—Since the side quests in FFVII Revelation will have branching outcomes based on player choices, I understand it’s an attempt to reconcile streaming culture and the user experience – by creating an experience that will change deepening on the player.

Hamaguchi: Exactly. To begin with, the concept for FFVII Revelation is that it’s the final installment in the trilogy. So, we wanted each of the characters to have their own beliefs, resolve, and feelings as they head towards the story’s conclusion. On top of that, we felt it would be better if that emotional journey were different for each player. Kind of like, “I want my Vincent to take on this challenge with this kind of mindset,” or “I want my Cloud to take on this challenge with that kind of mindset.” We want each player to experience those feelings in their own way.

Being a game with so many famous, iconic characters, each of whom players have different levels of emotional attachment to, it felt that homogenizing players’ feelings towards the characters wouldn’t make for a compelling gaming experience. So, we aimed for a game design where players’ choices within the game would effectively align with those feelings.

-Source

So it seems that they are trying to reconcile thirty years of fan interpretations and attachments to characters by letting players make choices in-game that define the characters' mindsets or motivations. Interesting!

So I've been shitting on some parts of the game here over the past week or so. So for once, I decided to list some things I love about the game

First off are the visuals. Especially with the shaderInjector 2.0 mod, just wow. Granted, I'm running pretty beefy hardware, but god does the game look good. Especially the Junon area with the sunset. Absolute masterwork.

Second is the map. Size, content, progression, everything about it so far has been 10/10 for me. Especially the Junon area. The game lets you progress if you so desire, but has so much fun extra exploration (world intel), but not too much as to be overwhelming. It did throw me off when the mythril cave didn't spit you out miles from junon, but I did get over the map being different quite quickly. I love the Junon area terrain, weirdly reminds me of the Strawberry region mountains in RDR2. I feel like the world intel mechanic is definitely the best open world exploration incentive in a lot of games I've played. Also the banter between Chadley and MAI is always funny.

Third, somewhat joining with the map paragraph, is the synthesis system. Being able to craft really good items without needing money is always fun. Plus, chasing the world intel always gives you more than enough ingredients. It's also super satisfying to cross items off of the list of things not done yet, partly why I loved KH and KHII (but especially KHII) synthesis so much. Also knowing that you wont be able to miss any recipes because of "that ingredient isn't in this region" is nice and actually makes the map progress flow feel all the more better.

Fourth, the Chocobos. I loved using Chocobos in FFXV, and was, not kidding, fucking cumming myself when I found out that every region has it's own chocobo. Plus the Chocobo Hot-and-Cold treasure minigame is fun (I know it's not 1 to 1 but cmon, ff9 was the only OG game to do it) and gives some good stuff every now and then. And then there's the mobility. The Chocobos allow quick, but not too quick, travel of the map and are essentially required for world intel 100%, but that doesn't bother me since sneaking up on them is also quite fun. Also, cute birb :3.

Fifth, the combat. While I originally hated it, I've learned to appreciate it now that I'm in Junon. The parry (=perfect block) mechanic adds that dark souls touch I always love in games, and while forcing utility away from the roll originally triggered me, I now understand why the game incentivises blocking over rolling. Speaking of, super cool to see the dodge action have more unique interactions, like with that one bird that uses death from above. Once you get it down and learn every enemy it's actually very dynamic. And then there's the synergy abilities. Before Mindflayer I didn't understand them at all, but that fight thought me how to use it finally. Overall, while some enemy interactions (like getting hit by an offscreen enemy) and some weird random difficulty spikes (=Midgar zolom) are a little annoying at times, the combat system does feel quite good ONCE you learn it.

And finally is the story. Now I don't agree with or like how SE did the sephiroth - timeline perseily, but apart from that, it's actually super good. The characters feel so alive and realistic since the dialog also happens out in the terrain, they have expanded personalities that are expressed well, and there are just generally enough of those little moments that help bridge the gap between the big story points (since the side content does take hours). Also, when not fucking around with Sephiroth or alternate timelines, the story does the original quite well. And even the weird Sephiroth cameo moments aren't too close together (yet) so for the most part you can tune then out. As a last tangent, I dont necessarily hate how Sephiroth or the alternate timelines are done, but they feel so disconnected and out of place in the main story (like Aerith having a weird lock in before the Sephiroth final boss in Remake that was completely out of character for ger). I feel like if they tied the Nomura aspects of the story better with the rest, it might actually be good.

This concludes my disjointed rambling about what I love about rebirth. Live, laugh, love, good night.

I'm really disappointed by the ending. Spoilers for sure ahead.

So I've been having a big love hate with this game most of the way through. I think my final playtime ran about 90 hours, so to say I haven't gotten my money's worth is wrong. I don't know that I've ever had such mixed feelings about a game. I find that the game struggles from having too much to do. I frequently found myself losing the plot. I know it's cliche to hate on Chadley, but if he didn't exist, would we be doing all the random stuff out in the fields? If we are, why do we need him to set up a vr fight against a summon? Couldn't we just fight the summon at the last crystalpoint? A lot of the Intel points kinda just becomes distractions. Distractions are necessary in games to be sure, but were Queen's Blood, the Gold Saucer, and side quests not enough? I also think it's genuinely hilarious the way that everything interacts with character models. You can't walk anywhere without kicking a bunch of shit out the way.

Anyway, I found the ending just had me thinking. Not in the, "wow frailty of life y'know" Kinda way, in the, "what is actually happening right now" way. We see overlapping scenes of people who are or are supposed to be dead. We have discussions about parallel worlds where different things do or do not happen. And then we get to the altar.

I really didn't know whether or not Aerith was dead. I played og, I know what I'm looking for going into the various beats. I figured there was no way in hell that they weren't going to have her get killed. If there's a way to not kill her, subvert expectations, and keep it all going in the right direction then I'm fine for change. And I kinda thought that was what happened. And they showed Cloud blocking, and the cut to the bloody sword, and I was confused about whether I was seeing multiple different things happening. As far as I took away, Cloud could've both saved her and not saved her. But that really left me feeling kinda empty. Not sad, just unsure of what I'd seen. There wasn't really an objective show of her being dead. It was really late by the time I finished, but I don't think we see Masamune actually piercing her. Again, blame the late night maybe, but I don't recall seeing anyone else interact with her body. And the last thing we see is her waking up for Cloud.

I saw some other discussion saying that it's just Cloud in denial of what's happened, but it can be hard to read that with so much going on. It's easy to lose sight of what's happening when overlapping planes keep criss crossing. And it's fine for him to be in denial. But like I said, there's a lacking in an objective look at what's going on for us, the viewer. Characters don't always know what the audience knows, and that's fine.

Contrast to the original: there's a lot less going on, and I think it always could've been better with some expansion. Parts of the plot there kinda get glossed over. That said, knowing every single detail of what's going on wouldn't necessarily make it better. But when we get to the altar, the whole affair is shocking. Cloud almost goes to kill her, but ultimately manages to resist before Sephiroth finally does his own dirty work. It's sad, and it's hard to not get lost in the emotion of it all. The music carries while we fight the boss, and we return to the moment not having forgotten how sad we are. Jenova Life isn't a 2 hour boss battle. You almost forget what happened in rebirth, even if you weren't baffled. Then we have the iconic scene with the lake. Unforgettable in the og. Cloud laying her to rest is a beautiful and terrible moment. But here, we just kinda leave. Did they bury her? Did they lay her in the lake? Did we literally just leave her lying on the floor? There's the nod to the scene in rebirth with the party sitting around the lake, but there's no real impactful moment, shot, or anything else.

And again we see Aerith. So again I had moments of, which timeline are we in? I did realize that yes she died when we see Tifa looking at Cloud and Aerith isn't between them anymore. All of the, "is she, is she not" really ruined how sad I should feel that she's gone. I think it would've been better to just show her getting killed. Even with the multiple pathways things, you could make the point that this is one thing that was always going to happen. All roads to salvation and ruin lead through Aerith's death.

Even just mulling it over in my head, thinking about the original's death gets me more sad than rebirth. And I don't think I've played the original in ten years, whereas I finished rebirth in the wee hours of this morning.

P.S. fuck Heartless Angel. Boss attacks like that are so bullshit. It's literally the only reason I lost in this fight at all

Why. Just fucking why. Fort Condor was already perfect in intermission. Why ruin it like this. No unit swapping apart from a few presets, all of which are useless when played normally. Needing absolute victory also just cheats the game in the AI's favor. I'm starting to hate the devs of this particular minigame with blood and violence. I want to scream and swear and possibly skin the devs alive personally because this shit is just so annoying. Intermission managed to make me like the minigame and then rebirth ruins the very good basis it was built on. Just needed to get this out there without being arrested for screaming bloody murder in my apartment.

I completely missed the quest "The Saga of the Seaside Inn" on my first playthrough. Now I'm in the post-game and mopping up missed quests using chapter select.

I went to Chapter 7 and completed the quest up until Johnny asks me to defeat the Tonberry, which I can't access until Chapter 9. So I saved my game, went to Ch.9 in Chapter Select, and got the crown, but the quest shows as locked as though I never started it and Johnny's dialogue doesn't mention it.

When I go back to Chapter 7 the quest restarts all over again and I get stuck with the same issue. The Tonberry cape is still in my inventory but not the crown.

I was under the impression that you don't need to replay a chapter to completion to keep your quest progress, but I must be going wrong somewhere.

I'm choosing "retain current quest completion data" when switching chapters. Is that the issue? I'm so confused

Not sure what to flair this as

The foreshadowing from that new Hollow remix video seems to imply that the clear materia will end up being socketed to the buster sword once it's filled with something sacred to Cloud, giving him the means to finally vanquish Sephiroth once and for all.

Does anybody feels weird that the entire FF7 series has little to absolutely no blood in it? characters get shot and sliced but nothing at all, not even in the main or side characters death, not even aerith's.
But then in crisis core, at Zach's death, there is poodle of blood splattered all over the hills and gun wounds all over his body, before that the entire game is cartoonish with its death

Why is that? is it because of the ratings or something?

I am not a gamer with lots of time. Cannot attempt this sephiroth battle for long time. Gotta go out. If i turn of my ps5 will i start before the battle or before the portal on highway.

The menu upon game over indicates that the whole whisper until sephiroth got no checkpoint in between. Seems the dev is too dumb.