This game has been a mixed bag for me. The story sorta of lines up with the original, but has its own twists on things, and adds more depth to certain areas. While the overarching story has been pretty good, I can't necessarily say that for the characters. I find most of the characters more goofy than their original counterparts, possibly even a bit meme-ish (Yuffie being the most).

The combat system in the game is mostly the same from Remake's but offers extra stuff. However, that doesn't mean it's better. In fact, to me, it feels worse. Enemies have large AoE attacks, some enemies are extremely large, and the hitboxes are massive. I can't tell you how many times I've dodged attacks just to be hit by them anyway. Like, completely out of the way of the attack and hit anyway.

The game also introduces a bunch of new systems, and they throw them at you very early on. Weapon upgrades, character upgrades, item transmuter, character synergies, a new card game, etc. It's all introduced to you near the beginning of the game. That's not how you introduce a newer audience to a game, imo.

The music has been excellent outside of one track, but Final Fantasy tends to have good soundtracks.

Overall, I'm not that happy with the game, but it's good enough for me to want to keep playing, if only to get through the plot without watching youtube videos. I will say that I've been more frustrated than entertained thus far and I have a few more chapters to go.

Update: On my scoring scale, this game can't get more than 6.5/10. Even the minigame controls are ass.

I played Remake and enjoyed it, but have no desire to replay it any time soon for the same reason I lost interest in Rebirth: Entirely unnecessary bloat.

Remake, while bloated, was still enjoyable. Rebirth has been a massive struggle for me. The combat has somehow felt worse, and I don't wanna hear anyone b*tch about Nintendo gimmicks ever again. This game is nothing but gimmicks. I'm trying to just run through the rest of the plot at this point.

Gimmicks and ultimately pointless mini-games from what I've seen.

It's pretty much minigame hell early on. It kinda chills out later, but man. The exploration gimmicks just get more annoying each region. Just let me play the game.