General Gaming Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Remake Part 2) - "An Excellent But Inconsistent Experience" (Digital Foundry Technical Review)

[Best]

1 minute ago, Biggie said:

Uh yeah I do have to do that lol. I told ya I’m doing every last thing in each new area before moving on. This will be atleast a 100 hour game for me. And I love it! I’m 20 hours and 27 minutes in. Hell it’ll probably be more than 100. 

 

Well if you're not enjoying an aspect why do it just to be a completionist? I'm only 16 hours in at level 28 and ill have this beat by 35 hours I believe. The side quests have been ok but nothing to make me want to do them. 

[TwinIon]

59 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

I mean, those goofy tonal shifts are FF7 to its core. Frankly, it’s literally one of my favorite things about the game, and extremely true to the original. 
 

the traversal is classic 3d action JRPG. This isn’t supposed to be  and isn’t trying to be Horizon/AC/etc. It’s actually very close to Tales of Arise, except with much larger zones. And I don’t mind chasing landmarks and the like because every single one of them gets me new lore on a world I absolutely love. 
 

also, you can change party without going into menus. You can’t do it in combat, but if you can set up to three separate teams.

 

I can’t find a thing I dislike about this game, but I also admit I can’t look at this game without a lot of bias towards it because I love the original so much, and have such a long history with the franchise, along with my closest friends who are all also playing. Seeing the story move and change, but still remain close to the same. Seeing all these wonderful concepts from 27 years ago wildly expanded upon excites me. 
 

One thing though, I can’t imagine missing all of the context of the original game while playing Remake/Rebirth. Theres so much information the game doesn’t tell you, so it’s almost like two groups are playing two different games. Ine group is playing a completely original experience, while the other is playing sequel in separate universe. 

I wasn't really complaining about the tonal shifts, just acclimating myself to them.

 

I totally agree that the traversal is classic 3D JARPG, but just because a genre has historically been bad at a thing doesn't give it a pass. If you're controlling a 3D character in a detailed open world like this, I don't think it really matters much if you're playing an RPG or Shooter or a puzzle game, I think your character should feel good to control and look like they're navigating that environment more than gliding on top of it. I'm not asking for a jump button or grappling hook or for Naughty Dog level quality everywhere. It's not really even all much of a problem because it's fast, but it seems cheap in the context of the rest of the game. I think it's a fair mild criticism to say that these characters in a AAAA game look silly sliding around and it's odd that they have a force field around them that sends everything with physics flying and that the animations are poor and slow and that the forced stealth controls are awful.

 

I also completely agree about the context thing, and I'm kinda torn on what I think about that. I played the original in 97, I've replayed the couple discs a couple of times, seen the movie, played through Remake when it came out, but never really fell in love the the world in the way that so many did. I also haven't played all the other games like Crisis Core. I've watched a recap video or two, but I know I'm missing a million little things and kind of wish it was more accessible.

[Biggie]

10 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

Well if you're not enjoying an aspect why do it just to be a completionist? I'm only 16 hours in at level 28 and ill have this beat by 35 hours I believe. The side quests have been ok but nothing to make me want to do them. 

I really enjoy doing everything in an area. This was the first thing that was kinda meh. It’s not gamebreaking. It’s just a small portion in that area. I’ll push thru it. Other than that the game is a 10/10. 

[Best]

7 minutes ago, Biggie said:

I really enjoy doing everything in an area. This was the first thing that was kinda meh. It’s not gamebreaking. It’s just a small portion in that area. I’ll push thru it. Other than that the game is a 10/10. 

 

Ok, good. I'll wait till I beat it to score this. But it's on it's way to a 10/10. 

[BloodyHell]

45 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

I wasn't really complaining about the tonal shifts, just acclimating myself to them.

 

I totally agree that the traversal is classic 3D JARPG, but just because a genre has historically been bad at a thing doesn't give it a pass. If you're controlling a 3D character in a detailed open world like this, I don't think it really matters much if you're playing an RPG or Shooter or a puzzle game, I think your character should feel good to control and look like they're navigating that environment more than gliding on top of it. I'm not asking for a jump button or grappling hook or for Naughty Dog level quality everywhere. It's not really even all much of a problem because it's fast, but it seems cheap in the context of the rest of the game. I think it's a fair mild criticism to say that these characters in a AAAA game look silly sliding around and it's odd that they have a force field around them that sends everything with physics flying and that the animations are poor and slow and that the forced stealth controls are awful.

 

I also completely agree about the context thing, and I'm kinda torn on what I think about that. I played the original in 97, I've replayed the couple discs a couple of times, seen the movie, played through Remake when it came out, but never really fell in love the the world in the way that so many did. I also haven't played all the other games like Crisis Core. I've watched a recap video or two, but I know I'm missing a million little things and kind of wish it was more accessible.

Like I said, I can’t even pretend not to be coming at this from a very biased perspective, but ghe traversal doesn’t bother me at all. Frankly I quite enjoy just exploring the world and enjoying the FF7ness of it all.  
 

I love this world, and this is exactly how I want a modern rendition of Final Fantasy 7 to play. 
 

before this. I played FF7, FF7 Crisis Core, and FF7 Remake before Rebirth, and the progression through those games still made me excited all these years later. 
 

 

[legend]

1 hour ago, Biggie said:

Okay finally something I don’t enjoy about the game. 
 

  Reveal hidden contents

Doing the World Intel in the Junon Region where you have to play that silly board game where all the characters turn into Lego type figures. 

That shit ain’t fun and takes away from the game. 

 

I didn't like Fort Condor in this either. It was originally the (one) mini game in the Yuffie DLC and I enjoyed it a lot more in that. I'm not sure if this is the difference, but in the encounters in this one, the time limit felt far too short and arbitrary. I lost so many rounds down to the seconds because of the clock while I hacked away at the final base. The timer just made it all feel arbitrary and frustrating. Also, the fact that the timer didn't pause when you open the menu felt really dumb too.

 

As I said, I can't recall if the previous one had a timer or not, but if it did, it was much more lax.

[SaysWho?]

6 minutes ago, legend said:

 

I didn't like Fort Condor in this either. It was originally the (one) mini game in the Yuffie DLC and I enjoyed it a lot more in that. I'm not sure if this is the difference, but in the encounters in this one, the time limit felt far too short and arbitrary. I lost so many rounds down to the seconds because of the clock while I hacked away at the final base. The timer just made it all feel arbitrary and frustrating. Also, the fact that the timer didn't pause when you open the menu felt really dumb too.

 

As I said, I can't recall if the previous one had a timer or not, but if it did, it was much more lax.

 

There was a timer, and if you didn't defeat them inside that time frame, it went to sudden death where the first person to destroy an opponent's building would win.

[Bacon]

I am an avid mini-game hater and I will cheat them for the rewards when I can.

[legend]

1 hour ago, SaysWho? said:

 

There was a timer, and if you didn't defeat them inside that time frame, it went to sudden death where the first person to destroy an opponent's building would win.

 

Well, there is no sudden death in this one. If there were I would have handily won a number of rounds I narrowly lost!

[Spork3245]

4 hours ago, Bacon said:

I am an avid mini-game hater and I will cheat them for the rewards when I can.

If you figure out how to cheat the piano please let me know  

[Bacon]

17 minutes ago, Spork3245 said:

If you figure out how to cheat the piano please let me know  

I have heard this is the most dreaded one by players. My advice it to wait until it hits PC

[Best]

@Bacon why don't you like Rebirth? I'd love to hear your reasoning on this. Story not the same? 

[legend]

I enjoyed the Piano and got to A rank on the first two, until I got to Barret's theme! That one is hard as fuck because the sound actually throws you off. When you hit a "note" it actually plays several distinct notes in sequence and that completely throws my timing off.

 

That said, some of the "free form" songs people have been able to play on it is impressive!

[Keyser_Soze]

42 minutes ago, best3444 said:

@Bacon why don't you like Rebirth? I'd love to hear your reasoning on this. Story not the same? 

 

He outlined it many times. He considers these new games erasure of the history of the past games and some other stuff. Anyway grab your popcorn because here comes a rant!

 

[Biggie]

1 hour ago, best3444 said:

@Bacon why don't you like Rebirth? I'd love to hear your reasoning on this. Story not the same? 

It’s such a great game. @Bacon did you play Remake? If so we need to take up money and get you Rebirth. If 70 people give $1 each you’ll get it!

[Best]

14 minutes ago, Biggie said:

It’s such a great game. @Bacon did you play Remake? If so we need to take up money and get you Rebirth. If 70 people give $1 each you’ll get it!

 

He HATED Remake for some odd reasons. Forget it he's missing out anyway. 

[legend]

Guys, Bacon isn't going to play Remake and Rebirth  

[Biggie]

19 minutes ago, legend said:

Guys, Bacon isn't going to play Remake and Rebirth  

He is dead to me

[BloodyHell]

The end of Chapter 9 is absolutely incredible, for multiple reasons. 
 

Spoiler

Cid’s Entrance is incredible.

 

[BloodyHell]

33 minutes ago, legend said:

Guys, Bacon isn't going to play Remake and Rebirth  

it’s how you know he’s bad people.

[BloodyHell]

42 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

He HATED Remake for some odd reasons. Forget it he's missing out anyway. 

He refuses to play it because it’s a sequel instead of a 1:1 remake.

[Best]

Chapter 8 is "unique". Wasn't expecting this lol.

 

@Biggie I'm pulling a you and I am almost finished downloading FF16 to give it another shot lol. 

[Best]

@Keyser_Soze I finally ran into Max on YouTube so I'm officially acquainted with him now. He absolutely loves Rebirth so I watched him talk about that. He's a good dude and seems really intelligent. 

[Biggie]

17 minutes ago, best3444 said:

@Keyser_Soze I finally ran into Max on YouTube so I'm officially acquainted with him now. He absolutely loves Rebirth so I watched him talk about that. He's a good dude and seems really intelligent. 

Max is such a great streamer and his YouTube channel is awesome. I owe it all to @Keyser_Soze for letting me know what’s up. 

[Best]

Just now, Biggie said:

Max is such a great streamer and his YouTube channel is awesome. I owe it all to @Keyser_Soze for letting me know what’s up. 

 

Yea he is good. Rebirth gets cool as hell in chapter 8. Its all beautiful visually. I'm taking a break though because I'm playing too much. I might give 16 a try in about 15 minutes. It's done downloading. I'm mainly interested in comparing the visuals. 

[legend]

59 minutes ago, best3444 said:

I might give 16 a try in about 15 minutes. It's done downloading. I'm mainly interested in comparing the visuals. 

 

[Best]

29 minutes ago, legend said:

 

 

I'm just interested in the visuals and how the combat is. I haven't tried it yet. I'm crazy I know. 

[Keyser_Soze]

1 hour ago, best3444 said:

@Keyser_Soze I finally ran into Max on YouTube so I'm officially acquainted with him now. He absolutely loves Rebirth so I watched him talk about that. He's a good dude and seems really intelligent. 

 

He LOVES FF7. It's one of his favorite games. When he played remake it brought him to tears he was so happy. 🥹

[Best]

1 minute ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

He LOVES FF7. It's one of his favorite games. When he played remake it brought him to tears he was so happy. 🥹

 

Why aren't you playing Rebirth?

[Keyser_Soze]

4 minutes ago, best3444 said:

Why aren't you playing Rebirth?

 

No PS5.

 

Also I didn't play Remake because I was a bit like Bacon and didn't like how it wasn't a true remake. Though Rebirth seems a bit more appealing even though it's even more off the rails. I guess once you know what's going on you can just push that stuff out of your mind.

 

I'll probably just wait till all 3 of them are out if I'm still alive by then.

[Best]

5 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

No PS5.

 

Also I didn't play Remake because I was a bit like Bacon and didn't like how it wasn't a true remake. Though Rebirth seems a bit more appealing even though it's even more off the rails. I guess once you know what's going on you can just push that stuff out of your mind.

 

I'll probably just wait till all 3 of them are out if I'm still alive by then.

 

I didn't realize you didn't have a PS5. Yea, play all 3 on PC in 2035. 

[legend]

Playing all 3 back to back will be a huge time sink. Remake is as long as OG FF7 if you do everything, Rebirth is even longer, and I suspect the final one will be similar. 
 

But for perspective that’s probably only a little longer than BG3

[BloodyHell]

1 minute ago, best3444 said:

 

I didn't realize you didn't have a PS5. Yea, play all 3 on PC in 2035. 

This is only exclusive until the end of may, so it is likely to be much sooner than we expect. I don’t think SE would allow complete console exclusivity this time either, just timed.

[Keyser_Soze]

1 minute ago, legend said:

Playing all 3 back to back will be a huge time sink. Remake is as long as OG FF7 if you do everything, Rebirth is even longer, and I suspect the final one will be similar. 
 

But for perspective that’s probably only a little longer than BG3

 

Rebirth is like playing the original game 3 times. Probably longer.

[BloodyHell]

Just now, legend said:

Playing all 3 back to back will be a huge time sink. Remake is as long as OG FF7 if you do everything, Rebirth is even longer, and I suspect the final one will be similar. 
 

But for perspective that’s probably only a little longer than BG3

Im probably going to do it. Might replay OG with them. I won’t 100% it a second time. I started Chapter 10. 9 is extremely long as a chapter, but if you like the world there’s two full zones worth of stuff to do. 
 

Stopped at the beginning on 10 to get some things done. This game is special.