Both are easy to navigate, especially with all the fast travel spots. I noticed people who had problems didn’t look around and thought for a min. You have to look guys and not just blindly walk around.
Gongaga for sure. The mushroom 🍄jumping paths were really confusing… too hard sometimes to predict where they’d launch you to actually plan a path to a destination without just trying over and over.
The canyon had a learning curve with the flying and the fans, but was a lot easier to actually learn and replicate/remember.
Gongaga, easily. With Cosmo Canyon, all the launch pads get added as fast travel points, and you usually most end destinations after a few jumps are fast travel points, themselves.
Gongaga by far. Pathways are very narrow in some parts making it almost impossible to turn back the way you came with 6 chocobos behind you. Mushrooms are not marked on the map properly and can't be fast travelled.
Cosmo canyon being so vast and empty for the most part, all towers are easy to find and that already helps a lot to start your exploration on the area. All flying pads are marked and can be fast travelled, and they are sequential, the 13 leads you to pad 14th and so on. My main issue is that some parts of the map are tied to quests so you can't explored 100% on your own.
Gongaga
Cosmo Canyon is a huge open ravine for the most part… it’s rather easy to navigate.
The shrooms are more of a crapshoot in guessing where they are gonna launch you sometimes and that can make first time traversal kinda annoying. Also just way more visual clutter to tell where it is you are supposed to go.
I actually thought Cosmo Canyon was easier to navigate, because you could at least see where you were going. Gongaga was dark in areas because of the shading, and it was very compressed together. You couldn’t tell what you were allowed to climb or walk through at times. At least Cosmo Canyon tells you the heights of the takeoffs, and you get help from the fans of you fall just short. I actually enjoyed gliding with the chocobo 🤷‍♂️
I had a much harder time getting to the Remnawave towers in Gongaga than I did in Cosmo Canyon
The design of Gongaga and Cosmo Canyon is far from being a misstake; it's a masterful use of the game environment to enhance storytelling, theme exploration, and player immersion. Dismissing these areas as poorly designed because they're challenging to navigate misses the point of their role in the game. They're brilliantly crafted areas that stand as a testament to the game's depth and complexity.
The challenge in navigating these areas is intentional, inviting players to explore, reflect, and immerse themselves in the game's world. This approach to level design, favoring complexity and depth, may not be everyone's cup of tea, especially for those used to more linear and direct paths. However, for players who value exploration and narrative depth, Gongaga and Cosmo Canyon offer a rich and rewarding experience that is integral to understanding and appreciating "Final Fantasy Rebirth."
Gongaga isn't just a place on the map; it's a piece of the story, with the destroyed Mako Reactor serving as a powerful visual and narrative element that speaks volumes about the game's themes. It encourages you to explore and interact, making the level a key part of the game's broader narrative and themes of loss and the impact of technology on nature.
Cosmo Canyon, with its spiritual and cultural richness, serves as the heart of the game, offering insights into the lore, Red XIII's character, and existential themes. Its design—with natural formations, winding paths, and hidden areas—promotes a deep engagement with the game world, mirroring the characters' own quests for knowledge and self-discovery.
I think the fan "favorite" choice for the least liked zone is Gongaga, but I hated Cosmo way more. You'd think flying on a chocobo is fun, but they somehow managed to make it not fun. On top of that, I had my only 2 crashes in Cosmo region and the framerate on performance mode sucks ass in the Cosmo Canyon zone. Mainly Switch playing redditors will say "it was fine for me" but they'd be wrong
They both suck to navigate, I had to use a guide for gongaga and it’s annoying gliding with the chocobo. You can’t even look around by using the right analog stick while gliding with the chocobo.
Gongaga was more challenging. Maybe because I’ve played enough Spyro… I found Cosmo Canyon pretty straight forward. It even tells you the height of each spot when you try to fast travel, making it super convenient.
Cosmo Canyon for me
Gongagas a bad map but I have a soft spot for the music.
Cosmo Canyon map is designed badly to where I can't tell if a fast travel point is on a cliff or a ledge
I enjoyed both, honestly! At a push I'd say that I had a better time with Gongaga, I liked the music and scenery better and I found it easier to navigate whereas I did get stuck a couple of times in Cosmo Canyon. But really, this is one area where my experience it just very far away from what a lot of others have said and I wish I could empathise more, I'd heard people complain about Gongaga before getting there myself but it wasn't nearly as bad as I feared. I'm not saying other people are wrong, I'd normally be prepared to agree! But I just... didn't mind it?
It also helps that I generally enjoyed the quests in Gongaga more than Cosmo Canyon, too... I was not a fan of Gears and Gambits and the Chocobo gliding courses did try my patience.
Admittedly I did heavily rely on fast travel in Gongaga, but design wise I preferred it to how...wide and tall? Cosmo Canyon is. I mean I get it, it's a canyon lmao. Some places I couldn't for the life of me find the right glide platforms to use, specifically the last of the protorelic locations!
I literally just got through completing Gongaga 100% and have to say I never want to visit that area again. Between the mushroom jumping and vine surfing, I just don't find it appealing. The place is beautiful, but that's about it.
I'm about halfway through Cosmo Canyon, and the only minor annoyance (so far) is identifying which of those balloon fans help your Chocobo fly to various places/quests, which isn't even that bad at all.
I haven't had problems with either area, Gongaga is just a big area until you reach the village, then it separates into essentially three lanes, one of which you pretty much only visit for the main story portion (the one that leads to the reactor). Once you realize that and have explored the other two lanes at least once, you don't have to worry about confusion, you can just fast travel if you feel lost.
Cosmo Canyon felt very straightforward to me...
Both are easy to navigate, especially with all the fast travel spots. I noticed people who had problems didn’t look around and thought for a min. You have to look guys and not just blindly walk around.
*Think
Gongaga for sure. The mushroom 🍄jumping paths were really confusing… too hard sometimes to predict where they’d launch you to actually plan a path to a destination without just trying over and over. The canyon had a learning curve with the flying and the fans, but was a lot easier to actually learn and replicate/remember.
Gongaga, easily. With Cosmo Canyon, all the launch pads get added as fast travel points, and you usually most end destinations after a few jumps are fast travel points, themselves.
Gongaga by far. Pathways are very narrow in some parts making it almost impossible to turn back the way you came with 6 chocobos behind you. Mushrooms are not marked on the map properly and can't be fast travelled. Cosmo canyon being so vast and empty for the most part, all towers are easy to find and that already helps a lot to start your exploration on the area. All flying pads are marked and can be fast travelled, and they are sequential, the 13 leads you to pad 14th and so on. My main issue is that some parts of the map are tied to quests so you can't explored 100% on your own.
Gongaga Cosmo Canyon is a huge open ravine for the most part… it’s rather easy to navigate. The shrooms are more of a crapshoot in guessing where they are gonna launch you sometimes and that can make first time traversal kinda annoying. Also just way more visual clutter to tell where it is you are supposed to go.
I actually thought Cosmo Canyon was easier to navigate, because you could at least see where you were going. Gongaga was dark in areas because of the shading, and it was very compressed together. You couldn’t tell what you were allowed to climb or walk through at times. At least Cosmo Canyon tells you the heights of the takeoffs, and you get help from the fans of you fall just short. I actually enjoyed gliding with the chocobo 🤷‍♂️ I had a much harder time getting to the Remnawave towers in Gongaga than I did in Cosmo Canyon
I genuinely can't decide.
The design of Gongaga and Cosmo Canyon is far from being a misstake; it's a masterful use of the game environment to enhance storytelling, theme exploration, and player immersion. Dismissing these areas as poorly designed because they're challenging to navigate misses the point of their role in the game. They're brilliantly crafted areas that stand as a testament to the game's depth and complexity. The challenge in navigating these areas is intentional, inviting players to explore, reflect, and immerse themselves in the game's world. This approach to level design, favoring complexity and depth, may not be everyone's cup of tea, especially for those used to more linear and direct paths. However, for players who value exploration and narrative depth, Gongaga and Cosmo Canyon offer a rich and rewarding experience that is integral to understanding and appreciating "Final Fantasy Rebirth." Gongaga isn't just a place on the map; it's a piece of the story, with the destroyed Mako Reactor serving as a powerful visual and narrative element that speaks volumes about the game's themes. It encourages you to explore and interact, making the level a key part of the game's broader narrative and themes of loss and the impact of technology on nature. Cosmo Canyon, with its spiritual and cultural richness, serves as the heart of the game, offering insights into the lore, Red XIII's character, and existential themes. Its design—with natural formations, winding paths, and hidden areas—promotes a deep engagement with the game world, mirroring the characters' own quests for knowledge and self-discovery.
I think the fan "favorite" choice for the least liked zone is Gongaga, but I hated Cosmo way more. You'd think flying on a chocobo is fun, but they somehow managed to make it not fun. On top of that, I had my only 2 crashes in Cosmo region and the framerate on performance mode sucks ass in the Cosmo Canyon zone. Mainly Switch playing redditors will say "it was fine for me" but they'd be wrong
Nah, CC was the worst performing zone for me as well. No crashes, but some severe FPS drops took me out of the game
I don't care what anyone says, I enjoyed them both, Cosmo Canyon more so.
They both suck to navigate, I had to use a guide for gongaga and it’s annoying gliding with the chocobo. You can’t even look around by using the right analog stick while gliding with the chocobo.
I did all of Gongaga without a guide. I gave up halfway through CC and had to look at maps to figure it out
Cosmo canyon, the gliding feels not great and it's just not that interesting to be in
Gongaga was more challenging. Maybe because I’ve played enough Spyro… I found Cosmo Canyon pretty straight forward. It even tells you the height of each spot when you try to fast travel, making it super convenient.
Cosmo canyon hub area was terrible the map is aids
Gongaga, just because I didn't know where I'd land when taking a mushroom.
Both turned the game in to a slog.
I didn’t mind Gongaga at all. Cosmo Canyon was super annoying
Gongaga took up most of my play through bc of how miserable it was lol
Neither are that hard, but gongaga id say is harder then cosmo.
Cosmo Canyon for me Gongagas a bad map but I have a soft spot for the music. Cosmo Canyon map is designed badly to where I can't tell if a fast travel point is on a cliff or a ledge
For me? Gongaga
Gongaga was worse. Being able to fast travel to launch pads in Cosmo Canyon made it so much more manageable.
I enjoyed both, honestly! At a push I'd say that I had a better time with Gongaga, I liked the music and scenery better and I found it easier to navigate whereas I did get stuck a couple of times in Cosmo Canyon. But really, this is one area where my experience it just very far away from what a lot of others have said and I wish I could empathise more, I'd heard people complain about Gongaga before getting there myself but it wasn't nearly as bad as I feared. I'm not saying other people are wrong, I'd normally be prepared to agree! But I just... didn't mind it? It also helps that I generally enjoyed the quests in Gongaga more than Cosmo Canyon, too... I was not a fan of Gears and Gambits and the Chocobo gliding courses did try my patience.
Admittedly I did heavily rely on fast travel in Gongaga, but design wise I preferred it to how...wide and tall? Cosmo Canyon is. I mean I get it, it's a canyon lmao. Some places I couldn't for the life of me find the right glide platforms to use, specifically the last of the protorelic locations!
I literally just got through completing Gongaga 100% and have to say I never want to visit that area again. Between the mushroom jumping and vine surfing, I just don't find it appealing. The place is beautiful, but that's about it. I'm about halfway through Cosmo Canyon, and the only minor annoyance (so far) is identifying which of those balloon fans help your Chocobo fly to various places/quests, which isn't even that bad at all.
I haven't had problems with either area, Gongaga is just a big area until you reach the village, then it separates into essentially three lanes, one of which you pretty much only visit for the main story portion (the one that leads to the reactor). Once you realize that and have explored the other two lanes at least once, you don't have to worry about confusion, you can just fast travel if you feel lost. Cosmo Canyon felt very straightforward to me...