Board 8 > oh hell yeah ffvii is on switch (playthrough?)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Okay, so this time through the cave, I do the following:

1. use turbo mode a lot more
2. flee from Magic Pot, Gargoyles, and Tonberry on sight
3. still try to get every item that I can

I bring Cloud (with Counter, Cover, Sense, and Steal, along with others), Cid (Restore/All), and Yuffie (the Bahamut summons + Ultima). This time I also wait until after all the party-splits (and what the hell, I bring along Tifa/Barret for the splits) and know to place the save point there.

I take Tifa and Barret down there as well as we face Dragon Zombies and Iron Men. I continue to think that Cover 100% is not such a great idea when we're facing enemies so strong Cloud can't tank everything... that said, using Defend seems to work pretty well. At the end of a gauntlet of boss-like random encounters is Jenova-SYNTHESIA. Honestly, it has something going on with multiple pieces, but I pretty much just disregard everything and bombard it with Comet2, Bahamut, Neo Bahamut, Bahamut ZERO, and Ultima, with a few Cure2/Cure3s thrown in to protect my party, and don't worry about the details. That... seems to work.

And then suddenly, there Sephiroth is, ensconced in Holy. I'm asked to split my party, and suddenly I'm in a panic because not everyone has ideal materia situations. I settle on the following ideas:

1. Cloud (Cover/Counter, mastered Ice/Lightning), Red XIII (weaker Restore/weaker Fire/mastered Earth), and Vincent (who needs materia when you're transforming into a crazy monster anyway)
2. Tifa (Ultima), Barret (stronger Restore/All, Comet), Yuffie (Phoenix (which I finally read; apparently it revives dead party members?!) and W-Item)

I split the Bahamut materia between the two parties as well.

I'm relatively annoyed when I realize that there's no save point coming up for the rest of the game against obviously a tough final boss gauntlet. And it's two-party, which caught me off guard. (I was actually a little bitter that the previous party-split segment didn't allow you to play as different parties...)

Bizarro Sephiroth is this weird mutant with a ball for a stomach and a head sticking out of the top of his head. It's a fun FF-style character design. The game tells us to be careful about the order in which we attack its parts. I decide that the fastest way is: attack everything. Several of the parts die out as I raze them with Ultima and Comet2 and Bahamut summons, but A, B, and C stick around longest. B, the head, keeps regenerating after being killed, while A, the chest, heals itself massively pretty often, preventing me from doing anything to it. Oh, and C won't let me attack it at all!

It eventually becomes clear that killing the head, B, is kind of a lever that allows us to swap back and forth. I swap at every opportunity until Vincent is in his transformed state, because getting his damage up there without letting him die isn't easy! Once his transformed state bites the dust, I concede and switch over. The other crew continues indiscrimately attacking everything, and eventually we take down the shield protecting the core. At that point, I ride Cloud's party til the wheels come off, targeting the core (C), with a few broad-spectrum doses from Vincent's hit-all and Meteorain. Once it dies, the Bizarro energy can no longer heal itself, and I switch focus to alternating between head and torso. I'm building momentum, but just before it dies, it hits me with Fallen Angel, which has to be a staple FF final boss move since Kefka used it as well, reducing everyone to 1 HP.

Once Bizarro Sephiroth goes down, Cloud's party is immediately plunged into Safer Sephiroth's One-Winged Angel form, which also has a centaur-style bottom half. He really does look pretty awesome. Since his first move is to put up some sort of shield, I'm fairly hesitant to hit him with normal attacks. And since Red XIII's Restore is the crappy one with only Cure2, I wind up spending perhaps 50% of my moves using X-Potions and Phoenix Down. Cloud can survive Safer Sephiroth's Shadow Flare, but no one else can, and annoyingly, we can't counter him in the air. Vincent's transformation, also sometimes only does 1 damage when Safer Sephiroth has his barriers up. Whenever I get the chance I bust out my summons and the occasional Ice3 or whatever, but really it's a battle of attrition, constantly using those X-Potions, the occasional Megaelixir, and (finally) Remedies, because Safer Sephiroth also occasionally whacks everyone into states of mega-annoyance. I grow to despise the galactic move he uses - it's really cool to watch once, but good god it takes forever each time, and it's a guarantee that my next 3-6 moves will be X-Potion and/or Phoenix Down and/or Remedy. I think he uses it five or six times total. I finally discover Hero Drink will prevent status effects, and give one to Cloud and Vincent, and hit Sephiroth with one more Meteorain.

And down he goes. There's a bit of an anticlimactic moment where everyone stands around wondering if that's it, then just runs off... but Cloud informs Tifa that he still feels Sephiroth there. We're plunged into one final one-on-one confrontation. This is probably the most visually striking scene, with Sephiroth actually standing like a regular man, holding his sword. We hit him with the famed Omnislash, and I become super-bummed I never got to use this against Safer Sephiroth or any of the other annoying bosses throughout the game, because DAMN.

After that, it's a set of cutscenes to the finish, as Cloud rescues Tifa from a fall (and mentions Aeris during it, take a hint dude). Everyone else is still around, and the airship plunges in to rescue... though not entirely, because it falls apart. It's a little visually unclear what happens here, but essentially Holy comes up to combat Meteor. Everyone around Midgar looks around as Lifestream surges up to reinforce Holy, and we briefly see Aeris's smiling face...

Cut to credits, followed by five hundred years later, Nanaki's people running up and seeing the ruins of Midgar. Uh, okay.

When it's over, I don't get a new save point or a New Game+ option. I guess that means there's no real "post-game" content, and that in order to proceed to Wutai and Emerald/Ruby Weapon and whatever other major subplots are left, I need to resume from my last save point all the way before I fought Weapon (or right after, whenever I entered Midgar)?
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Congrats! I hope you make a topic about the remake!

And yeah just back to your save point. The downside to making a save point at the end is the backtrack back out! Though there's probably some kind of warp move.

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You can leave the Northern Cave in Disc 3 after you enter.

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Congrats on beating the game. You can make your way back to the world map from the save point you created in the crater

Edit: Leon beat me to it

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Also good work! Make sure to give your final thoughts and character rankings!

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good topic!

doing any extra content?

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Some random (but possibly not complete)

* Boss theme vs Bizarro Sephiroth > One-Winged Angel, and Dancing Mad > them all.

* Do I get a different cutscene with Tifa if I get more affection points with her? She's likable but ultimately a pretty weak character, which surprised me.

* I'm still kinda of annoyed about the end-of-game/sidequest situation! I had no idea when I fought Weapon/entered Midgar that I wouldn't be able to do anything!

* And that kind of sours me on the ending, too - not enough save points, not to mention a bizarre/ambiguous ending that didn't need to happen that way. Cloud says to Tifa that they'll be able to see Aeris in the Lifestream. Obviously the planet doesn't die, but given that we cut away during a massive beam battle, Midgar is a ruin, and we don't return until 500 years later... is it safe to assume that everyone died? I'm also a little disappointed by the credit sequence...!

* Also, Sephiroth... is it just me or did he get less and less impressive throughout the game? He made a good final boss and looked super-cool, but he didn't even have any dialogue, and the entire time we knew him, he was a shadow who just said obsessive things about becoming a god or whatever. He was almost inarguably more impressive off-screen than on screen - entirely agree with @Rollthebones2 's comment early on that Sephiroth was masterfully built up, and killing Aeris was magnificently evil and an iconic scene... but the actual guy spent the whole game asleep.

* Should reiterate yet again that he looked totally awesome in his final form and when he was up against Cloud in the final scene. Wish I'd seen more of that Sephiroth, and perhaps actually gotten some dialogue.

* But maybe that's the point? That Sephiroth was a totally insane monster, twisted beyond humanity or the point of being actually interesting. We can thank Hojo for that, I suppose.

* The scope of FFVII really is magnificent. My save time in the North Cave is around 35:01 or so, so if you tack on the final

* I feel like I'm not too crazy about the battle system. It's interesting that when I played what I did of FFX (up until you fight Seymour), I missed ATB. But now, with long animations where the ATB freezes anyway, long menus to navigate, joycon drift, and a tough time detecting how to get the pointer to point at the right place, I think that for 3D RPGs, turn-based would have worked better here.

* The materia system is enjoyable! Though I'm kind of a scrub and hate having to make tradeoffs between stats and ability - just let me have it all!

* Cloud > Yuffie > Cid > Aeris > Vincent > Red XIII > Barret > Cait Sith > Tifa.

- Barret's dialect and character design bother me - it just makes me uncomfortable that the black guy is the crude one. But he's a pretty fully realized character with balance to him. Simplistic, but fully realized.

- I really expected Tifa to be among the top. Her limit break is awesome, and I like the idea of the fighter class. But her character arc is entirely in support of Cloud, and in the final two discs, they randomly gave her gigantic boobs in cutscenes. She's the type of character who makes me feel kind of embarrassed to be playing this game as an adult. And that's not to say she's not "strong," but I feel she kind of puts the "fantasy" into FFVII. Maybe I'm a bit of a hypocrite, but it feels like even that role is incomplete - she never winds up getting with Cloud. Maybe if that were closed better, I'd feel less... ambivalent.

- Cait Sith being revealed to be Reeve definitely helps him out a bit. I think the pretend-sacrifice was a low, and he had the least reason to be there other than being a plot device. I think he probably needed to be a bit cooler to use in battle to pay off the goofy character design, which I love, but with a party size of only three, it was hard to slot him in!

- Red XIII and Vincent are honestly there just because they're cool. I like the way Red XIII looks, and I like that like Beast in X-Men, he seems to be the most intelligent despite being a furry animal. The daddy issues are kind of whatever. Vincent gets even less development, but his backstory is actually probably a bit cooler than Red XIII's. We get to see it in person, there's no kinda-annoying Bupenhagen, and he has a super-unique Limit Break.

- Aeris becomes a symbol and a martyr, which originally had me putting her under Red XIII and Vincent. But when I thought about it, she was actually pretty strong in real life, too.

- Talked at length about Cid before. I still don't really like his dialogue style much; it's funny at times but just annoying at others. His character design is kinda boring, and he's injected into the party in kind of an unwelcome way. But his run is hilarious, he's a lancer, and his little stint as the team leader actually worked really well. Cid didn't make it into my final parties to fight Sephiroth, but he feels like a case where it'd be fun to have multiple three-person parties to rotate among, or for a bigger playable party.

- Yuffie is mostly just fun. While it's annoying that she steals your materia, the Wutai gaiden is really enjoyable. Unless a character is required in a scene, most of the dialogue that they have is rote. Yuffie's is almost always colorful and punchy, and that helps her. Could've done with actually being a bit stronger story-wise, but I'm hopeful that the Wutai sidequests flesh that out more.

- Cloud is probably my favorite by default. His dialogue style isn't the most fun at all times, but he's a solid, consistent anchor, and his development is obviously the best. This is a case where you can truly see leadership grow. His backstory is also super-interesting.
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SeabassDebeste posted...

and in the final two discs, they randomly gave her gigantic boobs in cutscenes.

Did you not see them bounce around during the motorcycle scene? Disc 1!

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SeabassDebeste posted...

* Do I get a different cutscene with Tifa if I get more affection points with her? She's likable but ultimately a pretty weak character, which surprised me.

What, in the ending? No. The scene underneath the Highwind at the end of Disc 2 changes though.

SeabassDebeste posted...

* I'm still kinda of annoyed about the end-of-game/sidequest situation! I had no idea when I fought Weapon/entered Midgar that I wouldn't be able to do anything!

More like you had no idea you could leave! Seriously, just because Disc 3 starts you off at the Northern Cave doesn't mean you can't leave!

also you accidentally swapped Tifa and Yuffie in your rankings

Tifa is the best or second best female character in the series (between her and Yuna)

SeabassDebeste posted...

Maybe I'm a bit of a hypocrite, but it feels like even that role is incomplete - she never winds up getting with Cloud. Maybe if that were closed better, I'd feel less... ambivalent.

I'm guessing Remake will make you feel better about that because it clearly builds up Cloud/Tifa as a power couple in a way the original didn't, but the original kept Cloud's true feelings ambivalent and up to the player. All the FFVII stuff afterwards has clearly made Cloud/Tifa canon because they paired off Aerith with Zack.
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pjbasis posted...

Did you not see them bounce around during the motorcycle scene? Disc 1!

too focused on the motorbike tbh!

LeonhartFour posted...

More like you had no idea you could leave! Seriously, just because Disc 3 starts you off at the Northern Cave doesn't mean you can't leave!

definitely a mistake on my part here :(

also you accidentally swapped Tifa and Yuffie in your rankings

Tifa is the best or second best female character in the series (between her and Yuna)

definite disagree. i think tifa's likable but she's weakened by just how much she's tied to cloud... and the fact that that doesn't go anywhere in the end (of this game at least)

I'm guessing Remake will make you feel better about that because it clearly builds up Cloud/Tifa as a power couple in a way the original didn't, but the original kept Cloud's true feelings ambivalent and up to the player. All the FFVII stuff afterwards has clearly made Cloud/Tifa canon because they paired off Aerith with Zack.

it does sound good. kinda wish i could play remake, but the fact that disc 1 alone is about as long as it took me to beat the mainline original isn't encouraging. talking about it is making me more interested in advent children!
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Advent Children definitely has Cloud/Tifa as the canon couple as well
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LeonhartFour posted...

also you accidentally swapped Tifa and Yuffie in your rankings

Yes.
There is a lot of stuff you missed too with regards to side quests and little bits of info here and there.
It does have a lot of replay value in that sense. Ive played it so many times by now that I forget how much stuff is optional haha

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Cloud > Tifa > Barret > Aerith (> Sephiroth) > Red XIII > Vincent > Cid > Cait Sith > Yuffie
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My character rankings for this game have shifted pretty dramatically as I have revisited it. That said, at no point did I think Tifa was near the top - sorry Leonhart!

I was a huge Vincent fanboy as a child when I played the game, because vampires were cool and I wanted to be edgy. On later playthroughs, I came to enjoy Cloud's weird aloofness ("let's mosey" as a rallying cry into a final dungeon is just delightful). That version of Cloud seems to be underappreciated.

Red XIII is probably my favourite now, because Cosmo Canyon has an absolute banger of a theme and the emotional beats of his story still resonate with me as an adult the way they did as a child.

I just want to say that following this topic has been a treat! I am glad to see FF7 still holds up as an experience; sometimes I wonder if my nostalgia clouds (no pun intended) my judgment.

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I was really pleasantly surprised by Cloud in original FF7. He's not as morose in it as later interpretations of the character make him appear. Conversely Sephiroth is extremely disappointing imo. I only really like him the first time you meet him at the northern crater, he had a few good lines I think? I can't remember. Great design though.

Red is probably my favourite character too, with I think Barret second and Cloud third.

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Welp, I backtracked out of that pit (Barret/Tifa) and got some sweet new materia: Magic Counter and Mega All. Magic Counter would've been insanely useful against Sephiroth!

I go to Wutai first with Red XIII/Yuffie and use the Leviathan Scales at Mt Dachao. I'm a little disappointed there's no dungeon, but we do wind up with even more materia and a new throwing stat for Yuffie. I'm guessing this isn't her ultimate, but it finally brings her power in line with others

I load up for bear against the Wutai Tower. Bahamut ZERO, Magic Counter/Ultima, Counter, multiple HP Plus... when I get there Lv 57, I smash everyone in about 2-3 turns.

It's no surprise that Godo is there (I checked his home!), but I really like the philosophical discussion afterward. Strength without determination is nothing. Godo gives us Leviathan and another item ("spawn all" or something?) and also finally shows some sense of humor... bring back that materia to Wutai when it's over!

Got new toys to try out when I resume. Not sure where to head next though. The kid on Floor 2 suggests there may be something to be seen in sewers somewhere... Midgar?
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All Creation is Yuffie's level 4 Limit Break

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Cloud > Aerith >> Red XIII > Barret > Tifa >> Yuffie > Vincent > Cid > Cait Sith

Based purely on the original FFVII.

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Went back and played a bit yesterday with a guide to start fulfilling some sidequests. The first thing I did was swap in Tifa for Yuffie and head to Nibelheim. I'm not sure how the hell you're supposed to know what melody to play without a guide, but Tifa gets a letter from her mentor at her piano and gets Final Heaven as an item. (I make Tifa the attacker from now on trying to get her to Level 3 - and succeed - but for some reason, she still doesn't learn FH when I use it on her. Does she need two L3 limit breaks before she can get FH?) Anyway, Tifa herself... doesn't really react. Next up I stopped by Cosmo Canyon and got Red XIII's best weapon by chatting with Bupenhagen. It's also a pretty low-key scene, though I like Nanaki's insistence that Bupenhagen will be back.

After that, I swap in Cid for Red XIII and finally excavate the Midgar Key - I do this solely by standing in the spot indicated by the guide; after five or so excavations, I'd only gotten Potion or nothing at all. I head through to Wall Market and Cid kicks a computer, which causes Tifa's best weapon to fall out, though I'm holding off on equipping it for now since leveling up Materia seems fun. I also stop by Rocket Town and just look around to find Cid's final weapon, which again I'm not equipping yet.

Next comes Vincent. I've already been to Lucrecia's cave, but this time on the sub I actually bump into the sunken ship! So I head in there, save, and start foraging around. The random encounters in here are tough, especially Unknown 2, which OHKOs Vincent sometimes and hands me a Game Over. I manage to escape with a bunch of strong equipment and Hades and my tail between my legs. Our second trip to that cave actually gives us both Vincent's weapon and his Lv4 limit break which, again, I cannot use yet. I do wish there were more substance to these seemingly significant scenes!

At this point, I haven't yet decided what sidequests comes next, when I see in my airship that there's a Weapon just chilling right next to Junon, in an interior place. Whaaaa?! I first try to enter via sub, but it's impossible to go under the eastern continent, so I poke around with the airship and realize I can land right on it. This triggers the same fight as in Mideel, I believe. It has a relatively strong attack that does around 25% of everyone's health to open the battle, but a few Ultima/Bahamut Zero quickly send it scurrying, just like last time... I heal up and give chase, bouncing off it several times, and meet it again in battle after it pauses to foster an energy ball of some sort.

Finally I wear it down into submission (Cloud/Vincent/Tifa) and it dies, killing Tifa with a Shadow Flare (bosses doing attacks after being beaten are officially my least favorite thing ever) and Cloud gets his final sword. Based on the guide, it seems like this also creates an opening for me to explore the Ancient Forest, so that's what I'll be doing next time!
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You can have Cloud play that song during the Kalm flashback. Now I don't know why you would assume it's important for later on, but yeah.

And yes, someone has to know all their Limit Breaks before they can learn their Level 4 one.

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Cids L4 limit is also on the sunken plane. Did you collect an item called Highwind?

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I just read through this and I noticed some discussion of missing this guy are sick - not to worry, that line is not in this version of the game. All the rereleases other than the PSOne Classics version are based on the PC version, which had a significantly improved translation. Its still the same in the basics - so Aeris instead of Aerith, Safer Sephiroth instead of Sepher Sephiroth, and the old spell naming convention - but it does fix most of the blatant errors and read much more naturally. And so, this guy is sick. This is a good thing because not only was the PS1 version loaded with errors and awkward lines, but it actively worked against the player at a few points. I believe the updated translation still trolls you in the Guard Scorpion fight though!

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Yes, they never fixed the Guard Scorpion gaffe.

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Leonhart4 posted...

You can have Cloud play that song during the Kalm flashback. Now I don't know why you would assume it's important for later on, but yeah.

does anyone teach it to you?

5tarscream posted...

Cids L4 limit is also on the sunken plane. Did you collect an item called Highwind?

i did!

Lightning Strikes posted...

I just read through this and I noticed some discussion of missing this guy are sick - not to worry, that line is not in this version of the game. All the rereleases other than the PSOne Classics version are based on the PC version, which had a significantly improved translation. Its still the same in the basics - so Aeris instead of Aerith, Safer Sephiroth instead of Sepher Sephiroth, and the old spell naming convention - but it does fix most of the blatant errors and read much more naturally. And so, this guy is sick. This is a good thing because not only was the PS1 version loaded with errors and awkward lines, but it actively worked against the player at a few points. I believe the updated translation still trolls you in the Guard Scorpion fight though!

this is a real shame. figured it was something like this :(

anyway, i played a tiny bit of the ancient forest, looked at the solutions to it, and realized that these stupid enemies were really annoyingly good at evading physical attacks... i might just skip this sidequest.

i'm looking at chocobo-breeding, and it seems kinda nightmarish. how many hours would you estimate it takes to breed all the chocobos i need to get the best materia caves?
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If you choose to have Cloud play the song, he'll say the notes aloud as he plays. I guess you just need to write them down at that point!

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ah, gotcha! i actually tried to talk to the piano, but nothing happened. was probably at the wrong angle or something.
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so thinking about what's left to do, it would probably take around 2 hours to breed the gold chocobo, according to guides? not sure if it's worth it or if i should move on to ffviii
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F
F
Vlll

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There's not much point to breeding chocobos unless it's something you think you'd enjoy or you just want to see Knights of the Round in action for yourself.

Or you plan to fight Ruby and Emerald, I guess.

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pjbasis posted...

F
F
Vlll

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ffviii get
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aw yeah
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SeabassDebeste posted...

ffviii get

Nice!

Be sure to paste the link to the topic in here :)

Edit: didn't realise you had already created one!

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I'll delurk a moment to post the link:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78653703