So despite having played the original FF7 when i was in middle school i really don't have all that nostalgia for the property (the fact the SaGa series, even if i didn't realize that was a thing at the time, and several other lesser known JRPG/JRPG adjacent titles would have been taking up a huge part of my gaming brain space at the time, along side being more on the it's overhyped/anti-fandom side of things during the peak compilation era when i was in high school and college might explain why...). In spite of that FF7 Remake (or more accurately Integrade since i waited until it came to PC before buying it) is probably one of my favorite, if not my favorite, action RPGs in recent years.

Its base combat mechanics are very enjoyable and have tactical depth that while i feel like i understand i also know i have yet to truly plumb the depths of, the handling of ATB charges as a mechanic broadly and in an interface aspect for being able to all but pause the action for some menuing especially feels very inspired, and while a break/stagger mechanic in RPG combat is always Remake's take on the idea leaves combat at its peak weaving in and out of various phases (normal, pressured, and staggered) largely but not wholly in the player's control that have differing focal points mechanically with bosses adding extra flair and often other mechanics on top of that, a three pronged system of leveling and character growth (character level, Materia, Weapon upgrades) that affect different things but all interlock, and finally a cast of characters with meaningfully differing gameplay identities and play styles. Really any complaints i have tend to be minor but more so do not detract from things; the leveling system is great but the interface design is rather clumsy and borders on tedious at times (particularly the Weapon upgrading), and the characters are unique mechanically but the balance isn't great.

so to say i was excited for Rebirth is a bit of an understatement; a chance to Refine what was quite there yet in the original and with new playable characters (Red XIII and Cait Sith). However, after ~140 hours (and just short of 100% on normal difficulty content) i kind of feel like Remake might still be the better game even though Rebirth is improved in 90+% of aspects.

So to start with the new cast in a mechanical sense is largely solid; Barret is basically the same as before bit with some new ATB abilities and the removal of the arguably underdeveloped melee weapons/playstyle option, Cloud Tifa and Yuffie are all given aerial attack options which helps with one of the most obnoxious things about fights in the original (flying enemies) while seeing new ATB skills and balance tweaks (most apparent to me is Cloud no longer being the borderline one man counter hitting death machine he was in Remake), Aeris has seen a decent rework that i'm not sure how to feel about (her evade seems heavily nerfed but i feel like her new Ward shift mechanic is meant to be used as her dodge to tie in more to here ATB abilities and general design) though i never spent much time using her until the final battle all but forced me to, Red XIII has an interesting idea at the core of their design in the form of the vengeance gauge and their unique relation to blocking though i feel like they need some work, and Cait Sith is... there and i don't really understand how they work at even a basic level despite reading guides and such.

Combat is largely the same as before, the main addition being Synergy skills and abilities. Synergy Abilities i feel fair better between the two by, usually, being big cinematic attacks with added strategic functionality that are built up to via frequent ATB skill use. Synergy Skills are less successful as a mechanic in my opinion though; aside from allowing heavy boosting of the ATB gauge of two characters, with one or two exceptions, i never got much use out of them and the controls left blocking feeling a bit awkward (though given the addition of a parry mechanic to the game maybe this is more a skill issue). beyond that there has been a change to how Limit breaks work as well; allowing you access to multiple limit breaks upon said gauge filling, based on your current limit level (with raising a characters limit level being all but exclusive to certain Synergy Abilities). overall these new additions enhance combat by adding a parallel set of conidiations/states along side the existing Stagger system to deal and interact with making combat better overall.

So far everything has been largely improvements, and indeed at a mechanical level Rebirth is an all but undeniable improvement over Remake. the problems are really everything around that; the content design and pacing.

i will preface this by saying i am not a big fan of open world world game design generally; while i have nothing against it generally, it really does nothing for me and i generally feel the work building big open areas with a volume of stuff to do could be put to use on more tightly designed and interesting linear experiences. that all said i feel like FF7 Rebirth's open world segments are probably the worst parts of the game while ostensibly taking up the majority of its very long run time. put more directly a large portion of the game will be spent wandering through largely empty areas engaging in combat every few minutes (which is often trivially easy if you do most of the content and are over levelled but also ,from what i've read, extremely tedious and difficult if to do very little constant and are thus under levelled) until you find most of the quick travel spots and start warping around to wrap up the remaining side content; which, with the exception of the field intel bosses proto relic quests and ~70% of actual narrative side quests, feels like dull empty filler content, and is repeated in every new area.

the dungeons and such in between the open world sections tend to be pretty decent to good, often setting your party comp for you and giving each group of characters something to do and different routes to take with their own boss fights to deal with. however they quickly come to an end and then its back to the open world for a few more hours.

However a knock on effect of this the pacing is utter shit. compared against Remake the meaningful content (read enemy types, dungeons, weapons/abilities) in Rebirth is pretty comparable, with the addition of significantly more Boss Fights being added in. however with the added open world elements the game time is twice as long (~90-110 hours for a casual difficulty play through against Remakes ~40-50 hours) leaving the content spaced incredibly far apart.



Honestly i'm probably on this ride until the end and will get the inevitable 3rd game in the, presumed, Remake trilogy; the combat is still great (and barring some out of left field wrong headed changes will no doubt stay so in the next entry), we will likely see two new playable characters (Cid and Vincent) next time, i'm curious to see how they handle fighting Diamond Weapon (and also no doubt Ruby and Emerald weapons, probably Ultimate weapon, and maybe even Sapphire Weapon), and given some of the changes to the story i am curious to see where this all goes (though since this sis the first time i've mentioned the story you you would be right to think i'm not super invested). However i am wary of it being another bloated open world game like Rebirth was; though given the parts of the original game left to be covered by the next chapter is more focused and less road trip like there is the potential of getting a more focused and lean experience close to Remake, but it will also cover the late game optional content and side quest section of the game which feels like the perfect thing to shove open world cruft into...