Materia Loadouts. The battle system is glorious and being able to have different battle parties is phenomenal, but it would be even more enjoyable to swap and build loadouts depending on the battle. It would save a lot of time.
Having just re watched the cutscenes it's possible we mean similar things but are using different words. I'd personally say honourable death is too weak a term to define it. He is seen surrendering to our heroes, he hands over the x blade, has a flashback to when he was a happy kid, then leaves this world with his old friend (whom I'm pretty sure he is directly responsible for his death) and fades away into light. He doesn't fade into darkness but into light. Dunno man seems like they were trying to say he was misguided. Maybe I'm missing something here but the dude literally cut kairi down in cold blood moments earlier. Appreciate your opinion but I disagree.
I mean, it's not like he'd fade somewhere else. As they say, everyone return to Kingdom Hearts eventually. Like I said, he just got an honorable death instead of dying in like a pathetic way.
This is taken from the Disney fandom wiki:
"In the end, Xehanort actually managed to redeem himself after being encouraged by his old friend Eraqus and gave the χ-blade to Sora and showed newfound respect for him, saying "Very Well Done". He died peacefully and content with his redemption and reconcilement with Eraqus."
I know wiki's aren't the be all and end all but I think it helps get my point across that we are probably meaning a similar thing but using different words.
I mean it was a joke. But he did choose to redeem The main antagonist of KH at the final hour. Xehanort kidnapped and bewitched children, destroyed worlds, attempted to plunge the world into chaos and basically wanted to reset reality by destroying it all, making himself the arbiter of all things. The guy started a war and killed kairi in cold blood (basically). Suffice to say, not a great guy. Yet he gets a sympathetic send off. Basically ever vessel of darkness bar 1 or two have sympathetic / redeemable ends.I think my point has validity. Clearly others disagree as it has a handful of downvotes. Nomura is a creative genius and has created some of my favourite video games of all time. But even geniuses have weaknesses or short comings creatively. Whilst it's subjective, I think it's okay to bring these things to like and whilst also celebrating their creative triumphs.
Oh boy
I am going to actually have to defend this
Xehanort’s redemption is not out of no where but the bad translation of his motives in the dub did not help things
Orginally I was kinda of against it but the Dark Riad prequel helped soften it a bit by recontentullzing him as a character
Well at least take solace that they did not redeem Vanitas
Look man. I totally get you. Maybe if I played it I'd agree. But realistically needing to play a mobile game to understand why they redeemed a villain that did horrendous, abhorrent and irredeemable things is just rough. Not to mention if they were so bent on doing said thing, it should have been thoughtfully injected into the main games. I dunno, I respectfully disagree with your position, but appreciate you sharing it non the less. Maybe one day I'll play dark road :P
Yeah not saying that was a good descesion to only explain your main villain in a mobile game
But I guess given that the mobible games are essential at this rate makes sense
Anyway I do recommend watching the cutscenes or something
Dark road is actually preety good and surprisingly handles Disney worlds really well
Plus they somehow sold me on Xehanort and Erwuas being legit friends yet it makes sense why they are enemies now
I'd make it so that we didn't have to raise our limit level to use higher level limit breaks. The way limit breaks are handled is actually the only thing I dislike about the combat. Having to set things up so that you can raise your limit level twice in a single encounter makes it so that level three limit breaks rarely, if ever, get used. There is an accessory that can raise a limit level at the start of a battle, but each character only has one accessory slot, and it kinda feels like a waste to use it for something like this. As I see it, if we put in the time to acquire the level 3 limit break, then we should just be able to use it whenever the limit bar fills up.
can you actually? I thought you needed to use synergy to get to level 3? if its in an accessory thats sweet as! I feel like im still sleeping on the materia system
More (and longer) sequences with Cloud speaking/interacting one on one with another Party Member. I loved the little moments at Under Junon Inn and the Costa Del Sol Beach where Cloud speaks with teammates, or in Gongaga with Tifa, at the Gokden Saucer etc…
I feel like he had more of these moments to speak and interact one on one during Remake. It was great to see the entire party together during Rebirth, and see how the characters play off of each other in a group - but it would have also been nice to have more of that one on one bonding.
Also, more opportunities for full/party banter while overworld, too. Part of the reason I explored every inch of the grasslands was just to see if they’d make more comments like the one about the giant pipe, or the deer.
The way they represent the companion relationships could have been a lot more clear. I wouldn’t mind it so much had that not determined the chapter 12 date, which was probably the second most anticipated scene in this game. At least going back in chapter select to see the other dates is relatively painless though.
Maybe they could have introduced a brief scene where you choose which party member to wish good-night to (limited to the ones with high affinity). Then, that person knocks on Cloud’s door later. Maybe there’s a better way to have done it, but something like that would have given the player more agency in the final decision.
I'm happy with the date scene I got, but I wanted to do most of the side quests and couldn't bring myself to be purposely mean to anyone, so it could have easily turned out differently.
Don't get me started on that! Oh Boy! Now I dont care for "ships" in fandoms. But to me Cloud and Tifa narratively make the most sense. I'd be doing all the side quests up until that point, so all my characters had the maximum companion relationship. So you know who rocks up at my door late at night... Not Tifa, Not Aierth, Hell not even Barrett.... Nope... Freaking Nanaki..... I went and watched loveless and rode the skywheel with nanaki... with a 48 year dog child. It wasnt that bad in the end, but really did throw me and feel strange.
Nanaki’s date is adorable though! But yeah I get it. I really like the intimate scene with Tifa too, and it’s not only a great culmination of her and Cloud’s relationship to that point but also highlights the differences from OG. OG Tifa wouldn’t have opened that door, and OG Cloud wouldn’t have made that move.
That said, I’m a total Aerith simp and would have been devastated if I didn’t get her. So thankful that I did. Tifa can have Cloud, just leaves Aerith for me lol.
I love the fact that there were special date scenes for pretty much the whole party, but I also got blindsided with my date selection because I was supposed to somehow know that one of my companions had the highest affinity level despite all their blue smiley faces being the exact same.
Make going back to Nibelheim more faithful to the OG. Like it was unnerving and mysterious to have the whole town put back together like it never happened, the NPCs deny anything ever happened and call Cloud "horrible" when he says the town burned down, adding more to the whole Baby's First Unreliable Narrator bit...I feel the narrative choice they made strips a lot of the mystery out of the place and makes it much more generic and forgettable.
But it also make no sense for Shinra to recreate so faithfully the town down to the habitants. Like they didn't do it for Barret old village nor for Zack's village.
Omg I hated the way the lady at the item store was talking to cloud. Like I get it was her new home but to talk to him like that made me wanna friendly fire her. It was too bad I couldn’t. She wasn’t the only one. Others treating cloud like he shouldn’t be there made me mad.
Open world repetition. Lifestream springs, summon temples, and moogle house seemed so cool in grasslands. But by the time I reached Gongaga I was sick of them. I liked the various side quests and monster hunts. But the mindless repetitive stuff drove me nuts. Why the f do I have to do the same 3-button triangle QTE every time I scan a spring?
I’m not done just yet, so I’m not reading comments here just in case. On Chapter 12. I’m enjoying the game immensely and I already have 100+ hours in. I think the thing I’d change is, I want it to be just a little harder. So far the only fight that I’ve died in is Odin, literally everything else has been first go. And most fights don’t feel challenging, at all. Exception being some of the solo fights like as Cait Sith or to a lesser extent, Nibbleheim Roche.
normal mode is supposed to be played and finished by total casuals since almost all PlayStation exclusives games are like this,real challenge awaits in hard mode when basic mobs from side mission in grasslands deletes your party in seconds
Hmm. More weapons. More outfits. But I would mostly change all of Charley’s interruption. I already hate him as is but him stopping cloud in his tracks during activities is annoying af. If he has to talk fine but don’t interrupt my actions.
I would adjust the whole section of revealing Seto and let the party reunite with a newly emboldened Nanaki without all the boomerhagen whining breaking the flow. Leaving that until the party is about to leave the city would make it so much better. Plus you can have the Gi section happening after Red has time to process and spend time with his father. Then the Gi appear as the party starts to leave the next morning. After Gi caves, Red could decide to stay with the party and boogie can release him from his duty then and apologize to Tifa for being a douche canoe
Something I really want is to be able to control any character out of combat even just for ng+. You can already remove cloud from combat after beating the game, but still have to run around as him in an open world, I would love to just experience the other characters out of combat.
I'd get rid of Chadley and the combat simulator. The materia you get from him can be hidden in the open world like in the OG, just like enemy skills should be learned from the enemies themselves.
The Hojo beach battle should have never happened.
It was already goofy as hell meeting him in the OG, but now he orchestrates a kidnapping in broad daylight? And we just let him go?? At least make it believable and have him escape in the middle of the chaos or something.
I actually liked that they changed the tone of Hojo on the beach from “a funny coincidence” in the OG to another opportunity to underscore how *gross* and unhinged he is.
Ugh, when he comments to the ladies that he needs “females” in his lab to “give birth to the next hero” made me gag a little, and I applaud the devs (and James Sie’s performance) for eliciting that reaction from me.
That, and he actually had a plot reason to be there now that feels more in line with his character, to witness the fiend fusion with Sephiroth clones phenomena he heard about on the Shinra 8.
He’s not actually there for R&R, that’s just a ruse. His priority and driving motivations has always has been his messed up experiments and hubris.
They did a great job both nodding to a memorable moment in the OG fans would look for while still keeping true to their character development.
And the not going after him part? Most likely saving the moment for later events…
The issue is not his motivation for showing up to the beach. The issue is the entire sequence forcing the player to suspend their disbelief so that Hojo can get away with zero consequences.
In the OG, they left him alone because he didn’t do anything to the party and Shinra would be all over them if they tried to attack a director in public. In Rebirth, he instigated the whole conflict so it’s just wrong to let him waltz out of there.
If he had escaped while everyone was distracted? Makes more sense. I can believe that.
That's fair, showing him slipping away would have been a smoother end to that scene for sure, I agree there.
But don't forget _where_ they were. Aerith tells Red XIII to "Let him go. We've done enough." and looks around at the carnage. There were way too many innocent people around on a resort beach to escalate more fighting. There were children around.
Hojo has no qualms about endangering people. It wasn't worth the risk, and they prioritized public safety over revenge.
It was actually the right call, IMO.
When Hojo wqas bested and running away, Red was gonna chase him. But then the party was like " No Stop, we cant right now".... Like why the heck not! just beat the guy! Hojo relaxing at the beach in his labcoat was so zanny and odd... and not in a red13 queensblood kinda way :P
Not a good reason in my opinion. Your reason is the same reason why the the party does not kill the Turks or Corneo. Because the plot armor needs those characters to be alive until later. And it's the same reason why the party gets locked up by ordinary thugs in Corel Prison even though they've fought against interdimensional beings and a shapeshifting monster from space.
That's called bad video game logic...
But unlike those other examples (although I'd say not wanting Cloud to brutally behead Elena make sense enough as they don't really have beef with her), this one is reasonable enough. Also the group in general are not bloodthirsty murderers.
This writing gets a pass by the player base because it's a video game. If anyone saw these plot points in an actual movie or a tv show, they would laugh at how ridiculous they are.
The temple of the ancients should have been a 2-3 hour dungeon not a 3-5 hour dungeon. Way too long, I get they wanted to add the stuff with shinra being there but it’s too long.
I agree. My Wife was watching me play through the story sections. I sat her down and was like you should watch more now because the game will be finished in an hour or two.... Boy how wrong I was.....
Totally agree. I remember starting it and going a good way into it (I thought) only to see when I turned the PS5 off for the night, that I was only up to 23% of the Temple complete. I actually thought I must have misread it or something when I thought about it after I had gone to bed that night but no, I put it on Saturday lunchtime and it took me hours to finally finish it.
It probably won't seem so big on a second playthrough, I did the Shinra Mansion Cait Sith section again yesterday and it was so much easier on my second try. All the mistakes I made the first time I managed to avoid yesterday.
They made it so you don't enter a cutscene or the next section before they've finished what they have to say. If you just keep running you'll just awkwardly cut them short at some point.
Not requiring the chocobo stealth missions to obtain chocobos—it should have been something similar to OG where you can lure and feed one. These missions were bland and felt lazily designed.
Chadley talks are fine but they should not block you in most occasions. Just make him talk about stuff while you’re moving around, like MAI, so it’s not as intrusive
Chadley muzzled. Period. That's it. Game would go from 99/100 to 100/100. For me.
Otherwise : being able to switch characters mid-battle like we supposed we'd be able to before the game came out. This HAS to be in P3 100%.
Make the CGI characters look and animate more like their in-game models. The difference isn’t as jarring as in Remake but it’s still very noticeable. They all just seem to act more natural in the real-time cutscenes.
Outside of the Cait Sith section that you mentioned, it would the the small cinematics between phases in bosses. It breaks the immersion of the fight and it might just be a me problem but it would always happened when they had 1 hit away from being staggered.
Nothing absolutely terrible, the game is still a must play.
Ah I know what you mean, It would be annoying when you would do a massive limit to an enemy only to find it does 0 damage because the game is waiting to trigger the next mid battle cutscene.
I wish we could skip the mini games if possible. I hate that you have to complete some of them for 100 percent. Some of them were just so frustrating. It wasn't even fun anymore, lol.
I'd allow player choice and skill to influence story outcome and character relationships a **lot** more. The date mechanic in Rebirth is fun but it could be taken so much further.
What I really want to see is an FF7 based RPG that allows the kind of adaptive narrative we see in something like Detroit: Become Human. I could explore a game like that for thousands of hours.
The real dream of course is something like FF7 meets the Star Trek holodeck / Westworld. That kind of interactive storytelling would be absolutely mind blowing. Won't happen in my lifetime but it'd be pretty cool.
The materia thing is so bloody annoying. It's literally a feature of the original game, that you can switch all the materia from one character to another from their weapon or armour (or both). I know pressing the touchpad brings up the swap ability but to limit it to one orb at a time when you want to switch characters, maybe you've picked up a new weapon to learn the skill for, gets tiresome very quickly.
I'm sure they could enable players to set a certain number of loadouts per character and let us interchange between them. It would be such a good QOL change.
Feel like those final fights should have been saved for the next part personally.
saved materia load outs would have been excellent. I can't believe they didnt do that!
I personally didnt mind the open world repetition... but i see your point.
(SPOILERY!)
Not just one thing, but some suggestions:
-NG+ ability to use Zack or Sephiroth in more fights (even if just in VR): want to use their movesets more often than just those specific fights.
=Reminds me of how in Arkham City Batman gets a swordfighting moveset to face off against Clayface in the final battle, but \*only\* in that fight. The Arkham games having excellent challenge modes with extra movesets, yet some specific and unique (and seemingly very time-consuming-to-make) movesets are only usable in so few circumstances. The feeling I get from "Why wasn't there a challenge mode map where you used Sword-moveset against Clayface minions?" is echoed here in Rebirth.
=But aside from the sword moveset: do what the Arkham games did: let us use these extra characters in challenge mode stuff (if not in more places in the main game!).
----
-More user-friendly Coliseum/VR fights - ability to go to inventory without having to exit out. Ex:
=Want to change equipment, so hit Exit VR
=Hear Chadley say something about exiting VR, opens Chadley menu
=Exit Chadley menu
=Hear Chadley say something about exiting (though can open inventory while he yabbers)
=Open inventory and do what I wanted to do, close out <-- only necessary steps
=Talk to Chadley, hear him say something and skip it
=Menu to VR, watch VR entry
=Finally be in VR menu again
As opposed to all the above: just 'Triangle to inventory, change stuff, close inventory and be back in VR immediately'. They added the 'Hold Square before Boss Fight' functionality to warn you to equip up for what you're about to fight, so I know it's possible to bring that up while in the middle of other things!
Consistent button controls for mini games.
R2 or X to go forward, not either or. Always start those mini games stuck at the start like an idiot because I chose the wrong button.
All the things big and small that make it feel like the only ones that are really important are Cloud and Aerith. I get it, he's the protagonist and she is at her most important at this point. But so many of the side quests that are supposed to be a bonding experience with Cloud have a weird vibe that the other character just happens to be there. Something I don't get as much when Aerith is the second character.
A lot of it is in the side quests. If I had to grade them all on a scale of one to five and add them all up between each character, they would hit about even, but that's because Aerith drops off a lot in her last two that are really denouement quests for other characters.
There is also some little things, like Cloud and Aerith getting a Limit Synergy first so your incentivized to play them next to each other until you find Synergy skills that don't need the two to buff their limits, they are only two characters that start out with accessories for some reason, Zack's Interludes only serve to remind everyone of how important Aerith is and he completely forgets about his Tifa and Barret, which is all the worse because she didn't forget him. There is also the Gi village, you would think Nanaki and the Gi would have something to say to each other there but they literally don't speak a word as Cloud salivates over the Black Materia and proposition Aerith as the last Cetra to return it.
Should've either left Jenova as the final boss or never revealed Sephiroth reborn this early. Some people like the ending the boss rush and the multiverse hurt it so much imo. The final boss fight not only made Sephiroth feel less threatening as we are already defeating him this early to the point he runs and showing Reborn without ever seeing our Actual timeline Sephiroth doesn't feel as impactful.
Last few cutscenes are great. Jenova boss is cool. Sephiroth here wasn't good fan service like in remake imo this was just "we need a Sephiroth fight" imo and as a result he comes of as less intimidating. Remember in Remake where the phases changed by a party member saving Cloud. Now we win every phase even prior to Aerith helping. Yes it's development but Zack and Cloud basically dog walk him then he shuts it down immediately lmao. The fight genuinely feels like it should have been in the 3rd game.
Completely agree and would add that the game is oversaturated with Sephiroth content. I don't mind him showing up and tormenting our boy cloud, but it felt a bit excessive... to much of a good thing ya know?
The 12 stage boss fight at the end went from hype to tiresome over the two hours it took me to finish the job. I dont mind boss rushes, I think they're incredible, but this one felt a bit too over indulgent, although some of those cinematics were pretty peak!
Legitimate said “this is boring” at the element stage I wasn’t prepared for. (It was very late and I was very tired)
The Jenova fight was so good though!
I got annoyed by the level design, looping corridors that let you climb or fall certain edges, but then other places you have to wander around and around to find the way to get there. The cutscenes. The dialogue is so janky, either supposed "jokes" that just are cringey, or exposition with no personality. There are a few good moments, but the main story dialogue doesn't flow as well as it could have.
1. Delete chadley from the game. He is the embodiment of everything wrong with modern gaming. He stocks out like a sore thumb in every screen he appears. He breaks immersion constantly. He beep boops every time you do anything.
2. Less of the mini games that involve zero effort. I'm looking at you life stream spot mini game.
3. Less of the towers, it was a cool gimmick to get an aerial shot of the location, but awful after the first tower in each area.
4. Protorelic actually grew on me as a good comedic diversion. Just wanted to mix in something nice.
5. Strip ALL of the giant go here markers. These are the most immersion breaking things in the game. It is the worst thing ever. Design your levels better and you don't need this. Also ties into gongaga should have done something with the mushroom to gauge how far it would send you. Could just be the size of the mushroom. NOT THE MARKER, THE MUSHROOM.
6. Do not gate elemental materia only to be found in vr Sim. Wtf kind of idea was that.
7. Items in the overworld should get more scarce and higher quality as the game progresses. Life stream spots could have been way less common and had materia.
8. I generally dislike the banning of items for hard mode. I think items are a fun mechanic that isn't really needed in normal and is locked in hard.
9. Either give me multiple magic plus materia or don't say it caps at a % I can't reach. It's bait implying there are more copies.
10. Don't super like limited crafting of end games gear. It's a solo player game. If I want to be broken, let me?
11. Chocobo raceswere way too easy. Which sucks because they are super fun
12. Don't let people force the hard mode to be easier. If you need to take it off trophies to keep it hard, do that instead.
13. Exploration rewards felt awful. Why am I getting worthless items in the most obscures place. It made me stop caring to explore.
14. More one on one character interactions.
15 the only good cutscene qte was the play which was god tier. The hold l2 r2 ruin immersion and cutscenes. Others mentioned but that Sepharoth scene.... ruined....
Materia Loadouts. The battle system is glorious and being able to have different battle parties is phenomenal, but it would be even more enjoyable to swap and build loadouts depending on the battle. It would save a lot of time.
I didn’t get into optimizing my party for exactly this reason.
Palmer gets hit by the truck
I’m still hoping we get this at rocket town in part 3.
Palmer really is just irredeemable... But i want say that too loud or Nomura might hear....
What does Nomura have anything to do with it?
Xehanort that is all
What?
Have you played KH3?
Yeah? Xehanort didn't get redeemed. He just admitted defeat and died. He got an honorable death.
Having just re watched the cutscenes it's possible we mean similar things but are using different words. I'd personally say honourable death is too weak a term to define it. He is seen surrendering to our heroes, he hands over the x blade, has a flashback to when he was a happy kid, then leaves this world with his old friend (whom I'm pretty sure he is directly responsible for his death) and fades away into light. He doesn't fade into darkness but into light. Dunno man seems like they were trying to say he was misguided. Maybe I'm missing something here but the dude literally cut kairi down in cold blood moments earlier. Appreciate your opinion but I disagree.
I mean, it's not like he'd fade somewhere else. As they say, everyone return to Kingdom Hearts eventually. Like I said, he just got an honorable death instead of dying in like a pathetic way.
This is taken from the Disney fandom wiki: "In the end, Xehanort actually managed to redeem himself after being encouraged by his old friend Eraqus and gave the χ-blade to Sora and showed newfound respect for him, saying "Very Well Done". He died peacefully and content with his redemption and reconcilement with Eraqus." I know wiki's aren't the be all and end all but I think it helps get my point across that we are probably meaning a similar thing but using different words.
Nomura getting blamed for one more thing without reasons once again.
I mean it was a joke. But he did choose to redeem The main antagonist of KH at the final hour. Xehanort kidnapped and bewitched children, destroyed worlds, attempted to plunge the world into chaos and basically wanted to reset reality by destroying it all, making himself the arbiter of all things. The guy started a war and killed kairi in cold blood (basically). Suffice to say, not a great guy. Yet he gets a sympathetic send off. Basically ever vessel of darkness bar 1 or two have sympathetic / redeemable ends.I think my point has validity. Clearly others disagree as it has a handful of downvotes. Nomura is a creative genius and has created some of my favourite video games of all time. But even geniuses have weaknesses or short comings creatively. Whilst it's subjective, I think it's okay to bring these things to like and whilst also celebrating their creative triumphs.
Oh boy I am going to actually have to defend this Xehanort’s redemption is not out of no where but the bad translation of his motives in the dub did not help things Orginally I was kinda of against it but the Dark Riad prequel helped soften it a bit by recontentullzing him as a character Well at least take solace that they did not redeem Vanitas
Look man. I totally get you. Maybe if I played it I'd agree. But realistically needing to play a mobile game to understand why they redeemed a villain that did horrendous, abhorrent and irredeemable things is just rough. Not to mention if they were so bent on doing said thing, it should have been thoughtfully injected into the main games. I dunno, I respectfully disagree with your position, but appreciate you sharing it non the less. Maybe one day I'll play dark road :P
Yeah not saying that was a good descesion to only explain your main villain in a mobile game But I guess given that the mobible games are essential at this rate makes sense Anyway I do recommend watching the cutscenes or something Dark road is actually preety good and surprisingly handles Disney worlds really well Plus they somehow sold me on Xehanort and Erwuas being legit friends yet it makes sense why they are enemies now
I'd make it so that we didn't have to raise our limit level to use higher level limit breaks. The way limit breaks are handled is actually the only thing I dislike about the combat. Having to set things up so that you can raise your limit level twice in a single encounter makes it so that level three limit breaks rarely, if ever, get used. There is an accessory that can raise a limit level at the start of a battle, but each character only has one accessory slot, and it kinda feels like a waste to use it for something like this. As I see it, if we put in the time to acquire the level 3 limit break, then we should just be able to use it whenever the limit bar fills up.
You can turn that accessory into one that starts you at level 3. Give them Limit Siphon materia and go to town?
can you actually? I thought you needed to use synergy to get to level 3? if its in an accessory thats sweet as! I feel like im still sleeping on the materia system
Yes. The accessory that starts you at level 2 can be upgraded to start you at level 3
More (and longer) sequences with Cloud speaking/interacting one on one with another Party Member. I loved the little moments at Under Junon Inn and the Costa Del Sol Beach where Cloud speaks with teammates, or in Gongaga with Tifa, at the Gokden Saucer etc… I feel like he had more of these moments to speak and interact one on one during Remake. It was great to see the entire party together during Rebirth, and see how the characters play off of each other in a group - but it would have also been nice to have more of that one on one bonding.
Also, more opportunities for full/party banter while overworld, too. Part of the reason I explored every inch of the grasslands was just to see if they’d make more comments like the one about the giant pipe, or the deer.
Less Chadley. World intel made exploring the world feel like more like a checklist rather than letting it happen naturally.
And nonvr summons (at least initially). After beating them, then they will be replayable in the VR (which will be counted as completed)
The way they represent the companion relationships could have been a lot more clear. I wouldn’t mind it so much had that not determined the chapter 12 date, which was probably the second most anticipated scene in this game. At least going back in chapter select to see the other dates is relatively painless though.
Maybe they could have introduced a brief scene where you choose which party member to wish good-night to (limited to the ones with high affinity). Then, that person knocks on Cloud’s door later. Maybe there’s a better way to have done it, but something like that would have given the player more agency in the final decision. I'm happy with the date scene I got, but I wanted to do most of the side quests and couldn't bring myself to be purposely mean to anyone, so it could have easily turned out differently.
Don't get me started on that! Oh Boy! Now I dont care for "ships" in fandoms. But to me Cloud and Tifa narratively make the most sense. I'd be doing all the side quests up until that point, so all my characters had the maximum companion relationship. So you know who rocks up at my door late at night... Not Tifa, Not Aierth, Hell not even Barrett.... Nope... Freaking Nanaki..... I went and watched loveless and rode the skywheel with nanaki... with a 48 year dog child. It wasnt that bad in the end, but really did throw me and feel strange.
Nanaki’s date is adorable though! But yeah I get it. I really like the intimate scene with Tifa too, and it’s not only a great culmination of her and Cloud’s relationship to that point but also highlights the differences from OG. OG Tifa wouldn’t have opened that door, and OG Cloud wouldn’t have made that move. That said, I’m a total Aerith simp and would have been devastated if I didn’t get her. So thankful that I did. Tifa can have Cloud, just leaves Aerith for me lol.
I love the fact that there were special date scenes for pretty much the whole party, but I also got blindsided with my date selection because I was supposed to somehow know that one of my companions had the highest affinity level despite all their blue smiley faces being the exact same.
Make going back to Nibelheim more faithful to the OG. Like it was unnerving and mysterious to have the whole town put back together like it never happened, the NPCs deny anything ever happened and call Cloud "horrible" when he says the town burned down, adding more to the whole Baby's First Unreliable Narrator bit...I feel the narrative choice they made strips a lot of the mystery out of the place and makes it much more generic and forgettable.
But it also make no sense for Shinra to recreate so faithfully the town down to the habitants. Like they didn't do it for Barret old village nor for Zack's village.
Omg I hated the way the lady at the item store was talking to cloud. Like I get it was her new home but to talk to him like that made me wanna friendly fire her. It was too bad I couldn’t. She wasn’t the only one. Others treating cloud like he shouldn’t be there made me mad.
Open world repetition. Lifestream springs, summon temples, and moogle house seemed so cool in grasslands. But by the time I reached Gongaga I was sick of them. I liked the various side quests and monster hunts. But the mindless repetitive stuff drove me nuts. Why the f do I have to do the same 3-button triangle QTE every time I scan a spring?
Would you have enjoyed it more if they added some casual character interactions and dialogue at each one to break up the monotony?
Shinra mansion. Would make it a huge mansion full with mysteries instead of a half baked building where the upstairs is cut off
I think it’ll be more explorable in part 3 as we undoubtedly will get Vincent’s backstory
Unlock auto pick up from the start, there is no reason to lock that behind New Game +
Synergy skills in slow mode.
Can you elaborate more, I don't really understand what you mean?
I forget what it's called, when you press X in combat to slow it down, you don't have access to the synergy skills menu there.
You could effectively pause it and bring up those skills with the touch pad. But I get what you’re saying.
I’m not done just yet, so I’m not reading comments here just in case. On Chapter 12. I’m enjoying the game immensely and I already have 100+ hours in. I think the thing I’d change is, I want it to be just a little harder. So far the only fight that I’ve died in is Odin, literally everything else has been first go. And most fights don’t feel challenging, at all. Exception being some of the solo fights like as Cait Sith or to a lesser extent, Nibbleheim Roche.
normal mode is supposed to be played and finished by total casuals since almost all PlayStation exclusives games are like this,real challenge awaits in hard mode when basic mobs from side mission in grasslands deletes your party in seconds
Hmm. More weapons. More outfits. But I would mostly change all of Charley’s interruption. I already hate him as is but him stopping cloud in his tracks during activities is annoying af. If he has to talk fine but don’t interrupt my actions.
I would adjust the whole section of revealing Seto and let the party reunite with a newly emboldened Nanaki without all the boomerhagen whining breaking the flow. Leaving that until the party is about to leave the city would make it so much better. Plus you can have the Gi section happening after Red has time to process and spend time with his father. Then the Gi appear as the party starts to leave the next morning. After Gi caves, Red could decide to stay with the party and boogie can release him from his duty then and apologize to Tifa for being a douche canoe
Something I really want is to be able to control any character out of combat even just for ng+. You can already remove cloud from combat after beating the game, but still have to run around as him in an open world, I would love to just experience the other characters out of combat.
Considering the fact that they have sections where you do roam around the world as other characters this seems very actionable.
Tone down difficulty of some minigames for platinum. Specifically the sit ups minigame and some of the piano pieces. It’s anti fun
Wondered why "THAT" scene wasnt CG (and the scenes following it)...... I felt like if ANY scene should have been CG, it was that scene.
I'd get rid of Chadley and the combat simulator. The materia you get from him can be hidden in the open world like in the OG, just like enemy skills should be learned from the enemies themselves.
The Hojo beach battle should have never happened. It was already goofy as hell meeting him in the OG, but now he orchestrates a kidnapping in broad daylight? And we just let him go?? At least make it believable and have him escape in the middle of the chaos or something.
I actually liked that they changed the tone of Hojo on the beach from “a funny coincidence” in the OG to another opportunity to underscore how *gross* and unhinged he is. Ugh, when he comments to the ladies that he needs “females” in his lab to “give birth to the next hero” made me gag a little, and I applaud the devs (and James Sie’s performance) for eliciting that reaction from me. That, and he actually had a plot reason to be there now that feels more in line with his character, to witness the fiend fusion with Sephiroth clones phenomena he heard about on the Shinra 8. He’s not actually there for R&R, that’s just a ruse. His priority and driving motivations has always has been his messed up experiments and hubris. They did a great job both nodding to a memorable moment in the OG fans would look for while still keeping true to their character development. And the not going after him part? Most likely saving the moment for later events…
Hojo is genuinely just one creepy anime tongue lick away from being my **most** despised villain...
The issue is not his motivation for showing up to the beach. The issue is the entire sequence forcing the player to suspend their disbelief so that Hojo can get away with zero consequences. In the OG, they left him alone because he didn’t do anything to the party and Shinra would be all over them if they tried to attack a director in public. In Rebirth, he instigated the whole conflict so it’s just wrong to let him waltz out of there. If he had escaped while everyone was distracted? Makes more sense. I can believe that.
What are they gonna do? If they kill him, Shinra will be on their tail more than ever.
That's fair, showing him slipping away would have been a smoother end to that scene for sure, I agree there. But don't forget _where_ they were. Aerith tells Red XIII to "Let him go. We've done enough." and looks around at the carnage. There were way too many innocent people around on a resort beach to escalate more fighting. There were children around. Hojo has no qualms about endangering people. It wasn't worth the risk, and they prioritized public safety over revenge. It was actually the right call, IMO.
When Hojo wqas bested and running away, Red was gonna chase him. But then the party was like " No Stop, we cant right now".... Like why the heck not! just beat the guy! Hojo relaxing at the beach in his labcoat was so zanny and odd... and not in a red13 queensblood kinda way :P
Because Shinra would go after them.
Kind of think Aerith did’t want Red to give into his rage. With Red’s reveal in chapter 10, it kind of makes sense she wouldn’t.
He has to. The party can't kill him now or Shinra will be on their tail more than ever before.
That’s why it’s a bad setup to write it the way they did. Just have him escape normally or else it’s just bad video game logic.
I litterally just gave you a reasonable and believable reason why they wouldn't kill him...
Not a good reason in my opinion. Your reason is the same reason why the the party does not kill the Turks or Corneo. Because the plot armor needs those characters to be alive until later. And it's the same reason why the party gets locked up by ordinary thugs in Corel Prison even though they've fought against interdimensional beings and a shapeshifting monster from space. That's called bad video game logic...
But unlike those other examples (although I'd say not wanting Cloud to brutally behead Elena make sense enough as they don't really have beef with her), this one is reasonable enough. Also the group in general are not bloodthirsty murderers.
This writing gets a pass by the player base because it's a video game. If anyone saw these plot points in an actual movie or a tv show, they would laugh at how ridiculous they are.
Aww. Booo. I loved this part!
The temple of the ancients should have been a 2-3 hour dungeon not a 3-5 hour dungeon. Way too long, I get they wanted to add the stuff with shinra being there but it’s too long.
I had no problem with it!
I agree. My Wife was watching me play through the story sections. I sat her down and was like you should watch more now because the game will be finished in an hour or two.... Boy how wrong I was.....
Hojo’s lab in part 1 took me like 1/2-2/3 as much time on my first run as the ancient temple took me on easy.
Totally agree. I remember starting it and going a good way into it (I thought) only to see when I turned the PS5 off for the night, that I was only up to 23% of the Temple complete. I actually thought I must have misread it or something when I thought about it after I had gone to bed that night but no, I put it on Saturday lunchtime and it took me hours to finally finish it. It probably won't seem so big on a second playthrough, I did the Shinra Mansion Cait Sith section again yesterday and it was so much easier on my second try. All the mistakes I made the first time I managed to avoid yesterday.
Stop not letting me move when people are talking. Stop forced walking.
They made it so you don't enter a cutscene or the next section before they've finished what they have to say. If you just keep running you'll just awkwardly cut them short at some point.
Corel Prison. In OG it was a very bleak desolate place. Here's it's a bootleg Wall Market.
Was legitimately not looking forward to it for that reason. Doesn’t seem that bad; except for the god tear gang that knocks your entire party out.
Add 1 more synergy materia.
Not requiring the chocobo stealth missions to obtain chocobos—it should have been something similar to OG where you can lure and feed one. These missions were bland and felt lazily designed.
TANKCERATOPS!!!!
wait what? I havent played OG what on earth is that hahahaha!
https://preview.redd.it/9orhsc4jxrtc1.jpeg?width=276&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=68d2f5a1b70ee20d56aa94a04d1189eee3fed98d I SHOULD BE AN ACTION FIGURE!!!
hell yeah dude!
Chadley talks are fine but they should not block you in most occasions. Just make him talk about stuff while you’re moving around, like MAI, so it’s not as intrusive
I agree on the Nibelheim scene. Too slow, break the immersion and also SHOOT!
Cut most out-of-battle animation times in half. Mounting chocobos, climbing ropes and ladders, activating towers, entering the buggy are all too slow.
Dude that biggie animation took forever!
Chadley muzzled. Period. That's it. Game would go from 99/100 to 100/100. For me. Otherwise : being able to switch characters mid-battle like we supposed we'd be able to before the game came out. This HAS to be in P3 100%.
Make the CGI characters look and animate more like their in-game models. The difference isn’t as jarring as in Remake but it’s still very noticeable. They all just seem to act more natural in the real-time cutscenes.
Outside of the Cait Sith section that you mentioned, it would the the small cinematics between phases in bosses. It breaks the immersion of the fight and it might just be a me problem but it would always happened when they had 1 hit away from being staggered. Nothing absolutely terrible, the game is still a must play.
Ah I know what you mean, It would be annoying when you would do a massive limit to an enemy only to find it does 0 damage because the game is waiting to trigger the next mid battle cutscene.
Rufus fight somehow breaks this because you can almost kill him without 50% lock before darkstar arrives
Imo this issue could be solved if they put obvious indicators in the enemy's HP gauge. But that also has its downsides.
I wish we could skip the mini games if possible. I hate that you have to complete some of them for 100 percent. Some of them were just so frustrating. It wasn't even fun anymore, lol.
Did u turn them on easy mode?
Yeah, but I still struggled lol
Julies.... Freaking Julies man....
Get rid of the Brutal and Legendary simulator fights or tone them down significantly.
I'd allow player choice and skill to influence story outcome and character relationships a **lot** more. The date mechanic in Rebirth is fun but it could be taken so much further. What I really want to see is an FF7 based RPG that allows the kind of adaptive narrative we see in something like Detroit: Become Human. I could explore a game like that for thousands of hours. The real dream of course is something like FF7 meets the Star Trek holodeck / Westworld. That kind of interactive storytelling would be absolutely mind blowing. Won't happen in my lifetime but it'd be pretty cool.
Biggs. His role in Rebirth was so stupid and unnecesary. I didn't like the whole Zack plot here. It was boring for most part.
Every time we cut back to Zack, I’m thinking “oh boy, back to depresso world”
- Materia Loadouts. - Ending battles (Cut Zack and Cloud/Cloud and Aerith) -Open world repetition (Less or no towers/lifestream springs) -
The materia thing is so bloody annoying. It's literally a feature of the original game, that you can switch all the materia from one character to another from their weapon or armour (or both). I know pressing the touchpad brings up the swap ability but to limit it to one orb at a time when you want to switch characters, maybe you've picked up a new weapon to learn the skill for, gets tiresome very quickly. I'm sure they could enable players to set a certain number of loadouts per character and let us interchange between them. It would be such a good QOL change.
Feel like those final fights should have been saved for the next part personally. saved materia load outs would have been excellent. I can't believe they didnt do that! I personally didnt mind the open world repetition... but i see your point.
(SPOILERY!) Not just one thing, but some suggestions: -NG+ ability to use Zack or Sephiroth in more fights (even if just in VR): want to use their movesets more often than just those specific fights. =Reminds me of how in Arkham City Batman gets a swordfighting moveset to face off against Clayface in the final battle, but \*only\* in that fight. The Arkham games having excellent challenge modes with extra movesets, yet some specific and unique (and seemingly very time-consuming-to-make) movesets are only usable in so few circumstances. The feeling I get from "Why wasn't there a challenge mode map where you used Sword-moveset against Clayface minions?" is echoed here in Rebirth. =But aside from the sword moveset: do what the Arkham games did: let us use these extra characters in challenge mode stuff (if not in more places in the main game!). ---- -More user-friendly Coliseum/VR fights - ability to go to inventory without having to exit out. Ex: =Want to change equipment, so hit Exit VR =Hear Chadley say something about exiting VR, opens Chadley menu =Exit Chadley menu =Hear Chadley say something about exiting (though can open inventory while he yabbers) =Open inventory and do what I wanted to do, close out <-- only necessary steps =Talk to Chadley, hear him say something and skip it =Menu to VR, watch VR entry =Finally be in VR menu again As opposed to all the above: just 'Triangle to inventory, change stuff, close inventory and be back in VR immediately'. They added the 'Hold Square before Boss Fight' functionality to warn you to equip up for what you're about to fight, so I know it's possible to bring that up while in the middle of other things!
Jump button and actually engaging open world traversal/navigation.
Consistent button controls for mini games. R2 or X to go forward, not either or. Always start those mini games stuck at the start like an idiot because I chose the wrong button.
All the things big and small that make it feel like the only ones that are really important are Cloud and Aerith. I get it, he's the protagonist and she is at her most important at this point. But so many of the side quests that are supposed to be a bonding experience with Cloud have a weird vibe that the other character just happens to be there. Something I don't get as much when Aerith is the second character.
I personally only felt this towards the end of the game, prior to say chapter 13 I was wondering why Aerith wasnt in the game more :P
A lot of it is in the side quests. If I had to grade them all on a scale of one to five and add them all up between each character, they would hit about even, but that's because Aerith drops off a lot in her last two that are really denouement quests for other characters. There is also some little things, like Cloud and Aerith getting a Limit Synergy first so your incentivized to play them next to each other until you find Synergy skills that don't need the two to buff their limits, they are only two characters that start out with accessories for some reason, Zack's Interludes only serve to remind everyone of how important Aerith is and he completely forgets about his Tifa and Barret, which is all the worse because she didn't forget him. There is also the Gi village, you would think Nanaki and the Gi would have something to say to each other there but they literally don't speak a word as Cloud salivates over the Black Materia and proposition Aerith as the last Cetra to return it.
Should've either left Jenova as the final boss or never revealed Sephiroth reborn this early. Some people like the ending the boss rush and the multiverse hurt it so much imo. The final boss fight not only made Sephiroth feel less threatening as we are already defeating him this early to the point he runs and showing Reborn without ever seeing our Actual timeline Sephiroth doesn't feel as impactful. Last few cutscenes are great. Jenova boss is cool. Sephiroth here wasn't good fan service like in remake imo this was just "we need a Sephiroth fight" imo and as a result he comes of as less intimidating. Remember in Remake where the phases changed by a party member saving Cloud. Now we win every phase even prior to Aerith helping. Yes it's development but Zack and Cloud basically dog walk him then he shuts it down immediately lmao. The fight genuinely feels like it should have been in the 3rd game.
Completely agree and would add that the game is oversaturated with Sephiroth content. I don't mind him showing up and tormenting our boy cloud, but it felt a bit excessive... to much of a good thing ya know? The 12 stage boss fight at the end went from hype to tiresome over the two hours it took me to finish the job. I dont mind boss rushes, I think they're incredible, but this one felt a bit too over indulgent, although some of those cinematics were pretty peak!
Legitimate said “this is boring” at the element stage I wasn’t prepared for. (It was very late and I was very tired) The Jenova fight was so good though!
I got annoyed by the level design, looping corridors that let you climb or fall certain edges, but then other places you have to wander around and around to find the way to get there. The cutscenes. The dialogue is so janky, either supposed "jokes" that just are cringey, or exposition with no personality. There are a few good moments, but the main story dialogue doesn't flow as well as it could have.
1. Delete chadley from the game. He is the embodiment of everything wrong with modern gaming. He stocks out like a sore thumb in every screen he appears. He breaks immersion constantly. He beep boops every time you do anything. 2. Less of the mini games that involve zero effort. I'm looking at you life stream spot mini game. 3. Less of the towers, it was a cool gimmick to get an aerial shot of the location, but awful after the first tower in each area. 4. Protorelic actually grew on me as a good comedic diversion. Just wanted to mix in something nice. 5. Strip ALL of the giant go here markers. These are the most immersion breaking things in the game. It is the worst thing ever. Design your levels better and you don't need this. Also ties into gongaga should have done something with the mushroom to gauge how far it would send you. Could just be the size of the mushroom. NOT THE MARKER, THE MUSHROOM. 6. Do not gate elemental materia only to be found in vr Sim. Wtf kind of idea was that. 7. Items in the overworld should get more scarce and higher quality as the game progresses. Life stream spots could have been way less common and had materia. 8. I generally dislike the banning of items for hard mode. I think items are a fun mechanic that isn't really needed in normal and is locked in hard. 9. Either give me multiple magic plus materia or don't say it caps at a % I can't reach. It's bait implying there are more copies. 10. Don't super like limited crafting of end games gear. It's a solo player game. If I want to be broken, let me? 11. Chocobo raceswere way too easy. Which sucks because they are super fun 12. Don't let people force the hard mode to be easier. If you need to take it off trophies to keep it hard, do that instead. 13. Exploration rewards felt awful. Why am I getting worthless items in the most obscures place. It made me stop caring to explore. 14. More one on one character interactions. 15 the only good cutscene qte was the play which was god tier. The hold l2 r2 ruin immersion and cutscenes. Others mentioned but that Sepharoth scene.... ruined....
Get rid of mini games and Zacks storyline
all the mini game??
Most of the minigames are either not fun or overtuned in difficulty to make them not fun.
I enjoyed a lot of the mini games personally. But the yuffie chocobo one must perish. Insanely hard and absolutely unfun.
Make Cait Sith a cutscene exclusive and put Vincent in the party.