Topic: Final Fantasy VII, IX, X, X-2 and XII - Now with 80% more FF VIII

@BruceCM yea exactly..

@NintendoByNature
Oh, it does look slick. It's a seriously beautiful game. But in actuality the combat was super frustrating for me. It felt especially clunky switching between characters in the heat of battle, trying to select special move/spells/whatever as enemies were bashing on me. Dodging didn't feel as natural as it does in games made from the ground up to be action combat. In games like that, you typically have all your specials and spells bound to trigger buttons and trigger combos, but this adds extra layers you need to navigate.

To me it felt like Square tried to shove action combat onto the skeleton of old-schools menus to give a nod to the game's roots. I'm sure after some hours with the game it will start to make more sense, as it always does no matter how horrendous a game's controls, but I was sorely disappointed. I knew exactly what I wanted to do in the boss fight at the end of the demo, but it was like the battle controls fought me every step of the way.

@rallydefault yea that's unfortunate to hear. I also get a little frustrated with cumbersome controls. Maybe you'll get used to it like you said. Usually at the beginning of most games, I tend to struggle for the first couple of hours, current example is Owlboy. It takes some time getting used to the controls, and if you take a good break from it and play something else, controls can be even harder to recall.

@DarthNocturnal
It does, yea. It is listed in the demo, so I'm giving that mode a try later tonight, actually (as long as the demo lets me). That very well may ease some of my frustrations.

Like I said, I'm still getting it - I mean, how could I not? It's gonna be one of the biggest releases this generation no matter what, and from playing the demo you can tell they've put A LOT of time into this. It just oozes polish from the cinematics to the objects to the sounds to... pretty much everything except for the action combat (in my opinion lol).

To be very clear, Cloud's combat feels waaaaaaaay better than Barret's. Cloud's sword strikes have weight to them and it's easy to tell when you've registered hits. Barret's gun is wonky. Its gattling-style mode doesn't really give any feedback in terms of hit/damage (you can always see numbers), and then his big charged shot has a slippery way of "reloading." And when you switch between Cloud and Barret, it's super easy to forget whether Barrett's charged shot is loaded or not, so many times I was hammering the fire button and getting the charge animation when I was expecting to just shoot.

@Quarth
Important thing.
Before you fight with some bosses, check their Magics to draw.
If you see a GF name, immediately draw the GF first. The GF will be disappeared FOREVER if you forget to Draw them and the Boss has been beaten.
The missable GF you should pay attention:
Siren, Leviathan, Carbuncle, Alexander, Pandemona, Eden.

@Anti-Matter OK, thanks!

Ok, so in my opinion, Classic battle mode is WAAAAAY better and addresses most of my issues with the FF7 Remake. You can tell it's quite obviously not the way the devs want you to play the game, but it eliminates a lot of the confusion/difficulty I was having with the "action" combat and switching between characters and dialing up special attacks quickly.

In classic, your character just auto attacks while you can wait for the ATB gauge to fill and issue specific ability/item/spell/limit commands, just like in the original games. It makes the auto attacks look and feel like the filler I think they should be (just my opinion), but in the normal action mode the auto attacks are a crucial ball to juggle amongst menu-selectable actions that I felt was just too clunky when combined.

Still excited for the release. I would totally get it on my new PC I'm building, but I guess that won't be out for at least a year. I may re-buy it at that point if the graphics options on PC allow for even more awesomeness, because it already looks slick on normal PS4.

I'm beginning to get a grasp on the Junction system now. Seems going the "spam GF" route isn't sustainable in the long run, so I better learn how to take advantage of the system.

Right now I'm stuck in a boss fight against Fujin and Raijin, where the former is fast as hell and takes out my team quickly. Need a strategy.

The story is kinda weird and sometimes clumsily told. Don't know where it's going. But it has me interested.

Did you draw from Fujin, @Quarth .... ? That'll stop him using magic, as well! Cast protect on everyone & both are weak to bio, if you have that Oh, after drawing from Fujin, kill Rajin 1st, BTW

@BruceCM Does it matter what I draw?

Pandemona is the main thing, @Quarth ....

@BruceCM Thanks! Will try!

Edit: It worked! 👍

@Quarth

You got Diablos yet?

One of the things I love about FF8 is that it probably has more optional/missable side-content than any other game in the series.

The PS1 era FF games especially did such a good job of feeling quite open-ended games, even though their stories are completely linear.

Cool, @Quarth .... Keep us updated with your progress!

@Dezzy Nope, don't think so. Is that a GF?

@BruceCM Will do!

One thing that is annoying with the game is to find the right location on the world map, steering the Garden ship.

Did you get the Magical Lamp from Cid, @Quarth ..... ?

So with how much I'm enjoying 7, I'm interested in grabbing another game in the series. The last few pages has me concerned to grab 8 lol. It sounds confusing and cumbersome. 7 hasn't been too confusing for me which i like. When I get too confused in game, I tend to drop it. Is 9 a little more user friendly than 8 and closer to the ease of 7?

@NintendoByNature 9 was my favorite ff game. Cartoony graphics, but decent story and great gameplay.

@komodo182 is it fairly simple gameplay? I quickly got used to items, mechanics etc in 7 and that's a big reason why im enjoying it so much. 9 looks great from the screen shots and clips I've seen.

@NintendoByNature DarthNoctural gave a pretty good summary of it. There are lots of hidden side quest sytle gameplay, but you can beat the game without doing them. I normally do a playthrough every year or so.