Board 8 > Ranking 69 NPC's from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (plus minigames) (spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

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Minigame 15: 3D Brawler

I would've preferred an easily exploitable basketball minigame, but here we are. We have to finally discuss 3D Brawler. I am speaking as someone who has yet to even fight the UPA, much less Sephiroth. So when it comes to base game opponents, the only one who really gave me trouble was Shiva, because it's LITRALLY (sic) impossible to tell the difference between a straight and a hook. Ifrit was much easier and whoever was before Shiva was straight up easy.

But I have heard that Sephiroth actually is impossible without pause cheating, and if that's true, it's a bad game. But then again, I also had people tell me crunches were impossible and I promise you they're not.

In any case, I like the idea of this game but I admit it was quite frustrating at points.

Hint for NPC 19: Surprisingly delightful

THE LISTS SO FAR:
69. The other Shinra grunt
68. Garth
67. The Intergrade Squad (Nayo, Billy Bob, Polk, Zhijie)
66. Myrna
65. Jules
64. Seto
63. Leslie
62. Tifas Dad
61. Sonon
60. Esther
59. Captain Titov
58. Madame M
57. Lifestream Whales/Weapons
56. Wise the Robot
55. Zangan
54. Piano Guy (Dorian)
53. Reeve
52. Andrea
51. Chocobo Joe
50. Clouds Mom
49. Choco Bill
48. Heidegger
47. Mayor of Nibelheim
46. Kid G
45. Chloe
44. Broden
43. Don Corneo
42. Wedge
41. Rhonda
40. The Fair Family
39. Scotch and Kotch
38. Dr. Sheiran (Med Sheeran)
37. Gus
36. Bugenhagen
35. Lodbrok
34. Costa del Sol Girls (Naomi, Fran, Yorda)
33. Marlene
32. Jessie
31. Gilgamesh
30. Chocobo Sage
29. Regina
28. Priscilla
27. Gi Nattak
26. Kyrie
25. Becks Badasses
24. Chocobo Sam
23. Chocobo Billy
22. Reno
21. Elmyra
20. Ifalna

Minigames:
40/39. Underground tremor monster / chocobo sniffing for monsters
38. Unlocking Chocobo Stops
37. Taking pictures for quests/snaps
36. Chocobo Treasure Hunts (random and specific zones)
35. Wheelie Master
34. Looking at notes
33. Chicken Luring
32. Gears and Gambits
31. Pirate Rampage
30. Caches
29. Mushroom picking
28. Cactuar Trials
27. Playing as Aerith
26. Chocobo Stealth Sequences
25. Minecart Sequence
24. Buggy Escape
23. Leapfrog
22. Towers
21. Following the Robed Figures
20. Chocobo Gliding
19. Playing as Cait Sith
18. Speed Circle
17. Fort Condor
16. Red XIII League (Run Wild)
15. 3D Brawler

Main characters
11. Cid
10. Sephiroth
9. Cait Sith
8. Vincent

colliding posted...

I have heard that Sephiroth actually is impossible without pause cheating

I can't believe that's true, surely they would have designed it to be possible without the pause... Right?

The problem is it requires way too much practice, like the amount it would take to defeat Malenia solo at level 1. Difference is the latter is a respectable goal, whereas brawler is a fucking minigame and has no right to ask that much of you.

3D Brawler sucks ass

Reno also sucks

Aeris's moms are cool tho

Rocket League was pretty fun

I feel like the more dialogue Vincent has, the less cool he is, so the original version has an advantage in that respect. The QB match with him was great though.

3d Brawler is frustrating, but Sephiroth certainly doesn't require the pause trick.
I will admit it probably took me close to an hour to finally get good enough to recognize his moves and learn his combos, but so did "2 Legs" and the crunches.

I would have had 3D Brawler much lower, but you can certainty do Sephy without pausing once you learn his animations. Should have just had a simple basketball game like the ones you do in CoD's Zombies. They're fun and quick.

Wild run/rocket league rip-off was one of my favourites. They got the difficult right with it too - not a total pushover but doesn't require mastering it to pass either.

Aerith's trial got a tear out of me. Yes it's manipulative, but it is very well done. I especially liked the lower camera angle (making the adults and setting tower over her) and being able to pointlessly ask for help. The last scene retaining a sense of urgency and speed despite the tragedy supported the sense of her actually being on the run (often games writers choose to have loads of dialogue before the characters get moving in such situtations).

damn, only 19 NPCs left eh

....just quickly ran through my half-asleep mind and could only come up with 11 locks + 1 likely + 1 "if Sonon was ranked then this guy probably should be ranked too except top 20 feels way too high...?", I guess the rest are from sidequests or ones I forgot. Looking forward to remaining surprises!

Here's what I can think of for now:

Rufus
Scarlet
Palmer
Hojo
Rude
Tseng
Elena
Roche
Middle Manager
Midgar Infantry and the Commander (1 or 2 slots)
Dio
Biggs
Cissnei
Chadley
Mai
Dyne
Johnny

Not sure who else is missing

Edit: Palmer, Chadley and Mai seem too high, but I feel they have to appear somewhere.

gotta say, I think your ranking of the minigames is significantly skewed if you've not yet even done UPA once

dunno if anyone else had the experience with UPA that I did, but I went around and beat the 4 mini games, which already annoyed me because I had a high enough score in Speed and G-Bike beforehand, but okay fine one last lap of the mini games and the final chocobo race was fun enough. But then I got to the battle square, and it kicked my ass for hours and I decided to go finish the game and gain some levels and come back to the quest later. Not realizing the quest would reset if I came back to the chapter later.... So, when I came to finish up normal mode, I had to do all the 4 mini games again along with the battle.

Then imagine my delight when I started manuscript hunting.........

I just did the first cutscene of UPA and skipped the rest because it didn't seem fun.

Fortunately, I didn't start UPA until after I had beaten the game, because I'm sure I would have done the same if I had started it in chapter 12.

The battle square kicked my ass so hard, I'm sure I would have quit and tried to gain some XP after repeatedly dying to the Cactuars.

UPA sidequest is great until you do the battle square. Holy shit.

the only good break I got in the whole experience was realizing I didn't need to do the Sephiroth brawler again for the Hard Mode UPA, since you get the manuscript from the battle. so at least that is one and done

...... just sitting here writing the post i realize i did the mini games again for no reason

Steiner posted...

...... just sitting here writing the post i realize i did the mini games again for no reason

lol, damn

But now here's my question: was there an option to redo individual already-completed quests or do you have to start from scratch via chapter select?

I was under the impression it was the latter which for UPA means redoing all 35 or whatever quests in hard mode, including non-manuscript quests... though I beelined for the Colosseum once I got there, lol. But really shitty of them to bury a manuscript behind a quest that depends on all other quests.

MartinFF7 posted...

I was under the impression it was the latter which for UPA means redoing everything up to that point including non-manuscript quests...

correct

but all of the non-manuscript ones are also non-combat and don't take very long to redo when you're skipping dialog. filling out the ones i needed took me like half an hour after doing all the manuscript ones, and most of that was on taking the photos in cosmo canyon again

Phew, thanks for confirming. Yeah rest of quests were breezy even on hard mode and I knocked them out before doing my proper hard mode run so mp wasnt a concern (before learning the stop cushions restore mp too, but anyways...). Still, really shitty to hide a manuscript behind UPA.

If UPA hadn't been glitched for me for three weeks I probably would've fought Sephy by now

As it stands this game and I are officially "on a break" for a long while before I do hard mode

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NPC 19. Cissnei

I played Crisis Core for the PSP back when it came out. Thankfully, I don't remember any of it. All I have is a general sense of "this is okay but also I wish it didn't exist." That being said, I kind of remember the generalities of the main characters. Angeal was Zack's mentor. Genesis was basically proto-Sephiroth. Cissnei was a Turk who quit because she liked Zack. That's the literal extent of my knowledge of the Crisis Core version of these characters.

In Rebirth, Cissnei is "surprisingly delightful" (surprisingly a Turk, Turkish Delight, get it?). In general, I approve of the way they expanded Gongaga as a town (even if I dislike navigating the area). It's great that Cissnei is here keeping watch over Zack's hometown, and I even liked how they gave her the "bad at cooking" trope. I also like her design.

I don't think the Gongaga protorelic quest was any good though? This one felt unfinished. They're supposed to be "Turk training simulators" but in practice they're just random battles. I feel like the original idea for this was going to be more "transportative," like you'd be in a VR version of Junon, and they'd give your party black suits to wear (how cool would "Turk" inspired alt costumes be?). And you'd skulk around a VR version of Junon to take out a terrorist leader. But instead they're just battles in the regular Chadley VR space.

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18 . Dio

What a ridiculous character. He's probably too high up, but, once again, I have to give the Remake project credit for being extremely true to the original while also making it totally sex-positive and not mean-spirited at all.

If you were expecting this game to give you a big traumatic backstory for Dio, you may be let down. But I don't think he needs that. What he did need was to be this game's Andrea: a loud dramatic beefcake with a heart of gold.

It's kind of surprising that he got beat up by the Turks. I'm not sure what happened there. I feel like he should've had plot armor for that. I was definitely expecting him to flex himself back into perfect health, Popeye style.

Hint for minigame 14: the owls are not what they seem

colliding posted...

They're supposed to be "Turk training simulators" but in practice they're just random battles.

really weird how they give you a spiel about protecting the president in one of the battles when there's no such president appearance!

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Minigame 14: Mako Lifesprings

You're probably thinking this is too high, since all you do is press triangle three times every way the exact same time. But not everything has to be challenging or world altering. Sometimes you want to follow an owl to a lifespring, listen to the classic FF7 opening stinger, and get rewarded with a bunch of crafting items.

The real rewards here are some decent lore and quest progression. I really enjoyed learning about the Junon republic for example. I thought it was surprising just how much they went into the background of stuff I would never even have thought about. Also, I like how each area progress-locks you unless you do a number of different map related activities. Like you can't find the area's special monster unless you find a number of lifesprings for example.

So yeah, maybe to some it's boring, but I found it relaxing.

Hint for Main Character 7: Also a prime number

I feel like the original idea for this was going to be more "transportative," like you'd be in a VR version of Junon, and they'd give your party black suits to wear (how cool would "Turk" inspired alt costumes be?). And you'd skulk around a VR version of Junon to take out a terrorist leader. But instead they're just battles in the regular Chadley VR space.

This is exactly what I expected too. Easily the most disappointing quest in the game.

Steiner posted...

really weird how they give you a spiel about protecting the president in one of the battles when there's no such president appearance!

....You know, that's a really good point.

The real rewards here are some decent lore and quest progression.

I agree, the lifespring and the summon world intel are fun just for the lore. I remember getting to an Odin summoning area without hearing Chadley speak about the lore and I was frantically looking around for a summon crystal to break.

Cissnei was pretty great. Her CC Reunion appearance really bothered me because the voice actress/delivery just couldn't compare to the original for me, and something about her remaster look was also off-putting. Like her face and hair just looked so...fake and plastic, at times? But anyways, I guess her voice has grown on me and her appearance doesn't have those CC Reunion issues here. Though I definitely miss the suit...

Dio was ridiculous as expected, lol. Of course the plot armor needed to fail as an excuse for Cloud and company to face off against Corneo! Otherwise he solos everyone, naturally.

Steiner posted...

really weird how they give you a spiel about protecting the president in one of the battles when there's no such president appearance!

yeah that was pretty annoying... I was even expecting/hoping for the President Shinra appearance, I mean he's only been dead for like, a week in that universe? prime opportunity for a cameo appearance.

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Main Character 7
Red XIII, aka "Nanaki"

Remember earlier in the topic when someone asked who I forgot, Zack or Vincent? And I responded "no one, I'm just bad at counting?" I lied. I had actually forgotten to rank Red XIII. I'm sorry!

I have never particularly liked Red to be honest. Even in the original game, I didn't quite "get" him. I kind of thought his point was to be a "cool" character, like a test subject seeking vengeance against someone who wronged him. Or he was supposed to be the game's stand-in for a shaman.

This game makes it clear that Red XIII's role in the party is to be the dog. And that's fine! He's got a lot of good boy moments. He's also destined to be Barret's best friend, and that's also fine. As much as I think Red XIII's dungeon might've been more interesting if Aerith was the partner, Barret also makes sense. They have good comedic timing with one another.

That being said, I think they could've done more to establish more of a connection between Tifa/Red and Yuffie/Red. I can't think of any real good moments between those pairings. Except for maybe the very ending, where Tifa/Red are consoling each other over Aerith.

Many people are still complaining about the voice change. My opinion about the voice change is that it's perfect for the character. Thinking back on Final Fantasy VII, everyone remembers the twist that Cloud is not who he says he is: that he's actually kind of a shy kid pretending to be a badass. The thing that not everyone realizes is: that's everyone in the cast. It's maybe the game's main theme (besides the importance of the environment). Everyone is grappling with public and private versions of themselves. Everyone here has lost someone. By finding each other, their found family, they discover the importance of sharing that true self with one another. Their main antagonist is a person who never reconciles with that past version of themselves. So the voice change is fine, even if he does sound dopey. He probably shouldn't say "whee."

Playing as Red is extremely fun. He's a tank but he plays like a DPS. The first time I did Stardust Ray I audibly gasped because of how cool it was. I'm not quite sure how effective Siphon Fang actually is, but I loved the Vengeance Mode only abilities, and it just feels good to hold square and watch that little guy spin around.

Hint for NPC 17: My AI sister can't be this cute!

But MAI is better than Chadley

Ashamed to admit I forgot both MAI and Chadley in my mental recapping though I was on the verge of going to sleep at the time, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

I could see colliding sharing our viewpoint that MAI > Chadley but she gets deducted points & ranking spots due to her being annoying as hell in some (most?) of the battles. I know that's a functionality you can turn off in the settings but that doesn't make it any better!!

MAI is having fun.

Chadley's dialogue most of the time is "Hey Cloud. I'm here to tell you that you did the thing you just did. I hope you'll continue doing that thing you just did."

Enjoyed Cissnei a lot. Love the authority she demonstrates and it comes across in some of the sidequests too (esp. her exchange with Cloud at the end of Woodland Vigil). Definitely a big step up from the other mayors and helps give Gongaga a much sharper identity.

If you skip going for the towers the open world stuff (Mako springs, summon shrines etc.) is so much better to stumble on (okay, get led to by an owl). And the Mako springs get some godly music.

Welp, both Cait and Red out, time to ditch.

colliding posted...

He probably shouldn't say "whee."

I'm pretty sure it's "Bleed!"

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NPC 17. MAI, aka Monster Assessment Instrument

Google FF7 Rebirth Mai and all you get are a bunch of haters. "Mai is the single worst addition in the history of FF." "Too bad we can't silence Mai." Those are from Gamefaqs. Board 8 is cultured, so obviously they're not from you, dear reader, but from your neckbeard neighbors on the Rebirth board.

First of all, how dare they. Mai's great. She often chimes in with some surprisingly well-written (but ultimately useless) information about the monster intel. There was nothing in the rule book that said the devs had to explain why there are evolutionary variants to elephadunks, and yet they did. Be grateful!

She also gets into some tropey anime comedy duo skits with her big brother Chadley. I thought these were often funny, though sometimes predictable/cliche. What helps her out is the spirit of her VA performance. Also: I see your posts saying Chadley sucks and I'm choosing to not address them until his appearance on the list.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/60800b4a.jpg
NPC 16. Johnny and the "Johnny Squad"

There's something nostalgic and comforting about a Yuri Lowenthal performance these days (besides Spider-Man, because no thanks). I feel like for Johnny, Yuri can just kind of channel an energy of Yosuke if he were on cocaine and ride it all the way through the recording session.

Johnny's likeability in this game is somewhat surprising, since I didn't really like him in Remake. I guess in that one he was pretty much just creepin on Tifa most of the time. Here, he creeps a surprisingly low amount, so I guess that's one explanation. They also show him attempting to mature as a person when he takes responsibility for bringing Hojo to Costa Del Sol (even if it was under the mayor's orders). Finally, they show him becoming a small business owner, as he takes over the house we could buy in the original game and turning it into Johnny's Seaside Views.

Of course, there's also the completely buckwild and slightly culturally opaque choice for Yuffie to make several Ninjutsu clones of Johnny, aka the "Johnny Squad" (which does unfortunately make me think of a pack of condoms for some reason). It seems like I should've hated this quest but I dunno. I thought it was a pretty fun way to make Yuffie feel like part of the party immediately after her joining.

Hint for minigame 13: A rhythm game (but probably not the one you think)

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Minigame 13: Summon Intel

It didn't strike me until Martin's post earlier that this is basically just the Lifespring again, except it's not just the same triangle prompt every time. I really enjoyed getting the summon intel before reaching the altar (again, thank you CHADLEY). I was worried at first that the "memorize the pattern" minigame would get prohibitively difficult as the game went on, but it never did. If anything, I wish these were a little harder to find on the map.

The music during this also goes super hard for no reason also. But then again, you could say that about the entire game pretty much.

Hint for NPC 15: A Shinra Board Member

Mai > Chadley

The best thing about Chadley are his interactions with Mai. Everything else he says is worth less than Mai's monster intel, which I actually kinda liked.

Mai was mostly annoying because she's screaming unintelligible nonsense out of my controller for every combat trial.

Did they really need to keep replaying the audio if you retry a trial you've already completed as well?

I did hear you could turn her off for those parts but I never cared enough to bother.

I always just sat there and listened to Mai to finish before every combat trial because I didn't want to hurt her feelings

Mai better than Chadley all the time.

Changing it so their voice comes out of the speakers instead of the controller helps a lot. It's so loud from the controller.

Nanaki should at least be higher than Zack. I probably would put him over Yuffie and maybe Tifa too.

Mai would've been fine if her voice didn't come out of the controller super-loud every time you retry an Enemy Intel (in fact, she is fine if you just do the work yourself to sort the sound out). I liked the random enemy lore dumps.

The Johnny quest is one of my favourites; it feels natural when the game leans into a comic tone like that, and it plays out over multiple chapters so feel more substantial than some of the others. I found Yuffie teasing Cloud about cloning Tifa during it quite funny too. It's also quite believable to see a goofball like Johnny getting scammed while trying to do something good - seen that story play out in the real world before.

I always have controller speakers off so I didn't even know Mai did that.

Kotetsu534 posted...

I found Yuffie teasing Cloud about cloning Tifa during it quite funny too.

top 5 moment in the game for me, for sure. I laughed, loaded up my last save to re-experience it, laughed again.

Johnny quest was also so great, loved the J-Squad.

MAI was a welcome addition in that she was bubbly and energetic and was a great presence, more perfect voice actor casting, also playing off hilariously against Chadley at times, but yeah... sometimes not so great during the enemy intels.

BK_Sheikah00 posted...

I always have controller speakers off so I didn't even know Mai did that.

yeah, anytime Cloud whips out the device for Chadley to speak he'd do it too. I never minded the controller audio, felt like it worked pretty well, but yeah some of those enemy intels. not so much.

I found Chadley and Mai really annoying but like, in an endearing way. I felt like I was supposed to hate them and was relishing in it. Like the character in a sitcom who everyone else just always reacts "ugh" to. I hate their guts but would rate them highly on this list, does that make any sense

But yeah Mai in tough fiend intels is maybe the most annoying thing in the game

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NPC 15. Scarlet

Due to Gamefaq's recent crackdown on "horny," it took a while to find a PG rated picture of Scarlet. Curse you femdom! I mean fandom!

Lady Dimitrescu. Kargath. That one tall character from Unicorn Overlord. Certain people have a certain type, and that's fine. I'm not here to yuck anyone's yums. Except Scarlet's like... a really really bad person. She could've just shot Dyne and Barret in the head and been done with it, but no, she shot their freaking arms off.

There's a lot of Intergrade carry over in this game, which makes sense. The game is really trying hard to more naturally include Yuffie into the mix, and playing up her rivalry with Scarlet is a good way of doing that. So the whole rematch in Gongaga was a pretty good moment I thought (it was also surprisingly hard). That being said, her armor in the third game better be called the Proud Clod or else I'm rioting.

Oh yeah, and her chest is a little much.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/52521b5a.jpg
NPC 14. Shinra Middle Manager, aka the Ultimate Party Animal

I am constantly impressed by the game's ability to surprise and delight me when it comes to Remake versions of OG FF7's cult classics. What a character arc this guy has. In the first game, he is classic Japanese salaryman, married to Shinra, all about that upward mobility. In Remake, he's turned over a new leaf, He's had it up to here with Shinra's planet-destroying nonsense, and he's living, laughing, and loving his way to a brand new identity.

Forget the beach conversation with Aerith in Costa Del Sol. It's all about the birth of the UPA. His quest was unfortunately glitched for me beyond all hope of repair when I came up with this list, so I've yet to see his finale. I have no doubt it doesn't disappoint.

Hint for minigame 12: Cloud Smash.

yeah sounds about right for desert rush, i think it was worse than in remake but still pretty fun

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/3b859f4c.jpg
Minigame 12: Desert Rush, aka "The One Where You Break Boxes"

Yep, Steiner called it immediately. I don't know though, I think I like this better than in Remake? Maybe it was just easier this go around, because after a couple tries I got a literal perfect and had like 10 seconds to spare. It was definitely easier than the Intergrade version of this, which I found entirely too difficult. I think it's largely due to this not actually being about "being fast" and more about being smart.

There was something almost zen-like about finding the perfect route and getting the timing of when to use Braver and when to just mash square. I had fun, but I guess it's pretty simple all things considered.

Hint for Main Character 6: Probably the most meme-able Final Fantasy 7 character?

I have the semi-joking opinion that there are at least five villains who are more compelling than Sephiroth in Rebirth and Scarlet's one of the best. Enjoyed Yuffie and Barret bonding over their shared lust for vengeance too.

Desert Rush does prove Square's willing to tone down the difficulty on mini-games, which I wouldn't mind if they did a bit more of for part 3. You basically just need to figure out the route then it's yours, whereas Remake (or was it Intermission?) required a super clean execution as well.

I'd guess Barret for most meme-able?

I can't reconcile Barret being this low so I'm going to guess you mean Zack on accounts of his existence being kinda a meme and also https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b462ef4d.jpg

yeah i also enjoyed desert rush good opinion

Desert Rush is probably my favorite short-term minigame? It's a good match between difficulty without requiring perfection. My only real complaint is that you need to fail once to get the routing in mind.

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Main Character 6
Zack Fair

You're not allowed to take my images. How dare you make me find another image of Zack Fair that doesn't say "Me? Gongaga" at the bottom.

My relationship with Zack is complicated. I loved the twist in the original game. It really freaked my bean when I was 15. But I also didn't give a shit about him as a person. It was cool that he was Cloud's doppelganger and he died. That's it. I didn't need to know anything more about him besides what was given to us in the original.

Then came Square Enix's "Zack push," where they come out with Crisis Core, they shove him into Kingdom Hearts 2. Couldn't care less. The issue is he's too goody-goody, honestly. He's something of a typical anime protagonist (dumb as hell, perseverance trumps everything, makes friends super easily, his enemies respect him, probably eats a ton of meat).

That being said, I liked the twist at the end of Remake where Zack lives. It really opened up a ton of narrative possibility that, to be quite frank, Rebirth doesn't do enough with (but I'll save that for ending talk). Zack's status as trad-protag works in Rebirth because it's a clever juxtaposition with Cloud's attempt to "play a part." Zack - the actual "hero" - is trapped in a world that's falling apart, while Cloud - the Avatar - is going on the heroic journey. It creates a lot of real interesting tension.

Zack's escapades in the Terrier-verse aren't exactly exciting, but they serve the important role of keeping players invested in the game beyond just replaying events from the original. I think they nailed his interactions with Marlene, Elmyra and Biggs. I liked Zack more in this game than I ever did before.

I still don't love Zack/Aerith. My interpretation of the relationship from the original game was that Aerith had a crush on Zack and so he was her "first crush." This is when I assumed Zack was older (like he was in his 20's while Aerith would've been a teen). Crisis Core suggests they were the same age and actually in an almost relationship, which I think is, I dunno, kind of dumb/too convenient from a narrative perspective.

Post Temple of the Ancient Stuff: It ruled. The Cloud/Zack fight, the Zack with Aerith help fight in the Church, the synergy attacks, the limit breaks. Truly a stand up and cheer moment. They gave Zack the line "who says the worlds can't unite again" which I would wager is a needle drop for the third game's title: reunite. Pretty good for a meme guy.

Hint for NPC 13: Better in the og game in almost every way, but still pretty high up.

colliding posted...

You're not allowed to take my images. How dare you make me find another image of Zack Fair that doesn't say "Me? Gongaga" at the bottom.

Could've used the CC Reunion image instead of the OG one.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b67bbde1.jpg
NPC 13. Dyne

It's hard to ruin Dyne, but this game sure did try. First off, it was a bad narrative decision to actually show Barret seeing Dyne in the Gold Saucer. I suppose for people who played the original this is a nice "extra scene" we didn't get to see, but it sacrifices the tension of thinking "wow, what if Barret actually did go off the deep end and shoot up a bunch of people." Instead it's obvious from the jump who it is.

Secondly, really everything about the violence is neutered in intensity. I'm not saying I need to see tons of blood and dismemberment, but certain iconic scenes need it (the blood trail in Remake, the crime scene in Gold Saucer).

That being said, what makes Dyne good in the original game is still here for the most part. Him being "Barret's Zack" essentially. I like how he wasn't completely redeemed at the end, and how he actually twists the knife in Barret with the Cowboy Bebop carry that weight comment. Also, I have no issues with Dyne's new death by cop, since it leads to the fun stuff later (Palmer, Buggy escape etc).

The battle itself was a little too easy (Barret seems OP in normal difficulty a bit). I thought it was cool how Dyne inherited Captain Kidd's devil fruit powers.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/9ec1332b.jpg
NPC 12. Lidrehl Balmon

The award for biggest singular surprise goes to the first time the game went to static after a Queen's Blood match and I thought my TV glitched. The fact that this game went so hard on Queen's Blood for absolutely no reason is incredibly good.

Also, the fact that this guy gives such clear Alan Wake vibes despite the fact that there's no way that was intentional is such a cosmic coincidence I can't NOT reward him with a high ranking.

In a game full of good side quests, the Queen's Blood storyline is at the pinnacle. It's tense, atmospheric, mysterious, and fun the entire time. It also balances that line of not taking itself too seriously too. This could've easily been a huge pain in the ass, but it never felt that way.

Next is runner-ups for the Top 10!
Hint for minigame and NPC 11: a couple of cuties