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Then there is hard mode. The audacity T___T
Already there. 10 fights in a row to complete a mission is quite gratuitous.
If you did all the mini games in normal mode, you barely have to touch them in hard mode. Just a few to progress the story or get folios.
I know you aren't the only one who found it a difficulty spike as it is one of the most common ones mentioned, similar to the Hell House fight in Remake. That said...
It basically comes down to people are just forgetting basic concepts / strategies, because the lava attack people struggle with is extremely manageable.
- Steadfast Guard materia on everyone + dmg reducing effects (Barret's buffs / Barrier spells / and others)
- Auto-Life
- iFrames from limit breaks, particularly Aerith's which includes a heal and is instantaneously activated, or Synergy Skills
- Regen buff, Pray, Restore magic (Magnified)
- Life anyone who dies if you only focused on one tanky character, like Barret, which is quite efficient actually (plus Barret can, in particular, get instantly 2 ATB to do it for two party members)
Probably more methods I'm not thinking of but yeah... Honestly, it is a Hell House situation where people are just not taking the right approach at all and once you do it becomes trivial routine.
I do think the big curve of the lava not being fire element, thus not countered by Elemental, to be a weird one from Square Enix (or as some suspect, a bug). Same for the mechanical change to prevent the lava by attacking its weak point, though mechanics regularly change in hard mode this one feels a bit inconsistent.
I never found Hell House unfair. Hard, sure. But there were various ways to the solution of defeating it.
Red Dragon has that lava move that can instantly kill you or severely handicap you if you don't manage to mitigate it with mana wall, Reraise, and/or Barrett's lifesaver.
So what is the solution? To kill it as fast as possible?
I remember I was stuck with Rude and Elena and then Rufus. But those fights made me learn a bit more with materia swapping and using Cloud's abilities to get Rufus.
The only lesson to be learned with Red Dragon is to try to survive the lava in order to defeat it. I don't know. That gets an eye roll from me lol
It's a jrpg, i want to relax and enjoy the content at my own pace.
Not force myself to trial and error learn a sequence of fights that i have to redo from the start.
Those are challenges people undertake after 10 years of their own volition, or people who want to prove themselves. Not for a reward. If you play stuff like that for the reward you will get extremely frustrated.
Remove this from all parts with an update pls.
Yes, the Hell House is not unfair and it is very trivial. As I said, it is often regarded as the "hardest fight" in general by players of Remake (not myself) and is purely, as I said, a party setup/tactical problem and not actually a difficulty one.
This is exactly true for the Red Dragon and its Lava attack, too.
Honestly, I'm a bit confused by your post because I did actually list quite a few ways to counter the lava attack easily, but I'll elaborate I guess.
Taking from my prior post...
Spell Manaward cuts all damage you take in half (-50% damage magic dmg taken). Alternatively, Manawall which cuts both physical and magical dmg in half. This, alone, makes it trivial to survive. You could also use Fortification but, imo, totally unnecessary.
Steadfast Guard reduces damage taken and the AI can use it, plus it does work on the Lava (you will see your allies use it during that attack). Steadfast Guard only doesn't work on DoTs and full cutscene attacks that do damage during the cutscene, itself, since you cannot guard. At least, those are the only major ones off the top of my head. This also generates a ton of ATB, such as being able to immediately Chakra/Pray afterwards due to the materia.
Barrett Lifesaver + Steelskin causes Barret to absorb dmg party members take and heal them, reduces the dmg he takes, boosts his health even further, and pairs extremely well with Chakra on his massive health pool or even Regen buff.
These effects all stack and can completely invalidate the difficulty in the game as long as you don't get the buffs removed or negate removal of buffs, aka not an issue for this boss. Basically a cheatcode for automatically winning.
Use Reraise materia or Phoenix. Automatically revives you when you die. If using the materia you can use it with an Infinite MP Synergy to alleviate the cost, too. If using with Phoenix I recommend bringing someone who can build ATB extremely fast like Barrett, Tifa, or the lame Yuffie Brumal cheese to cast it multiple times.
Use limit breaks or synergy skills that grant i-frames so you simply don't take any damage. Aerith's Healing Wind, for instance, will not only i-frame but heal up your party during this.
You can use this method with the above damage reduction options to counter restore your health as you take damage or after.
Regen is pretty nice when the dmg is reduced enough meaning you remain nearly full health if done right even without needing to cast further healing.
Pray/Aerith's Limit/Restore can let you fully heal the entire party which, combined with the reduction tactics, trivializes the situation.
Chakra is very viable in this situation, particularly for Barret with Lifesaver active. More of a nuisance doing it for 3 characters at once, though.
I forgot to mention that you can also use Soothing Breeze Enemy Skill. Coupled with the dmg reduction options you can laugh as you sit there at around full HP the entire attack negating it.
Pretty much super easy to do and guarantee, with 100% total certainty, it cannot wipe you.
You said, you are a very good player and yet, you say the hard mode is too difficult?!
In Remake it was esay until last boss which had a small learning curve.
In Rebirth until Chapter 11 there was nothing hard at all.
People like challenges and there is nothing wrong with it. If you like it relaxed, than stay with easy or normal. :)
Hard Mode is simply an expert at wasting your time with no loadout options and unskippable cutscenes. Chapter 14 DOES NOT respect the player's time.
It tells you to kill the targetable chest to mitigate the lava.
But in Hard Mode all killing the chest does is immediately trigger the lava. So you need to IGNORE it and continue to damage the boss.
And that's poor game design.
Incidentally, the reason HellHouse was so annoying wasn't because the fight itself was particularly hard, but because in Remake it was nearly impossible to hit it with the required elemental spell while it was flying because it moved too fast for ice, and fire/air you had to be at a good angle. Thunder was the only one that would actually hit it reliably in the air.