Final Fantasy VII

[one-armed dwarf]

Yeah, it's super well paced. People are calling this an 'abridged' version now but to me Remake is more like the version with lots of mandatory footnotes.

 

Anyway it gets even better (imo)

[OCH]

RE: Kalm Town

Spoiler

You see that item in the cabinet of the hotel room, you just can't reach? Just keeping tapping the dialogue box.

RE: "Abridged"

It is akin to comparing the novel of The Hobbit with the films. Sure the films included the appendixes. None of it was necessary though. Nor did it invalidate the source material.

[mfnick]

5 hours ago, bellow said:

If you're playing on switch (possibly the other consoles, but i dont know for certain) you can activate markers for exits and such. It was probably less of an issue on the old CRT.

Yea got that, playing on Xbox press the back button for it - or whatever the fuck it’s called these days. Definitely useful if you miss a exit for the screen. Only needed it once so far though when I couldn’t remember where the market was. Just missed the bit of light at the top right of the screen like a muppet. 
 

Meant more sometimes it can be hard to tell which parts of the environment you can traverse to reach higher and lower levels or make out some tunnels under passes. Like I say it’s not really a issue though. 
 

Thanks for the tip @OCH

[Rikzilla]

We have just finished Part One.

[OCH]

Does your misses have a particular party yet?

[Rikzilla]

Spoiler

Not Aerith

 

[one-armed dwarf]

Spoiler

F

 

[OCH]

??

 

Seriously though, I've probably mentioned it a few times by now, but if you are struggling with this game (unlikely outside of challenge runs) I do recommend building up Aeris' Limit Breaks. The grind only takes half the time of the others and they are really OP for the early game. Even the lamest one - Seal Evil - is quite abusive against boss fights. Oh and her Secret Ultimate Weapon can make her as high a damage dealer as Cloud.

[Rikzilla]

More story progress has been made:

 

Spoiler

Started at the cliffs a few hours ago and just turned it off at Tifa's execution. Can't wait to see my girlfriends reaction to the most prolific martial artist on the planet having a slap fight with a scantly clad woman on a giant canon.

 

Picked up the second Ribbon on the way up the cliffs so she's prepared for pretty much anything now. 

 

I kinda fucked part of the story for her though and I feel pretty bad about it. Before she played this I'd openly talk about Zack as my favourite FF character so she knows who he is, so when Sephiroth shows Cloud the photo and it's Zack on it instead of Cloud the shock wasn't there, instead of "Whaaaa, who's that?" it was closer to "Oh, Zack, ok"

 

We'll no doubt play it again later. 

 

Last time I played it I didn't really enjoy it. A lot of the flaws really shone through, but sharing my girlfriends first experience with it has brought the magic back and made me realise the reason I felt 'done' with it last time is because I know what to do and where to go, and the fact I couldn't do it as quickly as I wanted to because of the mechanics annoyed the hell out of me, but now I'm watching and guiding (when she asks for it, unsolicited advice is a dick heads game) a newcomer I'm having to experience it at her pace. 

 

It's taken around 30 hours to get here and it'll probably be another 20 or 30 until we're done, and I'm good with that. 

[one-armed dwarf]

21 hours ago, OCH said:

Secret Ultimate Weapon

What is this, I've never heard of a secret ultimate weapon

 

Put in spoilers

[OCH]

I think the Ribbon might be the most OP accessory in the game. Only the Champions Belt or Curse Ring come close, but both of those are context sensitive and extremely easy to miss in a regular playthrough.

 

28 minutes ago, one-armed dwarf said:

What is this, I've never heard of a secret ultimate weapon

 

Put in spoilers

 

Spoiler

The Parasol. Aeris' better than Ultimate, Ultimate Weapon. Only obtainable in the Golden Saucer by getting a perfect (300?) score at the roller coaster shooting game. I only ever managed it once...

 

[mfnick]

Up to the

Spoiler

Tower of Ancients

now. 
 

Just loving it more and more. Still going along at a fair old pace and the strong story moments just keep coming. The

Spoiler

Dynes death and initial threat at killing the girl (sorry I can never remember names) was pretty strong, I enjoyed the learning Rocket story and finding out about Reds dad was well done if obvious. As was the whole planet energy stuff and how removing the mako is killing it. Lot of parallels with our planet in some ways which is impressive for the time. The Gold Saucer can get fucked though, I hate that area. I do like the premise of it though and the contrast of the poorest part being just before it. Seems strange you have to go through that to reach it though, doubt the wealthy or just anyone who can afford it would really want to go through there whenever visiting. Surely everyone would just get mugged? 

 

Also is it worth doing any of the mini games in this area as they’re all terrible? 

Ive been naughty and ordered Remake. Definitely going to want to play that after this and don’t want to risk it being out of stock when that time comes so will be ready as soon as I’ve finished this  

 

 

Think it’s taking over my mind too. I saw this when walking the dog and thought I may be able to catch a wild Chocobo around it. ?

 

 

[one-armed dwarf]

Spoiler

Tower of ancients

is an earworm that has never left me in 20 years

 

Doesn't help that it's such a confusing place to find your way out of

[mfnick]

Regarding that area, I had a mild heart attack when I first entered thinking im just going to get massively lost but so far I’ve been able to make process without issue. Reached the save after that pool where they have ty at vision. Turned it off at that point though so not sure if it’ll get worse for me yet.
 

Least I’ll be able to level up a bit if I do get lost. Saying that I’m surprised that I’ve had to do zero grinding yet too. I’ve never avoided a battle or ran away and got lost on the world map a couple of times so gained a few levels that way but not had to grind at all. Always just been the right strength up to now. Not been wiping enemies and had to really manage health and Phoenix downs on bosses but still got through them. Very well balanced so far. Just keeps impressing this game. 

[OCH]

RE: Gold Saucer

The Battle Square is super useful and the roller coaster shooting game is at it's most worthwhile when Aeris is in your party. The rest.. Meh.

That said, without decent accessories and/or RNG luck, the Square will hand your ass to you at this point in the game. If you're good enough though, you can actually get Late Game stuff from it right away.

 

RE: TOA

It is probably the first upward curve in difficulty in the game. Make sure you get every item - especially in the Clock Room - and you'll be well equipped for the next few hours of the game.

[DisturbedSwan]

Well it’s safe to say I’m liking this far less than XV so far. ?

 

I started this today and put around 2.5 hours in. I just can’t get over how bad it looks I’m afraid. Some of the 2D backdrops still hold up and look cool (reminds me a lot of Oddworld in that regard), the music has held up really well (reminded me of DQXI ?) and I like the combat but I find my mind wondering off as it just looks such ass. 
 

I died to the Scorpion right at the beginning and have got lost a few times. I’ve just got up to just after Aerith’s house and got lost again on my way back to Sector 7. 
 

There’s no healing benching everywhere like in Remake so I find myself actually having to use a lot of potions, embarrassingly I had to use one Phoenix down as well at one point. 
 

It doesn’t help that I’ve got the 13 trilogy, 12 and the 10 duology sitting staring at me. I wanted to play those first as I find the older something is the harder it is for me to get into but after finishing Remake didn’t want to invest in a whole new set of characters over again.

[one-armed dwarf]

It's crazy tho comparing how much ground gets covered in 2.5 hours in this versus Remake.

 

Well at least to me it is, I guess Wall Market is pretty confusing the first time. But this is really well paced in comparison.

 

imo, a good litmus test is to see how you feel after the bit after Midgar. Which isn't that far in this. For me the moment I got hooked was

Spoiler

Kalm flashback

which is right after midgar. Partly why Remake was super frustrating to me also lol

 

Remake spoilers

Spoiler

They don't even tell you who Sephiroth is in that game! Or Jenova! The Zack scene is pure wut

 

[DisturbedSwan]

7 minutes ago, Nag said:

To be fair what did you expect?

I don’t know really. I haven’t really played anything this old for a long time now, I typically rarely go back and play stuff that’s this old. I think the last time I did it was Shenmue 1 & 2 sometime in the noughties. I tried to play KH1 a few months before 3 as well and just bounced off of it.
 

I thought my brain would just do that thing where it just adjusts to the graphics but every time I look at it I just go ?

[Rikzilla]

To be fair VIII looks better than this and IX waaaay better than that so the other two shouldn't be too rough to play.

[one-armed dwarf]

People say giving unsolicited advice is a dick's game but because I am a dick I will say the player can use cure magic out of battle to heal also, not just potions.