u/muby_102

Hi all, I just finished my third playthrough of rebirth yesterday and with the knowledge fresh in my mind, I wanted to make sense of it in the most concise way that I can. I love getting to talk about these games but I'm sorry if it comes off like I'm spamming the sub.

From what I've gathered and taken time to understand: Cloud clashed with Sephiroth/Jenova which caused two worlds to collide, Aerith still dies while Cloud is stuck seeing two worlds at once, the party fights Jenova lifeclinger, enormous boss rush ensues, the party is then left with Aerith being dead meanwhile Cloud is seeing two worlds at once and acting unreasonably at ease while still having the black materia.

The Cool Stuff:

Gameplay & Music – The actual fights themselves in the boss rush are pretty fun, have a great sense of scale. Very great to interact with and can feel pretty challenging. Great job also keeping Aerith's theme still playing in the background of Jenova's first phase.

Black materia – The black materia still being in Cloud's possession after all this and needing to hide it is a neat change that doesn't require story events to be changed around too much. It'll make for some added drama next time which I'm looking forward to.

Anticipation – The fact the writers managed to form a way that made everyone truly wonder what would happen in an otherwise set-in-stone moment. Even now, it's pretty awesome to think what could happen two years on from rebirth's release. Aerith as a character alone has been exceptional too so losing her still feels bad.

The Weird Stuff:

Confusion & Perhaps Too Much Cinematic Scale Over Sadness – I can empathise with the people who don't like it as the whole segment goes for confusion instead of letting Aerith's death scene breathe. If the confusion element pays off in revelation with showing everything that truly happened, then fair enough.

Zack – This character feels like he's made out to be a big deal but I personally don't feel much towards him. Nothing against his character in general or people who like him, he just seems to kinda be there and that's it.

Personal Feelings or Gripes:

Personally, I think something this ending falls flat on for me is that the insane boss rush overshadows Aerith's death. I think one big battle with Jenova lifeclinger would've been really good and possibly some whisper amalgamation of Sephiroth would've been fine. Just those two alone would've been fine. I think the ending overall is just fine but not necessarily something I'm majorly against or love entirely.

A SMALL/SUBTLE BUT COOL THING I'D CHANGE: Also is it just me or would it have been amazing to have the party have more enraged, emotional and vengeful voice lines throughout the Jenova lifeclinger fight over the top of their normal attacks? Similar to how Barret's change in his fight with Dyne. It feels a little odd seeing hearing the characters verbally treating Jenova lifeclinger like any other big boss fight or at least that's how I see it.

This comes from a place of love for both the original game and the remake trilogy so far, this isn't an 'new bad, old good' post.

In my opinion, I feel that rebirth misses the point of this scene as it instead goes out of its way to show everything that was previously left up to interpretation.

Everything about this moment is shown firsthand to the player with no room for interpretation. Most specifically that the entire party see the midgar zolom die after it exits the water which entirely removes what made this specific moment so effective. I will say that the fight itself in rebirth is still suitably pretty difficult (on hard mode at least) just like the original, so that's pretty great.

My own little revision of this would be this:

- The midgar zolom does not die after the boss fight finishes as it instead slithers away deeper into the swamp, moreso in a show of disinterest or annoyance. To give that sense of 'wow, that thing was tough and it's barely bothered by us fighting back.'

- After some more swimming with the chocobos to get to the mythril mine, a distant muffled screech is heard.

- The party see the zolom on the tree and then the 'did Sephiroth do this?' part would still be included and make sense once arriving at the scene. Sephiroth would not be shown at all.

This comes from a place of love for both the original game and the remake trilogy so far, this isn't an 'new bad, old good' post.

In my opinion, I feel that rebirth misses the point of this scene as it instead goes out of its way to show everything that was previously left up to interpretation.

Everything about this moment is shown firsthand to the player with no room for interpretation. Most specifically that the entire party see the midgar zolom die after it exits the water which entirely removes what made this specific moment so effective. I will say that the fight itself in rebirth is still suitably pretty difficult (on hard mode at least) just like the original, so that's pretty great.

My own little revision of this would be this:

- The midgar zolom does not die after the boss fight finishes as it instead slithers away deeper into the swamp, moreso in a show of disinterest or annoyance. To give that sense of 'wow, that thing was tough and it's barely bothered by us fighting back.'

- After some more swimming with the chocobos to get to the mythril mine, a distant muffled screech is heard.

- The party see the zolom on the tree and then the 'did Sephiroth do this?' part would still be included and make sense once arriving at the scene. Sephiroth would not be shown at all.

This comes from a place of love for both the original game and the remake trilogy so far, this isn't an 'new bad, old good' post.

In my opinion, I feel that rebirth misses the point of this scene as it instead goes out of its way to show everything that was previously left up to interpretation by intention.

Everything about this moment is shown firsthand to the player with no room for interpretation. Most specifically that the entire party see the midgar zolom die after it exits the water which entirely removes what made this specific moment so effective. I will say that the fight itself in rebirth is still suitably pretty difficult (on hard mode at least) just like the original, so that's pretty great.

My own little revision of this would be this:

- The midgar zolom does not die after the boss fight finishes as it instead slithers away deeper into the swamp, moreso in a show of disinterest or annoyance. To give that sense of 'wow, that thing was tough and it's barely bothered by us fighting back.'

- After some more swimming with the chocobos to get to the mythril mine, a distant muffled screech is heard.

- The party see the zolom on the tree and then the 'did Sephiroth do this?' part would still be included and make sense once arriving at the scene. Sephiroth would not be shown at all.

I used to have the bring arts Cloud too then his arm broke off, but I didn't quite like that figure much anyway, unfortunately.

Play arts shin Cloud in the first image looks almost exactly like he does when the menu is opened in rebirth. Just felt like showing them since they might be appreciated here.

Hi there, I'm currently in my third replay of rebirth and since my last proper playthrough of it was two years ago, I'm trying to jog my memory on some stuff.

Personally from my entire experience, I used the limit level increase and infinite mp the most.

United refocus, while I didn't use it much, absolutely has its utility in that it benefits specific builds where atb generation is probably essential.

The stagger increasing one however, that is the one I've found to be unfortunately the least effective. Nice damage, but the animation length itself sometimes doesn't make the extra stagger time worth it.

How would you rank synergy abilities and why? I'd love to know.

Maybe this sounds like a bit of a lame take, but I think synergy abilities specifically, specifically NOT synergy skills, should grant immunity during the animation similar to limit breaks.

They can take a while to get online given they take 3 atb charges from two different characters and then 5 atb charges if you're considering ever doing a second one. Thankfully synergy abilities do fully stun enemies after the first hit lands so they can play out successfully, but there have been many times where an enemy can tank the damage without being stunned causing one of the characters to eat a big hit and die.

Just something I hope they change for the next game.

I know that the eyes may seem a tad too large/wide open and some of the hair bangs being a little too short for my taste. Overall, I love this figure, it's like he stepped right out of the game and is definitely a big step up from the version 2 figure. Which figure do you prefer more?

I know that the eyes may seem a tad too large/wide open and some of the hair bangs being a little too short for my taste. Overall, I love this figure, it's like he stepped right out of the game.

This is a personal observation I've had which I assume is obvious to others but oh well, I just really love gushing about these characters. Not saying this is a fact but just how I view it. Just genuinely excited for Tifa to be truly front and center since she's awesome.

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Remake - Barret/AVALANCHE given that the game is primarily focused on AVALANCHE Vs Shinra and Barret is the leader of it.

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Rebirth - Aerith is given huge importance throughout the game with her view of the future when at Costa Del Sol, her speech at Cosmo Canyon, her No Promises to Keep song, everything at the Temple of the Ancients and the Forgotten Capital along with her fate.

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Revelation - Tifa will be the temporary party leader for a good while, she will be Cloud's primary emotional support, lifestream section and however the highwind part. She's definitely gonna be the heart and soul of revelation like how Aerith was for rebirth and Barret was for Remake (imo).

At first didn't like glide de chocobo but ended up enjoying it a fair amount after getting the hang of how to ascend and descend properly when trying to do challenge 3.

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Or which do you really enjoy doing repeatedly? For me it's chocobo racing, whack a box/desert rush and surprisingly the exercise challenges (sit ups, crunches, pull ups) which I definitely know won't be a very popular haha.

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Also if there's any minigames you perhaps still haven't changed your mind on and still straight up don't enjoy, which one or ones was it? Unfortunately it's gears and gambits, fort condor and the rhythm type games (dancing and Junon march) for me. I say the rhythm games because the button prompts don't feel well timed to the movements of what the characters are doing on screen or the music. Just my preference though.

Cloud had a slightly more noticeably sickly look in the old 2015 remake footage which I found to be really interesting and have thought about for a while. Making his mako poisoning more apparent in his appearance would've been pretty cool. Maybe the mako poisoning was going to be a more visually apparent thing and possibly brought up in the story? I'm not too sure.

Regardless, he still looks great in both remake and rebirth and they still retained him looking somewhat thin and I'm glad they didn't go overboard with his physique but still made him a bit more filled out. Fingers crossed for part 3 tomorrow with whichever title they go with (return, retrace, rebuild, relive etc).

(Reposted because I edited the title, sorry).

Just like the title says. Personally, it's Cloud for me since his parry/counter focused gameplay feels incredibly rewarding and his overall versatility is great without outright overshadowing the strengths of other characters. The additions he was given from remake to rebirth were so great from being able to go airborne much easier along with ranged (but suitably weaker) attacks the mini blade beams.

Just a funny thing where if you're on elevated ground and interact with the baby chocobo, Cloud's model messes up a little after exiting the animation when he pets it.

(This is only in regards to Remake specifically, not Rebirth btw).

Idk if this is an especially hot or cold take, but I've always wanted to gush about how astounding this boss fight is personally. Airbuster is absolutely the best and most exciting boss fight in all of Remake.

Everything down to the build-up of how the Airbuster is designed specifically to kill the party, the utterly amazing music, the strategy (at least on hard mode) being especially engaging, and how everything feels like it's on the line against this thing at this part of the story. Sephiroth is a great boss fight too, but this one just hits different for me.

I love this battle so much that I dedicated an entire save slot to it so that I can replay it.

I want to say first that I'm a young fan and I played the original two years before remake released.

I really do love these games and I have enjoyed them greatly since there is so much that they do so well, I loved my first and second playthroughs of both remake and rebirth. There are parts of these games that do frustrate me such as how I think Nibelheim was done overall, some lesser story stuff, some combat issues and of course: the much bigger story changes. I was typically really adverse to them

However, as much as I do think that those bigger changes like the whispers, Zack's fate, Aeirth's fate, Sephiroth's function as a whole and the lifestream multiverse stuff is a bit over the top or clumsily done, I can seriously appreciate that the writers dared to take such a story into such a new direction even if it feels the same on the surface. They very easily could've kept things exactly the same to a T and play it safe, but they took the opportunity to be risky with such a beloved story which I'm starting to love more and more. Bare in mind, that doesn't mean every change is a great one, some are subjective, but that's just my opinion.

It feels almost like a comic book story where the character's personalities and locations are retained, but what is done with them is changed up and I can really appreciate how this is a companion piece to the original game which is still really widely available.

Which one do you think is better if you have a favourite?