Topic: Final fantasy discussion thread

@Ralizah When I looked at the box as a kid, I always just thought she was going for a wee swim.

Tbh, even if I thought she had died by looking at the back of the box (I didn’t, a main character completely dying in a video game just.. didn’t happen) it wouldn’t have mattered since I assumed a Phoenix Down would sort it out anyway. I assumed that would be the solution for a little while after the cut scene, then the penny dropped 😂

It’s still not as good as the MGS codec code being on the back of the box

Well that was the end of disc 1 for FF7, which was really long! I can't imagine disc 2 and 3 being as long as the first one. But yeah, that was a very powerful moment. This game is something else man.

@nessisonett Once again, I wasn't able to avoid damage from the Jenova boss, lol. Not that it was a tough boss fight, I managed to defeat it rather quickly. I think I might be very overleveled, which I don't mind as I just want to increase my chances of completing this game as much as possible.

Out of curiosity, while I was battling Jenova, it used Reflect magic and then I used Comet magic, which still hit it. Was I just lucky or is Reflect not able to reflect Comet?

Also, Comet is bloody awesome and there's even a Comet2. Can't wait to unlock it.

@LtSarge If you equip the Water Ring then its water attacks are absorbed by one of your characters!

I read that they did that on purpose as most players would equip the ring immediately after getting it, making the fight impossible to lose and thus not interrupting such a powerful moment.

@nessisonett Ah okay, I didn't think about doing that because I hadn't encountered any water-based enemies at that point. So if one person has the ring equipped, will the attacks be absorbed regardless of who gets attacked?

@LtSarge No, it’s just the one person who will absorb damage. However, if you put it on somebody with the cover materia, you can also absorb attacks that would normally hit somebody else. I do like how tactical the materia system can get, it would be interesting in a more difficult RPG!

@LtSarge I think Comet counts as physical damage, which is why it can't be reflected.

@LtSarge If an enemy keeps using reflect there’s the trick of casting reflect on someone in your party and then casting your attack spells onto them. It’ll reflect onto the enemy them.

Using dispel obviously more effective though!

@nessisonett Ah, gotcha. And yeah, I agree, you can do so much customisation and experimenting by mixing together different materia. It's actually a lot more in-depth than I initially thought.

@Voltan Ahh okay, that would explain it then. I had no idea, that's really cool. Even more of a reason to keep that materia around besides it being so powerful.

@Thrillho Honestly, I've been using Reflect a couple of times now and I just don't like it because you become so limited in what you can do during the duration. Like you can't cast any magic like healing or haste on your team or else they'll reflect on your enemies. So I think I'll just stop using it. Dispel is a good shout though, I decided to level up that materia now and I managed to unlock it. It seems like a better idea to rely on that instead.

So I played a huge chunk of the game today, probably 4-5 hours in total. Finished up the snow area and I have to say, the snowboarding mini-game was an absolute nightmare to control. Being lost in the snow was awful as well, but at least everything afterwards was decent enough. I'm so impressed by the game's storytelling, the twist with Cloud was bonkers, I did not expect that at all and I'm glad the internet didn't ruin that part of the game for me. I just can't stop playing this game, it's so good.

@LtSarge I actually think the Great Glacier through to Northern Crater is my favourite portion of the game. It’s such an understated vibe after the shock of the end of Disc 1 and the music creates incredible atmosphere. Yes, the snowboarding is ass but I still love that area.

@LtSarge Yeah, I’ve always found reflect a bit useless. And a lot of the time, powerful enemies cast spells that they often absorb so it really doesn’t help.

The thing you want in FF7 is the enemy skill “big guard” which casts haste, barrier, and m-barrier on your whole party for a negligible amount of MP. I seem to remember you get it from an enemy found on beaches but you have to use an ability to control them as they’ll obviously never cast it on you otherwise.

@LtSarge @nessisonett I hated the glacier area. If nothing else, trying to find the screen with the unique summon materia was a pain in the rear end!

@nessisonett Oh don't get me wrong, it was refreshing to be in a different environment. But it was also incredibly stressful to go through this area because you spend so much time in it without ever returning to the world map. It felt like I was never going to leave it, lol.

@Thrillho Sounds like Haste, Barrier and M-Barrier is the way to go then. Even if I don't have that enemy skill, I still have unlocked all of those spells and I'm also close to unlocking the Wall magic, which casts both Barrier and M-Barrier at the same time.

Out of curiosity, how useful is Slow/Stop on bosses?

@Thrillho I didn't even know there was a summon materia in this place. I looked it up and apparently it's called Alexander and it's holy magic, which is useful against the undead but there's apparently not many of those in this game. So I don't mind missing out on it, I just never want to go back to that place again lol.

@LtSarge Big Guard is great for casting all three things at once so it’s worth trying to find.

I can’t remember how effective slow and stop are against bosses. I don’t think they’re immune (like in Remake) but I seem to remember it misses a hell of a lot so you might end up using a lot of goes to do it so I don’t think I bothered much.

The Alexander materia isn’t essential but nice to have. But if you do come across undead enemies you can actually use healing spells/items on them to do damage. You can one hit kill the boss in Cosmo Canyon using a phoenix down!

@Thrillho I couldn’t imagine actually fighting that boss in Cosmo Canyon 😂

@Thrillho @nessisonett Well, now I feel like such a fool because I actually fought it the normal way, lol. That dungeon in particular felt a bit unforgiving as well considering you don't even get a save point and then you have to fight a tough boss at the end. Really wish I would've known about the phoenix down trick, lol.

So I'm just curious now, are the FF7 spinoff games any good? I've been loving the story of FF7 so much that I want to actually experience more of it after I'm done with the main game. Dirge of Cerberus sounds really interesting since you play as Vincent and it's a shooter, while Crisis Core lets you play as Zack and acts as a prequel, which is very interesting as well. Even though I want to play them, I don't have either a PS2 or a PSP and none of the games have been re-released since then. I think it would be really cool if Square Enix could remaster these games and release them as a bundle.

@LtSarge I never played any of them or seen the Advent Children film either. I’ve read up on bits of them but that’s it.

It’s why I’m interested to see if they incorporate some of that story into the Remake or not.

@LtSarge Dirge of Cerberus is widely panned for a reason. It’s very very stupid. People like Crisis Core but gameplay wise it’s a bit strange and plot wise it’s a a mess. It also cannot be remastered because one of the main characters has the voice and likeness of a Japanese pop star, which brings loads of legal issues with their talent agency and stuff.

@Thrillho At the very least the character designs in Remake are close to those from Advent Children
I've seen it enjoyed it but I wouldn't say it's a spectacular must-see film Unfortunately I don't remember much else about it