The Massacre of a Classic: FF7 Rebirth Review

I said I wouldn't play any more of this crap, but my siblings forced me into it. I don't have free will. Anyway, this review includes HUGE spoilers so watch at your own risk. I always call things how I see them and it is what it is. Enjoy or don't... I don't really care.

[@hollyshock8400]

Sephiroth is one of my favorite characters in fiction, and because of Remake, Rebirth (I dare say even Advent Children and Crisis Core), he is now a joke of a villain. Constantly butting into other characters important scenes, always rambling nonsensical flowery dialogue in an ASMR voice. He is genuinely more annoying than intimidating. OG Sephiroth was like Jaws with a tragic backstory. Each appearance was an “oh shit” moment full of tension as the stakes ramp up. OG Sephiroth was not constantly smirking or stalking Cloud with homoerotic undertones- he was *batshit insane* and used Cloud as a stepping stone to achieve his goals. In OG, the party is chasing Sephiroth. In Rebirth, Sephiroth is the one chasing the party around trying to get their attention. Let’s also not forget that Bizarro Sephiroth who needed the entire party to defeat him in OG, has been reduced to a punching bag for Cloud and Zack, so disrespected that they didn’t even remake his theme song and instead threw in yet another rendition of One Winged Angel. I don’t know where this rant was going, I’m just salty that one of my favorite characters has been ruined.

[@justasinglesummon3912]

The ost for the battle is pretty good(I’m not talking about the part were cloud fights with aerith)

[@marcustodd2910]

Aerith's death should have been devastating, but because of the confusing way they handled it, I felt nothing.

[@timurkral3781]

Tell this to a tree !!!

[@AaronJLong]

I felt something alright. A headache. And I think I smelled toast.

[@timurkral3781]

@@AaronJLong dude dont get blacked please 🙏

[@Rhys-Lightning]

I wanted to be happy he saved her or sad he didn't, and the result I got was confusion

[@billjacobs521]

I think the remake feels different because of the tone. The OG didn't feel like alot of Japanese stuff does; it has some silliness to it in parts, but in the story and characters, it tended to play it straight. Every character is haunted, they all have regrets, they've all suffered loss. At the end, they overcome them, to see the light at the end of the tunnel, they find a reason to fight, but they are still informed by this heavy past. The remake has removed most of the deaths we know of and is even clearly hinting at dead characters coming back. The remake has people bouncing around like teenagers in an anime. The remake is over-the-top, bombastic, quippy. If the OG felt lonely to you, it was because everyone was alone in their own heads, with their thoughts, their doubts, their fears; now everyone is happy-go-lucky fun time. Even when bad things happen, they are forgotten about in seconds and they just proceed as usual. Or they remove them, like Marlene is no longer being held hostage to force the party to let a spy travel with them. Just like how the first game removed any blood from Avalanche's hands by making it so that Shinra were actually behind the reactors blowing up. I'm probably writing too much but it really bothers me because the game was designed, from day one, to be an exploration of death; grieving over it, regretting it, then accepting it and moving on. This was Sakaguchi's stated point, as it was a way for him to work through his feelings following the death of his mother during production of Final Fantasy 6. This is a really big, really serious theme, undertaken by a man who had experienced a personal tragedy. And now, it's a joke. His former coworkers, his friends, have turned his exploration of his feelings following the death of a family member into a goofy anime joke where no one dies. Like, wow, I'd be insulted if I were him, what a bunch of jerks. There were ways to expand on the OG, to explore these themes more thoroughly and in more depth, but for the most part, they were instead tossed out the window. Nomura has never understood this game, even in interviews all the way back when the OG was new, although it seems Kitase and Nojima either don't understand either or don't care anymore.

[@Doky]

The ending made me hate the entire game. I'm not even interested in part 3 anymore. Nomura should be fired, his obsession with multi-verses is destroying Square-enix.

[@ShadyPlatinum777]

He should never be allowed to touch Final Fantasy again

[@Key-Knight87]

@@ShadyPlatinum777 A bit too much don't you think lol? Say what you want, but without Nomura, we wouldn't have the looks of a lot of iconic characters we know and love today. He should just stay a character designer imo.

[@thessk_1]

You've never played Kingdom Hearts, have you

[@decayedphoenix8865]

I'm so happy Im not alone on this

[@KJ-4496]

Same. Not support this trash.

[@adrian_veidt]

Looking at the state of FF7 now reminded me of the time Tifa saw cloud in a vegetative state. FF7 got infected with dangerous level of Nomura's retardation that it poisoned the lore. As a fan, we feel that pain and heartbreak Tifa felt. She finally gets to reunite with a childhood friend and we find out he's borderline brain dead.

[@EissamFarraj]

Tried to get my gf into this remake series cause I wanted to share this story and world with her. She knows nothing about the og, knows nothing of what happens. She loves Aeriths character and when we got to the last few hours of the game im not joking she said she felt more emotion with Caits sacrifice knowing hes a robot who is probably about to get replaced then she did for whatever tf the ending was. She was so confused and frustrated with whatever they were trying to present. I didn't grow up playing the og but i got to it after finishing remake and I loved it. I knew all the Aerith memes I know what happens but after getting to know her character in remake and then in the og I still felt a lot of pain and emotion seeing what happens to her and I think it was so important for the story and characters. So impactful and iconic in anything ive seen in any video game no question. And nothing in this series was more fucked with then the most important. So disrespectful to the character theyve wrote to make me like so much, makes no sense. whispers clogging up the screen, even if i wanted to feel something I couldn't because literally plot ghosts were taking up 65-80% of the screen at times. the ending could have executed so much better and im saying that knowing how good they have been able to write all the characters so far. why go so off the rails here? to be "climactic"? this multiverse meta shit is so outdated and has no place in a story that was already solid. Last thing ill say is they should have turned off the corny combat voice lines cause right when the jenova boss starts i just hear yuffie and cloud saying corny anime battle quotes its so jarring. Lmao Yuffie says at the end of the temple of the ancients to Cid, "read the room dude" like what. the game comes off as self aware at times and then when it needs it the most its non-existent.

[@Chud_Bud]

The writing in this game felt infantile. The entire time I played it, I couldn't shake the feeling that I wasn't playing FF7, I was playing another Kingdom Hearts.

[@kyero8724]

Honestly? If you think that then your a moron.

[@indedgames4359]

Nojima wrote it stop blaming kingdom hearts for everything.

[@sethchandler4170]

@@indedgames4359 Kingdom Hearts is shit and the parallels are obvious between KH's and the idiotic story changes in the remake trilogy.

[@ShadyPlatinum777]

Perfect description. I felt the exact same way

[@kyero8724]

@@ShadyPlatinum777 If REALLY think this is KH, then you never played KH and need to just stfu xD

[@quadricode]

Trading a visceral scene for a pseudo-intellectual one was a grave mistake. It sucked all the juice out of it.

[@ParideMarrese]

The worst thing is that aerith was killed but was also saved. They did not have the courage of taking one decision. At least, now, the scenes they can ruin are less memorable.

[@cakeycream]

This game is like if Shinra themselves made Final Fantasy 7 lmao

[@Maverick.D.]

This is a great way to put it.

[@MidnightBlackandVictoria]

With the exception of combat (to each his own really. But changing a games genre is usually reserved for spin offs and is not a small thing to classic fans. I played it anyways because I can do action games, actually well at that. I just don't like them. But I know of at least a few 1000 people in my steam turn based group who skipped this game altogether because its not traditional rpg combat, and those are just the ones I know about ) he NAILED everything in this video to a T. GREAT breakdown.

[@AscendantStoic]

Squareenix are pretty much Shinra now.

[@adrian_veidt]

I view Nomura as Hojo. Hojo stole Aerith's family and the life she could've had with them. Nomura took away our chance to have a faithful remake.

[@JesseHenderson-xc2kg]

SQUARE became the literal thing they warned us about two decades ago. I've been saying this ever since FF X-2. I liked the mechanics of it and sure, I loved Spira enough to want to return but that was a Faustian bargain I would realize as I got older.

[@PharaohsNews]

By the end the entire game and story are made rather inconsequential. Aerith dies, but she doesn’t. Cloud flips out and almost kills Tifa, nobody says anything afterwards. Cloud gives Sephiroth the black materia and everybody forgives him immediately.

[@infinitestrengthcoach3522]

two of those things happen in the original as well though....Cloud flips out almost kills Aerith in og at temple, not really mentioned again after. Cloud gives him black mat, they "ohh no!" then he's back leading the party again.

[@writer_man5318]

This is why people say media literacy is dead. Aerith is clearly dead. Cloud can talk to her spirit but it's very obvious that to everyone else she's dead. Nobody but Tifa saw Cloud actually attack Tifa. They just saw her fall in the Mako. Yuffie literally tells us that Aerith said to everyone that Sephiroth beat up Cloud and took the materia.

[@terryanderson7611]

​@@infinitestrengthcoach3522 Yes but the original game was made for the ps1 and back in an era when games did not have 20+ hours of cutscenes and were rpg fantasy games, they did not need to rely on absolute sense. This piece of crap game was made in 2024 and they made absolutely no effort to rectify or clarify any of these points. Despite making it into a movie. How unthoughtful and uninterested where they making this piece of shit. You would have thought they would have cleared these parts up and added in depth explanations and better ways of expressing story points. But nope they did not care. I absolutely hate this game. Every fight, all bosses, every simulator battle, side quest, is a complete gimmick. They had no idea how to make strategy, skill or challenge so just had every enemy in round 8 of 10 have an instant kill move so you have to repeat the entire thing again constantly lol. Unless you have the one perfect set up you can work out after losing 15 times cause you don't know what enemies will be coming up until you get insta wiped from a one hit kill. Lol. What a piece of shit. Getting stun locked into endless waves of combos. This is just a few issues with the combat the game is a pure 0 out of 10 I would rather watch paint dry, in the tin! Just to clarify I grew up with the original and that game is awesome I replay it every couple of years. So much to do, so much variety, no gimmicks.

[@PhilipMller-hs3bp]

Welll in the original Cloud beat up Aeris, and it was never mentioned again. So pick your poison I guess.

[@rclaws3230]

@@writer_man5318 Indeed, media literacy is dead. That's why people can't put together the flashes of alternative Zack timelines imply that Aerith is not, in fact, dead; but is Schroedinger's Stab Victim so that, based upon the observer's perspective, she can be as alive or as dead as the hack writers need her to be for the Aerith Cleanses the Lifestream DLC, maybe cameo in the Zack Stops the Apocalypse DLC for the Zach/Aerith shippers. This whole thing is intended to be spun out into a Marvel Fantasy 7 Extended Universe based on its degree of success. Or failure. God I hope it burns.

[@ShadyPlatinum777]

The biggest problem is the pacing. The game just felt like a drag, especially in its final chapters.

[@PCgamerChannel]

I wish it was longer. Loved every minute of it. Constant boss fights amazing combat.

[@SILVERONIN]

Gotta love marvel jokes during a final battle when your friend's corpse is just laying behind you, Rebirth is just embarrassing!

[@thetrashcanman7537]

😂

[@Cenkolino]

That shit was really jarring. That dialogue was so cringe and inappropriate...

[@BenRiley83]

I had a feeling FF7 remake games would get the Kingdom Hearts bullshit treatment

[@TheAzulmagia]

Honestly, Kingdom Hearts feels less ridiculous than Final Fantasy these days.

[@Judionine]

Kingdom Hearts had at least like 5 extra games to go over their BS plot twists, the 7 Remake technically only has one more and maybe Ever Crisis...

[@PCgamerChannel]

Love it too. Game of the year.

[@decayedphoenix8865]

As a representative of the Kingdom Hearts fandom, our GOAT is nothing like this.

[@existentialgamer9206]

Cid wasn’t even misogynistic, he just hated Shera’s guts, specifically. And later learned it was a misunderstanding and they became friends. The only thing I might have changed was not to have Shera live with him to avoid the wife-beater optics and that would have been fine

[@GameMusingsWithRaziel]

I agree he wasnt, I was just pointing out that woke morons and "gaming journalists" would get mad and label him as such, and thus my suspicion that Square changed his character outright to avoid this.

[@fabesey2016]

Eh personally don't have a huge issue with that specifically. He's emotionally abusive, and of course depiction doesn't mean promotion of that, but it's kinda played for laughs and he never actually learns his lesson about that; he simply finds out that she was right about the malfunction.

[@existentialgamer9206]

@@fabesey2016 yeah he’s an asshole, but there’s nothing wrong with having a character with they flaw. This modern writing trend of scrubbing characters of unpopular flaws robs the audience of seeing their growth. I agree with you that they could have made it clearer in the OG how shitty he was, but why completely de-asshole Cid?

[@fabesey2016]

​@@existentialgamer9206 Yeah, feel you on that; babying the audience, corporate optics innit.

[@currywurst2434]

@@existentialgamer9206Honestly they don't even have to shove everything in peoples faces (make it clearer) or even let "bad" characters grow in every case. There are bad people and bad events and they should exist in games as well and not everythings needs reasons or a big "moral of the story" or be softwashed. Not even talking about Cid, just in general, i can't even really remember Cid as i played the game like 20 years ago.

[@timonikkinen9578]

I thought they were gonna kill off Tifa. They even hinted at Tifa's death a couple of times. After completeling all the sidequests as soon as possible and being interrupted by that fucking Chadley countless times.... Anyway... I finally get to the end almost after 100 hours and I was emotionally ready for Tifa to die. Then just... zero effort... Aerith is being killed but not killed but actually killed but maybe not and probably she died.... But did she...? All I can say about Rebirth is.... Fuck Chadley. I don't even care anymore.

[@DutchDread]

tbh, this ones on you, they were never gonna kill Tifa because you can't have FFVII without Tifa. She's essential for the story to function. Aerith surviving? Maybe, since she, or at the very least her death, is not as important in the long run, but Tifa was never getting killed off.

[@timonikkinen9578]

@@DutchDread in the og, yes. This is a new timeline/reality. Tifa coulda been killed off to try to replicate the shock value of 1997. That at least would have given some sense of loss and mystery for last chapter. Now we just got... Whatever, Sephiroth will lose as it is destined to.

[@kylewilson2819]

@@timonikkinen9578 I think Tifa dying would break the game AND the fandom. Cloud doesn't recover without Tifa. If Sephiroth kills her, Cloud MIGHT defeat him for revenge, but he's never recovering. And that's assuming Sephiroth doesn't win by default with Holy failing and Aerith not being in the Lifestream to save the world. That's why Sephiroth tries to get Cloud to kill Tifa for him. You see it briefly when he thinks he got Tifa killed at the reactor, he completely gives up and shuts down. If he legit killed her, like how he nearly kills Aerith, I think Cloud would end up stabbing himself or jumping into the nearest Mako pool.

[@TonberryChuck]

Playing an Advent Children scene after witnessing Aerith die(again) is extremely tone deaf as fuck.

[@Jose-se9pu]

Don't know about the entire game, but what they did with the most iconic moment in gaming history...yeah

[@joeltect3731]

any chance you can tell me what they did since i've never played the original and haven't played rebirth yet so im just a little curious about the changes they made..

[@_Adjei_]

​@@joeltect3731 That would be too much to cover. I recommend you either play the og FF VII or watch the in-game cutscenes and fmv's mashed together.

[@fabesey2016]

​​​@@joeltect3731In the original, Sephiroth tries to mind control Cloud into killing Aerith, he manages to resist and then Sephiroth comes down from above and kills her. He mocks Cloud, then transforms into Jenova and we get a boss fight while Aerith's theme plays. Cloud lays her body to rest, questions his own sanity and vows to go on. OK this part is long winded lol; in rebirth, the whispers try to make him do it, Sephiroth comes down again, but Cloud goes "NO!" and seemingly blocks him and pushes him away and some rainbow shit appears....but then there's a glitch effect, blood on Sephiroth's sword and she seemingly dies. Cloud can see her talking to him but the party sees her lifeless body, Sephiroth says something about worlds merging cos bad feelings, mocks Cloud and transforms into Jenova....then the characters start quipping during the fight, they beat Jenova but then Cloud is teleported to Sephiroth's space rock and Zack is there so they have a 2v1. Sephiroth yeets Zack and transforms into a giant monster form from the final battle of the original and he's spanning multiple worlds so Cloud, Zack and the party all fight him in different phases/locations....he detransforms and appears back on the space rock, Aerith portals in and it's another 2v1, you beat him, he flies off smirking, and we're teleported out of the boss fight dimension. Everyone is grieving but Cloud is acting normal and is seeing "Aerith" appear to him, there's some shit with a crack in the sky and the black or white materia, Cloud promises to Aerith he'll beat Sephiroth, the gang flies off, credits. In other words it's a massive clusterfuck crammed with fanservice that makes virtually no sense.

[@indedgames4359]

Then you misubderstood it. She is dead. Ther use Clouds Delusions her.

[@fabesey2016]

@@indedgames4359 The *only* thing that is obvious in this is that Cloud doesn't realize Aerith is dead. Beyond that, the presentation is confusing as hell, probably on purpose. Watching it back, what happened could be any combination of Jenova illusions, branching timelines cos Cloud stopped Sephiroth, Aerith simply appearing as a spirit...

[@sksnewisk]

OG Aerith death : Crying and feeling lost for three days or more Rebirth Aerith death (?) : Hmmmm i wonder what Im suppose to feel right now.

[@arduiscane]

Bored I'd wager. I started missing the stupid ass Cloud response prompts cause I'm on KZbin or Reddit reading about better games or researching how much I hate each scene.

[@AndrewClunn]

It has been executed almost perfectly, but destroys the underlying theme of loss by embracing multiverse of madness. How can the theme of loss and dealing with trauma survive that? It's a beautiful game with great characterization, and excellent gameplay, but it lost its soul.

[@marcusclark1339]

i wouldn't even say good characterization due to things happening to make the plot happen so characters end up dumber than before

[@Luipaard005]

IMO what this all amounts to is that these remake games are massive commercials for the original FF7.

[@fpsqt]

I strongly believe that all this multiverse horseshit that they stuffed into the plot derived from the pressure of Square Enix's execs to split the game into 3 installments that will have their releases years apart from each other. They just told the devs to come up with a reason to maintain hype and mystery for TEN YEARS until we get the final installment. Since there's 3 games, each one NEEDS to have Sephiroth as a final boss (because who else), when in fact there would be ZERO reasons to put him as a boss after the Midgar escape or in any other moment. With this instruction from corporate in hands, I suppose Nomura looked at his work in Kingdom Hearts and thought .... yo I know how to change the plot so we can maintain suspense for ten years ... leave that to me, boss

[@ShadyPlatinum777]

They did admit Sephirioth was the final boss in part 1 was because the bosses wanted a cool final boss

[@KJ-4496]

Bingo.

[@datetien4846]

People are so scared to give this game any negative opinion because they're scared of getting attacked by fake ff7 fans, it's so sad. All the 10s this game got seriously made me lose more faith in those big game review sites

[@rangerscoach]

thay are the fakest ff7 fans ever. the industry has system wide corruption

[@nosouponhead]

100%

[@chrisperez3614]

“Fake fans” This is so cringe. These people aren’t any less of a fan than you and you’re not any more intelligent than the people who call it a masterpiece. Why do all gamers have to be so cringe?

[@Judionine]

Not to plug or anything but I literally just talked about this issue in particular myself because the last couple days have been so weird to watch people react to the game. It feels like everyone is trying to keep themselves from saying anything remotely negative and it comes across as nobody knowing what to say during anything story related. Twitter has been a cesspool of overhyped posts to either boost channels and their streams or get on Square Enix's good side.

[@neolives]

A lot of people become fans of things that are popular at the moment. For example StarWars you got the hardcore original fans that hate the sequels that can’t understand why the new fans defend Ryan Johnson and JJ Abram’s version. When they disrespected the original characters and changed plots that made the original worthless. They see this people as not real fans, because they don’t care about the original material and that’s what happened to this so call FF7 fans. They don’t care for the original material. How can you be a fan when you don’t care about the changes of the original material.

[@daikyosenshi]

The original feels melancholic and lonely is because there's nothing but music and text. And the music is great. The atmosphere is great. the remake and rebirth is not FF7. it's a fever dream I wish we could have had something like what they did with FFEC. Just the full game. You know...a remake. Just prettier. Prettier graphics. You can leave the music as is. It's legendary. There's really no need for techno remixes. But no....instead we get to experience Final fantasy 356 days / 2.8 remix chain of nomura poopies final remix: REcoded rebirthed

[@kei7540]

You're boring

[@KT-rq9id]

I've been saying this for ages. The text dialogue for FF7 is incredibly underrated. It's what made it great. Not these corny VAs with bad scripts.

[@LordMalice6d9]

Of all of the things that this FF7 remake series absolutely needed to get right, it was Aeriths's death. And they couldn't even manage that right.

[@tonyrame7548]

they also screwed Dynes character and Barret's backstory as well, they didnt let Dyne kill himself after revealing to Barret he did terrible things and has blood on his hands and can not ever hold his daughter again, instead he dies fighting a random group of Shinra soldiers and basically curses Barret as he dies because SE did not want the negative PC blowback of someone committing suicide in their game. SE has no balls anymore.

[@shro_okee]

I both agree and disagree on this take, barret was in the spotlight this time, dynes segment indeed didn't hit as hard this time, but barret got a lot out of it, throwing his gun away, being ready to let an insane man take him out like that is a change that is unique to the og, but I do think that dynes segment should have needed more story, more time to breathe, so that he matters as well, just as much as barret

[@kei7540]

He literally says he has blood on his hands and tries rubbing it off 😂

[@fredo3161]

It's insane if that's the reason, because the alternative is he dies in a hail of bullets while cursing his old best friend. But him falling off a cliff is too far? Haha.

[@kevlar2125]

He does commit suicide, but in a way that saves barret. He doesn't curse barret. He does put that weight on barret to carry.

[@Null_Experis]

The ending make me literally yell out "what is this schizophrenic BS?" It's so terrible. It takes a tightly coiled steaming dump all over the theme of the original. I could have forgiven the rest of the game if they had been brave enough to stick the landing with the ending, even though I HATED all the hundreds of minigames, the Ubisoft towers, the Assassin's Creed 1 repeated laundry list of objectives for each area, the butchering of multiple other scenes, and the unbalanced combat. But NOPE, they had to do whatever they did at the end. There is no ending to the final game that can tie this up neatly and make me look back and say this was a good game in hindsight.

[@josephram1843]

I screamed NOOOO when Cloud blocked Sephiroths sword.

[@patrickleblanc613]

Meanwhile i screamed yesss! Alright! And now because of the ultimanias description, there is absolutely a possibility that aerith is still alive in another world, much like zack is. Hey nomura, if you ever read this, wanna stir some shit up? Make aerith playable in the 3rd game. If that happens ima grab my popcorn and watch as chaos ensues and sparks fly lol

[@josephram1843]

If Aerith didn't die and break our hearts in the OG we wouldn't be talking about this game almost 30 years later. They had a nearly perfect story that was masterfully told. All they had to do was update it for a new generation and add some new cool elements.

[@Soulen1986]

The tone of Rebirth doesn't match the story. The plot feels childish and very anime.

[@fiftyfive5459]

Nomura style.

[@chrisperez3614]

@@fiftyfive5459the OG game is pretty childish and very anime. You people act like it’s Blood Meridian lol. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying some slop every once in a while.

[@HunterStiles651]

@@chrisperez3614 I think it's less than the OG FF7 is childish (though it is VERY anime), and that we live in a society that doesn't know what it means to be "adult" anymore. In the name of making childish things more adult, we produce things like the ATLA live action adaptation, which is infinitely more childish than the "children's show" it's adapting. To become an adult is to put away childish things, including the very fear of being childish.

[@kellevichy]

@@chrisperez3614 Tell me you never touched OG without telling me you never touched OG.

[@HHTwice]

@@chrisperez3614lmao did you even play the OG? You’re blatantly wrong

[@vertemouse1156]

The ending was an advertisement for Zack and Aerith DLC! I was pointing at the screen laughing

[@sillylittlesheepjax6009]

Dunno if u guys have the same problem but they rly fucked up Sephiroth char for me. HE SHOWS UP WAY TOO Much !!!! It become corny af when you cant go 5 min without him jumping out and saying stupid shit. In orginal you feel like he is a big threat bec you dont see him and are scared what he is doing

[@GodofGoblins]

That's kinda the point though. This sephiroth is from the future who is messing with the original time line. Hell, that is why you see him beginning of remake trying to prevent cloud from meeting aerith. It's all technically a sequel to the original ff7, not an actual remake. If you remember that perspective, he is scary/intimidating in that way since he has future knowledge and is trying to change anything and everything.

[@qownsqud3207]

He would show up, do nothing, drop a cryptic one liner read by a terrible vooce actor in a terrible monotonous tone and then disappear. Over and over and over and over

[@GodofGoblins]

@qownsqud3207 how do you imagine sephiroth sounds like? Sounds just like advent children and hardly anyone complained about that. In kingdom hearts sounded similar too and was great. Did you want him to sound like Kefka or something? And he talks quite a lot this game. Full blown convos and exposition on his plans, even argues with aerith over certain things. It's not just cryptic one liners (which is to spur cloud since he controls him so makes sense.) Idk, just odd things to point out. I'd say the weak points are the dumb multiverse plot points. That is a mess and bad. But the VA or seph just being seph? That's fine

[@sillylittlesheepjax6009]

@@GodofGoblins ''And he talks quite a lot this game. Full blown convos and exposition on his plans'' - YEAH and thats why it didnt work at all for me. It was way too much. Turned him into anime mustache twirling villain. No mystery or threat

[@TheAzulmagia]

​@@GodofGoblinsThe thing about horror is that the more time you spend around something, the less likely it is to scare you. You get used to it. And by this point, Sephiroth is so overexposed that no master plan of his, regardless of its implications, could ever manage to make up the scare factor in exchange for how much screen mugging he's done.

[@franciscor390]

Keep Nomura far away from any writing or ideas position. Send him on trip to the sun.

[@NAzo.]

The Kingdom Hearts 4 people need him though. Let him keep that as his outlet so he isn't in any other game screwing it up is what I would say but I think people are forgetting that the concept of the original FF7 story was inked by not only Hironobu Sakaguchi but also Tetsuya Nomura. Go look up a video of the original FF7 intro credits and you'll see it on the bottom right.

[@mikespearwood3914]

@@NAzo. So he had minimal impact on the original game? Now in charge he butchers it completely.

[@NAzo.]

@@mikespearwood3914 It doesn't appear that you read and understood what I wrote quite clearly for you to end up with asking me your absurd question.

[@mikespearwood3914]

@@NAzo. Nomura had minimal impact on the original game. Stop trying to give him credit for what he wasn't responsible for.

[@NAzo.]

@@mikespearwood3914 Are you seriously trying to tell me Nomura was not part of the creation of the story in FF7? Do tell me that so everybody who knows about that fact can laugh at you.

[@geryon8814]

Only Squeenix was capable of screwing up the safest bet in gaming history. I'd really love to sit with one of those people and ask them a simple "why?". They could've 1-to-1 remade this game and make everyone happy but instead they turned a bunch of people off and they're now back to playing the OG with 7th heaven mods.

[@AmbitiousPanda]

Game is good buddy, way better then remake

[@hikaruright6419]

Bro im playing the 7th Heaven mod is so lovely.

[@Chris-sm2uj]

@@AmbitiousPandahope you get a raise from your employers at squeenix

[@NAzo.]

I'm still waiting for a fukkin journalist to have some balls and ask them those questions now and why they changed it and don't they think it's not only a detriment to the original story but also disrespects the FF7 fanbase with their decisions in Remake and Rebirth? I doubt there's even a single person with any balls and why no one respects these mf game journalists.

[@infinitestrengthcoach3522]

except the OG was full of things that made no sense. Cait sith betrays us, then instantly just re-joins party with no consequences, Cloud almost kills Aerith at temple, back leading the party to the very same Aerith 5mins later with everyone's full confidence etc. The whole Neb being shinra actors who deny any fire etc and no one batting an eye made absolutely no sense. remaking it like for like would in this day and age be lead to a horrendous game.

[@wazittuya4092]

Cloud to bad guy : I don't want to kill you, because it will make me as same as you Clive GOATfield to bad guy : YOU WILL GET NO PITY FROM ME, KUPKA! NO PITY AND NO MERCY!

[@-TriP-]

The whole remake series is just a cynical cash grab. It's lowest common denominator fanservice taken way too far by changing the entire plot to appease the insane fan-fiction writing masses who didn't want Aerith to die, who wanted Tifa to be the main love interest, who wanted Zack to show up, etc -- combined with tons and tons of time-wasting padding so they'd have an excuse to turn it into three "episodes" just so they could charge you three times for the same damn game. Nomura is a hack and Hamaguchi is a moron.

[@KT-rq9id]

Haha yeah. I have a few guys always shilling for Square-ENIX. It's sad, really. Square-ENIX doesnt really care about Final Fantasy. I wish Squaresoft never went under. All our good memories with RPGs from the classic era, were Squaresoft.

[@nugsboodlepoo]

There's no finality to Aerith's "death" in Rebirth. She isn't really dead because her...ghost? Spirit? Is totes fine and can still talk to Cloud, even help him physically battle Sephiroth! And apparently she's still alive in some stupid multiverse(gee, I wonder if they'll use that to bring her back in part 3?? 🤔) 7 isn't my favorite game but I struggle to think of a more iconic video game moment than Aerith's death. They way they handled her death in Afterbirth would be like if they remade Titanic but the boat didn't sink because that'd be too sad. It's such a childish, unrealistic and idiotic take on death. Loved ones do not peacefully die in your arms while imparting you with some meaningful, flowery last words. They are just dead and gone and there's no closure. That's what made her death so impactful. She was just suddenly gone. I knew they'd fuck up her death, just not this badly.

[@astrahcat1212]

They make games for streamer groups these days more than anyone else, so while we might believe they failed in some way, as disappointing as it is to us more introverted fans, Enix accomplished what they intended. Everything needs to be 'mob friendly' these days, that could be the streamer mobs, the woke mob, the anti woke mob, the viral loving social media mob

[@snapgacklepop]

I found this game pretty insufferable which is a shame. They did everything possible to put road blocks in front of you to slow down story progression. They took away the sense of urgency the original had and made the characters childish when they are meant to be 'saving the world'. Instead of all the mini games they threw in to stop progression they should have just had fantastic optional side quests in the world. Serious side quests about the current crisis the game world is facing. Instead of generic fetch Quests and silly character Quests. The Witcher 3 had amazing side quests and have never understood why other games can't replicate this. This game had lots of potential but ended up a frustrating mess.

[@arduiscane]

Great comment, completely agree here about killing that sense of urgency and it killed the pacing.

[@MrRenatopepin]

2:10 "well, obviously, i was expecting Nomura and the team to dig up the corpse of my childhood and proceed to butt fuck it again but this time, you know, just strapping on some extra belts forgood measure". LMAAAAO, say so more, subscribed

[@omensoffate]

I think the best part of this game honestly was seeing red 13 getting dragged to hojo to get his red 13 tattoo. Freaking horrifying and masterfully choreographed.

[@fredo3161]

Yeah I haven't played that part yet but watched it..very compelling and you feel for poor Red.

[@josephram1843]

All those scenes were hard to watch especially young Aerith running round trying to get help for her dying mother. Q

[@cizzymac]

Meta-narratives can be a fun story idea, if it's in the hands of highly skilled and talented writers. These guys are neither highly skilled nor talented. These games have proven to me that Sakaguchi was the real genius behind FF7.

[@86lanzo]

The whispers are just such a BS plot device... Its garbage writing at its finest If you need a character dead If you need a character alive If you need characters kept bz Anything you need for your plot the Whispers can do it.. Theres no logic or consistency to them they can do anything at anytime.

[@wollyram6248]

Sounds like Nomura has a history of enshittening everything he touches.

[@Fade2BlackSS]

To be fair, Kazushige Nojima is noted as the writer for the game.

[@dndamn]

@@Fade2BlackSS I see this repeated along. The fact is that the whispers/continuity caspers reek of Nomura stank. Keep in mind that writing credits in video games work much the same way as they do in movies. The person/s who sit down and and write the screenplay or in this case the games scrip will end up getting the writing credit. But the overall story outline which is conceived first: which includes the overall plot and concepts is done by a team. Nomura absolutely has his influence there and as he's the remake trilogies overseeing creative director makes him 100 percent responsible for these travesties.

[@Fade2BlackSS]

@@dndamn Dude, there's 3 people noted to be directors of the game. Nomura, Hamaguchi and Toriyama. I'm not defending the garbage writing Nomura has done in the past but when it come to this game, it's not entirely fair to place blame solely on Nomura. I've even seen articles saying that Nomura objected to a lot of the changes to the game. We don't know whats true since we were sitting in the room with them while they made decisions. Everyone involved here is at fault.

[@dndamn]

@@Fade2BlackSS I understand that he's not the only person, but the worst parts of the changes have his DNA all over them and of course he's gonna claim he was against the changes after the fact. But given that these people had deliberately lied about what the remake was going be to begin with, forgive me if I won't take anything they say at face value. Again, he's the over-all creative over the project which means he has the final say in what happens. He could have pushed back and said "no, we can't do this, these changrs are simply too far and too out of line with the spirit and intentions of the original story" But he didn't.

[@franciscor390]

Nomura has the reverse Midas touch.

[@adrian_veidt]

Aerith's death was devastating. But the aftermath was just as painful for me. When I began on disc 2, there was weapons shop on Icicle inn. Oh cool, I get to make my characters stronger. Then I look at an empty space on my list of characters. Cause I collected them all at that point. Including Vincent and Yuffie. It felt terrible. The shop did us a favor of not offering us a staff weapon cause no one will use it anymore. To make things worse, I get to stumble Aerith's old house. Then I get to watch these videos of Ifalna and her husband. I view Nomura as Hojo. Cause like how Hojo stole Aerith's family, the life she could've had. Nomura stole a what could've been a great remake we fans were waiting for.

[@jacid5]

The ending is a terrible mess and failure of storytelling. The third ending must be even more messed up and ridiculous.

[@DutchDread]

Emotions needs clarity. For an emotional moment to resonate the brain needs to understand what is happening, so when you have a scene, ask yourself "should this moment be emotional, should the audience be feeling this moment?" and if the answer is "yes", then you'd better make sure the audience is IN the moment by making the moment CLEAR. SE didn't do that most basic of tasks for one of the three most important scenes in the story, this was incompetence on a whole other level.

[@Thiago_Alves_Souza]

Another that is such a disconnect is the amount of musicals this game has that are story based on this. I don't mind spoofy things like the original had and to elaborate on those are cool, but why add some rap musical on the guys on Corel which are supposed to be hardened criminals? Why does Sephiroth have to show up every single time where he's not even called? He totally destroyed the scene in Cosmo Canyon when we see Nanaki acknowledging his father. Sephiroth was a menace and quasi horror game villain before we meet him, now we must pimp slap him after him torturing us at every 5 minutes of convoluted diatribe he spews. He's a pen villain now. What is the ultimate boss supposed to be now when we just find him annoying af and not some worldly threat we don't feel we can beat yet? Where are the steaks on this? Another thing they do but they thing we're stupid. They're making Vincent and Cid's arc DLC like Yuffie. Why does Vincent Care or Cid, when they're not playable characters who participate in the story, about Aerith dying when they have hardly any interactions with her to even form a bond with the party? If at least they had her interacting with Vincent, sensing Chaos and his dark past, I could see it. Idk she senses dead people and she could have reminded him of Lucrezia since they look similar and have altruistic world view. They could've had Aerith help with Cid's relationship with Shera, talked about her mom in rocket town. So much one could think off. Too much going on her death scene instead of the quiet, solemn and impactful sheer horror when we realize what just happened. That entire scene telegraphed that something bad was coming regardless if Cloud is going to kill her or not. I personally know first time ff7 players who were confused asf throughout the game. When I showed them her original death and burial at the lake. They said "it's deff true when they say, 'less is more'"

[@kyero8724]

Cry about it more

[@mikerude5073]

​@@kyero8724felate nimura more

[@kyero8724]

@mikerude5073 Im not the one with a hard on for crying about him LOL Guess what. Aerith dies

[@revivedkyoumahououin1585]

​@@kyero8724and so will you. Alone.

[@supersaiyanzero386]

Basically japanese madness lol

[@GracelessTarnished]

Square Enix proved for 20 years that Kitase and Normura are talentless hacks who needed Sakaguchi to keep them on a tight leash. As you said, a good portion of this game is very well done, which include the music, graphics, town design and combat. But the most important aspect, the fucking STORY is completely destroyed. The ending especially, arguably the most famous moment in all of gaming is destroying beyond belief and utterly proved that these talentless pieces of shit clearly never understood the centrral theme and very core of Final Fantasy VII. What a joke of a game.

[@Renyth]

I went in knowing the ending would be a hugely shit, but I was surprised by two other scenes where less would have been more, One character dies abit differently and instead of letting you sit with it for a moment you're thrown into a joke boss fight where a guy is mooning you. Then later on a really memorable scene from the OG gets interrupted by a random guy telling the party to get into his boat to listen for a lore dump and Kermit yawning a song in the background, The game is jarring the more I play the more I hate it.

[@anastasia8214]

"Then later on a really memorable scene from the OG gets interrupted by a random guy telling the party to get into his boat to listen for a lore dump and Kermit yawning a song in the background" xD Can you tell me what scene you are referring to ?

[@Renyth]

@@anastasia8214 Gi cave after the river Yuffie is yelling hurry up bumhead non stop, that part. Song sounds like Kermit yawning

[@AaronJLong]

Aerith's death could have hurt at least as much as it did in the original even for those that played it back then if they had just played it straight because of how much more time and development she got. I mean, it still hurt, as that's what migraines do, but instead of getting me angry at Sephiroth it made me angry at the devs for spilling their spaghetti so thoroughly when it came to this most important scene.

[@AaronJLong]

Still remembering the excuses I made for Remake. Well they needed a better final boss than Motor Ball. Maybe they're setting up something that will pay off in the next game. Maybe none of this will even matter. At least we got rid of the whispers. Can't have people inhale that much copium for so long and expect it to still work. The Whispers are like when the show Star Trek Enterprise had that Temporal Cold War plotline in the background because the networks thought that a prequel series needed time travel in order to keep viewers on their toes but all it did was drag down the whole thing, and the show got really good after they dropped it but it was too little too late. Part of me is worried that the FF7R series will likewise be cut short due to similar shenanigans with the mistake being realized too late if at all, but another part of me just doesn't care anymore and is content in getting offa this train we're on.

[@sephondranzer]

I don’t understand how Nomura isn’t just let go. So weird how nobody has pulled him aside and told him to stop with the weird multi-belt emo bullshit or his career is done at SquareEnix. In any other of the top 500 companies I’ve worked at, that is a very awkward conversation they *will* have with you before they let you go. It’s so weird how he can manchild over people’s actual memories dude. Forget the angst and the spikey hair man - those memories were sincere and were what they were. Stop giving man children like Nomura “creative freedom” over those memories man it’s so consistently insulting.

[@Sitheral]

As someone who absolutely loved the original, I despise this garbage, I hate what they did in ancient temple, I hate how they put these ghosts all around Aeris in THAT scene and of course, of course great scene like Cloud leaving her in water had to go, yes, music is great, locations are very well made, visuals, but its all made with the subtelty of 10 year old.

[@Signsoflife-rc4uq]

The development team imply that their choices for this project were driven by a commitment to lofty artistic principles such as 'boldly letting go of the past and venturing into the unknown', but the true test of their courage would have been to undertake the most basic challenge faced by anyone dealing with the art of storytelling: Taking a well known, familiar story and renewing it through a demonstration of masterful story telling skills. We go into this game asking the question "Will Aerith Die?", but the question should have been "how will they make Aerith's death impactful?". The answer should have had everything to do with music, cinematography and art direction.

[@noelcastillo3829]

There is no music, cinematography or art direction that could shock you about an event you already know will happen. The fact that all you want from the piece of art is the fanfare of nostalgic affirmation shows you have little imagination. You can consider their choices to be lofty artistic principles... but... I've studied art history for years and this not the same as looking at Duchamp's urinal, or Yves Klein selling invisible paintings, or a banana on the wall.

[@Signsoflife-rc4uq]

​@@noelcastillo3829 Interesting conversation here. While I'm speaking a little bit out of my field, I believe in most art forms, whether its fictional story writing or music for example, no matter how fresh or exciting a new idea seems, the same idea can always be traced back to an earlier work. So things that are 'new, fresh, or imaginative' are actually old ideas being delivered through a high level of craft. If you take a scene that was unchanged, like Sephiroth burning down the Nibelheim village, I personally think this scene looked more memorable and impactful from the glimpses of it you see in advent children. When Sephiroth peers into the camera lens through the flames in AC it's strikingly ominous, bizarre, unnerving, whereas In rebirth it just seemed kind of generic and passable to me, and this is all explained by tone, cinematography (things that I don't understand not being a filmmaker). In general whole their handling of sephiroth Is kind of disappointing to me. In older iterations he's this seething, sinister androgynous alien, in the remake trilogy he looks like an cuddly action figure of a heavy metal band lead singer. So generally I think it would have been more interesting to see them try and retell the same story but maximize the level of artistic expression. As far as my lack of imagination, I don't think I'm being closed minded. I know what its like to read an author who is challenging at first but ultimately pays off. Is this really the same situation with the team behind Rebirth's story? Are they really the Salman Rushdies of video games? It's possible, but it could also be immature story telling giving us a tennis without the net situation. Either way I love the game on the whole.

[@noelcastillo3829]

@@Signsoflife-rc4uq I can understand where are coming from, there have been times when I wished this logic had been applied to certain franchises (Rings of Power). As an artist I can understand that making the same drawing twice because people want me to can inspire a rebellious outcome. I say this because unlike in the retelling of old stories this game is produced by the original creators who hold the original intent. These creators are vocal about being aware of fans opinions, and clearly do not want to feed us the old footage with more pizazz, they want to explore themes that I’m sure in their elder years have changed. It makes sense to me that as people get older, ideas become more ambiguous. You have every right to dislike it, but this is a genuine expression of the artist. To me, the rebirth aerith death scene was just as impactful not because of Aerith, but for Cloud, whose mental state is the one we watch be slaughtered. In this regard I enjoy that each game has me feel something different but altogether potent.

[@pauldavis7318]

Im so glad i didnt buy this. I will never play it. I rejoice that Square hasnt made its sales goals and is facing a dire financial outlook. Its what they deserve because theyve been a shit dev for nearly 20 years and have constantly betrayed the fans

[@valtra7]

On the same boat totally here. Don’t give them money for this(or any other) sorry excuse of a game - they don’t know what Final Fantasy is anymore. Will they ever know again - prolly not. This is sad where we are right now with the franchise. Last great one, broken - yes but still, was in 2006😢

[@MrKrewie]

All we wanted was a remaster and we got this , how do you eff up homework someone has already done

[@otakamerd1220]

Completely agree with Nibelheim. I know they fully expect 90% of the fanbase to already know the twist but the whole tone of the return to Cloud and Tifas hometown adds so much tension. The party really begins to doubt whether Cloud is all there when they see this town which supposedly burned down according to Cloud is still there. I feel that the payoff is much stronger once you realise everyone was being paid off by Shinra to keep the secret under wraps

[@DisFantasy]

And nothing comes of it. The defining moment in Cloud's and Tifa's lives and Shinra papers over it, pretending nothing happened. Like they didn't even exist, that their lives meant nothing. It'd be upsetting if they hadn't done worse.

[@kei7540]

But it doesn't make sense because tifa is there and cait sith who works for shinra. The town existing period is already obvious shinra rebuilt

[@fredo3161]

Multiverse trash ruins the meaning of sacrifice in stories. The only way they can rectify this is if these doomed worlds accept they should not exist and do end to make the main continuity right. That's the only way a story about love, life, death, and sacrifice works. I'm cool with Cloud communing with Aerith and Zack after their deaths, similar to end of OG when he sees her reaching out to him and in AC seeing her in dreams, but if they ruin the sacrifices characters make it'll ruin the meaning of everything the characters go through and overcome after dealing with such great losses. They've already effed around too much, like having "another Aerith" pass Cloud the holy materia, so they better fix it and actually have these extra wrong timelines end. There's no defending the desolation of Cid, though. Chalk it up to censorship. We can at least count on PC mods to add back in cigarettes but the opportunity for him to choke out the cockpit and disgust everyone is gone. Maybe he's got a nicotine patch, haha. But if they screw with his story and Shera, then his character arc is essentially null and void. Probably hoping for too much imagining them repairing it in part 3.

[@DGiovanni]

Great review except you left out the worst part of the game: Chadley constantly chiming in to give exposition while the main characters just silently follow his orders.

[@kylewilson2819]

They were so concerned with keeping OG players on their toes that they completely fumbled the most pivotal moment of the series. I mean, what next? Are we gonna convince Sephiroth to rejoin the good guys and fight Jenova because "No one is truly evil other than the literal alien", thus completing the journey into Kingdom Hearts levels of bullshit?! They ALREADY didn't want to kill off Aerith because they're basically KH level fanfic writers, is it REALLY outside the realm of possibility that they try spawning a Sephiroth redemption arc out of the bloody ether?!!

[@decayedphoenix8865]

I GAVE NOMURA A SECOND CHANCE AND HE FUCKED IT UP

[@LordMalice6d9]

Nomura isn't the writer for this series, though.

[@arduiscane]

I hate this slog of a game so much that im still playing and hearing the ending didn't matter to me because nothing matters in a multiverse, there are no stakes. As an OG player, I wonder if some of the other smaller things broke the story for you. It is insane that they ruined Cloud and Tifas homecoming with that fakeout town, ruined how that made me feel too. A big part of pre-FMV on rails FF games was the immersive story telling.Talking to NPCs in the towns, playing minigames that fit the area you in (vs nonesense like Condor) and just integrating adventure into the game made the role playing game have role playing. When I walked into Kalm and 8 chat boxes appeared on my screen, I knew I was playing a game driven by checklist over plot. What I didn't know, was how disgustingly disrespectful that design choice would be to me as a player looking to escape chores and enjoy a story. Lots of fans say "just skip all that til the end game, sorry you got too much game". Like.. If I wanted an experience like that...then I would have just played Warioware...

[@c-red4637]

you could tell squares main focus here was not to recreate an emotional moment for aerith's death, their main focus was to confuse the crap out of you. lets throw a whole bunch of crap at the screen and get a reaction, thats what they wanted. even Zack didn't know what the hell was going on, he literally says "what is happening?" when he sees meteor just teleport onto the screen, and I was in agreement with Zack, as I watched these scenes going through these fights, I also struggled to figure out and pretty much gave up on understanding what was going on. and these final boss 7 fight sequences need to stop, they did it with remake, and now rebirth. in remake we had like 5-6 fights leading up to sephiroth and in rebirth they did the exact same thing. I didn't find the final fight challenging but more so annoying, like it was way too long, give 2-3 hard fights and I'm good, 10 fights is overkill. and sephiroth is oversaturated in this game, like we see him way too much and fight him way too much. it was shocking to actually fight him in remake, but then they did it again in rebirth, not only that but they gave away his final forms he used in the original, so now we know we're getting a completely different sephiroth for the final fight in part 3. they're unnecessarily making this story a mess and I don't know why. just remake the game, it was a simple task and yet they instead opted to confuse and piss people off at the same time with these absurd endings.

[@MP-tw4fc]

Story stuff aside, I thought the gameplay was a downgrade. I loved playing as Red, but it’s really annoying when I have to constantly use party members I don’t want to play with. The weapon upgrade system was a big downgrade from remake. And all the mini games being forced on me just made the game such a slog. I eventually put it down for good after longer pauses inbetween sessions. Disappointing to say the least.

[@Hemestal]

Idk, I thought it was overly pretentious writing by someone that's not qualified and ended up feeling like a cheap fanfic you'd read on tumbler. Like, it tries so hard to avert expectations and be complex, but it ends up feeling like your typical multiverse theory movie. In the end it makes you feel like nothing that happened in the OG story matters anymore since there could be a billion Aeriths or Clouds just doing their own thing.. it's so dumb only dumb people can think its good sorry. Don't be discouraged if you get thumbed down to hell, you are voicing very valid opinions and know that you're not alone when you think Rebirth is bad. People would be a lot more critical of this POS if it wasn't attached to the FF7 name.

[@Coreisus]

If Sakaguchi bowed out of Square-Enix for FF12's issues, then Nomura should bow out for 7R

[@fferd1680]

What happens with Wutai in OG is pretty clear: they lose the war and become a vacational resort. Yuffie grew up and so it as a humilliation, hence her quest to get materia. It's simpler and straight to the point because she's an optional character.

[@rangerscoach]

People that defend the writing never do it by pointing to the writing . Most of the time when they point to something that is good it’s from the original in the definitive form which is what we can agree on. It’s actually massively improved. But the new story elements are sooo unbelievably shit. Most of the time what they do is have something silly just happen without cause weapon eating tifa) then they will steal assets from later in the game and bring them forward in the story so you get tifa and the kids heading up mt nibel in a Lifestream pool from later in the game unaffected by the Lifestream which is poisonous in the entire game

[@IdeasbyFrank]

Who were they aiming to satisfy with these story changes? If the end product is the same - which it probably will be - why introduce unnecessary chemistry?

[@ItsSVO]

Themselves. Hubris is one hell of a Drug and it’s been rampant at SE for years.

[@jase276]

New dron- I mean, fans who never played the OG and will regurgitate that this is peak media.

[@IdeasbyFrank]

I enjoyed the game immensely, though I will say this over and over again...don't treat what you had like it was a lemon when it was lemonade. @@jase276

[@chrisperez3614]

@@jase276Dunning Kruger effect on full display lol. You are get any more intelligent or unique than the fans of this game. Stop trying to define yourself based on consumer choices. The original FF7 was very enjoyable, but y’all act like it was some highbrow artistic expression.

[@kei7540]

Who said the end product is the same the game is 100 percent gonna end differently from og

[@samsamsam446]

I HATE the voice acting. The women all sound so breathy, a lot of people r over the top and then the rest sound like anime. Like Chadley…

[@serisuzuki1794]

Amen. I just finished the game and all you just said and pointed out in your Video is exactly what I was thinking about the ending of this game. I am a huge ff7 fan, I love thos game to death. So to be honest: I was almost shocked at the end of this game..not in a good way. I remember when the ending credits started I just stood up, went put on my balcony and sat on one of my chairs, just being silent. I literally needed fresh air to cope with all this huuuge mess and was deeply hurt. Hurt thar one of my favourite characters Aerith, let alone her death, was handled im sich an awful way. Still.cant find words for all my disappointment for the ending. Yes there are a lot of parts that are soooo good about this game. A lot of scenes that square really did justice. But when you are faced with such a random and KH-like bull**** it just unforgiveable. At least for me. I'm happy for all those playes who actually liked the ending. Kind of envy them😂😂😂 thx for your video. You really said everything that was on my mind. Keep it up

[@omensoffate]

I think cloud is just seeing two realities at the same time now since he also sees the tear in the sky. I dunno the ending sucks 😂

[@GameMusingsWithRaziel]

Something this stupid is probably true lol.

[@lldavidll]

they think its art by messing with what you think because cloud is supposed to be losing himself, and his grip on reality, gives sephiroth the black materia, and isnt seen again until mideel in the original. time travel, fate whispers, and timeline fractures, and timeline jumping dont belong in the ff7 story. those things take so much away from the original story.

[@lldavidll]

or i should say its not art, its marketing. what impossible timeline next in the next episode-rebait. zacks still alive, playable in rebirth shown at the end of remake. aerith shown alive in other timelines, probably gonna be playable in the next rebait.

[@MrBGP006]

@ lldavidll. Honestly that sh!t belongs in a FF8 Remake

[@revivedkyoumahououin1585]

​@@MrBGP006id like them to not remake anything else ty very much.

[@Tomo1984]

Finally someone who actually gets it. Don't get me wrong I'm loving rebirth but why did they have to mess with the story, it should of been a true to life remake of the game. If its not broke don't fix it. There's a reason why ff7 was amazing and they took that away.

[@TheIronTiger44]

If you ship Cloud and Tifa, never read On the Way to a Smile. You won’t like what Nojima does with those two… spoiler… They break up. And Advent Children never addressed their relationship status after that. Worse, Tifa asks Cloud directly if he loves her, and he doesn’t answer. Then he up and vanishes on her completely. Nojima and Nomura hate Cloud, and it shows in their re-interpretation of him Into a whiney, emo, jerk.

[@KJ-4496]

Tifa is Clouds love interest. Get over it you utter loser 😂

[@alanaatkinson551]

Thank you. I won't read it.

[@kylerivers3536]

I wasn't around for the original FF7 but I did play the remake about 2 years ago. I thought it was okay, my fav character was Aerith. Now Rebirth and the writing is very bad as well as the directing. This game is basically a bunch of side quests, fighting a million monsters. Going town to town finding new Chocobos then fighting normal mobs that take as long as a boss fight. I mean WTF!!! Then, the actual story that they keep in the back round as much as possible because the writers don't know how to actually write.

[@Ziegfried82]

When I played the original FF7 and Aerith died I was pissed. I was a hardcore FF player, loved having my healer. And they took her away in 7. To make matters worse FF7 only had a 3 man party, which sucked to begin with. FF10 fixed this by letting you swap out characters during a battle, but FF7 and 8? Terrible design with 3 man party. Anyways people loved the whole losing a main character thing in FF7 other than me. The noobs never played the best one, FF6. Talking about the story...the original FF7 was a confusing mess after Midgar. The plot just flat out sucked. I've never understood the obsession with FF7, it's in the middle of the pack in the series at best.

[@Rhys-Lightning]

Both games: Gameplay, graphics, music: 8-9/10. Story: a big fat ZERO

[@threestars2164]

Can't wait to see Dr. Strange in the sequel!

[@MrKrewie]

"Somehow, aerith has returned"

[@Huhepeople]

i literally don't feel any emotional at all seeing the ending in rebirth, it's like aerith death was nothing compare to the og ff7 which i literally felt so emotional that i want to finish the game and take down sephiroth, and now i don't know if i want to finish this story.. this game literally ruined the best game of all time ff7 og

[@Ayookd293]

I’m 34 I’m pretty sure you’re over 30 too. It’s silly for all these grown ass men to complain that a remake of a game in 2024 isn’t like the one in 1997 lol it’s ok. Things change. Were old now

[@funfries3857]

@@Ayookd293 "things change" lol, things change when they said it is a remake, but it is a reboot disguised as "remake". and it literally rebooted and retconned in another timeline, you are old literally got nothing to do with what is good or what is bad. what is silly is, people standing up for shitty stuff like this that happened, and the keep eating it, this is why the developer get away with what they did, because there is to much boot licker.

[@Ayookd293]

@@funfries3857 you pretty much proved my point. I personally don’t like the costa del sol mini games but so far it’s ok. I like the original one better but I was in second grade and I realize it’s not the same game and I’m not 9

[@funfries3857]

@@Ayookd293 exept i didnt prove your point, you proved my point. it's literally a reboot but people defend it as if it is a remake, they literally lie to your face about it being a "remake", people defending this literally baffles me, with all this butchered story writing and unnecessery change of things. and people getting older literally got nothing to do with anything.

[@Slamrancher]

​@@funfries3857You're right, we got older and don't respect people who lie to our faces 😂 that's exactly what Enix did, they lied and it's sad how people wanna justify and support liars. That's what it really comes down to at the end of the day. It's literally just basic morality at this point. I wouldn't have cared if they changed a bunch of stuff, but the false advertisement and lies is what is frustrating and they literally shunned away half of their fan base.

[@aaronw6195]

I think with the Corel Prison they wanted to avoid Dyne's suicide for the reason of not bringing up Mental Health Issues in modern times. It's a taboo topic, and it's so stupid that it is. We actually are hurting people and encouraging them to do as much by totally avoiding the topic rather than talking about it.

[@deanneely3443]

Anabelle kills herself, in XVI. It was likely to avoid an M rating. The ESRB may be to blame for some of the changes. Not all, obviously.

[@aaronw6195]

@@deanneely3443 Could be an ESRB thing. I absolutely loved the story telling in XVI up until sometime after the Titan fight.(I would probably say it lost some steam around Bahamut toward the end) It dealt with quite a few adult themes like prostitution, slavery, death. A lot of long time fans of the series complained it didn't contain some of the goofy charm, but I like that it took a break from that. (and I'm fan from the 90's in his 40's now) My complaints with it stemmed mainly with not having a fully traversable open world and be locked-in to these map nodes. Then the side questing being a bit distracting from the over-all interesting main story. I kind of wish square would do more in the adult theme style, but I'm not going to complain over some lighthearted moments. The moogles in Rebirth were a bit too far for me, go with less is more lol.

[@deanneely3443]

@aaronw6195 I agree totally about XVI. After Bahamut it felt like they ran out if time. Odin wasn't even really a fight! The side quests really hurt the pace of the story, which had awesome actors. I'd have either wanted better quality side quests, or none at all. As they are, they are detracting.

[@EdgarFriendlysCivicsTeacher]

Nomura has never known the difference between a complex story and a convoluted one. He's the Zack Snyder of gaming.

[@OfficialCrowMauler]

You know he didn’t direct this one, right? I’m not a KH fan but whenever there’s an FF7 issue, you Nomura-haters regurgitate the same BS without knowing the facts. And fans of the Remake trilogy are supposed to be the fools? Ha!

[@EdgarFriendlysCivicsTeacher]

I don't hate Nomura, he has done some amazing work and created some iconic characters. The man just can't weave a narrative to save his life. But it's interesting that you felt you needed to add in a tidbit, act as though I said it, correct yourself and think you've done anything but look like you fell off the short bus. If this is an example of what to expect from a self professed Remake fan, then yes, I can see why people would call you fools. My criticism is even limited to FF7R, whether its Kingdom Hearts or FF generally they've been dog water for decades - with puddle deep characters and convoluted plotlines being a notable pattern.

[@OfficialCrowMauler]

@@EdgarFriendlysCivicsTeacher I’m mentally inferior because I made a relevant assertion based on the information that you’ve provided? That’s some copium if I’ve ever seen it. There’s no need for projection here. Anyway, I see that you’re still rambling on about Nomura which continues to solidify my point: his level of involvement with this one isn’t as prevalent as Remake, meaning he isn’t solely responsible for whatever narrative qualms you have. So why did you name him solely? Show me on this doll where Nomura hurt you, because it seems like you’re incapable of discerning facts from feelings.

[@EdgarFriendlysCivicsTeacher]

@@OfficialCrowMauler oh boy, well I can see why you're the target audience - might want to check your water pipes for lead.

[@OfficialCrowMauler]

@@EdgarFriendlysCivicsTeacher You favoured ad hominem over a strong rebuttal? Let that be your last reply, lest you embarrass yourself further.

[@Newbish4life18]

While I absolutely loved Rebirth, and it definitely improved over Remake, I hate how we are delving into the "MULTIPLE TIMELINES, GONNA NOMURA ALL OVER THIS SHIT". The music was amazing, how they played over Cloud going crazy was really well done. I don't like the whole whisper thing, and now there are two different types??? I don't like how they effectively changed the weapons. Cosmo Canyon was my favorite part, I hate Nanaki's "New" voice, but I do understand it. The Gi stuff in Cosmo was well done, but sephiroth being there really ruined the end of it, the Temple of the Ancient's was mostly well done, I was so concerned with how they would hit my favorite parts of this, and about 70% of them they hit perfectly. They absolutely DESTROYED Shinra Manor, and Aerith's death did not hit the same, at all. Too many minigames, although Queens Blood was probably the best. All the Minigames IMO should have been left in Gold Saucer. Overall, they did hit the OG story decently well through most of it, no rocket town was really unfortunate though and instead made us go to Gongaga, the music in the zone was pretty great though. I did enjoy the scenes with Rufus, I think he is a pretty well done character in this Remake series. As per usual my friend, I come into your reviews, ready to come out arms swinging, but I find myself agreeing with a decent portion of your thoughts on the remake series.

[@thedarkderp2520]

i enjoyed most minigames but if i had to choose my bottom 3 would be qb the gym and the cosmo canyon protorelic minigame

[@HipHopRylan]

The ending of this game is an absolute tragedy. If anyone of you saw the movie "A history of violence" With Viggo Mortenson, the part where he goes to see his Mob brother in Philly and all his henchmen have him cornered, but still Viggo kills everyone and bounces. The mob boss brother goes up to one of his henchmen who is bleeding out on the floor and he simply says, "How do you fuck that up? HOW DO YOU FUCK THAT UP!?" and he kicks him while hes down and then shoots him in the head. FF7 Fans are the mobster and these idiot game creators at square are that stupid henchman on the ground. It was a fucking lay up. All you had to do was take notes and do exactly what had BEEN done before MASTERFULLY might I add. And they somehow fuckin destroyed it. This is storytelling 101 on how to create a cop out. The whole multiverse bullshit is the problem. STOP with this alternate timeline shit. Its been done to death, its played out, and it makes NOTHING have any stakes anymore.

[@fredo3161]

Dude I was just thinking about that movie tonight and that segment specifically haha. One of my all time favorites. They throat-stomped the OG and collapsed its windpipe.

[@HipHopRylan]

@@fredo3161 Haha so glad someone caught the reference. Epic movie. FF7 Rebirth, ehh not so much. :(

[@ThotdFan127]

I stayed up way too late last night trying to finish this game despite a 5am shift. I went from being blown away by how perfect Chapter 13 was to being in pure utter shock at how bad Chapter 14 was. One positive note is that the Jenova fight was incredible and so well executed but that is all I can say.

[@GeensGaming]

I have so much to say about this “ff7 remakes” both 1 and 2. This one, I was hoping so much they didn’t mess up the Aerith death scene and they did plain and simple, like what the fuck is she dead or alive and what world or time are we in, I fucking have the multi verse thing as it’s lazy and a cop out. It doesn’t create mystery at all, it’s a mess. I’m looking forward to part 3 as then it’s DONE so no more disappointment.

[@BabyArms]

It'd be better if people didn't buy part 3. Square-Enix will consider the sales a win whether fans are disappointed by their poor handling of it or not. Vote with your wallet.

[@76boycey]

Finally someone on my page. I'm old school ff7 I hated the chapters broke the immersion. I wanted a remaster not a remake I'm not buying rebirth I would rather play the original. I salute you

[@paulj6805]

Get the game on PC, get the reunion mod for better translation and character models, get ReMako mod for 4k upscaled backgrounds. Then you basically have yourself a remaster.

[@link5629]

Well said! There are people like me out there who feel the same way that you do. Give me the OG!

[@kei7540]

The remaster exist already

[@existentialgamer9206]

Good video. I hate Nomura’s writing. There’s a huge plot flaw due to the alternate timelines that I don’t see anyone talk about. So Remake established that Sephiroth somehow knows the events of the OG game. That he failed in the OG timeline to wound the planet and become a god. So he is back to make sure he succeeds this time and apparently the whispers exist because the timeline is deviating. Could have been an interesting concept There is 1 thing above anything else Sephiroth can do to ensure his success (unless you want to be snarky and say “just kill Cloud in his sleep before he even knows about anything!” but let’s just accept he didn’t lol. This thing is: Don’t kill Aeris. The dramatic irony of Sephiroth killing Aeris was that, in the end, it was his undoing, even though he did it to stop Holy. But in the OG game, Cloud and party defeat Sephiroth too late. Holy is ineffective. Only by Aeris being dead is she able to marshall the lifestream and ultimately save the planet. If she were alive, she’d be as powerless as everyone else So why the hell did Sephiroth kill her again?? He’s literally doing everything that led to his OG defeat! It makes NO SENSE

[@Senumunu]

watch them turn him into the secret anti hero all along

[@fabesey2016]

@@Senumunu And make Hojo the big bad? That would be *hilarious*

[@Senumunu]

@@fabesey2016 i expect hojo controlled by genova or smt like that.

[@ryantyler9677]

I'm going to start this by saying I played FF7 when I was 10 years old. I was given the game by someone who wasn't as big a fan of turn-based fighting games as I was. Second thing, Aerith's death was spoiled for me. I had a PS1 demo disk that had a FF7 trailer and it showed Cloud laying Aerith to rest. (I was at the Temple of the Ancients Demon wall boss fight when I saw it just to give you an idea how close I was to it not being spoiled). I have a different view of the game now that I am older and I have come to appreciate the original and its themes. And now I say that I have never played the remake games. I just don't care to. But I think the biggest problem with Final Fantasy 7 is....Final Fantasy 7. I know that sounds redundant but what I mean is that the game is a victim of its own identity and success. And with the advent of social media, it has only gotten more so. Because of its success, Square knows it is a money machine (though from what I hear Rebirth has been anything but). The Compilation has done more damage as well because you have games like Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core (CC is still fun to play though) that try to explain things that don't need explaining (how Vincent became who he is), adding unnecessary elements (Genesis and Sephiroth's insanity) or try to humanize Sephiroth, which reduces his intimidation and menace. Long story short, the original is indeed a fantastic game, but it is now more a cautionary tale of how success can come back to haunt you.

[@KritoSkywaker]

The ending of Rebirth was made me utterly confused. Like the biggest "WTF" heads I have ever had. I happened to watch it through a different video and it made me so confused, it melted my brain. I had a feeling that they wanted to keep the emotional weight of Aerith's death, but the writers didn't wanted her to begone from the story... So they decided to cheat. My book is this: If you want your audiance to invest into the emotional weight, then kill Aerith off. If you don't want that and want to stick to save Aerith, then you can't kill her. Writers. YOU CAN'T DO BOTH!!!

[@theonecalledlamorak6446]

I think the problem here is that people are trying to chase their childhood with this game and not treating it the way it should be….an actual separate game with its own contained story. It would be like going to Burger King and expecting to buy a Big Mac lol. The OG FF7 is my favorite game of all time also but I never wanted a faithful remake because I was perfectly happy with what we got the first time. I think the reason why I like this remake as an OG fan is because I know it’s suppose to be its own thing. Entertainment is subjective and ppl are entitled to like whatever they want but if you approach this game chasing your childhood you’re going to come out disappointed, I think that’s sort of the key here with this.

[@sober9939]

U right dude.. in this game they make us feels new experiences and different what we expect like we can save Aerith in this new remake game but in the game Sephiroth and Aerith already gave us hint since the Remake game because this new remake world will have more twisted plots and shows us more new storyline that where is gonna lead us.

[@chrisperez3614]

💯 I like this and the original, but they’re not high art they’re just enjoyable video games. People are really acting like they’re superior for not liking or liking consumer products. I think both sides of the debate about Rebirth are ODing on nostalgia.

[@theonecalledlamorak6446]

I mean I would say the original is art personally, it really was something to behold back in the day, but ppl saying that the remake series has to do the same thing or it sucks is completely asinine. I mean can you imagine if ppl wanted the Mona Lisa repainted? Lmao it’s just unrealistic; their both separate things within their own stratosphere and should be treated as such

[@dragonwarriorz1]

They literally could have made a faithful remake though and everyone would have been satisfied (well I actually don't like remakes but whatever). It would have been so much better. And then we actually could have "chased our childhoods". There is no reason they had to mess it up.

[@theonecalledlamorak6446]

I get you dude, I really do. But at the same time you’re never going to capture that feeling ever again. You only beat a game like FF7 once for the first time, and you only get to experience that emotion once, and then….that’s it. Let go of it. We can always replay it whenever and get some of those emotions back, hell I just did a couple weeks ago for the original and loved it, but it was a different game for a different time. I also think part of the problem is when AC came out and it totally ruined the atmosphere of the original and made it all emo and depressing. Go back and play the OG like I just did, it’s not like that at all; it’s very upbeat and lively. I think AC sorta warped what the original was and ppl ran with it. It was about the atmosphere and the companionship among friends to stop a super threat to the world that made it special. Aerith really was sort of a plot device in the original, a character made specifically to drive the story forward, but to me growing up…,she was like the sister I never had. But even in the original there was never any character arc for her, just someone to use to drive the story toward. But here we are today and we have an opportunity to correct that and ppl like this guy are pussying out? Cmon, we owe it to these characters after all these years more than that.

[@december8679]

I was 10 or 11 when FF7 came out. It and FF Tactics changed my life. I had never played an RPG before. I didnt want to play remake because i didnt want to ruin the past. My friends love it but i cant bring myself to play it.

[@loquesea.1569]

The scenery is well recreated but it is always so luminous and radiant, not only in Costa del Sol, that it hurts my eyes, there's not a single cloud in the entire world, not even in Nibelheim. That's a factor to feel it less melancholic, it's made to look like a cheerful festival, which is absurd given the background history of the main characters and the world of FFVII.

[@currywurst2434]

Jep, and NPCs look like they were taken from modern world (west) (clothing and diversity). Didn't like that in part one, but well, in Midgard it was managable, even they didn't look like Ghetto inhabitants lol. Now we have multicultural "nibelheim" and towns that look like they are like you say a festival or Disney Land attractions in modern world. It looks good, but the NPCs don't really fit imo.

[@MrBGP006]

@ currywurst2434 Thought I was the only one that said the NPCs feel out of place since Midgar and they don’t belong in this world. I need Square Enix to be Japanese not Western.

[@kei7540]

Og ff7 isn't melancholic until aerith dies but I mean even after that you go snowboarding bording with you friends so idk

[@boopnoodle6947]

technically there is always a Cloud on screen lol

[@fredo3161]

Lol

[@lukedodson3441]

You weren't ever going to experience her dieing the first time again

[@billjacobs521]

Doesn't mean they couldn't have done it well.

[@lsebastian9086]

To recall what i read time ago in tvtropes, people are familiar with Romeo and Juliet's ending, yet it didnt stop adaptations from knowing how to make that work well

[@jar5520]

Thanks for this video. My early childhood memories is when I just turned 6 in February in 97 my mom brought me to gamestop and I selected this game because the cover art on the front was amazing (I was a young artist at the time) plus it was one of the more expensive games there and it had more than one disc. Throughout the many years I played and replayed the game it was always magical, emotional, the music is amazing and it still is. This new stuff I cant get into at all.

[@funkrobot9762]

Dude the ending was SO RUSHED. Like HOW? The game took me over 120 hours to beat…..how tf do you fumble the ending and rush it AFTER 100 HOURS OF GAMEPLAY

[@TonyAube]

they ran out of money after making the Gongaga region a 10 hours filler sidequest region and the Hojo underground lab where you need to throw crates 🙃

[@arduiscane]

"Listen, you can have an ending that is elegant and doesn't shit on the OG, or you can have a time disrespecting chicken attracted to a box minigame. " - Square Enix 2024.

[@Senumunu]

Without Sakaguchi Final Fantasy has been a chicken without a head. The nu-writers dont understand pacing, gravitas, stakes, presentation, arcs, rewards, conclusions and they are tone deaf as hell. A merger of plot, setting and gameplay is barely visible anymore even. The shrines with their hymns in FF10 felt like they were carefully constructed by religious people of that world. Every new title since feels like it has less and less integrity. Just mimicking some aspects of older titles, worse. Its a mess.

[@kei7540]

Stop glazing sakaguchi

[@Yurikon3]

@@kei7540There is some merit to it. Sakaguchi's "No sequel" approach meant that stuff had to be organized and arranged in a way that the stuff there was hit as hard as it could. Some modern titles don't seem to know what to cut off from lore-books and what implement straight into the story.

[@rclaws3230]

@@kei7540 Can't. Apparently he was the only one who knew how to write Final Fantasy and it shows.

[@TheIronTiger44]

It’s nice to see someone else out there who sees Nomura as the disaster he is. Did you know in an interview he said he didn’t like that people saw Cloud as cool? Literally, he and Nojima hate Cloud. You’re right, he should not have been allowed anywhere near this project. But it’s not just him. Read On the Way To A Smile. They bend over backwards to make Cloud a complete ass, and Advent Children does not fix what that book broke. However you chose to interpret the Zack/Aerith situation, Cloud broke Tifa’s heart. And that is entirely on Nojima, writing, and Nomura directing.

[@KritoSkywaker]

Sorry for the confusion. But how Cloud broke Tifa's heart? I'm not following it.

[@hollyshock8400]

It’s like they took OG Cloud’s early game persona as his actual personality.. Last time I played OG, Cloud’s real self was kinda awkward , a bit of a dorky country kid, but also a badass who was CHOSEN to be the leader of the group, and cared deeply for his friends. He was also very insightful! He was good at making moving speeches while still being down to earth. Cloud was a HERO, and I hate how modern Cloud has been warped into an emotionally constipated emo who runs away from his friends at every turn

[@KritoSkywaker]

@@hollyshock8400 And let's not forget: He called Tifa a fake many times, because of Sephiroth's BS lies.

[@GreyException]

Can "we" stop praising AAA titles for their "graphics, OST and voice acting?". That credit should go to the animators, composers and voice actors. The AAA industry is stale and full of mediocrity despite having hundred million dollar budgets while selling that to us for $70USD/$100CAD. We should expect more.

[@Dare5358]

thank you for explaining this confusing bullshit. you have a talent for plain storytelling.

[@hiduck8247]

good, finally it has been said. fuck nomura

[@kyero8724]

Cry more. Sorry you have to use 1 brain cell xD

[@ShadowWalsh]

'Insert crying child gif' Please tell me more about how your opinion is irrelevant.

[@Key-Knight87]

@@ShadowWalsh Yet you commented on his opinion. 😂

[@zephyr7552]

You can have an opinion of another opinion ​@@Key-Knight87

[@Goujiki]

Still living in 1997. Sad baby.

[@IXkupo]

You can tell Aerith's death was impactful by imagining going to KZbin and searching for 'FF7 Aerith's death.' Watching the scene from 1997 would evoke strong emotions, while if you were to watch the new scene, what would you feel? Nothing. The scene is poorly directed with its constant switching between 'realities' and weird pacing, making it difficult to connect emotionally. Cloud holds her, her theme plays for only a few seconds, then everything is interrupted by Sephiroth's weird philosophical jibberish. Sephiroth's motives are poorly explained anyway, for me at least. I couldn't tell for sure why he wanted to kill her. Back in 2020 I avoided the remake because of Nomura and his team's decisions with the story, only playing it through PS+. I hated the ghosts, interrupting and destroying every scene like Clouds and Aerith's first meeting on the street. Still, I gave FF7 Rebirth a chance, accepting the changes, thinking, 'maybe it won't be so bad,' and I enjoyed it, to be honest, ... until the last chapters. I'm not joking; I went from 'hey, wow, this isn't so bad' to 'oh what the?.., I wish I could get a refund.' The only thing I still appreciate from Rebirth is the sweet portrayal of Cloud and Aerith's relationshi; everything else is just... for the toilet.

[@toddwareham]

I haven’t heard anyone criticize the weapons. Like the giant monster weapons. I was very disappointed by their introduction and appearance in rebirth.

[@swordsman220]

As soon as I saw the fate ghosts in the first game I knew it was over. The Remake ending sealed the deal for me that I'd never buy any other entry in this awful series. SE killed my favorite game and butchered the characters turning it into another version of Kingdom Hearts. They could've literally printed money if they stuck to the original story, but like so many game companies today they chased the 'modern audience' that never seems to show up and destroy things for nothing. The Remake could've been incredible if it was done right, but thanks to this train wreck we'll never see a faithful remake of the game and that just rubs salt in the wound.

[@Ragingspoon]

You are being a lot kinder to the game than I feel it deserves. For remake it was dumb as hell and had a lot of severe issues but there were moments I liked although those werent related to story. For Rebirth I liked Queens Blood (I like card games and this one is decent but it should have been an optional side game in the gold saucer with no rewards that impacted anything other than Queens Blood i.e just win new cards oh and remove whatever silly story they shoehorned in there for it) and the combat when it actually let me just play without worrying about side objectives. I was hoping they would polish it up a lot and make it truly great but instead they mostly just added more on top. Storywise you saying `why` is exactly how I felt for almost every story moment in this and remake, Corneo gases them er why im pretty sure bad things would have happened to them in that instance, Yuffie has a prime opportunity to kill Scarlett twice and doesnt but then decides to try and assassinate the president and Cloud and team do not get arrested then and then everyone lets Hojo go despite what he does and these are just really scattershot examples where I was just you awkwardly wrote in a problem and then poorly wrote you way out of it (or ignored the problem). The entire thing with the whispers in the last game was also exactly this. Sephiroth shows up way way to much again and in the stupidest and most uneventful ways. In the original his appearance was a big deal, stuff happened when he was on screen here he just wants to get into Clouds pants it seems (so basically post FFVII Sephiroth), His power level is also very inconsistent in the OG he one shots the monsters in the flashback and cannot be hurt here it seems they want to show that and do it in a cutscene but then you play him and hes not that much stronger than Cloud in feel and he can die plus we already kicked his arse at the end of Remake so we know hes not a threat. Im gonna stop there for story but honestly I could go on for ages with it. None of the changes made for a better experience imo at best they were nice asides that merely hurt the pacing a bit. As for pacing omg this game has the worst pacing of any game I have ever played, remake was bad this is aggressively awful they do everything in their power to avoid advancing the story in any meaningful way its absolutely insane. Minigames and exploration are truly a masterclass in poor game design so much so that after getting to Coral I put the game down, yes I did not finish the game. I just couldnt take it anymore. I saw Jules turn up because ofc all characters have to return for all games and I knew they were gearing up for another take on that awful pull up mini game from remake and it was the straw that broke the camels back I couldnt face it. I wanted to mess around in combat but in order to get the toys for that its minigame time and I just realized I would have a much better time by not playing the game. The only thing missing was weapon breaking and survival aspects to make it truly unbearable but im confident they will add them in the next game. Just gone back to the original again for the 20+ time and having a blast. I feel Rebirth would be a better game if 80% of the current content was removed. Also Nomura needs someone over him who can and will veto his nonsense because the guy has no self filter and he has had the reverse midas touch on this FFVII remake project (and tbf all the compilation stuff is awful even if I like the spectacle of some of it like Advent Children). I really dont think this remake is series is going to sell as well as they hoped and they only have themselves to blame if it doesnt. I expect an even higher drop off for the next game. Im a huge FFVII fan (of the og not the name FFVII) and im out and I didnt even get to the bits you hated so damn I think I had a lucky escape. I would have rather been at work than play this game and that is something I dont think I have said about any game before because thats what playing this game felt like a miserable unpaid job.

[@alfasilverblade]

Also its implyed that Don Cornelo will come bavk in the next game. Hes not the Team Rocket, hes a human trafiquer who abuse and kill womens.