Board 8 > I'm playing Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth for the first time *spoilers as I go*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hello again, everyone! Previously, I did a playthrough topic for the original Final Fantasy VII, which I enjoyed quite a bit even if it felt outdated at times. Then I played Crisis Core and hated it. Thankfully, Final Fantasy VII: Remake was good when I played it last year. I was excited for Rebirth to come out on Steam, but when it released I was going through bouts of insomnia and in no condition to play it. Now that it's on sale, I figured I'd start it up.

Regarding spoilers, I consider anything from the original VII, Crisis Core, and Remake to be fair game. I will talk openly about future plot points from the original VII so if you haven't played it for some reason I don't know why you're here.

Before we begin, these are my current rankings for Final Fantasy games, my top fifteen FF characters, and a ranking of FFVII characters. I'm excited to see if Rebirth can surpass Remake. When I first finished it, I originally ranked Remake in 4th place because I hated the Whispers, but I've mellowed out a bit as time passed and it climbed to 2nd. Yuffie also really stuck with me and has climbed to my top favorite. I love Yuffie so much.

XIII > VII:R > X-2 > XIII:LR > VI > WoFF > IX > VIII > VII > X > IV(3D) > II > I > XIII-2 > VII:CC

Yuffie > Lightning > Yuna > Aeris (original, not remake Aerith) > Dagger > Terra > Rinoa > Squall > Eiko > Cyan > Lumina > Cloud > Tifa > Sazh > Rikku

Yuffie > Tifa > Aerith > Cloud > Sonon > Jessie > Biggs > Wedge > Scarlet > Sephiroth > Barret > Marlene > Nayo > Leslie > Madam M > Hell House > Red XIII > Roche > Zack > Chadley > Andrea > Heidegger > President > Palmer > Chocobo Sam > Reeve > Zhijie > Marle > Corneo > Nero > Rufus > Hojo > Tseng > Rude > Reno

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Rebirth begins with a news segment about the destruction in Midgar after the final boss in Remake. Or... more accurately, it's set in the alternate timeline where Zack didn't die. Oh man, I don't remember if they explained this alternate reality stuff in the last game. I have so many questions and none of them are answered. Zack and Cloud are just stumbling into town, but the news talks about an accomplice who had a Buster sword so who was that? Zack saved Aerith and totally left Red XIII in the crashed helicopter to be captured again. What a jerk. Then this sequence just kind of ended. I hope this whole alternate reality nonsense ends up going somewhere good. So far it just feels random.

Back in the main timeline, the party is in Kalm and Cloud is telling the story about Nibelheim. I'm not sure it's the best opening. I played the last game over a year ago. I could've used more of a lead-in, maybe showing the characters coming into town and interacting with each other first so I can remember their dynamics. Instead they just immediately launch into the flashback, which is designed to be confusing and full of half-truths. You've got Cloud doing Zack stuff like those goofy squats and sass-talking everyone and it just... isn't him. It really threw me off. This was a powerful sequence in the original game, but starting Rebirth with it felt out of place.

At least I still got to go into Tifa's room. I laughed when he admitted to going through Tifa's stuff, and her and Aerith were like 'wtf Cloud'. I had the option to play a piano in her room and I hope that wasn't a puzzle leading to some powerful optional item because I noped out of that right away. I have zero musical knowledge and no ear for tunes.

Gameplay-wise, I'm rusty as hell. Even with Sephiroth on the team, I struggled against the Materia Guardian boss. I'm also not a fan of how some enemies require perfect blocking in order to stun them. What is this, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33? I struggled with combat early on in Remake too, though, so I should hopefully get used to it. And, once Yuffie joins the team, I'll learn how to play her to the exclusion of everyone else.

Story-wise, Nibelheim was about the same as the original. No Whispers shenanigans here. Sephiroth and Cloud come to town, get led to the reactor by Tifa, Seph discovers Jenova, Seph goes crazy and burns the town down. Still, there were a few changes to the narrative that I appreciated. For one thing, it bugged me in the original that Tifa knew Cloud's story was wrong and she just didn't say anything. Here, she mentions it to Aerith. They didn't resolve it, but I'm glad it was addressed.

I also like how Sephiroth's ghost (or whatever he is) messed with Cloud. He appeared and planted a seed of doubt about how Cloud remembered Tifa dying, so is the current Tifa an imposter? Is Tifa actually Tifake? Then he asked her about it and she showed him her scar, which seemed to settle things. Tifa is angry he doubted her, though, and also because he can't tell her where he was for five years due to plot-induced blank spots in his memory. I remember them being friendly in Remake so I'm not sure I like that they're suddenly suspicious and angry at each other at the start of this game. Hopefully Yuffie shows up soon to lighten the mood.

I quit playing right after Chapter 1 when Cloud woke up in Kalm. First impressions, I'm rusty at the combat and I think the story chose an awkward spot to start at, but otherwise I'm hyped to keep playing. I can only hope my beloved Yuffie is just around the corner.

Random final thought, it was awkward how, in Nibelheim, the mayor and a few other guys ran at Sephiroth with guns. They had him surrounded. I was ready for Seph to do something cool. Instead he just... slowly slashed one guy. The other three kept aiming at him. Seph slowly slashed another guy. Mayor and remaining guard did nothing. Seph slashed the third guy. Mayor did nothing. Then Seph slashed the mayor. Come on, you guys. What are you doing? Pull the triggers! The whole sequence was thirty seconds long, Seph didn't even have to hurry.

I'm going to sleep now but I'll play more over the weekend. I hope a few people follow along with the adventure.

Tag and such. That mayor sequence is probably the worst directed sequence in the game. Gets much stronger from here.

Yuffie was my favourite character to play as, but I thought they were all great except Cait Sith. My main advice would be to get into the habit of jumping between characters to build ATB and switch/avoid aggro, get used to ways of gap closing and reaching flying enemies (e.g. as Cloud, dash then hold attack), and try to use synergy skills (not just synergy abilities). It's pretty forgiving for a long time though, so you should be fine.

Tagged for later

Tag.

tag

I think I liked the first chapter more than most it seems. Thought it was a really great way to do the Nibelheim flashback, and I loved its placement as the first chapter.

This game is glorious, and Ill always treasure my memories of attending its two main North American press preview events. Like, some of my fave memories from the past decade of my life.

I think some things may super frustrate you, Roba. But hopefully youll come away from Rebirth with a highly positive opinion, as many do!

And there aint no way you wont love how much Yuffie gets here!

I liked Chapter 1, although Mako vacuuming was a bit silly

tag

Robazoid posted...

Or... more accurately, it's set in the alternate timeline where Zack didn't die. Oh man, I don't remember if they explained this alternate reality stuff in the last game.

It wasn't, Remake just ended basically where you started (seeing Zack w/ comatose Cloud walking to Midgar and no other explanation)

Nibelheim is a bit messy, but I loved Cloud's performance in it.

Rebirth really feels itself once you go through Chapter 2.

Today, in the exciting adventure of Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, these exciting events unfolded:

-Wandering around a peaceful town
-Playing a card game
-Several hours spent wandering around a grassland

...And that's pretty much it. God damn, this game has a lot of stuff to do in this big open area. Thankfully, I'm really enjoying it. It's fun running around doing all the little things.

To start, Cloud wandered around Kalm and interacted with everyone. This was where I played the card game. I imagine it'll get harder later, but so far my strategy is just to push forward as quickly as I can, block the enemy off, and then I control the whole board and get to put down cards for several turns in a row. It's no Triple Triad, but Queen's Blood isn't bad. I was hyped when I unlocked the card shop and got some new cards, I can see lots of room for strategizing and creating a deck once I unlock more.

Upgrading relationships with party members is a thing too, specifically through dialogue options at certain points. I looked it up after and I chose the +3 option for everyone except Barret (+2 with him) so that's good. I wonder if this is what decides my fireworks date later in the game. If so, I'll have to game the system to choose Yuffie! On another note, I still haven't found Yuffie...

Next, the crew got chased out of Kalm by Shinra forces searching for them. I like how this shows that Shinra hasn't completely forgotten about them. A mysterious innkeeper helped them escape, which led to the grasslands... and a seemingly endless supply of sidequests. I got a chocobo, then met up with Chadley, the chadest dude in the game. This led to unlocking towers, which led to... all sorts of things. I also did lots of combat simulation battles with Chadley.

As for the sidequest stuff, I like hunting down towers, I like the monster battles, and I like exploring. The only one I haven't enjoyed so far is sniffing out items with chocobos. The stupid bird bends down so slowly, then it points left. I turn slightly left, slowly sniff again, and it points right. I turn right, sniff again... it points left. I back up, sniff, oh I was standing on it. The bird needs to be so exact and it's so slow, ugh. Luckily, all the other sidequest stuff has been fun except this one.

Not much else to say. I'm slowly getting the hang of the combat system, plus all the other systems this game introduced (party level, some sort of folio thing, weapon skills, etc). I've done all the major sidequests except for fighting Quetzalcoatl to get a feather to repair a windmill (because that makes sense). That said, I still have lots of smaller objectives to clean up around the map to increase my level a bit more before I go fight the big one.

Sorry for the boring update that can be summarized as 'sidequests'. I'm enjoying the game a lot. Just not a whole lot of story or character moments so far, lol.

nah I really enjoy hearing that someone else likes the sidequest stuff.

colliding posted...

nah I really enjoy hearing that someone else likes the sidequest stuff.

Dang right, same! Heck, I went on and on just yesterday in a separate topic about my love for sidequests!

Rebirth has so much good content. Sometimes that's all you get done in a playing session and that's just fine.

Yeah, I really enjoy the sidequests. I like the banter between the party members during sidequests too.

Grasslands is such a good area too. I love the difference between the grassy area and the rocky area between Midgar and Kalm.

Sniffing out items as a Chocobo isn't super important unless you're trying to 100% the game. It's usually expendable items as far as I remember.

Chocobo stuff usually gives you items for refinement, so they're helpful in that regard

Bitto posted...

Yeah, I really enjoy the sidequests. I like the banter between the party members during sidequests too.

Bingo. Maybe the best part. The ~cast chemistry~ in this game is off the charts. I smiled so many times!

I find the sidequests in Rebirth to be generally enjoyable. The banter is worth it.

Can't say the same for FFXVI. That game's sidequests are just mind numbingly boring.

True, most of XVI's sidequests are dull. Thankfully, the game itself recognizes this and at least makes completing them as painless as possible.

I've been introduced to Enamorus

I'm cured

Wait this is the wrong topic

The banter between the party members is definitely fun. Some of my favorite small moments so far are how Aerith and Tifa are often on such the same wavelength, like how excited they were to get chocobos to cross the swamp. Red XIII also acts all superior about his sense of smell being better than everyone else... until a chocobo proves to be an even better sniffer, lol

Yeah there's a lot of side stuff in this but I don't think I was ever really bored during it. Maybe once or twice. Crazy, varied content.

Another day without a huge update. I cleared up everything in the grasslands... well, almost everything. I didn't know I needed to assess monsters to unlock combat simulator missions, so I missed a toxic mushroom that's only available in one sidequest. I read online that I can scan Midgar Zolom to count towards that too, though, so I'll get there. And yes I'm going to call it Midgar Zolom.

-Weakened the Titan summon and successfully beat it
-Hunted down some stupid bandits and paid them for an artifact... and the artifact came with a vision of some sort?
-Defeated the evil Quetzalcoatl bird and transmuted a windmill part to complete the last sidequest
-Did all available combat simulation missions
-Fixed all chocobo stations
-And so on

Basically I completed the grasslands. Next time, I'll cross the swamp and finally continue the story! My party is level 22 and I didn't have that much trouble against Titan or the Quetzalcoatl bird bosses, so hopefully Midgar Zolom won't give me much trouble.

Yuffie Status: Still no Yuffie

IIRC, if you go back to the location where you found a rare monster group, there's a way to fight them again. You may need to push some sort of button that appears on screen to get them to come back.

I don't remember the toxic mushroom and if there's anything special about that one.

Yeah, you can fight rare monsters again if you go back to where you encountered them. A prompt will appear on the screen to make them spawn again.

I played through it already and had a good time with it.

Enjoy your playthrough Robazoid, and good luck as well.

embarrassing fact about me: I didn't even know you could "fix" the chocobo stations until the third area.

Leonhart4 posted...

Yeah, you can fight rare monsters again if you go back to where you encountered them. A prompt will appear on the screen to make them spawn again.

That works for the ones Chadley sends you to, but I looked it up and the toxicap mushrooms are only in that one sidequest. People said I would need to finish the game and unlock chapter select before I could see them again. I did use the rematch prompt on a few Chadley ones where I didn't manage to stagger the enemy before killing them.

colliding posted...

embarrassing fact about me: I didn't even know you could "fix" the chocobo stations until the third area.

But a cute little chocobo leads you to them! They get so happy when you fix the stations. And then you can pet the chocobo. I pet them every time.

I just thought the chocobo was leading me to a bench! I knew i could pet the chocobo but for some reason I never thought to try and lift the sign.

colliding posted...

embarrassing fact about me: I didn't even know you could "fix" the chocobo stations until the third area.

That's honestly amazing. lol

I've had similarly daft stories in RPGs, so I get it.

Grasslands completed! I swam forward on the chocobos, then had to fight the giant snake Midgar Zolom. It was a decently hard fight, but I won. This was the first time a battle lasted long enough for me to pull off a synergy attack. Man, those things are powerful.

Unfortunately, in the subsequent cutscene, Cloud got dragged underwater. He had to be saved by Seph's ghost (or whatever he is), which speared poor Zolomy on a tree. The cutscene ended with Cloud still sinking, then he woke up and was fine. I wonder who saved him? No one else seemed to dwell on it. Also, while Cloud saw the Seph visions, no one else did, and they think he's kind of crazy. But surely Seph was really there, I mean he killed Zolomy.

Chapter Three involved heading through the Mythril Mine following those cloaked reunion dudes. I liked the character moments, like Tifa feeling bad when a reunion dude falls even though they're basically zombies. Then we ran into the Turks, including Elena. And... oh man, I hate them. I hate the Turks. I hate how they committed mass murder last game and now they're a quirky miniboss squadron who the party is frenemies with. No! They killed so many people when the plate fell! They're monsters! Not even spunky girl Elena can save them, the Turks are my enemies for life.

After that, Barret and Red XIII had to go through a section on their own. I had never really used Red before this (was sticking with Cloud/Tifa/Barret in the grasslands) but Red is alright. I still prefer Barret, his range is great. They beat up a Mythril Golem and continued to the exit. Only other comment about this section was that the minecart puzzles were too basic and way too slow. Sixty seconds of slowly pushing a minecart and flipping one switch, ugh.

The party emerged in Junon area, another gigantic area filled with sidequests. When they arrived, the giant condor swooped down and carried off a reunion zombie. I probably wasn't supposed to laugh, but it made me laugh. Even sensitive Tifa's only real comment was 'let's stay far away from that terrifying bird'.

This is the least story-heavy FF I've ever played. Usually my updates are filled with story moments, but these are just "I did sidequests and went through a mine". I hope people are enjoying following along regardless. I'm still having a lot of fun with it.

Yuffie Status: still no Yuffie. If I recall correctly, this was the earliest point where she could join in the original. Hopefully that means I'll find my beloved ninja girl soon.

Don't worry, the story is coming

It's such a huge game. Mythril Mine is one of the more restrained and low-key areas. Interested to see how you like the Junon area.

Theres a ton of content between more plot-heavy chapters. But Rebirth also adapts the most characterization-heavy stretch of the original, so I think this is one of those instances where story can mean something separate from plot, at least in the sense that many people tend to mean. The overarching plot happens in specific chapters (and yeah, theyre coming), but the storytelling itself is often more interested in the dynamics between party members, as well as the developmental moments for each of them.

I like that a lot, but only when its part of a greater whole. Remake is more plot-forward on a regular basis, and Part 3 will be hugely into that sphere as well, no doubt. Rebirth is when the original narrative got to let its hair down a ton.

I skipped basically all the open world stuff and it was still a long time between story beats

Also definitely don't skimp on Queen's Blood

I'm a sucker for the frenemies stuff with the Turks. I know it doesn't make sense but I love these dudes.

I like the Turks. Elena is particularly good. And she didnt even commit mass murder!

Cloud and company probably kill more people than the plate did by the end of the game.

But you gotta spread it out and not do it all at once. Rookie mistake by the Turks, really.

the plate killed like 20 people in the remake so that's not hard

lol for real

True, that's a light workout for Cloud in Remake

Cloud only KOs enemies not kill

KOs them by stabbing them through the chest with a giant sword

Cloud is so skilled he can miss your vitals with the buster sword.

The game definitely doesn't have much plot! Plots are overrated though IMO. I like funny little quests, learning about the world, party interactions, character backstories, flashbacks, those sort of things. And there's plenty of all that here!

Plus "part 2 of a trilogy" is traditionally light on "plot", right? Not much happens in Empire Strikes Back either... Luke hangs out with Yoda most of the movie, and Han+Leia get chased by the Empire for most of the movie. But it's still a good movie.

Another not much going on update, I finished all the world intel in Junon and caught up on Chadley combat simulations. I'm finally about to enter Junon for the first time. Here are random thoughts:

-I really enjoyed Fort Condor in Intergrade, but this version of it sucked. It felt less like a game and more like a puzzle where you had to summon exact units in the right order if you wanted to win. I got so frustrated in the fourth round I used the option to thankfully turn the game to easy mode. Then Chadley offered hard mode... lolno, I'm never playing this version of Fort Condor again if I can help it.

-Oh hey, these protorelics are tied to Gilgamesh. I never played FFV but I know of him. lol he ran away from fighting Cloud in the little dream world. I guess Gilgamesh is a silly character.

-The chocobo gimmick in this region was kind of annoying, lots of tall walls that took a long time to climb. Grasslands was better than Junon, that's for sure. There were also too many flying enemies in this area which meant I mostly used Barret in battle.

-I never mentioned it before, but I appreciate that Red and Aerith are hanging around at the edge of battles lobbing magic in. It's nice that the game acknowledges their presence even if they aren't in my party.

That's about it. I'm still enjoying it but not much story to speak of. Hopefully next time, that will change!

Yuffie Status: Still no Yuffie

Epyo posted...

The game definitely doesn't have much plot! Plots are overrated though IMO. I like funny little quests, learning about the world, party interactions, character backstories, flashbacks, those sort of things. And there's plenty of all that here!

Plus "part 2 of a trilogy" is traditionally light on "plot", right? Not much happens in Empire Strikes Back either... Luke hangs out with Yoda most of the movie, and Han+Leia get chased by the Empire for most of the movie. But it's still a good movie.

Yeah, this is something Ive always loved about FFVII. It knows the value of spending a good-sized chunk of the middle of the story on characterization. Helps strengthen the emotional value of the plot once things kick back into higher gear.

And yeah, Fort Condor kind of sucks in Rebirth, @Robazoid. Youre definitely not alone on that angle!

Almost everyone agreed that Condor got worse this time around. It was noticeable but I still enjoyed it. I guess.

I dig Junon, but thinking about it, I guess it would be low on my area ranking list. Goes to show there's good stuff still to come.

I dislike Rebirth Fort Condor but the good news is that there's a fairly foolproof strategy that you can look up on YouTube

Oh I muuuuuch preferred Fort Condor in Rebirth!

Making it more like a series of puzzles was great for me, because each time I encountered it again, I was excited to figure out how to approach the new scenario, and have to adapt my strategy to it. But when it was framed as a game, it felt more repetitive--each time I encountered it I was like "oh dang I have to play this again" and it felt very similar each time.

Plus, IIRC in this version you must find a way to win before the timer ends, which is a lot more exciting, compared to winning via points at the end of the timer, which felt kinda lame/easy.

PLUS, the story was cute, and raised the stakes! That also kept me excited to keep encountering it. And the polygonal character models!!

And I just love a campaign of asymmetrical matches. It's like, would I rather play Warcraft III's campaign, or would I rather play a few Warcraft III custom matches versus bots? Definitely the campaign!