Topic: What PS4 Games Are You Currently Playing?

@TheBrandedSwordsman It’s a little confusing at times with a lot going on during combat, so perhaps you were trying to heal when the character’s ATB bar hasn’t filled yet. And depending on who has the Healing materia equipped, only that person can do the cure spells. Whereas anyone can use a potion.
I hope you’re still enjoying the game. It gets better, in my opinion. Just had a boss fight that was quite epic.

@Th3solution Was it Hell house? at the end of Chapter 9? I did a bit of research looking ahead and apparently that is the hardest boss in the game - did you beat it?

@Th3solution If it was that boss how many attempts did it take you to beat it?

@TheBrandedSwordsman Yeah, that’s the one. I got it on my second attempt, after I researched some of the tactics. I think you’ll enjoy it, given your appreciation for tough bosses through the Souls games. You’ll need to use your elemental spells wisely and be quick on your feet to respond to the boss’s constantly changing status. And be sure to have plenty of healing capacity. Aerith’s limit break was a life saver in that regard.

@Th3solution Just defeated Airbuster how much harder is the boss you just defeated than him? 'cause that fight certainly wasn't easy, neither was Reno afterwards, how much harder is Hell House than those bosses? I have estimated that I should have about 50 potions and 8 Hi-potions on me by the time Aerith and I encounter it, think that'll be enough?

@TheBrandedSwordsman Hellhouse is a step up tbh. It’s a noticeable spike in difficulty but certainly not impossible. Try it a few times and if you’re unsuccessful try changing up your party and materia etc.

@TheBrandedSwordsman I’ll try not to spoil too much but just a little basic advice— First of all, congrats on beating Airbuster! I thought that fight was awesome! I loved the visual spectacle of it all and it was fun to switch up and have to adjust techniques through the phases. As for Hellhouse, It’s definitely harder, imo. You should be fine with your potions there and you’ll have ample opportunity to get more before then if you want. Be sure to use Aerith’s healing skills like her limit break and I had Cloud carrying a healing materia too so he could also heal if needed. Probably the main thing is to have all the elemental materia equipped if you can, so ice, fire, wind, and lightning. Because you’ll need to be able to cast all the different elements at various times. You’ve still got quite a bit of time until that boss so you can use it to get accustomed to Aerith and her style and strengths. You should try to use this time to level up your materia, so try to at least level up a couple of the elemental materia to the second level if you haven’t already, as well as your healing materia. I had two of them even up to the third level I think. Have some Phoenix downs and/or the Revival materia if you’re wanting to be conservative and to be able to revive downed characters. And play around with some of the other materia and skills to get a feel for what you like so you can have those leveled up too. Try to get all the Battle Intel upgrades through Chadley and do his VR missions which will not only help tune your skills but will allow you to get the new materia he will be able to offer. Also be sure you’re using your points to level up your weapons according to your playstyle. For Cloud I have been using the Iron Blade for most of the game, but I like the new sword that you are able to buy in the area coming up even better. Triple Slash is a great skill but the new one is even better. Anyways, like I say, you have quite a bit of time before you have to face Hellhouse; Lots of other battles and quests to do.
Overall, have fun with it and enjoy the upcoming new setting and storyline!

@colonelkilgore Thanks colonel, I think I'll take your advice. How is MGS2 going?

@TheBrandedSwordsman yeah good mate, gonna be starting the last playthrough on ‘extreme’ sometime this afternoon. The ‘hard’ playthrough was a test so this will be interesting at the very least. Once I’ve got this out of the way it’s on to the Demons Souls remake, so pretty excited for that as you can imagine.

@Th3solution Thanks for that long and detailed "basic" post of advice, sol, I very much appreciate it, I'll be sure to take all your advice on board and hopefully that boss will be a bit easier to defeat by the time I face it.

@colonelkilgore Yeah cool, dude, be sure to tag me when you're playing through DeS on PS5 as I'll be curious to know what your impressions are.

I'm halfway through The Evil Within now and the game has been absolutely bonkers so far. Really long as well, I think I've played roughly 9 hours or so now, so I still have quite a long way to go. But I'm really enjoying it thus far, it's more of a linear experience than Resident Evil and I think that's refreshing. There are also not as many puzzles, which is not necessarily a bad thing because the pacing of the game is very good as a result. You spend so much time scavenging for resources that if you spent even more time trying to solve puzzles, the game would become very dull. The balance between tense atmosphere and enemy encounters is great as well. I constantly have to move slowly because there might be traps in the darkness that I don't see if I quickly run through the areas.

The game is also quite challenging but I think that's a good thing since that aspect is forcing me to use every weapon at my disposal instead of only relying on e.g. the revolver and the shotgun. I've barely used the crossbow's other bolts but in the latest chapter I was forced to use them since I was running low on ammo with my other weapons. And I discovered that the freeze bolt is also really good at clearing out groups of enemies, so I'm definitely going to upgrade that one whenever I can. Speaking of upgrade, the progression system is seriously really deep and compelling in this game. There are so many different things you can upgrade, e.g. for the revolver alone there are 5-6 different parts to upgrade and then each part can be upgraded numerous times. The gameplay loop as a whole is one of the best I've ever seen in a horror game. This game is just so much fun to play and really spooky, I'm loving it so much.

@LtSarge I played a chunk of it last year when it was on PS NOW, but got it 2nd hand when it came off the service and will continue from where I left over Halloween. Glad you are enjoying and agree that it is completely bonkers!

@JohnnyShoulder Ah nice, would love to hear more of your thoughts about it when you've finished the game! It's slowly becoming one of my favourite horror games of all time. It's just so expertly crafted.

@LtSarge It is all over the place plot wise, but I don't mind that. It's also hard, as you say.

I don't think it's expertly crafted though. I played it when it released and it was not in the best state, performance wise for one. And the balancing is just weird sometimes, I don't mind hard but I almost got my save stuck in a boss fight without any resources.

Still, I personally love it (or the idea of it, despite it's flaws) and the second one is even better, although more conventional I guess.

@kyleforrester87 I mean, resources running out is an issue with any survival horror game. I remember @nessisonett mentioning a while back that he couldn't continue in Code Veronica for that reason. I also got stuck and couldn't continue in REmake because I ran out of bullets, so I had to start over from the beginning and be more mindful of my ammo. You do learn after experiencing multiple horror games that you need to create numerous save files so that you can go back to previous sections if you need to. Not to mention be more conservative with ammo and collect as much resources as you can. Even if I ran out of ammo for the revolver and shotgun, I still had like 50 parts that I could use to craft more bolts for the crossbow.

But obviously it's important that the game keeps giving you just enough ammo across the playthrough. I did notice that chapter 7 where you're exploring the catacombs that I wasn't finding much ammo at all. But other than that, the game has been decent in giving you enough ammo thus far.

@LtSarge Yeah, I played that a while back and I remember saying to @kyleforrester87 that it was a great game but also insanely janky and a bit of a fun mess. It’s also really really really too long.

@LtSarge Yeah I dunno, I'm all for the resource management but I was 80% of the way through and nearly had to bin my save because of the loop I was stuck in. I think in the end I had to run in circles around the boss and melee him to death actually. Eh, I guess it was my own fault. Still seemed a little harsh though lol.

@Th3solution @colonelkilgore I may have encountered a game-breaking bug in FF7R, in the sense that I can only cast Cure spells even with Fire, Lightning and/or Ice materia equipped. What, if anything, do you advise?

(Only the option of Cure shows up whenever I go into the Spells menu)

@TheBrandedSwordsman hmmm... no clue buddy. The only suggestion I can think of is maybe loading an older save? Not ideal I know but, hopefully you may have some saves that aren't too much earlier than your current level.