FF7 rebirth has made me really appreciate the linearity of FF13

I’ve always loved 13 from the day it came out. I understood the complaints about it being a narrow corridor enemy gauntlet, but I always thought that structure really helped with the pacing and momentum of the story. And the combat was so fun that it just wasn’t a problem for me. The environments are also some of the most beautiful and inspired in the series and the music is 10/10.

I finally got to playing rebirth recently and I really hated it. I actually enjoyed the linear story focused segments, but all of the other extra stuff was SUCH a slog and completely destroyed the pacing of the story imo. And none of the extra stuff felt fulfilling or rewarding. The mini games, rock scanning, tower climbing, chadley chiming in every 2 minutes making it feel like a children’s cartoon, etc just really bummed me out. But it all really got me thinking back to FF13 and how smooth of an experience it was. I actually enjoyed Remake quite a bit because of its linearity. The few quests sprinkled in there weren’t enough to detract from the main game, but this time around in rebirth it’s just far too much!

Have a lot of you FF13 fans felt similarly with Rebirth?