Recent reviews by 🌈🍒Rainbow Jellyfish💄

“中国人是真的很了不起，只要没有限制，任其发挥创造力，他们真的能很轻易地做出全世界数一数二，让人目瞪口呆的东西。在当今世界，恐怕没有第二个民族在这一点上能望其项背。” 这并不是夸张的说法，当然也不是夸赞我自己。是对国内各行各业精英人才的如实的赞美与景仰。在这里，自然指的是本游戏的制作组。

即使是拍一本完全反映日本文化的影视作品，制作组依然能找到最完美、最合适的演员阵容，来演绎日本地下世界最光怪陆离的群像剧。我相信，即使是日本玩家，在游玩过这本游戏后，也一定会对其能如此深入、透彻的理解与捕捉日本的极道文化，表达赞叹。
2025年我一共游玩了两部国内制作组拍摄的，关于日本文化的互动电影。除了《天命重启·心跳的抉择》，另一部叫《心动恋旅の樱花篇》。尽管两者题材不尽相同，但都在诠释日本文化这个主题上，发挥地淋漓尽致，让我如若身临其境。上一次，我如此深入地感受日本文化，还要追溯到十几年前留学期间，跟日本同学一起出去吃饭逛街k歌的记忆。

作为互动电影资深爱好者，我并不挑剔题材。只要不强制要求我联网游玩，我基本都是无条件支持。换言之，只要我不是购买的“限时体验券”（库里会放过期的那种，认真的表情），闭眼入。反之，即使是宇宙第一的无敌佳作，我也会权当不知道它的存在。《天命重启·心跳的抉择》在这个关键点上做得很好，所以即使付出了高于国区许多的价格，我还是支持得心满意足。

游戏本身有诸多可圈可点之处，但多数倘若讨论，便涉及剧透，这里就不予多言。不过，既然这里提到了该剧对日本文化的理解十分透彻，那便提个细节故事：熊猫，是中国的象征，也是其标志文化之一，这是人尽皆知的事实。但其实日本人对熊猫的喜爱也一样狂热。熊猫在日本同样是一种行走的文化符号。生活中的许多地方都能看到其身影。在很早的时候我就读到过‘日本人不惜排长队也要闻一闻熊猫粪便’的奇闻轶事。也可见他们对熊猫的热爱。所以，在这个游戏里，白梦和她的熊猫，其实既反映了“旅日”的主角在同胞女主身上找到的一丝来自家乡的温暖与藉慰，同时也巧妙地凸显了熊猫，在日本文化里的地位象征。从而加深了我对这部日剧的“沉浸感”。虽然遗憾的是，我作为中国人，并不是熊猫的粉丝。因为总觉得它应该很臭。我还是更喜欢香香的女A....啊不，香香的女孩子。您瞧我这输入法，一不留神就差点说梦话。

游戏主要的优点集中在故事，还是推荐各位亲自游玩，能有最佳的体会与感悟。

下面也稍稍提两点美中不足的地方。
首先也是剧情：小小瑕疵，瑕不掩瑜哦。不过在此之前，必须先澄清一点：我十分敬佩彩川ひなの女士高超的演技。从结尾的花絮里也能看出，黑岩生花这个角色和她本人大相径庭，天差地别。但她驾驭的惟妙惟肖，游戏里如若本尊。
但是从剧情角度看：作为黑道的一把手，编剧对黑岩生花这个角色的刻画似乎有些单薄，不是那么“像”这个角色。

我个人是日本黑道文化的深度爱好者。也游玩过许多同类题材的经典作品。按照我对其世界的理解，黑岩生花这个角色，还远不够心狠手辣，缺少组织头目应有的本色。比如，主角后面竟然敢背叛组织，那作为黑道掌门人，即使是追到天涯海角，也要将主角，也就是“我”，生吞活剥了，才像极道组织会做的事情吧？而不是，啊，因为她对我存有某些“说不清道不明”的私人感情，所以“溜了溜了”这事儿就原谅我了？？
...搞得我总觉得她难道也是某势力在地下世界的卧底不成？黑道老大这么儿女情长，这么随便，那不是乱套了？这地位在我心里也难免一落千丈。反倒是，咱“离家出走”的原二当家和初次见面就凶神恶煞的那位大哥，十分敬业，很到位。比较符合我对日本黑道那股狠劲最真实的印象（看不爽先上几拳头几闷棍再说）。
另外，作为一款纯爱并不算是主题的互动电影，我倒觉得：如果把生花老大就设计成能轻撩，但无法攻略的女性角色，不是更好？俗话说，“得不到的，就是最好的。”毕竟女王这样的角色，梦里想象一下她永远不会露出的妩媚一笑。或者趁我不注意，一记香吻袭脸，足矣。现实里，还是“梦里什么都有”比较好，不是吗？

除了剧情，游戏有两个细枝末节的小问题。
1.虽经历历代补丁，游戏里的调查界面，还是比较卡哇。反倒是最开始没有任何布丁加持的时候，我这里，这些界面却是正常的。这是越补越卡的bug吗？
2.QTE教程希望能出个再次查阅的界面。毕竟老年人不如年轻人武艺高强记忆力超凡，打出这招后，忘了下一招该怎么出很正常。教程只有一次，之后迟迟忘了怎么打，被一群黑道大哥耻笑也灰常尴尬，不是嚒？

最后一提，如果这游戏还有续集，希望下次对Steam外区请手下留情。不要再155%的价格卖给本宫了。毕竟背井离乡的华人，都免不了去打些零工。制作组们也不希望我因为要买这游戏，多加班几小时，到时候被黑道劫店吧？然后无奈寄希望跳科目三...脱身？眼前忽然浮现出游戏里黑道大叔“笑眯眯”而意味深长的一句话，“你小子能从一个男公关变成咱们老大的副手，想必一定有什么'特殊‘的技能吧？”
不好意思，我不是桐生一马，你们认错人了。
那个，总之，穷人一小时挣不到59元。而如果四小时挣59rmb。那我为了你们的游戏，真要去翻垃圾桶找200日元，然后看能不能从流浪汉那儿换对方吃了一半的便当了。

还有就是，Steam漂洋过海的玩家，其实都是为了梦想。制作组一定懂的，那种在国区无论如何都...无法实现的...梦想。所以如果《天命重启·心跳的抉择》还有下次，请务必在价格上，不要折断我的...梦想。毕竟，不是每个人都能上主角那种“天人buff”，随随便便就撞上个女神，然后拍片，拍着拍着就声名大噪，财色双收，从此平步青云，过上上流人生的。那种玩家叫：天选之人。咱普通人还是不幻想跟“白梦”约会了吧？



P.S 最后，在这里致敬一下本游戏我最喜欢的演员：
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3594649337

倘若当初没有她那惊鸿一瞥，我可能会错过这个游戏。
大好き，尾台彩香さん ♥

I do not recommend this game at its current status.
It’s honestly a good game. However, poorly executed. Judging by it only takes 6.5 out of 20 GB VRAM from my video card, while setting everything on EPIC graphic quality. The game should have run greatly on my PC without any problems. But it does: frequently crashes in every two-hour period. I’ve played the game for 4 hours, 2 crashes already, exactly on ‘2 hours limitation’ each. I don’t think I can truly enjoy this game very much when it closes to this unplayable status.

While Mafia The Old Country doesn’t support full-screen is another great issue I have to be concerned about as a game walk-througher. ‘Border-less full-screen only’ always has a serious issue: sometimes it doesn’t be recognized by my recorder, causing my recorder ‘thinking’ I am recording the content in my desktop, which ultimately will destroy the video I’m recording. Chapter 3 has become a victim of this issue already. The entire video is busted when it’s done. If the game provides a full-screen mode, this tragedy wouldn't have happened.

So the chance’s high that I will not go for a full walkthrough for Mafia The Old Country this time unfortunately, because every time this issue happens, as a punishment, we will forcefully miss an episode of this game, usually a chapter by the length of each video of mine.

Though I am still trying to find an emergency fix for Ch.3, but there’s no guarantee it will work. If not, we have to accept the reality…Sign...Come on developers, I think you can do better than this, no?

If you’re King Kong, I must be Ann Darrow then.
Though it’s the opposite this time. It’s not Kong chases me, it’s me for whom chasing him, asking for…more Hentai stuff in his hideout of Skull Island ♥

一个跟鬼魂集美玩暧昧拉扯的游戏。拉赢了，把她们推倒，附赠几张劣质selfie（光线条件太差不怪我唷）；扯输了，掉几块赘肉儿，继续亲亲昵昵，搂搂抱抱玩不停儿～

这游戏很好玩的～～哎呀，一点都不吓人啦～～就是无名儿景点自助游，跟逛夜市一模一样～～十分休闲，非常惬意呢～～（你继续这么说良心不会痛嚒...）
好吧，小心吓破胆

本来按照游戏本身的质量不给好评没有道理，甚至好评都已经写好了，就等着通关游戏后就发布。
然而，在今天凌晨4点多的时候，我意外地发现了制作方的一个十分膈应人的商业做法，令身为玩家的我觉得十分作呕。所以最后只能推倒重来，彻底改写评价，因为如果不这么做，难以平息我的愤怒与抗议！而且如果不发声，会纵容更多这样的做法在业界大行其道。而最终玩家的权益，则会进一步受到无故地侵害。

这个游戏所有的内容大概率是存在他们自己的服务器上，因为如果你的电脑没有联网或者Steam离线，均无法游玩。如果真是单机买断制，不可能会出现这样的情况。也正因为如此，对于已购的消费者，你也要注意了：尽可能抓紧时间把游戏打完。不然哪天他们的服务器要是关了，对不起，你的使用权也会因此被一并收回。

其实我很难理解：做生意讲究诚信经营，如果你的游戏必须一直联网才能游玩，为什么不在醒目的商店页面明确告知买家？？侵犯消费者知情权你们自己说有没有？再来，如果每个“单机”游戏都像你们这样，实质的内容根本就不在我这里，那我库里还敢存1000多的游戏稍后再玩嚒？只要哪个买了没来得及立刻马上给我打完，是不是随时都有连“使用权”都丧失的风险？？

更令我费解的是：如今即使是DVD电影，往贵的计，线下花50～60块钱买个蓝光的，这部电影咱们拥有的也是实打实的碟片和所有权吧？而一个成千上万，一模一样的数字copy，你即使卖贵点也没人说不可以，为什么不把所有权卖给我们每一位玩家？？而且数字版本身也不能“转手”再盈利，为何如此在意实则价值十分低廉的复制品？而对侵害我们玩家的权益显得如此毫不在意？？我买的是“正版”，请问得罪了你们什么？最后还要成为其受害者？？这里为什么正版用引号，自己揣摩去。

况且，Steam本身就是一把数字锁，而这种无耻的商业“小动作”相当于在其基础之上，又上了一把完全没有必要的二重锁。如果你界定自己是“服务型游戏”，也最起码商店下标注的足够清楚，足够醒目。然而你不是，也没有标注。而这种商业做法却严重碰触了我作为玩家的权益红线，实在是不可原谅！所以无论游戏本身质量如何上成，差评送你们也不要给我喊冤，因为是你们自己选择先不相信也不尊重消费者！

人生有时候真的很无奈，爱什么，就被什么“捞”。躲过了“捞女”，却躲不过被游戏公司“捞"。

Eng. Ver
The game can't be played while your PC doesn't have Internet access or Steam's set offline.
Anti-piracy doesn't mean you can sacrifice your paying customers' rights, specially they're supporting your game by buying from you, devs, not the pirates.
As long as this hasn't been changed, my negative review remains

If Ubisoft didn’t take anything away from a paid customer;
If Ubisoft reduced games it had created each year, focused on quality like what it has done to Shadows;
If Ubisoft didn’t insist to leave Steam and gave players the choice of gaming on their preferred platforms;
Ubisoft would not end up with the situation it is today.

If Ubisoft didn’t try to ‘teach’ its audiences ‘history’, misleading players to believe AC represents history itself. Instead, make it steel clear that none of stuff the company has created has anything to do with the real world and shouldn’t be linked to each other. They’re fictional, nothing’s real. All these ‘arguments’ against Shadows would not spread like a wild fire in its community. In exchange, Ubisoft would not end up in the eye of an argumentative storm, the negative impact and damage to Shadows would have been reduced to minimum.

Ubisoft has done glorious past for AC games, it proves it can recreate a similar glory as long as it about to bankrupt. Funny to say it, extreme condition creates miracle. Another typical example showed the best way to counter an anti-consumer company is to cut off your financial support. When it walks on the thin ice of destruction, it automatically comes back begging for your forgiveness. Make it struggle to survive is the only way to make it start caring about your demands as a customer.

Anyways, putting all past matters aside, Shadows is a great game, there’s no mistaking it. Ubisoft really did everything it could this time, there’s little thing inside the game that I can pick up against it: everything’s enjoyable, from the story to the gameplay, combat, missions, puzzles, hideout building etc. All are addictive and fun.
It’s a giant game, from the scale I’ve seen so far, easily 100h+. On the first day of its launch, I’ve played 14h straight away, hardly had any stop. This broke the longest record I’ve spent time in a game on the day of its arrival.

All in all, a solid 8.5-9.0/10 is a must to be just.

6.5/10
Pros
+ 1 well optimized, I’ m not speaking for everybody, only myself. I don’t run into any game-breaking issues while setting everything to maximize while playing the game. So to me, MHW’s optimization is approved.

+1.5 beautiful cutscenes
Here’s a random screenshot I took of myself during a cut-scene in game. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3439384949 Breath-taking, isn’t it? Only to praise even more for game’s fantastic character model design tool.

+ 2 generally satisfying gameplay
The bone structure of the game is generally satisfying, friendly enough to pick up for a newcomer like myself. Hunt, cook, explore all are pretty fun.

+ 1 according to experienced players, difficulty’s easy enough for new hunters, ‘in fact, a bit too easy’. I haven’t played any other MH games besides MHW, no idea what other MH feels like. To me, the difficulty’s about just right. With proper understanding of the game system, sometimes it can be slightly challenging, but definitely manageable, nowhere as punishing as difficult ARPGs. If you’re new too, you can relax on this part. The balanced difficulty makes you aren't afraid of venturing wilds, hunting alone.

+ 1 A not bad story. It rather ended very sudden in my opinion. Around 25~30H playtime. Despite you can still play the game after story ends, post-game still gives you main objectives to accomplish. There are tons of thing to do there. However, they're really what you do in a post-game.

Cons
-1.5 Battles lack of diversity
As a newcomer, after investing 30-40H to be familiar with MHW’s mechanism, I sum up this combat strategy below.
Step 1. Eat a meal, go to fight the target. Riding on your seikret, do some random damage to the monster while observing its attack patterns, watch out it's elemental affinities of attacking type. When inflicted enough damage, the monster moves to a new area.
Step 2. Quickly go back to tent, change equipment which are better suit for current situation based on the 1st stages observation, then go to where the monster flees to. Now jump off your seikret, start inflicting some serious damage to monster, breaking its wounds. Also the best time to attack the weak point of it where you’re seeking harvesting the materials it possesses.
Step 3. When the monster retreats to the further areas, finish the job while trying not to be taken out by the furious monster.
The disappointment is: whoever the monster I deal with, the strategy is the same. It’s not about the difficulty tbh, even in the later game, some prime monsters can one-shot me any time during a fight, it doesn’t make this game any interesting when the way of approaching a monster is too simple and too dull.

Now, what a diversity approach may be? What if Capcom makes a monster do not taking any damage under normal conditions? Hunters need to lure it into an environment trap a couple of times to wound it before it becomes vulnerable enough to take damage? What if Capcom makes a monster change elemental affinities during a fight, only using an elemental attack it is weak against in time that will hurt it? There are many ways to design a duel interesting, but what Cap has done is only making a monster tougher, hit harder to make it feel difficult to handle, which doesn’t change my point: I need some situation that I find my daily regular strategy doesn’t work against a monster. Instead, I need to work around a different strategy to deal with it. Otherwise, it is what MHW right now: after spending a dozen of hours, hunting is getting boring and boring because I use the same method over and over to all kinds of targets: eat a meal→build elemental resistance→equip right weapons →fight the monster until it’s HP runs out →repeat it to another quest. But how long this gonna lasts?

Moreover, as an ARPG, the fighting mechanism of MHW isn’t perfect without flaws. Sometimes, it’s the clunky control makes the game feel difficult, not the monsters. Like, why not let evasion input cancel any current action the player’s performing to avoid being hit by a monster’s sudden heavy blow? Why not haste character’s movement speed a little to let players quickly close in the distances between a large monster, rather than rolling themselves to death to do so while trying not to get hit on their way? These flaws are what Capcom needs to think of, if they want their future title of this franchise truly playing like an ARPG of that time.

-2 graphics
Do not let my screenshot above trick you, it’s the cut-scene, not the real gameplay. The actual gameplay doesn’t look this pretty at all. Here’re two videos I have for comparison.
This is a video of some lava monsters I fought in MHW: https://youtu.be/rMpOI-nZUwA?si=xYAybIW2h1ZjHFtr
Locate this video to 1:51:02, pay no mind of my gameplay, but take a careful look at the environment and the bodies of monsters for a few seconds.
Now, this is a video of FF XVI, a trial of a lava monster: https://youtu.be/hcragLaksyA?si=NRC3q5-i5_9K-jb7
Locate this video to 29:24, again, pay attention to the texture and detail of the monster, and its surroundings too.
What do you think? To me, the sharpness(can’t be adjusted) of MHW’s graphics destroyed everything, ultimately, gave the visuals a cheap look. On the contrary, FF XVI’s visuals are what I expected from a triple A title of 2025 which MHW here is hard to compare. Let’s be honest, a large part of money you pay for a triple A is for the visuals. -2 looks fair to me for MHW’s graphic quality presentation.

Now, let’s shift our attention to dragons. In MHW, I fought many dragons while advancing the main story. Unfortunately, not any memories I've recalled could have this fine detail of a dragon: as if I am not playing a game, it’s a real creature standing in front of my eyes. This screenshot is from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3439808666
It pains me to say again, this is the visual of MHW suppose to be, though it has failed to deliver.
As a new hunter, it’s not the ARPG elements that attracting me trying this game out tbh, it’s the vast of monsters in this rich world led me here. It’s very pity Capcom doesn’t make these fine creatures look ‘real enough’.

Despite at the same time, I understand Cap’s struggling. Take a peek of MHW’s reviews right now. Then imagining, if Cap made this game reach a graphic level to RE 4’s standards. What would happen? If my intuition was correct, Capcom has made a huge sacrifice in terms of graphics somehow, despite it makes no difference, it still doesn't please a large number of players at last. Ironic, isn’t it?

Other small issues worth mentioning
No customized control: Cap, it took me a while to get used to Y+B; RT combos. Could have done it better by not forcing me having to go through this by giving me a customized control.
No freely apply appearances: Fashion aren’t a random match. So why not give us the ability to change our appearances using equipment pieces that we’ve crafted freely? The equipment of this game is gorgeous, why not let players truly be free wearing what they desire the most?

Last, why am I spending most of my review mention shortages of this game? Because the good part has little to improve. It's the backdrops Cap should honestly pay more attention, taking them into accounts, making some changes for the better the next time. Only doing these, their next title will have a chance to be even brighter. For a new player like me, I had my fair share of good time in MHW, I certainly do not wish MH to fail. Quite the opposite, I sincerely look toward it's future title becoming greater. If any reasonable advice can help achieve it, I don’t see the reason not to.

When game companies invest billions of dollars making games that got players unhappy, unsatisfied while you can develop a desktop accessory worth merely 2 dollars that brings majority buyers joy, making them truly appreciate living in their cyber lives. It’s a successful business.
I was worried this tool might be a live-service after purchase. But no, no further investment is require so far to get closer to Muse Xia. Moreover, developers seem plan to add more features of hers in the future updates.
So as long as they keep the great work, no forced additional payment is required to stay with my cyber girl friend, my positive review stays with this lovely accessory.

中文
老实说， 近距离相处的对象-只要不是人，都可以很美好。
所以， 如果是现实里再去谈一场恋爱，我可能没什么兴趣。但是，养一位花15块钱就开心得像个天使似的赛博女友，我还是很乐意支持的。毕竟，人工智能未来会替代人们的许多日常，早已是大势所趋。诸如情感之类的东西，自然也不是什么遥不可及的梦。
所以，只要夏小姐的母公司未来继续这种一票子买卖，这种罗曼蒂克的关系就可以地久天长下去。

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)

FF VII Remake truly begins shinning because of Episode INTERmission. More precisely, only because of Deepground Tsviets - Weiss the Immaculate and Nero the Sable joined the ‘party’. Someone who also fought Weiss the Immaculate and won the duel in Shinra’s combat sim knew how formidable he is. To comparison, battling Sephiroth in hard is like a childish play.
So, when an album includes his bgm that nowhere else can be listened to, the ownership of it does mean something to me.
Now Square, it’s time to remake Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-. I am dying to challenge these legendary soldiers again.