Obviously the sequels were always planned, but it reflects the difference in narrative intent between remake and rebirth to me. Rebirth (to me) seems to forsake ~artistry~ in the name of endless, largely emotionless foreshadowing.
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Yeah, “Aerith expressing the conflict of leaving a terrible place she at least knows as a certainty matching the developers’ anxiety at leaving safety behind for bolder creative ambitions” was a false promise for Rebirth, a game whose boldest creative ambitions were mobile game lore checks
Remake was never about "laveing safety behind for bolder creative ambitions". It was always about "making the same story but better and clearer". The whole "arbiters of fate" were never a meta commentary but made to look like a meta commentary as a red herring.
The "unknown" journey isn't unknown because "we killed canon, anything can happen". It's unknown because Aerith had been using the white materia to leech knowledge out of the Lifestream (materia being knowledge crystallised) and she can't anymore as the WM is hollow for the majority of Rebirth.
In japanese, she really just comes off as being anxious about the road ahead. Which she obviously is, since she knows more or less what's about to happen.
If you interpret everything in the least cheritable way imaginable, any work can be shite.
I fully acknowledge that what you’re saying is factually correct, but I have to tell you that “the line you took meaning from actually has no meaning at all” is not a very strong defense of the work!
Rebirth focused so much on nudging the player going 'hey hey, you know how this is gonna go so this scene should make you sad' and it got tiring, especially when it did in fact all go like that.
Rebirth was such a waste in comparison to how Remake seemed to want to take the game in a new direction. Rebirth begging you to come back in 2028 without a soul of its own.
So, the difference between Into the Spider-verse and Across the Spider-verse? (And I'm trying really hard not to say "evolution of AAA films and videogames in general")
imo, this completely valid critique is what makes rebirth more interesting than i think people give it credit for. essentially a middle entry that can only exist in the context of this particular remake
Oh is that true? I haven’t played rebirth yet but I played the first part. I was curious why I hadn’t heard to much about it.
I was really hoping that the remake would try to add more to the story than it took away. That’s such a shame.
I'm not a fan of updates in games changing story details. I get if it's done go clearify something, and books have editions with changed text, but I don't think games should be comfortable with changing a story the same way as bugs. Larian has a huge problem with this in BG3.
I was so excited upon Remakes ending to see where the team was taking this narrative. But Rebirth’s just felt so hollow by comparison that I’m left really not even wanting to bother picking up Part 3.
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In japanese, she really just comes off as being anxious about the road ahead. Which she obviously is, since she knows more or less what's about to happen.
If you interpret everything in the least cheritable way imaginable, any work can be shite.
I was really hoping that the remake would try to add more to the story than it took away. That’s such a shame.