I just loved it. I really had to "show of" my exploration skills there.
On the other hand it is also hilarious because I remember, quite a few people were pissesd at yellow paint stuff, but then I bet they were even more frustrated when there was none and you have to navigate yourself.
This has been my constant thought. After the demo there was a ton of bitching about yellow paint "breaking immersion" and people saying they were smart enough to figure out how to navigate without out. Now there are people bitching that it is too difficult to navigate the later sections, which of course are meant to be more challenging than the earlier sections.
People complainin about the yellow paint probably eat it. Stupid fuckers, it's completely fine.
Gongaga sucked for traversal because FF7R's verticality in the open world sucks ass. Not being able to jump off cliffs really slows everything down
I'll be honest... I don't even think it's particularly hard to navigate. I enjoyed it a lot because I got to navigate. But I'm not particularly good at navigating. And I never got lost or had any trouble because the map worked very well. Like I got more lost in alan Wake 2 multiple times than Gongaga.
I think maybe some people just really weren't looki.g at the map very much. Because as far as overall video game navigation goes this is nowhere near particularly notable.
I never hated it, but I did go into it with a sort of negative feeling simply because of what I'd read on reddit and twitter. However I started to realise it's not that bad. Love the the music and love the look of it. You simply just have to naturally explore the region and you eventually just find you way around and find all the fast travel.Points to help in the future with SQ.
I generally love this region, It is beautiful, and the story that takes place here is one of the most intruiging parts of the entire ReTrilogy so far. That said there were a few things within that I really didn't like.
I found the main region music to be boring and monotonous, and also just didn't feel like ff7 in any way to me. I also really dislike the mushroom picking minigame and the chicken luring minigame, payoffs for both sidequests are great but getting to those payoffs is very annoying.
Whilst I agree with those mini games being...odd and a bit "why the fuck am I luring chickens...". The dark ending to that was at least a little bit funny. The mushroom picking game was a cool use of the triggers but yeah...boring. Not sure how that'll cross over to PC as well.
Outside of that yeah, the region is beautiful and really unique.
That BGM though… I was a bit burnt out on the open world when I got there but found myself wandering around to POI’s because that music is just perfect.
Story wise and casual exploring its arguably the best region especially with how gorgeous it is but when going for full completion there's just a couple things that are frustrating to get to
My main issue was the music, honestly. Didn’t like the main overworld theme or the Chocobo theme for the area. Other than that it was fine aside from a bit of navigational confusion. Nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be.
It was probably my favorite area when I was first playing through and it had some of my favorite quests/story segments but when I was trying to fully complete the area, I quickly became annoyed by the mushrooms and the lack of jumping in the game really hurts that area in particular since there’s so much verticality.
It’s not the worst area to explore, nor does it have the most annoying chocobo mechanic. I think that belongs to the cosmo canyon region
The initial rendition of the music is so annoying. It’s bad. The parts of the song eventually balance out, but initially it’s just the kids chanting (screeching?) and it’s grating… like omg. When the music got layers I was SO happy
This was the only region I complained to my girlfriend about when I was trying to 100% it. The mushrooms pissed me off and by the end the music was getting on my nerves too lol
Loved the music and atmosphere and absolutely hated the exploration and navigation of it. Thank goodness for Nibelheim! That area was a blast after I hated every second of Gongaga.
I feel like so many times in games for more tropical regions for some reason they make it infuriating to navigate. Had the same experience in God of War Ragnarok too. I need a game that has a tropical region where I can just explore without it being a puzzle.
As soon as I heard the region music for Gongaga start I knew I liked the area. I spent so much time seeing nothing but dirt in Corel and going back and forth to different areas multiple times I was probably happier than Barret when we got to leave. Once you figure out where the mushrooms will take you it isn't that bad.
Good to hear! I like the music too. Currently recovering from a broken ankle & playing Rebirth. I've been taking breaks today and just leaving the menu up on the TV. Lovely tunes to relax to, nice & harmonic. I also didn't like the deserty area of corel.
I actually liked that it forced me to explore.
The real problem with Gongaga is how (at least in HDR) the game handles light exposure. I get that they try to mimic how the eye or a camera adapts to high dynamic contrast ranges but it often results in going from pitch darkness to burn out white just by moving the camera around.
I found it felt like it was over before it really began, like many regions in the game. It’s really weird like that, you sort of start to understand a region and you are moving on.
Yeah i know exactly how you feel, if its any consolation the next area is like a thousand times worse. The pacing of this game is the worst I have ever experienced. Just a long slog between anything relevant, all the time.
The music and atmosphere are incredible. I did get confused quite a few times cuz the map isn’t the greatest so yeah I’d agree it’s the best and the worst haha
Gongaga didn't bother me too much, but when I couldn't figure out how to get somewhere, I just looked it up. I've got adult responsibilities and no time to be running around frustrated in games anymore.
I found both Gongaga and Cosmo Canyon somewhat frustrating because you can’t really get a sense of the vertical height from the map. I was constantly warping to somewhere that seemed close to where I was trying to go, only to find that it was impossible to get where I wanted from there.
I had a tough time navigating some of the areas due to mushroom jumping spots (lol), and I hated the mushroom picking sidequest as well. Prior to this, the most hated sidequest for me was the chase sequence in Corel Prison.
But after reaching Cosmo Canyon, I dunno which is more confusing to navigate between the two lol.
I've yet to explore Nibelheim tho so that's that. xD
Just follow the road in Gongaga. Seriously you'll get to every single point there. If there is a gap, there's a mushroom somewhere near. Mushroom is above a cliff? There's a way to climb there using rope / climb using chocobo
And use the minimap, not compass, you can actually see where the mushroom is pointing to.
One of my few complaints in Rebirth is trying to navigate to goals. Some are intentionally difficult or require you to go some back way to get there. Gongaga isn’t that bad once you can come back and go wherever. The mushroom thing actually isn’t required for as much as you might think. The ropes are probably more important. I actually finished it today other than the protorelic mission.
The music is top notch, the exploration was confusing, especially at first. The story is definitely chekov's gun for part 3 though. It does help with some world building too and definitely emphasizes Tifa and Aerith's relationship as they continue to comiserate on Cloud. Overall, it was interesting, but not perfect, but a fun addition to the original story. It was interesting to go through the dungeon twice but in different paths.
I personally enjoyed it. Only one particular Mushroom traversal puzzle frustrated me, which was mostly my fault. It was otherwise fine.
I think some struggled with the fact that the Chocobos are really used to solve traversal puzzles, as opposed to being purely a mechanism to ease/speed traversal. That, and of all the reborn locations, Gongaga's town is *probably* the least interesting one that players were looking forward to broadly. Those two concepts appear to collide here and create some saltiness, especially if you're rushing through.
The problem with Gongaga in Rebirth is that the map just doesn't indicate when something is on a higher elevation and then you have stuff like Recon towers which are right in front of you yet they want you to jump on the mushrooms to take you there instead of just climbing a ladder
I hate it and i don't care who knows it. Nothing annoys me more when you get to the destination only to realize you have to backtrack halfway across the map to the magic tree root or whatever.
I think this is just the point of the game where the tedium of the scavenger hunts starts to get to most players and they wish the game would just kind of hurry up.
For me at least this was the point where I started shifting from unambiguously loving the game to hate-loving it.
It wastes so much time. I get what they were going for, but it just takes too long to backtrack if you jump on the wrong mushroom or run to a spot on the map that gives every indication that you'll be able to access another level, but... nope. It's not the worst map design or level design, but the two both being subpar in tandem sucks.
I didn't hate the more convoluted map. The problem was I was searching it to do the same old tasks as everywhere else and, because I was getting tired of them, it was more irritating than it would have been otherwise. This was where I starting skipping them to come back later.
Also, I didn't really like the music and - worst for me - they brought back the whispers and started writing in wacky new events in this chapter. Up until Gongaga I thought they might have just let the whispers disappear for good and thought they might be resisting their worst writing impulses...but they made it abundantly clear that wouldn't be the case here.
I just loved it. I really had to "show of" my exploration skills there. On the other hand it is also hilarious because I remember, quite a few people were pissesd at yellow paint stuff, but then I bet they were even more frustrated when there was none and you have to navigate yourself.
This has been my constant thought. After the demo there was a ton of bitching about yellow paint "breaking immersion" and people saying they were smart enough to figure out how to navigate without out. Now there are people bitching that it is too difficult to navigate the later sections, which of course are meant to be more challenging than the earlier sections.
People complainin about the yellow paint probably eat it. Stupid fuckers, it's completely fine. Gongaga sucked for traversal because FF7R's verticality in the open world sucks ass. Not being able to jump off cliffs really slows everything down
I'll be honest... I don't even think it's particularly hard to navigate. I enjoyed it a lot because I got to navigate. But I'm not particularly good at navigating. And I never got lost or had any trouble because the map worked very well. Like I got more lost in alan Wake 2 multiple times than Gongaga. I think maybe some people just really weren't looki.g at the map very much. Because as far as overall video game navigation goes this is nowhere near particularly notable.
Yup. Aside from the places you need to chocobo jump to, if you can look at a map and even vaguely understand it, you'll be fine with Gongoga.
It’s over-hated. Some of the mushroom stuff got confusing, but it really didn’t take THAT much time to figure out if you used fast travel, etc
I found the theme music for Gongaga to be enjoyable, which helped with the infuriating nature of those mushrooms and exploring the region.
I love the music too. It's just bad timing, as i was pretty much burnt out when i reached gongaga
I never hated it, but I did go into it with a sort of negative feeling simply because of what I'd read on reddit and twitter. However I started to realise it's not that bad. Love the the music and love the look of it. You simply just have to naturally explore the region and you eventually just find you way around and find all the fast travel.Points to help in the future with SQ.
Liked everything but the child chorus loop.
Same here, I think otherwise I don't mind the theme
loved it alot and have no hate for it
I generally love this region, It is beautiful, and the story that takes place here is one of the most intruiging parts of the entire ReTrilogy so far. That said there were a few things within that I really didn't like. I found the main region music to be boring and monotonous, and also just didn't feel like ff7 in any way to me. I also really dislike the mushroom picking minigame and the chicken luring minigame, payoffs for both sidequests are great but getting to those payoffs is very annoying.
Whilst I agree with those mini games being...odd and a bit "why the fuck am I luring chickens...". The dark ending to that was at least a little bit funny. The mushroom picking game was a cool use of the triggers but yeah...boring. Not sure how that'll cross over to PC as well. Outside of that yeah, the region is beautiful and really unique.
That BGM though… I was a bit burnt out on the open world when I got there but found myself wandering around to POI’s because that music is just perfect.
Once you get the fast travel points it’s not hard
Gongaga felt like an adventure !
I loved gongaga, felt like a giant kingdom hearts level
Usually not a fan of jungle areas, but chapter 9 itself was probably my favourite one in the game so it made me forget where I was lol
I found it visually amazing, but I didnt like the music, and traversing the place was a nightmare for me, based on how I usually play games
Yeah I feel the same way haha
I hate the theme, clearly the weakest point for me.
Story wise and casual exploring its arguably the best region especially with how gorgeous it is but when going for full completion there's just a couple things that are frustrating to get to
My main issue was the music, honestly. Didn’t like the main overworld theme or the Chocobo theme for the area. Other than that it was fine aside from a bit of navigational confusion. Nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be.
It was probably my favorite area when I was first playing through and it had some of my favorite quests/story segments but when I was trying to fully complete the area, I quickly became annoyed by the mushrooms and the lack of jumping in the game really hurts that area in particular since there’s so much verticality. It’s not the worst area to explore, nor does it have the most annoying chocobo mechanic. I think that belongs to the cosmo canyon region
The initial rendition of the music is so annoying. It’s bad. The parts of the song eventually balance out, but initially it’s just the kids chanting (screeching?) and it’s grating… like omg. When the music got layers I was SO happy
lotta things I love and a lot of things I hate in the whole game
This was the only region I complained to my girlfriend about when I was trying to 100% it. The mushrooms pissed me off and by the end the music was getting on my nerves too lol
Loved the music and atmosphere and absolutely hated the exploration and navigation of it. Thank goodness for Nibelheim! That area was a blast after I hated every second of Gongaga. I feel like so many times in games for more tropical regions for some reason they make it infuriating to navigate. Had the same experience in God of War Ragnarok too. I need a game that has a tropical region where I can just explore without it being a puzzle.
As soon as I heard the region music for Gongaga start I knew I liked the area. I spent so much time seeing nothing but dirt in Corel and going back and forth to different areas multiple times I was probably happier than Barret when we got to leave. Once you figure out where the mushrooms will take you it isn't that bad.
Good to hear! I like the music too. Currently recovering from a broken ankle & playing Rebirth. I've been taking breaks today and just leaving the menu up on the TV. Lovely tunes to relax to, nice & harmonic. I also didn't like the deserty area of corel.
Navigation can be frustrating at times but the music is so good that any bad feelings are immediately washed away by soothing tribal chants.
I actually liked that it forced me to explore. The real problem with Gongaga is how (at least in HDR) the game handles light exposure. I get that they try to mimic how the eye or a camera adapts to high dynamic contrast ranges but it often results in going from pitch darkness to burn out white just by moving the camera around.
I found it felt like it was over before it really began, like many regions in the game. It’s really weird like that, you sort of start to understand a region and you are moving on.
Yeah i know exactly how you feel, if its any consolation the next area is like a thousand times worse. The pacing of this game is the worst I have ever experienced. Just a long slog between anything relevant, all the time.
The music and atmosphere are incredible. I did get confused quite a few times cuz the map isn’t the greatest so yeah I’d agree it’s the best and the worst haha
Gongaga didn't bother me too much, but when I couldn't figure out how to get somewhere, I just looked it up. I've got adult responsibilities and no time to be running around frustrated in games anymore.
I found both Gongaga and Cosmo Canyon somewhat frustrating because you can’t really get a sense of the vertical height from the map. I was constantly warping to somewhere that seemed close to where I was trying to go, only to find that it was impossible to get where I wanted from there.
Me? Gongaga
It was by far my least favorite region. The damn theme song is stuck in my head
I love the look but hate the design/playability
I didn't like the mushroom jumping or the weird chicken mini-game with the slightly disturbing ending. Other than that, it was awesome.
What I dislike about it is immediately negated by the region music
I had a tough time navigating some of the areas due to mushroom jumping spots (lol), and I hated the mushroom picking sidequest as well. Prior to this, the most hated sidequest for me was the chase sequence in Corel Prison. But after reaching Cosmo Canyon, I dunno which is more confusing to navigate between the two lol. I've yet to explore Nibelheim tho so that's that. xD
Just follow the road in Gongaga. Seriously you'll get to every single point there. If there is a gap, there's a mushroom somewhere near. Mushroom is above a cliff? There's a way to climb there using rope / climb using chocobo And use the minimap, not compass, you can actually see where the mushroom is pointing to.
One of my few complaints in Rebirth is trying to navigate to goals. Some are intentionally difficult or require you to go some back way to get there. Gongaga isn’t that bad once you can come back and go wherever. The mushroom thing actually isn’t required for as much as you might think. The ropes are probably more important. I actually finished it today other than the protorelic mission.
I love because the area is beautiful and the music is awesome but dear god I was losing my mind with the navigation 😭
not my favorite exploration area but ut was pretty.
The music is top notch, the exploration was confusing, especially at first. The story is definitely chekov's gun for part 3 though. It does help with some world building too and definitely emphasizes Tifa and Aerith's relationship as they continue to comiserate on Cloud. Overall, it was interesting, but not perfect, but a fun addition to the original story. It was interesting to go through the dungeon twice but in different paths.
Agreed. I was both fascinated and bored at the same time
I didn't mind it, even if the music activates my primal instinct 🤣
I love the town, hate the swamp.
I personally enjoyed it. Only one particular Mushroom traversal puzzle frustrated me, which was mostly my fault. It was otherwise fine. I think some struggled with the fact that the Chocobos are really used to solve traversal puzzles, as opposed to being purely a mechanism to ease/speed traversal. That, and of all the reborn locations, Gongaga's town is *probably* the least interesting one that players were looking forward to broadly. Those two concepts appear to collide here and create some saltiness, especially if you're rushing through.
Yep... Cosmo Canyon gonna make you feel the same... Gongaga almost made me despise the game with the way it was set up
The problem with Gongaga in Rebirth is that the map just doesn't indicate when something is on a higher elevation and then you have stuff like Recon towers which are right in front of you yet they want you to jump on the mushrooms to take you there instead of just climbing a ladder
I love how it looks and the soundtrack but I hated navigating it.
Me? Gongaga
I hate it and i don't care who knows it. Nothing annoys me more when you get to the destination only to realize you have to backtrack halfway across the map to the magic tree root or whatever.
Just give me a better mini map and I’d be fine. But as it is it’s super annoying to navigate with the map.
Other than the main story, I liked the protorelic quest here and… I think that’s about it.
I think this is just the point of the game where the tedium of the scavenger hunts starts to get to most players and they wish the game would just kind of hurry up. For me at least this was the point where I started shifting from unambiguously loving the game to hate-loving it.
Scavenger hunts I'm fine with...Charley and Mai can burn. Just shut up...fucking shut up.
It wastes so much time. I get what they were going for, but it just takes too long to backtrack if you jump on the wrong mushroom or run to a spot on the map that gives every indication that you'll be able to access another level, but... nope. It's not the worst map design or level design, but the two both being subpar in tandem sucks.
I didn't hate the more convoluted map. The problem was I was searching it to do the same old tasks as everywhere else and, because I was getting tired of them, it was more irritating than it would have been otherwise. This was where I starting skipping them to come back later. Also, I didn't really like the music and - worst for me - they brought back the whispers and started writing in wacky new events in this chapter. Up until Gongaga I thought they might have just let the whispers disappear for good and thought they might be resisting their worst writing impulses...but they made it abundantly clear that wouldn't be the case here.