- Joined
- Dec 29, 2000
- Posts
- 13,156
The combat in this game is exhilarating.
Played on NORMAL, it's quite intense and requires you to be mentally on point. Your timing and reflexes will be flat out tested and you need to be attuned to so many things at once. It's like driving 100 mph down a road when everyone else is going 50.
You have to constantly monitor health gauges, make key decisions between when to buff, when to debuff, when to heal, when to dish attacks, when to block and when to dodge and so forth. Analyzing enemies in this game is fucking key because if you don't exploit their weaknesses, you are in for some long ass fights. Even with Haste, which CAN be cast on the whole party at once but won't last as long that way, your ATB meter is a precious commodity and one has to have good judgement on when to go on the offensive and when to attack are crucial to success against the bosses in this game.
Some of these fights are an absolute rush, and each of the characters bring strengths and weaknesses to each encounter. I first thought Barrett and Aerith were kind of boring to play but once you are in the shit, you understand how vital it is to occasionally switch over to them for some long range DPS, to assess the battle as a whole and to distribute buffs and healing as necessary. Barrett, in particular, has a shit ton of health and if you enhance that with materia and gear that can equip a lot of them, he becomes a kind of 'healing tank' and spell caster for the party, and I believe that he is best as a support player. Cloud should be your 'middle of the road' guy, capable of being versatile as the situation demands. Tifa should be straight up damage, as she is an incredible DD with unbelievable speed and so many options for DPS that her support abilities should be kept to a minimum. For your frontliners, Chakra is a must because they should be self sustaining as much as possible. Pray is another good materia for the support characters to have, as it gives everyone some healing without expending valuable MP.
One thing my DMC brain had trouble adapting to was that this is NOT an action game. It has some action style gameplay, but if you think you can play this game and emerge from big fights unscathed, if that is what you're trying to do, you're playing it wrong. Characters in every FF game take damage. You can mitigate that, as with the turn based fare, by sometimes defending, sometimes evading and healing when necessary. That principle is no different in this game. Only this time, you're more responsible for how that all turns out. You CAN dodge Toad if you're paying attention. You CAN dodge Blizzard if you're paying attention. Or you can block it to take less damage. Damage is unavoidable in many cases but if you go in accepting that and just brace for it and react, as you would with any other entry in this series, you will do MUCH better than if you try to Kratos or Dante your way through it. Spamming dodge because you want that SSS rank is just going to keep you on the defensive, the health is going to keep reducing and you'll lose. This is a mindset that you must adopt; this is NOT a hack and slash game. It is a RPG with action elements. Even positioning plays a role. When one of your characters has a monster's attention, switching to another character and dishing damage from behind is a tactic that works. But if you stubbornly stick with one character rather than change on the fly as the situation demands, you will struggle.
I was wondering how one grinds in this game if they want to spend time leveling up and strengthening their materia and the two arenas (Wall Market and Shinra HQ) fulfill that function better than anything they did in the original version of the game. You get some pretty spiffy rewards for completing the fights the first time and you get great experience gains and can spend time learning weapon abilities here as well. The Shinra HQ arena, in particular, is useful for really learning how to get by without using items in fights, as the arenas prohibit item use but you get a partial health and MP refresh after every round of the 5 round encounters, which increase in challenge with successive victories. These arenas are not only providing grinding opportunities but they serve as tactical training on how to succeed without item use in this game. If you become attuned to how this game plays on NORMAL, you will find ways to get by while using only a minimal amount of consumable resources. You will still have to throw the occasional Ether or High Potion during a fight, but even those can be more effective if you have someone equipped with the materia that enhances the effects of these consumables.
I'm just going to say it. This game shits all over the original for engagement. Not just in the action but also in the events playing out and the mechanics involved. I have healthy respect for the original but can never claim I was a fan of it. I liked its ideas, its characters, its story. It is one of the most important video games of all time, and a lot of that is earned. But it's never been my favorite FF.
This one is now my favorite FF ever.
I haven't loved a game this much since The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. This is the same tier.
Played on NORMAL, it's quite intense and requires you to be mentally on point. Your timing and reflexes will be flat out tested and you need to be attuned to so many things at once. It's like driving 100 mph down a road when everyone else is going 50.
You have to constantly monitor health gauges, make key decisions between when to buff, when to debuff, when to heal, when to dish attacks, when to block and when to dodge and so forth. Analyzing enemies in this game is fucking key because if you don't exploit their weaknesses, you are in for some long ass fights. Even with Haste, which CAN be cast on the whole party at once but won't last as long that way, your ATB meter is a precious commodity and one has to have good judgement on when to go on the offensive and when to attack are crucial to success against the bosses in this game.
Some of these fights are an absolute rush, and each of the characters bring strengths and weaknesses to each encounter. I first thought Barrett and Aerith were kind of boring to play but once you are in the shit, you understand how vital it is to occasionally switch over to them for some long range DPS, to assess the battle as a whole and to distribute buffs and healing as necessary. Barrett, in particular, has a shit ton of health and if you enhance that with materia and gear that can equip a lot of them, he becomes a kind of 'healing tank' and spell caster for the party, and I believe that he is best as a support player. Cloud should be your 'middle of the road' guy, capable of being versatile as the situation demands. Tifa should be straight up damage, as she is an incredible DD with unbelievable speed and so many options for DPS that her support abilities should be kept to a minimum. For your frontliners, Chakra is a must because they should be self sustaining as much as possible. Pray is another good materia for the support characters to have, as it gives everyone some healing without expending valuable MP.
One thing my DMC brain had trouble adapting to was that this is NOT an action game. It has some action style gameplay, but if you think you can play this game and emerge from big fights unscathed, if that is what you're trying to do, you're playing it wrong. Characters in every FF game take damage. You can mitigate that, as with the turn based fare, by sometimes defending, sometimes evading and healing when necessary. That principle is no different in this game. Only this time, you're more responsible for how that all turns out. You CAN dodge Toad if you're paying attention. You CAN dodge Blizzard if you're paying attention. Or you can block it to take less damage. Damage is unavoidable in many cases but if you go in accepting that and just brace for it and react, as you would with any other entry in this series, you will do MUCH better than if you try to Kratos or Dante your way through it. Spamming dodge because you want that SSS rank is just going to keep you on the defensive, the health is going to keep reducing and you'll lose. This is a mindset that you must adopt; this is NOT a hack and slash game. It is a RPG with action elements. Even positioning plays a role. When one of your characters has a monster's attention, switching to another character and dishing damage from behind is a tactic that works. But if you stubbornly stick with one character rather than change on the fly as the situation demands, you will struggle.
I was wondering how one grinds in this game if they want to spend time leveling up and strengthening their materia and the two arenas (Wall Market and Shinra HQ) fulfill that function better than anything they did in the original version of the game. You get some pretty spiffy rewards for completing the fights the first time and you get great experience gains and can spend time learning weapon abilities here as well. The Shinra HQ arena, in particular, is useful for really learning how to get by without using items in fights, as the arenas prohibit item use but you get a partial health and MP refresh after every round of the 5 round encounters, which increase in challenge with successive victories. These arenas are not only providing grinding opportunities but they serve as tactical training on how to succeed without item use in this game. If you become attuned to how this game plays on NORMAL, you will find ways to get by while using only a minimal amount of consumable resources. You will still have to throw the occasional Ether or High Potion during a fight, but even those can be more effective if you have someone equipped with the materia that enhances the effects of these consumables.
I'm just going to say it. This game shits all over the original for engagement. Not just in the action but also in the events playing out and the mechanics involved. I have healthy respect for the original but can never claim I was a fan of it. I liked its ideas, its characters, its story. It is one of the most important video games of all time, and a lot of that is earned. But it's never been my favorite FF.
This one is now my favorite FF ever.
I haven't loved a game this much since The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. This is the same tier.
Last edited:
