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

[Best]

I'm in Coral prison (chapter8). I had to play a few games at the Golden saucer to get things moving but it was fun. 

 

Now I'm kinda stuck 

 

Spoiler

Don't know where I get greens to feed the Chocobo so I can race. 

 

[BloodyHell]

4 minutes ago, best3444 said:

I'm in Coral prison (chapter8). I had to play a few games at the Golden saucer to get things moving but it was fun. 

 

Now I'm kinda stuck 

 

  Hide contents

Don't know where I get greens to feed the Chocobo so I can race. 

 

You get them all in the prison. You have to do 3 quests. One is from the bartender where you have to go to his “garden” and then chase an enemy and beat it for it. One is a guessing game based on info around the town, the last is 3 games of queensblood in a quest you get from an old man. 

[Best]

1 minute ago, BloodyHell said:

You get them all in the prison. You have to do 3 quests. One is from the bartender where you have to go to his “garden” and then chase an enemy and beat it for it. One is a guessing game based on info around the town, the last is 3 games of queensblood in a quest you get from an old man. 

 

I have to play Queensland again. Perfect. But thanks. I'll do that tomorrow. 

[BloodyHell]

1 minute ago, best3444 said:

 

I have to play Queensland again. Perfect. But thanks. I'll do that tomorrow. 

Have to?

it’s so damn good!

[eventide11]

45 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

Oh, it didn’t happen in remake, that’s what I meant (the imprisonment).

 

unless you’re talking about my earlier post.

 

I just got to 

  Reveal hidden contents

Nibelheim

(Chapter 11, no spoilers except location)

 

and damn, shit is opening up

Oh ok. I'm sure I'll get the FF itch again at some point but I'm still kinda hung over from 16 for now

[legend]

30 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

You get them all in the prison. You have to do 3 quests. One is from the bartender where you have to go to his “garden” and then chase an enemy and beat it for it. One is a guessing game based on info around the town, the last is 3 games of queensblood in a quest you get from an old man. 

 

29 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

I have to play Queensland again. Perfect. But thanks. I'll do that tomorrow. 

You only need to do 3, but there are 6 quests you can do. So no, you don’t need to play queens blood  

[Best]

21 minutes ago, eventide11 said:

Oh ok. I'm sure I'll get the FF itch again at some point but I'm still kinda hung over from 16 for now

 

What did you think of 16? I think I need to give it another shot and not reminisce on my first playthrough. It wasn't a particularly good time for me. 

[Best]

Just now, legend said:

 

You only need to do 3, but there are 6 quests you can do. So no, you don’t need to play queens blood  

 

Yes!

[eventide11]

19 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

What did you think of 16? I think I need to give it another shot and not reminisce on my first playthrough. It wasn't a particularly good time for me. 

I don't know.. I think I need to give it another shot to tbh. I was enjoying the story for the most part and the world and music but it started to drag. I do want to finish it though

[Biggie]

1 hour ago, best3444 said:

 

Yes!

But Queens Blood is sooooo good. 

[Best]

1 minute ago, Biggie said:

But Queens Blood is sooooo good. 

 

I don't understand it. I skipped the tutorial...

[Biggie]

Just now, best3444 said:

 

I don't understand it. I skipped the tutorial...

Jesus man lol

[Best]

Just now, Biggie said:

Jesus man lol

 

Lol. It was first introduced in Kalm and I said fuck that. 

[Biggie]

I’m going back and forth between FF Rebirth and SW Survivor to keep things fresh. 

[Best]

Just now, Biggie said:

I’m going back and forth between FF Rebirth and SW Survivor to keep things fresh. 

 

Yea I'm going to play something else tomorrow along with Rebirth. I'm definitely sticking with it and beating it. 

[TwinIon]

One place where FF16 exceeds Rebirth, for better or worse, is in focus. I thought 16 was good overall, and great at moments, and for whatever its faults, it was consistent in both gameplay and story. Rebirth is a lot of things. I feel like it’s kind of messy in that way; always getting you to play some weird mini-game where the quality and novelty vary wildly.

 

That’s not to say that consistency is the most important metric. I think the Rebirth combat system is so much better, even if it’s a bit much at first. Still, sometimes I find myself playing as a frog, or in a board game and I wonder if that makes the game better.

[Keyser_Soze]

3 hours ago, legend said:

You only need to do 3, but there are 6 quests you can do. So no, you don’t need to play queens blood  

 

But if you want that sweet

Spoiler

Chocobo Gear

 

you'll want to get more of the greens.

[BloodyHell]

9 hours ago, legend said:

 

You only need to do 3, but there are 6 quests you can do. So no, you don’t need to play queens blood  

I had thought the other 3 only became available after I finished the original 3.

[BloodyHell]

8 hours ago, best3444 said:

 

I don't understand it. I skipped the tutorial...

There are a hundred tutorials on YouTube, im sure. It’s very simple 

[Best]

11 hours ago, TwinIon said:

One place where FF16 exceeds Rebirth, for better or worse, is in focus. I thought 16 was good overall, and great at moments, and for whatever its faults, it was consistent in both gameplay and story. Rebirth is a lot of things. I feel like it’s kind of messy in that way; always getting you to play some weird mini-game where the quality and novelty vary wildly.

 

That’s not to say that consistency is the most important metric. I think the Rebirth combat system is so much better, even if it’s a bit much at first. Still, sometimes I find myself playing as a frog, or in a board game and I wonder if that makes the game better.

 

These were my thoughts and they were quickly shot down. Mini games are apart of the games blah blah blah. 

 

I am playing 16 today to see how it clicks with me now that I've beaten Remake and I'm 15 hours into Rebirth. 

[legend]

9 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

But if you want that sweet

  Reveal hidden contents

Chocobo Gear

 

you'll want to get more of the greens.

 

Yeah I got them all and the extra gear, but it's really not necessary, you can also just get 2/3 extra gear if you skip the queensblood one, and I don't see Best doing a lot of Chocobo mini games so I think he's safe to skip all the extra 3  

[Best]

1 minute ago, legend said:

 

Yeah I got them all and the extra gear, but it's really not necessary, you can also just get 2/3 extra gear if you skip the queensblood one, and I don't see Best doing a lot of Chocobo mini games so I think he's safe to skip all the extra 3  

 

What does Chocobo gear actually do? I put some on in the grasslands but is it just cosmetic?

[legend]

Just now, best3444 said:

 

What does Chocobo gear actually do? I put some on in the grasslands but is it just cosmetic?

 

It's cosmetic for the overworld but carries stats in a mini game that you will probably avoid aside from the one time you'll do it for the main quest  

[MarSolo]

21 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

FF16 is a very good but flawed game. It’s certainly not bad in any way. 

I hated it when I first started it, but then I tried playing it again before Rebirth released and it grew on me. Oh well, at least I’ve got it in the backlog now.

[Best]

So I'm enjoying FF16 lol. The music is really good. I'm not sure how far I'll get but it's good which I expect earlier on. 

[Xbob42]

Haven't read any of this thread, to avoid spoilers, just wanted to say that while I found Remake quite lacking where others seemed to love it (aside from characterizations and Wall Market) -- this game feels to me how I assume Remake felt to everyone else. It's superb. It actually started out a little boring, that first open area and part of the second felt very formulaic to me and kinda like a Ubisoft game. But ever since Junon, it's been excellent. There's such an insane amount of content, they really went all out on absolutely everything.

 

They also fixed all the issues I had with the first game: the insane railroading, the hard locked parties at all times, the stiff ass combat with enemies that barely responded to anything, the very few combat options per character, the fact that it was pretty boring when you had no ATB, the overly serious tone (again, aside from Wall Market), the endless streeeetching of such a small amount of content, the complete lack of minigames outside of, like, breaking boxes and... darts, I guess?

They went in the entire opposite direction here. Tons of freedom (but not so much that you're directionless), tons of combat abilities, plenty of options when you have no ATB (synergy skills and abilities rule), enemies respond a helluva lot more to attacks and don't feel as needlessly tanky, the synergy stuff actually encourages you to actively play each character in your party more to build synergy points as the attacks and effects are super powerful and fun, there's more minigames in the first 2 areas than all of FF7 combined, and they're high quality and just keep coming, most of them being very fun. They went all in on the silly bullshit that makes Final Fantasy what it is. Yes, FF always has a somewhat serious main story, but part of the charm is that outside of big moments, it's usually a lot of dumb bullshit going on to keep things interesting.

 

The amount of bespoke music alone is absolutely absurd. It has half as much music as FF14, which has been lauded for its excellent and super varied soundtrack for a while now -- but FF14's been building that music up for almost a decade and a half and multiple expansions. They made so much goddamn music that individual minor side quests get their own unique songs with vocals at times. Individual card matches can have their own music! Multiple minigames have different music depending on what stage you're on! And it's all great music!

 

To me, Remake felt like New Super Mario Bros., and Rebirth is like Mario Wonder. One tried to mostly "appeal" to some vague wide audience, while the other dug up the soul of what made people loved the original and just poured it into absolutely every facet of the game. And they also like to fake you out with "oh I guess they didn't include [feature]" and then later on they're like "HAHA BITCH HERE IT IS AND IT'S EVEN BETTER"

 

It sure as shit ain't perfect, and both graphics and performance mode are compromised (But I'll chop my dick off before switching to that choppy ass 30 FPS nonsense) but it's still been a helluva blast. And there's just so much of it!

[Biggie]

17 minutes ago, best3444 said:

So I'm enjoying FF16 lol. The music is really good. I'm not sure how far I'll get but it's good which I expect earlier on. 

Wow. That’s a turn of events!  Also I get what you are saying about mini-games. They aren’t for everyone. I love them. I’ve bought games for my 3DS and Switch that were nothing but mini-games like Mario Party mini games, WarioWare, and NES classic mini games. 

[Best]

7 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

Haven't read any of this thread, to avoid spoilers, just wanted to say that while I found Remake quite lacking where others seemed to love it (aside from characterizations and Wall Market) -- this game feels to me how I assume Remake felt to everyone else. It's superb. It actually started out a little boring, that first open area and part of the second felt very formulaic to me and kinda like a Ubisoft game. But ever since Junon, it's been excellent. There's such an insane amount of content, they really went all out on absolutely everything.

 

They also fixed all the issues I had with the first game: the insane railroading, the hard locked parties at all times, the stiff ass combat with enemies that barely responded to anything, the very few combat options per character, the fact that it was pretty boring when you had no ATB, the overly serious tone (again, aside from Wall Market), the endless streeeetching of such a small amount of content, the complete lack of minigames outside of, like, breaking boxes and... darts, I guess?

They went in the entire opposite direction here. Tons of freedom (but not so much that you're directionless), tons of combat abilities, plenty of options when you have no ATB (synergy skills and abilities rule), enemies respond a helluva lot more to attacks and don't feel as needlessly tanky, the synergy stuff actually encourages you to actively play each character in your party more to build synergy points as the attacks and effects are super powerful and fun, there's more minigames in the first 2 areas than all of FF7 combined, and they're high quality and just keep coming, most of them being very fun. They went all in on the silly bullshit that makes Final Fantasy what it is. Yes, FF always has a somewhat serious main story, but part of the charm is that outside of big moments, it's usually a lot of dumb bullshit going on to keep things interesting.

 

The amount of bespoke music alone is absolutely absurd. It has half as much music as FF14, which has been lauded for its excellent and super varied soundtrack for a while now -- but FF14's been building that music up for almost a decade and a half and multiple expansions. They made so much goddamn music that individual minor side quests get their own unique songs with vocals at times. Individual card matches can have their own music! Multiple minigames have different music depending on what stage you're on! And it's all great music!

 

To me, Remake felt like New Super Mario Bros., and Rebirth is like Mario Wonder. One tried to mostly "appeal" to some vague wide audience, while the other dug up the soul of what made people loved the original and just poured it into absolutely every facet of the game. And they also like to fake you out with "oh I guess they didn't include [feature]" and then later on they're like "HAHA BITCH HERE IT IS AND IT'S EVEN BETTER"

 

It sure as shit ain't perfect, and both graphics and performance mode are compromised (But I'll chop my dick off before switching to that choppy ass 30 FPS nonsense) but it's still been a helluva blast. And there's just so much of it!

 

Glad you're enjoying it! I'm on chapter 8 and loving it. 

[Best]

1 minute ago, Biggie said:

Wow. That’s a turn of events!  Also I get what you are saying about mini-games. They aren’t for everyone. I love them. I’ve bought games for my 3DS and Switch that were nothing but mini-games like Mario Party mini games, WarioWare, and NES classic mini games. 

 

Well I knew I'd like it early on. If I get far enough I'll be interested if I like the parts I didn't last summer. 

[legend]

23 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

Haven't read any of this thread, to avoid spoilers, just wanted to say that while I found Remake quite lacking where others seemed to love it (aside from characterizations and Wall Market) -- this game feels to me how I assume Remake felt to everyone else. It's superb. It actually started out a little boring, that first open area and part of the second felt very formulaic to me and kinda like a Ubisoft game. But ever since Junon, it's been excellent. There's such an insane amount of content, they really went all out on absolutely everything.

 

They also fixed all the issues I had with the first game: the insane railroading, the hard locked parties at all times, the stiff ass combat with enemies that barely responded to anything, the very few combat options per character, the fact that it was pretty boring when you had no ATB, the overly serious tone (again, aside from Wall Market), the endless streeeetching of such a small amount of content, the complete lack of minigames outside of, like, breaking boxes and... darts, I guess?

They went in the entire opposite direction here. Tons of freedom (but not so much that you're directionless), tons of combat abilities, plenty of options when you have no ATB (synergy skills and abilities rule), enemies respond a helluva lot more to attacks and don't feel as needlessly tanky, the synergy stuff actually encourages you to actively play each character in your party more to build synergy points as the attacks and effects are super powerful and fun, there's more minigames in the first 2 areas than all of FF7 combined, and they're high quality and just keep coming, most of them being very fun. They went all in on the silly bullshit that makes Final Fantasy what it is. Yes, FF always has a somewhat serious main story, but part of the charm is that outside of big moments, it's usually a lot of dumb bullshit going on to keep things interesting.

 

The amount of bespoke music alone is absolutely absurd. It has half as much music as FF14, which has been lauded for its excellent and super varied soundtrack for a while now -- but FF14's been building that music up for almost a decade and a half and multiple expansions. They made so much goddamn music that individual minor side quests get their own unique songs with vocals at times. Individual card matches can have their own music! Multiple minigames have different music depending on what stage you're on! And it's all great music!

 

To me, Remake felt like New Super Mario Bros., and Rebirth is like Mario Wonder. One tried to mostly "appeal" to some vague wide audience, while the other dug up the soul of what made people loved the original and just poured it into absolutely every facet of the game. And they also like to fake you out with "oh I guess they didn't include [feature]" and then later on they're like "HAHA BITCH HERE IT IS AND IT'S EVEN BETTER"

 

It sure as shit ain't perfect, and both graphics and performance mode are compromised (But I'll chop my dick off before switching to that choppy ass 30 FPS nonsense) but it's still been a helluva blast. And there's just so much of it!

 

While I loved Remake, this is absolutely everything on a much larger scale. I suspect one of the reasons they split this game into parts is because they had to figure out how they wanted to remake it all, and by putting it into parts they could better pace themselves and build on foundations.

 

It sounds like that will *still* be the case to some extent with part 3 building on part 2, since the developers have commented on how one of the big things they have to figure out in part 3 is how to properly integrate the airship into the overworld they've built up in part 2. But because the game was split, they didn't have to solve that challenge for part 2.

 

I hope when all is said and done, these same lessons learned can be applied to future FF games. I really dig how they managed a real-time combat system that still encourages use of your party and strategic ability choices.

[Biggie]

Okay so I’m exploring upper Junon Region trying to locate and complete everything on the map but then 

Spoiler

On the far right side where I’m going to explore I hit some kind of check point with a guy guarding it and he says I can’t go thru because of something that happened ?

I’m guessing I need to go to lower Junon first and advanced the story. I’ve tried finding another way/path but I can get to that area. 

[BloodyHell]

Chocobo Racing is truly a top notch mini-game.  I remember breeding and racing chocobos so damn much in the original, but the racing wasn’t this much fun. I do hope the 3rd game expands on racing and adds breeding. 

[Biggie]

Damn the story is so freaking good!

[BloodyHell]

9 hours ago, legend said:

 

While I loved Remake, this is absolutely everything on a much larger scale. I suspect one of the reasons they split this game into parts is because they had to figure out how they wanted to remake it all, and by putting it into parts they could better pace themselves and build on foundations.

 

It sounds like that will *still* be the case to some extent with part 3 building on part 2, since the developers have commented on how one of the big things they have to figure out in part 3 is how to properly integrate the airship into the overworld they've built up in part 2. But because the game was split, they didn't have to solve that challenge for part 2.

 

I hope when all is said and done, these same lessons learned can be applied to future FF games. I really dig how they managed a real-time combat system that still encourages use of your party and strategic ability choices.

Imo, this is the best combat in any RPG.

 

This is truly everything I’ve always wanted Final Fantasy to be. A serious story with fun an interesting character moments, a huge dose of goofy Japanese goodness, stupid, edgy style, and more Tifa. 
 

I’m dreading getting to the final chapters and having this end for another 4 years or more, but I truly couldn’t be more in love with what I’ve gotten so far. 
 

The key to getting me to do weird open world checklist stuff? Paint it in FF7, give a heavy dose of FF7 Lore, and two annoying and thirsy AI’s. 
 

 

[BloodyHell]

2 minutes ago, Biggie said:

Damn the story is so freaking good!

So far, I have to say it’s actually pretty special.  
 

you weirdo’s who refuse to play FF7 should be at least watching a thorough recap of FF7 and Crisis Core on YouTube.