If you're like me you didn't gel with FF7 remake, it took me 4 attempts to get into it and even after finishing it, warts and all I'd give it a 8/10 or lower because of some of the design choices and slow, stretched out sections, not anywhere close to a 10/10 game. Well, people, FF Rebirth fixes everything wrong with the part 1. I'm only 20 hours in but so far this has masterpiece written all over it, there's good reason this game has the praise it has and it's quite unique and masterfully designed. Right down to traversal and speed of which the character moves, to the combat and difficulty scaling issues and so much more... And to the point of the thread, a PSA..

FF7 Remake now has an update that allows you to start at level 45 and also fast forward through cutscenes, making a playthrough easier and faster now. They haven't fixed the intentionally slowed down sections but I'll tell you this, Rebirth is worth a playthrough of Remake, which you can now B line at probably just over 20 hours, if I can gauge it right but it also, doesnt need a playthorugh of Remake for you to get the most out of it. Watch the recap in the title menu and you're golden. Also, FF7 Remake is free with the INTERmission expansion on PS Extra.

This game (Rebirth) is phenomenal and I just wanna let people who are in the same boat as I was, not "getting" what Remake was going for or fell off for the many reasons would with that game, there is this excellent game here in Rebirth that's now on sale on PS5.  

I really enjoyed Remake since the original FF7 is my favourite game of all time (and I play A LOT since the 80s). They brought back my beloved party and it felt like being home again, even though chapter 18 was too much KH for me. My huge problem with Remake was, that it was "just" midgar. Starting Remake and knowing already that I wont be able to walk around freely that beautiful tragic world dissapointed me. Then Rebirth came along...

Its hard to explain what makes Rebirth so exceptional. You have better open worlds out there (CP2077, Horizon), you have better Sidequests out there (Witcher 3), but for me it didnt matter. Square created my beloved Gaia in such a beautiful and refreshing way, that I just couldnt stop playing. Most games today I just wont to get through with because they fell like work, even God of War Ragnorak or Ocarina of Time (I just replayed it). But Rebirth was like being home. Feeling happy riding chocobos, hanging around gold saucer, following the exceptional story, taking a break in cosmo canyon, working like a maniac on that platinum trophy (still didnt make chadleys challenges)... Its all amazing. Its all up to me. And the game is still goofy, funny, sad, brutal, tragic... No other game can achieve this.

Someone at youtube said, its like Star Wars - Episode V. The perfect middle piece of something epic. I couldnt agree more. After all its the biggest single game project out there. Dont miss it! 

Honestly despite it's flaws, I enjoyed Remake more than Rebirth. They both had padding issues but they really bugged me by the time I hit Chapter 12 of Rebirth. I finished Remake twice (did a second run on hard), I have no desire to even go back finish up the side quests in Rebirth.

On paper, Remake is probably more padded. The section it has of FF7 is only about 20% or less of the whole game, while it does have around 1/3 of the script.

Rebirth covers about double the amount of the original game, leaving around the last 40% or so for Part III. And yet there were so many side quests (admittedly they're optional) that it felt way more padded than I expected it to. 

Rebirth is a great game with a very satisfying and deep combat gameplay, a charming party with their own gimmicks and mechanics to add flavour in the combat when you start getting tired of play Cloud-Tifa-Barrett

My issues with the game are minimal, and not detrimental to overall game which are confusing story, specially if you never played the original, excess of minigames (some of them mandatory) and repetitive nature of exploration in the openword, which is simply not fun at all, more like a list of shores you need to do every time you reach a new region

It's a A+ game if you only play the main story and forget about the side content, which by itself is enough to provide 50 to 60 hours of gameplay

Really liked Remake and loved Rebirth. Would score Remake 85-87 and Rebirth 90-92. Both of them are imo hurt by an average narrative and shit endings. But having already finished the original long ago, the parts of the story that I paid most attention to are naturally the changes.

I did enjoy the character dynamics especially in Rebirth. Likeable characters are just as important to me as a good story. So this helped.

Rebirth took what I considered Remake's best quality (combat),  polished and raised it to a new level. The vibrant and grand open-ish world is a massive upgrade over Remake's linear design (Midgar is to blame). Rebirth was jaw dropping at times... that I just couldn't believe the game was real. "How did a company meme'd for long development times made all of this in just 3 years?" is the question I kept asking myself.

Its minigames got lots of complaints and hate, but it's honestly not something that I can relate with as I enjoyed most and thought they added colours to a beautiful game. They were also optional and the rewards weren't nearly as important as some made them out to be. Unfortunately though, the one minigame that I quickly disliked is Queen's Blood which happens to be the main one lol. Its "depth" made it a decidedly worse version of FF8's simpler Triple Triad. But hey to each their own. A lot of people loved it.

Not going to list everything I enjoyed or disliked in either game but I came out liking both for sure. Rebirth still has a number of flaws and annoyances that I would like to see addressed in the final game.

I actually felt the opposite.

Both games have padding issues, which is what happens when you stretch one game into 3. But it bothered me a lot more in Rebirth. I think it's mostly because the game is much longer. According to How long to beat, the main story alone is about 48 hours as opposed to 32 for Remake.

I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had just decided straight from the beginning to just plow right ahead through the story. But, because I did like Remake alot, I was taking my time. By the time I got bored and stopped doing sidequests I still had like 20 hours to go. I think Remake was also more linear, which is in this case a good thing. An open world is great if you actually have a good open world. But, if you don't, it's just kind of in the way.

There are parts of Rebirth that are really great. Temple of the Ancients was a really amazing segment that almost saved the experience for me. And some of the side stuff is really good. But, at other times, it feels like they're just speed bumps to slow the story progression. Like, when Cloud finally returns to his childhood home, that is not the time I want to roll around and throw boxes with Cait Sith.

We'll see if you change your mind, because I was also really enjoying it for the first 20 hours or so. But that last 20... man it was a slog. This was one game split into 3, and it really feels like it. Remake was a great 20 hour game, but the problem is that it was about 40 hours. Rebirth is also a great 20 hour game, but the problem is it's 60 hours.

Rebirth's padding felt much worse than Remake's for me. But YMMV.

Intermission is also very fun. I suppose you might enjoy the Yuffie section in Rebirth more if you didn't already play Intermission.

I'm a completionist and was really annoyed by all the mini-games/etc in Rebirth. I did all the work for the protocrelic and then at the end you have to tackle some very difficult bosses I didn't stand a chance against and would've probably really had to grind for awhile on. And many of the mini-games just weren't fun for me. If I was able to just play the main story and not all the stuff on the side I didn't like I would've liked it a lot more. Still looking forward to the last one, though.

Yes, to keep my opinion short, id say Rebirth is better, but not by that much. Remake was already pretty good.

Very diferent games either way.