Topic: Final fantasy discussion thread

@Thrillho Sounds interesting but also incredibly slow-paced. I can imagine spending a lot more time with this game than one normally should, lol.

On a side note, after having played FF7 continuously for the past couple of days, my passion for this series has been reawakened. When I started out with this series back in 2016, I wanted to buy and play all of the games but as I progressed through the mainline titles, I started to lose interest. Even after having played FF5 and FF6 in recent years, I was still not as interested as when I first started out. However, now that I'm playing through FF7, my passion for this series is slowly returning to me. Like I can't wait to watch Advent Children after I'm done with FF7 and I just redownloaded Dissidia Duodecim as well as FF4 The After Years on Vita as I haven't played either of those.

Although I'm definitely going to take it easy this time around as I got burned out on the series last time since I was trying to get through as many games as I could. Will take things one step at a time and focus first on completing FF7 before moving on to something else.

@LtSarge If you want to remain a fan of the series, you might want to rethink playing The After Years! Although I bloody hate the FF7 Compilation as well so what do I know 😂

@nessisonett Well I don't know anything either, lol. What's so bad about The After Years?

@LtSarge The After Years just… isn’t very good. Like many sequels after so many years, it doesn’t really do the original characters much of a service. It’s the sort of game you should try way, way down the line when you’ve played better games in the series and would be more willing to cut it some slack.

@nessisonett I guess that makes sense. I definitely wouldn't want to play a game like that now after having just gained a newfound interest in the series again. I'll probably check it out once I'm done with most mainline titles.

@LtSarge I really think you’re about to hit a streak of consistent quality now. I’ve enjoyed all the mainline single player FF games from 7 except for a couple that I haven’t played (15 and 13-3: Lightning Returns). It will be a good idea to take some breaks between entries to avoid burn-out on the series, but they are all quite different.

Specifically, I don’t remember 8 or 9 being terribly difficult, at least not more so than any other entry. I liked the junction system just fine, as well as the job system. But I do think the materia system is my favorite, along with the gambit system in 12.

@Th3solution Yeah it does seem like most games from 7 and onward will be great. I'm honestly excited to play all of them, especially 10 and 13. I know that most people don't like the 13 trilogy but every time I've watched footage of 13, it's always looked so appealing to me.

Speaking of which, this talk actually reminded me of a discussion we had here years ago about 13. One of the members spoke highly of 13 and repelled the criticism that it's too linear with the argument that the Final Fantasy games have always been linear to begin with, which I do agree with. The open world aspect is honestly an illusion, you still have most of the time only one way to go so it's still linear even if you're exploring a world map now. I'm 14 hours into FF7 now and it too is linear, which I don't mind at all don't get me wrong! The only time I haven't experienced linearity in an FF title was in the second half of FF6 where you could tackle your objectives in pretty much any order you liked.

But yeah, even if 13 is notorious for being too linear, I still think I'm going to enjoy it since I don't mind linearity in JRPGs.

@LtSarge I concur with @Th3solution ... you're about to hit a great streak, assuming you continue to play chronologically.

VIII gets a bit of an unjustified slaying from the fanbase, but IMO is actually quite a solid entry (bear in mind it had an exceptionally hard act to follow...)

And IX is actually my favorite FF game to date, just incredible. X is also a solid entry.

Envious you're playing these for the first time!

@LtSarge I liked XIII and XIII-2. Never minded FF being linear. I didn’t like Lightning Returns very much though.

@CJD87 I feel like I've been experiencing so many great PS1 games for the first time this year in general. I played through the first three Resident Evil games, which were absolutely phenomenal, and now it's Final Fantasy's turn. I'm slowly starting to love the PS1 library! But yeah, I can't wait to play the rest of the FF games.

@Voltan Lightning Returns is the one with the time limit, yeah? That's honestly deterring to me. It's the same reason why I still haven't played Majora's Mask yet, I just don't like having a time limit throughout the entire game.

@LtSarge Yeah, that’s the one. I never finished it.

After about 57 hours of traipsing through Midgar, I finally completed Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

I’ve been chronicling my adventures fairly regularly over the last few weeks. I won’t repeat some of the highs and lows I’ve shared before. Suffice it to say, I really liked the game. I think the characters, art direction, mechanics, and gameplay were all top notch. There were a lot of ways that they could have ruined a timeless classic like FF7, but for the most part they nailed it. Square-Enix should be praised for taking on such an important project and making the end result this good.

That’s not to say the game is without its problems. A few things have grated me from time to time, but most of them became pretty inconsequential after I grew accustomed to the game and it’s quirks.

Which can only bring me to the elephant in the room — the much maligned ending….
So, perhaps it’s partly because I was going in expecting something controversial, and partly because it has really been a long time since I played the original, but I wasn’t all that put-off by the ending. It seemed to fit on both a superficial level, and on a deeper one. It seems to take all the lore from the original game into account, yet it obviously does it’s own thing. I can see how the purists are upset about a little veering off of plot points, but I don’t see it as being as catastrophic as I thought it would be.

>Big Spoilers ahead —

Anyways, I really enjoyed the game, including the ending. I’m curious what others think who are large fans of the original game.

@Th3solution I enjoyed the ending too. They could have just done a 1 to 1 remake which would have been great too, but also very safe. I like when games take risks like this, TLOU2 did something probably even more controversial, and I was on-board with that too. At least this way, we don't know what to expect in part 2, which I think is way more interesting than the same game with updated presentation and performance.

@Thrillho @TraCuz- You chaps were curious what I would make of the ending, and I forgot to tag you. I posted some thoughts up above.
May your breath now no longer be bated. 😛

So I just recruited Vincent to my party in FF7 and considering he's the same level as my main party members, I was wondering if he's worth replacing one of my current teammates? My main party consists of Cloud, Barret and Red XIII, but I've been thinking that maybe I should replace Red as he's not as strong as Cloud and Barret. Although I personally don't mind keeping Red as he's still very useful since he has a lot of MP for example. I honestly feel quite content with my team right now but maybe there are better members?

Vincent's limit breaks also seem a bit weird. Apparently he transforms into stuff, is that good? lol

@LtSarge Some people don’t like Vincent’s limit breaks as they take away control of him for the rest of the battle, meaning that he can’t heal etc. However, I’ve always felt that the damage he did in those forms totally outweigh the downsides and he’s a lot of fun. My party always ends up Cloud, Red, Vincent because Vincent’s a straight swap for Barret since both are long range. Vincent also stacks very very well with the Deathblow materia once you get the sniper rifle as it has perfect accuracy, removing the downside to Deathblow. He’s probably my favourite character from a mechanical point of view as there’s so much going on with him.

@nessisonett The thing is that when I played FF6 and got to about the 20 hour point, I started to become bored of the gameplay as it didn't really change. So maybe I should try to spice things up before I get to that point in FF7 as things are becoming a bit too same-y right now and Vincent does seem like the way to go based on your description. Having him go into "beast mode" as a limit break and utilising Deathblow more often sounds actually quite fun. I'm going to miss Barret's Satellite Laser limit break though. I think that's the best limit break I have right now, it's so good!

I have to ask though, what does perfect accuracy with the sniper rifle entail? Like, does it mean that Vincent's normal attacks, magic etc. never miss even if he's e.g. inflicted with darkness?

@LtSarge Sniper CR has an accuracy of 255, the highest it can possibly be. So Deathblow dividing that by 3 gives you 85% accuracy and a guaranteed critical if it lands, which it usually does. Darkness halves accuracy of physical attacks, meaning it would still have perfect accuracy at 127.5 (don’t know if it rounds up or down but it’s a moot point) and Fury gives you 70% accuracy which would also still be perfect accuracy. It’s only when you’re combining Deathblow with Fury or Darkness that you’ll be seeing things miss more often.

@nessisonett Ah okay, I understand now. I appreciate the detailed explanation! Sounds like Sniper CR is going to be a very useful weapon for Vincent. I think I'm going to go ahead and replace Barret with Vincent and go with a team of Cloud, Red and Vincent.

@LtSarge I think there’s an upgraded version of Sniper CR but it’s a lot later on, maybe the 2nd disc. Vincent is really good in the Battle Square with that setup though!