Final Fantasy Omnibus

[Raziel]

Yeah, Shiva wasn't as bad as I thought, because I remembered I had Irfit. 

 

Fuck that fucking Hellhouse.  That was the hardest fight in this game so far.

 

The whole Honeybee Inn sequence might be one of the greatest things committed to a video game.

Edited April 14, 2020 by Raziel

[JLSigman]

I've about 90 minutes into it, so I've met the Aerith and had the first real PTSD Nibelheim flashback. Holy shit. Just holy shit. 

(my power was out all day yesterday otherwise I'd've been another 10 hours into it)

My only concern at the moment is they had Barret make a real cult-leader like speech at the beginning of chapter 2. I'm'a a little worried, but I'll see what happens when I finally get back to the Seventh Heaven.

[J.T.]

HOLY FUCK~!!!!!

 

[JLSigman]

Just now, J.T. said:

HOLY FUCK~!!!!!

 

Oh yeah. Masashi Hamauzu took Nobuo Uematsu's work and did AMAZING BALLS TO THE WALL shit with it. I may never get bored of it

[J.T.]

Once everything is off of virus lockdown, Sony PLAY orchestra needs to tour with that shit.

[J.T.]

On ‎4‎/‎11‎/‎2020 at 8:11 AM, Raziel said:

For years I said that Nobuo Uematsu's magnum opus was Final Fantasy X's soundtrack, I was wrong, it's THIS soundtrack.  

I agree.  It's always been my opinion that Those Chosen By the Planet is arguably his best work.  No music he's ever composed sets the stage like that track does.

Edited April 14, 2020 by J.T.

[Raziel]

There's some really fantastic music work in this game, especially the way things blend into one another, like when area music kicks into a harder arrangement for battles.  And like:

The Hell House got me, playing normal battle music for stage 1 then laughing at you when it turned into stage 2 and they snuck in another arrangement of "Those Who Fight Further" into it and you realize that yes, you're in a fucking boss fight.

The Boss fights are NOT fucking around.  

The combat system is really good once you get used to it and learn how to pop around, switch between characters, and figure out the way to deal with everything.  

I'm finding a distinct lack of grinding.  I don't know if it's that I just need to go further away to respawn the mobs, and so far I'm not falling behind any enemies (although here in Chapter 9, I'm starting to notice some stuff getting harder), and I've done every side mission so far, but I'm also way short on money (can't keep up with armor upgrades, still missing a couple pieces of Materia (like Revive) ,so I'm wondering if I'm just not "grinding" right.

[Raziel]

Well Chapter 12 is one fucking hell of a gut punch.

[Chaos]

I'm trying to be patient and not just buy this right now. My backlog is so big, and I'm trying to chip away at some financial stuff. Plus, I know this will inevitably be on a flash sale through Sony for like $45 within a month.

The real test will be if I make it to this weekend without the FOMO purchase.

[Eivion]

I just started late last night and am into Chapter 3. I love what they did with the aftermath of the Reactor explosion. Even knowing the truth behind it it still kind of hits seeing all of those poor bastards so miserable in and pain.

[odessasteps]

I heard someone say they are changing some of the plot points. While I can understand tweaks here and therez hard to believe they might change one major plot point...

can they really not kill Aerith?

[JLSigman]

1 hour ago, odessasteps said:

I heard someone say they are changing some of the plot points. While I can understand tweaks here and therez hard to believe they might change one major plot point...

 

  Reveal hidden contents

can they really not kill Aerith?

 

Absolutely can't. Not unless this remake is supposed to dump everything that came before in the trash, which has not been my understanding. 

[Raziel]

Considering what they've done so far, there's a zero chance they're not gonna do it.  Hell, they already dropped a hint (and looks like they already rendered most of the scene).  

The only really MAJOR change I've seen is

The truth as to why Shinra was letting Avalanche blow up the first 2 reactors and a better explanation as to why they decided to drop the plate on Sector 7.

[Death From Above]

Actual no joke spoilers this time. I recommend avoiding until you finish the game.

 

A lot of people are going to dislike the ending, it's going to be the most divisive thing about the game. It takes a super-hard left from the traditional story it followed up to that point. I kind of feel like they were trying to cover their bases in case they don't actually get to make a part 2, as unlikely as that seems.

I will say that I'd actually be shocked if they're still planning to kill Aerith. Even if she dies I feel like they're gonna pull some Kingdom Hearts Bullshit. What they pulled with Barrett makes it pretty clear we're gonna get weird. The whole Plot Ghosts thing is giving them carte blanche to do some really crazy bullshit.

[Chaos]

I'm weak, I'm three hours in, I'm doing side quests in Sector 7 with Tifa, and I am gushing at everything. The music in this is insanely well done.

[SorceressKnight]

Spoiler

From everything seen, this is an "of two minds" thing.

On the one hand- if they are trying to remake FF7, you kind of have to kill Aerith to get it (since it's such a big part of the game that you can argue us putting it in spoilers doesn't apply: "Aerith dies" is basically video gaming's answer to "Rosebud was his sled": the one spoiler which is so famous, and so big a plot point, that if you love the medium, you already know the spoiler by now. 

...on the other hand...

FF7 is such a big game, and such a big moment- that by that same token, Aerith dying is a gut punch every Final Fantasy fan knows is coming and is fully prepared for. It's a gut punch we've already steeled ourselves for, and so rather than the 1997 reaction of "Oh my god, did that just happen? C-can I use a Phoenix Down on her? Did...did she really get killed? She's not dead, right? RIGHT???", fans will think "this scene was amazing. I HAVE to see how this is handled in this game...can the PS4's graphics manage to outdo how "Advent Children" handled the death scene?" 

In movies, we already saw how the 1998 shot-for-shot remake of "Psycho" was an abject failure- they did everything exactly like the original, and as a result it was guaranteed to fail, simply because there was none of the gut punch in the 1998 version. You knew the twists going into the movie- it promised to be a shot-for-shot remake after all. Because they changed nothing, it could not possibly be as good as the original "Psycho" simply because everyone knew what was going to happen- and in "Psycho", the shock MADE that movie.

With all of that in mind:  if the creators of FF7 Remake REALLY wanted to make Remake as good or better than FF7...wouldn't the single best way they can do it be to have Sephiroth kill a different character in this game? If everyone has steeled themselves for the "Aerith dies" gut punch, are already expecting all the manly tears they will shed when Aerith dies in this game, are fully prepared and honestly, a little excited to see just how the game handles one of the most iconic scenes in video gaming history...and so paradoxically, the only possible way for FF7 Remake to draw out that same reaction from the player that FF7 got in 1997 and truly make the fan get that same gut punch reaction would be "Okay, this is it, end of the first disk on the original game...this is the time it happens, Sephiroth is there, it's time fo-HOLY SHIT DID SEPHIROTH JUST KILL TIFA INSTEAD???" beat. "...oh my god, did that just happen? H-how could they make that big a change? C-can I use a Phoenix Down on her? Th-they're going to kill Aerith instead of her, right? RIGHT???"

 

[Raziel]

They built up Biggs, Jesse, and Wedge enough that even knowing their deaths are coming, it still hurt.  I'm actually amazed they saved as many NPC's in Sector 7 as they did.  

Everything with the Whispers and Red's "Here's what the deal with them is" pretty much points to that they are gonna kill Aerith, and it's still gonna hurt.  It's something that's SO ingrained in the story that there'd be a massive backlash if they did anything different.  The move itself in 97 took balls to do, balls that not many devs would even steer into, so pulling back or doing a switch out would cheapen the entire thing, because the whole point of her death was making Holy work so that the meteor didn't destroy the world.  NOT killing her kinda cheapens that.  Her changing her "destiny" to live is would cause Sephiroth to win and the vision in the Shinra planetarium to come to pass, so ergo, she has to die in that sacrifice.

I do dig them hitting us over the head with the hammer that Cloud is a Sephiroth clone instead of just slyly hinting.

[Raziel]

God damn this Whack-a-mole fight in Hojo's lab, fuck every fight in Hojo's lab, this is getting ridiculous...

*Jenova fight happens and rolls into the redone Elevator fight into the Motorcycle chase*

 

THAT JENOVA MUSIC DURING THAT FIGHT OMG UEMATSU AND HAMAUZU ARE FUCKING GODS!

[Raziel]

If the end of the game had a link to pre-order Part 2 right now, I would so do it.

[Raziel]

While the best way to grind levels post-game is Hard Mode, Hard Mode cuts off using items for anything, so using Materia is the only option, but there's no way to replenish it (since Benches only restore HP in Hard Mode and the boxes aren't plentiful enough and even then there's only a chance if them having a shard), I need to grind for the MP Absorption  Meteria, so that's in Normal (since Guard Scorpion kicked my ass in Hard Mode).

 

So, I did notice some enemy balance issues in certain areas, namely, enemies in certain areas abused the maps which screwed you up since it was areas you didn't have Barrett or Aerith for distance attacks (like climbing the pillar).

 

With this game having a hard level cap of 50 and being able to Max out all the Materia you get (like multiple copies of all the magic stuff, plus the linked stuff and ability stuff), I don't know how the hell they're balancing Part 2 out since they can't just reset to zero and it you took the time to grind everything to max, you're gonna smoke the baseline (I'm assuming the baseline is gonna be about the minimum you need to finish the game, so around Level 35ish)   if the save carries over.  And I can't see them not carrying save data over.

[odessasteps]

I heard someone suggest that Yuffie steals all your stuff at the start of part 2, as a way to de power Cloud. 

[Raziel]

I mean, that could work, except you'd still be Level 50 with the appropriate base stats.  Also doesn't explain what they'll do for Part 3.

[JLSigman]

22 hours ago, Raziel said:

With this game having a hard level cap of 50 and being able to Max out all the Materia you get (like multiple copies of all the magic stuff, plus the linked stuff and ability stuff), I don't know how the hell they're balancing Part 2 out since they can't just reset to zero and it you took the time to grind everything to max, you're gonna smoke the baseline (I'm assuming the baseline is gonna be about the minimum you need to finish the game, so around Level 35ish)   if the save carries over.  And I can't see them not carrying save data over.

Both of the .hack game series did this, and yeah, you just start with the baseline "What's the level of the last boss of the previous game and start there" and just have folks realize that if you massively overpowered yourself at the previous game, you'll be overleveled but potentially undergeared for the beginning of the next one. I have no problems with this. 

[Craig H]

Someone help me out here...What is the general feeling about FF15? I don't remember much about it from when it came out and rather than rely on YouTube videos I'd rather hear from you all that might have played it. I ask because my wife's friend suggested that my daughter (turning 10 on Monday) would like it.

So is FF15 good and is it too complex for someone who is 10? My daughter is currently into Animal Crossing, but she's playing through Breath of the Wild again at the moment even though she needs help with some parts of it. She'll basically play most stuff except for sports games and is more into games that have feminine heroes in it.

[Raziel]

So, FF15...

It has 2 really glaring issues, and 1 is that combat is boring.  You can directly control 1 person at a time out of the 4, you can do some commands, but for the most part you're just going to be doing stuff with Noc and occasionally dual techs with the others.  But they used a weird combination of enemy scaling and massive HP increases to extend it, and most combat devolves into "hold O and occasionally move directions" pretty quick.  Then you get into the Day/Night cycle and camping, which starts getting complicated (as some fiends only come out at night, and most are way overpowered early).  

 

The other issue is the story feels like the game isn't finished (even with the DLC).  For the Party characters, it moves decent, but the side characters don't get enough time to make an impact when it feels like they're supposed to, and they did a piss poor job with Luna.  There wasn't near enough time given to her for the impact you were supposed to get from her.  And then there's the Chapter 13 fiasco, where the game introduces a whole bunch of stuff without ever really explaining it and has a total tonal shift.  

 

I mean, for someone not really getting into the story 15 is fine for the driving around/side stuff, but the deeper combat won't pass a 10 year old, and there's a massive lack of female characters in it, especially for a Final Fantasy game.  

 

I'd steer you more toward either 12 (OG or Zodiac Age) or 13, since they're better stories, 12ZA has better combat, 13's combat can be autopiloted, 12 is wide open, 13 is linear as an arrow, and both have strong female leads (Ashe and Fraan for 12, Lightning and Fang for 13).