Board 8 > I'm playing Final Fantasy VII for the first time *Spoilers as I go*

(+) Yeah! (+)

pjbasis posted...

Should also play KH1 for Cid H redemption

Yeah whenever I save Cid H it's basically the KH version.

They redeemed him by putting a piece of straw in his mouth instead of a cigarette

Smoking is bad

Leonhart4 posted...

There's a difference between "the game told me who that is" and "oh I know who that is"

Those things hit differently

Eh, if you're going to put it that way, you could say it's important to read all the Marvel comics before watching the movies, since it hits differently when you know who the characters are beforehand.

I mean it does hit differently if you grew up on Captain America than if you learn about him through the MCU, but I also think the MCU operates from the position that many of their viewers are experiencing this for the first time.

That's a much bigger ask than playing a couple of extra games and watching a movie though. Square is basically treating the remake as a proper conclusion to FFVII than merely a remake.

Leonhart4 posted...

You can let the train crash into North Corel, too!

You miss out on Ultima if that happens though.

I knew I was forgetting one...although in this case, you don't fully miss out on Ultima. Someone offers to sell it to you for some absurdly high price. 500,000 gil or something like that.

Oh wait, yeah, you can still get Ultima. It's Barret's Level 4 Limit Break you miss out on, right?

Leonhart4 posted...

It's Barret's Level 4 Limit Break you miss out on, right?

I don't remember trying this myself. I checked a guide, and it doesn't mention you can miss this, though. That would be good since it's one of the strongest limit breaks in the game. Missing it would be quite a Catastrophe.

Anyway, speaking of missables, the area you go to next has plenty of them, including ultimate weapons for some characters. If you care about getting Barret's best weapon, he has to be in your party during a specific part towards the end to get it.

Hmm...I was thinking there was an important permanent missable from that part, but it's been a while, so maybe I'm thinking of something else.

Oh right, I did want to mention that the other Huge Materia can bestow Master Materia for those respective colors. You have to max out almost every materia of that color to get it though.

yeah the Corel huge materia is the only missable from failing there

Leonhart4 posted...

There's a difference between "the game told me who that is" and "oh I know who that is"

Those things hit differently

literally (Roba don't click this again, massive Remake spoiler)

When Remake came out I had a habit of watching people's playthroughs for certain parts of the game and the entire Zack sequence is friggin massive. If you played the game you know who that is and the enormity of his apparently surviving.

People who never played the original game were just confused on what was going on that whole time and couldn't appreciate what the game was showing us there and setting up.

Between that and the fact the story revolves around plot ghosts trying to force the original game's plot, the glimpses of the future the game shows you, I just couldn't imagine playing remake without the original... but that's just me!

MartinFF7 posted...

literally (Roba don't click this again, massive Remake spoiler)

When Remake came out I had a habit of watching people's playthroughs for certain parts of the game and the entire Zack sequence is friggin massive. If you played the game you know who that is and the enormity of his apparently surviving.

Yeah but that scene is really bad if you've played the original. One of the worst scenes in Remake. It wouldn't be nearly as bad if you hadn't played FF7.

that's what I get for not stopping with:

MartinFF7 posted...

could not disagree more Mac but we will need to agree to disagree on this! We'll let Roba make the call when he plays it, lol.

I mean if you don't like that stuff then of course you would think that it's better if you don't have context for the scenes that are being "ruined".

But that's a pretty weird take to say it's better going in blind so you don't get upset that things are ruined.

Like just say you don't like FF7 Remake instead lol.

I did like FF7 Remake.

I dunno, will people who played Crisis Core get hyped up when Genesis shows up in Rebirth?

Absolutely not, but I want to be properly outraged about its stupidity rather than merely confused by it

I just feel like in the end this debate depends on the individual. My girlfriend experienced Remake first, partially because I'm a huge FF7 head, and really enjoyed it without knowing much about the series. (She's only played Dirge of Cerberus which is so fucking hilarious to me) Going back and experiencing the original FF7 for the first time wasn't really as impactful to her.

I think the game's code implies that Barret's final limit was missable at one point during development, based on unused code where it would've been findable in the Bone Village dig site. Which of course would mean it still wasn't actually missable, but you know what I mean.

Or perhaps Leon is just thinking of Barret's ultimate weapon, which is missable.

Regarding Remake, I didn't play any of the other FF7 spinoffs apart from watching Advent Children once (and I think I forgot most of that one). I don't really want to play games I wasn't that excited about playing just to get to the game I did want to play anyway. Crisis Core may happen someday I guess, but I don't really want to hold off on Rebirth before that one. I played through Remake earlier this year, but it would be kinda nice to play through Rebirth soon after it comes out.

mnk posted...

Or perhaps Leon is just thinking of Barret's ultimate weapon, which is missable.

Nah, I was thinking it was something North Corel related more than Barret related. I'm probably just remembering wrong.

I woke up to quite a few posts to read through! Thanks for following along, everyone

MartinFF7 posted...

(also - surprise Omnislash appearance, I don't remmeber hearing about Battle Arena action but I might have missed it! Hope you picked up some Speed Plus materia there too, real hidden gem materia imo)

I ordered the update poorly. I went to the Arena between finding the sunken plane and going to the rocket town. Finding that awesome sword and Double Cut made the arena seem beatable! And I think I found everything in the airplane. Double Cut felt like the most hidden thing there because it was kind of hidden from view by a chest on the second level.

As for all the discussion about spinoffs, I'd have no problem playing the other games, especially now that I'm into the characters and the story. My problem is, the games would need to be available on Steam (or the Switch I guess) and on sale for a good price. Remake Intergrade is like $100 right now, but SteamDB's price history says it has been 50% off pretty regularly. I'll have to wait years for part two to hit PC anyway, not to mention untold years for part three to even come out, so I'm in no rush.

I'll watch Advent Children because it's easy to get. Remake and the other spinoffs will have to wait, unfortunately. I guess I could try and find a no-commentary lets play of Dirge of Cerberus or something since I don't think it'll ever be available to me anywhere, but I doubt that sort of "playthrough" would be interesting to anyone following along here

Dirge will probably get a rerelease before the whole remake finishes.

Yeah I would be shocked if Dirge doesn't get rereleased in some way after they introduced some tie ins to its plot in Remake.

pjbasis posted...

Dirge will probably get a rerelease before the whole remake finishes.

Yep, that will almost certainly happen between parts 2 and 3.

And who knows, maybe a redubbing of Advent Children with the new cast

The sunken plane is one of the best grinding areas in FF7, since that's where you get the Sources that can boost your stats. Think I actually maxed out stats for Cloud one of the times I played (or at least some of his stats).

pjbasis posted...

Dirge will probably get a rerelease before the whole remake finishes.

It'll be in Ever Crisis.

Leonhart4 posted...

And who knows, maybe a redubbing of Advent Children with the new cast

It's just a film, why not remake it with better graphics?

need a World Government to form and make it illegal for PS2 games to not be available to play on any other systems (....glances over at my delayed replay Xenosaga trilogy while I work through XIII trilogy replay don't start Leon!!)

Roba: yeah Dirge I was going to recommend watching just a youtube cutscene compilation, you won't miss anything from not actually playing the game. Crisis Core is available on switch & steam at least if you wanted to give that a go, otherwise maybe the "youtube movie" route with that too, though I'd still recommend playing it.

Regarding Steam releases, it was revealed in a Rebirth trailer footnote that the exclusivity window for the game is only 3 months vs. the 12 months Remake had. That being said, it still took well beyond that window (one extra year I think?) before it got onto Steam or whatever but ideally they saw like, FFXVI's numbers vs. Baldur's Gate 3 or whatever and they get a move-on getting it onto Steam...!

I still own a fat PS3 on which those Xenosaga games could be played but I would never defile such a treasure so

Remake can be enjoyed just fine without prior knowledge of the series. But having knowledge of/played the series absolutely enhances the experience of Remake and it's just silly to say otherwise. Like, really silly.

Well, it turned out that I wasn't heading to the final dungeon after all. Partway there, Cait Sith informed everyone about a problem in Midgar. With Rufus dead, his various underlings have been unleashed. Hojo is the biggest danger since he's going to use the cannon to feed energy to Sephiroth. Heidegger and Scarlet taking over would be bad too. The only good guy is Reeve, who I remembered being in one cutscene way earlier in the game. He was against dropping the structural plate. I didn't think much of that at the time, because... I mean, doing such a horrific thing to a bunch of innocent civilians is something most people would balk at. I guess that was supposed to be a clue, though. Reeve is the one controlling Cait Sith! That's good to know I suppose, but I barely know Reeve so it isn't an earthshattering revelation or anything.

After turning the airship around, everyone parachuted into Midgar in a cool scene. The areas here were huge with lots of ladders and screen transitions, but I had fun exploring them and finding all the items. I ran into the Turks in a tunnel, but they seemed reluctant to fight and I decided to let them go in peace. Scarlet and Heidegger, however, got no such mercy. Their robot was the Proud Clod. They seriously called it that. With haste, regen, and eventually an Omnislash, I annihilated it. Then came the fight against Hojo, where the party learned... gasp, he's Sephiroth's father! I already knew that thanks to the Vincent encounter, but I guess everyone forgot. I ran past Vincent on my way up to this battle, as if the game was reminding me about the promise that he'd get a chance to fight the evil scientist. This close to the end of the game, though, I don't want to worry about training anyone new. Vincent will just have to be happy Cloud, Tifa, and Yuffie got revenge for him. Hojo had three forms and took awhile to kill, but he wasn't too bad. If only Cloud had been allowed to kill him on the beach way earlier in the game, then none of this would've happened.

After that, it was finally time to go to the final dungeon for real. First, though, Cloud wanted everyone to take a day to really consider what they were fighting for. It would've been nice to see where everyone went (I can only imagine Yuffie looting a Materia shop or something), but all I got to see was Tifa and Cloud. They had a nice moment together on a hillside, talking about their relationship. Then they spent the night together (in a chaste way), and Tifa got to lean against him. Aww, how cute. Maybe those two will get together after all. Everyone else returned to the airship too, even Yuffie! It was a hilarious scene where Barret doubted her, but was at least glad that she didn't steal all their Materia this time. Then Yuffie dropped from the ceiling acting all indignant... for about thirty seconds before she had to run off to her usual motion sickness vomit spot. Yuffie is the greatest.

In fact, just to illustrate Yuffie's greatness, let me tell you about what she was thinking about as the party headed off to the final battle. Barret was worried. Red XIII was worried. Tifa wasn't worried, but only because the boy she likes told her everything would be fine in a really cool way. But was Yuffie worried? No! She was already looking ahead at the future as if their victory was assured. All she wanted was for Cloud to sign a contract stating that all the Materia would become hers after they beat Sephiroth. Sure, Cloud refused to sign, but you can't blame a girl for trying.

I took one last look at my equipment and Materia, and then I saved for the night because I don't think I have time for a big final dungeon. It's looking like I'll beat the game tomorrow or Saturday, though, so get ready for the thrilling conclusion!

Are you sure it was in a chaste way? Maybe you didnt get the high-affection version of that scene.

MacArrowny posted...

I dunno, will people who played Crisis Core get hyped up when Genesis shows up in Rebirth?

Yes tbh

WazzupGenius00 posted...

Are you sure it was in a chaste way? Maybe you didnt get the high-affection version of that scene.

I mean the game goes out of its way to not suggest anything (especially based on what the original version of the scene reportedly was)

Robazoid posted...

Then they spent the night together (in a chaste way)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/9/5/AAC56kAAE59r.jpg

ok here's the funny bit about Vincent recruitment now. He always says "Wait! If I go with you will I meet Hojo?" and the response from Cloud is "Dunno. But we're after him and Sephiroth. So, I guess sooner or later..." (Tifa and Cid have comparable responses if you get him when they're party leaders)

But if you recruit Vincent on Disc 3 the dialogue tree is literally this, per the script (which I also noticed once time I waited until then to get Vincent):

Vincent: Wait! If I go with you will I meet Hojo?
Cloud: Yeah, probably...

lol Cloud, what a dick.

note the Turks fight in MIdgar gives you that option because you did the Wutai stolen materia quest, if you hadn't it would've been mandatory fight against all three of them.

if you go the wrong way when you're in the tunnels leading up to the Proud Clod (...really can't give the FF7 translator too much grief but in that case, yeah...) you can revisit the Shinra building and open up those treasure chests you couldn't back on Disc 1. Cait Sith's ultimate weapon is also in a locker there, and iirc it won't let you revisit the top floors since Diamond Weapon blew them out. But you can revisit a floor that still has the "trail of blood" from Jenova being dragged, like they never cleaned it up despite the weeks that passed, lol...

Yeah, if you opened a locker on your first visit to the Shinra Building and Cloud went, "A megaphone? We don't need this," that's Cait Sith's ultimate weapon.

Can't believe all this Tifa affection is being shat on by Yuffie talk

I warned you guys

he'll come around, trust the process

We could use more Yuffie love

KommunistKoala posted...

he'll come around, trust the process

I see this is your first Robazoid topic

If only he'd just never level-grinded in forest areas...

Since you're using Tifa, if you want her ultimate weapon, it's a bit out of the way and you'd almost certainly not find it on your own. You gotta go back to Bone Village and dig until you find the Sector 5 key, then go back to Wall Market and examine the machine in the ITEM building.

There are a few optional things you can do before you tackle the final dungeon. You can defeat Ultima Weapon for good and get Cloud's, well, ultimate weapon. It also opens a path to a new dungeon with a lot of goodies in it.

Also go back to the waterfall where Lucrecia is and pay a visit to Bugenhagen in Cosmo Canyon.

I think you want Vincent in the party when visiting the waterfall too. Don't remember if he's required to view the scene at all or if you get some extra things for him if he's there.

Right, I should've mentioned that. Make sure Red XIII is in your party when you go to Cosmo Canyon, too.

Thanks for the info about places to explore and items to get, everyone. I don't want to spend a bunch of time grinding to kill any optional superbosses, but I'll at least attempt a battle against the Ultimate Weapon. It also only just clicked for me that there's more than one Weapon. I thought it was all the same one swimming around underwater and popping up to cause problems.

WazzupGenius00 posted...

Are you sure it was in a chaste way? Maybe you didnt get the high-affection version of that scene.

I definitely didn't get an "implied sex scene" vibe or anything, so yeah I must not have gotten the best version. The closest they got was Tifa sleeping while leaning against him. I'll have to see if I can find a video of other versions. I'm not expecting a full blown Mass Effect sex scene or anything, but something more intimate between them would be cute to see. Maybe they'll even kiss!!!

MartinFF7 posted...

you can revisit the Shinra building and open up those treasure chests you couldn't back on Disc 1.

Oh, I didn't put it in my writeup but I did wander through there. When I arrived, Cait Sith sprinted out of the building's front door saying "don't go this way!", so I went the only other direction available to me and took the stairs. The loooong stairs. At least there were no random encounters there because, yeesh. Once I finally got to the top, I realized my error and took the elevator down. I did remember to grab the chests in the item shop, but I guess I missed Cait Sith's weapon. I don't care though. I don't want a good weapon for someone who trolled me into taking the stairs!

most_games_r_ok posted...

Can't believe all this Tifa affection is being shat on by Yuffie talk

Tifa is good too! I'm glad there's a version of the scene where her and Cloud get together, because I really like their relationship. She's not as good as Yuffie, but being as good as Yuffie isn't easy. Talking to Tifa on the airship after plot events is great, but talking to Yuffie is amazing. I'm always so excited to run out of the room to see the latest development in the saga of her hilarious motion sickness.

The two scenes aren't that explicitly different. The difference is mostly in dialogue and how Tifa reacts when she finds out the others saw them. If she sank to the floor in embarrassment, you got the best version.

Also Ultima Weapon isn't a "superboss." He isn't that difficult to beat.

Yeah only the weapon swimming and the one in the desert are superbosses

Leonhart4 posted...

If she sank to the floor in embarrassment, you got the best version.

Oh, then I did. I thought she was just embarrassed the others might've seen her leaning against Cloud (because Tifa is so shy. Aeris would've probably been high-fiving everyone if she was caught in a similar position). I don't know how I feel about Cid, Red, and Barret spying on anything more than cuddling...

I dont think that scene is intending to imply that any actual spying happened, just that Tifa was afraid it might have, accidentally or otherwise.

Yeah, Ultimate Weapon isn't really a super boss. There's also a rather involved sidequest involving chocobo breeding. You do get some powerful materia from that, though it's by no means required.

As a kid, I did all the sidequests except beating Emerald and Ruby weapon, the real superbosses. I did manage to beat them many years later. Though if I were playing FF7 for the first time now, I'm not sure I'd bother with Chocobo breeding.