Topic: Final fantasy discussion thread

@belmont Fair enough! Sorry to hear FF mode has been a letdown. I thought it was excellent. I don’t know how far into it you are but for what it’s worth, it does pick up the further in you get. Some of the encounters are a proper challenge. I’m very curious to see what direction they go with the DLC. Guess we’ll find out soon enough!

@Jimmer-jammer I am before the first time you battle Hugo . Seems that in FF mode the only real strategy is Zantetsuken anything to death before you run out of potions in a FF game with no healing spells... If you have any tips or strategies please share. Note though that I rarely play 3D action games. I wouldn't buy this game if it wasn't Final Fantasy.

Replaying the game there is something that bothers me a lot It seems like all major cities are destroyed in a brutal fashion, most people are dead, hell all people in the east continent are surely dead and this is vary rarely acknowledged by the characters. Sure, there are few subquests about rebuilding but no one seems to care. They only want to destroy Ultima.

@belmont Not sure how much help I’ll be but here goes 😅 I found Zantetsuken to be very useful for eliminating large groups of smaller enemies but it becomes a less viable crutch in both more varied battles and boss encounters where, while still incredibly useful, how/when to efficiently charge it becomes the challenge. Though there is an accessory that increases the charge rate if you want to go all in. It’s a pretty deadly move but I had fun with a more balanced build focusing equally on stagger damage. That’s where the strategy lies in my mind. This includes mastering perfect dodges, magic bursts, precision sics… all of which deal extra stagger damage. I usually focus primarily on staggering and then unleashing all of my most powerful abilities during a stagger. The main exception to this was Gigaflare which has a very short cooldown comparatively.

As for healing when potionless, Torgal does have a heal ability in a pinch and likewise Flames of Rebirth will heal the same greyed out area of the health bar.

I found Shiva’s abilities to be some of the funnest and most effective at staggering. I relied heavily on the Cold Snap feat. Executing it perfectly stops the enemy in their tracks.

It’s a system in which you get out of it what you put into it , so to speak. For example, Burning Blade will knock an enemy back but immediately performing a precision sic will allow enough time for you to Phoenix Shift up into the air to land a 4 hit sword combo followed by x and square together for a powerful downward attack. Further, holding square initiates another burning blade knocking the enemy back again. You could repeat or Pheonix Shift up to land a critical hit (punishment) and so on. Is any of this necessary? No, but it’s fun. Chaining combos is the bread and butter of the system. There’s no right or wrong way, I think it’s just a matter of finding a style of play that you find the most fun. Hope something in there helps!

@Jimmer-jammer Thanks for taking the time to write this. So, I kind of forgot Shiva . I got the relevant trophies but almost immediately after you get Zantetsuken...

I went to the Marks and tried some more stuff of what you suggested. I tried Cold Snap and Diamond Dust and it is true that they are useful to stagger. Flames of Rebirth seemed a bit unreliable for healing since you may not have it charged in the time of need. I forgot Torgal's healing ability! It all goes to me not being that good in action games.

I am in Bahamut now in FF mode and surely, until now, you can dodge and button mash everything, but the system is way deeper than I gave it credit initially.

Also, PowerPyx suggests a combo loop here https://www.powerpyx.com/final-fantasy-16-xvi-trophy-guide-ro... it uses Diamond Dust –> Upheaval –> Scarlet Cyclone to stagger but I am pretty sure I won't remember what buttons to press to pull it off!!! Still, you have the auto ring but it uses the moves you have equipped in random turms.

@kyleforrester87 Seeing you talk about the start of Disc 2 in FF8 reminded me that I recently abandoned a playthrough at the start of Disc 2 for the literal 4th time.

@nessisonett Yes, in my version of FF8 the squad grow old and die in prison, apparently.

@kyleforrester87 I know a lot of JRPGs have that one point where playthroughs are abandoned but I can’t think of anything as clear and obvious as that bloody prison.

@kyleforrester87 They aren't dead, only Squall. The whole game after disk 1 is Squall's dream after he was killed by Edea

@belmont Sorry, been a wild few days…Yeah, the auto ring isn’t great if you want to strategize at all. Torgal in general is easy to forget about but he’s so integrated into my combo structure now, I can’t imagine not having him by Clive’s side!

Yeah, it really does pick up. Another user here, Voltan, was saying he wished FF mode would have been available from the start as hard mode and I mostly agree. The balance just feels a lot better.

The nice thing about mastering all of the abilities is you can map them to any eikon, enabling you to create the flow that works best for your fingers. Basically you only have to consider which three core feats are useful to you and then build out from there.

What are your thoughts on the upcoming DLC? What are you hoping to see from it?

@belmont They are dead in my version, I assure you!

@Jimmer-jammer There are many things I don't enjoy in FF mode and if it was not needed for the platinum, I wouldn't play it. Even you strategize a lot still the enemies are "bullet sponges" and battles take a lot of time. What I ended up doing, since I can't memorize the moves and I always press the wrong ones (man I suck in 3d action games) I put the auto evade and auto attack ring and spammed the square button with the following build (based in this discussion ):
Shiva: Impulse, Mesmerize
Phoenix: Will-o'-the-Wykes, Pile Drive
Titan: Rift Slip, Flames of Rebirth

Battles still take some time but it works. I am now before the final battle and have beaten everything except the Chrono things. The platinum is almost mine (I have platinumed almost all FF games).

As for the DLC

Even I didn't like the ending I hope they stuck with it. And, if I did not miss something, magic is gone so after the story so there is no battle system!
Some say you can play as Cid when he was on Woeled and when he adopted Mid.
I would like to see Leviathan and play as other characters

Also, if the game is Steam Deck verified I will play it again but only on easy!

@kyleforrester87 Now I see that my previous joke comment may not have had context. Some years ago there was this fan theory that Edea killed Squall in the end of disk 1. The rest of the game is "the life that is flashing" in Squall as he drops down before dying. I don't want to spoil the rest of the game but there may be some ground to this fan theory although in my opinion it was semi-nonsense. Square debunked the fan theory some years later.

@belmont haha, nah - I am actually aware of that theory, and it’s a fun one, too. Really, the story just goes off the rails from disc two. The whole NORG bit is just mental.

@kyleforrester87 Now I wish I’d got past Disc 2, all I’ve heard is that it goes completely mental. I think I went past the prison once, and then hit the missile silo and wanted to put my head through a wall.

@nessisonett I watched a plot summary video fairly recently and it was pretty mind-blowing when all the weirdness was condensed down into a 40 minute video. Dragged out over 2 more discs of game it still gets very strange.

@belmont Nice! A Cid DLC could be very interesting though I personally hope they stick with Clive. Congratulations on that platinum!

Question.

I played VII Remake digitally on PS4 a few years ago, and decided I should probably play the Intergrade expansion on PS5 before Rebirth comes out.

Do you get a discount on the PS5 version of Remake for owning it on PS4, and does your save info (in the main game) carry over (& if it does, do you have to do anything special to transfer it)?

@RR529 You get the base game for free but you have to pay extra for the Intergrade DLC. If ai remember correctly the PS5 automatically gunds the PS4 save and unlocks the trophies you may have had.

@belmont, oh, that's good to know, thanks!

@RR529 For me I had to upload a save from the PS4 version, then download it onto the PS5 version.

I played FFVIIR on my PS4 when it first came out, so had to download that version again. Thankfully only the portion upto when it was at 'Ready to Play', so I could open up the game and grab my save, so didn't have to download the whole PS4 version again.