If feels heart broken to rate down a game of my all-time favorite franchise. However, after several days of gameplay and struggling, I decided being cruel this time.

General impressions
Despite receiving several friendly warnings from PS5 players who have played Rebirth before my own journey started, “Putting down your anticipation, keep it low. Do not expect Rebirth will be as good as Remake has done’. I followed these advice, it didn’t reverse the outcome in the end. I don’t enjoy Rebirth, just like they didn’t enjoy it in their time too.

I don’t think Square could foreseen the problem which is happening, a couple years ago, when the team decided remaking the most popular FF title in RPG history. It’s not difficult to understand SE wished it reaching the greatness they seek, logically, decided to divide remake of FF VII into 3 games.

However, gaming industry has changed so much in a decade past. Gamers from anticipating a favorite title of their own for several years, shortened to at least one in a month nowadays, sometimes even more. It drastically changed how a player reviewing a game he/she used to love. Most of you probably have already known this: “People are eager to see something different, something new. Familiar stuff makes players get bored easily and quickly.”
It’s a result happening so nature that almost no one stops to think why it occurs. It’s an outcome of rich selections of what gaming industry is today, not a result of mistakes that have been made in a game’s development progress. So technically speaking, it’s not Rebirth’s fault.

Big companies like SE probably has already realized by now, making an AAA title with same structure and similar gameplay formulas into 3 pieces is a risky move. In fact, a risk that is too high to bear. Despite the developers of Rebirth has tried everything they could to add new features here and there in the game, obvious to notice. It doesn’t change the fact that the bone structure of FF VII’s gameplay is the same as the first game(Remake). To many players like myself, the system is too familiar to be interesting again for investing dozens of hours. You may have your doubts here, let me try to explain a bit further.

I’ve spent more than 100 hours in Remake, many of us who’re playing Rebirth right now have done it as well. I did everything that game has to offer. I know, despite the story of Rebirth is different from Remake and I don’t have a single doubt that it will be amazing until the very end and I still love all of protagonists, old and new, along with the world setting. However, it won’t change the fact that the gameplay experience I’m having, is no different than playing the first game for a 3rd time! Boring and tedious, are the words coming from my mind meanwhile I felt pain and sorry to say so. But the cruel reality doesn’t change.

Sounds not persuading? Let me draw an analogy between the trilogy of FF VII and in a relationship, and put Remake; Rebirth together as if it’s my lover. Remake is like the time when we first met - love from the first sight, I appreciated everything she does, we were deeply in love. I believed this feeling for her would stay forever; Rebirth, is the time after staying with each other for too long, the flame of love has faded, though we fight sometimes, we’re still remaining together. But it’s hard to deny, the burning passion I felt for her when we firstly started the relationship is long gone. This is what Rebirth is, comparing to Remake, it’s also the reason why Rebirth won’t surpass what Remake has achieved. “Knowing nothing, everything is brand new and fascinating,” to a player is a unique timed exclusive experience that Remake possesses, which SE won’t be able to replicate to Rebirth or the 3rd game. In fact, it’s not rare to see this ‘phenomenon’ within the industry. Why Horizon Forbidden West doesn’t receive the same positive reputations as Zero Dawn? Because the first game is an overwhelmingly phenomenal experience to a player, under one condition: he/she has never touched a Horizon game before. On quite the contrary, after Zero Dawn, 2nd game fell flat, not any new features can really save players from getting bored quickly when the core gameplay is exactly the same as the first game.
Ever heard of the Legend of Heroes trails franchise? Another typical example of a franchise using similar game mechanics over and over. When developers’ story plot becomes dry, what’s left for fans to play?

Of course there do have a few exception of similar gameplay across multiple titles still doesn’t fail. However, it requires a large fan base for a game to do so. Wanna an example too? The Witcher. I do not wish anything bad happening to the Witcher 4, since I’ll buy it myself. Let’s just say if, it’s a big if here, the half of fans don’t like new Witcher game. Even so, the other half of fans who appreciate it would still be good enough to support this title to sell a great number of copies, the game lives on afterwards, due to its massive numbers of fan base.

Unfortunately, through my observation, single-player FF titles(FF XIV excluded) do not possess such a large fan base. If half of fans didn’t like a new game, the title would take a heavy blow and fans like me would be done for.

Open world
To me, open world is an ‘old-fashioned idea’ to the age of gaming today. It was phenomenal when the time it was firstly introduced, because the concept was new to gamers. Not for today unfortunately. So many games are created each year with open world in it. Many folks like myself are tired of the setting of an open world. The massive size of a map making me doesn’t want to explore. There’s even a famous sentence describing this: “When I open the map seeing question marks all over the places, I feel the need of closing the game immediately.” Moreover, the open world settings are not friendly to both developers and gamers. To the devs’ end, they need to hire a large group of designers to ensure every corner of the map do have something for you to explore; To the players, you gotta play these content as much as possible to make game worthy. It’s very time consuming for both sides, in the end, everybody is exhausted. What does this have anything to do with Rebirth? It does. The concept of an open world game emphasizes exploring the world freely, the very idea of itself contradicts what a FF title often stands out. What’s the strongest suit of every FF game? The story. Free exploration can interrupt the smooth pace of story-telling, like Rebirth has done. In the game, you are consistently forced to shift your attention to a variety of ‘side activities’ while exploring the world outside Midgar. Not to mention, some side activities are decent mini games which require spending decent amount of time to play before winning. A player like myself, it’s hard to leave some side activities undone while proceeding to the next chapter. However, completing most of them, are too time consuming which resulting the main story is left behind for too long before resuming it again. In short, the existence of open world across several chapters is the cause of Rebirth’s story-telling being bitty, intermittent.

Mini games
Connected to the last topic, open world needs tons of content to fill the blankness of its large map, making it feel rich to explore, mini-games are a part of these content. However, putting numbers of mini-games into the main story and becoming a ‘to do list’, is a question move. Not all players enjoy all kinds of mini-games, especially some of them in Rebirth require time to practice before mastered them. To me, I have the time and patience to do them over and over again until I’m good enough to pass the ‘trial’.
(See comment section for the full review of mine, apologise: an old fan has really much to say to Rebirth)

If feels heart broken to rate down a game of my all-time favorite franchise. However, after several days of gameplay and struggling, I decided being cruel this time. General impressions Despite receiving several friendly warnings from PS5 players who have played Rebirth before my own journey started, “Putting down your anticipation, keep it low. Do not expect Rebirth will be as good as Remake has done’. I followed these advice, it didn’t reverse the outcome in the end. I don’t enjoy Rebirth, just like they didn’t enjoy it in their time too. I don’t think Square could foreseen the problem which is happening, a couple years ago, when the team decided remaking the most popular FF title in RPG history. It’s not difficult to understand SE wished it reaching the greatness they seek, logically, decided to divide remake of FF VII into 3 games. However, gaming industry has changed so much in a decade past. Gamers from anticipating a favorite title of their own for several years, shortened to at least one in a month nowadays, sometimes even more. It drastically changed how a player reviewing a game he/she used to love. Most of you probably have already known this: “People are eager to see something different, something new. Familiar stuff makes players get bored easily and quickly.” It’s a result happening so nature that almost no one stops to think why it occurs. It’s an outcome of rich selections of what gaming industry is today, not a result of mistakes that have been made in a game’s development progress. So technically speaking, it’s not Rebirth’s fault. Big companies like SE probably has already realized by now, making an AAA title with same structure and similar gameplay formulas into 3 pieces is a risky move. In fact, a risk that is too high to bear. Despite the developers of Rebirth has tried everything they could to add new features here and there in the game, obvious to notice. It doesn’t change the fact that the bone structure of FF VII’s gameplay is the same as the first game(Remake). To many players like myself, the system is too familiar to be interesting again for investing dozens of hours. You may have your doubts here, let me try to explain a bit further. I’ve spent more than 100 hours in Remake, many of us who’re playing Rebirth right now have done it as well. I did everything that game has to offer. I know, despite the story of Rebirth is different from Remake and I don’t have a single doubt that it will be amazing until the very end and I still love all of protagonists, old and new, along with the world setting. However, it won’t change the fact that the gameplay experience I’m having, is no different than playing the first game for a 3rd time! Boring and tedious, are the words coming from my mind meanwhile I felt pain and sorry to say so. But the cruel reality doesn’t change. Sounds not persuading? Let me draw an analogy between the trilogy of FF VII and in a relationship, and put Remake; Rebirth together as if it’s my lover. Remake is like the time when we first met - love from the first sight, I appreciated everything she does, we were deeply in love. I believed this feeling for her would stay forever; Rebirth, is the time after staying with each other for too long, the flame of love has faded, though we fight sometimes, we’re still remaining together. But it’s hard to deny, the burning passion I felt for her when we firstly started the relationship is long gone. This is what Rebirth is, comparing to Remake, it’s also the reason why Rebirth won’t surpass what Remake has achieved. “Knowing nothing, everything is brand new and fascinating,” to a player is a unique timed exclusive experience that Remake possesses, which SE won’t be able to replicate to Rebirth or the 3rd game. In fact, it’s not rare to see this ‘phenomenon’ within the industry. Why Horizon Forbidden West doesn’t receive the same positive reputations as Zero Dawn? Because the first game is an overwhelmingly phenomenal experience to a player, under one condition: he/she has never touched a Horizon game before. On quite the contrary, after Zero Dawn, 2nd game fell flat, not any new features can really save players from getting bored quickly when the core gameplay is exactly the same as the first game. Ever heard of the Legend of Heroes trails franchise? Another typical example of a franchise using similar game mechanics over and over. When developers’ story plot becomes dry, what’s left for fans to play? Of course there do have a few exception of similar gameplay across multiple titles still doesn’t fail. However, it requires a large fan base for a game to do so. Wanna an example too? The Witcher. I do not wish anything bad happening to the Witcher 4, since I’ll buy it myself. Let’s just say if, it’s a big if here, the half of fans don’t like new Witcher game. Even so, the other half of fans who appreciate it would still be good enough to support this title to sell a great number of copies, the game lives on afterwards, due to its massive numbers of fan base. Unfortunately, through my observation, single-player FF titles(FF XIV excluded) do not possess such a large fan base. If half of fans didn’t like a new game, the title would take a heavy blow and fans like me would be done for. Open world To me, open world is an ‘old-fashioned idea’ to the age of gaming today. It was phenomenal when the time it was firstly introduced, because the concept was new to gamers. Not for today unfortunately. So many games are created each year with open world in it. Many folks like myself are tired of the setting of an open world. The massive size of a map making me doesn’t want to explore. There’s even a famous sentence describing this: “When I open the map seeing question marks all over the places, I feel the need of closing the game immediately.” Moreover, the open world settings are not friendly to both developers and gamers. To the devs’ end, they need to hire a large group of designers to ensure every corner of the map do have something for you to explore; To the players, you gotta play these content as much as possible to make game worthy. It’s very time consuming for both sides, in the end, everybody is exhausted. What does this have anything to do with Rebirth? It does. The concept of an open world game emphasizes exploring the world freely, the very idea of itself contradicts what a FF title often stands out. What’s the strongest suit of every FF game? The story. Free exploration can interrupt the smooth pace of story-telling, like Rebirth has done. In the game, you are consistently forced to shift your attention to a variety of ‘side activities’ while exploring the world outside Midgar. Not to mention, some side activities are decent mini games which require spending decent amount of time to play before winning. A player like myself, it’s hard to leave some side activities undone while proceeding to the next chapter. However, completing most of them, are too time consuming which resulting the main story is left behind for too long before resuming it again. In short, the existence of open world across several chapters is the cause of Rebirth’s story-telling being bitty, intermittent. Mini games Connected to the last topic, open world needs tons of content to fill the blankness of its large map, making it feel rich to explore, mini-games are a part of these content. However, putting numbers of mini-games into the main story and becoming a ‘to do list’, is a question move. Not all players enjoy all kinds of mini-games, especially some of them in Rebirth require time to practice before mastered them. To me, I have the time and patience to do them over and over again until I’m good enough to pass the ‘trial’. (See comment section for the full review of mine, apologise: an old fan has really much to say to Rebirth)