Is upgrading weapons pretty passive in Rebirth compared to Remake or am I missing something?

[A]

Is the weapon core upgrade system basically replaced with the Folio system?

Either I'm just waiting to get enough SP to unlock new weapon slots or I'm not investing upgrades on my weapons at all. I use to get excited with unlocking new sub cores in Remake, but now it feels simplified.

I miss the part where I would be able to customize the weapons. For example, somehow the Buster Sword will be relevant even later on with the correct upgrades.

[DumbKet]

You are correct weapon upgrades in Rebirth are passively gained as you play and do side questing and completing things.

The folios are the new active progression system.

[Grill_Sergeant]

I kept waiting for it to "unlock" or something. but it seems like aside from setting Weapon Skills, its entirely passive.

[A]

Originally posted by DumbKet:

You are correct weapon upgrades in Rebirth are passively gained as you play and do side questing and completing things.

The folios are the new active progression system.

What does it mean for weapons? From a stats perspective, it seems there's no reason to use the Buster Sword since the Rune Blade has better phys and magic damage.

[Hanyo]

Originally posted by A:

Originally posted by DumbKet:

You are correct weapon upgrades in Rebirth are passively gained as you play and do side questing and completing things.

The folios are the new active progression system.

What does it mean for weapons? From a stats perspective, it seems there's no reason to use the Buster Sword since the Rune Blade has better phys and magic damage.

This is the natural progression of the game, though. I mean I love the look of the Buster Sword as much as we all do, but soon enough you'll be swapping into your Butterfly Edge and your Organics and so on so if you GOTTA have it I'm sure mods will soon enough be there for making all swords Buster.

[A]

Originally posted by Hanyo:

Originally posted by A:

What does it mean for weapons? From a stats perspective, it seems there's no reason to use the Buster Sword since the Rune Blade has better phys and magic damage.

This is the natural progression of the game, though. I mean I love the look of the Buster Sword as much as we all do, but soon enough you'll be swapping into your Butterfly Edge and your Organics and so on so if you GOTTA have it I'm sure mods will soon enough be there for making all swords Buster.

I'm not exactly complaining. I was just used to the Remake system where the Buster Sword for example can be used against the final boss without a problem or how big the stat growth is vs the Folio system. Synergy skills and abilities are wonderful though!

[KW_Sten13]

To clarify, weapons do still get stat increases as you gain SP, if you go into weapon upgrades --> Cloud (for example) --> Buster Sword you can see in the bottom right what the next batch of upgrades will be, which afaik is always increasing attack/magic attack and adding more materia slots. I do think its a bit of a flaw that you can't see a summary of all upgrades, but rest assured all weapons scale with your progression just like in Remake. Imagine it more like setting Remake's upgrade system to auto and getting upgrades in batches instead of single selections. Buster Sword is viable the whole game

[Sevrojin]

you get skill slots in weapons (4 of them). the different weapons have different slots

FYI all weapons end up with 8 linked materia slots

ps Sleek sabre is the best weapon (for cloud) due to the 2 atb generation things you can stack on

pps also not that some attacks on various characters are scaled off magic .

ie clouds blade beams or tifas chi orbs from unfettered fury

[A]

Originally posted by Sevrojin:

you get skill slots in weapons (4 of them). the different weapons have different slots

FYI all weapons end up with 8 linked materia slots

ps Sleek sabre is the best weapon (for cloud) due to the 2 atb generation things you can stack on

pps also not that some attacks on various characters are scaled off magic .

ie clouds blade beams or tifas chi orbs from unfettered fury

Yeah, it seems like from a physical standpoint, sleek saber is up there. I'm currently in chapter 9 so my latest weapon is Umbral but sleek seems to still have the better phys damage.

BTW, can you explain again your PPS? So magic damage affects Cloud's range attacks. Is that a big deal? I played Remake recently and appreciated having high magic attack on Cloud because of the flexibility to bully enemies with non-magic hits.

It's kinda funny that sleek saber has the higher physical damage but its associated ability skill is a magic attack--which Imo is pretty good since it makes you float, letting braver deal the optimal damage.

[ProfessorFrog]

I didn't like it tbh. I liked the extra weapon slots in the materia menu, but i didn't like how weapon upgrades were automatic.
Hope they do something fun with it in the 3rd game. Something to build each weapon, and then have a materia setup for each weapon. and then being able to switch weapons during combat or something wild.

[El Nasr]

I dont like it too... you dont even notice and feel the upgrade, for me its more like you open the menu each time and little surprise " oh huh ....yeah there is new a slot now "
And most upgrade are often crap like "+3 MP", "5 percent damage reduce in guard during cloud counter stance" pffff ..... seriously?
Unless some specific to character individual skill, there is nothing crucial...

[This PC]

The choices I make feel as impactful to me as they did in the first, except the busywork is less tedious. ^^''

Originally posted by El Nasr:

And most upgrade are often crap like "+3 MP", "5 percent damage reduce in guard during cloud counter stance" pffff ..... seriously?
Unless some specific to character individual skill, there is nothing crucial...

I disagree with this, these skills change how I play a lot, faster ATB charge is excellent, for example.

[Sevrojin]

Originally posted by El Nasr:

I dont like it too... you dont even notice and feel the upgrade, for me its more like you open the menu each time and little surprise " oh huh ....yeah there is new a slot now "
And most upgrade are often crap like "+3 MP", "5 percent damage reduce in guard during cloud counter stance" pffff ..... seriously?
Unless some specific to character individual skill, there is nothing crucial...

good weapon skills imo are the ones that boost ATB generation and crit damage

elemental is also pretty good


but as i mentioned before a weapons magic attack and physical attack should be taken into consideration for your playstyle.

like using blade beams and basic magic abilities? go for the magic focused weapons
like using basic attack and most weapon skills? then focus the strength weapon

or do you like the set of 4 skills a weapon can provide ie Cait sith one weapon of his can boost the duration of detrimental effects by 50%

the Reason Sleek sabre is good is it can get 2 instances of 10% extra atb generation on attack. this stacks with haste and if you are using plasma discharge enemy skill prepare for inordinate electrical explosions

[Valdo82]

Actually I somehow liked it, that they moved a lot stuff to folios. It feels more like Character progression than simple weapon system.

[A]

Originally posted by Valdo82:

Actually I somehow liked it, that they moved a lot stuff to folios. It feels more like Character progression than simple weapon system.

True. While folios represent character growth which is a nice "lore" explanation for gameplay, the simple "there's a growth materia in the weapon" wasn't half bad too.

Granted, the synergy abilities and skills are awesome, yet, I miss the stat growth in remake. 3% or 5% damage increase seems marginal from the folio system.