been going back and doing some things I put off. I was hacking away at the mind flayer combat simulator, was feeling good because I got it, and then realized the requirement was to take the mindflayer down *before* the scrub enemies, not just win 

 

That seems pretty rough. Like you have to actively stop your party members from fighting them.

[Spork3245]

7 hours ago, legend said:

I've been going back and doing some things I put off. I was hacking away at the mind flayer combat simulator, was feeling good because I got it, and then realized the requirement was to take the mindflayer down *before* the scrub enemies, not just win 

 

That seems pretty rough. Like you have to actively stop your party members from fighting them.

Yea, you need to constantly switch who you’re controlling. The tactic I used was to fill an ATB bar, select an ability to use on the Mindflayer, and immediately switch (before the ability/spell was cast) to another character and do the same thing. I also tried to use abilities that took awhile to cast and wouldn’t typically hit more than a single enemy (ie: Cloud’s triple slash almost always strikes at least two enemies, so I’d use fireblade or whatever it’s called, or I’d get him to 2x bars and use infinity’s end). Still took 2 or 3 tries, such a pita.

[SaysWho?]

16 hours ago, MarSolo said:

Man, I’m trying to beat Jules at crunches and I just can’t. 
 

I want that Champion’s Belt!

 

Man, I lapped the fuck out of you somehow (deep into Ch. 10).

 

Crunches are a bit harder in this one than FF7 Integrade, which seems to be the overall feeling. I didn't find it to be impossible -- a few tries and then I got it -- but I think the added 'Hold L2/R2 halfway and then press completely' can be tricky to do since it's tempting to just press the button the whole way. Concentrate on the green/yellow color difference, if I remember correctly, and it should make things easier to be ready to tap or hold halfway.

 

7 hours ago, legend said:

I've been going back and doing some things I put off. I was hacking away at the mind flayer combat simulator, was feeling good because I got it, and then realized the requirement was to take the mindflayer down *before* the scrub enemies, not just win 

 

That seems pretty rough. Like you have to actively stop your party members from fighting them.

 

Took me a few tries to do that one.

[BloodyHell]

18 hours ago, legend said:

I've been going back and doing some things I put off. I was hacking away at the mind flayer combat simulator, was feeling good because I got it, and then realized the requirement was to take the mindflayer down *before* the scrub enemies, not just win 

 

That seems pretty rough. Like you have to actively stop your party members from fighting them.

Same thing happened to me.