just a random thought but what current day square enix Gets about final fantasy 7 Remake/Rebirth etc is that the games are as much rpgs as they are theme park style immersive experiences for fans who spent so long staring at standard def matte paintings.

i'll go as far as saying that these games are most successful when they interleave exploration and traditional story/battle mechanics, it's just fun to explore these places, but fighting one boss after another and not having a chance to take in the world, it feels like a rushed buffet. in contrast you have games like yakuza that invest so heavily in dialog at times that it feels more like interactive fiction than an arpg. hard to find that balance, but i feel like s/e mostly Gets it!

everything i’ve read/heard about rebirth makes me think that this sort of theme park experience is extremely central to the way rebirth is structured and designed: everything after midgar in the original was always a bunch of more vignette like experiences, slice of life moments that are sort of structured and directed but mostly feel like moments to sample and occasionally give yourself to for a little while and my read is that is like 100% what a theme park is and why Videogames like Yakuza are as much About a Place as they are about their characters.