Refused posted:

Finally finished this and I loved 95% of it. It's an expansive, legit 100 hour RPG in a way Final Fantasy hasn't been in a long rear end time. Best FF since the PS2 generation at least, great battle system, sense of humor, visually amazing, all that stuff. But the ending just left me kind of cold. Pretty much all of Remake and Rebirth were leading up to this question of defying fate and what would happen with Aerith at the Forgotten Capital, and when it came time to answer the question it was presented in this weird obscurative way that denies any emotional impact in the moment because you don't really know what the gently caress is going on. After the credits roll I think it seems clear she died (minus any multiverse bullshit) and Cloud is just too broke brained to accept it. Which, ok, but having to reason backwards and puzzle it out renders it kind of inert. Making it all about Cloud and his (mis)perception of things also takes away from Aerith going knowingly to her death and sacrificing herself for her friends and the planet and all that. Maybe they'll pay all of this off in Mideel in four years, who knows.