Final Fantasy and the Minigame Obsession

 So, don't get me wrong: I'm having a blast playing through Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. While I don't have the deeply ingrained nostalgia of others my age who played the original game when they were eleven, I genuinely really like the cast of characters, and on top of that feel really grateful for Remake coming out at sort of the perfect time to help lift my spirits at the onslaught of the Covid 19 pandemic.

I also think that Remake and Rebirth have hit a real sweet spot when it comes to blending the strategic gameplay of the old FF menu-based ATB system with a more action-focused approach (something that I think the other recent game in the franchise, FFXVI, failed to do - the action gameplay in the first couple hours was great, but it never felt like it grew beyond that point).

Unlike the relatively linear Remake, which paused occasionally to give you periods of downtime to do sidequests, Rebirth opens up into various world regions with a big checklist of things to accomplish before moving on. You don't strictly have to do these things, but I am doing them (the sole exception being that I didn't do all the Junon Queen's Blood stuff, which I now regret because it turned out the intermission period after finishing Junon and going to Costa Del Sol happened to have a giant Queen's Blood tournament.

Hitting Costa Del Sol then dumps you into a ton of minigames (I actually practiced playing Tifa's theme on the piano long enough to do decently in the full performance). Between playing essentially Rocket League as Red XIII, a shooting gallery, a series of Queen's Blood puzzles (boy did they go all in on that!) it did feel a bit like I was waiting a super long time to get back into the action.

And some have been downright frustrating. I still don't feel like I have a solid feel for Queen's Blood strategy - I mostly seem to have to restart a match over and over until I stumble into a winning play.

I get the sense that Square Enix's philosophy toward game design is "more is more," and to a degree I can appreciate that - I really like hanging out with these people, and given what I know of what happens to Aerith at least in the original game, I'm not really in a rush to move the plot forward (though I wonder what time shenanigans will ensue and if she'll be ok - at some great cosmic cost - there's definitely some cryptic stuff going on with her that I suspect is not from the original game).

Anyway, I seem to have hit the third "go around and do exploration and side quests" part of the game. Oh, and Yuffie has joined the party finally!

But I'll leave with this complaint: why the hell does Barret not get to get some cool beach clothing? I get that he likes the sailor suit, but I think this is discrimination against big guys with broad shoulders and barrel chests and I will not stand for this injustice!