ulukinatme

Yeah, I don't know if it's because my PlayStation is older, but the audio of the gun shots is what I was trying to time my movements by and not the visual. It seemed like there was a momentary delay in the bullets visually firing and the gunshot audio playing. In addition there's a short animation delay from the time you hit the movement stick to your character actually moving so I had to retime my moves based on the visual cue and not the audio (Kind of lame, considering Cloud would not be able to see the gunfire stopping while hiding behind cover). On my 2nd go around on Hard I got through it much easier...but then once you hit the stairs there really isn't cover to hide behind so you just get lit up on the way down. Fortunately the knockback is non-existent or minimal during that section, and the damage is cranked up on Hard so you end up just sitting at 1 Health the whole way down. Who tested this? I don't think it's possible to get down the stairs on Hard without hitting the 1 HP floor. I completely agree with the bullshit Action combat though, it's not well done. Those with short attention spans rave about it online though. I continue to find gripes with it, like the fact Blizzard spells have an incredible delay on them, to a point where anything faster than a granny in a wheelchair is able to dodge them completely. You have to damn near Stagger or at least Pressure a target to get Blizzard to land typically. You couldn't dodge Magic like this before, it's lame. I completely leave Blizzard out of my setups as a result, unless you're fighting a tough boss that has a strong weakness to it. You would think Blizzard hits harder than the other spells to makeup for this detriment, but no...it just sucks.

Na, the Speed stat affects how fast your ATB builds. Works great for Tifa because a lot of her Claws increase Speed, so she can rattle off Combos faster. Losing ATB is either a bug in the combat design or it's working as designed...basically there's a window between when you've selected any ATB action or spell and the animation actually firing and the attack landing. Sometimes this is a big window, sometimes it's short, but either way if you get knocked back or knocked down during this window you not only lose your ATB charge, but the action fails to complete. You can always grind more ATB of course, but in some fights that can be difficult (Like when Leviathan is airborne and you're a melee fighter), and there are some abilities that also cost 2 ATB like Prayer which compounds the problem and can ruin fights.

Well, first attempt at the Pride and Joy series was a bust. Had no trouble up to Bahamut, HP was full and MP with 130+ to burn on each character. I followed a few guides to try and stagger him prior to the first Megaflare, but it was a no go. I switched back and tried to do Manawall on all my characters, but they weren't at max HP and none of them survived as a result. Sucked, but wasn't completely unexpected. None of my characters had more than 7k HP, I've gotten by so far without using HP Up Materia in Hard. I'm grinding a bit in the Simulator now so I can max everyone at 9999 for the fight. I think I'll down him tomorrow, otherwise I was doing pretty good mitigating the rest of his attacks.

Grats! I'm actually in the process of working my way up to that now. Finishing the Hard mode Shinra challenges, got all the single player ones done, working on the other two before Pride and Joy. Once I'm done with that (If I get it done) I'll finish up Chapter 17, 18, and then go back for the manuscripts I missed in Chapter 9's other path.

I'll take Tifa's hair over Aerith's triple ponytail /w a seagull up front.

That crossfire is some bullshit, I remember doing it on normal and getting knocked back repeatedly no matter how you timed it, super annoying. I'm almost there again, I'm up to Chapter 14 on Hard now...somehow I didn't get a different resolution (Got Tifa again) even though I was trying to get Aerith for the purposes of unlocking everything. Followed all the guides to make the right selections and such, the only thing I can think of that may have hurt my chances is I didn't do all of Aerith's side missions (Was also trying to unlock her 2nd Wallmarket outfit). I've read that sometimes your choices from the 1st playthrough can screw up the resolution though, dunno if that is true or not. Can't believe all that time was wasted though, it would be a headache to play through a 3rd and 4th time now just to unlock the other two resolutions. I'm going to end up settling for an incomplete Play Log. I'm getting to the point where I'll probably have to start using HP Up Materia, I've been getting by without it till now. Steadfast Block has been super helpful in building ATB and keeping characters alive. I've maxed out a number of MAG Up and MP Up Materia, but no HP Up yet. Now that I'm in Chapter 14 I may do some grinding in the Colosseum with the trio, that was my preferred AP grinding spot first time around. I had a few bosses give me trouble along the way, but not as much trouble as I initially expected. I thought I had Hell House nailed, had it down to 25% pretty easy with lots of MP to spend, and then...it summoned Chocobo Sam's pets as backup. "WTF is this new bullshit?!" I got wiped after that. For some reason they didn't appear on the 2nd attempt, so I either killed it quick enough to avoid them, or it's a random chance thing on Hard. Speaking of which, the Colosseum seems to be another easy way to restore your MP during a chapter. Aside from the fact you can grind easy monsters there for AP, you get 50% MP back each round still even on Hard. I've noticed a few other bosses have added mechanics on Hard to make fights more difficult too, aside from the increased damage. I noticed the Scorpion Boss was using his Pulse Cannon twice instead of just once, which meant that after he fired it at one character and destroyed your cover you had to switch to the other character protected behind debris to force him to target you there. I think Roche also was casting Thundaga instead of a lower level spell, but that didn't change the mechanics just the damage output. The Failed Experiment boss at the end of 13 was doing some different stuff too.

Na, fam. Tifa is bae.

Ahh, yeah, I hadn't gotten to that point yet. I missed Aerith's endgame challenges during my first playthrough. Something more to look forward to I guess.

I forgot to mention the setup I'm using. Other than building Tifa out for high physical damage via Metal Gloves, I've tweaked the other character builds a bit. I was using Cloud's Mithril Sword at the end of Normal, but I've swapped him to the Buster Sword. It provides almost as much MP as the Twin Stinger, but it also has a bit more Attack, Magic Attack, Defense, and Magic Defense. It doesn't have Reprieve or the Magic Reduction, but so far I've been getting through Chapters without running out of MP nor having to reload to farm Shinra crates although I'm sure soon I'll be needing to switch to a weapon with Reprieve soon. He has the Chain Bangle for protection, and Platinum Earrings for extra MAG. Aside from one or two offensive Materia that each person has along with Healing/Cleansing/Revive I gave him MP Up, MAG Up, and Steadfast Block. Barret is a problem imo. His Steel Pincers seem to provide the most MP as well as decent Attack and Magic, but the Pincers are also incapable of doing long range attacks unless you use an Ability which makes some fights a pain in the butt. I opted to upgrade his Gatling Gun instead since it lets him keep his long range option, it has the next best MP, additional defenses, and it's well balanced for both ATK and MAG. I gave him the Rune Armlet since he tends to be at range, along with the Circlet to help improve his awful MP. He's got one of my Prayer Materia, Auto Cure, and an MP Up. Tifa has her Metal Knuckles for offense, which actually give her the least MP but I don't cast much with her anyway. I fitted her with a Steadfast Block too since she's always in melee range, along with an MP Up to help mitigate her loss from the gloves and HP Up. She's got the Supreme Bracer and Supernatural Wristguards for extra damage. I just went all out with Aerith on MAG since she can't do much of anything besides cast. I gave her Mythril Rod /w Supreme Bracer and Platinum Earrings. Even with just one 4/5 MAG Up Materia she hits 448 Magic Attack which is very nice. I gave her my Magnify + Healing combo and she's nearly healing the entire party with just basic Cure which helps keep the MP costs down. I haven't been outfitting everyone with HP Up Materia just yet though, so it's easier to keep people topped off (But it means I'm casting occasional Revives on fights like Airbuster when the bomb drops).

Against my better judgement, I started Hard Mode too. I really wanted to be done with this and play something else, but the min-maxer in me doesn't want to quit until I have all the weapons fully maxed /w manuscripts. So far I'm up to Chapter 9 without too many problems. It's not quite as difficult as I thought it would be thusfar. I've definitely been abusing some of the tricks you outlined, like Magnify + Healing Materia and conserving MP so I can refill it again via Shinra boxes. If you're stingy you can save all your MP for the final boss in each Chapter. I tend to outfit Tifa with Metal Gloves for maximum physical damage while the other party members are geared for Magic. Tifa clears most of the trash and does a lot of the damage on bosses, the others are there for heals or the occasional spell for Stagger. I've been using lower level spells just for Stagger lately, they also cast quicker so that's nice. I'm back to Chapter 9 now on Hard Mode, so I do have Hell House coming up shortly. I'll be better prepared for it this time than I was on Normal, but I'm expecting more trouble of course. Not sure how I'll get through Bahamut on Hard Mode yet, I actually dropped down to Classic mode just to beat him the first time and get it done. Do you even need to beat him on Hard Mode though? Short of bragging rights I don't think you get a manuscript for him and I don't see the benefit.

Fallout 2 may be the best, Sulik is legendary. I find NV to be pretty close, just so many options on quests and endings, incredibly entertaining too. After that I would have to say the original or Fallout 3, FO4, then finally Fallout: Tactics. I don't rank Brotherhood of Steel, it was an abomination, kind of like 76 prior to Wastelanders.

So, I've got a question...how incredibly lazy of Square was it to include a certain fiery companion as a Guest unit and not as a full fledged member? When I first heard about this, given the fact the story has been shortened into sections, my first reaction was "Makes sense I guess, he won't be with us very long." However, the Shinra HQ can take 5+ hours to clean out top to bottom if you're checking nooks and crannies. The companion is literally with your party through a few dozen battles as a Guest, and his combat animations are all there. How hard would it have been to just make him a playable character? He's there for at least four boss battles that I can remember, it would have been nice to have another character to control instead of being gimped.

So many times...it gets so old. Wasted ATB is the bane of this combat system, it can seriously screw up fights. Speaking of which, finally finished it. Lost so many actions in those final two battles, nearly wiped a few times on the last boss. Something else that bugs the hell out of me is lost Stagger during boss fights. I'll be saving Limit Breaks for big damage once Stagger kicks in. You finally get Stagger...and then some cut scene interrupts battle and Stagger is reset or there's no longer an opportunity at all to Stagger. It's like...why the fuck even have a Stagger bar in fights like that? That ending was the biggest load of garbage yet. Nomura said he may spend the rest of his live working on Final Fantasy 7 Remakes. No thanks...just retire now, please.

I thought the same. Had no trouble with the squat minigame. Pullup for whatever reason was a bigger pain in the ass. You can be too fast and falter, whereas the final challenge it seems like the computer can go faster than you. They faltered twice and still came within 4 pullups of me on a perfect run. Took me 3 or 4 attempts to get it, but I already had two Champion Belts at that time so it was mostly just to check another box.

Definitely pair Revive with the AP UP Materia. Then again, it's not exactly worth the effort as the reward is the MP Absorption Materia, which is kind of meh. It returns .1% of the damage your linked spell does as MP, so even 2000 damage only gives you 2 MP back. I tried Bahamut a few times, but there was some bad advice online on how to handle the fight, it was all wrong. It was suggested that once he starts his countdown, DPS him as fast as possible and you can negate Megaflare. Personally, I found that if he's not at about 90% Stagger by the time he gets to "2," then you're probably going to eat Megaflare. It was also suggested to use Revival Rings, but the problem is that only resurrects you once. In my experience you're going to get at least 2 Megaflares during the fight, if not more. What wasn't suggested was to use Manawall, which will cut Megaflare's damage in half to 4k, which is manageable compared to 8k. If you fight him on Classic mode I think it's only a 2k hit /w Manawall compared to 4k. Bahamut's health is cut in half on Classic mode too. I didn't have time to keep messin' with him, wanna finish this game before vacation is over.

Did a ton of grinding last night at Corneo's Colosseum. Trying to max out my Green Materia so I can finish Chadley's last Battle Intel before I head to Shinra HQ. I've been doing the "Three-Person Team vs. Shinra Warriors" fight. Magnify + Blizzaga or Thundaga works really nicely, especially if you're using a character with a maxed out MAG weapon, along with a few MAG UP Materia, and Platinum Earrings. First Attack Materia helps to start the fight with AP. Blizzaga hits harder against the last bosses, but Thundaga seems to be harder for Enemies to dodge so I've been using that mostly. At 344 Magic Attack everything tends to die with one cast, although the 4th group is a bit spread out at the start of the fight and you may need to cast twice or finish them off with Melee. You get about 55 AP for all 5 rounds (110 if you have a Materia linked to AP UP) and it only takes about 2-3 minutes.

Another glorious addition to the combat system, Limit Breaks and Spells completely whiffing enemies. Never happened in the original. That shit about Cloud's manuscripts is bogus too. Way to go, SE!

Squat competition with Ruby Weapon.

I'm thinking the ATK ability is damn near useless in this game. After playing around with various weapons and redoing some skill points, it feels like dumping everything into Magic Attack is far more beneficial, especially since most enemies have a weakness to one element typically. It especially comes in handy if you have the Magnify Materia linked to a Heal, it's a super powered Prayer that only costs 1 ATB. I still keep at least one weapon maxed on ATK, like Tifa's Metal Gloves (Her Martial Arts abilities do hit decently hard, especially the later abilities), but for Cloud and Barret I'm focusing more on MAG.

I found the motorcycle fight quite enjoyable. There's a certain art with the way he dances on the vehicle, it's poetry in motion...no, it's a bunch of fuckin' hogwash If characters like Roche are why they had to break the original masterpiece of a story up into multiple game titles...they could have just skipped him. I didn't need Roche, chasing cats, and darts to bog down a wonderful game.

I was completely not setup right for Hell House. I was trying to level other materia at the time and so I was missing some elements. I struggled to do enough damage during the short windows of invulnerability. I ended up restarting the fight because I was burning through my stockpile of consumables when I try not to use any...ever. I would definitely play Dragon Quest XI and Outer Worlds before the 13 trio. Dragon Quest will be longer than Outer Worlds if you're the kind of player that likes to do everything. Even if you're not, Outer Worlds is shorter but still an enjoyable game.

I just hit Chapter 14 last night, trying to take my time getting everything. Looks like there's a bit of a break here to do side missions and stuff, so that will keep me occupied for a bit. I agree that Barret is probably the worst character from an AI perspective. I tend to play Tifa the most though because I find her Chi Martial Arts attacks to be the most enjoyable. Barret gets a few abilities late game that make him somewhat more enjoyable though. I won't spoil the Hell House fight, but I'll just say that I spent probably 15-20 minutes on that fight because it had a certain mechanic to it and I wasn't setup fully to take advantage of it. It also doesn't help that he has a secondary mechanic which makes the fight pretty tough and long on it's own. The combat system could be alright, but there's just too many issues for me to fully enjoy it. Basic attacks only serve to build ATB, and unlike other Action games there's no button sequences or combinations to master to make it more enjoyable, it's just mashing Square. I can't tell you how many times I'll lose an ATB all together because an enemy will attack a character in that window between selecting the ATB and the ATB actually firing off. It seems like anytime you incur damage during that window it will completely wipe out your attack along with the ATB, it's a real annoyance. Something else that's been bugging me lately is the Stagger mechanic. It could have been really good, but it's a headache more than anything during boss fights. You can spend several minutes building a boss's Stagger gauge, getting extremely close to maxing it out, only to have some cut-scene interrupt battle and completely wipe the entire thing out. What a fucking tease! Why even waste attacks and MP building Stagger if you don't get an opportunity to use it? If you enjoy old school turn based JRPGs, you may want to check out Dragon Quest XI. That was the last decent Square Enix game I played and I thought they did an excellent job with it. The game starts out slow as it introduces you to the world and characters, but it really opens up in Act 2 and gets even better in Act 3. Aside from being turn based, the combat will probably remind you a bit of FF X as you can swap out characters during combat once you have more than 4 party members. Here's a humorous, but well done review from Tim Rogers on the game: