Around the 40 hour mark was the sweet spot for me in my time with Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. The combat was clicking; each new character lent their own fun take on its rhythms. The story was being doled out a little slowly, but then I knew I had been taking my time with the game’s copious side content. Now, though? At 80 hours, I’m resentful of how little fruit my efforts have borne.

After the third major map expansion, I realized that Rebirth‘s optional content is much more about quantity than quality. Worse, the game is guilty of some blatant time killing that I appreciated less and less as I approached the endgame.

Where side quests are concerned, Rebirth had me believing that each would lead to its own well-earned and well-worth-it reward. The former has proven true, but not the latter. See, each major flavor of side quest is essentially repeated and/or continued every time the game shifts location. Tackling this repetition alone was a red flag, but the conversation surrounding the game had me believe that it simply allowed the player to meander or take it slow. Our own Michaela El-Ters wrote a nice defense of it. There’s a problem there, though: Take it slow, and there will be precious little of the game left to enjoy the high-level weapons and abilities coming to you. At least if, like me, you’re apt to leave the game after one playthrough.

Making matters worse, Rebirth commits the same sin as its forebears: Not only will the game be over before getting to clown on fools with your supreme gear, but also said fools will be resistant to it, anyway. The game’s gnarliest foes force you to experiment with high-level loadouts and restarts to know which of your end-game goodies is worth equipping. Or even if any of that special gear makes a hill of beans’ difference at all. Square Enix should have somehow made it clear that all of this side content – or at least its rewards – is for the benefit of players who already planned on tackling New Game+ from the jump.

I have earned precisely three rewards from side quests that I’m glad for as I approach the finish line. That’s roughly a sixth of the “major” payoffs I feel I’ve cleared in my single playthrough.

Lastly, exacerbating this disrespect for its players’ time is how much Rebirth uses what I call cattle chute story telling. These are scripted moments, not unlike quick time events, where the game gives an illusion of control on the outcome. Perhaps you’ll do little more than move a character from one end of a hallway to the other between actual cutscenes. Or worse yet, be asked to hold or tap shoulder triggers to give the impression of a struggle, when all that does is delay the inevitable next beat in the plot. I responded to those moments with the video game version of “this meeting could have been an email”.

All of this contributes to a sense of bloat that was mostly forgiven by release day reviews. Heck, even I forgave it until I found out what the biggest side quest asks of the player in the end. To avoid spoilers, I will only say that I’m speaking of the Protorelic quest, which itself is connected to several smaller side dishes. I was ecstatic to “finish” it and quivering to find out what I had earned. Instead, Rebirth slapped me with the worst “The princess is in another castle!” moment I’ve ever experienced. Ultimately, I come away feeling that a full third of my time with this game has been wasted.

How about you? Have you played enough Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth to know whether your time paid off? Let me know how you feel about the side quests and their rewards down in the comments or over at the Boss Rush Discord!

Featured Image: Sony/Square Enix