General Final Fantasy Thread

[BobbyPhil1781]

1 hour ago, NickButera said:

Man you grinded. I'm at Junon but I'm at a stall from a loss of free time. I agree with your assessment. 

Wife has been in Jackson Hole the last week so it's been a bachelor week. This has been a priority lol. She gets back tomorrow so I'll slow down to my normal pace then. I need this to last me until August when Black Myth: Wukong is released. I think I can do it bc I'm doing everything except three piano stuff is meh 

[rob_shadows]

20 hours ago, BobbyPhil1781 said:

The music of this game might be the best of any FF game and it's not close. It's all over the place based on what you're doing and so well done. The merc music with Kyrie in Junon is just so..... happy lol

I'm 20 hours in and about 75% done with Junon and it's top 5 of the series already and will likely be the second best when it's all said and done. It'll be hard to beat 3/6. Very hard.

I literally only have one gripe and it's that I'm so sick of Chadley chiming in almost every time I take care of something. Nerd needs to go away

 

Bow wow wow, Bow wow wow

[Broncofan]

200+ hours in, only Hard Mode manuscript completion to get the Platinum.  Yes, I love the game that much - I've never done Platinum on any game - didn't even do the same version on FFVII OG when I was a uni student.   

The VR challenges (The last 3 Brutal challenges, Cloud's solo & Legendary's Bonds of Friendship nearly ended my will to live) the sit-up & piano & 3D Brawler challenge all crushed me.   I will end up putting 160+ hours on the challenges & Hard Mode because, well, I suck at quick-twitch.  But I love the game that much.   Playing all the different versions of Chapter 12 was so much fun.   And doing Hard Mode AFTER doing the VR challenges, seems like a victory lap.

GOAT FF game for me now...which is saying something (and how much I loved FFVI & Chrono Trigger).  And yes, above Last of Us / GOW: Ragnarok / Mass Effect 2.   The crazy part is that unlike 4-5 of those games, this has flaws - but the highs are just THAT much higher. 

[General Tso]

On 5/2/2024 at 11:08 PM, BobbyPhil1781 said:

Never once thought that

Basically, to me when it's dark environments (night, shadows) it's hard to make out shapes. 

Also it takes a second for the game to "turn on" the lighting in those dark places so you can actually see things.

[BobbyPhil1781]

3 hours ago, General Tso said:

Basically, to me when it's dark environments (night, shadows) it's hard to make out shapes. 

Also it takes a second for the game to "turn on" the lighting in those dark places so you can actually see things.

Maybe adjust the brightness levels of your game.  I dunno. I unfortunately dont' have that issue. Might be a TV issue as well. I also didn't know there was a day/night cycle lol. I was hoping we'd get one but Junon and the Grasslands don't have one. Just got to Casa and there were sunsets in cut scenes so maybe we'll get there. I'm going back to Junon to finish everything there first so won't find out until later.

[43M]

Can someone tell me if the combat in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth gets more challenging?   I have it on Normal Difficulty (I wasnt sure what Dynamic does) and I am on chapter 2 and just absolutely blow through every battle with ease.   I dont need or want extreme difficulty, but I just played through part one of the remake on easy mode (just to get refreshed on the gameplay and story) and the normal difficulty on this feels just as easy so far.     Just wondering if I need to change it to dynamic or if things just get tougher as the game goes on.

[43M]

Nevermind...its getting more difficult. 

[BobbyPhil1781]

11 hours ago, 43M said:

Nevermind...its getting more difficult. 

Just turn it up to the hardest level already lol. I did it from the get-go and some are easy but I've died quite a few times which I'm a fan of b/c I never did in 16 or 15. The summon battle are very, very tough!! It's so much fun though

[General Tso]

13 hours ago, 43M said:

Nevermind...its getting more difficult. 

 

2 hours ago, BobbyPhil1781 said:

Just turn it up to the hardest level already lol. I did it from the get-go and some are easy but I've died quite a few times which I'm a fan of b/c I never did in 16 or 15. The summon battle are very, very tough!! It's so much fun though

Yea I wouldn't say they're all walks in the park. Some of the Enemy Intel ones can be tricky to fulfill all the checkmarks, I also lost multiple times on a sidequest/hunt. I'm only at Junon btw

[BobbyPhil1781]

3 hours ago, General Tso said:

 

Yea I wouldn't say they're all walks in the park. Some of the Enemy Intel ones can be tricky to fulfill all the checkmarks, I also lost multiple times on a sidequest/hunt. I'm only at Junon btw

They definitely get even more tricky later. I still haven't beaten Phoenix yet but I havent' tried in a little bit. I'm just at the next world, Costa del Sol.

It's so hard to stop playing this game when I want. I'll try to just get an hour in and next thing I know, it's been over 2. It's so insanely good

[43M]

13 hours ago, BobbyPhil1781 said:

Just turn it up to the hardest level already lol. I did it from the get-go and some are easy but I've died quite a few times which I'm a fan of b/c I never did in 16 or 15. The summon battle are very, very tough!! It's so much fun though

Is it the "Dynamic" difficulty?   I wasn't sure if that made it harder or just made it easier if you suck 😆.

[BobbyPhil1781]

8 hours ago, 43M said:

Is it the "Dynamic" difficulty?   I wasn't sure if that made it harder or just made it easier if you suck 😆.

That's what I chose, yeah. When I started, I simply saw that it claimed to be the hardest and w/ how easy the last two games were, I opted to just use that setting. I like how it says the enemy levels adapt to the level you're at. This game doesn't force you to grind like FF games of the past but it's still beneficial to always fight so that's what I've been doing. I love the combat anyway so I wanted it to be more challenging.

[Broncofan]

Yeah, if you go on Dynamic mode - the first run through has its challenges.   And OMG Odin is so hard to beat no matter what level you are at.   Zanzuken is so cheap.

PSA #1 - if you want to go Hard Mode as a Replay, or go all the way and go for the Platinum once you've played it through 1x, Hard Mode is so ****ing hard for at least 8-10 boss fights unless you've done LV70 max and have the Genji Gloves & the Brutal/Legendary challenges.    The devs really made a replay do-able by having Chapter Select and you can choose to remember all your prior playthrough data, or to wipe it all out (so you can repeat Side quests) - but it remembers all the Intel you've gathered; so you can repeat the game without having to do Intel (your map is basically clear with everything you've done), and clear side quests a 2nd time (to get more Manuscripts), and then do a Hard Mode main story-only run - and that's insanely fun (outside of those 8+ OMG-boss battles lol).    The other nice part about the replay - you get quality-of-life options like auto-item pickup, and you can simply choose who your dates are; a bunch of extra settings open up once you've completed the game.   Plus, in your relationship-building, it remembers the past choices you made and shows you how good the answer was (so you can also try different answers just for entertainment value lol).

 

The really rewarding part about the 2nd run through is that stuff that seemed hard the first time (Junon parade, I'm definitely looking at you) is way easier, the learning & growth curve is so unconscious you don't realize until you do it a 2nd time.   I found that so rewarding, and appreciate how much the devs made gameplay ramp up so much with a replay on Hard, that your skills just expand as you continue.  I've never felt that more than with this game.    The other part - with fully buffed Materia and skills, Aerith/Yuffie/Tifa in particular become INSANE to play....Yuffie's Brumal Form with ATB Ward & Aerith's Arcane Ward inflicts so much damage, and then using fully buffed Synergy Materia on the 3rd party member.....it levels the Hard Mode play field, and that feeling is so sweet.   It literally changes the game dynamics combat wise, and part of what makes the 2nd playthrough so much fun.  Relive the story, but completely deeper & rich combat party mechanics.   So...much...fun.

 

2nd warning though - to get the Platinum trophy - there are about 6-8 achievements that are harder than anything you'll have encountered in FFVII Remake.   The toughest Brutal/Legendary challenges are INSANE (Rulers of the Outer World / Bonds of Friendship both nearly broke me).   And challenges on Hard Mode like the sit-ups & cactuar challenges - I still have PTSD thinking on doing them lol.

There's a Youtube user - Optinoob - you have to use his guides to get through those VR challenges.   It's still unbelievably hard.   But save yourself hours and use his videos.   You're welcome.

____________________

Back to the game....The thing is - even with the insane difficulty with the challenges, and the length of the game if you do everything; the gameplay & storytelling is so great, it's tough not to want to do everything.   This game LOVES its characters so much it literally pays the gamer off to do everything - every side quest except for 1-2 pays service to them.   It's not a sense of completion that drove me to do everything - it's that the story/character payoff or expansion is just so amazing every time you go off into side quests.    You just learn so much and see so many amazing moments, it's why it's so easy to get sidetracked.    

The Protorelic quests are irksome on Hard Mode, and because it's intel, you don't get to repeat it (boo when it comes to final island, that would have been dope) - but the character depth expansion is a must for them to complete them 1x (watching the payoff scenes for Cosmo's Protorelic still has me broken emotionally).    Even if I hated Hard Mode Fort Condor & Gears/Gambits, the story payoff makes it a must (and way easier on Easy Mode, if you're having trouble there lol).

The combat depth with doing Hard Mode and learning everything the party can do - it's insane how much love the devs put into each character.   In Hard Mode, you realize how great all the characters are.   Sure, you can button mash on Easy mode.....but if you play Dynamic/Hard Mode (and this is a must on hard mode), you have to learn all the max party moves - blocking/dodging, the Synergy abilities & Skills, and the Materia development.   And it all works....the only time I had that happen was with FFVI.   

I literally can't get over how much content the devs poured into each aspect of the game.   Combat is about as perfect as it gets for a RPG no matter the mode chosen (1st & 2nd play through are different, but scaled to your character level, so it's amazing both times).   While there are graphical issues, the fact the game's map can be explored with literally no delay or loading screen is simply NUTS, given the breadth.     The music is insane - I learned that 400+ new tracks were created for this game, in addition to the OG music they brought back.    The music alone is reason enough to want to play everything, since we get side quest specific music (Kyrie....the dog....man)..  And the depth of story/character expansion with each side quest / main quest.....while some side games are more forgettable, Queen's Blood is literally a game you could play on its own.   I'm still stunned. 

And to ensure I'm not biased - my 18 year old daughter just finished the solo playthrough with 90+ hours, and did everything except Gilgamesh Island with intel & all the side quests - and she wants to see all the dates, and do Gilgamesh (need to go to LV70 first, I'll probably grind that for her lol).   And she absolutely LOVED the game in a way that only BOTW has done for her - and she recognizes the character development / variety in combat / music are just unmatched.  She never played FF7, so it's tough to explain how crazy this game is in expanding the OG FF7.

As much as I think FFVI is a perfect game, and FFVII Rebirth isn't perfect.....Rebirth is now my all-time favorite game, period.  I just can't get over how much character development, story expansion, combat fun & unbelievable music has been poured into this game.   As insanely hard and infuriating getting the Platinum was with those 6-8 insane challenges (VR missions x4, Sit-ups on Hard, piano A rank & Aerith-Cactuar challenge on hard mode).....I still cherish every hour I played this game.     A game that literally showed love in every aspect of game play, story, character development and expansion, music.   The ending is something I'll expand on more in the Spoiler thread, but I get why it is divisive...but even there, being this is #2 of 3, I get why it went that direction. 

There's only 1 downside to this game overall - I find it very hard to believe that 3rd game will be able to surpass this.   If nothing else, because I don't know how they create the wonder and amazing feels you got by seeing the depth of the world, music, gameplay combat improvements & character depth that exceeded expectations.     Kinda like how Tears of the Kingdom was great, but felt more like an expansion on Breath of the Wild.   Still, I can't wait for that 3rd game.  Until then, I'll be shocked if I play another game that I enjoyed so much from beginning to end.  

Edited May 30 by Broncofan

[MikeT14]

I couldn't beat Odin. Gave up on that one. 

[BobbyPhil1781]

I just got to the Golf Saucer and so far, it confirms my only gripe with this game: we need a night/day sequence. The colors are amazing on that entrance!! Night battles could've been something else in this game. That might be my only gripe thus far. 

This game has lived up to the hype and then some. It might overtake 3/6 when it's done but that will be a very large task. I wonder how much of those feelings are nostalgia though bc I haven't played it in 2 decades.

Maybe time to start an emulator........