I honestly forgot how strong the cast of this game is. Sure, there's the shared backstory cop-out, and the way people keep passing the idiot ball to each other is just mind-boggling, but I actually get the feeling that these are people who are interacting with each other and they all have a specific chemistry with each other - which is much more than I can say about VII's cast which felt very bland in comparison.

Maybe part of that is thanks to the translation, though. It's sooooo much better this time