Hovering between a 7 or 8 because I do think the sidequests and minigames were overkill (once they introduced Gears & Gambits I was like FUCK OFF) - but as an epic adventure that blends beloved lore & characters, semi-open world exploration, reasonably fun/complex battle systems, good dungeons, high customization, great music and fun card & racing side games, it's hard not to recommend. The fact I beat all 120+ hours of it when I put most games these days down partway through speaks volumes!

I come to this for the systems, story and gameplay, and in those ways, this is a 10/10. The story is emotional, plays with our expectations, exciting and ends in a way that makes me excited for the final part. The systems have gotten deeper and the combat has too. Both of those things were already fantastic. This is an improvement in almost every way. I do prefer the linearity of Remake because I'm not a massive side-quest guy, but there's a lot to do here if that's your thing.

One of the best games to come out in some time. A strong candidate for a 5, but unfortunately there's simply TOO much to this game, IMO. I may revise that later, as SE continues to nail the remake process. It's 95% true to the original, but just different enough to engage the original players. Most fleshing out of scenes is done well, and they do a great job of making nods to the original, even the silliness.