Author Topic: wut specturr'z playing  (Read 31429 times)

Spectere

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Re: wut specturr'z playing
« Reply #30 on: March 05, 2020, 12:04:23 PM »
Speaking of MegaZeux stuff, I added optional save slot support to it recently (very handy for consoles, but desktop users can make use of it as well):

Looks like it's probably going to be in the next release. \o/
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vladgd

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Re: wut specturr'z playing
« Reply #31 on: March 05, 2020, 09:45:12 PM »
Man, that stuff is so interesting. I am not really qualified to give an educated response (my knowledge is almost 0) but it seems to me similar to a mechanic fixing a car. Vehicle has a problem, and through their own experience they look around in certain areas that correlate to the symptoms.

I swear one of these days i'll get sublime and bugger around with some python (for probably 20 minutes before getting frustrated and quitting, being realistic about myself here). I'm jelly, but i know it takes a lot of work and practice, as with learning anything else. I have a pc now, so I really got no excuses other than, not enough free time, using said free time to play vidya instead.

It's like exercise, learning a new language (Я могу читать по русски хотя бы)and coding, three things i wanna do, but I don't. TOO MANY THINGS NOT ENOUGH TIME, or energy.

Curious though, I assume you do this as a profession, how is hobby coding? Still have motivation to tinker around with side projects after work? I think small projects sound fun, maybe bugger around with a raspberry pi project or something.

Spectere

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Re: wut specturr'z playing
« Reply #32 on: March 06, 2020, 08:47:48 AM »
Yeah, it's pretty much exactly like fixing a car. This is probably one of the few cases where car analogies work, in my experience. :P

I know what you mean as far as the lack of free time goes. Being an adult is overrated.

And yes, I work as a full-time developer for an optical laboratory. Unless I find myself seriously burned out I don't generally have a problem going home and doing some hobby coding. That's when I do my work with MegaZeux, as well as my other projects.

I think a large part of why I'm able to do that is because there's a pretty sharp difference between the sort of stuff I do at work (business applications and web sites) and what I do at home. As a hobby, I generally find myself either working on stuff like MegaZeux, or doing research projects (writing a raycaster, texture converters, reverse engineering, etc). The only time I've had any real overlap between the two is when I wrote a pygame-based widget system for some Raspberry Pi-based tablets for the lab floor at work. That was a fun project.

The Raspberry Pi is a great place to start. It's a reasonably powerful system that has everything you need for development already installed, including plenty of samples. The only real downside is that it's running a flavor of Linux, which may be a bit of a learning curve in and of itself.

Also, since the stupid Twitter plugin I have refuses to let me simply link to the site, here's a couple of things that I wanted to link to above:

Raycaster:

Texture Compression:
« Last Edit: March 06, 2020, 08:51:29 AM by Spectere »
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Spectere

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Re: wut specturr'z playing
« Reply #33 on: April 13, 2020, 09:30:33 AM »
I ended up binging Final Fantasy 7: Remake this weekend and cleared it in around 33 hours.

It's a bit of a mixed bag. I generally like the story additions they made with a few notable exceptions. I don't want to spoil anything there since there's plenty of new content to go through, but the events of chapter 18 and some of the things going on that lead up to that make me a little dubious about what's going to come up in the future.

As far as the story changes I enjoyed, I'll say that I love how the game actually gives you more of a reason to give a shit. In the original FF7 it felt like some important characters really weren't given enough of a build-up. Like, you're told that Tifa is your childhood friend, but the game doesn't really show them prior to the scene with them in the bar ("give me something hard"). The remake changes that significantly and does a far better job building her up (among others). There's also a few things in the original that were very subtle (so subtle that you'd be forgiven for forgetting about them even being plot points) that they ended up bringing out into the forefront.

The game generally looks good and runs smoothly (seems to run at a stable 30fps on a PS4 Pro), though there is noticeable texture pop-in. I chalk that up more to me not being used to playing games with streaming assets from a hard drive on a console. Something something PC Master Race, yadda yadda. This is the first HDR-enabled game I've played (I can't for the life of me get HDR working on my PC) and the added dynamic range definitely makes a difference throughout the game.

I'm going to just say right here that I played the game strictly for its story after a certain point, and still recommend it for that alone (though, as I implied, chapter 18 is weird). If you want to read me bitch about the failings of the new combat system, keep reading.

The combat system wore out its welcome at around the 12 hour mark for a lot of reasons. Prior to that I generally enjoyed it and just dealt with the little cracks that were starting to fester, but it eventually got to the point where it became a frustrating slog, so I just switched the game to easy mode in order to preserve my sanity. Let me just detail a handful of situations that I've encountered numerous times during my playthrough.

I'm not at all opposed to a hard game, and generally welcome them (I enjoy Soulsborne games and have clocked a decent number of hours in various Monster Hunter titles), but the problem with FF7:R's battle system is that it seems to have an identity crisis. The way it's built makes it seem apparent that it doesn't know if it wants to be a straight up action game or an RPG and ends up sending moxed messages. On one hand, sure, you can dodge in real-time, but on the other hand it still feels like if the game wants to hit you with an attack, it'll hit you.

The game also seems to break previously established rules. Remember how limit breaks were intended to be a character's iconic last-ditch attack? Imagine my surprise when I found out that they can miss. I've triggered cross-slash in front of an enemy, only to have them wander off camera during the wind-up animation, leaving Cloud to aggressively attack the air. Did I mention that you're vulnerable during this wind-up animation? I've had enemies come from off-camera and start wailing on Cloud during the animation, shaving off hundreds of health points during an unskippable animation that locks him firmly in place.

Healing spells follow three distinct steps: playing the animation, removing MP, and restoring HP. The problem is that there's a surprisingly long gap between when the game removes MP and restores HP (feels like around half a second). If you die between those two events, the game will take your MP without restoring your health. Really nice given how much smaller the MP pools are now.

The player that is being controlled is typically prioritized. If you want to take direct control over Aerith to reposition her and take a few specific actions, odds are within a few seconds every enemy you're fighting will immediately come running at her, completely ignoring the ex-SOLDIER and his giant fuck-off sword and the big burly dude with the gun arm that have been wailing on them for the past three minutes. As a result, you're largely dependent on remote-controlling characters. The problem with that is that the ATB gauge fills up much slower when you aren't actively playing as a certain character, so have fun trying to make the most out of that bizarre combination of mechanics.

The game gets really stun-happy around the 12-16 hour mark. Stuns are pretty much what you'd expect: temporary debuffs that completely prevent you from moving. The problem with them is two-fold. First of all, the stun debuff is never shown on your character panel ("am I stunned for a quarter of a second or five seconds?"). Second, too many enemies can do it, and too often. It reminds me all too much of when my friends and I would attempt to clear World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade raids with three overleveled people before Blizzard patched the challenge out of old raids.

The stun situation gets worse when you consider the baked wind-up and attack animations that your character performs. If you select a move and then suddenly the game drops a stun AoE on your head, you get instantly stunned. My favorite situation is when you get stunned, then they immediately follow it up with sleep and poison. Good times.

The game is also like Monster Hunter in that if you're attacking an enemy and the person you're attacking takes a swing at you in mid-combo, your combo breaks. That makes sense in Monster Hunter when you're fighting a 15 meter long goliath that throws itself at you, but it makes much less sense when the target is a Shinra grunt who gives you a light shove in the chest. You might think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not. I've had multiple instances where Cloud has been wailing on someone with a sword that's as big as him, only for them to shove him in the chest and cause him to stumble backwards. I've also seen that little push do more damage than the sword swings.

To add to the above, enemy combos are completely unbreakable. You can't even hold block in mid-combo to shave off some damage. If they connect once, you're getting hit by everything that follows. Considering enemies can break your combo whenever they want by starting a combo of their own, this becomes especially problematic.

On top of that, there's no rhyme or reason regarding which attacks can be blocked or dodged, and the only way of knowing is to get hit. I've seen plenty of cases where Cloud was able to block a massive attack from a giant monster, yet a normal-looking attack from a human-sized enemy would break his block (and lock him into a combo, naturally). Similarly, there are more cases than I can count of Cloud getting hit despite being noticeably outside of the range of an AoE attack. Again, if the game wants you to take damage, you're going to take damage. Period.

I'm sure there's quite a few examples I've missed, but hopefully this properly conveys the frustration that I started to feel at tha halfway point. Unfortunately, there's another few points of frustration regarding their difficulty selection system. First of all, you don't get any reward for slogging through the game on normal. Nothing. You get rewards on hard mode, but normal might may as well not even exist. Second, easy mode is way too goddamned easy. I've seen some jackasses go "WELL DUH, IT'S EASY MODE LOL" while completely ignoring the difficulty chasm separating easy and normal. What's even worse is that if you want to play the game in the "classic" difficulty mode (which is supposed to make it turn-based) you're stuck playing on easy. What?

Just to give you an idea, on normal I went from having to struggle to survive due to all of the above issues piling up, to being able to mash square to win. That's not offering multiple difficulty levels, that's giving the player the option to neuter the game. Still, when faced with the choice between frustration mechanics and actually being able to enjoy the story, I chose the latter. Sue me. If I want a challenge (and a decent combat system) I'll play Soulsborne Hunter instead.

So would I recommend FF7:R? Sure. I do highly recommend bumping the difficulty down when you start to feel the walls close in, though. I feel that the combat system has enough critical flaws that it's not worth stressing over.
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Zephlar

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Re: wut specturr'z playing
« Reply #34 on: April 13, 2020, 11:32:24 AM »
You actually really touched on something I had MAJOR concerns about in the demo. The combat stress.

After playing the demo I decided to wait and see how everyone feels about it before I bought it. Initially I didn't like the idea of in game content via digital deluxe option on release, or the full priced multiple releases. I can looked past those though as a fan of the Mass Effect trilogy I can see where setting up a proper trilogy could really work. However that also could mean they are trying hard to put filler content and dialogue in order to get what feels like a full experience.

Everyone is raving about the combat system, but I can't say I was a huge fan with what I played. One of the joys of FFVII was kicking back relaxing enjoying the story as it unfolds. Turn based combat kind of allows you to go at your own pace and doesn't feel as labor intensive. In fact right after playing the demo my wife booted up World of Final Fantasy and all I could think was how much I liked that turn based model and would rather have it for FFVII over what I had played.

I'm still gonna buy it I think when it goes on sale which is crazy because I'm a mega fan of the OG I would have always thought I would be all over a FFVII remake without hesitation, but this industry has destroyed my trust in pre-ordering of any kind even for this remake.

Thanks for the review of your experience. I've been watching a lot of videos about it and few are actually being that critical of the combat system. Seems like a lot of people really enjoy it. I get it's not a "bad" combat system mechanically but...guess I'm just more traditional.

vladgd

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Re: wut specturr'z playing
« Reply #35 on: April 13, 2020, 12:08:26 PM »
Even though I've been waiting for this game longer than some of my work staff under me have even been alive, I was skeptical on this one. I wanted a remake to ff7, not an action game with an ff7 coat of paint "cough" dirge of cerberus "cough".

Disappointed the combat didn't pan out, but it really should...have been...yknow...a remaster not so much a remake.

Did you play crisis core? And if so, how does it compare? That game had kind of a weird combat system, but I recall enjoying it from beginning to end. But it was a spinoff game, not a mainline game, so expectations were lower.

Might snag it when it drops down to $30, but seems like a waste of my time right now.

And to Zephlar, if you haven't played dragon quest 11, you aught to. Its probably the best example of a modern jrpg that is still very much a traditional rpg.
« Last Edit: April 13, 2020, 12:10:37 PM by vladgd »

Spectere

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Re: wut specturr'z playing
« Reply #36 on: April 13, 2020, 03:00:09 PM »
I figure we've all played FF7 at least a dozen or so times, so I can be at least a little spoilery on minor plot points for the original.

One thing that really bothered me is that you can't control Nanaki in the current FF7:R release. While there is a logical explanation as to why you might not be able to do so (he doesn't really join you, per se, until after Cosmo Canyon) I still consider that a minor red flag. Really hoping that the game doesn't become the Cloud/Tifa/Barret show.

It is worth noting that he does seem to have fleshed out limit breaks and appears to have slotted materia (you can see it on his collar), and does join you in combat as an uncontrollable "party member," so I might concerned over nothing here. Then again, considering the game is completely voice acted, there's a possibility that they might limit the party. Hopefully they just pulls a Mass Effect and keep the unique dialogue to a minimum.

I just want to be able to use my Cloud / Nanaki / Cait Sith party, dammit.

After playing the demo I decided to wait and see how everyone feels about it before I bought it. Initially I didn't like the idea of in game content via digital deluxe option on release, or the full priced multiple releases. I can looked past those though as a fan of the Mass Effect trilogy I can see where setting up a proper trilogy could really work. However that also could mean they are trying hard to put filler content and dialogue in order to get what feels like a full experience.

The most recent episode felt reasonable dense. As long as they keep it at around that 30-35 hour length I'm fine with them being full priced releases. FF7:R's filler is a bit weird. It'll take you through areas when you're going from point A to point B that seemingly have no purpose, only for you to later find out that they're used by questing areas. Kind of awkward, but it works.

I suspect that a lot of the walking is done to mask load times. The load and save times are a bit on the long side and I find myself having to remind myself that the PS4 is hard drive based. I probably should have put my old 840 or 850 EVO in there before I started playing.

There were a few areas where I wish they would have put in some more banter to pass the time, but that was relatively rare, thankfully.

Everyone is raving about the combat system, but I can't say I was a huge fan with what I played.

I'm curious to see how people think of it when they get further into the game. My frustrations didn't really boil over until the halfway point, and apparently only 4% of players actually finished the game (not surprising, really—FF7:R basically was my weekend). One of my friends ended up getting to that point and started ranting about the chain stun problem that I ran into, so it seems like at least some people are running into the same issues that I did.

Even though I've been waiting for this game longer than some of my work staff under me have even been alive, I was skeptical on this one. I wanted a remake to ff7, not an action game with an ff7 coat of paint "cough" dirge of cerberus "cough".

Disappointed the combat didn't pan out, but it really should...have been...yknow...a remaster not so much a remake.

I wasn't really opposed to the idea of an action-based combat system, to be honest. It just doesn't seem like they really thought the system through. I mean, just the idea that limit breaks can miss because the enemy decided to fuck off while Cloud was twirling his sword around is just downright baffling.

To me, it seems like they wanted to capture the glitz and glamor of an RPG battle system while still keeping it action-focused and weren't nearly as careful as they should have been.

It's hard to say whether a 1:1 remake would have been as well received. The more different a remake is, the less it invites comparisons to its source material. It's like with Doom vs. Doom 2016: the latter is basically a different game with a similar core plot rather than being an iteration on the old formula.

One thing I can say, though: the combat system sure doesn't impact how fucking weird the ending of FF7:R is. Yikes.

Did you play crisis core? And if so, how does it compare? That game had kind of a weird combat system, but I recall enjoying it from beginning to end. But it was a spinoff game, not a mainline game, so expectations were lower.

I played Crisis Core, but it was so long ago that I don't really remember it all that well. Might have to find that and take it for a spin (still have my PSP!) so that I can compare the two.
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Spectere

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Re: wut specturr'z playing
« Reply #37 on: May 03, 2020, 11:09:08 AM »
So after that adventure I did what many people on the Big Bad Internet did and decided to replay the original FF7. More specifically: the Steam release.

I always find it funny when people whine about that sort of thing, too. "Oh, well, NOBODY has nostalgia for the Steam version! FF7 was a PlayStation game!!11!11" Well, sorry kid, but I didn't own a PlayStation in the last 90s. The Windows release, and all of its quirks, are my nostalgia. Fortunately, the Steam release keeps the improved translation of the PC version (with the downside that "shit" is no longer uncensored) and fixes a lot of the things that make the original PC release a bit of a bear to play in 2020 (though I still do have it installed on my retro PC, just for kicks).

That said, it still has its fun little technical quirks. Its gamepad support is pretty lousy. The first thing I did, naturally, was plug in an XInput pad (specifically, my grey and green Xbox One controller) and found that the d-pad doesn't work. The input system converts analog inputs to digital. I mean, what? I totally get adding in analog stick support for people who want that, but why disable the d-pad? Also, if you're going to support the analog stick, why not go all the way and set it up to make your character run if you push it to the edge? Just weird. What's worse is that it would occasionally register a single flick as 2-3 presses. Ugh! Keyboard it is. I mean, that's how I played it back in the day, right?

Except…not quite. The keyboard mappings have changed. At first it seems to make sense, with up/down/left/right doing what you'd expect, X/C/V/B for [OK], [Cancel], [Menu], and [Start], respectively, and pgup/pgdn as [PageUp] and [PageDown]. However, I always find myself forgetting what Ins/Del/Home/End are bound to, since those keys are fairly uncommonly used. I know that's going to bite me in the ass when I get the Huge Materia From Space. The old control layout clustered everything around the numpad, which I recall feeling pretty intuitive by comparison. I might have to try to map it like that (or emulate a PSX layout between the array keys and the numpad, sort of like what the Tony Hawk PC ports did). I'm thinking WASD for movement, num2 for X, num6 for O, num1 for L1, num3 for R1, etc. I dunno.

I also have a DirectInput (remember those Air-Flo Ex controllers from way back when? Yeahh…). Might try one of those as well to see if the mappings are a bit more agreeable.

But anyway, onto the gameplay! It's, uh…a lot easier than I remember. I think it's equal parts knowing the game and just straight up being smarter than I was when I was 14. Like, I remember both the Hundred Gunner/Heli Gunner fight in the elevator at Shinra HQ and the subsequent solo fight with Rufus and Dark Nation both being intimidating, even when I was prepared for them. Yeah, not so much. Both of those fights were easy as pie when I did them yesterday. Live and learn, I guess.

As such, I ended up amusing myself by doing other stuff, like getting Beta at a lowish level:


As a result, I also learned that even if you screw up while juking around the Midgar Zolom (because what sick bastards would want to make an adorable chocobo cross such a grungy swamp?) all you need to do is hit him with poison and wait it out (shove everyone in the back row, give them all restore materia, and just have them self-heal if they get bitten). The poison ticks will kill him in 32 turns and will never trigger any of his counter-attacks. Fun!

When it came to getting Beta early, I actually had a harder time making sure that the Zolom didn't keel over prematurely (since he won't even start countering with Beta until he gets under 1500hp, can randomly yeet allies out of the fight—like the one with E.Skill equipped—and doesn't always cast Beta when hit). Thanks, RNGesus.

One last thing for now: I find it kind of amazing how comparitively dense the original FF7 is compared to FF7:R. Midgar flies by pretty quickly in the original. I think it took me 6-7 hours to get through it at a fairly casual, pace, searching for things pretty thoroughly, whereas Midgar in the Remake took 35 hours.

As much as I enjoy the extra worldbuilding they added to the Remake, some of it did feel a bit forced. I dunno, I guess I'm on the fence about that. Like, the warehouse mission in the original was fantasic, and it was nice getting to hang out with Tifa for a bit rather than the game just saying "Hey, she's your bestie! Trust us!" That said, I think the Remake would have been a bit stronger had they cut the number of slums missions in half and unlocked fast travel a bit early. When you finally do end up unlocking all of the stops it's too late for you to even need that feature. Blah.

Another thing that I forgot how much I miss in the original is being able to talk to every single NPC. The Remake didn't have all that many people to talk to. Sure, you could hear people talking as you walked by, but the streets were often densely crowded to the point where you'd just hear a cacophony of voice, and the subtitle display would actually get overwhelmed by the number of people talking and scroll things off before you had a chance to read them. While the world in the original feels less populated, in some ways it feels like there's more to take in.

I also forgot how emotionally impactful the writing in the original can be. Everyone talks about The Thing That Happens at the End of Disc 1 but they never mention things like Barret's breakdown after the fall of the Sector 7 plate (that last, dejected "God…dammit…" gets me every time), or the entire flashback to how Elmyra found Aerith, as well as their youth. Gotta say, those two scenes in particular were recreated exceptionally well in the Remake. The writers, directors, and voice actors/actresses deserve heaps of praise for pulling that off.

But anyway, I think I've rambled enough. Time to play some more FF7!
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vladgd

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Re: wut specturr'z playing
« Reply #38 on: May 04, 2020, 10:33:00 AM »
Assuming you're having a better time with the original over the "remake"?

I "recently" (about 4 years ago) played through the ps4 port, and since I had already completed the game before I had no issue using the built in speed up feature. Boy oh boy talk about running through the game quick, 30 hours to beat the game, all optional content, master all materia, get every optional item, ect. I DO NOT recommend doing that for a first playthrough, but for a subsequent playthrough, it's fun.

Either way, I assume you used a faq or guide or something? Mainly noticing because nobody intentionally kills the midgar zolom the first time you meet him. However, I did the same exact thing, and you realize how powerful blue magic enemy skills are. Now the game never was hard in the first place, but with the right enemy skills, it trivialized certain parts of the game. If you intend on going through ff9, I got a video showcasing some early broke ass grind spots. Not sure how the game will have aged for me in a post woke to smt games time (yknow where random battles are actually dangerous, bosses can require multiple attempts to beat and whatnot), but I still do have a few ff games left to take down (3, 4, 6, lightning returns, not ever touching ff2 so it wont count)

Tangent aside actually how faithful to the original is the remake anyway? Combat aside since it looks to me like a straight up action game with numbers to tell you it used to be an rpg, did it succeed?

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Re: wut specturr'z playing
« Reply #39 on: May 04, 2020, 02:20:41 PM »
For the most part, yeah, I'm having a better time with the original. Despite it having its own share of flaws, the original combat system at least feels like it generally favors fun and experimentation over frustration and button mashing. I like the added story beats of FF7:R, but in some parts (the Sector 5 Slums being a notable example) the added parts really overstayed their welcome. The classic game just feels more focused in a lot of ways.

Regarding the Zolom, I've beaten FF7 before so I know the "proper" way to deal with him. I am using a few guides: a reference to ensure that I don't miss any Fort Condor battles (because that's stupidly easy to do, especially when you're in Junon), a missable items guide, the Gold Saucer relationship guide, and an enemy skill reference table. With my last playthrough I juked around the Zolom on foot, and on this playthrough I just decided to figure out his mechanics so that I could get early Beta. Not hard by any stretch of the imagination, just requires some planning and luck.

It's worth noting that I didn't use any guides on my first playthrough of FF7 in 1998. I tried to explore the game as much as I could back then and it's kind of amusing how much stuff I missed (particularly when it comes to early steals! Amazing how much some persistence that can increase your early game attack power).

And yes, getting Beta early is hilarious. For enemies that don't have a fire weakness/resistance, Nanaki can hit them for 850-1000 easy. It requires a fair amount of mana, but he can still get 3 casts before running dry. That's enough to basically nuke anything at this point in the game. Matra Magic is my go-to for trash mobs, of course.

Thanks for the FF9 video! I've been meaning to go through that at some point, so I'm sure that'll come in handy. Last time I tried to play through FF9 I ended up getting shut down by a sudden difficulty spike (coupled with the inability to backtrack), which completely destroyed my motivation to continue playing, so that should help me prepare for that.

It's going to be tough to discuss how faithful the remake is without getting into spoiler territory. There are parts that were expanded and/or clarified, but for the most part it sticks to the same story beats. I'd say the part that really starts to deviate from the original in a very noticeable way is when you get to Midgar HQ. It starts off how you'd expect (and yes, you can still go up the stairs) but after you find Nanaki things really start to change, and by the time you reach chapter 18 you realize that the number of curve balls they throw is only going to increase.

I wouldn't really say that FF7:R succeeds at being an action game. If they would have made it an action game I think the game would have been better off. It's a very awkward combination of an action game and an RPG. It looks and smells like an action game, but it still holds a lot of those RPG tropes, like your characters holding their ground while they wind up for certain moves, or certain things being unblockable and undodgeable, seemingly at random. I've taken upwards of 500-600 damage while Cloud was locked in his limit break animation, only for the limit break to miss (because the target got bored and fucked off during the animation). Bosses will go through long, non-telegraphed, MMO-esque invulnerable phase-transition animations, sometimes in the middle of your limit break or spell cast animation playing. Sometimes you'll get locked in a cast/limit animation and one of the enemies will just throw a stun mine on top of Cloud. It's like the game didn't know what it wanted to be.

One of my friends (happen to remember Pyroko?) and I were discussing this and we both agree that we'd like to see Squeenix find a partner to design a proper action-focused combat system. If whoever designed the combat system for MHW were to adopt that for FF7:R, that would be absolutely terrific. Platinum would be my second choice, though I'm not sure how well they'd handle the sheer weapon variety that exists in the FF7 universe.
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vladgd

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Re: wut specturr'z playing
« Reply #40 on: May 04, 2020, 10:34:46 PM »
I meant no offense when I mentioned use of guides (I make heavy use of guides on...most of what I play anyway), but that was one of the first things I noticed when playing ff7 a second time was getting beta early. Many games (square rpgs are very guilty) have missable stuff you can't backtrack to get later, like the idiotic requirements for fort condor, so a guide is damn near mandatory even if the game is 2/10 difficulty easy.

I'm still very on the fence about playing ff7r for the same reasons I've yet to touch ff15 (and the characters of ff15 just looking...straight up bad, I know its shallow to knock a game for looks, but jesus im sick of boyband prettyboy protags), combat is a big turnoff. Probably shows up in the games I personally have been finishing being VERY turn based in nature, but I am aware that action sells more than taking turns, also probably helps a lot with the cinematic look square is looking for. But I aint about to bitch about a game I haven't played or even seen proper footage or gameplay of outside of a trailer or two, just a crotchety old man get offa my lawn, games back in my day, up hill in the snow both ways, ect.

Backpedaling to fort condor, I recall as a kid enjoying that minigame so much I tried putting the actual game CD into my pc to try and "extract" the minigame to my pc to play on its own...yep...

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Re: wut specturr'z playing
« Reply #41 on: May 05, 2020, 06:53:20 PM »
Oh yeah, I just wanted to clarify that this isn't my first rodeo with FF7, as well as clarifying what I'm using guides for (mostly so that I don't miss anything, and so that I can get Nanaki's date at the Gold Saucer, because I'm furry trash).

I'm honestly glad that we now live in the age of iPads so that I can feasibly use a guide while playing. The current Steam release isn't Alt-Tab friendly, and I know the original Windows release wasn't, so I'm kind of in awe over how much stuff you can easily miss. I think the Fort Condor thing alone basically proves that Square had a contract with BradyGames back in the day. Gah. I would have never figured out that you have to go to Fort Condor, go to Junon, save Pricilla, sleep, go to Fort Condor, talk to Pricilla, then go back to bloody Fort Condor again. What the everloving fuck.

I admit, when I was younger I generally just let the enemies come to me in the Fort Condor minigame. While I did play some of the old licensed D&D games for DOS, FF7 was my first JRPG, and I really liked its combat system. I decided to try to do the battles properly this time around, though, and I'm kind of surprised at how fleshed out it is for a little minigame. I wouldn't really call it a deep system, but the rock-paper-scissors RTS system works well for it. I wish the speed were bumped up a bit. While the current pace works well in mid/late battle, it feels like it takes forever to get started.

I find myself preferring the character design in FF7:R to what they had in FF15. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the character roster is far more diverse in the former. I mean, Barret's as much of a giant meat mountain as you'd expect him to be, Aerith is cute, Tifa is scrappy (as is Jessie, though they kinda made her a bit…promiscuous), and Cloud pulls off the cross-dressing section in Wall Market about as well as you'd expect. Their depiction of Biggs showed that they actually know how to depict a male character with a bit more of an edge, and I'm hoping that they handle Cid equally well when it's his time to shine. Also, Wedge is adorably dumpy. I love that guy.

I'd be a lot more okay with the action focus if it were done well, but it just isn't. There's just too many holes in the system. I actually tend to prefer when remakes or reboots of games are done differently than the original, as it sort of discourages comparisons between the two.

This might not be the best example since these two games are in a very similar genre, but classic Doom and Doom 2016 are one example that I like to throw around. The share a name, they share a genre, and they share a bestiary, but aside from that they couldn't really be more different. Classic Doom is basically about solving a maze and methodically dealing with enemies as you come across them using a collection of guns and a huge supply of ammo. Doom 2016 throws you into arenas and forces you to constantly stay on the move to avoid taking hits, and routinely take risks to restore precious, quickly dwindling resources. Even being within the same genre, the two games couldn't be further apart.

I just want Sqeenix to go a bit all in with the next part of FF7:R. No more of this pseudo-action bullshit. Either go full ARPG or go back to being turn-based.
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Re: wut specturr'z playing
« Reply #42 on: May 09, 2020, 10:23:40 AM »

On one hand, sure, you can dodge in real-time, but on the other hand it still feels like if the game wants to hit you with an attack, it'll hit you.

Agreed. But at the same time, we can't expect to end every fight untouched. Our characters also have unblockable/undodgeable attacks too.



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Did I mention that you're vulnerable during this wind-up animation? I've had enemies come from off-camera and start wailing on Cloud during the animation, shaving off hundreds of health points during an unskippable animation that locks him firmly in place.
Here's a good tip for yah bud. I thought the animations were unskippable too, but, if you do it a certain way, its fully skippable. I made a video for you to check it out.

&feature=youtu.be

Whoever has the limit ready, control a DIFFERENT character, then L2 or R2 to the character with the limit, hit the limit, then continue to fight with the other character! :)
On top of that, (I didn't do it because it wasn't needed in the vid), but, you can easily also pop a quick heal spell during his animation. Problem solved! <3

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Healing spells follow three distinct steps: playing the animation, removing MP, and restoring HP. The problem is that there's a surprisingly long gap between when the game removes MP and restores HP (feels like around half a second). If you die between those two events, the game will take your MP without restoring your health. Really nice given how much smaller the MP pools are now.

Again, use the previous trick I mentioned to get smooth healing towards you without having to lose control of your current character. Or, if they dont have their ATB filled, do a quick switch, couple of quick attacks, then pop a heal.

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The player that is being controlled is typically prioritized. If you want to take direct control over Aerith to reposition her and take a few specific actions, odds are within a few seconds every enemy you're fighting will immediately come running at her, completely ignoring the ex-SOLDIER and his giant fuck-off sword and the big burly dude with the gun arm that have been wailing on them for the past three minutes. As a result, you're largely dependent on remote-controlling characters. The problem with that is that the ATB gauge fills up much slower when you aren't actively playing as a certain character, so have fun trying to make the most out of that bizarre combination of mechanics.

That's actually something I like quite a bit about this game. It has that challenge to where enemies are always on your ass so you gotta think quickly. Again, the quick L2/R2 commands is awesome. Try a mixture of both, after a while you'll be like "ohhhhh, alright, this is fuckin' awesome!" (It took me a while to realize it myself, but again, the Bahamut fight is where you'll get used to it and become much better with it)

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The game gets really stun-happy around the 12-16 hour mark. Stuns are pretty much what you'd expect: temporary debuffs that completely prevent you from moving. The problem with them is two-fold. First of all, the stun debuff is never shown on your character panel ("am I stunned for a quarter of a second or five seconds?"). Second, too many enemies can do it, and too often.
Agreed, a HUGE pain in the ass. I fuckin' hate it too. But, easy way around that; Just switch to a different character for the duration. Once I get a stun on a character, immediately switch, then the stunned character will be ignored to an extent by monsters, because as we already know, enemies prioritize the character we're currently controlling.

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The stun situation gets worse when you consider the baked wind-up and attack animations that your character performs. If you select a move and then suddenly the game drops a stun AoE on your head, you get instantly stunned. My favorite situation is when you get stunned, then they immediately follow it up with sleep and poison. Good times.
Again, the L2/R2 commands help out a lot with this.
takes a bit of time to get used to controlling a secondary character, then popping commands with someone who you're not controlling, but it's worth it. And yeah, I feel the same to where it's like "Well I wanna do this with this character, so I want to be CONTROLLING THIS CHARACTER AT THIS TIME!", but, sometimes it's better in certain situations to just pop secondary commands with the L2/R2.

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The game is also like Monster Hunter in that if you're attacking an enemy and the person you're attacking takes a swing at you in mid-combo, your combo breaks.
Yeah, hate it when shit like that happens. But, they've made it all about timing. I'm highly used to using cloud now, to where I can pull off good sword combo hits, then counter the enemies attack and continue my swinging, pressure then stagger them.
With Clouds 100% counter stance (Punisher mode, then R1 to block) it's absolutely incredible. It's just all the matter on timing it properly.

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To add to the above, enemy combos are completely unbreakable. You can't even hold block in mid-combo to shave off some damage. If they connect once, you're getting hit by everything that follows. Considering enemies can break your combo whenever they want by starting a combo of their own, this becomes especially problematic.
Noooooo, not true bud! You can easily break enemies combos. Lets say you're stuck in an enemy combo with Cloud; Once I get stuck in one, I immediately switch to a different character (Barret for instance) and unload on the monster preforming the combo. There's been many times where they caught me in a combo, I switched, unloaded and got them into "pressured" state, interrupting their combo. From there, pop high pressure build commands, get them in staggered, GG.

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On top of that, there's no rhyme or reason regarding which attacks can be blocked or dodged, and the only way of knowing is to get hit. I've seen plenty of cases where Cloud was able to block a massive attack from a giant monster, yet a normal-looking attack from a human-sized enemy would break his block (and lock him into a combo, naturally). Similarly, there are more cases than I can count of Cloud getting hit despite being noticeably outside of the range of an AoE attack. Again, if the game wants you to take damage, you're going to take damage. Period.
Again, cloud has his 100% counter blocking. Once the enemy lands a hit, he blocks, counter hits and opens the enemy up to more punishment. At first I never used it, but after getting used to it, it's absolutely ESSENTIAL to use that counter-stance whenever you're fighting. It makes things SO much easier.


Not trying to be an ass and go against all the stuff you were saying, but I think it's because you haven't fully gotten used to the combat system (Just like me for the longest time, until after the Bahamut fight). Bahamut is incredibly difficult, where you'll start to learn to have to constantly switch up characters, fill and burn those ATB bars immediately before getting targeted and using the proper attacks/spells against him. It's basically like playing "keep away" (You know, that stupid game with throwing the ball back and forth, keeping it away from the kid trying to get it), but with your characters. Since monsters prioritize the ones we're controlling, do a quick attack, an ATB command, then immediately switch, during the ATB command animation. Lather, rinse, repeat.

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Re: wut specturr'z playing
« Reply #43 on: May 09, 2020, 03:36:57 PM »
Just give me my god damned original ATB system back :(

Nothing against action rpg fighting in general, but as far as I'm concerned final fantasy should stick to ATB or straight up turn based combat.

Also, although I've only played up to where you first get your apartment and flip your shit at your neighbour, most of the areas you fought in felt super cramped and I'll suited for the combat system they're using. Does that get any better as the game progresses?
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Re: wut specturr'z playing
« Reply #44 on: May 18, 2020, 03:08:16 PM »
I've been on a Monster Hunter World kick again. Within the past week I went from being on the Nergigante hunt quest to the beginning of Iceborne, complete with an armor and weapon set that suck far less than my previous gear did.

I put in a fair bit of practice time with the longsword's Iceborne moveset and am absolutely in love with special sheathe (RT+A). Being able to cancel that long sheathing animation after Spirit Roundslash and extend your combo really improves the combat flow. Iai Slash is beyond useful for keeping the spirit gauge topped off as well.

The one thing that I still need to master is the use of Foresight Slash and Iai Spirit Slash. I always tend to hit those too early for the dodge mechanics to trigger.

Now that I have some more experience with the game, I'm tempted to switch back to Switch Axe for a bit. As much as I enjoy LS, its attacks largely land laterally, making fights like Paolumu a bit more annoying than they otherwise would be. I recall SA trending more towards verticality.

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I appreciate you trying to help, but the problem ultimately boils down to me simply not liking the way the combat flows. I just think that the switch mechanic is way too clunky and the AI-controlled party members aren't nearly as autonomous as they should be. Sorry. :(

Also, although I've only played up to where you first get your apartment and flip your shit at your neighbour, most of the areas you fought in felt super cramped and I'll suited for the combat system they're using. Does that get any better as the game progresses?

The arenas do get larger throughout the game, though the quest areas tend to be a bit on the tight side (around the same size as the monster area near the Sector 7 slums).
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