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

[Spork3245]

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[crispy4000]

48 minutes ago, best3444 said:

So is FF16 the only FF without mini-games?

 

FF6 and earlier didn't really have them, at least not in the sense FF7 did.

 

I can't remember any in FF13.

[SaysWho?]

The date at the Gold Saucer got me, I think because I've spent so much time with these two characters that it hit more than I thought it would. My date was 

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Tifa.

 

[SaysWho?]

Near the end of Ch. 12, what 

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Cait Sith says, which is something along the lines of, 'I knew it had to end this way, but it still kind o stings. For a moment, I thought we were friends," is what I felt as well. Unless they were going to change something, I knew Cait Sith would betray us with the keystone, but it felt a bit sadder since we spent more time with him here. My dude was crying, too. =(

And it's going to be a little bit before I see him again with some of the other side quests. Caaaaaaaiiiittt.

 

[MarSolo]

Just got done exploring the Gold Saucer for the first time. Unfortunately, I couldn’t progress in the Queen’s Blood challenges because I’m one or two wins short before I can advance to the next level.

 

That “Behind Enemy Lines” challenge was a BITCH to get through.

[BloodyHell]

On 4/14/2024 at 3:39 PM, ThreePi said:

 

Yeah, but there's also a lot more "slowly walk down a hallway so people can give you an unnecessary long exposition." You could cut 75% of Chadley's lines and not lose a thing in the game. 

 

It's a game that doesn't respect the player's time. There's a trend among older gamers who want shorter games because they don't have time in between work and family and blah blah blah. I'm not that kind of person, I've done two 80+ hour playthroughs of Cyberpunk. But none of the side stuff in Rebirth really has value. What was even the reward for finishing all the Queen's Blood matches? It never felt like any of the side stuff led to anything worthwhile other than checking off a box on a list. Until the Protorelic stuff at the end, but by then I was so burnt out and just wanted to mash Square through the combat anyhow. 

I guess I just fundamentally disagree. I absolutely loved doing everything this game has given to me. Except the chicken side quest. So many great pieces of lore and easter eggs behind all of it. The protorelic stuff was awesome, fighting classic monsters from the games past throughout the different lands. The Turk stuff in Gongaga was an awesome treat. 
 

as far as QB, it being so good was reward enough in itself. Completing my card collection is enough.

[BloodyHell]

On 4/15/2024 at 7:28 AM, SaysWho? said:

 

I disagree with a lot of this but I appreciate your perspective considering how highly you view OG FF7.

 

I also feel the opposite as crispy does. First, I loved playing Queen's Blood; anytime that opened up, that's what I started with. I'm also nearly 90 hours into the game on Ch. 12 and I've not bored of the side activities; the only problem I had was losing two hours of progress chocobo racing because of a power outage.  But I actually enjoy racing and feel the chocobos handle very well, making it less frustrating to try to win. Plus, 3D Brawler was actually possible to win.

 

I also went to the divine temples to get summons, which were useful, especially Phoenix. Transmuter chips were a godsend. Cache locations don't give you a ton, but they're fun to find and they're easy to skip if you want. Plus, you have plenty of side quest opportunities to get more skill points and items, or combat arenas to get useful armors. Hell, the

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Chocobo Sage

stuff gives you an APx3 armor, which is sweet.

Huh? APx3 armor? What is it? I know he gave me a weapon for Cait Sith. 

[SaysWho?]

2 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

Huh? APx3 armor? What is it? I know he gave me a weapon for Cait Sith. 

 

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That ChocoBangle or whatever it's called. 2 slots but 3x AP.

 

[SaysWho?]

Gotta get the 

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Odin summon

and then I’m going through the point of no return. I think I’ll do the other side stuff I haven’t gotten to after I finish the main story.

 

 The side things I finished are 

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Queen’s Blood, protorelics, 99% of Chadeys stuff, pirate booty, and some additional side quests and vr missions. I got to the island of Gilgamesh, but I have not fought him yet.

 

[SaysWho?]

I've never had so much 

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anxiety at the endgame of a video game before. I'm at the Temple of the Ancients and I managed to never find out what happens to Aerith, and I'm so worried about her.  

 

[legend]

45 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

I've never had so much 

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anxiety at the endgame of a video game before. I'm at the Temple of the Ancients and I managed to never find out what happens to Aerith, and I'm so worried about her.  

 

 

Not much long now!

[crispy4000]

Taking my sweet time sidequesting in Chapter 12.  Deciding whether I want to do all the hard mode stuff in the Gold Saucer, but I'll do the chocobo racing questline as a minimum.

[MarSolo]

lol I love that chocobo racing is basically Mario Kart.

[SaysWho?]

8 hours ago, MarSolo said:

lol I love that chocobo racing is basically Mario Kart.

 

It's legit fun in this game. I thoroughly enjoyed chocobo racing.

 

I'm deep into Ch. 13 right now; it's a long chapter!

[Keyser_Soze]

12 hours ago, MarSolo said:

lol I love that chocobo racing is basically Mario Kart.

 

3 hours ago, SaysWho? said:

It's legit fun in this game. I thoroughly enjoyed chocobo racing.

 

Better than the actual Chocobo Racing game (Chocobo GP) they brought out a couple years ago.

[crispy4000]

The final battle gauntlet you unlock in the Gold Saucer is absurd.  Definitely an endgame activity.  And here I was thinking I'd 100% all the quests before the end.

[crispy4000]

That (first?) temple boss is no joke.  Really nice to see you can't just cheese through the game by doing most of the side quests.

[Xbob42]

On 4/8/2024 at 8:17 PM, legend said:

Tonight I took another crack a the mindflayer combat simulator now that I knew I had to kill the flayer first.

 

That was indeed a fucker. I was doing okay managing my teammates to keep them from fighting the scrubs but I'm pretty sure the mind flayer's AoE attacks would kill them or something because their health would go from nearly full to "where the fuck did they go"  

 

Finally got him using the sleep strategy on the scrubs to keep them away and going all out to build synergy attacks as fast as possible and unloading tifa to kill him in the first stagger.

Just poking my head in this thread. If anyone's still yet to do this or having trouble... remember, you don't need to take 3 party members. You can solo it, or do what I did and take a single fighter + Aerith and just have her chain sleep the little guys while you single-target the big dude. Trying to micromanage two party members just makes it way more complicated and headache-inducing than it needs to be!

[SaysWho?]

At the beginning of 14 and 

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that whole thing with Aerith liking Cloud, hugging him, telling him not to blame himself, then pushing him into the light with Sephiroth approaching from behind... y'all, that got me, and I have MAJOR anxiety about Aerith now.  

That shit seems there to freak out people who played the original, those fuckers.

 

[SaysWho?]

Final boss spoilers:

 

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I had to pause for now since I have to sleep, but I was NOT expecting what’s essentially Bizarro Sephiroth in this game.

 

[crispy4000]

Rolled credits, fantastic game.

 

It's been a long time since I played og FF7.  The feelings of loss and hopelessness in Rebirth definitely don't hit quite as hard.  Rebirth realizes that it can't live up to the first time the story is told, so takes things in a different direction to flesh out these events, but in doing so spoils where og FF7 goes later.  It's realistic to what most of us know about these characters, and doesn’t feel cheap as a result.  So long as you can understand most of the split universe stuff as sort of a side note. (for now?)

There are some interesting wrinkles left, particularly:

 

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Cloud still having the black materia, Zach thinking dimensions can be reunited, Cloud still sees Aeirth while the rest of the party  can't except maybe RedXVIII, the possibility that it's still Seperoth/Jenova playing tricks on him, only him seeing the tear in the sky, white whispers, what if Sephiroth knows the current timeline is where he loses and does something in the third game to sabotage it, etc.

 

I'd still recommend playing and finish the OG before you get to the final chapters of this game.  The og hits harder, Rebirth instead softens it by fleshing out the context, both with new additions and references to future events.

 

Oh, and Intergrade DLC is recommended as well.  There's a few sequences with Yuffie in Rebirth that won't land at all if you haven't played it.  Whereas you can still enjoy Rebirth fine enough if you've only played remake (though og FF7's impact will be dampened).

[best3444]

@crispy4000 I plan on beating this sometime down the road but I will never play the OG FF7. So if the ending doesn't hit as hard etc then so be it. 

[crispy4000]

3 hours ago, best3444 said:

@crispy4000 I plan on beating this sometime down the road but I will never play the OG FF7. So if the ending doesn't hit as hard etc then so be it. 

You’ll be fine.  Once you beat it, go back and watch the big moment in question in the original.

[SaysWho?]

I beat the game a day or two ago and I’m back in chapter 13 to do a lot of the higher level side quest and the side quest I never finished.

 

i’m still reading about the ending, but I have to say that emotionally, I thought it was a very strong narrative in that sense. Because of the length of the game, you were doing a lot of things that don’t relate to the main story, but a lot of that other stuff was character stuff, and it made me bond with the characters quite a bit more, and it made me like some of the new characters a lot, like Kyrie. 
 

I really love this group of characters, and I look forward to continuing their adventure in a few years. Now, I’m just going to enjoy the gameplay and other quests and the lovely world that the developers gave me. 103 hours or so and I’m still going.

[legend]

7 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

I beat the game a day or two ago and I’m back in chapter 13 to do a lot of the higher level side quest and the side quest I never finished.

 

i’m still reading about the ending, but I have to say that emotionally, I thought it was a very strong narrative in that sense. Because of the length of the game, you were doing a lot of things that don’t relate to the main story, but a lot of that other stuff was character stuff, and it made me bond with the characters quite a bit more, and it made me like some of the new characters a lot, like Kyrie. 
 

I really love this group of characters, and I look forward to continuing their adventure in a few years. Now, I’m just going to enjoy the gameplay and other quests and the lovely world that the developers gave me. 103 hours or so and I’m still going.

 

Yeah I think taking this game to flesh out the character relationships was a really good narrative choice. I feel more attached to these characters than ever before and it makes everything that happens to them so much more meaningful. That said, I do also understand what @crispy4000 means. We have so much additional knowledge about this universe than we did the first time, and then there are game specific changes that soften something we otherwise took at face value in the OG. But I'm okay with that. I'm happy with them do a little bit of divergence and am interested to see where it goes, and the the character strengthening really helps with that.

 

Then on top of that, I just really like the gameplay loop of this series. I don't think any game has nailed mixing turn-based and realtime combat in a way that's as satisfying as Rebirth. I was already a big fan in Remake, but Rebirth evolved it in all the right ways. It's why if they ever do remake KOTOR -- another game I love that was real-time with pause -- that they do it Rebirth style. Starwars is such a good match for this approach.

 

 

[best3444]

A remake of KOTOR with Rebirth's combat would be heavenly. 

[MarSolo]

Kiss my ass Tonberry King, your pristine crown is MINE.