Preordered FF7 Rebirth (Twin Pack) and finished FF7 Remake + Intermission (Hard Mode).
As I'd feared, I hate what they're doing with the plot, and some of the more serious scenes felt poorly written and weirdly directed. And I didn't enjoy the final boss fights of either the main game nor Yuffie's expansion, even gameplay wise.
But with the negativity out of the way... the battle system is RIDICULOUS! It's engaging, it's fluid, tactical, skill intensive, and quite unique. I wasn't expecting it to be this good. Definitely a contender for best Final Fantasy combat in my book. Though I imagine it would have been better without stagger.
The voice acting is surprisngly good too. Visuals inconsistent but good enough, and animation work is phenomenal, especially Yuffie's, not sure how to put it into words but she's a joy to control when traversing. Her animation transitions are amazing and yet controlling her feels responsive. And I just love how the characters react when bumping onto NPCs, and how their feet don't clip into uneven surfaces, rather each foot sits naturally at different height levels. You rotate the character around uneven floors and they behave surprisngly naturally to the little bumps and angles. Fumito Ueda stuff right there. Lovely attention to detail.