Lurker > YoBlazer

Playthrough update: I'm at like 105 hours and am doing the new side quest cleanup in Chapter 12. I let the game sit idle quite a bit, but I know I've got at least 95 hours of legit time invested so far.

The PSN Trophies site estimates 200 hours for the Plat, and I feel like their estimated are often speedy. 250 hours is probably a more accurate estimate. They really outdid themselves with content.

I still think the worst minigame I've seen so far has been the sit-ups. It would have been difficult enough on its own, but changing the inputs from face buttons to shoulder buttons was cruel.

I'm convinced Square's top question for play testers was "do you think someone trying to Platinum this game will hate the world?"

I'm not sure how long I have to go until the QB endgame, but I'm in Chapter 11 now and the last match (against a Shinra soldier) needed a few restarts. I'm just running the basic "synergy buffs" type of deck and haven't experimented with destroy/replace cards.

ctesjbuvf posted...

Unironically enjoyed that lol.

Same, that was probably one of my favorites thus far. This Cosmo Canyon Protorelic quest, on the other hand...

Ever since my dad got laid off and retired early at the start of the pandemic, I've been studying up on retirement planning to help my parents strategize for it. The one thing I advocate for vigorously is an expansion of Medicare to at least 62 (obviously I'd prefer Medicare for all, but I'm picking my battles here) so that it aligns with the earliest possible social security age. We'd see an explosion of 60-62 year old retirees, which would finally give Millennials and Gen Z a crack at meaningful career opportunities that still manage to evade them.

And it's not like the move would hurt businesses THAT much. A 60-year-old employee who's counting down the months to retirement is just someone who's gobbling up a fat paycheck and not contributing any innovation. Let them retire and bring in a 30-year-old (who might actually have some new ideas) to replace them.

The culture of lifelong corporate servitude really is the point.

Obellisk posted...

Are people actually retiring at 65 anymore though? I mean other than State / Municipal / Military?

While the average retirement age has risen in the past few decades, I'm pretty sure the most common retirement age is still 62, which is the youngest that someone can start claiming social security (at a reduced monthly amount, obviously). Most people barely tolerate their jobs and will take the first reasonable opportunity to exit the rat race, even if it means reduced social security and permanently making do with less.

Keep in mind that seniors can only get Medicare at 65, so all those people retiring at 62 are doing so knowing that they'll need to spend three years figuring health insurance out on their own. And they still do it because they just wanna exit the workforce.

wg64Z posted...

This is WAY more fun.

Yeah, it might not be as "natural" as some top VA work, but I think fun is the right word for it. FFVII stands proud as a JRPG, and I think any attempt to mimic the drama and nuance found in some of its western contemporaries would have worked against it. Oddball, over the top, and slightly awkward work amazingly well here. I wouldn't have liked the characters nearly as much if we got God of War VA or something.

I feel like the focus on traditional RPG combat elements (casting, resource management for multiple characters) often causes me to forget that there's a very powerful parry mechanic with perfect blocks. There are battles where I'll make it a point to hit just one perfect block at the start, and the difference is night and day for the rest of the fight.

After exploring much of Cosmo Canyon (the funnest region in the game thus far), I have something new to which I need to lavish praise: the game creates two completely different desert regions. I feel like deserts are a hard ONE AND DONE rule in most games because they're not as pretty as forests or beaches, but FFVII once again doubles down on the things that make it unique.

Cosmo Canyon is majestic Utah desert with the soul of Sedona, Arizona. Corel and the Dust Bowl is trash ass Vegas (especially with The Gold Saucer/The Vegas Strip smack dab in the middle). Beatifully done.

MartinFF7 posted...

Got way too excited any time a location said "new QB players in your area" - it's like everything's put on hold, minimap pulled up and beeline to nearest opponent, lol

This is the most appropriate response to new QB.

Did you play Easy, Normal, or Dynamic?

wg64Z posted...

I'd say probably about 18-20 hours left if you treat it like I did and just run straight to every Blue story marker.

Again, holy shit @ the size of this game. How'd some of y'all beat it in 50 hours? It's probably gonna feel like a different game with how quickly I whiz through on the second playthrough.

Omg @ this chicken clanging bullshit

This is unquestionably, undoubtedly a deliberate attempt to make the worst possible mini game just to piss off neurotics like me.

I feel like every character has incredible potential, but I'm not sure I'll have it in me to truly explore everyone's playstyle unless I'm required to do so with high-level trials.

Just dropping in to say that Cait Sith's voice is perfect.

MoogleKupo141 posted...

if you just got to the Gold Saucer the answer is probably longer than youve already spent playing it.

obviously dependent on how much side stuff youre doing

Bro, what. I just met the doctor who helped young Tifa, and my play clock reads 43 HOURS. I know I want to savor this game, but fuck a duck, this might wind up being a 120 hour first playthrough.

I'm very happy with any public appearances that make Biden look good. He and Trump probably won't have any debates, so hopefully Biden's team keep him in a bubble and as shielded as possible from disastrous moments.

AriaOfBolo posted...

neither I but we are the minority in my circles apparently

What seems to be the general consensus?

foolm0r0n posted...

ZOLOMY RUINED wtf, sormormy doesn't roll off the tounge nearly as well

I was right salty at that too.

I just put Cha La on my phone and now I'm tearing up at the damn gym. This one hurts.

Don't do this to us

It still feels like we just lost Miura, and now this.

RIP to a legend who had a significant role in shaping my childhood.

Bowser
Sephiroth
Ganondorf
Pyramid Head

I really wanted a reason to boot Ganondorf (he's not in the same league as Bowser or Sephy imo), but in the end, he's got a 40 year history and has been a part of too many goated games. The final choice was between Pyramid Head and Wesker, and I sided with the one who made the much larger immediate impact on me.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Sittup minigame wouldn't be the worst thing in the game if it didn't take a full 10 seconds to reset attempts.

I almost have to applaud them for tripling down on the number of minigames and making them considerably more challenging than last time. Taking an already tough one (pull-ups) and then amping up the difficulty by assigning the prompts to the shoulder buttons AND adding force-sensitive button presses is... actually it's fucked up. Fuck you Square.

LordoftheMorons posted...

https://x.com/lxeagle17/status/1765485866787418301?s=46

I remember voting against this idiot. He came within 3% of beating Democrat Susie Lee and going to Congress.

I also remember when he got slammed by Big Show on WWE TV.

swordz9 posted...

Looking further this guy is just plain evil. He thinks African Americans OWE white people reparations as thanks for bringing them over as slaves.

Lmao no wonder he's the GOP candidate

Yeah, I feel like there's not really a good reason to have Cloud locked in this much. The entire party is together during most exploration segments, so even in a cutscene where Cloud is required... everyone's right there.

I did not expect the fucking card game to be such an absolute standout. Like, the more I think about it, the more impressed I am with its perfect balance of simplicity and strategic options. Whoever took the lead in designing Queen's Blood is very, very skilled at what they do.

35+ hours in and I've only begun exploring the Corel region. Good thing there are no other games I really planned on playing this year, because the burnout after this one is gonna last a while.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


What if someone has a simple, inexpensive diet? $300 a month can easily cover my diet, and there are some people who make do on a lot less. If I take the $75,000 and put it into a conservative portfolio that pays 5% a year on average, I'd be getting approximately $300 a month, enough to cover my food budget. And I'd still get to keep the $75k.

Of course, I can take the free food and totally change my lifestyle, but that idea isn't too appealing to me, especially since I'll very likely wind up less healthy. The only thing stopping me from getting AYCE sushi or pizza twice a week will be my own self-discipline. Could wind up being a curse at that point.

KamikazePotato posted...

Bro she stole your materia and barely apologized for it

I remember that not bothering me because it didn't actually make the combat in the area tougher or more annoying. But it's been 15 years since I played the og, so my memory could just be whack.

I'm still cleaning up shop in Junon, so very early in the game, but I've Platinum'd the original and the Interlude DLC, and my opinion on the characters is that I like or love pretty much everyone

EXCEPT YUFFIE. I remember liking her in the original FFVII, but they missed the mark with her shitty attitude in this one. She's just a jerk. There's no way she had this same personality in 97, right?

My biggest issue is a carryover from Remake: the lock-on camera. I can't believe that it's tied to a simple push of the right trigger... the same thing that most players move around constantly during exploration to adjust the camera. I probably push the right trigger more than any other input on the controller, but learning to never touch the damn thing at all during combat, lest my character's attention frantically bounces around between enemies, is awful. It's like an inexplicably bad design decision, and it's been that way for two games now. Is there an easy fix to this that I'm unaware of? I looked at the control options, and the one "fix" appears to also swap the enemy lock-on selection with the PARTY selection. WHY?

I'm only three attempts in, so this is reactionary and may get me rightly roasted, but

the piano game is one of the most aggravating minigames I've ever seen for a major release. The score requirements are absolute bullshit, and assuming there's gotta be at least one trophy tied to this crap makes it worse. Fuck this Stan Lee wannabe Dorian.

It's taken me over 14 hours to 100% the first open-world area. This is gonna be like a 70 hour first run.

Also, I'm still not 100% sure what Dynamic difficulty is, but I'm enjoying bosses not being total pushovers. I was worried Normal wouldn't be quite enough for veterans of the first game, and this appears to have solved that.

I can't deny that these characters charm the hell out of me. Playing this feels like coming home again.

Bro Cloud can swim

Nevermind, my TV is a 4K lol. Forgot that I actually got this from my parents' house when they upgraded a couple years ago.

STILL LOOKS GREAT is all I'm sayin

I'm on 1080p and immediately switched to Performance. Looks and feels amazing.

Wal-Mart pulled through

God bless those employees for dealing with weirdos like me.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Ohhhhhh the demo skip sucks ass.

You still have to do basically all the tedious walk and talk stuff I wanted to skip the most.

I'm glad I tried it for five minutes before deciding to play the whole game blind.

Shattered posted...

Do your Walmarts open until midnight? All the ones by me close at 11. Oh nevermind, you mean selling it early

Ideally yeah, but I realistically just wanted an employee to check the back and confirm they have it in stock for tomorrow. The employee I spoke with wouldn't even do that lol

Gonna go to Wal-Mart at around 9pm my time and try to talk them into selling it to me tonight. Really doubt it'll work, but I'll hopefully at least confirm they have it in stock so I can pick it up early tomorrow.

Fair enough, especially since it would have been difficult for her to foresee all of this happening back in like 2015. Just frustrating af.

Forceful_Dragon posted...

even if they don't give him immunity (and how can they?) they are giving him 2 free months and an excuse to protest something else if it fails.

Yeah, it's clear as day that the Supreme Court is just as politicized as any other powerful governmental body in the country. If Trump wins, I wouldn't be surprised if Thomas (hell, maybe Alito too since he's just a couple years younger) "graciously" retires so he can be replaced by a younger crazy.

Fucking Ginsburg for clinging on until she was 100 years old and then being hailed as a hero.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

The second one is offensive and I will never forgive them. The new line is soooo much worse!

Yeah, first I'm hearing about this and it sucks. Changing the final line of dialogue from something mysterious and impactful to something so generic... why?

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Now if only we could boot MTG.

I wish, but MTG seems much more politically cunning and devious. I think she's even worse than Boebert, but at least Boebert is a complete moron and will soon be gone. I sadly think MTG will be around a while.

I sold my tiny amounts of BitCoin and Ethereum a couple days ago for about $13k. Looks like I sold to early, but I still made a large gain, so I'm happy with my yields. Probably gonna hold onto that $13k and just buy more at the next crash.

Boebert is done in politics, and I can only hope that she's burned too many bridges for even the right wing media circuit to offer her employment. With limited prospects to earn the living to which she's now probably accustomed, she might be the first national level politician to start an OF.

Not even joking, I wouldn't be surprised at all if she does it in like 18 months.