Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2024)

Previously had problems with FF7 Rebirth on PS5 causing very uncomfortable eye strain and headache, with even a few minutes of play.

This has resolved with the ~60 fps setting. While the game is not quite as lovely, I can now actually focus on moving objects and enjoy the combat and story.

If anyone else is having that problem, see if the smoother frame rate helps.

Finally finished this too-long game, and I'm not sure where I'll land on it just yet. The ending's bad, I think, and the overall plot is incredibly thin. Tepid enemy design undermines the otherwise-solid combat, and tedious checklists undermine the beauty of its world. But the cast is brilliant, the towns are lovely to explore, and all the goofy lighthearted bits really worked for me. I dunno!

It's hilarious that Rebirth brings back gambits after like 20 years away, only to limit them entirely to a goofy one-off minigame. Dug it more than Fort Condor though, and the little Avalanche flashbacks you get as a reward were pretty rad! Whether it be for weird side content like this, or for main story beats, Barret's voice actor is consistently elevating every scene he's in.

A bit bummed out that FF7 Rebirth is giving me trouble in the eye strain/headache department. Choppy motion blur at 30 fps, and crunchy or washed out in 60 fps. So many tiny assets blurring by; it's like trying to focus on everything going by outside a car window at 60 mph. Every object in the fov has the same degree of focus. Adjusting camera responsiveness did not make a significant difference. Hoping they patch in a way to reduce motion blur at least.

Been wanting to play Cyberpunk 2077, maybe it will not share these issues.

PS5 btw.

A little disappointed in Queen's Blood after all the hype I've heard for it over the past year, the dominant strategy is much too repetitive for it to be very interesting. Cloud humming the FF victory fanfare to himself after he wins the big tourney is immensely cute though.

I guess my thoughts on it kinda mirror my take on the game overall so far: there's not a lot of depth to the combat, the story's barely hanging together, but everything's so breezy and charming that I'm still having a good time. It's really refreshing to play a big-budget game like this that's perfectly comfortable being lighthearted and silly for long stretches.

Just got to Cosmo Canyon. I'm still thoroughly enjoying my time with FFVII Rebirth. There is a lot of stuff to do in this game. There are places to explore, things to collect, and minigames to play.

The places to explore are rich. Some of them are overwhelming, like the last one I was: the jungle of Gongaga. Aesthetically, I adored this area, as I'm a sucker for jungles and rain forests in general. But when it comes to navigating and exploring, it was disorienting. The sheer number of objects on screen also didn't help my frame rate and I had to reduce my resolution for that area to keep a solid 60.

As with my previous thoughts about the game up to that point, I still think that while riding chocobos is a cool idea, the clunkiness of it gets to be grating. But then again, I would imagine that riding an animal is somewhat clunky in practice as well.

I like the exploration and completing the map markers for the most part. The obnoxious commentary from Chadley and the Death Stranding-esque cutscenes of his phonecalls that follow completing an objective make me want to rip my eyebrows off. I'm glad I can skip them, at least.

I struggle with minigames by default, since they are necessarily deviations from the core gameplay of the game. But I've been exceptionally patient with Rebirth's offerings, even though there are enough that are frustrating, either in design or because I suck at them, to tarnish it. The piano minigame and the chocobo gliding course come to mind. It would be one thing if they were short games but the are tediously long.

The storytelling and plot have held their hooks in me without wavering. I have no doubt that I'll see this one through to the end. I know there's probably quite a bit of game to go, and I can tell I'm nearing the point of fatigue where I'm starting to feel the itch to skip some stuff to get to the next bits. Part of the problem is my own personal life, where it's hard to find uninterrupted time to play this game. It's not the kind of game you can pick up for ten minutes, which is about as long as I get before something interrupts me. I have 77 hours in game according to Steam, but I guarantee 12 at least were spent in the pause menu. That's just being an adult but it's easier to manage with some games. This just isn't one of them. It's the point where I'm almost considering taking PTO because it feels like I'm never going to finish this fucking thing otherwise.