2. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Ohh boy ohh boy ohh boy ohh boy, it's half way through april and I am on game numero...dos...
This game came out when...29th of Feb, and it is April 15 as I type this, 121 hours to completion. This is a big fuckin' game, it's got the length of a persona game with none of the grinding.
I feel like I could write a small novel of my experience with this game, but I'll truncate it enough just to encapsulate my thoughts.
First thing's first since it's fresh. This game eventually ends, it feels like it doesn't, but it KEEPS...going...on...forever...videogame developers, you don't need like 10 forms of final bosses to end your game, just end the fucker I got other things to do. Very frustrating final sequence with (tiny text spoilers of final boss)
WHY THE FUCK IS sephiroth WHO IN THE ORIGINAL YOU FIGHT ONE FUCKING TIME AT THE END...gonna be the final fucking boss of all 3 of these shits. Like c'mon, it's actually pretty lame and unoriginal. That said, it was annoying, the game warns you to prep...but with no context of what you need on WHO'M, I ended up ill equipped because basically they choose for you who to use for what sequence and when, so if barret is your healer...better...be glad you are on normal mode and can use items because that's all you got to sustain yourself.
Ending just sucked, well PLAYING the ending sucked, the scenes thereafter...very...interesting. I can't spoil shit but this game, moreso than the last game may hint in some...multiverse fuckery, mabe the original ff7 did happen, but this one is also happening. I can't go into detail as to why, the ending of the last game already went in on some stuff happening...it do go in some directions...
Negativity aside, BESIDES the final chapter, I really didn't want this game to end. From start to ~the last 5 hours of my 121 hour playthrough, I mostly had a great time playing this game. The already fantastic personalities they game the cast goes even harder here, the music is 10/10,
it just is THAT good.
As a fan of the original, and as someone who was very critical of the last entry...my defenses are down on this one. It's gotta be one of the best games square has ever made. Not sure how it will stack on repeat playthroughs...but as a one and done, it does the final fantasy 7 name justice.
Even warmed up to the combat...still not perfect...but I kind of see why they went the action route having put all these hours into the game. Could use a bit of spit polish for the third entry, certain bosses basically have "game over" states, so if you don't play good enough, you just die, a binary skill check, which is pretty lame. MOST OF THE GAME THOUGH, it's fun, and challenging, but doesn't get too frustrating...most...of the time...
Graphically...well play the original and this side by side. Look at Junon in the og, then in this...it's a real treat.
Card game is fucking awesome, did every ounce of what I could do. I hope they can retool it into a standalone game, it's great.
Random ass going hard on production values, like chocobo racing. Random side stuff...they didn't need to do the art for the chocobo race track selection screen THAT good. Minor thing to take note of but even the random one off stuff feels like it got a bunch of love put into it.
Crazy obscure references like
THIS are in the game. Even the part where you do the battle is the area in the original where the test enemy is encountered. Very cool.
They do kind of change direction of the original game late in gongaga...like being vague, cid, a town, another area you can do before the temple of the ancients...I think they're...not rewriting...but...well...I mean those ghost whispers whatever they call em...I mean they don't straight up say it but this gotta be an alternate universe of some sort...I mean right? Nothing crazy, probably trying to make the game flow better, save stuff for the third entry, yadda yadda, but still...they keep it vague, but obvious enough to keep you thinking.
Not gonna hard mode after seeing some of the dumber fights in this game, which means...the harder challenges in this game not too keen on doing. I did like everything in the game minus the situp minigame final challenges (because the squat game in the last one was torture and this is the same), and yuffie's cacutar crush hard challenges (because FUCK those), and anything "combat challenge" related I am just skipping. While I enjoyed the combat this time around...I still didn't love it...and prefer to do it only when needed. I'd wager I did about 95% of the normal content of the game which I'm good enough with.
I really loved my time with this game. Not sure I'll replay it before I'm 45, but...it's a once in a long time type of game experience. Might mess around with chapter select and boost all my characters to max level...maybe. But I think I'm more or less done, not crazy enough to even consider attempting a platinum so...not much point to doing whatever other challenges lie in the game.
Looking forward to the next one!
*edit*
-finished "all hard mode minigames"
-finished the final protorelic/all intel get
-got all queens blood cards
-hit level cap (finish game, go to gongaga with 2x xp materia on hard mode, kill stuff, goes by quick)
I ain't gonna plat this, no no, nononono, but still things to do, still enjoying diddling around in this game. Maybe I should start an ff8 or 9 playthrough focused on triple triad/terra master. Like a card game playthrough.
*edit*
-finished all quests
Ok for real I think I am "done" with this game. ~127 hours played.
