It truly is magnificent, intermission is also fun.  It entered my top 10 surprisingly, and that is as a non fan of FFVII. Remake made me super hyped for Rebirth, I hope you eventually enjoy that one too.

Just finished Intermission last night.

I can safely say this has not only entered my top 10 favorite FF games but also top most scored games too (alongside Chrono Trigger, Kirby Super Star, etc).

Planning to play Crisis Core before I play Rebirth but ya hyped for Rebirth!

Whatever you do don't play Clair Obscur before Rebirth, it could hurt Rebirth for ya. 

Why would it? One's a turned based RPG and the other is a action RPG

Cause both are party focused JRPG's with fantasy elements and after the characters and the authenticity of Clair Obscur you will see the many flaws in Rebirths story (and they are already hard to ignore) and the melodrama and beats it trys to hit won't feel the same. They really elevate things to an extremely high degree in E33, well above what we typically see in games story telling as a whole, writing and hitting what they set out to do without some cringe typical of JRPGs and if you were to play Rebirth after, you'd be rolling your eyes so much you'd see back in time. There are some really cringey bits in Rebirth, some characters with motivations that people will tell you you have to wait for part 3 for it all to make sense and some nits where they try to hit you emotionally but have already lost emotional investment cause of convoluted story telling and hammering in the same themes til you disconnect from it, plus it's a slog snf it'll likely take weeks woth a break or two needed inbetween but regardless of what people will tell you and everything will have a pay off, part 3 isn't here yet and you're left with what they give you. 

To say Expedition 33 elevates JRPG story telling and everything along side that, localization from french, VA and all, is an understatement. Cloud, Tina, Aerith and Barret feel like cartoon characters in comparison even though they very much attempt at maturity in Rebirth more so than remake, they don't go all campy like at the end of Remake with the bike and all that and instead they can't land what they are going for.

...don't shoot me.  

Why would it? One's a turned based RPG and the other is a action RPG

I thought you meant gameplay wise.

How the story is like, I'd rather judge it myself because my viewpoints will likely be different.

The same people who complained about Kingdom Hearts' story for an example similar to how you are saying about FF7 , I disagreed with them because I absolutely love Kingdom Hearts' story.

I'm already familiar with FF7's lore since I played the original FF7 three times (PS1, PC and Switch), Crisis Core (PSP), watched Advent Children, watched The Last Order, watched Episode Denzel, etc.

Like KH, I'm heavily invested in FF7's lore so E33 is likely going to have a hard time breaking my interest in it.

I might or might not like E33's storyline but cant judge it now since I havent played it.

Whether the characters are cartoony or not is irrelevant. I dont consume specific media because something is realistic, adult or cartoony - it can be any kind or form.

By looking at my schedule and what I have planned, likely not gonna be playing Rebirth anytime soon like this year because I'm going to be playing a few other games that I wanted to for a while (Final Fantasy XVI, Kingdom Hearts DDD, Persona 5 Royal, etc) - and I still want to play Crisis Core before I play Rebirth.

Good chance of E33 being at good price point and I might end up playing it before Rebirth but like I said its gonna be hard for E33 to top my interest in the story and lore of Final Fantasy VII.

I thought you meant gameplay wise.

How the story is like, I'd rather judge it myself because my viewpoints will likely be different.

The same people who complained about Kingdom Hearts' story for an example similar to how you are saying about FF7 , I disagreed with them because I absolutely love Kingdom Hearts' story.

I'm already familiar with FF7's lore since I played the original FF7 three times (PS1, PC and Switch), Crisis Core (PSP), watched Advent Children, watched The Last Order, watched Episode Denzel, etc.

Like KH, I'm heavily invested in FF7's lore so E33 is likely going to have a hard time breaking my interest in it.

I might or might not like E33's storyline but cant judge it now since I havent played it.

Whether the characters are cartoony or not is irrelevant. I dont consume specific media because something is realistic, adult or cartoony - it can be any kind or form.

By looking at my schedule and what I have planned, likely not gonna be playing Rebirth anytime soon like this year because I'm going to be playing a few other games that I wanted to for a while (Final Fantasy XVI, Kingdom Hearts DDD, Persona 5 Royal, etc) - and I still want to play Crisis Core before I play Rebirth.

Good chance of E33 being at good price point and I might end up playing it before Rebirth but like I said its gonna be hard for E33 to top my interest in the story and lore of Final Fantasy VII.

Rebirth's story is fine. Remakes was a little meh but Rebirth Cloud is more like his OG self. A dork. There is some of the new stuff of course but it's fine. Cait Sith was greatly improved as a character. Rebirth is much better than Remake. It feels closer to the tone of the original. It does have a lot of mini game stuff, like a Yakuza game lol. Chadley sister is worse than him. Chocobos are great as they have a unique ability per region. Combat is slightly improved. Some new areas are fun.

Oh right. Persona 5 Royal will take a mighty long time 😆 

Have you tried Crisis Core before? It's pretty shit, even the Remaster. Just not a good game, the vombat system is absolute ass, you'd think it would be relevant with Zack but it is in no way needed for Rebirth. 

I'd say my interest of Hideo Kojima games would be akin to your interest of FF7 and I would have said there's no way E33 would hold up with sonething from Kojima or the world buklding of Myizaki of From Soft but it does and it does it in a way that's not convoluted at all. It's just straight art. Would hold up with anything fron the recent golden age of TV and the film is def gonna be a hit cause the premise is so unique, it's been done before but still feels fresh and new.