I started FFVII Remake for real this time. Because later this year I am going to the FFVII Rebirth Orchestra concert, of which there is an upcoming Distant Worlds tour.
My first main negative that thankfully could be solved: The EN dub is dreadful. I have no clue why googling around I see people praising this aspect. It reminds older low budget JRPGs that were voiced. As soon as Sephiroth talked I quit, set the language to JP and actually replayed the start, it is sooo much better. And this way the cutscenes and dialouge come of as much better to me. For the record, I prefer playing EN and this is a first time for an FF game for me. FFXV and FFXVI dubs were excellent, for example. FFVII Remake dub sounds like amateur hour to me. Especially the comedic timing is off, with super load grunting/sighs, it drove me nuts.
Anyways, I am liking the game thus far. I came mentally prepared that there is a lot of weird added stuff and that it is very linear. But the atmosphere and music are fantastic in my opinion. And the visuals are also amazing. The HDR also really pops beautifully on my tv (LG C3). It feels like a high quality polished game thus far.
Offcourse my overall expectations are low, which helps, but Rebirth looks so good that I decided to hop on board of the remake train (and offcourse the FFVII Rebirth Distant Worlds concert, which should be an amazing time).
That's wild! Didn't realize any game had a cutscene that long. Thus far in Rebirth, the longest cutscene I've encountered has been maybe five minutes +/-.
MGS and Yakuza are kings in this aspect. As these are favourite series of mine, it obviously is something I don't mind. I like watching series and like video games, I don't mind a weird Japanese merger between them. But I can see why it annoys people. I think MGS4 and Yakuza 5 are probably the ones with the longest stretches of cutscenes, but I could be wrong.