Fresh new game or hard mode?

[Ashuran]

Anyone has replayed this game multiple times and can tell me which they find more fun? I have started hard mode and while it is fun having strong builds, all weapons and lots of materias I kind of miss the feeling of growing like we do in a fresh new game where we level up etc.

[dlux]

Definitely NG+ hard mode. You will still be leveling up on hard mode and can perfect your builds. Not to mention that you need to play hard mode to get all of the achievements.

[Ashuran]

Originally posted by dlux:

Definitely NG+ hard mode. You will still be leveling up on hard mode and can perfect your builds. Not to mention that you need to play hard mode to get all of the achievements.

True. So far been breezing thru hard mode. The only thing making me hesitate on the fresh start is the need to assess everything again. I wish there is a new game plus (normal) where everything resets except Assess. Really did not like how Assess occupied a materia slot.

[Dixon Sider]

I tried hard mode and was not very satisfied. I would vote for new game with fresh characters, but IDK. I feel like I am fighting with myself whether or not I even want to play part 2 now.

Maybe if you play other games in between easy and hard, you might be more excited for the cutscenes, and it would be more fun. I just uninstalled after NG+ hard mode chapter 3. It still felt too easy.

Certainly dont play hard mode for the challenge. Its not there. Its easier IMO

[Cynbell]

I loved OG FF7 but some of the designs aspect to this game feel so clunky. So much time padder with forced exposition, specially in the slums. It should be super skippable on Hard since it's a NG+ mode only.

But no and, in fact, they pretend to have the people go through the crossdressing chapter at least 3 times if you want all achivements. Incredible.

Also some enemies are too annoying with crowd control. Hopefully this changes in Rebirth but I don't hold too much hope

[Ashuran]

Originally posted by Cynbell:

I loved OG FF7 but some of the designs aspect to this game feel so clunky. So much time padder with forced exposition, specially in the slums. It should be super skippable on Hard since it's a NG+ mode only.

But no and, in fact, they pretend to have the people go through the crossdressing chapter at least 3 times if you want all achivements. Incredible.

Also some enemies are too annoying with crowd control. Hopefully this changes in Rebirth but I don't hold too much hope

Yes the padding is very obvious. If this was not ff7 and does not have cloud and other memorable character then it is a mediocre game at best. Some fight designs are horrible too. Artifically being made difficult by wonky view angles etc.

They really should have made it a two parter at most than a trilogy. I love that we are able to see more avalanche stuff and they develop characters like Barret, Biggs, Wedge and Jesse more buuut the pacing of this game is horrible. The game for me basically pick up at around chapter 14-15 and starts to ramp up at chapter 17 only to end immediately lol. I heard rebirth is better though so excited for that. But yea nostalgia basically is what is mostly carrying the game for me at the moment. Cannot complain though since I got the twin pack which is a decent deal.

[Cynbell]

Originally posted by Ashuran:

Originally posted by Cynbell:

I loved OG FF7 but some of the designs aspect to this game feel so clunky. So much time padder with forced exposition, specially in the slums. It should be super skippable on Hard since it's a NG+ mode only.

But no and, in fact, they pretend to have the people go through the crossdressing chapter at least 3 times if you want all achivements. Incredible.

Also some enemies are too annoying with crowd control. Hopefully this changes in Rebirth but I don't hold too much hope

Yes the padding is very obvious. If this was not ff7 and does not have cloud and other memorable character then it is a mediocre game at best. Some fight designs are horrible too. Artifically being made difficult by wonky view angles etc.

They really should have made it a two parter at most than a trilogy. I love that we are able to see more avalanche stuff and they develop characters like Barret, Biggs, Wedge and Jesse more buuut the pacing of this game is horrible. The game for me basically pick up at around chapter 14-15 and starts to ramp up at chapter 17 only to end immediately lol. I heard rebirth is better though so excited for that. But yea nostalgia basically is what is mostly carrying the game for me at the moment. Cannot complain though since I got the twin pack which is a decent deal.

Yeah pretty much, I wouldn't be tolerating some of the parts of this game if this wasn't FF7. The exception to the rule.

[Dixon Sider]

Originally posted by Cynbell:

Yeah pretty much, I wouldn't be tolerating some of the parts of this game if this wasn't FF7. The exception to the rule.

I was in the same boat. I think a lot of people are in this boat. I am trying so hard to justify playing it but if this game was not FF7, I probably would have uninstalled around 2 hours into it. Nostalgia for the win I suppose. I would prefer JRPGs to just be good again instead of feeding off nastalgia. I hope DQ12 can fill the void. Give me a game with satisfying rewards for grinding.

[Ashuran]

Originally posted by Dixon Sider:

I tried hard mode and was not very satisfied. I would vote for new game with fresh characters, but IDK. I feel like I am fighting with myself whether or not I even want to play part 2 now.

Maybe if you play other games in between easy and hard, you might be more excited for the cutscenes, and it would be more fun. I just uninstalled after NG+ hard mode chapter 3. It still felt too easy.

Certainly dont play hard mode for the challenge. Its not there. Its easier IMO

I heard that the later bosses do get hard and the real challenge are the bonus bosses on the new simulators on hard mode. But I am more of an rpg person who likes challenge along the story so those bonus bosses really are not attractive for me. I just reached Aerith and melted Reno as well. Granted he was also easy on normal mode buuut yea so far it is far too easy cuz of our complete materias unlike in normal mode where we have to make do with what we have at the time. Even Airbuster boss did not even scratch me much on hard mode when on normal mode it was soooo hard cuz of our smaller hp, damage and materias.

I decided to do intermission for now. I will decide whether to continue my hard mode after Yuffie's story or do a normal run again before Rebirth comes out. Or I might just do another BG3 lol.

[Dixon Sider]

Originally posted by Ashuran:

But I am more of an rpg person who likes challenge along the story so those bonus bosses really are not attractive for me.

Ya, I wanted to finish all the bosses but I got to the part where I needed to do a bunch of Chapter 9 to unlock the last fight (to complete Aeriths encounters) and just said F it then uninstalled lol. There are some challenging fights, but I actually started falling asleep during the arena bosses (mostly because it was late). Its just different when its outside of the story. One of my favorite parts of video games is how they tell the story through the combat encounters.

Originally posted by Ashuran:

I decided to do intermission for now. I will decide whether to continue my hard mode after Yuffie's story or do a normal run again before Rebirth comes out. Or I might just do another BG3 lol.

At the end of the day, that sounds like a good idea. Its really a lot to ingest these cutscenes, unskippable walking simulator parts, and long winded conversations. Not that its a bad thing, it just makes me dread doing a 2nd playthrough right away.

I may return in the future to tackle hard and 100% it, but knowing me, its not likely. I still havent completed my unlocked hard mode God of War 1, 2, 3, 2018, Ragnarok playthrough and I liked that series a lot more than this remake.

I think Rebirth still has potential to be fun. People say its a lot better than this game. I just hope they did not beat FF7 disk 1 over the head with the AAA hammer as hard as they beat the Midgar section over the head with it.

[Ashuran]

Originally posted by Dixon Sider:

Originally posted by Ashuran:

But I am more of an rpg person who likes challenge along the story so those bonus bosses really are not attractive for me.

Ya, I wanted to finish all the bosses but I got to the part where I needed to do a bunch of Chapter 9 to unlock the last fight (to complete Aeriths encounters) and just said F it then uninstalled lol. There are some challenging fights, but I actually started falling asleep during the arena bosses (mostly because it was late). Its just different when its outside of the story. One of my favorite parts of video games is how they tell the story through the combat encounters.

Originally posted by Ashuran:

I decided to do intermission for now. I will decide whether to continue my hard mode after Yuffie's story or do a normal run again before Rebirth comes out. Or I might just do another BG3 lol.

At the end of the day, that sounds like a good idea. Its really a lot to ingest these cutscenes, unskippable walking simulator parts, and long winded conversations. Not that its a bad thing, it just makes me dread doing a 2nd playthrough right away.

I may return in the future to tackle hard and 100% it, but knowing me, its not likely. I still havent completed my unlocked hard mode God of War 1, 2, 3, 2018, Ragnarok playthrough and I liked that series a lot more than this remake.

Yes true. I want to tackle bosses that is part of the story. Bonus bosses that really has no connection to the story rarely holds my interest unless I really really liked the game.

The reason I want to do a second normal run is that I think i might enjoy it more now since I now know how the game works. My first playthrough I was just stumbling thru since I am now a bit of a slow learner. I did not even know about being able to change the leader of the party till almost near the end lol. The only thing i dread on the fresh start is having to equip the Assess materia again and having the need to use it on each new encounter again lol. At most I wish they would have made it that they gave cloud an Assess equipment he and other members can use without consuming a materia slot. I really wish there was a new game plus that is a fresh start except for enemy intel lol.

[Dixon Sider]

Originally posted by Ashuran:

Yes true. I want to tackle bosses that is part of the story. Bonus bosses that really has no connection to the story rarely holds my interest unless I really really liked the game.

Ya, a video game story can only be as grand as the challenges it gives to the players. You cant just have characters say "this is grand" or cutscenes displaying something grand and have it be so.

Originally posted by Ashuran:

I did not even know about being able to change the leader of the party till almost near the end lol.

I didnt even know that Tifa could build chi and get all new abilities. I also didnt know that Tifa had two different triangle moves (and still dont know how to charge her initial triangle move). I learned all of this during the hard mode combat VR fights, so I do not blame you at all. I honestly blame the game for giving us all this functionality then making it entirely unnecessary and not giving the player a reason to want to get better. Its on the game to motivate you to improve. Its not up to the player to invent reasons to improve. I flew through this game and never even figured out basic combat maneuvers.

[Ashuran]

Originally posted by Dixon Sider:

I didnt even know that Tifa could build chi and get all new abilities. I also didnt know that Tifa had two different triangle moves (and still dont know how to charge her initial triangle move). I learned all of this during the hard mode combat VR fights, so I do not blame you at all. I honestly blame the game for giving us all this functionality then making it entirely unnecessary and not giving the player a reason to want to get better. Its on the game to motivate you to improve. Its not up to the player to invent reasons to improve. I flew through this game and never even figured out basic combat maneuvers.

haha yea I learned other character's moves etc. pretty late as well which is a mistake. For example if I took the time to learn Tifa earlier I would have more fun beating up those aerial enemies since she was obviously suited for it. I am more of a turn based player and the few action rpg I played were single character so it took time for me to adapt to an action rpg hybrid where we have a party that we can also control and manage. I wish though that we can just command our other party members to use their special attacks rather than needing to swtich for them. For example wish we can command Barret to use his overcharge attack or Tifa her Chi attack.

[Dixon Sider]

Originally posted by Ashuran:

Ya I really wanted a lot more control over the companions as a whole. Even if it was just an option in the settings. I wanted to control their movement/location, when to attack/defend, triangle skill utilization. Just a whole lot of missed potential there. I think this game would have turned from a C+ to S tier game for my tastes if they gave us that option. I was yearning for it all game and it was distracting not being able to issue simple commands like that. I cant stand when my teammates do things I did not tell them to do in a RPG during combat.

I feel like only being able to give them commands to use weapon skills or magic is borderline between RPG and ARPG combat. Its pretty much the same thing as the new GoW which is certainly not a RPG.