Final Fantasy VII Rebirth |OT| Moseying Into the Unknown

[Sir Hound]

Spoiler: Mid Chapter 13 thoughts

I could have taken more epic dungeons like this. It's funny to think how many hours I've been in it so far but as a proportion of my 60 hours it's not so long.

Adding a whole new mechanic this late in the game is so unnecessary and on brand. I actually appreciate it, although the mechanic itself isn't so polished, it is evidence of an overall ethos that they really gave a shit about every facet of the game. I hope for the third they don't feel like every dungeon needs a hook, but I like what it says about how this game was conceived.

I've read the sentiment a few times now that near this point it's worth dropping the game down to easy and powering through. I'm good for now but I don't wanna be too burned by a super frustrating boss or whatever, any recommendations? The Rufus fight too a bit of wind out my sails in this regard.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

Spoiler: Mid Chapter 13 thoughts

I could have taken more epic dungeons like this. It's funny to think how many hours I've been in it so far but as a proportion of my 60 hours it's not so long.

Adding a whole new mechanic this late in the game is so unnecessary and on brand. I actually appreciate it, although the mechanic itself isn't so polished, it is evidence of an overall ethos that they really gave a shit about every facet of the game. I hope for the third they don't feel like every dungeon needs a hook, but I like what it says about how this game was conceived.

I've read the sentiment a few times now that near this point it's worth dropping the game down to easy and powering through. I'm good for now but I don't wanna be too burned by a super frustrating boss or whatever, any recommendations? The Rufus fight too a bit of wind out my sails in this regard.

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Chapter 13 is mostly reasonable difficulty-wise. It's chapter 14 where the real bullshit begins. That's where I would switch it to Easy.

 

[Ashes of Dreams]

Depends on how frustrated you get at dying to a boss. You're probably going to need two or three attempts at the last boss, if that's going to piss you off then yeah drop it down to Easy. I had a lot of fun with the final bosses on Normal though. I enjoyed there being a bit of struggle there at the end.

 

[JBoogieG]

Chapter 13 is mostly reasonable difficulty-wise. It's chapter 14 where the real bullshit begins. That's where I would switch it to Easy.

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I'd still least attempt it on whatever difficulty you're on first before dropping it to easy. I did it on normal and didn't really have an issue.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

The problem with Chapter 14's boss gauntlet is that absolutely ZERO consideration for the player went into its design. Constant party layout switches, bad checkpointing, unskippable transition cutscenes, stupid moves that can instakill you if you aren't careful, and very few chances to adjust your materia layout before being thrust into a section where you have zero control over your party makeup.

It's just an awful sequence of fights and it feels remarkably thoughtless in its design.

 

[JBoogieG]

The problem with Chapter 14's boss gauntlet is that absolutely ZERO consideration for the player went into its design. Constant party layout switches, bad checkpointing, unskippable transition cutscenes, stupid moves that can instakill you if you aren't careful, and very few chances to adjust your materia layout before being thrust into a section where you have zero control over your party makeup.

It's just an awful sequence of fights and it feels remarkably thoughtless in its design.

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Well, I can definitely feel your frustration!

But I guess I just don't personally agree. At least not fully. You can probably have a good argument on the checkpointing and the transition cutscenes are also a thing. But everything else *can* be mitigated. Like I didn't know anything about what was going to happen and I did it in one shot. But I also had everybody in the party kitted out with at least a decent set of materia at all times because it just made sense.

 

[brain_]

Well, I can definitely feel your frustration!

But I guess I just don't personally agree. At least not fully. You can probably have a good argument on the checkpointing and the transition cutscenes are also a thing. But everything else *can* be mitigated. Like I didn't know anything about what was going to happen and I did it in one shot. But I also had everybody in the party kitted out with at least a decent set of materia at all times because it just made sense.

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I did the same thing, I had the entire crew fully equipped the same way I would in the original because I like using all of them. That's why the quick swap between 3 parties was such an amazing addition for me. The boss gauntlet wasn't a problem for me due to that but I can get the frustration if you just locked in with one party and quit playing everyone else. But to me that felt like a waste. Everyone is so unique and plays so different.

I was on Dynamic the whole game for reference

 

[reKon]

You can clear most of Hard mode at level 50. It can get tricky sometimes especially if you don't have magnified Manawall and never leveled HP up Materia for each member but for the most part, max level doesn't have that big a difference.

I was able to jump right into Chapter 12 Hard mode and clear it at lvl ~52. Only tricky part is the last boss's second phase but I saved a lvl 3 LB for that.

edit: that being said, clearing only 3 chapters in Hard mode got me to max level.

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Yeah, it was the magnified manawall and fire materia with elemental on armor that allowed me to have a chance

 

[NIN90]

The fuck are these boss fights in Chapter 12...

 

[kiaaa]

The fuck are these boss fights in Chapter 12...

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Eh, they're a little tricky on hard, but I thought they were really fun on my first playthrough.

 

[Dougieflesh]

I did the same thing, I had the entire crew fully equipped the same way I would in the original because I like using all of them. That's why the quick swap between 3 parties was such an amazing addition for me. The boss gauntlet wasn't a problem for me due to that but I can get the frustration if you just locked in with one party and quit playing everyone else. But to me that felt like a waste. Everyone is so unique and plays so different.

I was on Dynamic the whole game for reference

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Yeah, I had my whole team kitted out with stuff, and I made a bunch of mega/giga mist potions just in case. The game gives you a bunch of materia to have all 7 characters have good materia. I think people forget to swap out maxed out materia, thus leading to them not having enough when the game forces teams that aren't their main.

 

[Mephissto]

Yeah, I had my whole team kitted out with stuff, and I made a bunch of mega/giga mist potions just in case. The game gives you a bunch of materia to have all 7 characters have good materia. I think people forget to swap out maxed out materia, thus leading to them not having enough when the game forces teams that aren't their main.

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Same. I had potions for days and always had the whole gang equipped with materia since they all level up even if you are not using the character the materia is on.

 

[brain_]

Yeah, I had my whole team kitted out with stuff, and I made a bunch of mega/giga mist potions just in case. The game gives you a bunch of materia to have all 7 characters have good materia. I think people forget to swap out maxed out materia, thus leading to them not having enough when the game forces teams that aren't their main.

Click to shrink...

meanwhile my brain out here like "why would I use my amazing maxed materia when I could level more"
I also like to theme everyone, like Yuffie always gets Steal, Aerith gets Prayer etc

 

[Leeness]

Ughhhh don't think I'm going to beat the game this weekend. Was going to do chapter 13, but I'm feeling kind of bleh, and I don't like playing games when I feel sick haha.

Next weekend, I guess…

 

[hydrophilic attack]

was bracing for a tough time against the queen's blood final boss, after hearing about others struggling and needing to craft a special deck to use specifically for that match-up, but went ahead and beat them on the first attempt with my standard deck (plus witch)

 

[leng jai]

Died 3 times in a row to the last boss with 1% health left. How does anyone design a boss fight that has a 1 shot kill mechanic at the last second with a straight face.

 

[Noctis Winters]

So 40 hours in and I finally cried.

In REmake it was the CrossSlashdressing scene / here It was Aerith's speech by the fire in Cosmo Canyon. Seeing what was a 2D anime drawing / obtuse blocky polygonal figure come alive like this...fucking hell.

I don't know what the hell is happening to me or what exactly it is that they're doing so right but by god they've got me good.

The world and people are so well realised.

 

[SirKai]

The "retry from checkpoint" option upon a Game Over is absolutely fucked. I did about half of the game's side quests, plus all the summon fights in Chapter 13. After losing a fight I had no intention of retrying (at least for now), I opted to just "Retry from Checkpoint," and the game took me ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE BEGINNING OF CHAPTER 13. I had all of my levels and EXP, but half of the side-quests were still unfinished. It was probably at least 5+ hours of gameplay the checkpoint just erased. Thankfully I'd manually saved right before this fight, so I ended up losing almost nothing, but if you were relying on Autosave and did this, you would be turbofucked. How is a system that functions like this even in the game?

 

[Sir Hound]

Playing through chapter 13 I'm starting to theorise how they're going to end this one and I'm scared. Also based on something I remember Jim Sterling say in their review (which imo was spoilers):

Spoiler: ENDING theory

They've had Cloud say Sephiroth things a few times now and really flagged it. Jim Sterling said they don't do something you expect them to - but then they do it. Which we all know what moment he was referring to and I was pissed to hear it, not that they're doing it but that I was potentially spoiled. But now I'm worried it's gonna be Cloud that does it.

I don't want to know if that's right or wrong or close or way off base because obviously I'm still in 13. So please don't let me know.

 

[Poltergust]

I'm honestly kinda relieved that (what I think is) the final open world area of the game seems to be on the smaller side of things lol.

I've been enjoying my time with the game but, now that I'm over 90 hours into it, a bit of fatigue is settling in.

I'm still going to do everything, though! I've come this far with completing the game to the fullest and I don't intend to stop now. Plus the character interactions throughout have been a great highlight to break things up.

 

[Benzychenz]

120 hours in and I don't think I have it in me to go for completion.

Need to do the Gilgamesh Island fights, Send in the Clowns, grind out all of Musclehead Coloseum and the Chadley VR missions, then of course the hard mode missions I hear are hell…

It's mostly all just high difficulty combat stuff and I just don't have it in me. There's too much of it here.

 

[tjlee2]

Going through post game now. The exp grind is non-existent and the AP grind is thankfully fairly quick so I can get on with finalizing all the loadouts and start working on team 3 (cloud/Aerith/Cait). Managed to get some clarification so far.

Spoiler: Region 6 Summon spoiler

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0Hk9Jni1n8

-Combat Savior isn't just offensive. It also makes the partner do a saving catch on Aerith on blowbacks, reducing the stun/downtime sustained. If it's a throw with damage on post throw impact (like Titan's), then it can neutralize the damage entirely. I had seen this behavior before but couldn't pinpoint what the condition was because it is bugged against Titan in that it's always active. Good to finally figure out what's going on here though.

-Transcendence and Transcendence I/II count as different skills for purpose of compass and skill master.

-Cait's synergy abilities will auto summon the moogle so you don't need to use an ATB bar to get it out. This makes it a lot easier to align atb/synergy resources when setting up an initial plan of attack with him in the party. I don't think this was mentioned at all since information on synergy abilities are generally sparse.

-Continuation also applies for atb assist so it's not necessary for back-to-back atb usage to proc the materia.

-In an 11th hour comeback, I went back to check on Infinity's End with genji gloves and found that it has a significantly higher stagger phase multiplier compared to remake, resulting in over 30k damage in fairly standard conditions. Cloud can also reliably setup the sequence as long he has 1 atb bar when stagger happens so the 2 atb cost on infinity won't be an issue.

-Also wanted to test with increased multiplier with tifa and it can fit in nicely here after all the multiplier increases too, which results in 60k+ (64k without a critical here). I don't think anything in the game actually has enough HP for this to be really meaningful. Proto final boss has 150k or so iirc and since stat increase is fairly modest in the end game I don't think anything will get much higher since single boss encounters isn't really the name of the end game here. The target will need to have at least ~200k HP for it to matter between amount lost before stagger and resource left to cash out after stagger.

I have been running cloud/yuffie/Barret for a while (since ch.12 iirc) so I think it's time to get to team 3 (cloud/aerith/cait) with the occasoinal team 1 (cloud/red/tifa).

 

[JBoogieG]

Going through post game now. The exp grind is non-existent and the AP grind is thankfully fairly quick so I can get on with finalizing all the loadouts and start working on team 3 (cloud/Aerith/Cait). Managed to get some clarification so far.

Spoiler: Region 6 Summon spoiler

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0Hk9Jni1n8

-Combat Savior isn't just offensive. It also makes the partner do a saving catch on Aerith on blowbacks, reducing the stun/downtime sustained. If it's a throw with damage on post throw impact (like Titan's), then it can neutralize the damage entirely. I had seen this behavior before but couldn't pinpoint what the condition was because it is bugged against Titan in that it's always active. Good to finally figure out what's going on here though.

-Transcendence and Transcendence I/II count as different skills for purpose of compass and skill master.

-Cait's synergy abilities will auto summon the moogle so you don't need to use an ATB bar to get it out. This makes it a lot easier to align atb/synergy resources when setting up an initial plan of attack with him in the party. I don't think this was mentioned at all since information on synergy abilities are generally sparse.

-Continuation also applies for atb assist so it's not necessary for back-to-back atb usage to proc the materia.

-In an 11th hour comeback, I went back to check on Infinity's End with genji gloves and found that it has a significantly higher stagger phase multiplier compared to remake, resulting in over 30k damage in fairly standard conditions. Cloud can also reliably setup the sequence as long he has 1 atb bar when stagger happens so the 2 atb cost on infinity won't be an issue.

-Also wanted to test with increased multiplier with tifa and it can fit in nicely here after all the multiplier increases too, which results in 60k+ (64k without a critical here). I don't think anything in the game actually has enough HP for this to be really meaningful. Proto final boss has 150k or so iirc and since stat increase is fairly modest in the end game I don't think anything will get much higher since single boss encounters isn't really the name of the end game here. The target will need to have at least ~200k HP for it to matter between amount lost before stagger and resource left to cash out after stagger.

I have been running cloud/yuffie/Barret for a while (since ch.12 iirc) so I think it's time to get to team 3 (cloud/aerith/cait) with the occasoinal team 1 (cloud/red/tifa).

Click to shrink...

Cool write up. The bit with the moogle being summoned on a synergy ability makes sense. It's just one resource being used to summon it versus another. Cool bit was Power Cleave doing 24k damage on its own there, haha. Also what's Continuation here exactly? I'm trying to remember what that could be.

 

[VPplaya]

I just finished Chapter 5 and am loving the game so far. The one issue that is really starting to bug me, however, is the lighting. I remember outdoor areas not being great in the first game too, but walking around the second region feels so washed out. Once you go indoors, however, the lighting and shadows make the interiors pop! The one scene at sunset at the end of Chapter 5 also made the area look so much nicer. I just find it odd how good and bad the lighting can be depending on where you are on the map.

 

[tjlee2]

Cool write up. The bit with the moogle being summoned on a synergy ability makes sense. It's just one resource being used to summon it versus another. Cool bit was Power Cleave doing 24k damage on its own there, haha. Also what's Continuation here exactly? I'm trying to remember what that could be.

Click to shrink...

What I mean by continuation is as long you continue to chain actions together. It's not an in-game term, just how I describe what's happening. Normally for something like atb assist you need to do back to back atb commands for it to trigger. However, you can also atb command > normal attacks/dodge/special/yellow materia commands > atb command as long the character doesn't return to neutral/there is a gap in action taken. So example here on Aerith, even if you end up short on atb slightly you can sneak in an attack then atb command and not lose the assist trigger. Yuffie keeps her art of war buff the same way as long there is continuation from activation of art of war.

Also I forgot to add that Cait's lvl3 special attacks as well as second hit of moogle knuckle have sollid micro-stuns that works against elites. The moogle knuckle one is especially amazing since it's just 1 atb and the second hit comes out fast enough to interrupt most dangerous attacks.

 

[Leeness]

I just finished Chapter 5 and am loving the game so far. The one issue that is really starting to bug me, however, is the lighting. I remember outdoor areas not being great in the first game too, but walking around the second region feels so washed out. Once you go indoors, however, the lighting and shadows make the interiors pop! The one scene at sunset at the end of Chapter 5 also made the area look so much nicer. I just find it odd how good and bad the lighting can be depending on where you are on the map.

Click to shrink...

Dunno if this would be the case and it's probably not, but do make sure to close the game down sometimes and actually restart it.

At one point, I went in and everything was so washed out and I was like, wtf happened?? Closed everything, reset my TV, and suddenly, all lovely again.

I don't think this is what you're describing at all because I think it's just your preference to inside/outside lighting haha, but thought I'd mention it just in case.

 

[FizzMino]

*fully clears Glide de Chocobo I in one try*

Me: "Huh, I don't really get the complaints. This was pretty fun!"

*takes about 15 tries to fully clear Glide de Chocobo II*

Me: "OK, maybe the complaints have some merit."

*fully clears Glide de Chocobo III in just three tries*

Me: "Never mind, it's actually a skill issue after all."

Click to shrink...

The lengths people will go to to defend these mini games lol.

It took you 15 tries to get the easy ass 2nd chocobo glide level and 3 to get the final dive in the third? Sure.

 

[Randroid]

Apparently I missed a Magnify materia in chapter 1. I'm now at the Golden Saucer. Is there still a way to get this materia? Not starting over lol.

 

[Poltergust]

The lengths people will go to to defend these mini games lol.

It took you 15 tries to get the easy ass 2nd chocobo glide level and 3 to get the final dive in the third? Sure.

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I have no idea what this post is implying. You think I'm making up what I experienced?

Glide de Chocobo II took me a while because of all the moving targets. Depending on how you corner they'd be in different locations every run and I had to memorize an efficient route for them. I also undershot/overshot some dives.

Meanwhile, Glide de Chocobo III had basically no moving targets so it was just a matter of using the dive mechanic well, which I got a lot of practice with from II. Was the final dive supposed to be challenging? After missing it once I just lined it up so that I'd turn as little as possible as I made my way to the final two rings after ascending. I did only barely make it but it's not like I did the perfect dive there or anything.

 

[FizzMino]

I have no idea what this post is implying. You think I'm making up what I experienced?

Glide de Chocobo II took me a while because of all the moving targets. Depending on how you corner they'd be in different locations every run and I had to memorize an efficient route for them. I also undershot/overshot some dives.

Meanwhile, Glide de Chocobo III had basically no moving targets so it was just a matter of using the dive mechanic well, which I got a lot of practice with from II. Was the final dive supposed to be challenging? After missing it once I just lined it up so that I'd turn as little as possible as I made my way to the final two rings after ascending. I did only barely make it but it's not like I did the perfect dive there or anything.

Click to shrink...

The last two rings right before you land require you too get enough air to perfectly catch both of them. Many people have a hard time with it. If you got it in almost one go you probably had some luck on your side, especially if you knew to ascend before hand because the course doesn't imply that you should.

It's one of the mini games I disliked not because of the difficulty but because the last course was almost designed to trick you and be frustrating. And you're comment about it only being a "skill issue" is an annoying defense I see a lot on this forum for the mini games.

Like, If I can beat Elden Ring I probably shouldn't have skill issues on a fucking mini game in FF7R lol.

 

[kiaaa]

Like, If I can beat Elden Ring I probably shouldn't have skill issues on a fucking mini game in FF7R lol.

Click to shrink...

what in the world would make you think that?

 

[Poltergust]

The last two rings right before you land require you too get enough air to perfectly catch both of them. Many people have a hard time with it. If you got it in almost one go you probably had some luck on your side, especially if you knew to ascend before hand because the course doesn't imply that you should.

It's one of the mini games I disliked not because of the difficulty but because the last course was almost designed to trick you and be frustrating. And you're comment about it only being a "skill issue" is an annoying defense I see a lot on this forum for the mini games.

Like, If I can beat Elden Ring I probably shouldn't have skill issues on a fucking mini game in FF7R lol.

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It took me two tries to get to those rings for that ending part, not one. I missed it the first time because I didn't know where to glide to after the final dive. Outside of that I'm not sure what you mean by "trick" since the courses are mostly straightforward and all just rely on your execution.

Also, everyone has their proficiencies in different things. It took me a while to adjust to the gliding mechanics but once I did it wasn't really all that hard, especially since there's no randomness to it. I don't think the minigame is unfair or anything, either.

 

[speiky]

Apparently I missed a Magnify materia in chapter 1. I'm now at the Golden Saucer. Is there still a way to get this materia? Not starting over lol.

Click to shrink...

Nothing from chapter 1 carries into the "main game". You can only have a max of three magnify Materia. One party member starts with one. Another one is a reward for a chapter 12 side quest. And the third is earned through the combat simulator.

 

[tjlee2]

The AI is actually not too bad with lucky slots. More accurate than doing it myself and doesn't take forever, lol.

 

[Benzychenz]

3D Brawler needs a practice mode where you can just watch all the different attack animations and see what the tells are.

Like it's so hard to spot the different between a side dodge and down dodge on the spot.

 

[exodus]

Man this game is good but it's just sooo long. Reached Gongaga and I hear I'm like 50% through. Not sure I can manage another 50 hours. I can tell the traversal in Gongaga is gonna be exhausting as hell.

 

[TheDestructiveSquirrel]

Wtf Odin

Help?

 

[Leeness]

Wtf Odin

Help?

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

Odin does not like attack commands, or regular blocking, those will prompt zantetsuken.

Odin doesn't seem to care much about punisher mode blocking. That will help you build his stagger. Once you stagger him, hit him with everything you got. If you can't finish him off, you risk zantetsuken during the second stagger phase, but pull back to punisher mode and go from there and hopefully he doesn't use it.

 

[Footos22]

Wtf Odin

Help?

Click to shrink...

Odin finds you unworthy. If you get hit too much or don't use enough atb commands he'll Zanzatzuken you. Perfect parry then unload when he's in slipnors furor.

 

[Sir Hound]

Spoiler: Mid/late-chapter 14 story question

So I've just watched the bit that mirrors Aerith's death and I'm confused and wondering if I missed something.
WIthout spoiling anything after the last boss russ, which I had to pause for the night, is it possible to explain to me what I saw? I think I watched Cloud successfully fend off Sephiroth's attack. But then we cut to the alternative/previous reality where Sephiroth does kill Aerith and see that play out (the sword has blood). But then we cut back to our current reality and Aerith actually is dead? How did that happen? I feel like I missed a quick shot or something. There was a lot to take in.

 

[BladeX]

Just a few details remaining until I get the platinum trophy.

One thing is for sure. If part 3 continues the same kind of philosophy behind endgame content and the platinum trophy I will not bother going for it.

Getting the Platinum for Rebirth has been one of the most excruciating, annoying and downright stupid decisions I ever took in my gaming life. Never again.

The game is amazing but CBU 1 needs to have a better understanding of what tough but still FUN, really means...

 

[Poltergust]

Wtf Odin

Help?

Click to shrink...

Use Yuffie.
Spam shuriken magic attacks from afar with Doppelgänger.
Do Shooting Star whenever you build up an ATB bar.
Dodge away from him whenever he gets close.

This is admittedly a bit boring but it's extremely easy and consistent. Your other teammates don't really even matter.

 

[Worldshaker]

Just a few details remaining until I get the platinum trophy.

One thing is for sure. If part 3 continues the same kind of philosophy behind endgame content and the platinum trophy I will not bother going for it.

Getting the Platinum for Rebirth has been one of the most excruciating, annoying and downright stupid decisions I ever took in my gaming life. Never again.

The game is amazing but CBU 1 needs to have a better understanding of what tough but still FUN, really means...

Click to shrink...

IMO you should do hard mode and get everyone's level 9 weapon before attempting the harder Brutal and Legendary VR missions. I had to end up getting Clouds LV9 weapon before I could beat his Bonds of Friendship mission.

You got this.

 

[ber]

Just a few details remaining until I get the platinum trophy.

One thing is for sure. If part 3 continues the same kind of philosophy behind endgame content and the platinum trophy I will not bother going for it.

Getting the Platinum for Rebirth has been one of the most excruciating, annoying and downright stupid decisions I ever took in my gaming life. Never again.

The game is amazing but CBU 1 needs to have a better understanding of what tough but still FUN, really means...

Click to shrink...

I don't care about the platinum but not being able to get my team to level 10 or Transmuter to level 16 and craft those items, because i don't want to do every mini-game on hard, just seems cruel. Same goes for the 10 round VR battles, but they only need a mid way check-point to fix.

 

[ravn0s]

Spoiler: Mid/late-chapter 14 story question

So I've just watched the bit that mirrors Aerith's death and I'm confused and wondering if I missed something.
WIthout spoiling anything after the last boss russ, which I had to pause for the night, is it possible to explain to me what I saw? I think I watched Cloud successfully fend off Sephiroth's attack. But then we cut to the alternative/previous reality where Sephiroth does kill Aerith and see that play out (the sword has blood). But then we cut back to our current reality and Aerith actually is dead? How did that happen? I feel like I missed a quick shot or something. There was a lot to take in.

Click to shrink...

Don't worry, you're just as confused as the rest of us.

 

[BladeX]

I don't care about the platinum but not being able to get my team to level 10 or Transmuter to level 16 and craft those items, because i don't want to do every mini-game on hard, just seems cruel. Same goes for the 10 round VR battles, but they only need a mid way check-point to fix.

Click to shrink...

Yes its part of what I am saying as well. The endgame content is horribly designed and there really is no need for a game to become an excruciating process if you want to unlock the full potential of your characters.

 

[Timcanpies]

I'm kind of scared I'm never going to finish this game. 60 hours in, I got this on release but I'm still loving it.

 

[SlickVic]

Feel I'm messing up the timing of perfect blocks a lot, even with the materia to extend the timing window. I get the timing when enemies have a more physical attack that they 'swing through' to hit the party member, but sometimes I see enemies charging magic attacks (not the ones with an exclamation mark next to the attack name, just regular ones) that I tend to get blindsided as to when the attack will actually go off. The chapter 4 fight with the sea monster thing when you rescue Yuffie was particularly rough with regards to this for me. Not sure if it's just a matter of trial and error to figure it out or if there's some other tells I'm missing.

 

[Rephil]

Feel I'm messing up the timing of perfect blocks a lot, even with the materia to extend the timing window. I get the timing when enemies have a more physical attack that they 'swing through' to hit the party member, but sometimes I see enemies charging magic attacks (not the ones with an exclamation mark next to the attack name, just regular ones) that I tend to get blindsided as to when the attack will actually go off. The chapter 4 fight with the sea monster thing when you rescue Yuffie was particularly rough with regards to this for me. Not sure if it's just a matter of trial and error to figure it out or if there's some other tells I'm missing.

Click to shrink...

The tells just aren't great for a lot of attacks. You just have to memorize the timing through trial and error for some stuff. It's another aspect to the parry mechanics that I'm not really a big fan of in a game like this. I think it's at odds with the RPG-ness of managing resources when you can potentially perfect block and negate all damage in most situations if you're technically proficient enough. One of the few changes from Remake that I'm not a big fan of. Though I see why people like it, as it greatly raises the skill ceiling.

Though if you aren't playing hard mode, blocking (especially with Steadfast Block materia) is plenty strong enough to get you through the game. No parrying needed!

 

[Brodo Baggins]

Spoiler: Mid/late-chapter 14 story question

So I've just watched the bit that mirrors Aerith's death and I'm confused and wondering if I missed something.
WIthout spoiling anything after the last boss russ, which I had to pause for the night, is it possible to explain to me what I saw? I think I watched Cloud successfully fend off Sephiroth's attack. But then we cut to the alternative/previous reality where Sephiroth does kill Aerith and see that play out (the sword has blood). But then we cut back to our current reality and Aerith actually is dead? How did that happen? I feel like I missed a quick shot or something. There was a lot to take in.

Click to shrink...

Spoiler: End Game Spoilers

The entire section plays on the idea of multiple possibilities of worlds diverging and re-colliding. Sephiroth in his speech mentions branches of worlds most of which are created and destroyed very quickly. Cloud saving Aerith is one such potentiality, but we quickly see the world correcting itself back to her dying.

No one knows the full outcome for certain as it is left intentionally ambiguous, but the general consensus is that Aerith is dead from the perspective of the party. Not sure if you finished the game, but it becomes clear there's a disconnect where the entire party perceives her as dead, but Cloud acts like she is still alive. Whether this is because Cloud is peering into the multiverse/lifestream and sees she's still acting outside the main reality or Cloud is just delusional and this is part of his PTSD brain patching things over is something we'll have to wait for part 3 to see.