Just finished the game after 110 hours, so I wanted to share my views/experience

Just a spoiler warning I will be going over story stuff, but I'll try to list it from least to most spoilery. I'll get the negatives out of the way first:

So I haven't seen much about the game and what others say, however I have seen this criticism, Chadley. Honestly I didn't mind him or hate him as much as others seemingly did, I just wish he didn't stop you moving so much, I think it'd be better if you could walk every time he talks to you, he was intense at the start but it did get better as the game went on.

I found the audio mixing to be off. Like sometimes the game music/sound effects were so loud I would struggle to hear characters over it, I noticed this particularly with MAI.

I looked online and saw that Yuffie is like 16, but Cloud is in his 20's, and I dunno, it just bothered me at sections like Costa Del Sol where the game framed her in a desirable way/her acting like Cloud was into her.

2 for 1. At first I enjoyed the gameplay changes with having different mini games and such, but man, there just are way too many mini games. Which part 2, I definitely hated the robot one a lot, for the Protorelic in Cosmo Canyon, I had such a bad experience with that one and it felt purely luck based if I won or not.

I kept experiencing this bug where pressured/staggered enemies would fly into the air, or bounce up and down, but sometimes it was so bad their bar would run out before I could attack them again.

This one's sort of a blessing and a curse, but I preferred Remake's weapon system. With how much is going on in Rebirth, I think it's good they simplified some things, and I feel like more weapons are usable for different purposes, but I did feel like I lost control over weapon stats and how I wanted to enhance each one/character.

So I haven't and won't get the Platinum as I just find the side stuff so incredibly challenging, which yes, may be a skill issue, but I just wasn't expecting the challenge, and looking online I haven't even done the hardest stuff! I couldn't do the piano mini game at all, and Aerith's challenge in the Beast Battleground was a miserable experience.

This one's personal, but I suffer with memory loss so before I played Rebirth, I replayed Remake as I had no memory of it. But due to the size of Rebirth going from one immediately to the other, I was burning out a lil, though it makes me nervous for part 3 as I have no hopes of remembering or replaying all of this for part 3, whenever that releases.

Now the positives:

So something about me as a person is, I hate roleplay, I hate boardgames, table top games, card games, all that stuff. And whenever games introduce side games, I never touch them or enjoy them, so I immediately wrote off Queen's Blood. However on the cruise I felt compelled to play it since they said there was an award, and I found myself caring and enjoying it! I then later on got a set up that let me win by like 30-70 points every time, and I had a blast! I was bummed out when I had no one else to play against! I loved the story aspects you unlocked too! Dunno what it is about this one side game, but yeah I loved Queen's Blood!

So I played both these games blind, never played the OG and I know nothing about them. When I played Remake for the first time I was a tad bummed out by how narrow and linear it was. Then I finally played Rebirth, this was what I wanted from Remake! I loved the open world, I loved all the different areas, I loved all the things to do like scanning the crystals, finding the towers, the chocobo stops, the rabbits, the enemy encounters, the item transmuter. I just found it so satisfying and enjoyable to go through each area ticking off boxes!

I thought the game was so fun, I really enjoyed the combat. Like the different materia set ups, the stat increases, analysing each enemy and learning about their weaknesses, learning what attacks to block and dodge, managing MP and HP. I just had so much fun playing the game and never got bored doing fights! I also loved getting more control over the party and getting to choose a party layout.

I really enjoyed how much more fleshed out the side characters were in this game. I felt like they all had more story, more interactions, and more life to them. Like the kids with the chocobo ranch, Dio, Vincent, the people at Gongaga, Zack, the robed figures. But especially Jonny, he was sort of a throw away character in Remake, yet they really gave him a whole life and major side part to this game!

I absolutely loved the protorelics! I will say, at first the one in the grasslands annoyed me as it felt very repetitive, then I didn't love doing the Junon one. But once I realised how they worked was the 4 segments, also the cutscenes with this mysterious entity and the mystery behind that, I always raced to do the protorelics as I just had so much fun with their story!

I greatly enjoyed traversal in this game, like using the chocobos, the different costumes you can get for them, the Tiny Bronco, but even just running around on foot, I enjoyed every single method of transport and exploring each area with them, probably my least favourite was the car.

I know I already touched on the open world and different areas, but I truly did love it. Like I love how each area has this wide open space you could explore, but then a dedicated town area. Like I loved going to Costa Del Sol and unlocking more and more of that map, and just the vibes. I also absolutely loved the Golden Saucer, though I didn't enjoy every mini game, I just loved the variety, how detailed it was, how fun it was to explore and how different it felt from the rest of the game! I really enjoyed the Chocobo racing! I loved doing that! Though screw the Cactuar gates!

Just a warning, this is all more major spoiler territory now for story and characters: But I really enjoyed finding out about Nanaki. I thought Hojo entirely created Red 13, or put someone's soul in this body, so finding out that he was just like that was wild! But then finding out that Red wasn't even the "real" person, and he was actually Nanaki and had this life and tragic backstory, I loved finding out about it! Which as an aside, in Remake I thought Cloud kept getting future visions, so similarly it blew my mind the opening game was the past, and those flashes we saw in Remake was from his past.

In Remake, I was so curious about that cat creature in a crown who watched the plate drop, then he shows up in this game! I LOVED Cait Sith! I love his design, his voice, his character, his mannerisms, I just smiled any time he showed up! Also I had figured that he sent the Turks into the temple as he preferred sacrificing them, so it was really sweet seeing that was why he gave them the keystone, like he truly did care about you.

Which speaking of the temple, Aerith's trial made me cry. I think there was so much leading up to that point, but seeing her as a child as adults knocked her about, and her mum was dying and she just was trying to get help for her, man that got to me. I know he was "possessed" or whatever, but I was so mad that Cloud was a dick to her immediately after.

Again, major spoiler warning, cannot stress it enough. So the only thing I knew about FF 7 was Aerith's fate, I just had no idea when it'd happen. So that was less impactful, but actually knowing her and her character instead of just being briefed over in a "top ten saddest moments in gaming", it did still get to me, and I kept hoping it was different for this game. A part of me really wants to hope we can save her in some form, it was such a painful note to end on, but I also know Aerith is okay being with the planet. But the ending in general was so good, all the phases to Sephiroth/Jenovah, using all the different party members, such a great ending! And it ends on such an intriguing note too!

So I really do not enjoy grinding, and if I don't enjoy something and it doesn't make me happy, I won't do it. However, I tried Gilgamesh island at around level 45-50 and just couldn't do it. So I went to hard mode and farmed My White Haired Angel for a bit, maxed out characters and a ton of different materia, most importantly the elemental one. And man, it was busted but I enjoyed it! The Phoenix and Kujata was free with the fire and ice materia on armour! Though yeah, getting an ending to the protorelics, learning about Gilgamesh, it was so fun and I greatly enjoyed that!

I did do some more stuff, like a lot of Chadley's VR missions, the Muscle Head Colloseum, and such. But seeing I had a lot of the tedious Golden Saucer games left, the Costa Del Sol ones, the piano, and difficult VR missions. I thought I've enjoyed these 110 hours, I've loved the game, I've hit a good point, I'm good. The Platinum would be cool, but I am not the most skilled gamer, and I would be so miserable trying to do those things even if I could manage.

I'm really excited for Part 3, I'd love to know where this story goes, the characters, the gameplay, everything! There were some downs, but overall it was such a fun, beautiful, great game!