Final Fantasy 7 Remake

After all that buildup, Eligor was a cakewalk. First try, only Aerith got KO'd, and only once.

Definitely won't be the same story for me :^) (when I even start HM that is). Anyway gz on beating the game pretty much, can't think of any hard boss upcoming.

I managed to avoid the javelin attacks mainly by just hugging the container in the middle of the arena; the AI managed to keep itself out of the way most of the time.

For some reason, I thought you'd already done hard mode!

EDIT: I wonder if most of the reason that fight went so well was that I was worried about it, so played more cautiously then I have on previous bosses; I checked the Enemy Intel as I got close, made sure everyone had the right materia setup (Ice + Elemental on Cloud and Tifa's weapons, Enemy Skill on Cloud to keep Algid Aura up), and mostly danced around as Aerith to keep her ATB up so I could heal with Pray or Chakra (rather than risking him Reflecting Cure/Cura to himself). The only mistake I made was forgetting to bring Shiva.

Sorry, it was probably me talking like I had any actual knowlege of the game whatsoever lol. I would have, but I took a break to do other stuff and now I dunno' when I'll be able to come back.

I will just support your Platinum Trophy run on the sideline for now. ;)

Don't know if I'm getting better (or just more cautious), but I beat the Turk two-step this morning on the second attempt. After the first try late last night, I was convinced it was going to be another slog.

Chapter 13 done.

I happened to get Spoiler - click to show the Aerith Resolution cutscene (wasn't sure if I'd been one-sided enough to swing it, because I can't bring myself to be mean to either of them; I got Tifa last time, so only Barret left for next playthrough) then went and did Chadley's last VR Mission and unlocked Spoiler - click to showBAHAMUT.

I was expecting a tougher fight; I had to Arise him twice, but absolutely abusing Lifesaver, Steelskin, and a Magnify-linked Barrier meant that only Barret really took any damage, even from the ult.

One of the things I like a lot about this is that every character brings something to the table. They all play really differently, and have a decent spread of abilities; Barret actually makes a really good support, with his range and aforementioned survival abilities; Tifa just utterly punishes everything, doubly so when staggered; Aerith feels like an offensive caster, especially with her earlier-weapon abilities, which is weird given that she's usually described as The Healer; and Cloud is a very solid all-rounder with a ton of HP and some devastating hits.

I'm really enjoying it, even two-thirds of the way through my second run on the trot (80-something hours, even skipping most cutscenes this time through), and looking forward to the third, where I'm going to just fuck everything up on Easy for the last few story trophies.

Are you going to play the PS1 version afterwards?

Probably not; I have played it before - though only up through Gold Saucer - and I always found the OG ATB system mildly frustrating; plus, I worry that I'll just start to get my narrative wires crossed if I try and play both.

I recently watched a Let's Play of the original up until the end of Midgar, and the writing/translation really isn't that good.

I do know the broad strokes of the plot, though, so I know bits of what's coming in future installments.Spoiler - click to showOR NOT..??!?!!?!??!?!?

I will just support your Platinum Trophy run on the sideline for now. ;)

I'd I don't get the platinum, it'll be down to hard mode whack-a-box, pull-up challenges, or both.

A lot of people saying 'Play Crisis Core after you beat it' now, I still don't think any of the FF7 compilation adds much of value to FF. But it was an okay game I think? And maybe it's Spoiler - click to showgoing to be more relevant in Part 2 (please be good)

Then you have Advent Children, which I went into after it and almost instantly regretted it lmao.

Wait. Stop pauses the stagger gauge?
I'm not quite up with you guys yet. Still grinding on normal and just got my guys to level 50. I want to get MP consumption material before I move on to hard, as I imagine that helps a lot?
Not gonna lie, when I go through hard I'm going to rely on guides a lot.
So have we discussed what the ending means?

I've been trying to avoid any detail, just in case. But I think it's clear that

Spoiler - click to show they're going to change things up in a BIG way going forward. The ending of the game is literally murdering Destiny, so any events from the original have - at the very least - massive question marks hanging over them. I don't even know if past events are safe; there's the whole Zack-survived-in-an-alternative-timeline thing (we know it's not the main timeline because A. Cloud still has his sword, and B. the Stamp we see in his scenes is a different breed of dog), and he sees the Whispers around the Shinra building - I have no idea why that's even there, never mind how it might impact things.

Do you think this would be more or less confusing if I had gone in without a half-familiarity with the original game?

I'm pretty sure Spoiler - click to showthe JENOVA fight would have been even more of a WTF moment, if nothing else… but then again, I'm still not entirely sure why that's even there, other than they wanted another boss fight; it seemed to come out of nowhere, narratively, with no explanation (that I picked up on).

Fuck Jules, and fuck his fucking pull-ups challenge.

(I did do the Hard Whack-a-Box, though, it was easier than I expected.)

Not gonna lie, when I go through hard I'm going to rely on guides a lot.

I've had to look up a few things, but to be honest, as long as you remember to Assess the bosses as you go through on Normal, you'll be able to check Enemy Intel and set everyone up properly ahead of time.

The biggest difference - and another great touch - is that bosses have additional abilities on Hard. For example, at the Sector 7 Pillar, Spoiler - click to showReno only does his Pyramid status field thing on Hard, even though it was one of his main abilities in the original.

I thought Pull Ups was hard, but it got easier the faster it went since you didn't need to time it much. Jules is still a beast though, and he beat me once when I didn't drop once because I was too slow. At least the music is great.

It's approaching a PTSD trigger for me.

Turn it off so all you can hear is the noise of the cursor reaching each button. (Though it goes so fast regardless)

I didn't even know there was a sound… might be worth a shot.

FUCKING HAVE THAT, YOU BASTARD THING.

So long, Jules. I hope I never see you again.

Next up: Abzu rematch. Hope this one goes better than round 1…

I still want multiplayer pull ups and darts…

To be honest, by the end of that all I wanted was a quick way to restart the damn minigame.

Abzu redux beaten on second attempt; went into it without checking my materia setup and paid the price. The second attempt was a close call a couple of times, but managed to kick its face off with Tifa's Limit Break.

How are you finding Aerith at this point?

I'm not - I've just started climbing the pillar to go rescue her from Shinra. :P

As much as Barret makes a decent backup healer/support, though, I desperately miss Soul Drain and Arcane Ward.

Let me know what she's hitting for when you get a good solid double cast in, should be funny.

I'll try and remember!

I'm at the Valkyrie now; I can fairly consistently get to the last phase, then it kills two of my party (invariably the two with Revive materia) and I just can't outlast it.

Eked out a win against Spoiler - click to showHojo's experimental Zoidberg bastard. It was a close-ruin thing, even on the fifth(?) attempt, but Ifrit's ult managed to finish it off with only Tifa still up, and only on about a quarter health.

Still, a win's a win, right?

Been playing this for the last couple of days. Not hugely far into it - chapter 7 I think - but I'm quite impressed.

It clearly shares a lot of DNA with Final Fantasy XV, but it's massively more polished (and linear) which makes the world of difference. It's amazing that the same company that produced that buggy, unfinished mess can come up with something as slick as this FF7 remake. There are a lot of similarities though - I think Cloud might even be using Noctis' character model with different hair - and the combat system is similar, although much improved here.

Curiously it also reminds me of Final Fantasy XIII, which was much maligned on launch for being incredibly linear (like this) and forcing party compositions on you to suit the story (like this). I wonder if this is purely gaming tastes coming back around again? Now everyone seems to be suffering a bit from open world fatigue and a good linear story is back in vogue. Anyway, I like FFXIII - which did actually open up a lot toward the end, not that most people got that far - and I like this.

Oddly the one thing it doesn't remind me of much is the original FF7. Barring a few music cues and the characters themselves, there's not much here that feels familiar. Mind you I haven't played that game in - shudder - 22 years so my memory of the Midgar section in particular is extremely hazy. I do remember it feeling very odd and other-worldly though, whereas this, with its piles of smashable crates and handily indexed side quests, doesn't particularly.

Anyway, it's good. It's a shame it's only (at best) a third of the full game but they've clearly fleshed it out and I doubt I'm going to feel short-changed by the end.

It had a far better combat system than it had any right to honestly, one of my favourite combat systems in a real time RPG (Trails fans feeling shook right now is shook). Particularly when you get the ball rolling with Tifa and kung fu your way to big numbers.

They got the characters and interactions down really well, all Cloud and Aerith scenes are really good, Barret is really funny in general and it's really nice to have the asshole version of Cloud back before he became heavily flanderized as the emo from Advent Children.

The Wall Market section is brilliant too.

Aeris has strong primary school teacher energy in this. She’s extremely annoying.

She's also extremely fun in this! As everyone in FFVII played more or less the exact same besides Limit Breaks, she's got her own job like everyone else is really good at stuff now she can (at least eventually) do Limit Break tier damage with her magic, she can double cast elemental spells on whole rooms and she absolutely murders everything. Thankfully the Materia system was ported across really well so you can experiment a little.

But yes, I know what you mean..I really like her though, I think they still kept her personality more or less intact (unless we wanna' scream because she swears once). I played FF7 directly after this and it reminded me that she's actually just the same in the PS1 version, she just talks more and we can actually hear her.

Started this tonight, there's some plot stuff I don't like

Spoiler - click to show Shinra making the reactor explosion bigger than it was supposed to be, the early reveal of Sephiroth, the Aeris introduction and the reaper/ghost things

I've only got to the bit where you do a quest to unlock sidequests in the sums, but so far all the above feels like tinkering with things just for the sake of it.

But then the rest of my expectations are fairly low because I'm really not a fan of Nomura.

I liked most of the changes, but I don't hold the original particularly sacred.

Spoiler - click to showThe larger reactor explosion makes sense witth Shinra's larger plot, and if they didn't introduce Sephiroth earlier than the original game, he wouldn't even appear at all, you'd just hear his name twice then see a sword.

If you don't like the dementors now, though… hoo boy, just you wait.

Spoiler - click to show Yeah that Shinra thing was lame as hell, I suppose they thought it'd make Avalanche too unlikable if they were responsible for the damage and loss of life they caused, which I think was either pretty spineless of them or they missed the point IMO.

AVALANCHE want to disable the reactors, not kill thousands of people. I think that's fine as a scheme for the good guys. :P

The point, it's later revealed, is Spoiler - click to show that Shinra are going to use the destruction, along with rumoured(?) ties between AVALANCHE and Wutai, to justify a war - and all the profit that comes with it.

It works well enough for me, and adds a bit of nuance and intrigue.

On Chapter 14 now.

It's an odd game, all I can think is "eh, this doesn't feel right" then when I go to stop playing I've somehow lost five hours, then I have to make myself boot it up again, but again, then lose another five hours.

I do like how much more personality they've given the likes of Tifa and Barret though

Aaand finished. Those last two chapters were brutal!

I love what they did with quite a few of the characters, particularly thirsty Jessie and when

Spoiler - click to showshe invites you to hers for "pizza" and your options are no and no

Why, though.

Also, does anyone really give enough of a shit about Yuffie to warrant DLC explaining what she was doing during the Midgar/bombing sections of FFVII?

Ever Crisis sounds insane. This all just suspiciously sounds like another Compilation of Final Fantasy VII to me, which is what got us to Dirge and Advent. But I'll just wait and see, whatever.

The Ever Crisis stuff will just be like the mobile version of FFXV.

Also making the Yuffie DLC ps5 exclusive is a bit shitty

Saw this described elsewhere as the next phase of the Final Fantasy VII Shovelware Universe, and had to laugh.

Playing this for the first time. I might be the only person in the world who has never played FF7, so a blind playthrough should be fun.

30 minutes in and we've already had 'Improbably Boobed, Underdressed Woman' and 'Vaguely Racist, Muscly Soul Brother'. Nice to get two JRPG staples in so early.

Tifa is extremely fun to play.

Which one is she though, improbably boobed or vaguely racist?

Improbably boobed with a croptop that, for my money, doesn't provide adequate protection from the bullets that are frequently fired at her.

This game is cosy. Wasn't expecting that. I just went to a house that looked like it belonged on a residential street in Birmingham and my friends ate pie.

Definitely boobs, but she might be racist as well, hard to be sure these days.

(Actually Tifa's design in this is infuriating because she's actually written quite well as a character but the pneumatic proportions they've given her are just ridiculous. She looks like a sex doll. If they'd toned it down even just a little bit, it would have been so much better.)

That's the thing, they did tone it down, she was much more ridiculously proportioned in the original game, so much so she uses them to help pull herself out of a crater.

racist

Tifa is absolutely wild and needs to be stopped (This isn't edited or a meme or whatever, she actually says this)

a blind playthrough should be fun.

I'll be very interested to see what you make of some of the more flagrantly fan-service-y sections/changes in the latter half of the game.

Definitely boobs, but she might be racist as well, hard to be sure these days.

Milkshake duck with breasts. Makes sense.