[Megathread] PlayStation 5

[Darkarath]

Currently in chapter 10. Thoughts:

- Music: 10/10

- Characters and voiceacting: 10/10

- Art, graphics and world: 9/10

- Open world: ?/10. This is a hard one. While I enjoyed very much the activities in the first two zones, they are starting to get repetitive. Let us be honest, if we were doing the same activities in another world with different characters, nobody would enjoy them or give a shit about them. But I still drop my jaw when I see how they have transformed every zone, and I very much enjoy every bit of dialogue between the characters.

- Combat: 9/10. I understand that some might not enjoy the combat, but to say that it is bad... Come on. Every boss fight is amazing. Every enemy is different. The amount of work and detail that they have put into it is insane. Honestly it reminds me of a Soulslike in a way. You have to know what an enemy does. Once you do, if he kills you is because you are doing something wrong. It is a fair combat. And if you pay a minimum of attention, normal difficulty is pretty easy (at least until chapter 10).

- Side content: 8/10. I am not counting open world activities here, but side quests and minigames. Some side quests are meh but some are pretty funny. But as we all love these characters, just seeing more of them and more of this world is, at least for me, very enjoyable. Also I do not get the complaints about minigames. I think that pretty much all of them are optional. I am having lots of fun with them, but if you don't enjoy them, just don't play them!

- Story: ?/10. Impossible to grade until I finish the game. I am surprised at how faithful the game has been until chapter 10. There are more additions than changes, and most of them are good (for the moment). But there is that... Let's call it, side story, that I do not get why is there and what are they trying to do with it, and it scares me because it has the potential to fuck everything. Also I am afraid of the end, as I did not like Remake's end, hope that Rebirth is better.

[prwraith]

You do realize that they had that same system in Remake right? Hell, the only new things that combat has is the synergy stuff and button press pressure sensitive stuff for certain character attacks. Otherwise, it is pretty much the same exact system as Remake. Some enemies in Remake required to use the weakness system otherwise they became damage sponges as you would only do 1 or 2 damage unless they were pressured/staggered.

It isn't like this wasn't expected going into the game itself. Assess works the exact same way as in Remake, which once again, should have been expected to stay the same.

Also, it is weird to complain about the game going open world and expect something else different but yet, we are in the part of the story where it became open world in the OG FF7. Tower stuff could be done without but outside of that, I expected minigames(the OG FF7 had quite a few), an open world and various other things that the game delivers on.

It's not that I wasn't expecting it, and I had the same complaints about remake. But this thread was talking about Rebirth.

And as I said. I am a final fantasy fan boy. Even if I think the combat is dog shit, I'm still going to play this to completion because I love the franchise, the characters, and the story. The only reason I haven't finished this one yet, is I've been flying around for work the last few weeks and haven't been able to pack the PS5 with me for the hotel rooms lol.

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- Combat: 9/10. I understand that some might not enjoy the combat, but to say that it is bad... Come on. Every boss fight is amazing. Every enemy is different. The amount of work and detail that they have put into it is insane. Honestly it reminds me of a Soulslike in a way. You have to know what an enemy does. Once you do, if he kills you is because you are doing something wrong. It is a fair combat. And if you pay a minimum of attention, normal difficulty is pretty easy (at least until chapter 10).

If it was soulslike it would be good imo. I'll say again, the combat is not hard, at all. Though hard mode makes it more challenging without being able to compensate for fuckups with items, it still isn't hard in and of itself.

Also i won't say it's bad. It's just not good. Solid mid tier imo. But to each their own. I am glad *YOU* enjoy it though. Just because I don't doesn't mean I'm unhappy others do

[Vetali]

Tbh until all the recent comments about FF13 I'd completely forgotten about it.

It is weird that they'd use combat from probably the least popular FF in the mainline series. (at least in America) One that I really questioned why they doubled down on with multiple expacs. Like they were trying to force everyone to like it.

FF7R uses the same engine as FF13, square dumped a ton of money into it and was supposed to be the foundation of future FF games back in the day. I don't know if FF15 or FF16 used it. I played a bit of 15, haven't played 16 yet.

I thought FF13 was fine. Its greatest issues for me were waiting until late game to open up the world, confusing labels on stuff that the characters talk about as you are already supposed to know, and slow ass animations while paradigm shifting.

[Gigantique]

Only got through the Mythril Mines before I picked up and got consumed by Helldivers II but I have to admit the Ubisoft open world map POi stuff has the potential to be a real stinker for me...

[Tech614]

FF7R uses the same engine as FF13, square dumped a ton of money into it and was supposed to be the foundation of future FF games back in the day. I don't know if FF15 or FF16 used it. I played a bit of 15, haven't played 16 yet.

FF13 uses crystal tools, XIV 1.0 , Dragon Quest X and the XIII sequels are the only other games that use it.

FF7R is on Unreal 4. If anything 16 is closer to using it since it uses the in house engine CBU3 has and uses for XIV which evolved from crystal tools. FF7 is just straight up unreal engine.

15 was luminous tools which is a dog shit engine that only ended up used for it and forspoken. This is the engine you're actually talking about being a huge financial failure, Crystal Tools served it's purpose.

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Only got through the Mythril Mines before I picked up and got consumed by Helldivers II but I have to admit the Ubisoft open world map POi stuff has the potential to be a real stinker for me...

There is a significant chunk of the game where you can't even freely explore until the game fully funnels you through the story beats. The people claiming it's like ubisoft games are talking out of their ass. It's a linear RPG that sometimes lets you go off the beaten path and explore further if you want to. Like anyone who got to Gongana and Cosmo Canyon and said "this is like a ubisoft game" is someone that doesn't even know what the fuck a ubisoft game is. In a ubisoft game not only would Cosmo Canyon look the same as the grasslands, you could also just go there from the minute the map unlocks. Instead what you have here is vastly different zones, that are not that big that you have to progress the story to even get to.

[Vetali]

FF13 uses crystal tools, XIV 1.0 , Dragon Quest X and the XIII sequels are the only other games that use it.

FF7R is on Unreal 4. If anything 16 is closer to using it since it uses the in house engine CBU3 has and uses for XIV which evolved from crystal tools. FF7 is just straight up unreal engine.

15 was luminous tools which is a dog shit engine that only ended up used for it and forspoken. This is the engine you're actually talking about being a huge financial failure, Crystal Tools served it's purpose.

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There is a significant chunk of the game where you can't even freely explore. The people claiming it's like ubisoft games are talking out of their ass. It's a linear RPG that sometimes lets you go off the beaten path and explore further if you want to.

Really? Coulda sworn I heard it was on the same engine back when remake came out. Maybe it was something with combat design, or fake news. It felt pretty similar in remake with its linear level design and combat.

That makes sense about 15. It felt super clunky. Was not a fan at all.

[prwraith]

There is a significant chunk of the game where you can't even freely explore until the game fully funnels you through the story beats. The people claiming it's like ubisoft games are talking out of their ass. It's a linear RPG that sometimes lets you go off the beaten path and explore further if you want to. Like anyone who got to Gongana and Cosmo Canyon and said "this is like a ubisoft game" is someone that doesn't even know what the fuck a ubisoft game is.

You really do see only exactly what you want to see don't you?

This is a pretty widespread criticism, so you can't even claim it's just me. People aren't referring to the open world aspects of ubisoft games. They are specifically referring to the clime tower, reveal map, and side-objectives, climb next tower, repeat process.

You're arguing a point here:

In a ubisoft game not only would Cosmo Canyon look the same as the grasslands, you could also just go there from the minute the map unlocks. Instead what you have here is vastly different zones, that are not that big that you have to progress the story to even get to.

That literally nobody is making.

[Kumorii]

So far it's beyond my expectations really. They expand on everything and built upon the first game. Just arrived at Golden Saucer and even the mini-games are done with care.

I think the game has the right amount of open world, not too much. I agree on that the towers could be scrapped, don't know why games are so hell-bent on using them. What I can think of is that it's always tied into some form of lore justification why certain things are unknown or why it can show you things.
But they have the bird for the lifestream nodes which works and makes you aware there's something there and helps you guide to it.

Wish open worlds would cut back on the tower stuff, just have the list in the bottom left corner that shows you what kind of events exist and maybe section in the map where one event exists in each section. Then it's up to the player to explore and find them rather than going to a tower and then have locations handed to them. Include things like the bird. For fiends they could have had them "fight" something causing noise that attracts you to it etc etc. Cut out the middle man.

Combat feels great now, materia earrings and combo materias opens up more choices. Synergy skills certainly helps with the ATB charge that I found was an issue in Remake. Synergy abilities is a great addition as well. A downside is that you get so many abilities that the menu gets a bit cluttered and shortcuts only works so far. But I don't really mind the menuing / slowdown. I think it works well. Blends action + turn-based even if just a brief feeling of it.


Can't say that I find the story offensively changed either. Still the same story beat for beat with some extra stuff around it all. *shrug*
I didn't find the ending of Remake to be as horrible as people thought back then, though i found the fight and scenery lackluster except the Sephiroth fight.

So far Rebirth seems to confirm what I thought, but we'll see when I get to the end.

[minteK917]

I mean FF7 was all about minigames, I feel this is clearly appropriate to make it half mario party. Some weird complaints conflict lol. One group hate minigames tonality shift, the other hate that its too different from the OG.

Meanwhile OG FF7
-someone inportant dies
-okay snowboard mini games.

A good final fantasy is supposed to be both goofy and serious. Its a hard balance which is why the quality of it differ so much. Rebirth feels like it nails it for me, I am usually laughing and still invested in both the love triangle and the characters journey they put in front of me.

[Rustedsaint]

Loving this ff7 but while starting juno area I went and did all the area quests/explore before attempting to go under Juno but while trying to reset the one fiend quest I accidentally hit reset to last checkpoint resetting all my progress somehow.

[RobertoCarlos]

I mean FF7 was all about minigames, I feel this is clearly appropriate to make it half mario party. Some weird complaints conflict lol. One group hate minigames tonality shift, the other hate that its too different from the OG.

Meanwhile OG FF7
-someone inportant dies
-okay snowboard mini games.

A good final fantasy is supposed to be both goofy and serious. Its a hard balance which is why the quality of it differ so much. Rebirth feels like it nails it for me, I am usually laughing and still invested in both the love triangle and the characters journey they put in front of me.

The mini games were story events/moments turned into mini games which was clever reuse of assets.

I dont think the unbeatable rock, paper, scissors mini game is most people's fondest moments of ff7 or "FF7 was all about minigames" as you put it. Compared to aerith's story, fighting the weapons etc

[Eapoe]

Loving this ff7 but while starting juno area I went and did all the area quests/explore before attempting to go under Juno but while trying to reset the one fiend quest I accidentally hit reset to last checkpoint resetting all my progress somehow.

This is why I save after almost everything I do. Too many games with a lot of progress lost over the years.
Sorry you lost a big chunk of time.

[everydaygamer]

The wording on those restarts is often unclear. I was on the final boss, died, and it gave 3 different options on where to restart all worded similarly. Luckily I knew to just pick the first option but others got confused and wound up losing like 30 minutes of progress.

[Eapoe]

Anyone have any QB decks they like to use? Been using the same one since CH2 and, even though it works great, was thinking of maybe swapping it up. Don’t know if anyone has a setup guaranteed to win, but the one I use wins about 85-90% of my matches without having to restart many.
Currently running:
Security Officer x 2
Levrikon x 2
Grasslands Wolf x 2
Cactuar x 2
Crystalline Crab x 1
Chocobo & Moogle x 1
J-Unit Sweeper x 2
Elphadunk x 2
Titan x 1
Basically it just lets you play conservatively and get some decent point setup for when you start placing in your 2nd column to start taking the 3rd column from the opponent.

[everydaygamer]

Anyone have any QB decks they like to use? Been using the same one since CH2 and, even though it works great, was thinking of maybe swapping it up. Don’t know if anyone has a setup guaranteed to win, but the one I use wins about 85-90% of my matches without having to restart many.
Currently running:
Security Officer x 2
Levrikon x 2
Grasslands Wolf x 2
Cactuar x 2
Crystalline Crab x 1
Chocobo & Moogle x 1
J-Unit Sweeper x 2
Elphadunk x 2
Titan x 1
Basically it just lets you play conservatively and get some decent point setup for when you start placing in your 2nd column to start taking the 3rd column from the opponent.

Once I got all the required cards I used a pre-made deck that focused on replacing cards. Carried me through all the matches. Before that I just used whatever I could make work.

But honestly replacement cards seems really OP, it's amazing how quickly you can dominate a match with them.

[Eapoe]

Once I got all the required cards I used a pre-made deck that focused on replacing cards. Carried me through all the matches. Before that I just used whatever I could make work.

But honestly replacement cards seems really OP, it's amazing how quickly you can dominate a match with them.

Thanks. Might look into building a deck with them. Just kind of want to mix it up a bit to break up the monotony

[hellhamster]

Anyone have any QB decks they like to use? Been using the same one since CH2 and, even though it works great, was thinking of maybe swapping it up. Don’t know if anyone has a setup guaranteed to win, but the one I use wins about 85-90% of my matches without having to restart many.
Currently running:
Security Officer x 2
Levrikon x 2
Grasslands Wolf x 2
Cactuar x 2
Crystalline Crab x 1
Chocobo & Moogle x 1
J-Unit Sweeper x 2
Elphadunk x 2
Titan x 1
Basically it just lets you play conservatively and get some decent point setup for when you start placing in your 2nd column to start taking the 3rd column from the opponent.

I'm in chapter 9, I use a bunch of low level cards that can empower each other like the crab and the eagle, making sure I have a level 3 one that gets stronger with each empowerment, like Ifrit, that gets like 25 points by the end.

The great part about QB is that there are many ways to win.

[Zenfoldor]

Like Queen's Blood? Did you like slay the spire, thronebreaker, dicey dungeons, or inscryption? Well the one ring came out.

Check this shit out:

https://www.metacritic.com/game/balatro/

Now look at steam reviews:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2379780/Balatro/

/smile and nod as jack nicholson

[Auxis]

Haven't played it (replaying Remake before starting Rebirth) and trying to avoid spoilers, but I saw a video recommendation on YouTube comparing Rebirth to KH2 and I am very intrigued. I'm guessing it's a game-play thing, (Lite Kingdom Hearts spoilers for anyone who hasnt played it) because KH1 > KH2 was one helluva leap; and Remake already has some whack stuff happening which isn't really comparable to KH1's simple Heartless plot going to KH2's expanded universe involving Nobodies, Heartless, Org XIII, etc.

[Tech614]

Haven't played it (replaying Remake before starting Rebirth) and trying to avoid spoilers, but I saw a video recommendation on YouTube comparing Rebirth to KH2 and I am very intrigued. I'm guessing it's a game-play thing, (Lite Kingdom Hearts spoilers for anyone who hasnt played it) because KH1 > KH2 was one helluva leap; and Remake already has some whack stuff happening which isn't really comparable to KH1's simple Heartless plot going to KH2's expanded universe involving Nobodies, Heartless, Org XIII, etc.

The only way this game compares to KH2 is they gave Cloud and Tifa options to role play as Sora and have near infinite hang time in the air and avoid all ground based attacks.