Psycho666Soldier

My trophy count's pretty shit. I used to put more effort into my Gamerscore back when I played Xbox 360 a lot. So it's nothing too impressive

VxDeadxV I was actually thinking I might have to pony up like you guys and put my trophy banner in my signature.

I like how despite us probably coming off less angry about it, Vic is ultimately mirroring the same opinions about the ups and downs of this game.

Light spoiler for the end plot, but

I used to watch this dude's reviews all the time. He was always more negative about the games I liked, but he never failed to call out bullshit in a hilarious way whether I agreed or not. He's actually much more generous here than I've ever seen him be about anything JRPG related, but he was pretty spot-on with all the complaints. He had me dying during some of the quips of the later part. I think more than anything, he's right about the copy-and-paste feel of portions of the game. The chapters for the Reactor 5 mission definitely suffered a bit from that. Though I felt, again, this was mostly made up for in the general breadth of location design.

I know this is shallow and dumb, but I don't dig that character design. The buzzcut and beefy frame doesn't quite jive with the Prince of Persia vibe. Gameplays looks pretty good for the time, though.

Yeah, I mean, I totally get Ma's complaints. I even agree with a good deal of them. I just felt the positives far outweighed that. I can also readily admit that nostalgia plays a large part in that, though.

I think there's definitely some room to open up the environment from an earlier standpoint where you can complete the sidequests at your own pace, yeah. Even if not, it was definitely one of the most fun chapters of the game.

I'm not expecting anything super expansive. All I'm hoping for is some kind of hubworld map akin to a smaller version of Death Stranding's map layout, where the individual locations are fleshed out similar to the different slums and towns here. So like a chunk of land that stretches between Kalm and the Mithril Cave and includes the Chocobo Farm. Or maybe even expanding that to include Junon and Fort Condor. That illusion of open world the last games had. That's all I really want.

I'm pretty sure somewhere I said that FF7R feels like the improved version of everything they've been trying to do since Final Fantasy XII. That's mostly in relation to the battle system, but also the exploration mechanics and world design. My problem with XIII(coming from a perspective of not playing the whole game, but watching a friend play most of it) is that it literally feels like walking down a hallway sometimes. Same problem I had with the final chapters of XV. And more that the battle system felt like it was lacking something. This is all in relation to the first one. I actually think XIII-2 is a fun game that's just too late. So I think there's nothing wrong with the comparison. But I do think this game does mostly everything better. I also agree on the forced blocked off areas. Even if it's literally a wall, I prefer that to an endless void that you're forced not to walk past. Why did you even let me get that far down the train tunnel if I couldn't go that way anyway? It'll be interesting to see how they handle an open world concept. The detail for the locations is what was missing inf XV. The openworld was fun to play in and expansive, but hollow and lacking flavor. I think some kind of merging of the two would make for a great future of the series.

Regarding your spoiler: I agree about the bosses, though. It never was enough to hold me back, so I didn't really care enough to make a note of it. But it was frustrating to build someobe up for a stagger only for it be reset because you reached an HP cap.

I'm a steal-whore whenever I play JRPGs. Especially Final Fantasy. So this time wasn't much different, but I appreciated that you could see what they had by assessing them.

You're not alone in taking too long the realize the true use of Magnify. It's just a shame you only get one. I usually had it attached to Barrier. I actually used Refocus a lot on the tail end of the game. It was pretty much glued to Cloud when I had enough materia slots to justify it. Made a pretty notable difference. You can use Infinity's End and still have a bar left over. I think the kicker for me with Hard Mode is that taking away both items AND benches is a bit rough. I wish they either let you use items in battle or at least get the reprieve of a rest point. It would give those benches a lot more usefulness, too.

Like I said, I liked most of the music disc remixes. There were ones that were either too unrecognizable or just didn't really hit for me. The one's I really liked were Barrett's Theme, Lurking in the Darkness, The Battle Theme, surprisingly the Turks theme, Fight On(mostly because I'm a longtime metal fan), The full bossanova version of Costa Del Sol, and the Wutai theme. I think there is an element of me liking jazz on its own so I can appreciate more of it maybe? But since they were collectibles, I like that they took some approaches of framing it as a style based on music they would actually be listening to. The Hip Hop de Chocobo cracks me up every time. The uniqueness of each character has me excited to see how others play. Red will be very interesting. I can see Yuffie being a bit like Tifa but with probably more of a support role. Builds up ATB quick to use ninja abilities and probably be your command sponge. Maybe we can get Vincent's Dirge of Cerberus playstyle in a game that doesn't suck I pretty much agree with your spoilers word for word, down to the nitpicky parts about Wall Market and Shinra HQ and the small details you liked. As for the final spoiler

You didn't know Jessie was a girl?!

Well, a lot of us have had more free time and it's been a minute since we've had one of these threads. Maybe it continues, maybe it doesn't. I've mostly been playing Digimon World: Next Order the last two weeks. As a fan of the original Digimon World, this game is almost perfect. I'm a sucker for the monster-raising mechanics mixed with RPG sensibilities, and recruiting Digimon to the city becomes addicting. It's not really a game for everyone, but if you're into that sort of thing, this game has almost everything you need. I just wish the story it was telling was executed in a more...engaging manner. I did also pop in the original FFVII a couple days. Went through a file of my power-grind game saved at Cosmo Canyon right before go through the Gi Cave. Gi Natak was the first boss I got stuck at as a kid, and I felt like such a fool once I realized you could just heal him to death. I opted to beat him with no magic here to establish dominance. I then pulled up my save from the last playthrough I did where I was just trying to blaze through it. Wouldn't you know it? It's was a perfect save primed to go into the City of the Ancients before THAT happens. I made it a save literally right before the act so I can go through and watch it with different parties to get all their reactions. I might load up my power-grind save where I'm optimized for Emerald Weapon and give him a go. I utilized a manufactured Lucky 7's through materia and equipment manipulation. Never got Lucky 7's organically. How about you guys?

Are you and Chax doing a Simulplay or something?

I really wanted to like Dirge of Cerberus because I'm such a mark for Vincent. Back when I used to RP a lot, I'd use him as an avatar. Or even played him in some AOL Final Fantasy RP chat rooms. But you said it: it's just mediocre. The story stuff was cool, and I was happy Yuffie and Reeve had a spotlight in it. But the gameplay just wore thin so quickly.

I'll be there for you. That's what's good.

I'll back up Vic in saying the Boku no Hero gets a bit heavy, but never in a way that doesn't promote the value of rising above. So if you think she can handle something a bit more complex, then it's fine. It's not vulgar or bloody or anything, other than the occasional perv comments from Mineta.

I think Cait Sith is a character that is universally hated first playthrough, and gains more clout with each successive playthrough. I know I learned to love him more each time I played. Cloud/Yuffie/Vincent was always a staple party for me. But again, I've played the game so many times, that I have a lot of beloved party setups. Basically, and combo of Cloud/Red/Yuffie/Vincent/Cid/Tifa was my usual go-to, but nowadays, I tend to try and mix up my party enough to keep some extra flavor. I agree about both Tifa and Vincent's limit breaks. Tifa's are vital, whereas Vincent's are a frustrating sacrifice in the name of badassery. Yuffie's actually always been my #1 waifu in the series, despite the hate she used to get from the fanbase, even if her limits are kinda weak. Totally agree on the setting, though. No FF setting has come quite close to capturing that same magic for me, despite having much love for the other games. There's just something about the cyber-punkish, dystopian background with supernatural, fantastical elements and properties that just makes it stand out. The Remake capitalizes on this so hard. I actually started a new game of FF9 on the Switch last year. Thinking I need to get back to crushing that this summer.

I have a physical copy I play on my PS3, and I already popped it on and checked out a few different saves. Problem is I've bitch-slapped that game up and down so many times that I don't know if I want to spend the time going through it again or spend that time elsewhere. I'll eventually come back to Hard Mode on the Remake, but I wanted to have something to come back to rather than burning out and getting completely sucked in all over again. I was trying to look up unique challenges, and there was one I found where you play each character as a forced class AKA they can only use certain materia and commands. I have also seen Advent Children far too many times. Back in my acid days, it was the go-to movie for me and one of my best friends. Is it the original version, or the Director's Cut? Also, I still haven't played Crisis Core, and this game was making me think I need to do that at some point. But I may just try to find a YouTube video that splices all the story together.

Looking forward to hearing your pros and cons when you're finished. Despite recognizing any flaws, I'm too jaded when it comes to this game. First JRPG after being introduced through Super Mario RPG, so it'll always be drenched in nostalgia.

That's such a nice thing to forget. It's one of those things that makes for such a good twist, and kinda flips the story on its head. So you're about on Disc 3 now?

Ranma 1/2 may be my favorite anime of all-time. I have the first five seasons on DVD. I've been thinking about taking advantage of it being on Hulu now. How far are you on your rebinge?