Final Fantasy VII Rebirth [PS5]

Picked up the original on Steam. I've never played it before so hopefully by the time I finish it, this'll have a decent discount. I absolutely loved Remake. Thought it was incredible.

93% on OC - https://opencritic.com/game/15136/final ... ii-rebirth & 94% on MC - https://www.metacritic.com/game/final-f ... i-rebirth/

Currently £55 at Currys with a code.

Reviews are very positive so far.

Sounds great from the Metro review. Amazed it didn't get full marks from the actual text.

I have not played Remake yet (bought it last month), but it might have moved up my playlist now.

Godzilla wrote:Currently £55 at Currys with a code.

Reviews are very positive so far.

Not a bad deal so I've taken the plunge!

Second demo is good, looking forward to this

It's getting a lot of brilliant reviews.

Whilst I'm excited about the reviews I'm also a little wary of some that I have skimmed over so far. Way too many people in their recaps of what came before seem to be claiming that Remake was amazing and had no flaws whatsoever which is making me question their gushing praise for this...

Jenuall wrote:Whilst I'm excited about the reviews I'm also a little wary of some that I have skimmed over so far. Way too many people in their recaps of what came before seem to be claiming that Remake was amazing and had no flaws whatsoever which is making me question their gushing praise for this...

I started watching an Italian review yesterday, and they started by highlighting the flaws of the remake and how this improves on a lot of aspects of the game. Then they talked about how much the demo was probably the worst part of rebirth. Then I switched it off, to be fair, that's all I wanted to hear, I even stopped playing the demo after 15 minutes, as I felt it would be taking away from my experience.

I am also just submitting my final assignment on Monday for this term, so the release date works absolutely perfect for me as I have a couple of study free weekends

I might start Remake today so I can get in on the excitement (sort of).

I liked Remake as a game but I will admit I didn't like the way the story went! Still haunts me!

Everything I have seen of rebirth has mostly been from the OG which has hit my nostalgia hard but I still have my concerns of the overall story and it's direction. I enjoyed the Demo though, the added extras and battle challenges were fun plus they have really pimped out the combat. Looking forward to investigating the world map.

Story isn't really the concern for me, I quite like them shaking it up, it's the gameplay concerns from the first that feel like a bit of an elephant in the room when reading these reviews...

Biggest issue with the first is the padding and pacing, in my opinion.

Worst offender for me with the first game was the new NPCs having this generic look that didn't fit with the styling of the existing characters.

Pacing was very much a weak point - so much of the "side quest" content was exceptionally tedious. There's a pretty amazing 15-20 hour experience in Remake that was padded to death sadly.

Hopefully they've learned their lesson this time

Jenuall wrote:Pacing was very much a weak point - so much of the "side quest" content was exceptionally tedious. There's a pretty amazing 15-20 hour experience in Remake that was padded to death sadly.

Hopefully they've learned their lesson this time

IGN team reportef how long it took them all to finish the game and what level of completion they were going for.

Spoilers for game length

Godzilla wrote:

Jenuall wrote:Pacing was very much a weak point - so much of the "side quest" content was exceptionally tedious. There's a pretty amazing 15-20 hour experience in Remake that was padded to death sadly.

Hopefully they've learned their lesson this time

IGN team reportef how long it took them all to finish the game and what level of completion they were going for.

Spoilers for game length

You can blitz the main story in about 35 hours but to do all side quests and hunts etc it's over double that.

What worries me is the manner in which side content is built into the experience. For Remake it felt like you were heavily pushed to do a load of stuff that really should have been much more explicitly optional. It's fine to call something side activity and say that you can ignore it and blitz a main quest in X hours, but another thing entirely if your whole games XP and resource economy is built around players engaging with everything.

> "Just focus on the main quest if you think the side activities are dull"
> Focuses on main quest, hits roadblock because character is fundamentally under-levelled and equipped
> "Well, you should have done all the side quests then!"

Jenuall wrote:

Godzilla wrote:

Jenuall wrote:Pacing was very much a weak point - so much of the "side quest" content was exceptionally tedious. There's a pretty amazing 15-20 hour experience in Remake that was padded to death sadly.

Hopefully they've learned their lesson this time

IGN team reportef how long it took them all to finish the game and what level of completion they were going for.

Spoilers for game length

You can blitz the main story in about 35 hours but to do all side quests and hunts etc it's over double that.

What worries me is the manner in which side content is built into the experience. For Remake it felt like you were heavily pushed to do a load of stuff that really should have been much more explicitly optional. It's fine to call something side activity and say that you can ignore it and blitz a main quest in X hours, but another thing entirely if your whole games XP and resource economy is built around players engaging with everything.

> "Just focus on the main quest if you think the side activities are dull"
> Focuses on main quest, hits roadblock because character is fundamentally under-levelled and equipped
> "Well, you should have done all the side quests then!"

The sidequests in Remake felt like you were going to work. We cannot be living in 2024 and have side quests with go to point x and fetch y to give it to z. I am pretty sure there will be a load of these in rebirth. Hopefully the more open nature of the map will make it less tedious but on that I am not holding my breath too much, FFXVI had the same system of tedious sidequests linked to xp.

Witcher 3 and Elden Ring would be the prime examples (for me) on how side quests should be in a game. Little stories that take you to remote areas of the map and full of ingame related lore.

Can’t remember the last time I preordered a game months in advance and it didn’t turn out to be a critical smash.

11 year old me would be losing his mind at this. Doubly so at that bathing suit of Tifa’s

Drej wrote:

Jenuall wrote:

Godzilla wrote:

Jenuall wrote:Pacing was very much a weak point - so much of the "side quest" content was exceptionally tedious. There's a pretty amazing 15-20 hour experience in Remake that was padded to death sadly.

Hopefully they've learned their lesson this time

IGN team reportef how long it took them all to finish the game and what level of completion they were going for.

Spoilers for game length

You can blitz the main story in about 35 hours but to do all side quests and hunts etc it's over double that.

What worries me is the manner in which side content is built into the experience. For Remake it felt like you were heavily pushed to do a load of stuff that really should have been much more explicitly optional. It's fine to call something side activity and say that you can ignore it and blitz a main quest in X hours, but another thing entirely if your whole games XP and resource economy is built around players engaging with everything.

> "Just focus on the main quest if you think the side activities are dull"
> Focuses on main quest, hits roadblock because character is fundamentally under-levelled and equipped
> "Well, you should have done all the side quests then!"

The sidequests in Remake felt like you were going to work. We cannot be living in 2024 and have side quests with go to point x and fetch y to give it to z. I am pretty sure there will be a load of these in rebirth. Hopefully the more open nature of the map will make it less tedious but on that I am not holding my breath too much, FFXVI had the same system of tedious sidequests linked to xp.

Witcher 3 and Elden Ring would be the prime examples (for me) on how side quests should be in a game. Little stories that take you to remote areas of the map and full of ingame related lore.

The only side quests that at first had me wanting to just carry on were those that cropped up just before leaving the slums (find the kids/chocobos/Dons stashes) but in the end I just completed them before moving on.

Only just finished the main story via Steam Deck and now working my way through Yuffies story. In fact only just found out it’s an exclusive timed launch on PS5 as I’d have loved to play Rebirth on SD so just went and pre-ordered the bundle pack off PS Store (Reintergrade + Rebirth)