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[cormack12]

I've just got to Chapter 17, and while it is meant to be fairly sizeable it's the penultimate chapter in the game sadly. I haven't played any FF games before. I tried FFXV a couple of times but never really made huge inroads into it, and I believe they are all vastly different in terms of mechanics anyway. Some of the mechanics and informing the player what to focus on seem to be really vague. I remember like a one line blurb flash up about staggering and maybe even less during battle about pressure. But it never really explained how materia is tied into these.

But now as I'm messing around and finally getting to grips with the various proficiencies, materias, buffs, debuffs, items, linked materia etc. it's all clicking and I've turned into a wrecking ball (with other party members). But it's a big ass game, and I'm probably only going to really feel powerful and accomplished for like 2 hours of the playthrough. idk, maybe it's because I'm new and this knowledge is acquired from smaller scale games - but games like Octopath and Persona are much clearer. I'm not moaning about the mechanics, they are actually pretty good - just moaning that the onboarding of newer players or giving them the right information is not great.

Which is strange because using assess is a pretty good implementation of quickly and easily giving info to the player. I'm hoping most of this experience will carry through to FFVII: Rebirth when I get it down the line so I don't have so many gaps to fill in.

TL: DR - I'm only now starting to feel proficient at most aspects of the game, as it's about to end, but I really cba to play through it again with all my newfound mastery.

 

[mayham2199]

Play through it again. Hard mode changes the game in some pretty drastic ways. You can't use items, no MP refill during chapters. You have to actually strategize and use other materia to help you win. You thought you mastered the game but wait until hard mode.

 

[TransTrender]

I understand what you are saying.
I rarely replay through a game after finishing it, but FFVIIR was my exception and I loved the hard mode playthrough.

 

[Punished Miku]

They might flow better once they're all finished.

 

[struggler_guts]

Same with Control, you get your last (and best) power right at the end of the game.

And I rarely replay games either

 

[calistan]

Isn't that just a sign of a well-crafted difficulty curve?

If you feel like you've mastered a game too early, it gets boring. That's one reason I rarely replay these big single-player experiences.

Take Red Dead 2, for example. By the time I got into the story I'd already gone everywhere and killed everything that walked or crawled. The only way the game could fight back was to take control out of my hands and force negative outcomes via cutscenes, which was total bullshit and just wouldn't have happened to the invincible killing machine that was my character.

 

[asdasdasdbb]

There's always going after Top Secrets or Weiss.

 

[Danjin44]

If the game in enjoyable enough I'm replay it many as I want, I especially think FFVIIR shines when you play it on hard difficulty and the fact you can only fight super bosses like Weiss on hard mode.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

I've just got to Chapter 17, and while it is meant to be fairly sizeable it's the penultimate chapter in the game sadly. I haven't played any FF games before. I tried FFXV a couple of times but never really made huge inroads into it, and I believe they are all vastly different in terms of mechanics anyway. Some of the mechanics and informing the player what to focus on seem to be really vague. I remember like a one line blurb flash up about staggering and maybe even less during battle about pressure. But it never really explained how materia is tied into these.

But now as I'm messing around and finally getting to grips with the various proficiencies, materias, buffs, debuffs, items, linked materia etc. it's all clicking and I've turned into a wrecking ball (with other party members). But it's a big ass game, and I'm probably only going to really feel powerful and accomplished for like 2 hours of the playthrough. idk, maybe it's because I'm new and this knowledge is acquired from smaller scale games - but games like Octopath and Persona are much clearer. I'm not moaning about the mechanics, they are actually pretty good - just moaning that the onboarding of newer players or giving them the right information is not great.

Which is strange because using assess is a pretty good implementation of quickly and easily giving info to the player. I'm hoping most of this experience will carry through to FFVII: Rebirth when I get it down the line so I don't have so many gaps to fill in.

TL: DR - I'm only now starting to feel proficient at most aspects of the game, as it's about to end, but I really cba to play through it again with all my newfound mastery

Sometimes I feel pre-release coverage is a better tutorial than the actual tutorials. I understood staggering and materia because I saw how it worked in previews. Nowadays, I'm not embarrassed to look at tips and tricks before diving in headfirst.

 

[th4tguy]

I’m at the very end of ffxvi and feeling this way.

 

[NightmareFarm]

That's how I feel with most Tales games, especially Xillia where the combat only just clicked during the last dungeon.

That game needed to be way longer.

 

[buenoblue]

I was talking about this the other day. This is every game for me. I played avatar and only really got good at the combat right at the end. That game is surprisingly hard even on normal.

I tend to replay a game a year or 2 later and pretty much always have a better time because I have the basics of what the game is all about.

 

[SkylineRKR]

Hard mode with skipping all cutscenes and on rail bullshit, its the better experience for it. You start fully decked out from the get go and you can even get some extra OP materias such as another Elemental. You will learn to appreciate materia you might've not used before and you will looking to your build and stats more.

I died less on Hard mode for example. Because I fully understood the mechanics, and what skills to use at any given moment. Speccing on weaknesses and utilizing pressure along with ATB management is very important if you want to win swiftly. For example, you do need to constantly change player character because AI barely builds up meter for you. I did this much less in my first run.

 

[crackajack]

I think I quite often get into the vibe with more complex systems only at the end or maybe even only in the second playthrough on a harder difficulty, when the harder enemies or route require more from you.
I prefer that definitely to eg Souls where you hit a brick wall at the beginning but nothing past that is demanding anything new from you, lacking any progression, no beginning and more thrilling later part, no easing into something complex. You either master it or not. meh
But there is also convoluted stuff like practically every fighting game or also eg DMC5 where there is so much stuff thrown in there without any integrated training, so that I finish the main path with repeating very few attacks mostly aimlessly randomized and know absolutely nothing on how it is supposed to played even after hours. Nice for people who want to figure everything out on their own, but pointless for dumbasses like me, that have to have some well structured tutorials and explained rules and effects within the game flow, so not in some separate theoretical training mode. Sports games became also quite bloated in their controls in the last decade or even earlier but I think fighting stuff almost requires to have played some predecessors, probably including some nostalgic 80s coin machines difficulty attitute as well, to get (into) them.

 

[MikeM]

Go hard mode. Its a completely different game to play in a good way.