I have now played the original FF7 16 different times in my life. 16 times fully completing that game 100%. I will never play FF7 remake or rebirth more than once, and I am not even sure if I'm going to bother with the final installment. I'd wager that most people will never play remake or rebirth a second time either. Thats the biggest indictment of this sequel series.
I think the only reason for the Multi-Verse is so they can turn the game into a cash cow and sell multiple different offshoots and sequels of the game. The ReMake was a money grab and I see that now.
What, you initially thought they were making it out of the goodness of their hearts? No shit it was a cash grab, come on man the point of all remakes and remasters is to make money.
@@lukaede7172Ah, but your argument falls flat, because FF7 Remake is... A SEQUEL! MUAHAHAHAHA But yeah, obviously all games from companies like SE are made to make money. The problem is when the people making the game don't want to make that game, and don't care at all about its actual quality.
They already did that with the original ff7. The remake games kinda act as a capstone for the base game combined with the additional titles and properties that have come out over the years. Taking a popular game and oversaturating it with spin off is kind of square's whole business strategy. Personally I think they did a solid job combining everything so far but I can understand why people aren't a fan since it isn't a remake of the base game its a conglomeration of all the titles.
There are such highs and lows in both Remake and Rebirth; it’s at its best when it re-creates the story from the OG but falters when it introduces new meta-elements into the plot that no one asked for since the Remake project was announced. I really really love the story of the original, so simple yet deep at the same time. Seeing the story getting butchered through the concept of multiverses really left a bad taste in my mouth because the devs definitely did justice to so many other aspects of the game such as the characters, gameplay, music, graphics, design etc.
The biggest problem of ff7 remake, is that it's not, it's not even an rpg when all your choices, materias, gear, experience acquired, when all of it is reset at every new part of the remake, this is a walking simulator moviegame of a supposed fanfiction of FF7. It's a sorry ass excuse of a game when it's separated in parts that don't even connect with your progressions nor allow for errors along the way of your gameplay accross the whole story of the game, this is a joke of an rpg, doesn't deserve the rpg monicker in any respect for this.
Did anyone else feel like the amount of weapons and lack of ultimate weapons was kind of a let down? Part of the problem with breaking this up into 3 separate games is that if you normally planned to have 10-15 weapons per character, you don't want to do that 3 times, so you end up just dividing them into 3 small groups and put 1 grouping in each game. Ultimate weapons are the same problem. I didn't really feel like there was many options for interesting combinations of weapons, weapon points, armor, and accessories.
The customization was better than FF16, and I personally didn't have too much problems with the weapon variety. One or two more per character would have been nice.
Absolutely nothing about the open world in this game feels organic. There is NO sense of discovery or mystery. Everything happens according to strict rules presented to you in their entirety. You will always know what will happen, how you will get there and what reward you will get. For example, finding all the lifespring will always make a special boss appear somewhere. In each region. Without fail. Why? Because that's how the game decided it should be. No surprise encounter with the special boss, no bending of the rules. You just go through the checklist of things to do. And the world follows that. There are no surprises, nothing organic to discover.
This is all true, and it is one of the major, serious flaws with Rebirth. In a world with Tears of the Kingdom and Elden Ring, the flaws with this type of open world are just super easy to see.
Discovered you and your video, after seeing you under Orion85's Comment Section. I think your video is pretty honest. Some people I used to watch were completely praising the game and calling it 10/10 or "GOTY" or "Masterpiece". I say, Rebirth isn't a bad game, but it has some of the most mindnumbing writing mistakes, that you cannot just ignore. My main problem with Rebirth's story, is how confusing it is and how it tries to manipulate the player sometimes with overdramatization. And my issues can be summed into this: Whatever Nomura touches, it gets timetravel or multiverse. FF13-2/Lightning Returns, FF15 has a timetravel plot. Kingdom Heart has grown utterly confusing. And of course, FF7R and Rebirth grown confusing with the Whispers (Appearently, the Black Whispers are Sephiroth from the future and the White Whispers are Aerith. And, my brain already hurts...) and the multiverse. It sadly utterly destroyed the OG FF7 Theme: Death and Acceptance. But my main issue with the story is the ending of Rebirth. Aside from Cloud attacking Tifa in Gongaga, the ending has pissed me off. Because it confirmed many... Many problems I had with the writing. And it heavily reminded me of the last episode of RWBY Volume 9. My take on the ending is this: The writers wanted the emotional payoff from Aerith's death. But they didn't actually wanted her to begone from the story, so they cheated. And it heavily implies, that the writers are hacks. Cowardly, manipulative and worst them all: Talentless. My book says this: If you want your audiance to get emotional, then kill Aerith off. And after the Jenova Fight, repeat the same scene with the Water Burying. But if you want to change the course of the story, then you can't kill Aerith off. Have that Sephiroth monologing about them changing the course of this timeline, going against his plans. Then have the others show up, so saving Aerith will be guranteed. And sorry for the capital words: YOU CANNOT DO BOTH SCENARIOS! Sorry for the long comment. It's just, that is how I feel about the ending and the story in general. 😞
Orion's video is pretty great, so I'm glad one of the commenter's mentioned. The writing and open world are the two huge issues with Rebirth, and I think you're right about Aerith. They needed to pick a direction. I wouldn't have been happy if she lived, but I would have liked that ending better than what we got. The FF7R team just wants to have their cake and eat it too, and it's not working out for most of the players I talk to.
@@therayldeal6683 I get what you mean. I understand that her death in the OG was hard but ultimately, it was necessary. Aerith became one with the Lifestream and she helped Cloud and the others in defeating Sephiroth. And I agree on your take. As I said, the writers of RWBY did the same thing with Ruby Rose, the main character in Volume 9 Chapter 8, by having her going through a big emotional and physical torture, which resulted her drinking a magic tea and she had been Ascended into the Tree. But in Chapter 10, the writers did this: Ruby chose to accept who she was and she had been reborned with who she was before, except she got her Emblem back. This made her death feel hollow and her resurrection emblematic. With Aerith, I stand by what I said. The writers did both scenarios and it saddened me, that some people sucked it up, like a vacuum cleaner. Including Critical Gamer( Critical Drinker's Gamer Account).
@@KritoSkywaker A lot of reviewers talk to each other and know that giving an FF a low score is going to rain hate on them. I'm not saying that impacted CD's review, but I speculate that's why IGN, GameSpot, etc. usually end up with the same score for games.
@@therayldeal6683 Hm. Make sense. That is why I don't trust major reviewers that much. We shouldn't jump into conclusions. We should do research properly, play the games and then make reviews with honest care. 😞
@@KritoSkywaker That's why if I'm on the fence about buying a game, I wait until the part-time or small channel TH-camrs make reviews because those are the people who've actually put their hard-earned money into the review and limited time.
And yet I believe people have now opened their eyes to the obvious flaws of both remake and rebirth… much more so than when the first installment was issued when a single critic against the « sacred FF7 remake » was considered heresy pure and simple
@@monkeygunner67000 I've been following Resonant Arc for awhile (they are def one of my favorite creators on the platform), and on their archived channel, they got ripped into for critiquing the story of Remake. I didn't care for the Remake's story changes at all, but I also wasn't making videos at that point in time.
Nice work, great video! I got up to Costa De Sol, and got burnt out. Then I played the original game, and that section was only like 1 minute long! haha
Yeah, and honestly, the pacing in the original FF7 is just perfect. No section lasts too long, and one of the worst things about Remake and Rebirth is the bloat.
@@therayldeal6683 yeah I'm not going to lie to you, I had a good time playing OG FF7 recently, the pacing was great. And the Echo voice acting mod was fantastic. While I bought a PS5 for Rebirth, I don't see myself finishing it.
I know you said this video was for people who are far more critical of this game than I am, but even as a someone who sincerely enjoys Rebirth I get secondhand embarrassment as some of the comments you've received from people who can't understand that people will not like everything they do. Your criticism may be not ones I haven't heard before, but that doesn't mean your opinion doesn't matter. I like listening to anyone willing to talk about games I like, even if they don't like them, because that's more interesting and it helps be consider what I like or even dislike about something I'm otherwise a fan of. You were worth listing to, and I'm glad I did. Personally my biggest issue with Rebirth is that it didn't stray far enough from canon to me liking. After the ending of Remake I was prepared for the story to go off the rails the longer I played the game, but instead it stuck to canon outside of minor changes. It's like they wanted to appease two separate crowds (old fan who wanted a faithful retelling and people interested in the new direction) and didn't satisfy either. I hope that we're done with retelling and the third game just more of what the ending of Remake and Rebirth did instead of leaving it all to the end.
Thank you for this awesome comment! If they were clear with who this was for, I wouldn't have any reason to dislike it because I wouldn't have played it. Calling the series a remake one instead of a reimagining really sets expectations in the wrong direction for legacy fans who want the faithful retelling.
@@KritoSkywaker A true remake would be keeping the game the same, but remaking it from the ground up. Made on a new engine, new assets, new expanded lore, new graphics, but still retaining the fixed camera angle dungeons, the world map, the ATB system, menu design, and etc. This would've been a true remake, but we got a "Reimagining" of FF7 instead of a faithful remake. Look no further than RE1 (1996) and REmake (2002). That was the definition of remake for 15 years. A remaster confuses people, but a remaster is the same PS1 game, but maybe some HD textures, upscaling the resolution, better fps, and that's it. No new engine, no new expanded lore, nothing.
@@KT-rq9id Thank you for the clarifications. I just did not wished to offend anyone with wierd stuff. And yes. I saw that Resident Evil game. It was amazing. One of the true retro games. And yes... I do agree on your take. I apologize for not catching the vibes sooner. 🥺
I think it's a fair review in my opinion. I also give the game 7-8/10 at most, I think from the big reviewers Gamespot was the only giving it a 8 a week before the launch claiming the game had pacing issues. I share the critique that most Chadley related stuff should have been put in the open world, the repetitive tasks bore really soon. Enemy skills should be learned by getting hit by that attack by the enemy, not in a simulator. I think a lot of players suffered from mini-game fatigue after a while, but some where fun and could return. To give an example : the lifesprings. They should have been locked until you clear the side quest in Cosmo Canyon with Bugenhagen, they could have chosen to reward players with fights against whisper versions of certain monsters with drained ones and materia with healthy ones. Another thing that could have been repurposed are the notice boards in the towns, they should have had hunts instead of side quests so the player can traverse the open world looking for the spot of the hunt. I don't get the choice of the developers with giving the player a one-star healing materia if you replay a certain section where you originally found a nice materia. The hard mode in this game is a little harder than Remake, but I don't get the obsession to put the manuscripts behind these replays, why invent a store for your folios where you can reset them but can't buy them. They could have put them behind a money wall so you need to farm mastered materia in order to earn enough gil to buy them. Summons are basically worthless in this game, except for one time to earn the Bronze trophy I can't recall the need to use them. I was hoping they implemented that materia are born again after mastering them or some kind of materia fusion from Crisis Core to make Hell-materia. Red XIII can only climb walls on 2 occasions, his dungeon and his trial. Why not expand the story dungeons with paths you can't reach on your first playthrough with the party because you need a grappling gun or don't know how to scale a wall at that time, with at the end a nice reward. The story changed dramatically compared to OG if you take into account that the optional characters are now written in the main story, we'll have to see how the Vincent and Yuffie arc will come to a conclusion in part 3. I think next year around this time we'll have a DLC (probably with Cid) to start the hype to the last installment, story wise a DLC for Vincent about his years as a Turk should be interesting (though I think for Vincent they're thinking about a revamp of DoC). I'm wondering if they'll punish players again to start a new or they make it a real sequel which transfers the save data of Rebirth. The funny thing about the story is they have 40 hours to tell a good one yet fail so they bring out an Ultimania to clarify certain things the players might not have understood well. In my eyes that's admitting you delivered a faulty product. Sephiroth doesn't feel threatening anymore, he's become a joke. The result of Remake is basically Flashpoint which created the multiverse, which should make Rebirth basically Crisis on Infinite Earths. I probably won't buy the last part at launch. I don't hate the game, I think there's lots of room for improvement. I got the platinum trophy, it doesn't feel like an accomplishment.
This is one of the Top 10 best replies to this video. I enjoyed reading through that because you've got loads of great ideas on how they could have made the game better and how they could improve the series moving forward.
@@therayldeal6683 Thank you for the compliment. This was the game (OG) that got me hooked on playing JRPGs so it will always be special to me. I'll always try to make suggestions to improve things, I have even more ideas. I miss some kind of time reference in Rebirth, I count 6-9 nights from start to finish (Kalm, Junon, cruiseship, Dustbowl, Gongaga?, Cosmo Canyon, Gold Saucer date, trip to the temple, Forgotten Capital). It feels more like a vacation than a journey.
@@therayldeal6683 Thank you for the compliment. This was the game (OG) that got me hooked on playing JRPGs so it will always be special to me. I'll always try to make suggestions to improve things, I have even more ideas. I miss some kind of time reference in Rebirth, I count 6-9 nights from start to finish (Kalm, Junon, cruiseship, Dustbowl, Gongaga?, Cosmo Canyon, Gold Saucer date, trip to the temple, Forgotten Capital). It feels more like a vacation than a journey.
Everything you said was great. Rebirth is a DECENT game. The combat is great! Everyone is unique with their abilities. The mini games are fun to play! Especially the card game! BUT their not worth re-playing on harder difficulties. Normal mode is all I need, thank you. The exploration (I think) is pretty good. Although, I agree, the open world doesn't let the player just discover things on their own. EVERYTHING has to be pointed out on the map and nothing is never a mystery to discover. Even when you're on a quest and they give you a new destination, they just so HAVE TO mark it on the map for you. And if there's a new quest, again, the game just marks it on the map for you. Why can't the player just try to find it for themselves? Like ya know, a REAL exploration? The game just keeps holding your hand. But aside from that, I still got a kick from the exploration. It wasn't all bad. The graphics are amazing! As always, and it keeps looking better. They even went as far a recreating the opening of Remake with the new PS5 engine. They could have easily just reuse the old clips from the game and from the PS5 version. But no, instead they wanted to recreate the whole thing. I'll give me that! The music is good. Not AS good as the originals. But still good. And then you got that story...meh. The story does a good job recreating the games story (at times) when it's recreating moments from the original. However, when they try to add new things....not so much. Especially.....THAT ending. This whole multiverse bullshit was NOT necessary. ALL THEY HAD TO DO, was just recreate the original story. Copy and paste. Not hard to do. I DON'T MIND changes to a Remake. But a goddamn multiverse is NOT one of them. Oh! And the final boss can blow me! Cloud and Zack meeting each other from different timeless? .... REALLY!?! That is so fan service!!! And "died" Aerith helping Cloud against Sephiroth was just....NO! FUCK OFF WITH THAT! Whatever. Anyways. I'll admit, I'm still looking forward to Part 3, but I'm not going to hold my breath for it.
Yep I agree it’s a 7/10 game. I felt like I was wasting precious time half of the time. What kept me going was to see how they would adapt THE scene and I felt 0 emotions ( except for confusion )
A perfect analysis of rebirth, personally for myself the story just completely lost me as a fan, I adore the og story, it'll definitely stick with me longer than the FF7R trilogy ever will, and chadly 🥱 a lot of odd decisions made in the name of FF7 🙄 But I do love the combat, the game looks stunning, but ultimately the story sealed it for me.
RedX111's older voice was one of the best interpretations of how I thought and FF7 character would have sounded like. In fact, they did a great job with all the characters voices sounding like I expected...until they changed Red's voice. Red is something like, 45 years old or something. But in his species, he's a teenager. The developers seemed to think he would be as immature as a human teenager. Thats not really how that works. He still has 45 years of experience and growth. Just because he is young for his species doesn't mean he would be equal to a human teenager. He should still be immature for others of his species, but he's still more mature and wise compared to a human.
I'm completely in agreement. It's a good game as a stand alone ff but it's not ff7 ... ff7 is the absolute wonder from magic system and exploration and npc chats and sooo much more. Your stuck in a line with the new ones. It all looks soo great but your access ... gonna stop I could go on an on . Og ff7 is an will always be king 😊
funnily enough, the only time i ever think about playing this game again is to play queens blood. ive tried to replay this game like 3 times and i just feel exhausted every time
The game is definitely overrated It's a 7 at most, the dialogue is awful, the story is Laughable, had tons of game breaking bugs when it came out (some quests were bugged) the pacing was really bad with the minigames and even the graphics were really bad with the massive amount of pop in and some textures, it got high scored because people are blind with nostalgia
Final Fantasy 7's theme is about dealing with and recovering from loss. Every single protagonist has suffered terrible loss before and during the course of the game. Remake and Rebirth destroy this theme and replace it with something completely different. As soon as I saw they were doubling down on the Nomura ghosts from Remake, I lost all interest in the new story.
Media, and specially games, are a product of the mindset of the creators during a specific timeframe, that was also a product of the society at the time. Just like the Evangelion rebuilds, you cant expect the creator to hit the exact same notes, that's just you clinging onto nostalgia.
I definitely agree with most of your points. The game felt more like it was chasing nostalgia and fanservice as a priority over story which really sucks. I adore Zack. In all my years of gaming he was my favorite character, but this remake series has been ruining him for me. There is no purpose in bringing him back beyond fanservice. I loved him for his sacrifice, not the whole reason I loved him, but it was a big part of what touched me emotionally and they butchered that. They butchered an iconic scene in video game history with Aerith's death. Why would you bomb these scenes? These scenes that give stakes and emotional weight to the conflict? It hurts me so much. This game was an important part of my life. I was deep in VII communities, discussions, roleplaying, merchandise and now... it feels like VII isn't what it was anymore. I feel like I am no longer able to bond and relate to this game anymore. It took something out of me that shattered my enjoyment. This is VII now to a new generation and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It's a good game, otherwise. It has some emotional highs that I liked and some character moments taht were really sweet, but when it fails... it fails hard. Thank you for your balanced critique. It feels so jarring to see most discourse praising this as the new classic.
This game has some insane highs (The Loveless Scene, Dio's introduction, and other scenes like that are really tasteful remixes of the original's), but the lows are so low that it poisons the well. I'll play and review Part III if my community wants me to a few years from now; otherwise, I'll be skipping it.
@@therayldeal6683 That is exactly my feeling on Rebirth. VII was a formative part of my childhood personally. Part of me secretly hopes you will play VII part 3 and give your perspective on things. I have a feeling the reviews will be glowing and the narrative faults will be even bigger and more gaping with more and more people ignoring the flaws and persisting to see the story with rose tinted glasses. It would be nice to see another balanced perspective, but we'll see as the trailers come out. I almost feel like the game theorizing culture may have contributed to some of the horrible events that is ruining the narrative. They want people to talk and theorize like it's a FNaF game, to keep the fandom alive and hyped, but I feel like it's poisoned the well when it comes to telling a fulfilling story.
@@KrazyKoto The worst part is that they didn't need to design the story this way to satisfy the theory-crafters. A good story and theory-crafting aren't mutually exclusive (FFT, X, and From Soft games show that). They could have just added more nuance to the characterization, and that would have been enough.
@@therayldeal6683 They could have. I think they might have tunnel vision. Just chasing the modern trends and what they think would go well with a modern audience. They should have done what Resident Evil 2 or 4 did in terms of remakes. Maybe they didn't have enough faith that og VII would resonate with a modern audience?
@@KrazyKoto It does seem like the Remake series was heavily impacted by the success of the MCU. It's not the only series to be impacted this way either, as Mortal Kombat as the same sort of narrative problems going on.
I don’t think you were ever supposed to question if Barrett shot up the gold saucer in the OG, you know him well enough at that point not to kill innocents
I disagree. He did perpetuate acts of actual ecoterrorism costing lives before, so when I played it for the first time, I did think he was killing people at first. Granted, I was 7 or 8 at the time.
Nope. Not even close. Besides the fact that he had NO problems with blowing up the reactors that resulted in the deaths of Shinra tropes just doin their jobs and most certainly would have resulted in the deaths of innocents, the point you go to the Gold Saucer was right after he was confronted with his past in his hometown. One could imagine him being so mentally damaged to the point of killing innocents at that point. It's all about the suspense. In which thanks to Rebirth killing it, due to them showing him seeing Dyne do the act of killing the innocents at the Gold Saucer.
Even if you felt like you knew him well enough, it's the what if that makes the story engaging. What if he did? What if we have to fight Barret? What if we have to take the fall for him? 7R acts like it's afraid to make you feel that tension. It acts like it's afraid to make you feel any tension at all.
Currently playing through it now, as far as open world mechanics go it's not nearly as good as like a dragon but it's not as terrible as many open world games. I just wish open world games would stop they just pad games with meaningless side quests with shitty rewards most of the time, rebirth did ok and i'm not that far into it but it's only ok to me.
The open worlds of games like Tears of the Kingdom and Elden Ring are just so much better than the one in Rebirth. There's a lot things that could enhance the open world, as I say in my video, like putting all of the cool stuff in the Chadley simulation jail in the open world. Imagine if summons could just be found through exploration. As it stands, the open world feels more like a hub area with paths tendriling out of it.
This is probably just me, but I don't know how you can see the way they handled Barret and Dyne, Tifa & Cloud in Gongaga, and the whole final sequence with Aerith and still call this game overrated and bad. I probably won't ever understand but I respect y'all's opinion.
I'm happy there are people who like it, but I have been considerably disappointed by both this and Remake. I'll be skipping Part 3 unless my subs want me to cover it in a few years. I'll be playing Metal Gear Solid 3 for the first time this year, and I plan to review it.
Thanks for the video. I think you covered all of my frustration with the game. New story pieces and changes are not interesting. Openworld and chadley are annoying
I didn’t even finish rebirth. Played to cosmo canyon and just lost interest. I think I lost interest far before that, it just took me trying to push through to totally kill it for me.
If I weren't playing it with my friend and for this channel, I would have stopped either sooner than that or right after Red's characterization completely changes.
I wanted to make a second comment. I'm surprised, you got the Barret Date in Chapter 12. 😊 Most majority, who played the game went for Tifa, because if you boosted her relationship with Cloud up to the "Intimate" level, they can kiss. I dunno with Aerith or Yuffie, but this is what I heard. And I also wanted to say this: I fear, that the writers will seperate Cloud and Tifa apart, just as they did in the FF7 Novel Book: "A Way to a Smile*. And considering, that Nomura said in a interview, that the third game will take place in the events of Advent Children, is it natural to have this fear? 😞
I likely won't be touching Part 3 unless my community wants me to. The gameplay in these games as been pretty fun, but the quest and world design and the story have not been at all. Getting the date with Barrett was a major highlight of my playthrough for sure.
@@therayldeal6683 Yeah. I can clearly see that. Barret softened up while Cloud listened to his old stories. I like that bromance type hang out. 😊 And of course, I saw the person behind Gaming Sins, getting the Red XIII date. But he was a dummy and reloaded, only to do a 1 hour worth side mission content, just to impress Tifa and get her as his date. 😆 And personally... I'm kind of conflicted regarding the dates. I would go for the Aerith Date majorly, because as much as I like Tifa, Aerith always been held a special place in me. No offense. 😇
Whether or not it's overrated depends on how much you subjectively value each aspect. The open world is boring and uninspired, Chadley is the worst thing ever, the mini games are too much and most of them suck. Despite all that, the game is easily one of my favorites because the characters, the combat, the story, the world building, the visuals and the vibe are pretty much the best i've ever seen in a video game and i value these way more personally.
The combat, boss design, and points where the story sticks to the original's script are the things about Rebirth I like, but everything else in the package overshadows these things and are the reason I personally don't like it that much.
For an open world to be great, the exploration has to be amazing, and Rebirth essentially has no exploration at all. There’s no opportunity to get lost or to be surprised with what you’ll find over the horizon. Not that Rebirth has horizons at all.
@@therayldeal6683 it definitely has exploration the worlds is absolutely massive. There tons to do so much so it’s feels overwhelming at time. Like I said that’s ur opinion but ur in the minority with that opinion most people don’t agree
a thoughtful critique! to me Rebirth is a complete dumpster fire, but when I express that opinion there are always people that defend it, but never address the problems I bring up. the AI combat is some of the worst Ive seen. the battle outside the TotA is a perfect example. characters are running around like chickens with their heads cut off. I had a character die because of bad game design, not because it was a challenge. they bloat the game with side content but cut out finding and exploring the Forgotten Capital, the most compelling location. this remake should've been a no-brainer, I've played the original a dozen times and will play it again, but I'll never play this game again because the combat is miserable. QB & choco racing is fun though.
Pretty sure you can play the final combat challenges whilst in your normal play through. They just have hard mode settings & rules once you start them. Or, load ch12 on hard mode through chapter select, walk to Chadley & just try the challenges.
That is good to know. They weren't showing up for me despite finishing all of the available ones. I'll need to redownload the game and do them because the combat challenges are genuinely, legitimately great.
@@therayldeal6683 oh I’m trying to remember what happened when I unlocked them. Can’t remember if there were any other requirements, I think you might need to be in a new game+ save as well, but pretty sure that can be in any chapter. I think you need to beat Gilgamesh as well.
@@Kean_Bean That's probably the condition I'm missing then. I needed a break from the game when realizing what I'd need to do to complete the folios (I am a trophy hunter at heart, for better and worse), so I stopped playing right before fighting Gilly boy. He was actually next on my completion list (I like chunking platinums into completable parts for the extra dopamine of checking something off of my list). I'll probably come back to Rebirth for these combat-centric challenges at some point in the future, but it definitely won't be before the Mk1 expansion and DBZ Sparking! Zero since those are my next major 2024 reviews (for new games).
@@therayldeal6683 yehhh take your time, it will still be there. Especially if you are going to try for 100%, there is an awful lot to do. I found the combat challenges to be well worth it, though I probably should have taken a break myself to enjoy them more.
@@Kean_Bean There's some research that suggests things sit in your head better if you don't binge them. I've been experimenting a bit with that idea by spacing out my game time and my current watch of JoJo's, and I think they're onto something. I appreciate all the games I play a bit better with a few day breaks between sessions. I've got a rotation of 3 games I loop between, so I'm still playing things on off days.
As someone who's never played through the original, I've loved my experience with remake and rebirth. But I respect that these games are flawed, in particular I think some of the quests and areas are built just to pad out the game, but I really appreciate some of the extra characterization the added space can bring, I just wish it didn't mean so much running back and forth. I appreciate the different take on the game you have. Now on to the real question, what is the song at 8:29 playing on the chapter card, that sounds like a latin musical chant.
Fully agree. I got the game at launch, and still haven't had the motivation to finish it. I tried exploring when I was in the first two areas, but the exploration was just so bloated, cumbersome, and unrewarding that I got bored quick. I would still like to finish the game since I bought it digitally and can't just sell it. But it is dragging on so much and doesn't hold a candle to the original FF7 in the areas that truly count. I ended up turning the difficulty down to easy and have been ignoring literally everything except the main quest, because at this point I just want it to be over. I really do not understand how anyone who has played the original could ever say Rebirth is one of the best games they've ever played.
I think does matter why someone liked the original. If someone liked there original simply for its characters, I could see how they’d like this because there is loads of fan service around every corner. For someone who liked the original for its story and themes, Remake and Rebirth are an absolute travesty.
I left my response comment on the Alien video before I saw that you already watched it. It is a project where someone definitely needed to rope in the writing team. With better focus, this remake series could have been an all time classic.
@therayldeal6683 haha. Yeah, I saw your alien video first. Once that was done I immediately went to watch this one. This is some of the best gaming critique I've seen in an incredibly long time. Keep it up!
My only problems with the game is getting hit and dying out of your synergy attacks and long spell casting especially when im trying to cast curaga(I know it's a materia to shorten the time to cast but it's dumb to me and shouldn't even be a thing)
It’s crazy to me that they didn’t fix the issue where cutscenes can stop you mid move and still eat your ATB and mana pool. That was in Remake too, and I disliked that aspect of its design as well.
as far as the open world design opinions go, I agree with the exception of the old school overworld (big character on little map) I do not think JRPGs need them anymore for technical reasons or for game design reasons I've honestly find them extremely boring over the years of nothing interesting being done with them aside from like... Wild Arms 3 scanning, which kind of sucked other than linking the more engaging and detailed locations together, they offer little else other than enemy encounters between point A and point B I prefer the area/zone design seen in 11, 12, 14, and 16 the most and I think that level/environment design would've benefitted 7R's world more than anything
For technical or game design reasons, they definitely don't need to do that type of overworld anymore, but in terms of art design and worldbuilding, I would like to see one again. Open world games are a dime a dozen these days, and nearly all of them are pretty soulless imo. Stringing either battles or lackluster busy work from point A to point B is how I feel about the design of nearly every open world released in the past 5 years. Tears of the Kingdom, Elden Ring, and Ghost of Tsushima have pretty engaging ones, but I honestly can't name one open world beyond them I really, really like. The open zone idea could work though. 16's zones were good, and really their only design issue is that they were pretty barren of interesting content within them. I would like that type of design better if Square looked at what made exploration interesting in 12 and started implementing that in their future titles. Hunts need to be in every FF game, and they need to be findable in the world organically.
I loved this game, I see it as a sequel to the OG rather than a remake. I love the characters and their banter. The only character they did dirty imo was Red. If something was boring to me, I just skipped it and moved on. I think people who have a big issue with this game either/or are OCD and choose to put themselves through an unenjoyable side content experience rather than skip it, and purists who still view this as a remake rather than a sequel
If I skipped the things I found boring, I would have skipped a lot of the cutscenes tbh. The side content is this game is pretty abysmal, and that is a knock against the game even if it is skippable. Everything in a game should be as close to good as possible. Imo, this being a sequel (which is the opinion I had after Remake) doesn't improve it at all for me, and if anything, makes it even worse, as the original didn't require expansion, especially expanded content that destroys the core themes of the story.
The OG purists will have a hard time with the story beats. But I wouldn't want a 1:1 remake where I know every single thing that is about to happen. I would maybe love the first game for nostalgia reasons, but nostalgia only goes so far. I would get bored. I agree that it is not a 10 though. But it is a great game.
I view remakes the same way I do different performances of Shakespeare or translations of various mythologies. They always change a few things, but the core themes and most important story beats are not altered. FF7 is a great story that didn’t need a lot of change. I even break down the moments where the designers really did add to the original’s plot in tasteful ways.
You don't need 1:1. This is what expanding what the OG set up but failed to go all the way through. However...there is that and then there is completely changing tone, character and basically everything that made the OG FF7 a masterpiece. Ask yourself this...would you love a" Remake" of the Original Star Wars Trilogy, where Emperor Palpatine goes on Tatooine and has a long drawn out fight with Obi Wan, beats him and while Obi Wan is laying on the ground he goes on about how he will make Luke his apprentice of the Darkside and leaves Obi Wan there and that's it? How about time traveling force beings coming in to stop Obi Wan from dying against Vader on the Death Star? Would you love that simply because "It's different"? Come on now. Somethings are the way they are because they FIT they story. The story is called FF7 Remake/Rebirth, we would expect a story on the same scale as the OG FF7, but with better graphics and simply expanding on those the OG FF7 did. Things from the compilation, such as Genesis and other things. Not completely change things like the mystery of Sephiroth or Cloud's own identity and his broken mental state because of it.
I love ff7 but I hate the remake. Because the tempo problem is so annoying. I especially can't forget the part with the ghosts. Who would want to squeeze a fairy tale into a moment when everything is accelerating? This is plain stupidity. Japanese game developers prepare great gameplay but they destroy the fun of the gameplay with unnecessary dialogues, cutscenes and tempo problems.
I can toatlly seem them put Aeth in the Tifa and Cloud moment or even make it worst. Consider the hits we get, Aeth have feeling for Cloud and who know what there plan for Zack to. I can see them make a twice and uno reverse ,Tifa and Cloude die while Zack and Aeth live on as there legacy
It's hard to know where exactly Nojima and Nomura are going to take the story because they seem to value shock value quite high in the scenes they have changed from or added to the original.
The ultimate gripe about this game, is the story. God, the story goes off the rails...and doesn't recover at the end. Its very bloated with side content. Which could have progressed the story forward. Instead we need to have the final game cover A LOT of territory, and wrap up everything. And that's a tall task that I don't expect Square Enix to pull off.
This just convinces me that nomura is so bitter about "13 versus" that we are seeing bit and pieces of what wanted to make in basically every modern FF title. This is probably why I'm an outlier in saying FF16 is best in modern games since it goes back to that non sequel writing.
I actually like ~80% of 16's narrative. I'm not a big fan of Ultima, but they do essentially everything else right. The beach scene with Jill is legit one of the best FF moments of all time. I personally like the first 13 game, but the other two are quite bad story-wise.
@@therayldeal6683 Ah yes. FF XIII-2, which added Timetravel and a supernatural power, that allows Serah to see the future. And Lightning Returns, which gives us Multiverse and the "happy ending syndrome", which was seen later in Kingdom Hearts 3.
Hey man, I hope you have a great one and before I get into my opinion I just want to let you know who I am before so you understand where I’m coming from. I’ve barely touched the FF franchise (I’ve only played XVI and FF7 Remake and this game) and I have not played the original FF7 game. So that might be why I’m not bothered by the changing of themes from the original from the remakes because there’s a more akin to a sequel then a remake (other than the weird naming sense the first game has lol). And I do agree with you for a ton of the points (the open world is alright, the mini game fluff just really isn’t necessary, and the ending really did put me off just like it did for Remake), but I feel like the story changing isn’t as bad as it seems. I do agree it’s so convoluted and I just wish it was more clear because it could be so more enjoyable and it really does feel like the first 90% of the game was peak and the last 10% I was like huh… huh… and then Aerith doesn’t die and then does? It’s extremely tough on me because I’m a new player who can’t even see what was changed and what was from the prior, but from what I can tell is that Remake and Rebirth are trying to build up all of their cards so that in the third game some of the answers (idk it’ll prob still be something convoluted still lol). I also really agree on the fact that there is no guarantee that the third game will be good especially with how both of the endings for each game feels so murky and cloudy that I just can’t see how this story will go anywhere good, but there’s still a chance for it to go up and I hope you do atleast consider thinking about how the third game will impact the others (like how you mentioned that XIII was better in retrospect over the years). I just think that if story is your main issue in this game I think the third game could be something that blows your mind and when you kept on mentioning that you wouldn’t play the third one I just felt bad that you might miss out. I hope you try out the third game and wish you a good one!
This is a good, well-written comment. I’ll check out the third part of my subs in the future ask me too; otherwise, I’ll just wait until it’s on sale a few years down the line. I hope you play the original at some point because I’d be interested in hearing a new-FF7 fan’s take on it after playing this remake trilogy first. Thanks for watching!
While I have no issue with disliking elements - for example, while I like the Gi stuff, I agree that they interrupted the Seto moment way too quickly - I did think it was worth pointing out two things: Nojima was also the lead writer of OG FF7, so his involvement isn’t new. And while he had a smaller role then, Nomura was involved in the OG FF7 story (and is listed in the credits for story). Kitase is also the producer of this game and pretty heavily involved. In fact, in many interviews Kitase himself has said he wanted to make even bigger changes to the story but was pulled back by Nomura and Nojima. While that may seem unlikely, Kitase is on record with some wild ideas during OG FF7’s development. At one point, he wanted to kill everyone during the return to Midgar raid other than 3 characters selected by the player and was reportedly talked out of it by Nomura. So the only OG creative that’s missing is Sakaguchi really. That’s not to defend all of the decisions in Rebirth, but just to say that I’m not sure it’s so easy to lay blame just at the feet of those two guys. Also the Red XIII thing. While I also prefer the older, wiser Nanaki approach, it has been mentioned in interviews that Red XIII goes through the same changes in the Japanese version of the original, but the localizers didn’t really include it in the English version. I don’t know HOW childish he gets in the Japanese version of OG, but it’s been well documented for years that it was a notably localization difference that Red didn’t really change in the English like he did in the Japanese. So this may just be more accurate to what the original devs always intended… even if it feels a bit weird now.
These are good clarifications. What I would change about my argument in that section of the video would be to focus more on Sakaguchi's absence, as it is obvious in all modern FF games that he isn't around. It makes me even less confidant that they'll be able to turn the ship around in the third part of this remake series, and I'm even less interested in playing it now too. I'm glad there was a translation error because I would have disliked that element of FF7 my whole life if it had made it through localization. Whenever I play the original, I can at least pretend it's supposed to be the way it's localized.
@@therayldeal6683 it is amazing how much range that actor has, but I do wish they played it almost a little more realistically. Like if he were still in the same vicinity of the deep voice, but just a younger sounding version of it. It’s just almost unrealistic that a real person could change their voice THAT much. A voice actor can, sure. But normie? Not so much. I wonder how different it is in the Japanese version of the voice acting. I’ll have to load that chapter with Japanese voices and check actually.
@@SubTXT_ I could make my peace with the voice acting, but the major thing I just will never like is the way Red's personality changes whenever his voice acting does. He's a completely different character with his younger voice.
@@therayldeal6683he doesn’t change his entire voice in the original since it’s not voiced at all. He DOES use more childlike speech quirks and pronouns and even in the english translated original, he behaves more giddy and excited to reflect the change (I want to say the party even is taken aback by it)
@@Djamp_htx I know the original is not voiced, but voice is a storytelling and technical feature of writing. I'm referring to the literature term when referring to the voice of the characters in the original. I learned how to read by playing those early FF titles, so that definitely could have impacted my reading of the games, but even on my replays through my teens and adult life, I just never picked up on that. I always read that as him feeling more connected to the party than before because they helped him handle this extremely unresolved trauma from his past.
I did say FF7 wasn’t in my Top 5 for the franchise, and if I were reviewing that game, I would talk about it’s issues. The thing is that Rebirth’s issues are overtly glaring, especially when juxtaposed to contemporary games.
@@therayldeal6683 Yes, but would you say it's overrated? My issue with videos like these is that the arguments fall flat in the face of objective comparisons to the original. FF7 is a wonderful game, probably one of the all time greats but it is not perfect. On that same token neither is Rebirth but it is by any measure incredibly enjoyable and a worthy remake of a beloved game. Your whole argument is that people who are of this opinion are wrong and that you possess some enlightened wisdom that us lowly gamers couldn't possibly understand. Personally, I think people making hour long videos about games they supposedly don't like says more about the person than the game itself.
@@therayldeal6683 Then you uploaded a video with the title "Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Is Severely Overrated". When you employ the term "overrated" it means you're attempting to invalidate the opinions of others. You talk for 28 minutes about how you love the game and then call it overrated. So is this just a clickbait title or what?
@@traditionaljeffery7800 Nope, it's not clickbait. It's just a critical review. You would know that if you watch instead of commenting off of the title and thumbnail alone.
It is honestly one of the worst open worlds I've seen a long time. If they had made everything a little less handholdy and made cooler things to find, it would have been much, much better.
I don't understand how youve come to this conclusion. I loved it. If you don't like the handholding turn off the map, I did that and it was fantastic. Explored every inch. I love Elden Rings open world too but in regards to actual things to do and lack of repetition Rebirth wins hands down. Multiple ways to traverse, unique challenges for each zone. It's not too big that it's aimless, each biome is unique, plenty of minigames and a top tier card game to explore every region for. Not to mention the insane enemy variety, music variety and combat variety all zones have. I can easily see why people wouldn't like FF7 Rebirth, it is a unique taste but I'd like anybody to point out a better open world in a JRPG than Rebirths. It's quite easily the best, nothing in FF's history comes even remotely close. FF9 being my personal favourite before because it had the hidden treasure system, a system that Rebirth takes on itself. XV was cool for it's flying and driving but with very little to see. I can't objectively put another JRPG open world ahead of it. Subjectively I can, but it wouldn't be factual. I'm sad some people disliked it, this is exactly what was expected and more so I'm disappointed that gamers still feel the need to complain. Square enix pre 7 remake looked doomed, I didn't think another good final fantasy would release. I'm nearly 40 and I feel like the glory days of FF are back - it feels great. I hope part 3 gives you two something to enjoy like so many of us have with this.
I didn't care for Rebirth, but I'm glad it was what a lot of people wanted. That being said, the amount of people I've personally witnessed complain about FFXVI's sidequests, only to happily swallow the slop on offer in rebirth with a grin and 'please, sir, may I have some more?' is... objectively hilarious. Guess dumb jokes about Clouds hair is a potent salve for whatever boring nonsense rebirth asks you to do... for some people...
That is something that rubbed me the wrong way too, which is why I mentioned the side quests in this review. FF16 had like 2 sidequests that felt interesting, and that's it. I don't know why Square thought copying questing trends from Ubi-style open world games was a good idea, especially when the way they did sidequests in the classic games is far more interesting. Even though Blitzball isn't for everyone, the way that side activity's design is more open ended makes it feel like the quest has multiple different pathways to progress, and the Queen of Cards sidequest in FF8 is like that too. Also, they nailed hunts between FF12 and FF15, and the way hunts work in this game feels like a massive downgrade. When you would come across a hunt early just by exploring, it felt so cool to kill and collect the reward later once you found what message board it's tied to.
FF7REMAkE WAS WAY BETTER, THEY RUINED REBIRTH BY MAKING IT OPEN WORLD,, it should of been like og playstation version of ff7, Lenard pathed with world map fir traveling, not this open world crap they went with
The base gameplay was both impressive and also disappointing, the storytelling (minus the weapon fish bit which was just out of place and extra) was really good up until the last moment and then it just went to shit. I think the protorelic side quests and the chocobo side plots were a nice world building and fresh change up with how they added other mini games to the game, but damn the region exploration and spoonfeeding of side quests was so annoying. I wish the fountains and towers weren't a thing, and that exploration would reward you with stumbling across the occasional side quest instead of painting them across your map.
An open world MUST have great exploration, and that's definitely one of Rebirth's worst things. If they had stuck some of the cool things from the Chadley simulations into the open world and didn't cut out things like Fort Condor itself (instead of replacing it with the Protorelic minigame), it would have been a much better open world. There are many more things beyond the Weapon-Fish and ending that I personally didn't like, as this game is loaded with some awful pacing problems. Every dungeon feels too long, and the Costa del Sol section drags on too.
@@CRUSHTAQ I liked the archetypes quite a lot in Queen's Blood. Admittedly, I've never finished the Queen of Cards side quest or Tetra Master one, so I wouldn't be able to compare them all to the same level. Queen's Blood needs regional variants like in the Queen of Cards quest though. That would provide it with so much more depth.
100% I also think the game is extremely overrated.. a case of quantity over quality. But I think the reason most FF fans are delusional is because Square Enix hasn't released an amazing FF game in a long time. Square Enix has conditioned people into thinking mediocrity is better than it is. So when they finally release a game with an "open world" which is actually still heavily zoned off, everyone suddenly thinks it is the best thing since sliced bread. Square Enix used to be trend setters, now they are the ones following trends and they are not even matching the quality of other games. If Rebirth came out a year earlier it would not even be in the conversation for goty.
It is so sad to see Square become a mid-tier developer after being genuinely one of the greatest in the industry during my childhood. They should take a look at how Capcom is doing things and replicate that, as they have the right approach. If Square managed the FF property in the same way Capcom manages RE (I know FF games have bigger scope, so it wouldn't work 1:1), this series would be the industry juggernaut it used to be. Modern FF titles just aren't the absolute must-play games they used to be, and they haven't been since FFX over twenty years ago. They should really focus in on what they're good at. Survival horror and fighting games are niches, yet those two genres have treated Capcom super well.
Personally I will not even get nor play rebirth. The Final Fantasy kingdom hearts version drove me off with remake. It was clear they were butchering the real ff7 with their "re-imagining" instead of a remake of one of the greatest games of all time into a burning heap of trash. Yes there are good gameplay aspects, but it cannot be denied the story and game play is no where near nor ever will be what the original was.
I don't think you understood the ending. The stamp worlds are all lifestream worlds (as taunted in "On The Way To A Smile", in the "Lifestream White" episodes, or by the NPC in Cosmo Canyon during Rebirth), except the original one where the main story takes place. These other worlds are purgatories within the lifestream where souls (Zack, Biggs) seek solace and closure before they move on and fuse with the planet, becoming its fuel. However, many souls (black whispers) are not fusing with the planet because someone (Sephiroth) is corrupting them with negative feelings and using them for his own selfish purposes. Between this, and Shinra's exploitation of mako energy, the planet is dying and lifestream worlds are doomed, hence the breach in the sky in all of them (which doesn't appear in the physical world where our party is). Aerith is dead, Cloud, who is somehow connected to the lifestream due to mako exposure, his travel with Aerith to these lifestream worlds, and Sephiroth's manipulation (since he is in the LS himself), is just seeing her lifestream spirit just as he did during the resolution scene in Remake (he's also able to see the breach in the sky because of this). Aerith is gone, she's just trying to soften the blow for a far too unstable and vulnerable Cloud, and making it look like a temporary "farewell", but Cloud will have to face the music in part 3 and that scene will be tough. The rainbows we were shown when he parried Sephiroth's sword were probably a mind trick from Sephiroth himself (Jenova does have the power to create illusions), Cloud never really touched the Masamune. If you think about it, these rainbows were never shown when we changed fate in Remake, they only appear in lifestream worlds, not base reality.
After thinking about it more following this video, I did understand that, but when you break that story framework down to its core roots, it's a multiverse trope. Now, whether this plays out the same way the trope usually works or if it functions as a subversion of the trope depends on how Part 3 goes. I've never been a fan of this trope, as it usually seems centered around canonizing what-ifisms. I am not confidant in this writing team to come up with something interesting with this though. Either way, I'll be skipping the next game unless I'm specifically asked to play it by my community, and I wish I'd skipped Rebirth.
@@therayldeal6683Thank you for responding to my comment. If he was just honest about wanting to make games about the advent children timeline I would've been more interested. Not looking forward to the New Compilation mess. It feels like Enix dosent even want to make games.
@@therayldeal6683 It has been confirmed that it is on production, but ps5 sales were a massive flop if you did not know this. We'll see how it get's after multiplatform release, but it was so bad Square Enix announced that they quit exclusive deals after Rebirth was released. Writings were on the wall all along though, original Final Fantasy VII remake was more like a movie you play rather than actual video game, which gives it almost 0 re-playability due to being massive cut-scene clutter.
Personally, I find FFVII overrated in general, but it's just because everyone and their cousin is screaming over Cloud and Sephiroth, or proclaiming how much they love Tifa, etc. Myself? I'm into XII or IV, or hell, the very first FF game. I'll even say I liked VIII more. Like okay, VII was good, but I didn't see the big deal with it vs other games that had characters that actually interested me. Side note: Cait Sith and Red XIII were my fave chars from VII as well, ahahaha. Basically to me, FFVII is FF's "Darth Vader" like how they're milking FFVII while Disney's constantly spitting out Empire/Vader content vs characters like Kylo Ren or timezones we don't know much about - just because Vader is just THAT iconic, THAT popular. I must be the minority who wants more of lesser seen/loved characters. /shrugs (also lol, don't worry about dislikes; YT disabled those so what likes you get are what you've got)
I don’t know how I ended up on this video, but can you make it more obvious that you’re reading? I mean it’s fine but come on man put some emotion in there.
That's a fair critique. I'm working on a new microphone set up because if I speak outside of a certain range, there's this sound breaking that happens.
You dont understand the ending by the way, arrogant to say you do. Ive spent months pawwing over the ending and still havent got a conclusive idea. The most sound ideas are at absolute odds with your interpretation. You might be right but theres one glaringly obvious interpretation that turns the ending from weird and out of place to genuinely masterful. Ill let you try and figure out what that is.
It's garbage. Ff7 remake was garbage. Ff15 and 16 are garbage. They aren't final fantasy, the combat is low iq, side quests are boring and meaningless. Final fantasy has fallen.
@DANTE_PlZZA in the most literal way, I am crying. They have destroyed something beautiful, to make some low IQ hack and slash adventure. No offense to you, if low IQ hack and slash adventures are your sort of thing.
"Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is Severely Overrated" I mean is it really lol? It sold quite poorly and Square enix has still not yet released the sales numbers for a reason. That said a contributing factor is that it was a platform exclusive on a console which still does not have that large player base compared to ps4.
Considering that nearly all of the opinions I've listened to on this platform have been calling this Game of the Year, yes, I would say it still qualifies as overrated. Whether something is overrated or not is entirely determined on how well known it is and what people say about it. FF7 Rebirth is extremely well known and the opinions about it typically rate it extremely high. If I wanted to say how it's a travesty FF7 Rebirth sold way more than it deserved, I would have called the video "Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has sold way more than it deserves" or something like that.
As soon as he stopped talking about FF7R, I resubbed because I like listening to that guy talk about literally anything else. I speculate that part of it is him being taken in by the hype train because, even though he is positive about Rebirth, he doesn't seem as loudly blown away by it as Remake. Max is def in my Top 5 TH-camrs on the platform. I may just have to make a video covering my Top 10 at some point.
@@therayldeal6683it’s cognitive dissonance. It eats at you that someone likes something you don’t. So you have to remove them from your immediate vicinity. It’s not the game that’s an issue here, not Max, it’s you. And this is why your review here will hold no value.
@@matsutendai Well, I resubbed to him and have been his fan for a long time, so your statement just isn't true. I intentionally watch videos that disagree with me.
Most disappointing game of 2024 for me. Too much bloat, mini-games etc. Story feels like FF7 fanfic. Remake was much better, in my opinion. I won't be picking up part 3 after this travesty.
"Story feels like a FF7 fanfic" is the most concise way of stating how I feel about the writing in this game (and the last 30 minutes or so of Remake). When the writers stick the script, the game's story is literally so good, and that's partly why I think Remake has the better story. Remake is more consistent with the origiinal's story than Rebirth is. The bloat, even in small ways like the way it takes forever to interact with objects, is so odd because that was one of the critiques most people had for Remake as well. I like the Chocobo Racing and Queen's Blood minigames, but that's two of I don't know how many, and both of those are just at the bare minimum standard of quality as the minigames in the Yakuza games. I will be picking up Part 3 only if my subscribers want me to.
I don't agree. Your takes are not objective to what the game presents. As a standalone game, ignoring the fact that it is FF7, this game over delivers. The thing I see happen the most is where people can't seem to distinguish subjective vs objective. To be truly critical of a product you need to be objective on what the product offers, not on what you would have wished the product could have been. If you didn't like something from the game think back and reflect on whether that thing just didn't suit your tastes/wish it could have been different or if it was actually objectively bad. To be able to determine if something is objectively good or not, a reference is needed. A game where the majority can agree could be used to measure ff7 rebirth. I don't think you'll find many games that you could do this with. That game would need to be around the same ballpark of genre, graphics, sound design, game mechanics, etc. FF7 rebirth is rated as it is because it surpassed whatever it could have been referenced to and from now on it will be the reference of many games to come so that people can objectively see whether a game is good or not.
The only objective metrics that exist is determining whether a game is playable or not. Everything else (including what you listed) is subjective. Claiming any review is objective is disingenuous at best.
You unsubbing from Max over your crap take, is hysterical. I'm not a media personality, it's my favorite gave I've played in the past 10 years. Easily. Name a single AAA game that's better, and ill easily show you the flaws in the games you list. I cannot find a single issue with this game besides story gripes. And those are subjective.
@@therayldeal6683 funny, that's my favorite too. Lol. Here's to praying for a remake... But still, I asked to name a better game that's come out in the last 10 years. Or thats what I meant at least.
I would say Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3, Ghost of Tsushima, Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, Armored Core VI, Tears of the Kingdom, RE4 Remake and many others are much, much better. Personally, I’m wanting a simple War of the Lions port because I think FFT is visually flawless as is.
It does take people with full time jobs who don’t get paid to play new games longer to get through and review them, yes. Since I don’t get paid to do this either, I can share my unfiltered opinion without worrying about going against the grain too.
The fact it's still a DMC/Bayonetta wanna-be game is all that anyone needs to know that this game, "Remake" (even though it's not even close to that), and anything that comes after this is FUCKING TRASH!
It's ok if you prefer the standard turn-based gameplay of the old games, but calling the Remake/Rebirth combat a DMC/Bayonetta wanna-be is flat out wrong.
@@martinaguiluz4063 You are right, that was an exaggeration, both DMC's and Bayonetta's combat is way better than this trash. Nothing about this combat is good. And I mean that. It's trash. There's no nuance, no strategy, no options, and no customization, especially compared to the original. You wanna use items? Fuck you, do basic attacks until we say you can. Oh, you wanna use magic? Fuck you again, you can only do that if we let you. You wanna actually customize characters and set things up and use strategy to defeat foes? Again, Fuck You, we removed all the good things and put shit in its place.
Even if I didn't like the OG (which by the way, it's not in my Top 5 for the franchise), my issues with FF7 Rebirth would persist, and the story would be even worse than it already is.
The fact that you blame Nomura for the writing decisions you don’t like despite the fact that he didn’t write the game, and it’s Nojima; the original FF7 writer that did, shows how little I or anyone else should value your opinion. Like I don’t care if you like or dislike it, but at least do research into who made these story decisions. “Thing bad,” videos are really boring, personally. Kind of tired of them.
I blamed both Nojima and Nomura for the writing in this game since it is full of their typical King Hearts-esc and FF8-isms. Also, Kitase was the lead writer on OG FF7, and Nojima worked with him. I do know the production history of the original, and Sakaguchi's absence from this remake project is blatantly obvious. "Thing bad" videos usually don't heap praise on the game they're about for the first twenty minutes, and I'm not sure why you clicked on this video if you're tired of critical analyses of games. There's plenty of videos on the platform praising every aspect of Rebirth, so you could just watch those. Thank you for boosting me in the algorithm though.
The way this video is structured is really lame. You spend so much time praising stuff until you get to the actual point that would justify your title. Be more concrete next time and get to the point faster
No. The word "overrated" does not mean the same thing as 100% bad, and talking about the good parts of the game is important to the nuance of the thesis. I'm discussing the actual point of the video the whole time.
I really only want people subbing if they want good discussion and honest opinions. You’ll definitely be able to find an echo chamber somewhere else on the site. Good luck!
You lack the imagination, and do not have the full backstory of the series to make that assessment, the cool thing about the remake series is that it vastly expanded upon what is already known in the extended universe, so it's not just a 1 to 1 remake. There's more emphasis now on filling all the gaping holes the original FF7 had when it comes to story telling, it expanded the entire original story to include sequences that were not well told in the original like what is Sephiroth doing within the lifestream, or stagnant lifestream, it explains why alien creatures like Jenova cannot rejoin the flow of the lifestream, and it alludes to how Sephiroth was able to manipulate this with an intention to reconstitute his fragmented mother, take over the lifestream by corrupting and stagnating it's normal flow, it is even alluded to in mini segmants where Tifa quips do those mako energy used up not return to the lifestream ever again or do they just return in a different form, that is the stagnant lifestream as has been hinted to in the past long before the remake happened. Part 3 will lean heavily into the lifestream sequence and bring the original story to it's conclusion as it should have been, it explains why Aerith needed to die at the alter, it shows sequences of Aerith's memories connected to cloud and Zack through the lifestream, don't really know what more you could want apart from not understanding and analyzing every sequence in the game with a more knowleadgeable context. The amazing thing is nothing in the game with regards to the main storyline was a filler, everything was done with intend, whether you like the way the direction go because it's not an exact remake, is a you problem.
I do have the backstory of the extended FF7 universe. I’ve viewed / played all of the ancillary materials (which are of varying quality as is), and even with all of that knowledge, I came to the conclusion I have. I did not criticize any retcons that allude to Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, or Crisis Core. I didn’t mention Cissnei, Weis, or anyone else because they did not factor into the specific things I was talking about. This video could easily have been 6 hours if I dove into every element of FF7 lore that is being done dirty by Remake and Rebirth, but since I make videos exclusively for the fun of it, that was not worth the time.
@@therayldeal6683 The materia in the weapons also light up pure white after Aerith demise, indicating that her memories are now transferred to these weapon scouts, if you notice from the original FF7 when you fight Sephiroth for the last time there was a giant white materia in the shape of a whale that he was preventing us from getting to, it is lining up nice and juicy for the third game, and yeah GOTY I said it.
I have now played the original FF7 16 different times in my life. 16 times fully completing that game 100%. I will never play FF7 remake or rebirth more than once, and I am not even sure if I'm going to bother with the final installment. I'd wager that most people will never play remake or rebirth a second time either. Thats the biggest indictment of this sequel series.
I think the only reason for the Multi-Verse is so they can turn the game into a cash cow and sell multiple different offshoots and sequels of the game. The ReMake was a money grab and I see that now.
That is possible. There is definitely no value added to the story via the multiverse.
What, you initially thought they were making it out of the goodness of their hearts? No shit it was a cash grab, come on man the point of all remakes and remasters is to make money.
@@lukaede7172Ah, but your argument falls flat, because FF7 Remake is... A SEQUEL! MUAHAHAHAHA
But yeah, obviously all games from companies like SE are made to make money. The problem is when the people making the game don't want to make that game, and don't care at all about its actual quality.
They already did that with the original ff7. The remake games kinda act as a capstone for the base game combined with the additional titles and properties that have come out over the years. Taking a popular game and oversaturating it with spin off is kind of square's whole business strategy. Personally I think they did a solid job combining everything so far but I can understand why people aren't a fan since it isn't a remake of the base game its a conglomeration of all the titles.
There are such highs and lows in both Remake and Rebirth; it’s at its best when it re-creates the story from the OG but falters when it introduces new meta-elements into the plot that no one asked for since the Remake project was announced.
I really really love the story of the original, so simple yet deep at the same time. Seeing the story getting butchered through the concept of multiverses really left a bad taste in my mouth because the devs definitely did justice to so many other aspects of the game such as the characters, gameplay, music, graphics, design etc.
You and I share the exact same opinion on this.
@Genesisplayer777 hmm but I didn’t?
@@kin3tics92 Genesis and Fanyoung are both definitely bots.
The biggest problem of ff7 remake, is that it's not, it's not even an rpg when all your choices, materias, gear, experience acquired, when all of it is reset at every new part of the remake, this is a walking simulator moviegame of a supposed fanfiction of FF7. It's a sorry ass excuse of a game when it's separated in parts that don't even connect with your progressions nor allow for errors along the way of your gameplay accross the whole story of the game, this is a joke of an rpg, doesn't deserve the rpg monicker in any respect for this.
@@therayldeal6683 ur in the minority with ur opinion most people loved the game that’s why u say it’s overrated because u know most people enjoyed it
Did anyone else feel like the amount of weapons and lack of ultimate weapons was kind of a let down? Part of the problem with breaking this up into 3 separate games is that if you normally planned to have 10-15 weapons per character, you don't want to do that 3 times, so you end up just dividing them into 3 small groups and put 1 grouping in each game. Ultimate weapons are the same problem. I didn't really feel like there was many options for interesting combinations of weapons, weapon points, armor, and accessories.
The customization was better than FF16, and I personally didn't have too much problems with the weapon variety. One or two more per character would have been nice.
Absolutely nothing about the open world in this game feels organic. There is NO sense of discovery or mystery. Everything happens according to strict rules presented to you in their entirety. You will always know what will happen, how you will get there and what reward you will get.
For example, finding all the lifespring will always make a special boss appear somewhere. In each region. Without fail. Why? Because that's how the game decided it should be. No surprise encounter with the special boss, no bending of the rules. You just go through the checklist of things to do. And the world follows that. There are no surprises, nothing organic to discover.
This is all true, and it is one of the major, serious flaws with Rebirth. In a world with Tears of the Kingdom and Elden Ring, the flaws with this type of open world are just super easy to see.
@@therayldeal6683 Even finding a random Ifrit materia on the ground in the original FFVII was more exciting that the summons in Rebirth.
Discovered you and your video, after seeing you under Orion85's Comment Section. I think your video is pretty honest. Some people I used to watch were completely praising the game and calling it 10/10 or "GOTY" or "Masterpiece". I say, Rebirth isn't a bad game, but it has some of the most mindnumbing writing mistakes, that you cannot just ignore. My main problem with Rebirth's story, is how confusing it is and how it tries to manipulate the player sometimes with overdramatization.
And my issues can be summed into this: Whatever Nomura touches, it gets timetravel or multiverse. FF13-2/Lightning Returns, FF15 has a timetravel plot. Kingdom Heart has grown utterly confusing. And of course, FF7R and Rebirth grown confusing with the Whispers (Appearently, the Black Whispers are Sephiroth from the future and the White Whispers are Aerith. And, my brain already hurts...) and the multiverse. It sadly utterly destroyed the OG FF7 Theme: Death and Acceptance.
But my main issue with the story is the ending of Rebirth. Aside from Cloud attacking Tifa in Gongaga, the ending has pissed me off. Because it confirmed many... Many problems I had with the writing. And it heavily reminded me of the last episode of RWBY Volume 9.
My take on the ending is this: The writers wanted the emotional payoff from Aerith's death. But they didn't actually wanted her to begone from the story, so they cheated. And it heavily implies, that the writers are hacks. Cowardly, manipulative and worst them all: Talentless. My book says this: If you want your audiance to get emotional, then kill Aerith off. And after the Jenova Fight, repeat the same scene with the Water Burying. But if you want to change the course of the story, then you can't kill Aerith off. Have that Sephiroth monologing about them changing the course of this timeline, going against his plans. Then have the others show up, so saving Aerith will be guranteed. And sorry for the capital words: YOU CANNOT DO BOTH SCENARIOS!
Sorry for the long comment. It's just, that is how I feel about the ending and the story in general. 😞
Orion's video is pretty great, so I'm glad one of the commenter's mentioned. The writing and open world are the two huge issues with Rebirth, and I think you're right about Aerith. They needed to pick a direction. I wouldn't have been happy if she lived, but I would have liked that ending better than what we got.
The FF7R team just wants to have their cake and eat it too, and it's not working out for most of the players I talk to.
@@therayldeal6683
I get what you mean. I understand that her death in the OG was hard but ultimately, it was necessary. Aerith became one with the Lifestream and she helped Cloud and the others in defeating Sephiroth.
And I agree on your take. As I said, the writers of RWBY did the same thing with Ruby Rose, the main character in Volume 9 Chapter 8, by having her going through a big emotional and physical torture, which resulted her drinking a magic tea and she had been Ascended into the Tree. But in Chapter 10, the writers did this: Ruby chose to accept who she was and she had been reborned with who she was before, except she got her Emblem back. This made her death feel hollow and her resurrection emblematic.
With Aerith, I stand by what I said. The writers did both scenarios and it saddened me, that some people sucked it up, like a vacuum cleaner. Including Critical Gamer( Critical Drinker's Gamer Account).
@@KritoSkywaker A lot of reviewers talk to each other and know that giving an FF a low score is going to rain hate on them. I'm not saying that impacted CD's review, but I speculate that's why IGN, GameSpot, etc. usually end up with the same score for games.
@@therayldeal6683
Hm. Make sense. That is why I don't trust major reviewers that much. We shouldn't jump into conclusions. We should do research properly, play the games and then make reviews with honest care. 😞
@@KritoSkywaker That's why if I'm on the fence about buying a game, I wait until the part-time or small channel TH-camrs make reviews because those are the people who've actually put their hard-earned money into the review and limited time.
thanks for the honesty
never let these ff7r shills trying to silence you
They definitely came out in force when this first dropped.
And yet I believe people have now opened their eyes to the obvious flaws of both remake and rebirth… much more so than when the first installment was issued when a single critic against the « sacred FF7 remake » was considered heresy pure and simple
@@monkeygunner67000 I've been following Resonant Arc for awhile (they are def one of my favorite creators on the platform), and on their archived channel, they got ripped into for critiquing the story of Remake. I didn't care for the Remake's story changes at all, but I also wasn't making videos at that point in time.
Its a shame I really liked remake they really either should've changed the story or stuck with the og. Halfway storytelling will never appease anyone.
I agree. They need to pick a lane and stay with it. I wouldn't have near as much ire if they did so.
It appeased me because I never played the original so it's fresh for me
Nice work, great video!
I got up to Costa De Sol, and got burnt out.
Then I played the original game, and that section was only like 1 minute long! haha
Yeah, and honestly, the pacing in the original FF7 is just perfect. No section lasts too long, and one of the worst things about Remake and Rebirth is the bloat.
@@therayldeal6683 yeah I'm not going to lie to you, I had a good time playing OG FF7 recently, the pacing was great. And the Echo voice acting mod was fantastic. While I bought a PS5 for Rebirth, I don't see myself finishing it.
@@AlastairGames I've been wanting to play original FF7 again. I've got an idea for a roguelike-ish challenge run of the game.
I know you said this video was for people who are far more critical of this game than I am, but even as a someone who sincerely enjoys Rebirth I get secondhand embarrassment as some of the comments you've received from people who can't understand that people will not like everything they do. Your criticism may be not ones I haven't heard before, but that doesn't mean your opinion doesn't matter. I like listening to anyone willing to talk about games I like, even if they don't like them, because that's more interesting and it helps be consider what I like or even dislike about something I'm otherwise a fan of. You were worth listing to, and I'm glad I did.
Personally my biggest issue with Rebirth is that it didn't stray far enough from canon to me liking. After the ending of Remake I was prepared for the story to go off the rails the longer I played the game, but instead it stuck to canon outside of minor changes. It's like they wanted to appease two separate crowds (old fan who wanted a faithful retelling and people interested in the new direction) and didn't satisfy either. I hope that we're done with retelling and the third game just more of what the ending of Remake and Rebirth did instead of leaving it all to the end.
Thank you for this awesome comment!
If they were clear with who this was for, I wouldn't have any reason to dislike it because I wouldn't have played it. Calling the series a remake one instead of a reimagining really sets expectations in the wrong direction for legacy fans who want the faithful retelling.
Great video, but why dont you talk about how us OG FF7 crew get crucified for criticizing anything about the FF7 Reimagined atrocities?
Like you guys being called as "purist" for wanting a 1:1 remaster of the OG?
@@KritoSkywaker Do you even know what a remaster is?
@@KT-rq9id
Not exactly. I'm out of the loop. But I feel for the OG Fans. Please belive me. 😞😞
@@KritoSkywaker A true remake would be keeping the game the same, but remaking it from the ground up. Made on a new engine, new assets, new expanded lore, new graphics, but still retaining the fixed camera angle dungeons, the world map, the ATB system, menu design, and etc. This would've been a true remake, but we got a "Reimagining" of FF7 instead of a faithful remake. Look no further than RE1 (1996) and REmake (2002). That was the definition of remake for 15 years.
A remaster confuses people, but a remaster is the same PS1 game, but maybe some HD textures, upscaling the resolution, better fps, and that's it. No new engine, no new expanded lore, nothing.
@@KT-rq9id
Thank you for the clarifications. I just did not wished to offend anyone with wierd stuff. And yes. I saw that Resident Evil game. It was amazing. One of the true retro games.
And yes... I do agree on your take. I apologize for not catching the vibes sooner. 🥺
I think it's a fair review in my opinion. I also give the game 7-8/10 at most, I think from the big reviewers Gamespot was the only giving it a 8 a week before the launch claiming the game had pacing issues. I share the critique that most Chadley related stuff should have been put in the open world, the repetitive tasks bore really soon. Enemy skills should be learned by getting hit by that attack by the enemy, not in a simulator. I think a lot of players suffered from mini-game fatigue after a while, but some where fun and could return.
To give an example : the lifesprings. They should have been locked until you clear the side quest in Cosmo Canyon with Bugenhagen, they could have chosen to reward players with fights against whisper versions of certain monsters with drained ones and materia with healthy ones. Another thing that could have been repurposed are the notice boards in the towns, they should have had hunts instead of side quests so the player can traverse the open world looking for the spot of the hunt. I don't get the choice of the developers with giving the player a one-star healing materia if you replay a certain section where you originally found a nice materia. The hard mode in this game is a little harder than Remake, but I don't get the obsession to put the manuscripts behind these replays, why invent a store for your folios where you can reset them but can't buy them. They could have put them behind a money wall so you need to farm mastered materia in order to earn enough gil to buy them. Summons are basically worthless in this game, except for one time to earn the Bronze trophy I can't recall the need to use them. I was hoping they implemented that materia are born again after mastering them or some kind of materia fusion from Crisis Core to make Hell-materia. Red XIII can only climb walls on 2 occasions, his dungeon and his trial. Why not expand the story dungeons with paths you can't reach on your first playthrough with the party because you need a grappling gun or don't know how to scale a wall at that time, with at the end a nice reward.
The story changed dramatically compared to OG if you take into account that the optional characters are now written in the main story, we'll have to see how the Vincent and Yuffie arc will come to a conclusion in part 3. I think next year around this time we'll have a DLC (probably with Cid) to start the hype to the last installment, story wise a DLC for Vincent about his years as a Turk should be interesting (though I think for Vincent they're thinking about a revamp of DoC). I'm wondering if they'll punish players again to start a new or they make it a real sequel which transfers the save data of Rebirth. The funny thing about the story is they have 40 hours to tell a good one yet fail so they bring out an Ultimania to clarify certain things the players might not have understood well. In my eyes that's admitting you delivered a faulty product. Sephiroth doesn't feel threatening anymore, he's become a joke. The result of Remake is basically Flashpoint which created the multiverse, which should make Rebirth basically Crisis on Infinite Earths. I probably won't buy the last part at launch.
I don't hate the game, I think there's lots of room for improvement. I got the platinum trophy, it doesn't feel like an accomplishment.
This is one of the Top 10 best replies to this video. I enjoyed reading through that because you've got loads of great ideas on how they could have made the game better and how they could improve the series moving forward.
@@therayldeal6683 Thank you for the compliment. This was the game (OG) that got me hooked on playing JRPGs so it will always be special to me. I'll always try to make suggestions to improve things, I have even more ideas. I miss some kind of time reference in Rebirth, I count 6-9 nights from start to finish (Kalm, Junon, cruiseship, Dustbowl, Gongaga?, Cosmo Canyon, Gold Saucer date, trip to the temple, Forgotten Capital). It feels more like a vacation than a journey.
@@therayldeal6683 Thank you for the compliment. This was the game (OG) that got me hooked on playing JRPGs so it will always be special to me. I'll always try to make suggestions to improve things, I have even more ideas. I miss some kind of time reference in Rebirth, I count 6-9 nights from start to finish (Kalm, Junon, cruiseship, Dustbowl, Gongaga?, Cosmo Canyon, Gold Saucer date, trip to the temple, Forgotten Capital). It feels more like a vacation than a journey.
Everything you said was great. Rebirth is a DECENT game. The combat is great! Everyone is unique with their abilities. The mini games are fun to play! Especially the card game! BUT their not worth re-playing on harder difficulties. Normal mode is all I need, thank you. The exploration (I think) is pretty good. Although, I agree, the open world doesn't let the player just discover things on their own. EVERYTHING has to be pointed out on the map and nothing is never a mystery to discover. Even when you're on a quest and they give you a new destination, they just so HAVE TO mark it on the map for you. And if there's a new quest, again, the game just marks it on the map for you. Why can't the player just try to find it for themselves? Like ya know, a REAL exploration? The game just keeps holding your hand. But aside from that, I still got a kick from the exploration. It wasn't all bad. The graphics are amazing! As always, and it keeps looking better. They even went as far a recreating the opening of Remake with the new PS5 engine. They could have easily just reuse the old clips from the game and from the PS5 version. But no, instead they wanted to recreate the whole thing. I'll give me that! The music is good. Not AS good as the originals. But still good. And then you got that story...meh. The story does a good job recreating the games story (at times) when it's recreating moments from the original. However, when they try to add new things....not so much. Especially.....THAT ending. This whole multiverse bullshit was NOT necessary. ALL THEY HAD TO DO, was just recreate the original story. Copy and paste. Not hard to do. I DON'T MIND changes to a Remake. But a goddamn multiverse is NOT one of them. Oh! And the final boss can blow me! Cloud and Zack meeting each other from different timeless? .... REALLY!?! That is so fan service!!! And "died" Aerith helping Cloud against Sephiroth was just....NO! FUCK OFF WITH THAT! Whatever. Anyways.
I'll admit, I'm still looking forward to Part 3, but I'm not going to hold my breath for it.
Yep I agree it’s a 7/10 game. I felt like I was wasting precious time half of the time. What kept me going was to see how they would adapt THE scene and I felt 0 emotions ( except for confusion )
If you felt like it wasted your time that much surely it's lower than a 7/10 :P
A perfect analysis of rebirth, personally for myself the story just completely lost me as a fan, I adore the og story, it'll definitely stick with me longer than the FF7R trilogy ever will, and chadly 🥱 a lot of odd decisions made in the name of FF7 🙄 But I do love the combat, the game looks stunning, but ultimately the story sealed it for me.
The story and world design are clearly the things that killed it for me too.
RedX111's older voice was one of the best interpretations of how I thought and FF7 character would have sounded like. In fact, they did a great job with all the characters voices sounding like I expected...until they changed Red's voice. Red is something like, 45 years old or something. But in his species, he's a teenager. The developers seemed to think he would be as immature as a human teenager. Thats not really how that works. He still has 45 years of experience and growth. Just because he is young for his species doesn't mean he would be equal to a human teenager. He should still be immature for others of his species, but he's still more mature and wise compared to a human.
That was my major problem with that as well.
I'm completely in agreement. It's a good game as a stand alone ff but it's not ff7 ... ff7 is the absolute wonder from magic system and exploration and npc chats and sooo much more. Your stuck in a line with the new ones. It all looks soo great but your access ... gonna stop I could go on an on . Og ff7 is an will always be king 😊
We agree that the original is peak FF7.
Agreed.
100%
Imagine having a game with this kind of graphics and how big and long it really is . I could imagine the gbs now lol
funnily enough, the only time i ever think about playing this game again is to play queens blood. ive tried to replay this game like 3 times and i just feel exhausted every time
I had a lot of fun with Queen's Blood myself.
The game is definitely overrated
It's a 7 at most, the dialogue is awful, the story is Laughable, had tons of game breaking bugs when it came out (some quests were bugged) the pacing was really bad with the minigames and even the graphics were really bad with the massive amount of pop in and some textures, it got high scored because people are blind with nostalgia
It is a 7/10 for me as well. its got some good elements (gameplay and boss design), but there are also loads of rough edges.
Final Fantasy 7's theme is about dealing with and recovering from loss. Every single protagonist has suffered terrible loss before and during the course of the game.
Remake and Rebirth destroy this theme and replace it with something completely different. As soon as I saw they were doubling down on the Nomura ghosts from Remake, I lost all interest in the new story.
I make a very similar point in my video. This remake series threw out the amazing themes of the original for far weaker ones and shock value.
Media, and specially games, are a product of the mindset of the creators during a specific timeframe, that was also a product of the society at the time. Just like the Evangelion rebuilds, you cant expect the creator to hit the exact same notes, that's just you clinging onto nostalgia.
@@slayer1156 Just because it's "new" doesn't mean it's better. That's just you clinging to recency bias.
@@cizzymac I didnt say its better, that's just you putting words in my mouth to feel better.
@@slayer1156 Yeah it sucks when it happens to you doesn't it? Maybe consider not doing the exact same thing to other people.
I definitely agree with most of your points. The game felt more like it was chasing nostalgia and fanservice as a priority over story which really sucks. I adore Zack. In all my years of gaming he was my favorite character, but this remake series has been ruining him for me. There is no purpose in bringing him back beyond fanservice. I loved him for his sacrifice, not the whole reason I loved him, but it was a big part of what touched me emotionally and they butchered that. They butchered an iconic scene in video game history with Aerith's death.
Why would you bomb these scenes? These scenes that give stakes and emotional weight to the conflict? It hurts me so much. This game was an important part of my life. I was deep in VII communities, discussions, roleplaying, merchandise and now... it feels like VII isn't what it was anymore. I feel like I am no longer able to bond and relate to this game anymore. It took something out of me that shattered my enjoyment. This is VII now to a new generation and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
It's a good game, otherwise. It has some emotional highs that I liked and some character moments taht were really sweet, but when it fails... it fails hard. Thank you for your balanced critique. It feels so jarring to see most discourse praising this as the new classic.
This game has some insane highs (The Loveless Scene, Dio's introduction, and other scenes like that are really tasteful remixes of the original's), but the lows are so low that it poisons the well. I'll play and review Part III if my community wants me to a few years from now; otherwise, I'll be skipping it.
@@therayldeal6683 That is exactly my feeling on Rebirth. VII was a formative part of my childhood personally. Part of me secretly hopes you will play VII part 3 and give your perspective on things. I have a feeling the reviews will be glowing and the narrative faults will be even bigger and more gaping with more and more people ignoring the flaws and persisting to see the story with rose tinted glasses.
It would be nice to see another balanced perspective, but we'll see as the trailers come out.
I almost feel like the game theorizing culture may have contributed to some of the horrible events that is ruining the narrative. They want people to talk and theorize like it's a FNaF game, to keep the fandom alive and hyped, but I feel like it's poisoned the well when it comes to telling a fulfilling story.
@@KrazyKoto The worst part is that they didn't need to design the story this way to satisfy the theory-crafters. A good story and theory-crafting aren't mutually exclusive (FFT, X, and From Soft games show that). They could have just added more nuance to the characterization, and that would have been enough.
@@therayldeal6683 They could have. I think they might have tunnel vision. Just chasing the modern trends and what they think would go well with a modern audience. They should have done what Resident Evil 2 or 4 did in terms of remakes. Maybe they didn't have enough faith that og VII would resonate with a modern audience?
@@KrazyKoto It does seem like the Remake series was heavily impacted by the success of the MCU. It's not the only series to be impacted this way either, as Mortal Kombat as the same sort of narrative problems going on.
My biggest issue with Rebirth for sure is how the open world is designed
Yeah, the open world is worse than even the ones that existed at the end of the 2000s.
I don’t think you were ever supposed to question if Barrett shot up the gold saucer in the OG, you know him well enough at that point not to kill innocents
I disagree. He did perpetuate acts of actual ecoterrorism costing lives before, so when I played it for the first time, I did think he was killing people at first. Granted, I was 7 or 8 at the time.
Nope. Not even close. Besides the fact that he had NO problems with blowing up the reactors that resulted in the deaths of Shinra tropes just doin their jobs and most certainly would have resulted in the deaths of innocents, the point you go to the Gold Saucer was right after he was confronted with his past in his hometown. One could imagine him being so mentally damaged to the point of killing innocents at that point. It's all about the suspense. In which thanks to Rebirth killing it, due to them showing him seeing Dyne do the act of killing the innocents at the Gold Saucer.
Even if you felt like you knew him well enough, it's the what if that makes the story engaging. What if he did? What if we have to fight Barret? What if we have to take the fall for him?
7R acts like it's afraid to make you feel that tension. It acts like it's afraid to make you feel any tension at all.
Currently playing through it now, as far as open world mechanics go it's not nearly as good as like a dragon but it's not as terrible as many open world games.
I just wish open world games would stop they just pad games with meaningless side quests with shitty rewards most of the time, rebirth did ok and i'm not that far into it but it's only ok to me.
The open worlds of games like Tears of the Kingdom and Elden Ring are just so much better than the one in Rebirth. There's a lot things that could enhance the open world, as I say in my video, like putting all of the cool stuff in the Chadley simulation jail in the open world. Imagine if summons could just be found through exploration. As it stands, the open world feels more like a hub area with paths tendriling out of it.
This is probably just me, but I don't know how you can see the way they handled Barret and Dyne, Tifa & Cloud in Gongaga, and the whole final sequence with Aerith and still call this game overrated and bad. I probably won't ever understand but I respect y'all's opinion.
For me this game topped my favorite game of all time over ff7 og and metal gear 3. I just cant see how part 3 is gunna top this.
I'm happy there are people who like it, but I have been considerably disappointed by both this and Remake. I'll be skipping Part 3 unless my subs want me to cover it in a few years.
I'll be playing Metal Gear Solid 3 for the first time this year, and I plan to review it.
Thanks for the video. I think you covered all of my frustration with the game. New story pieces and changes are not interesting. Openworld and chadley are annoying
I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
I didn’t even finish rebirth. Played to cosmo canyon and just lost interest. I think I lost interest far before that, it just took me trying to push through to totally kill it for me.
If I weren't playing it with my friend and for this channel, I would have stopped either sooner than that or right after Red's characterization completely changes.
@@therayldeal6683 beating a dead horse here, but the gongaga area is probably where I was just over it.
I wanted to make a second comment. I'm surprised, you got the Barret Date in Chapter 12. 😊
Most majority, who played the game went for Tifa, because if you boosted her relationship with Cloud up to the "Intimate" level, they can kiss. I dunno with Aerith or Yuffie, but this is what I heard.
And I also wanted to say this: I fear, that the writers will seperate Cloud and Tifa apart, just as they did in the FF7 Novel Book: "A Way to a Smile*.
And considering, that Nomura said in a interview, that the third game will take place in the events of Advent Children, is it natural to have this fear? 😞
I likely won't be touching Part 3 unless my community wants me to. The gameplay in these games as been pretty fun, but the quest and world design and the story have not been at all.
Getting the date with Barrett was a major highlight of my playthrough for sure.
@@therayldeal6683
Yeah. I can clearly see that. Barret softened up while Cloud listened to his old stories. I like that bromance type hang out. 😊
And of course, I saw the person behind Gaming Sins, getting the Red XIII date. But he was a dummy and reloaded, only to do a 1 hour worth side mission content, just to impress Tifa and get her as his date. 😆
And personally... I'm kind of conflicted regarding the dates. I would go for the Aerith Date majorly, because as much as I like Tifa, Aerith always been held a special place in me. No offense. 😇
I’m petitioning for every 3d open world game to have a map like Jedi fallen order. My god the 2d only maps need to die
This game definitely needed it for some of its traversal sections, like Gongaga.
Whether or not it's overrated depends on how much you subjectively value each aspect. The open world is boring and uninspired, Chadley is the worst thing ever, the mini games are too much and most of them suck. Despite all that, the game is easily one of my favorites because the characters, the combat, the story, the world building, the visuals and the vibe are pretty much the best i've ever seen in a video game and i value these way more personally.
The combat, boss design, and points where the story sticks to the original's script are the things about Rebirth I like, but everything else in the package overshadows these things and are the reason I personally don't like it that much.
Most people said the open world is great and so are the mini games. Ur definitely in the minority with that opinion.
For an open world to be great, the exploration has to be amazing, and Rebirth essentially has no exploration at all. There’s no opportunity to get lost or to be surprised with what you’ll find over the horizon. Not that Rebirth has horizons at all.
@@therayldeal6683 it definitely has exploration the worlds is absolutely massive. There tons to do so much so it’s feels overwhelming at time. Like I said that’s ur opinion but ur in the minority with that opinion most people don’t agree
the story is bad
your opinion is invalid
I cringe every time i think of this rebirth crap
a thoughtful critique! to me Rebirth is a complete dumpster fire, but when I express that opinion there are always people that defend it, but never address the problems I bring up. the AI combat is some of the worst Ive seen. the battle outside the TotA is a perfect example. characters are running around like chickens with their heads cut off. I had a character die because of bad game design, not because it was a challenge. they bloat the game with side content but cut out finding and exploring the Forgotten Capital, the most compelling location. this remake should've been a no-brainer, I've played the original a dozen times and will play it again, but I'll never play this game again because the combat is miserable. QB & choco racing is fun though.
Yeah bruh ngl Maximillian dude will sell you literally any fucking thing
I like him a lot, but he is a major hype machine. It's fun to watch, but sometimes, the hype just isn't warranted.
Pretty sure you can play the final combat challenges whilst in your normal play through.
They just have hard mode settings & rules once you start them.
Or, load ch12 on hard mode through chapter select, walk to Chadley & just try the challenges.
That is good to know. They weren't showing up for me despite finishing all of the available ones. I'll need to redownload the game and do them because the combat challenges are genuinely, legitimately great.
@@therayldeal6683 oh I’m trying to remember what happened when I unlocked them.
Can’t remember if there were any other requirements, I think you might need to be in a new game+ save as well, but pretty sure that can be in any chapter.
I think you need to beat Gilgamesh as well.
@@Kean_Bean That's probably the condition I'm missing then. I needed a break from the game when realizing what I'd need to do to complete the folios (I am a trophy hunter at heart, for better and worse), so I stopped playing right before fighting Gilly boy. He was actually next on my completion list (I like chunking platinums into completable parts for the extra dopamine of checking something off of my list).
I'll probably come back to Rebirth for these combat-centric challenges at some point in the future, but it definitely won't be before the Mk1 expansion and DBZ Sparking! Zero since those are my next major 2024 reviews (for new games).
@@therayldeal6683 yehhh take your time, it will still be there.
Especially if you are going to try for 100%, there is an awful lot to do.
I found the combat challenges to be well worth it, though I probably should have taken a break myself to enjoy them more.
@@Kean_Bean There's some research that suggests things sit in your head better if you don't binge them. I've been experimenting a bit with that idea by spacing out my game time and my current watch of JoJo's, and I think they're onto something. I appreciate all the games I play a bit better with a few day breaks between sessions.
I've got a rotation of 3 games I loop between, so I'm still playing things on off days.
As someone who's never played through the original, I've loved my experience with remake and rebirth. But I respect that these games are flawed, in particular I think some of the quests and areas are built just to pad out the game, but I really appreciate some of the extra characterization the added space can bring, I just wish it didn't mean so much running back and forth. I appreciate the different take on the game you have.
Now on to the real question, what is the song at 8:29 playing on the chapter card, that sounds like a latin musical chant.
Fully agree. I got the game at launch, and still haven't had the motivation to finish it. I tried exploring when I was in the first two areas, but the exploration was just so bloated, cumbersome, and unrewarding that I got bored quick. I would still like to finish the game since I bought it digitally and can't just sell it. But it is dragging on so much and doesn't hold a candle to the original FF7 in the areas that truly count.
I ended up turning the difficulty down to easy and have been ignoring literally everything except the main quest, because at this point I just want it to be over. I really do not understand how anyone who has played the original could ever say Rebirth is one of the best games they've ever played.
I think does matter why someone liked the original. If someone liked there original simply for its characters, I could see how they’d like this because there is loads of fan service around every corner. For someone who liked the original for its story and themes, Remake and Rebirth are an absolute travesty.
I didn’t like remake that much, but Rebirth is one of my favorite games of all time, my favorite JRPG for sure
Why do you like Rebirth more than Remake?
It's the other way around for me
@@ken7007same for me!
@@Sp8man00 ikr i love remake even Platinum it
Ff7 rebirth is "Toxic Positivity" in its most pure form.
I left my response comment on the Alien video before I saw that you already watched it.
It is a project where someone definitely needed to rope in the writing team. With better focus, this remake series could have been an all time classic.
@therayldeal6683 haha. Yeah, I saw your alien video first. Once that was done I immediately went to watch this one. This is some of the best gaming critique I've seen in an incredibly long time. Keep it up!
I loved it. This is my game of the year. What is your game of the year so far?
I’m happy you liked the game. My #1 game this year is Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth and Crow Country is second.
@@therayldeal6683 Have not played those. Will have to check them out.
Not feeling too great about buying remake at full retail price... Thank God for those Rebirth long plays tho
My only problems with the game is getting hit and dying out of your synergy attacks and long spell casting especially when im trying to cast curaga(I know it's a materia to shorten the time to cast but it's dumb to me and shouldn't even be a thing)
It’s crazy to me that they didn’t fix the issue where cutscenes can stop you mid move and still eat your ATB and mana pool. That was in Remake too, and I disliked that aspect of its design as well.
@Genesisplayer777 Dude stfu😂 you don't even know what you talking about
So glad you made this video. I had 10x more fun playing Stellar Blade and exploring what that game has to offer.
I love MaximillianDood, but I don’t 100% agree with his takes, which is 10,000% ok ❤
Absolutely! That's why I've been resubbed since 2020 (like 1 week after the thing I mention in the video).
as far as the open world design opinions go, I agree with the exception of the old school overworld (big character on little map)
I do not think JRPGs need them anymore for technical reasons or for game design reasons
I've honestly find them extremely boring over the years of nothing interesting being done with them
aside from like... Wild Arms 3 scanning, which kind of sucked
other than linking the more engaging and detailed locations together, they offer little else other than enemy encounters between point A and point B
I prefer the area/zone design seen in 11, 12, 14, and 16 the most and I think that level/environment design would've benefitted 7R's world more than anything
For technical or game design reasons, they definitely don't need to do that type of overworld anymore, but in terms of art design and worldbuilding, I would like to see one again. Open world games are a dime a dozen these days, and nearly all of them are pretty soulless imo.
Stringing either battles or lackluster busy work from point A to point B is how I feel about the design of nearly every open world released in the past 5 years. Tears of the Kingdom, Elden Ring, and Ghost of Tsushima have pretty engaging ones, but I honestly can't name one open world beyond them I really, really like.
The open zone idea could work though. 16's zones were good, and really their only design issue is that they were pretty barren of interesting content within them. I would like that type of design better if Square looked at what made exploration interesting in 12 and started implementing that in their future titles. Hunts need to be in every FF game, and they need to be findable in the world organically.
I loved this game, I see it as a sequel to the OG rather than a remake. I love the characters and their banter. The only character they did dirty imo was Red. If something was boring to me, I just skipped it and moved on. I think people who have a big issue with this game either/or are OCD and choose to put themselves through an unenjoyable side content experience rather than skip it, and purists who still view this as a remake rather than a sequel
If I skipped the things I found boring, I would have skipped a lot of the cutscenes tbh. The side content is this game is pretty abysmal, and that is a knock against the game even if it is skippable. Everything in a game should be as close to good as possible.
Imo, this being a sequel (which is the opinion I had after Remake) doesn't improve it at all for me, and if anything, makes it even worse, as the original didn't require expansion, especially expanded content that destroys the core themes of the story.
The OG purists will have a hard time with the story beats. But I wouldn't want a 1:1 remake where I know every single thing that is about to happen. I would maybe love the first game for nostalgia reasons, but nostalgia only goes so far. I would get bored.
I agree that it is not a 10 though. But it is a great game.
I view remakes the same way I do different performances of Shakespeare or translations of various mythologies. They always change a few things, but the core themes and most important story beats are not altered. FF7 is a great story that didn’t need a lot of change. I even break down the moments where the designers really did add to the original’s plot in tasteful ways.
We asked for a remake and anyone saying the didn’t is a liar.
@@therayldeal6683 To each their own.
@@kjh4496 Calm down
You don't need 1:1. This is what expanding what the OG set up but failed to go all the way through. However...there is that and then there is completely changing tone, character and basically everything that made the OG FF7 a masterpiece. Ask yourself this...would you love a" Remake" of the Original Star Wars Trilogy, where Emperor Palpatine goes on Tatooine and has a long drawn out fight with Obi Wan, beats him and while Obi Wan is laying on the ground he goes on about how he will make Luke his apprentice of the Darkside and leaves Obi Wan there and that's it? How about time traveling force beings coming in to stop Obi Wan from dying against Vader on the Death Star? Would you love that simply because "It's different"? Come on now. Somethings are the way they are because they FIT they story.
The story is called FF7 Remake/Rebirth, we would expect a story on the same scale as the OG FF7, but with better graphics and simply expanding on those the OG FF7 did. Things from the compilation, such as Genesis and other things. Not completely change things like the mystery of Sephiroth or Cloud's own identity and his broken mental state because of it.
I love ff7 but I hate the remake. Because the tempo problem is so annoying. I especially can't forget the part with the ghosts. Who would want to squeeze a fairy tale into a moment when everything is accelerating? This is plain stupidity. Japanese game developers prepare great gameplay but they destroy the fun of the gameplay with unnecessary dialogues, cutscenes and tempo problems.
The "hold triangle to move a box" parts in the dungeons always really annoy me.
I can toatlly seem them put Aeth in the Tifa and Cloud moment or even make it worst.
Consider the hits we get, Aeth have feeling for Cloud and who know what there plan for Zack to.
I can see them make a twice and uno reverse ,Tifa and Cloude die while Zack and Aeth live on as there legacy
It's hard to know where exactly Nojima and Nomura are going to take the story because they seem to value shock value quite high in the scenes they have changed from or added to the original.
The ultimate gripe about this game, is the story. God, the story goes off the rails...and doesn't recover at the end. Its very bloated with side content. Which could have progressed the story forward. Instead we need to have the final game cover A LOT of territory, and wrap up everything. And that's a tall task that I don't expect Square Enix to pull off.
My thoughts exactly.
This just convinces me that nomura is so bitter about "13 versus" that we are seeing bit and pieces of what wanted to make in basically every modern FF title. This is probably why I'm an outlier in saying FF16 is best in modern games since it goes back to that non sequel writing.
I actually like ~80% of 16's narrative. I'm not a big fan of Ultima, but they do essentially everything else right. The beach scene with Jill is legit one of the best FF moments of all time.
I personally like the first 13 game, but the other two are quite bad story-wise.
@@therayldeal6683
Ah yes. FF XIII-2, which added Timetravel and a supernatural power, that allows Serah to see the future. And Lightning Returns, which gives us Multiverse and the "happy ending syndrome", which was seen later in Kingdom Hearts 3.
Hey man, I hope you have a great one and before I get into my opinion I just want to let you know who I am before so you understand where I’m coming from.
I’ve barely touched the FF franchise (I’ve only played XVI and FF7 Remake and this game) and I have not played the original FF7 game.
So that might be why I’m not bothered by the changing of themes from the original from the remakes because there’s a more akin to a sequel then a remake (other than the weird naming sense the first game has lol).
And I do agree with you for a ton of the points (the open world is alright, the mini game fluff just really isn’t necessary, and the ending really did put me off just like it did for Remake), but I feel like the story changing isn’t as bad as it seems. I do agree it’s so convoluted and I just wish it was more clear because it could be so more enjoyable and it really does feel like the first 90% of the game was peak and the last 10% I was like huh… huh… and then Aerith doesn’t die and then does?
It’s extremely tough on me because I’m a new player who can’t even see what was changed and what was from the prior, but from what I can tell is that Remake and Rebirth are trying to build up all of their cards so that in the third game some of the answers (idk it’ll prob still be something convoluted still lol).
I also really agree on the fact that there is no guarantee that the third game will be good especially with how both of the endings for each game feels so murky and cloudy that I just can’t see how this story will go anywhere good, but there’s still a chance for it to go up and I hope you do atleast consider thinking about how the third game will impact the others (like how you mentioned that XIII was better in retrospect over the years).
I just think that if story is your main issue in this game I think the third game could be something that blows your mind and when you kept on mentioning that you wouldn’t play the third one I just felt bad that you might miss out.
I hope you try out the third game and wish you a good one!
This is a good, well-written comment.
I’ll check out the third part of my subs in the future ask me too; otherwise, I’ll just wait until it’s on sale a few years down the line. I hope you play the original at some point because I’d be interested in hearing a new-FF7 fan’s take on it after playing this remake trilogy first.
Thanks for watching!
While I have no issue with disliking elements - for example, while I like the Gi stuff, I agree that they interrupted the Seto moment way too quickly - I did think it was worth pointing out two things:
Nojima was also the lead writer of OG FF7, so his involvement isn’t new. And while he had a smaller role then, Nomura was involved in the OG FF7 story (and is listed in the credits for story). Kitase is also the producer of this game and pretty heavily involved. In fact, in many interviews Kitase himself has said he wanted to make even bigger changes to the story but was pulled back by Nomura and Nojima. While that may seem unlikely, Kitase is on record with some wild ideas during OG FF7’s development. At one point, he wanted to kill everyone during the return to Midgar raid other than 3 characters selected by the player and was reportedly talked out of it by Nomura. So the only OG creative that’s missing is Sakaguchi really. That’s not to defend all of the decisions in Rebirth, but just to say that I’m not sure it’s so easy to lay blame just at the feet of those two guys.
Also the Red XIII thing. While I also prefer the older, wiser Nanaki approach, it has been mentioned in interviews that Red XIII goes through the same changes in the Japanese version of the original, but the localizers didn’t really include it in the English version. I don’t know HOW childish he gets in the Japanese version of OG, but it’s been well documented for years that it was a notably localization difference that Red didn’t really change in the English like he did in the Japanese. So this may just be more accurate to what the original devs always intended… even if it feels a bit weird now.
These are good clarifications. What I would change about my argument in that section of the video would be to focus more on Sakaguchi's absence, as it is obvious in all modern FF games that he isn't around.
It makes me even less confidant that they'll be able to turn the ship around in the third part of this remake series, and I'm even less interested in playing it now too.
I'm glad there was a translation error because I would have disliked that element of FF7 my whole life if it had made it through localization. Whenever I play the original, I can at least pretend it's supposed to be the way it's localized.
@@therayldeal6683 it is amazing how much range that actor has, but I do wish they played it almost a little more realistically. Like if he were still in the same vicinity of the deep voice, but just a younger sounding version of it. It’s just almost unrealistic that a real person could change their voice THAT much. A voice actor can, sure. But normie? Not so much.
I wonder how different it is in the Japanese version of the voice acting. I’ll have to load that chapter with Japanese voices and check actually.
@@SubTXT_ I could make my peace with the voice acting, but the major thing I just will never like is the way Red's personality changes whenever his voice acting does. He's a completely different character with his younger voice.
@@therayldeal6683he doesn’t change his entire voice in the original since it’s not voiced at all. He DOES use more childlike speech quirks and pronouns and even in the english translated original, he behaves more giddy and excited to reflect the change (I want to say the party even is taken aback by it)
@@Djamp_htx I know the original is not voiced, but voice is a storytelling and technical feature of writing. I'm referring to the literature term when referring to the voice of the characters in the original.
I learned how to read by playing those early FF titles, so that definitely could have impacted my reading of the games, but even on my replays through my teens and adult life, I just never picked up on that. I always read that as him feeling more connected to the party than before because they helped him handle this extremely unresolved trauma from his past.
If only the original FF7 were held to such unrealistic standards.
I did say FF7 wasn’t in my Top 5 for the franchise, and if I were reviewing that game, I would talk about it’s issues. The thing is that Rebirth’s issues are overtly glaring, especially when juxtaposed to contemporary games.
@@therayldeal6683 Yes, but would you say it's overrated? My issue with videos like these is that the arguments fall flat in the face of objective comparisons to the original. FF7 is a wonderful game, probably one of the all time greats but it is not perfect. On that same token neither is Rebirth but it is by any measure incredibly enjoyable and a worthy remake of a beloved game. Your whole argument is that people who are of this opinion are wrong and that you possess some enlightened wisdom that us lowly gamers couldn't possibly understand. Personally, I think people making hour long videos about games they supposedly don't like says more about the person than the game itself.
I don’t think you watched my video if that’s what you think I did. The first 28 minutes covers all the things in the game I love.
@@therayldeal6683 Then you uploaded a video with the title "Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Is Severely Overrated". When you employ the term "overrated" it means you're attempting to invalidate the opinions of others. You talk for 28 minutes about how you love the game and then call it overrated. So is this just a clickbait title or what?
@@traditionaljeffery7800 Nope, it's not clickbait. It's just a critical review. You would know that if you watch instead of commenting off of the title and thumbnail alone.
I was incredibly hyped for the game, but my god they made the open world terrible
It is honestly one of the worst open worlds I've seen a long time. If they had made everything a little less handholdy and made cooler things to find, it would have been much, much better.
I don't understand how youve come to this conclusion. I loved it. If you don't like the handholding turn off the map, I did that and it was fantastic. Explored every inch. I love Elden Rings open world too but in regards to actual things to do and lack of repetition Rebirth wins hands down. Multiple ways to traverse, unique challenges for each zone. It's not too big that it's aimless, each biome is unique, plenty of minigames and a top tier card game to explore every region for. Not to mention the insane enemy variety, music variety and combat variety all zones have.
I can easily see why people wouldn't like FF7 Rebirth, it is a unique taste but I'd like anybody to point out a better open world in a JRPG than Rebirths. It's quite easily the best, nothing in FF's history comes even remotely close. FF9 being my personal favourite before because it had the hidden treasure system, a system that Rebirth takes on itself. XV was cool for it's flying and driving but with very little to see.
I can't objectively put another JRPG open world ahead of it. Subjectively I can, but it wouldn't be factual.
I'm sad some people disliked it, this is exactly what was expected and more so I'm disappointed that gamers still feel the need to complain. Square enix pre 7 remake looked doomed, I didn't think another good final fantasy would release. I'm nearly 40 and I feel like the glory days of FF are back - it feels great. I hope part 3 gives you two something to enjoy like so many of us have with this.
Wow what an L tier opinion.
@@upon-fe2720 Yeah i'm with @Ragdolled and @therayldeal6683, it's a 7/10 at best.
I didn't care for Rebirth, but I'm glad it was what a lot of people wanted.
That being said, the amount of people I've personally witnessed complain about FFXVI's sidequests, only to happily swallow the slop on offer in rebirth with a grin and 'please, sir, may I have some more?' is... objectively hilarious.
Guess dumb jokes about Clouds hair is a potent salve for whatever boring nonsense rebirth asks you to do... for some people...
That is something that rubbed me the wrong way too, which is why I mentioned the side quests in this review. FF16 had like 2 sidequests that felt interesting, and that's it. I don't know why Square thought copying questing trends from Ubi-style open world games was a good idea, especially when the way they did sidequests in the classic games is far more interesting. Even though Blitzball isn't for everyone, the way that side activity's design is more open ended makes it feel like the quest has multiple different pathways to progress, and the Queen of Cards sidequest in FF8 is like that too. Also, they nailed hunts between FF12 and FF15, and the way hunts work in this game feels like a massive downgrade. When you would come across a hunt early just by exploring, it felt so cool to kill and collect the reward later once you found what message board it's tied to.
FF7REMAkE WAS WAY BETTER, THEY RUINED REBIRTH BY MAKING IT OPEN WORLD,, it should of been like og playstation version of ff7, Lenard pathed with world map fir traveling, not this open world crap they went with
I didn’t care for Remake by the time I rolled credits because of the last 30 minutes or so. Anything with whispers is just dreadful.
That's what i'm saying now they triple down on the filler that remake had & more especially constantly separating the party bs
The base gameplay was both impressive and also disappointing, the storytelling (minus the weapon fish bit which was just out of place and extra) was really good up until the last moment and then it just went to shit. I think the protorelic side quests and the chocobo side plots were a nice world building and fresh change up with how they added other mini games to the game, but damn the region exploration and spoonfeeding of side quests was so annoying. I wish the fountains and towers weren't a thing, and that exploration would reward you with stumbling across the occasional side quest instead of painting them across your map.
Also queens blood has to be the least enjoyable card game inclusion in any final fantasy. Triple triad would've been so much fn better.
An open world MUST have great exploration, and that's definitely one of Rebirth's worst things. If they had stuck some of the cool things from the Chadley simulations into the open world and didn't cut out things like Fort Condor itself (instead of replacing it with the Protorelic minigame), it would have been a much better open world. There are many more things beyond the Weapon-Fish and ending that I personally didn't like, as this game is loaded with some awful pacing problems. Every dungeon feels too long, and the Costa del Sol section drags on too.
@@CRUSHTAQ I liked the archetypes quite a lot in Queen's Blood. Admittedly, I've never finished the Queen of Cards side quest or Tetra Master one, so I wouldn't be able to compare them all to the same level. Queen's Blood needs regional variants like in the Queen of Cards quest though. That would provide it with so much more depth.
For me it's the price of rebirth and remake that put me off from buying them.
100% I also think the game is extremely overrated.. a case of quantity over quality. But I think the reason most FF fans are delusional is because Square Enix hasn't released an amazing FF game in a long time. Square Enix has conditioned people into thinking mediocrity is better than it is. So when they finally release a game with an "open world" which is actually still heavily zoned off, everyone suddenly thinks it is the best thing since sliced bread. Square Enix used to be trend setters, now they are the ones following trends and they are not even matching the quality of other games. If Rebirth came out a year earlier it would not even be in the conversation for goty.
It is so sad to see Square become a mid-tier developer after being genuinely one of the greatest in the industry during my childhood. They should take a look at how Capcom is doing things and replicate that, as they have the right approach. If Square managed the FF property in the same way Capcom manages RE (I know FF games have bigger scope, so it wouldn't work 1:1), this series would be the industry juggernaut it used to be. Modern FF titles just aren't the absolute must-play games they used to be, and they haven't been since FFX over twenty years ago.
They should really focus in on what they're good at. Survival horror and fighting games are niches, yet those two genres have treated Capcom super well.
Personally I will not even get nor play rebirth. The Final Fantasy kingdom hearts version drove me off with remake. It was clear they were butchering the real ff7 with their "re-imagining" instead of a remake of one of the greatest games of all time into a burning heap of trash.
Yes there are good gameplay aspects, but it cannot be denied the story and game play is no where near nor ever will be what the original was.
We are on the same exact page, my friend. Unless my subs ask me to play it in a couple years, I'll be skipping the third title in this trilogy.
Nah bruhhh, this game might be the best game ever made, you Wildn my boyy
It's not even the best Final Fantasy game released in the last year. LOL
With how many boring sections there are, that’s a brave statement.
@@therayldeal6683 rebirth didn’t bore me at all, in fact, every time I played it I literally had to force myself to stop cuz I never wanted to stop
@@cizzymac Unless you're counting the 14 expansions, yeah, it is. It's way the hell better than that trash 16, that is indisputable.
I do agree with you in reference to the open world on this one yeah it wasn’t that exciting
It's a shame because there are many different ways they could have designed it to make it much, much better.
I agree it is very overrated
Agree but no need to spoil the next game please
I don't think you understood the ending. The stamp worlds are all lifestream worlds (as taunted in "On The Way To A Smile", in the "Lifestream White" episodes, or by the NPC in Cosmo Canyon during Rebirth), except the original one where the main story takes place. These other worlds are purgatories within the lifestream where souls (Zack, Biggs) seek solace and closure before they move on and fuse with the planet, becoming its fuel. However, many souls (black whispers) are not fusing with the planet because someone (Sephiroth) is corrupting them with negative feelings and using them for his own selfish purposes. Between this, and Shinra's exploitation of mako energy, the planet is dying and lifestream worlds are doomed, hence the breach in the sky in all of them (which doesn't appear in the physical world where our party is).
Aerith is dead, Cloud, who is somehow connected to the lifestream due to mako exposure, his travel with Aerith to these lifestream worlds, and Sephiroth's manipulation (since he is in the LS himself), is just seeing her lifestream spirit just as he did during the resolution scene in Remake (he's also able to see the breach in the sky because of this). Aerith is gone, she's just trying to soften the blow for a far too unstable and vulnerable Cloud, and making it look like a temporary "farewell", but Cloud will have to face the music in part 3 and that scene will be tough. The rainbows we were shown when he parried Sephiroth's sword were probably a mind trick from Sephiroth himself (Jenova does have the power to create illusions), Cloud never really touched the Masamune. If you think about it, these rainbows were never shown when we changed fate in Remake, they only appear in lifestream worlds, not base reality.
After thinking about it more following this video, I did understand that, but when you break that story framework down to its core roots, it's a multiverse trope. Now, whether this plays out the same way the trope usually works or if it functions as a subversion of the trope depends on how Part 3 goes. I've never been a fan of this trope, as it usually seems centered around canonizing what-ifisms. I am not confidant in this writing team to come up with something interesting with this though.
Either way, I'll be skipping the next game unless I'm specifically asked to play it by my community, and I wish I'd skipped Rebirth.
The cope from the kingdom hearts of Ff7 fans is hilarious. Nomura is an awful writer.
Yeah, I am not a fan of his writing work. It's such a shame because they had a winning story already ready to go.
@@therayldeal6683Thank you for responding to my comment. If he was just honest about wanting to make games about the advent children timeline I would've been more interested. Not looking forward to the New Compilation mess. It feels like Enix dosent even want to make games.
It's a far better game than FF16, at least.
FF7Rebirth will not be able to financially recover after this
🤣 I would be shocked if the third part wasn't already in production, but I have a feeling that a lot of legacy players skipped over this one.
@@therayldeal6683 It has been confirmed that it is on production, but ps5 sales were a massive flop if you did not know this. We'll see how it get's after multiplatform release, but it was so bad Square Enix announced that they quit exclusive deals after Rebirth was released. Writings were on the wall all along though, original Final Fantasy VII remake was more like a movie you play rather than actual video game, which gives it almost 0 re-playability due to being massive cut-scene clutter.
Yup it’s a sales disaster.
@@therayldeal6683that explains the huge drop off in sales.
In it's first week, FF7 Rebirth sold 262k units. Worse than Dirge of Cerberus. Worse than Lightning Returns. Worse than FF16.
Personally, I find FFVII overrated in general, but it's just because everyone and their cousin is screaming over Cloud and Sephiroth, or proclaiming how much they love Tifa, etc.
Myself? I'm into XII or IV, or hell, the very first FF game. I'll even say I liked VIII more. Like okay, VII was good, but I didn't see the big deal with it vs other games that had characters that actually interested me. Side note: Cait Sith and Red XIII were my fave chars from VII as well, ahahaha.
Basically to me, FFVII is FF's "Darth Vader" like how they're milking FFVII while Disney's constantly spitting out Empire/Vader content vs characters like Kylo Ren or timezones we don't know much about - just because Vader is just THAT iconic, THAT popular. I must be the minority who wants more of lesser seen/loved characters. /shrugs
(also lol, don't worry about dislikes; YT disabled those so what likes you get are what you've got)
I’m incredibly partial to FFX and FFT, which are my Top 2 games in the franchise. Great comment my man, and I hope you liked the video!
I don’t know how I ended up on this video, but can you make it more obvious that you’re reading? I mean it’s fine but come on man put some emotion in there.
That's a fair critique. I'm working on a new microphone set up because if I speak outside of a certain range, there's this sound breaking that happens.
You dont understand the ending by the way, arrogant to say you do. Ive spent months pawwing over the ending and still havent got a conclusive idea. The most sound ideas are at absolute odds with your interpretation. You might be right but theres one glaringly obvious interpretation that turns the ending from weird and out of place to genuinely masterful. Ill let you try and figure out what that is.
What they are going for is obvious. These writers aren't nearly as intelligent as you think they are.
You said it before I had the chance to. The ending is incredibly simple and not great at all.
Lol dude shut the fuck you arrogant wanker. The writing is objectively crap.
You like crap storytelling 😂
The ending was awful
It's garbage. Ff7 remake was garbage. Ff15 and 16 are garbage. They aren't final fantasy, the combat is low iq, side quests are boring and meaningless. Final fantasy has fallen.
cry
@DANTE_PlZZA in the most literal way, I am crying. They have destroyed something beautiful, to make some low IQ hack and slash adventure. No offense to you, if low IQ hack and slash adventures are your sort of thing.
"Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is Severely Overrated" I mean is it really lol? It sold quite poorly and Square enix has still not yet released the sales numbers for a reason. That said a contributing factor is that it was a platform exclusive on a console which still does not have that large player base compared to ps4.
Considering that nearly all of the opinions I've listened to on this platform have been calling this Game of the Year, yes, I would say it still qualifies as overrated. Whether something is overrated or not is entirely determined on how well known it is and what people say about it. FF7 Rebirth is extremely well known and the opinions about it typically rate it extremely high. If I wanted to say how it's a travesty FF7 Rebirth sold way more than it deserved, I would have called the video "Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has sold way more than it deserves" or something like that.
The critical reception is definitely overrated and most likely paid for because the sales don’t match the reviews.
Remake was terrible. Some cinematic movies does not make a video game.
Remake was great
Rebirth is terrible
0:45 100%, max is cool but i do not understand his blind fanboying over these convoluted and heavily flawed games
As soon as he stopped talking about FF7R, I resubbed because I like listening to that guy talk about literally anything else. I speculate that part of it is him being taken in by the hype train because, even though he is positive about Rebirth, he doesn't seem as loudly blown away by it as Remake.
Max is def in my Top 5 TH-camrs on the platform. I may just have to make a video covering my Top 10 at some point.
@@therayldeal6683it’s cognitive dissonance. It eats at you that someone likes something you don’t. So you have to remove them from your immediate vicinity.
It’s not the game that’s an issue here, not Max, it’s you.
And this is why your review here will hold no value.
@@matsutendai Well, I resubbed to him and have been his fan for a long time, so your statement just isn't true. I intentionally watch videos that disagree with me.
Most disappointing game of 2024 for me. Too much bloat, mini-games etc. Story feels like FF7 fanfic. Remake was much better, in my opinion. I won't be picking up part 3 after this travesty.
"Story feels like a FF7 fanfic" is the most concise way of stating how I feel about the writing in this game (and the last 30 minutes or so of Remake). When the writers stick the script, the game's story is literally so good, and that's partly why I think Remake has the better story. Remake is more consistent with the origiinal's story than Rebirth is.
The bloat, even in small ways like the way it takes forever to interact with objects, is so odd because that was one of the critiques most people had for Remake as well.
I like the Chocobo Racing and Queen's Blood minigames, but that's two of I don't know how many, and both of those are just at the bare minimum standard of quality as the minigames in the Yakuza games.
I will be picking up Part 3 only if my subscribers want me to.
I don't agree. Your takes are not objective to what the game presents. As a standalone game, ignoring the fact that it is FF7, this game over delivers. The thing I see happen the most is where people can't seem to distinguish subjective vs objective. To be truly critical of a product you need to be objective on what the product offers, not on what you would have wished the product could have been. If you didn't like something from the game think back and reflect on whether that thing just didn't suit your tastes/wish it could have been different or if it was actually objectively bad.
To be able to determine if something is objectively good or not, a reference is needed. A game where the majority can agree could be used to measure ff7 rebirth. I don't think you'll find many games that you could do this with. That game would need to be around the same ballpark of genre, graphics, sound design, game mechanics, etc. FF7 rebirth is rated as it is because it surpassed whatever it could have been referenced to and from now on it will be the reference of many games to come so that people can objectively see whether a game is good or not.
The only objective metrics that exist is determining whether a game is playable or not. Everything else (including what you listed) is subjective. Claiming any review is objective is disingenuous at best.
Its boring and goes bonkers with story. Remake was better
Orion85 make a good video about this
Drop a link, and I’ll check it out.
The remakes are trash
You unsubbing from Max over your crap take, is hysterical. I'm not a media personality, it's my favorite gave I've played in the past 10 years. Easily. Name a single AAA game that's better, and ill easily show you the flaws in the games you list. I cannot find a single issue with this game besides story gripes. And those are subjective.
The first 28 minutes of this video are where I go over what I like. My favorite game is Final Fantasy Tactics.
@@therayldeal6683 funny, that's my favorite too. Lol. Here's to praying for a remake... But still, I asked to name a better game that's come out in the last 10 years. Or thats what I meant at least.
I would say Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3, Ghost of Tsushima, Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, Armored Core VI, Tears of the Kingdom, RE4 Remake and many others are much, much better.
Personally, I’m wanting a simple War of the Lions port because I think FFT is visually flawless as is.
2.5M sales flop.
Completely disagree
Why do you like Rebirth?
@@therayldeal6683 cause he's a blind fanboy, ff7 rebirth fans has turn into a cult
respect
Lmao the contrarians begin to post.
It does take people with full time jobs who don’t get paid to play new games longer to get through and review them, yes. Since I don’t get paid to do this either, I can share my unfiltered opinion without worrying about going against the grain too.
Speaking objective truth.
Well said!
Thank you for watching the video!
🤦♂️
The fact it's still a DMC/Bayonetta wanna-be game is all that anyone needs to know that this game, "Remake" (even though it's not even close to that), and anything that comes after this is FUCKING TRASH!
If the rumors are to be believed, the FF9 remake will be more in line with what the traditional FF fan would like. I'm hoping it is!
It's ok if you prefer the standard turn-based gameplay of the old games, but calling the Remake/Rebirth combat a DMC/Bayonetta wanna-be is flat out wrong.
@@martinaguiluz4063 You are right, that was an exaggeration, both DMC's and Bayonetta's combat is way better than this trash. Nothing about this combat is good. And I mean that. It's trash. There's no nuance, no strategy, no options, and no customization, especially compared to the original. You wanna use items? Fuck you, do basic attacks until we say you can. Oh, you wanna use magic? Fuck you again, you can only do that if we let you. You wanna actually customize characters and set things up and use strategy to defeat foes? Again, Fuck You, we removed all the good things and put shit in its place.
It. IS. NOT. OVERRATED
Thing is ur in the minority with this opinion. Most people absolutely loved ff7 rebirth
The sales say otherwise tho
@@felixcolon599 sales don’t automatically equal quality. COD outsells every other game every year and that game is trash. So care to try again
@@felixcolon599 that’s what I thought
@rommelthedesertfox3089 Of course paid people loved it.
@@elizabethchint2391 that argument is so played out. These were their actual opinions sorry u can’t handle it
Ah, another og purest. Joy 😐
Even if I didn't like the OG (which by the way, it's not in my Top 5 for the franchise), my issues with FF7 Rebirth would persist, and the story would be even worse than it already is.
The fact that you blame Nomura for the writing decisions you don’t like despite the fact that he didn’t write the game, and it’s Nojima; the original FF7 writer that did, shows how little I or anyone else should value your opinion. Like I don’t care if you like or dislike it, but at least do research into who made these story decisions. “Thing bad,” videos are really boring, personally. Kind of tired of them.
I blamed both Nojima and Nomura for the writing in this game since it is full of their typical King Hearts-esc and FF8-isms. Also, Kitase was the lead writer on OG FF7, and Nojima worked with him. I do know the production history of the original, and Sakaguchi's absence from this remake project is blatantly obvious. "Thing bad" videos usually don't heap praise on the game they're about for the first twenty minutes, and I'm not sure why you clicked on this video if you're tired of critical analyses of games. There's plenty of videos on the platform praising every aspect of Rebirth, so you could just watch those. Thank you for boosting me in the algorithm though.
@@therayldeal6683regardless of who wrote it, it doesn’t make it good writing just cuz “muh original creators” are on board
@@Djamp_htx Exactly. Having Nojima on the project did not make this better at all.
The way this video is structured is really lame. You spend so much time praising stuff until you get to the actual point that would justify your title. Be more concrete next time and get to the point faster
No. The word "overrated" does not mean the same thing as 100% bad, and talking about the good parts of the game is important to the nuance of the thesis.
I'm discussing the actual point of the video the whole time.
Nice bait😂,this game already won the goty😉
Your insane if u think this game will be remembered by that time. He'll an actual remake, RE4, barely got any awards
@@felixcolon599 ahahahah you're making your own happiness🤣,everyone says rebirth is the absolute favourite to win goty😭
@Andreauni10 no one except die hards and people mad at the game talk about it. No casuals talk about it. No streamers play it.
@@felixcolon599 nah man,every gaming site have chosen rebirth as the main favourite,try again😭
@Andreauni10 game looks lame as hell. It has no chance of winning game of the year. I don't know a single human being that bought it.
clicks "do not recommend channel"
I really only want people subbing if they want good discussion and honest opinions. You’ll definitely be able to find an echo chamber somewhere else on the site. Good luck!
I'll click do not recommend as well.
You have too many subscribers
L
I’ve gotten 9 from this video alone.
Your autocorrect must have done you dirty, you clearly meant "not enough"
Remake and rebirth are hot fucking garbage.
You lack the imagination, and do not have the full backstory of the series to make that assessment, the cool thing about the remake series is that it vastly expanded upon what is already known in the extended universe, so it's not just a 1 to 1 remake. There's more emphasis now on filling all the gaping holes the original FF7 had when it comes to story telling, it expanded the entire original story to include sequences that were not well told in the original like what is Sephiroth doing within the lifestream, or stagnant lifestream, it explains why alien creatures like Jenova cannot rejoin the flow of the lifestream, and it alludes to how Sephiroth was able to manipulate this with an intention to reconstitute his fragmented mother, take over the lifestream by corrupting and stagnating it's normal flow, it is even alluded to in mini segmants where Tifa quips do those mako energy used up not return to the lifestream ever again or do they just return in a different form, that is the stagnant lifestream as has been hinted to in the past long before the remake happened. Part 3 will lean heavily into the lifestream sequence and bring the original story to it's conclusion as it should have been, it explains why Aerith needed to die at the alter, it shows sequences of Aerith's memories connected to cloud and Zack through the lifestream, don't really know what more you could want apart from not understanding and analyzing every sequence in the game with a more knowleadgeable context. The amazing thing is nothing in the game with regards to the main storyline was a filler, everything was done with intend, whether you like the way the direction go because it's not an exact remake, is a you problem.
I do have the backstory of the extended FF7 universe. I’ve viewed / played all of the ancillary materials (which are of varying quality as is), and even with all of that knowledge, I came to the conclusion I have.
I did not criticize any retcons that allude to Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, or Crisis Core. I didn’t mention Cissnei, Weis, or anyone else because they did not factor into the specific things I was talking about. This video could easily have been 6 hours if I dove into every element of FF7 lore that is being done dirty by Remake and Rebirth, but since I make videos exclusively for the fun of it, that was not worth the time.
@@therayldeal6683 The materia in the weapons also light up pure white after Aerith demise, indicating that her memories are now transferred to these weapon scouts, if you notice from the original FF7 when you fight Sephiroth for the last time there was a giant white materia in the shape of a whale that he was preventing us from getting to, it is lining up nice and juicy for the third game, and yeah GOTY I said it.
@@Biglongmchuge-ff9co😂