The Untold Blog Continues (FF VII Rebirth).

Back in 2020, I went into Final Fantasy VII Remake knowing about as little about the original as a person could. At least while still knowing what Final Fantasy is. I had an absolute blast with it, it ended up being not only one of my favorite games that year, but what I at one point described as the, “best remake in the history of remakes.” It was the first chapter in a retelling, or more accurately reimagining of a classic game that by all accounts, was loved by both fans of the original, and newcomers like me.

It had a great cast of characters, phenomenal combat, a super interesting world, and a great story about fighting against an evil corporation literally sucking the planet dry. Even the DLC, that “New Story Content Featuring Yuffie” was really good! But before the DLC, the base game's ending just left my imagination running wild. Anything felt possible in the Untold Journey to come, and I couldn't wait to see it. As I said, I played the DLC, and I even replayed through the whole game (this time on the PS5 version so Cloud's door texture loaded properly) a couple years ago to help keep the game fresh in my mind.

It's been four years since Remake released, which on the timescale of modern game development, is almost shockingly fast. At least for a game of this scale. Even the studio credited it with their being able to keep about 90% of Remake's staff on to work on Rebirth, which is probably telling about the nature of the games industry that keeping that many people is a rare occurrence.

So, unlike Remake, which I played because I thought it looked cool, Rebirth I went into with a mountain of expectations. This time, I know and love these characters. I was already emotionally invested in at least the main four, Cloud, Aerith, Barret, and Tifa. But still, knowing almost nothing about what would happen along this Untold Journey, because I still haven't played the original.

So, here's the thing. I don't want to entirely say how I feel about Rebirth is because of expectations that I didn't have going into Remake, but I'd be lying if I said they weren't a factor. That said, if Remake left me feeling like anything was possible, feeling like the only thing holding it back from being a masterpiece was some tedious sections of filler, Rebirth...well, my expectations for Reunion, or whatever they end up calling the third one (I like to jokingly think it'll be Revengeance), are a lot more realistic.

So, two things I want to say up front. First, is that after I talk about the game part of this game, and get into the story, there's going to be spoilers. I can't not talk about what left me frustrated with Rebirth's ending without...writing about the ending. The second thing I want to say is, this is a game where I spent over one hundred hours playing (according to the in game clock, almost exactly the same 107 hours I spent playing Infinite Wealth, somehow), and as a whole, I still had a great time with Rebirth.

In terms of game design, the biggest shift from Remake to Rebirth is a much more open ended, but not quite open world design. Remake was both very linear, and very limited in its scope. There were sections of downtime, with side quests, and technically areas where Cloud and company could explore, but they were all pretty small, and cramped. Which made sense, the game was set in the underside of a dystopian city, down in the slums. That constrained feeling was exactly what that sort of setting was meant to convey. Then between these “doing side quests” parts of the game, it's unflinchingly linear, to the point where at times it could get tedious. Less because of the linearity, and more because of boring level design in say, the sewers, or those tunnels with the big robot hands.

Rebirth still has more linear story sections, but even those tend to have a bit more in the way of alternate paths, or little side rooms to poke into than I remember Remake having. They're also, aside from one in particular, not tedious like Remake was at its lowest points. That said, the one tedious part I'm thinking of in Rebirth, which involves throwing boxes and having to fight a miniboss with only one character, who also happened to be the one character I disliked playing as, that part is pretty bad. And it was like eighty hours into the game.

The bulk of the game, at least in terms of quantity, is spent in the open ended regions. Technically speaking they are all connected, and by the end game when a certain vehicle is unlocked for use, they can be traveled between more or less seamlessly, but only entered via certain docking points. But for all intents and purposes, the game is divided into fairly large, but still constrained areas, which can be freely explored, and have plenty of side stuff to do.

I will say, going from the cramped corridors of Midgar in Remake, to these open regions, it feels radically different. Again, in the way it should. There's definitely a feeling of freedom, and a bit of awe and wonder at seeing there's still natural life out in the world. A brief moment of respite before realizing the world is only barely holding on, clinging on with what little it has left, while the heroes continue their Untold Journey to presumably save the planet... After doing a bunch of side stuff, anyway.

Now, here's the thing. This side stuff? The majority of it is super generic, copy and paste type Capital C Content. Climb towers to get more icons on the map, complete combat challenges to unlock VR combat challenges, do a button timing minigame to make the summon boss fights easier, follow an owl to a crystal like it's a hyperactive version of those birds in Ghost of Tsushima, etc. Or follow the baby Chocobo to Chocobo stops to unlock those for fast travel, or resting. Really the reward there is being able to pet the baby Chocobo.

Aside from the quests to find each region's proto-relic, these are all basically the same across every region of the game. Yet...I did all of them. In every region. And I enjoyed doing them, too! So like, can I really in good faith complain about how generic the game design is if it went and did it all? I guess I did miss one Chocobo stop, which I feel bad about. That poor baby Chocobo...

Which, honestly, I feel bad for those baby Chocobos in general. They're just babies, and all they know is waiting near Chocobo stops, hoping someone comes by to keep them company, if only for a short while. What a lonely existence that must be. Waiting at rest stops in a dying world, just to give weary travelers a brief moment of respite along the hard road ahead. The only joy in their life being when Cloud comes and interacts with them. Also one of the few things in the game that makes Cloud smile, which is sad too.

To go along with more open ended areas, there's a bit more in the way of traversal systems in Rebirth than Remake. More climbing and jumping off of things. No dedicated jump button, though. Mantling up stuff is fine, but there's Uncharted-esque climbing up the now infamous “yellow paint” handholds, and those are where all the tedium from Remake came to roost. Even holding R2 to climb faster, is just needlessly slow and cumbersome. What's worse is that this game has a couple different grappling hooks, including one that just zooms up to the spot grappled to, but it's only usable in one story sequence. That could have made climbing up these areas so much faster. But no. Maybe in Reunion?

There's adult Chocobos too, for riding about. In some regions they have special abilities, like climbing up sheer cliffs, or gliding. That's neat, and I appreciate that every region has a different version of the Chocobo theme. My only issue is the camera. Rebirth does have options for how far the camera is pulled back, but I don't think it affects Chocobo riding. The real issue isn't how far away it is from Cloud though, it's the height. It's right at level with the Chocobo's butt, which makes it hard to see ahead of Cloud. Especially when the entire party is also riding Chocobos, and the active party members tend to ride close enough to Cloud to obscure the camera even more.

I don't know how much of this side stuff is “required” to be done. Technically zero, I would assume, but since it's a game with leveling up, I also assume doing none of it would leave the party under-leveled for the story. I ended up doing just that in the first region, for reasons related to my not understanding the layout of the Grasslands on the map, and that first big boss fight (the snake) was so difficult I'm not sure how I managed to scrape through. Even using several Phoenix Downs, by the end I had only Cloud up, and I was kind of hoping I would die so I could give the fight another, better shot. Yet I managed it, somehow.

So, I don't know how much side stuff, if any, is required to keep pace with the main story. Part of that is that I played on Dynamic difficulty. The in game description is a bit odd, but according to what I read online, the intent of it is to scale enemy levels up to prevent over-leveling by doing too much side stuff. I don't really know what it does or doesn't scale, but I do know that the boss fights remained challenging throughout, but a lot of fights against random enemies out in the world were pretty easy. I dunno, but it kept the big climactic fights feeling big and climactic, so it did what I wanted it to. Happy with that, especially since Hard isn't unlocked until after finishing the game, and like in Remake, it sounds like too much. Can't use items at all?? Rest spots don't refill MP???

Spending so much time doing so much side stuff, which again to an extent is on me, but it doesn't really help with the game's pacing. Remake, at its absolute longest, is only about forty hours long. Again, that's with taking time to do all the side quests, all of Chadley's VR missions (and boy do I have things to say about Chadley in Rebirth), and all the minigames (of which there are far more in Rebirth). Because of that “short” length, Remake feels much better paced than Rebirth. That was a game with a good sense of momentum, and that helped it feel propulsive in a way that Rebirth usually doesn't.

Frequently I would go hours and hours at a time just doing side stuff. Exploring the vast new world beyond the confines of the big city from Remake. And again, I enjoyed it, I like when games let me spend a whole afternoon just wandering around doing side stuff. But it's also the sort of thing that I didn't realize until pretty far it, that was making it a bit harder to follow what was going on, and often went against the urgency that the characters were expressing in their dialog. Not that that's anything new for video games.

At least it doesn't really try to shame you into doing the side quests like Remake did. When I replayed Remake, I went in with the intent of skipping the side quests, because I didn't really like many of them...but then I felt bad and did them all anyway. Again. I will say that on the whole, the side quests are better in Rebirth. That's not to say they're all great, or all worth doing, but they're better.

So, something I didn't mention about how the side stuff works is that aside from the Chocobo stops, all the generic stuff (and proto-relics) feeds into World Intel. That's basically just a progress bar for each region that Chadley set up, for research. In other words, Chadley is keeping track of that stuff, and also the one who chimes in over the “Chadley Module” to give updates. Since that's a lot to keep track of, Chadley created an AI assistant to help, specifically for the combat challenges.

This AI assistant, named Mai is...just a gender swapped version of Chadley. Different voice actor, but otherwise she just looks like Chadley with longer hair. Given this happens mere days after Cloud's cross-dressing escapade, for which Chadley was there (and completely smitten with Cloud), I just, am obsessed with this. I cannot get over how trans this is, especially because I assume it's completely accidental?? All Chadley does is bicker with Mai, and complain about how chatty she is, when like, who created her, Chadley?? Why did you give her such a bubbly and talkative personality when you have all the charisma of calculator???

There's another revelation about Chadley later in the game that I won't spoil. Technically it's tied to side stuff, and only (very heavily) implied, but I definitely saw it coming a mile away. Either way, it just makes this whole thing even more bizarre. Anyway, Chadley is trans, and if the devs aren't cowards they'll have her come out in the next game.

Speaking of, this really doesn't warrant even this much of a mention, but there are at least queer NPCs in this game. Not that I think it even should qualify as “representation” when there's gay dialog to be overheard from unnamed NPCs, but it's better than the fat nothing in Infinite Wealth. And I don't think it's just dialog that could have been changed in the localization, there's definitely same gender couples walking around doing couple things in the background of this game. But let me reiterate myself, doing the bare minimum shouldn't be rewarded. Though I suppose it should be acknowledged when other games can't even meet that lowest of low bars.

There are a lot of minigames, some of which are pretty good (the Chocobo racing is fun), one of which actively hurt my fingers (they managed to make the gym minigame harder), and then there's Queen's Blood. The card game. It's there. I didn't like it. I avoided it as much as I could, but that's just me.

Then there's the combat, the one area of Remake that was done so well that I wasn't sure what, if anything they could do to improve it. Somehow, they did! A lot of it is smaller changes, little additions or reworks to existing abilities. Now Cloud has a ranged attack after dodging, there's new Materia that can have multiple spell types (fire and ice, for example (also the “apply element to weapon Materia” combined with that gives both elements at once to attacks, so that's rad), and other things like that. Each character has a proper skill tree now, rather than weapon specific upgrades. The weapons just get slots with different passive bonuses instead, which is a better system. Makes more sense to have things like bonus health or unlocking new special moves on a proper skill tree (that can be respecced for free, just only at specific locations).

The biggest additions to the combat are the ability to actually decide who's in the active party (outside of specific story sequences), and Synergy Skills/Abilities. And these are related, since the Synergy moves are team-ups with the other party members. Skills are basic moves that can be done whenever, and Abilities are stronger ones that need to be charged up by using anything that requires an Active Time Battle segment.

Everyone has both defensive and offensive Skills, and which ones depend on who's in the active party. Cloud, for instance, can reflect Barret's shots at enemies (for extra damage? I dunno, haha, but it's cool), or have Aerith imbue his sword with magic for an extra strong attack. Defensively, I think everyone lets him counter ranged attacks, which his regular counter can't. They're not all unique, I think Cloud only has the two types of offensive Skills, for example. For Tifa, they either send her flying forward into enemies, or up into the air, to air combo flying enemies (and I think knock ground ones up too?). And her defensive skill is kind of a dodge and counter move.

The Abilities are more akin to Limit Breaks, super powerful and play mini-cutscenes when they happen. They can have a variety of effects, from just doing straight damage, to adding an extra bar to their ATB meters, to raising their Limits so they can do more powerful Limit Breaks (there's up to level 3s in the game, but I never actually managed to use them). They're just fun to watch too, my favorite being Aerith and Barret's Sweet and Sour Salvo, where they both put on sunglasses and do a cool pose before unloading magic and bullets onto their target.

Needless to say, the combat is still one of the highlights here. Once again, I'm not really sure what they could do to further enhance it for the next game. The only thing I can think of is it would be nice to be able to swap party members mid-fight. As it is, the others just stand around the edges pretending to fight (you can see ranged characters shooting projectiles, but I dunno if they do any damage). If you're down to one character left, you get an emergency Synergy Ability with whoever is on the sidelines, but being able to just bring people in and out would be more useful.

Also, the game does have three slots to save party loadouts, and while it's easy to swap between those when exploring, it's a bit more tedious to go into the menus and change who's in those loadouts. There's a lot of people in the party as a whole, and it was just tedious enough to make me lean on a couple groups. Mostly Barret and Yuffie (Cloud is required), because Barret is just too useful as a tank, and Yuffie is great both close up and ranged. She has all the elements covered without even needing Materia too, so again, just too useful. Though I guess I could have invested more points into the elemental skills that don't require MP or Materia on the skill trees, that would be another viable way to make sure more people have all that covered.

One more thing about the Synergy stuff. It's cool from a game play perspective, but also team up moves are just cool! What's the point of being a team if everyone is only going to fight on their own? Even in this game, it's still pretty easy to end up in situations where I'm sticking with Cloud, fighting an enemy while the AI controlled party members are keeping the other enemies busy (or defeating them!).

Which, yes, I often don't switch around characters as much as I should, but the game knows people have a tendency to do stuff like that. That's why I liked the Materia that lets AI characters use their bespoke skills, like Barret firing Overcharge on his own. That's part of why he's such a good tank, using the weapon that gives him Protect every time he uses that skill, combined with other passives that recharge Overcharge faster, and extend how long buffs on him last. So he's just constantly buffing his defense without my needing to tell him too.

But, that wasn't the point, the point I was trying to make is that it's nice to at least have the option to do the team up moves. They're good too, honestly even as much as I used them, I probably should have more.

If I have any complaint about the combat, it's that too many boss fights (mostly optional but at least the final boss did this) rely too heavily on, “you took too long, so here's a move that will almost certainly wipe the party.” I have had times when Barret survived, but when it's in the simulator and I can't revive with Phoenix Downs, finishing those Summon bosses at max strength with just Barret...didn't seem possible. I'm sure someone could manage it, but not me. Maybe that's also an argument for putting the Raise spell on Barret instead of Aerith but...too late now! Perhaps I can get another orb of that and give it to Barret if I ever replay Rebirth (I probably will before Reunion).

I get it, they want to test that you can do damage efficiently, and not use attrition, but it's frustrating. Maybe relying on Barret to tank, instead of going for straight damage on everyone is the problem. Just be better at dodging, and timing the perfect block to take zero damage (which I think is new to Rebirth?). Simply play perfectly!

Anyway, I didn't end up doing the hardest end game bosses because they just seemed like a bit too much to be fighting multiple of the already hard on their own Summon bosses. At once.

So, that covers the combat, and brings me to another highlight, the characters. While I don't think the side characters in Rebirth are as compelling as Jessie, Biggs, or Wedge from Remake, the main cast are as strong as ever, and in some cases even stronger than before. I'm looking at Barret specifically. Now, I already liked Barret a lot in Remake, but going back and reading what I wrote in 2020, I made sure then to at least acknowledge the issues people raised about his playing into certain black stereotypes. Mainly (if I recall) that he's kind of a loudmouth, and pretty angry.

That wasn't all he was, the core of his character is someone who wants to save the planet, and someone who wants to protect his daughter Marlene. In Rebirth, at least for the story sequences, I think there's a much better balance here, where he has even more depth than before, and he doesn't really go as over the top as he did in Remake. He does still yell things like “suck it” during combat, but I think that's just the game reusing stuff from Remake.

Seriously though, some of the best, most gripping parts of the story revolve around Barret, even if ultimately they're just smaller side stories that happen along the way to the main narrative. More is revealed about his past, and about Marlene. I'm not exaggerating when I say there was one sequence where he's confronted by someone from his past that left me almost in tears. It's just a really emotional sequence that had me riveted, and I really felt for him in that moment.

It's not all serious tear jerking moments either. There's a couple sequences at the Golden Saucer (an amusement park) where most of the party splits off to do their own thing, but one character comes along with Cloud. Who that is, is determined by whoever has the highest affinity for Cloud in the moment (after finishing the game, there's a chapter select that lets you manually choose who, though I didn't mess around with it). I didn't realize in the moment that was how those parts worked, they both just felt so natural that I assumed that's just what those sequences were. For context, I had Aerith the first time in the Saucer, but then Barret later on. Yes, I rode the Skywheel with him, it was nice. Moments like that are really sweet, and funny too.

Then there's Costa Del Sol, somehow the second tropical resort to appear in a big budget JRPG this year! There's even faux-Segways too, though I think the ones in Infinite Wealth controlled better, and were more useful. The Costa Del Sol section is a fun (literal) beach episode, but it's not quite a large enough area to justify doing any more than walking. When I say it's a beach episode, the progression is quite literally, “do some minigames to get beach appropriate clothing for Cloud because of the 'dress code' on the beach, then go do different minigames with Aerith and Tifa to get them swimwear too.” It's silly, but it's cute, and funny, and I like that the game dedicates so much time to lighter things like this.

Now, I think I've said just about everything I can without really getting into the story. But! There's general stuff I can say before getting into the SPOILER ZONE, so you don't need to check out just yet.

So, I know earlier I said the more open ended design, with way more side stuff meant I was going long stretches without touching the story. That's true, but a lot of the story sequences are also really long, hours of focused, linear sections in the game that feel more like Remake. When this game is focused on the story, it can be incredibly captivating. There were quite a few times where I was really on the edge of my seat, simultaneously needing to keep pushing forward and see what was going to happen next, while also dreading what the game was foreshadowing. And with good reason, this game surprised me at points with what was going on, and how far it goes with stuff.

But, the end left me...kind of befuddled? That's the word I had in my notes from when I was figuring out what to write here, haha, but it fits. Doesn't get used as much as it should these days. Anyway, this is now the point where I have to activate SPOILER MODE. Seriously, this is about the end of the game. Anyone who knows anything about the original game can probably guess what this is about, but genuinely for those who haven't played the game or gotten there yet, I...just play the game. There's a strong chance you might not like the ending, but it should at least be seen for those who care, and not read in a blog.

SPOILER ZONE.

So, before I get to the thing, there's a couple through lines across the game that lead up to the big moment. One of which is one of the most gripping parts of the narrative, and the thing that often filled me with dread. I'll get to that second, first...is the multiverse stuff.

I went back and read what I wrote in 2020, and sadly I had a theory of what was going on then that I like better than is in this game. My theory was that the Sephiroth in Remake was actually from another timeline, another universe, whatever, and he came over and started manipulating events to change them to suit his plan, whatever that was. Rebirth clarifies though, the multiverse only came into being after the concept of Destiny was destroyed at the end of Remake. And, you know, that's fine, I guess, but it just brings me to the question of why they're doing all this multiverse stuff in the first place?

Why is Zack here? No, really, what is the point of the Zack sequences in this game? Yes, it's nice to see Elmyra, and Marlene, and Biggs again. But these aren't the Elmyra and Marlene from the first game, right? Biggs though, I'm pretty sure he is the Biggs from the first game, just brought over into the other universe. Somehow? I mean, the how is irrelevant, it's fantasy, it's right in the name.

Maybe I'm over thinking, and the point of the Zack sequences is just to spend more time with Zack, who maybe I would care about if I had played the Crisis Core remaster. I guess that's my bad for skipping that because I heard it was just a straight remaster, and not directly tied into the Remake trilogy. Or maybe it's to show how bad things will get if the planet isn't saved, or maybe it's just to spend more time with those other characters.

But ultimately, by the end Zack just shows up to help fight Sephiroth, then goes back to his own universe again, I guess? Again, this is partly on me for spending so much time over the years thinking about what might happen in this game, but I'd say it's also the games' fault for having a good enough story that I wanted to theorize! Anyway, prior to playing Rebirth, a theory I had about the Zack stuff at the end of Remake was that instead of killing Aerith, they were going to end up killing Cloud. Then Zack would replace him in the third game. They're both SOLDIERs, and while there are some differences in their special moves, they're similar enough.

The other through line, is the whole thing with Cloud, the robed figures, and what's going on with all that. Some of it is pretty silly, like the point where the horny biker guy is normal one second, then falls to the ground and magically has one of those robes on the next. But it's also sad, because it turns out that these robed figures are a combination of suffering from Mako poisoning, and more generally the long term effects of the “enhancements” to become SOLDIERs. It turns out messing with with people on that deep a level to give them super strength and agility has some long term negative effects. In this case, the eventual degradation of both their bodies, and their minds.

Cloud, for game play reasons, doesn't really ever see it affect his body (or at least hasn't yet), but certainly has in his mind. Forgetting things (in some cases tragic memories that he may have also suppressed because they were so traumatic), and at points, losing control over himself, because there's another angle to the robed figures.

They aren't just falling into poor health, they're being manipulated by Sephiroth. For reasons that I'm not entirely sure of (probably his connection to Jenova?), he can influence, and direct any of these robed figures. To a certain extent, Cloud too. He can't fully control Cloud, and by the end Cloud (seemingly?) breaks free, but he pushes and manipulates Cloud a lot. At one point he has enough control over Cloud that he almost kills Tifa. Especially after that, I was really dreading that Sephiroth was going to make Cloud kill Aerith, which...

But before I get to that, I need to say something else about Sephiroth. Yes, his bits as a schemer, controlling the robed figures, manipulating Cloud, and eventually being revealed as the one secretly controlling Wutai to start a new war, that is all interesting. Honestly, kind of more interesting when I stop and think about it than I felt in game. Because the thing is, the more the game focuses on Sephiroth as the ultimate villain, as opposed to the Shinra Electric Power Company...

I think he isn't as compelling of a villain. I'm still not entirely sure what his ultimate goal is? The main cast seem to think he wants to save the planet by killing everyone on it (thus ending the use of Mako (the planet's lifeblood) as energy). But, the more the game gets into the stuff with the Gi, who I believe are aliens that can't die permanently, because they can't return to a lifestream they were never a part of in the first place, the more I think Sephiroth might just want to die? He was created from Jenova, who is also an alien (I think? I don't remember if they've said that explicitly in these games yet or if I know that from internet osmosis). So, the Gi, who don't really seem actually all that bad, created an orb of Black Materia that they say can permanently kill themselves with, but the Cetra (the ancient people Aerith is the last of) stole the Black Materia because they feared it might be misused, or perhaps that it would accidentally permanently kill everyone on the planet, and not just the Gi. So anyway, the Gi still want the Black Materia, but so does Sephiroth.

All this is certainly interesting but if I'm being completely honest, I liked the story better when it was about trying to stop the evil corporation and climate change. To be clear, this game is still about climate change, and Shinra is still a threat! They're still up to no good, just not as much of a focus as in Remake. The issue is that I think all the sickos running the various departments of evil at Shinra are more fun to watch than Sephiroth. Except maybe Rufus. Both of them are going for that kind of aloof, “I'm evil but I don't need to show it” vibe, and I think I just enjoy a little more cackling evil. Like, Hojo is the worst, and I hate him, but he's kind of turning into a “I love to hate him” sort of villain.

So anyway, I've got mixed thoughts on Sephiroth. Him as a schemer is neat, and it was cool to see (and control!) him before he got Jokerfied and went evil, but I've also found myself losing interest in him. Maybe some of it is just the performance, maybe the actor is a bit too flat with the aloofness? I'm not saying bad necessarily, it all feels intentional. Just not...interesting? I think it may just be that less is more with Sephiroth, the mystery is more enticing than the reality.

Out of curiosity, I did look up some cutscenes from Rebirth in Japanese, to hear what that Sephiroth sounds like. My brief thought would be he does sound like he's putting more emotion into the role than the English voice actor, but whatever. I really like the rest of the English cast, definitely the main crew. And English Sephiroth is just a little dry, flat, whatever. He isn't actively bad like say, a certain other English voice dubbing over an iconic character in a game I played recently.

Okay, and another thing, sort of related to Sephiroth, that made me feel like I was losing my mind when it happened. This was early on, when Sephiroth was looking at the secret research at the Shinra Resident Evil lab. One of the documents had a date on it, with the year, “1977,” and just... Why does Final Fantasy VII world have the same year numbering as the real world?? I'm not complaining, I just think it's funny, the sort of thing that I could see being in a 90s' localization, but less so this.

Anyway, I can't keep beating around the bush, I need to get to the thing. The moment where they kill Aerith...but through the magic of multiverse, simultaneously don't kill her. Or more accurately to how it happens in game, Cloud is being forced by Sephiroth to kill her, but he manages to resist, she lives, then through multiverse trickery, this world collides with another, and she is both alive and dead at the same time?

On top of aspects of it just not making much logical sense (which again, fantasy setting, it only needs to adhere to its internal logic, not real world logic), it ultimately feels like the most noncommittal choice they could have made. In an attempt to appease both the people who thought she should still be killed, and the people who wanted her to live, they decided to do both. And if I had to guess, in doing so make nobody happy.

I think I can see a version of it where it works. In a world where Rebirth is the end of this series, there's no third game, maybe it could? Where they use this as a way to have Aerith fight alongside Cloud for the final boss, and they actually defeat Sephiroth and save the world, rather than him just flying away (a moment that made me laugh), but ultimately she has to return to her own universe, maybe that could work. Where it felt more like she had sacrificed herself, and somehow that was key to defeating Sephiroth? I don't know.

Also, that boss fight, it was a bit disappointing. Remake also ends with a duel against Sephiroth, but unfortunately I think that was a much better one. Ending both games (and presumably the third will too!) with the same boss, doing kind of the same thing, just doing it worse? Not great! In Remake, the duel is atop bits of broken buildings flying through a storm. In Rebirth, it's just in a featureless white void. In Remake, the other party members join up mid fight, and it's cool! In Rebirth, it's just Cloud and Aerith. Granted, the rest of the party is off fighting some other giant Jenova/Sephiroth(??) monster, but that happened before this bit.

Then, after all that, Aerith is still with the party, but only Cloud can see and talk to her, so everyone else (especially Tifa) is grieving, while Cloud is acting stranger than ever. Then...it ends, with Cloud putting the key to the Black Materia (but not the Black Materia itself?) into his sword, other universe(?) Aerith is left behind, and no promises are made about Journey's End.

At the end of the day, I feel like Rebirth left me with more questions than answers, but not in the fun way that Remake did. Like, I still need to see what's going to happen next. In a lot of ways, it's killing me that I need to wait at least four or five years to see Journey's End. But, I can't say I have sky high expectations any more.

Really though, cliched as it sounds, I think what's going to stick with me from all these games is the Journey, and not the End, so when all is said and done, I still enjoyed Rebirth. I just have more issues with it than I did Remake, despite it being a better game in many regards. Hopefully Reunion can have a better ending than Rebirth. Maybe it can find a way to pull it all together, and retroactively make Rebirth's story, and ending work better than it does right now. Not going to get my hopes super high for that, but hey! Anything is possible, and I'd rather try to be optimistic if I can.

The last, very last thing I want to mention, so I can end on a definitely high note: The music is still phenomenal. And there's so much of it too! So many different versions of themes, and used so well. Maybe a bit too loudly, whoever mixed the audio was channeling their inner Deadly Premonition. But at least the music can be turned down, and that makes it more reasonable. I'm not kidding, by default it can drown out conversations, especially in side quests.

So, when all is said and done, I did enjoy the vast majority of my time with Rebirth. I'd still say it's a great game overall, just not the near masterpiece that Remake is.

That's all I have to say for now, but I'll be back, however long it is from now, for Journey's End. I'm too invested to leave these chuckle heads now. Good or bad, I'm in.

See you all then, and for now, take care!

Nice review. It's interesting to hear the perspective on it from someone who never played the 1997 version. I picked up a PS5 recently specifically to play this, but I need to get through Remake first which is taking me a while. Enjoying it a lot so far even if it's a *tad* slow at times.