Normally I wouldn't really write reviews that are particularly long, but after wrapping up all the achievements for this game I felt like I really had to. This game made me feel things like no other game, movie, or book ever could. I think this game is pretty much the greatest game ever made, and is right up there with the original as one of the greatest works of art ever made.

For fans of the original, I think its important to treat this game as an adaptation of the original work and not a "remake" in the traditional sense of the word. I also don't think it's a "sequel" like a lot of people online seem to believe. On a slightly tangential note, I don't think its possible for anyone to every truly "remake" a game. Any team that goes about remaking a game usually doesn't have all of the original staff. Even if all the original staff were present, you lose the artistic vision, moments and developments that resulted during the creative process of making a game. So I went into the remake project with the perspective of it being an adaptation (similar a movie/anime adapting a book) rather than a "definitive" version of the original. I was already super impressed with what they did in part 1 of the remake series, but I was completely blown away when I played Rebirth. From the moment I saw the title logo in the opening cutscene I knew I was in for a hell of a wild ride.

I'll try to mostly avoid spoilers as the game is best if you go in totally blind. The game continues off after Cloud and the rest of the main cast leave Midgar in hopes of stopping Sephiroth. The game will mostly involve you travelling around the world of FF7 following leads on finding Sephiroth and trying to put a stop to his plans. After a few hours of an intro sequence, you are thrown into the game world and the moment I set sights on the grasslands I truly felt like I went back in time and re-lived going out of Midgar and seeing the world map of FF7 for the first time. The world is vast, gorgeous and is such a joy to roam around in. The biggest issue with the game are some of the more repetitive tasks you find while exploring, primarily the Ubisoft-style towers and caches you find littered around. They don't really offer much in terms of interesting gameplay and get old really quick. With that said, the gameplay variety in this game is so good that any problems I had with its repetitiveness quickly vanish.

The gameplay is really what sets Rebirth apart from other games. Starting off with the central part of its gameplay, the combat system in this game is undoubtedly the best combat system ever made. The game manages to find the perfect balance between moment-to-moment action gameplay and the more methodical tactical gameplay with the ATB system. Each character feels incredible to control and is super distinct from one another despite sharing the same fundamental control scheme. All of them have a varying amount of depth to their gameplay and mastering all their mechanics made me feel like I was playing a Devil May Cry game despite being totally different. All of them can be further customized with the materia system, which gives you access to different abilities, magic and attributes that can fundamentally alter a characters role. The key improvement to the combat from Remake is the addition of synergy skills and abilities. Each of these make you really feel like you are fighting as a team and add an element of fun banter and playfulness to the combat.

Every enemy in this game feels unique. There is an insane amount of variety in how each enemy looks and fights. Every enemy has their weaknesses and by assessing them and by adapting your playstyle/build you can attain a degree of mastery over the game that I haven't really felt with any other. Taking everything into consideration, every combat encounter feels like a dance, and once you master it's rhythm everything just clicks and just leaves you wanting to play more and more.

The narrative in this game is phenomenal. There is very few media out there that can elicit a whole range of emotional responses from me, but this game managed to make me laugh like hell, sob like a baby, feel happy from elation and even hollow when the game ended. The actors, writers and production staff did such a good job bringing all the characters to life and no character felt like they were secondary. While I have some reservations about the direction of a few narrative beats, the rest of the game is so good that none of my nitpicks matter. I especially loved the direction the game took towards it's ending, and I'm really excited to see how the team resolves the story in part 3.

What really ties every moment in this game together is the music. The original game already had a masterpiece of a soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu and its hard to top. That said, the new compositions of all the music is every bit as good as the original. On Our Way is my favorite song ever and the version that played in Kalm moved me to tears. The soundtrack has an incredible amount of variety and it felt like every single part of the game had music tailor made to it. You have music going from orchestral melodies to funky pop songs to a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rap diss track. Its hard to overstate how incredible the soundtrack is, its easily the best music I've listened to in the past decade.

The final thing that makes this game the absolute best are the minigames. These are really the highlight of Rebirth and it was such a joy to play each and every single one. The best part of video games to me is the sheer variety of interactive experiences you can have, and these mini-games manage to explore so many different genres and game types that you have no idea what each play session of Rebirth is going to be like. I can't imagine the amount of work that could have gone into making all of these sections work as well as they do, but they somehow managed to pull it off in a time where so many games all just seem to be content with just having a singular core gameplay loop. Minigames are the absolute best part of gaming and Rebirth having so many of them coupled with the fact that the development team fully committed to realizing each and every single one just made me feel so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ happy. I really, really hope they continue add more in part 3 as these really add a layer of whimsy and fun to games that you find in other forms of media.

I'd be remiss if I said I didn't have anything I dislike about the game. Some of the late-game challenges, especially in hard mode are so incredibly overtuned. I doubt its possible for even an above-average player to be able to beat the toughest challenges on their own unless they spend an ungodly amount of hours experimenting with builds. There are some bosses where the weaknesses stated in the Assess description straight up don't work in hard mode. The late-game fights also just tend to be about putting multiple super-strong bosses together in a gauntlet marathon and it just ends up being really frustrating. Any negatives I have though are minor and don't really take away from the experience.

Games are an artform the provides us with complete creative freedom. Its the only artform where you can fully combine art, engineering, music and interactivity to create something truly unique. Rebirth manages to excel at every aspect and every part of it manages to resonate with each other to create a "symphony" unlike any other game manages to. This is a game that, as a whole, is so much greater than the sum of its parts. Every part of this game is so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ polished and oozes with so much love for the original that it truly re-ignited the passion I have for this medium. While my opinion of the game can change if part 3 manages to suck, I have faith that the team will deliver on a fitting conclusion. I am so, so excited for the next part as the best parts of Final Fantasy 7 are all in it and I can't wait until it arrives.