Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Finished: Final Fantasy Tactics]
- Thread starter Omicron
- Start date
- Let's Play
Raj
Master of Procrasination
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Easily one of my favourite updates Omi, Aerith was my favourite character from the main FF7 even if I enjoyed the protagonist of Crisis Core more, and seeing her death treated with such respect is always enjoyable to see.
More importantly the decision to focus primarily on the emotional impact for you, rather than purely the narrative decision was I believe the right call here, just because of how overgeneralized this segment is in general.
More importantly the decision to focus primarily on the emotional impact for you, rather than purely the narrative decision was I believe the right call here, just because of how overgeneralized this segment is in general.
Guile
Having a really great time right now
did you ever think
that a girl like you and a guy like me could
reach the endgame together
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
- Location
- Bright lights, big city
- Pronouns
- He/Him
In terms of disc length, it was mentioned upthread that the gameplay sections were the same between discs, with the differences being the pre-rendrred cutscenes. So, it'd make sense for the discs to have different lengths if some are more cutscene heavy than others.
Also IIRC from back in the day the last disc of multi-disc Playstation games was ALWAYS the shortest. So you're definitely more than a third through.
Also, the timing of the death did come as a surprise to me... because decades of fanart and stills had led me to believe she was kneeling in the shallow water when she got stabbed, so it happening on the platform did indeed surprise me
Also IIRC from back in the day the last disc of multi-disc Playstation games was ALWAYS the shortest. So you're definitely more than a third through.
Also, the timing of the death did come as a surprise to me... because decades of fanart and stills had led me to believe she was kneeling in the shallow water when she got stabbed, so it happening on the platform did indeed surprise me
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah, very true. In my experience a lot of multi-disk Playstation RPGs disk 3 would basically be "whole world's open, go wild, do sidequests" but you can often just go blitz through in a few hours.
And oh hey, just remembered this bit:
About that, Aerith, about that...
Vocalist
Verdant Maiden in Violet
- Location
- By a Cedar Tree
One of the most powerful things an author can do is break a promise...I'm sorry, Aerith.
Oh, that GODDAMN achievement! Not only is that originally how I learned about Aerith dying, it spoiled the death of my favorite character in the game it was actually from. I feel sulky just thinking about it.
Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
The mark of a great twist is that it still hits as hard even if you know it is coming.
That was such an impactful moment as a kid.
Potentially missable item in spoilers.
Potentially missable item in spoilers.
Omi, on the same screen as the Forest Awoke message, on the left side slowly rolling down is the Kujata summon Materia, probably the most missed summon in 7, and a right pain to get. You should still be able to walk back and get it without resetting though, and you can still get it later!
Finally de-lurking after following this thread silently since the beginning, just to say that I started tearing up right about here and had a little bit of an actual cry before the end.
I may not be 14 anymore, but still hits pretty hard.
Emy
Artificial Defender
Even without mods, there are some sequence breaks that sort of do it, varying depending on the version of the game, and I think they were probably some of the most sought-after skips for the game. The game engine doesn't know what "dead" means, so if you bypass the part where she's removed from the party you're golden.
In the original PSX version, you could switch discs from FF7 disc 1 to SaGa Frontier and the game would keep playing. Battles became glitchy and the Zolom would freeze the game, but the world map worked well *enough* to let you move around, while also not respecting the normal impassable areas. So you could skip this sequence in its entirety, and keep Aerith, though you'd miss out on the loot.
In the PC and mobile versions, there's a very powerful wrong warp glitch that makes use of Yuffie's recruitment encounter. With some precise sequencing, you can use it to skip less of the Temple, and therefore keep a bit more loot (and Aerith).
I really don't have anything to add beyond the fact that, besides being essentially perfect even today (and I will stand by that claim), the Temple of the Ancients sequence effectively marks the completion of Final Fantasy (and Square as a whole)'s positional shift into the premier cinematic/emotional juggernaut of the gaming world. It's a position they will hold nearly unopposed for all of that console generation, and up until the end of the next.
ApocalypticFish
Been reflecting lately.
The mod is pretty good, my opinions about some of those involved notwithstanding. Enough so that I'd say it's the definitive way of playing Hate Plus. I have too strong opinions about the subject matter of suicide, and especially how it was played in-game, to particularly care about the statements of the creator regarding character agency. (I can appreciate it as a tragedy reflecting feelings of failure and "was there anything I could have done," but if it was meant to be an exercise of agency...well, I have complicated feelings about it)
But this isn't a discussion about Hate Plus so I'll leave it at that.
But this isn't a discussion about Hate Plus so I'll leave it at that.
Last edited:
Listen. In this moment, at the end of all things, it's vitality important for Cloud to turn around and tell Yuffie how much he doesn't care for her.
Wait, she was hoarding a Ribbon this whole time?
Fuck it, Sephiroth did the right thing. Hope you got to loot the body.
Easy mistake. Happy Jig and Desperate Sobs emote buttons are really close on the console.
Egleris
Vagrant Dragon
- Location
- Italy
That's because the ending cinematics of those games tended to be substantially longer and more complex than any other in the game. That's true in FFVII as well - the ending cinematic is in a much higher resolution than anything else. And yeah, the game is more than a third done, although there's still plenty left; as I said in the past, FFVII is the longest in the series by a substantial amount.
@Omicron: as others have said, you missed a Summon Materia in the sleeping forest - and it can only be obtained at this time, I believe; also, this is probably the time to mention that there's a completionist prize at the end of the game if you pick up every Materia of a given color. And! Jenova-Life (interestingly named boss, that, considering what just happened before fighting it) actually has the rare Aqualung Enemy Skill, which has the same power as Beta but is water-type. Go ahead, replay that whole sequence for completionism's sake!
Last edited:
Guile
Having a really great time right now
Surprisingly accurate. Sephiroth sure stamped her visa.Omicron said:
MiskWisk
Hoot
- Location
- Somewhere devoid of wit
- Pronouns
- He
And so it begins.
Oh, guess we're doing this then.
Well, hope you picked up the option labelled "Pre-emptive" then. It's the pre-emptive materia, which gives a boost to the chance of random encounters starting as a pre-emptive one, letting you get off a free attack with each character with increased damage if the enemy is facing away from them. It's not as good as Enemy Away, but it does reduce some of the resource use.
Something to note about Bone Village is there aren't a lot of special rewards (beyond a miniquest later), but it does have one key function. There are some permanently missable materia if you don't do certain things in the game. Except, in a moment of kindness, the devs made it so if you did miss them, they can be found in the Village. Two of the three are nice because they have a 100% drop chance (provided you have the regular award already) but the third is... well...
It's a 3.9% chance of dropping. So better hope you don't miss it the first time.
I'm not sure if you can access it after you've finished disc one, I never tried, but you might have missed a materia on the second screen of the Sleeping Forest. The top down one. It moves about the map so it can be a bit tricky to spot.
Awww... you missed an enemy with a fun interaction.
There's a walking blue thing in this area called Hungry. If you let it live too long, it'll cast Mini on one of your characters, if you don't cure the effect or kill it quickly enough, it'll then follow that up with Eat, removing the character from battle.
Sort of my interpretation of it too. I feel like it's some sort of religious site. Somewhere individuals can return to to more easily hear the voice of the planet. Since Mako reactors dig into the earth, I figure by digging down, the Ancients were able to get physically closer to the Lifestream.
God yes. This is a haunting sequence to play through as a kid. Especially if you're playing something like this for the first time. My first three games were Spyro 2, Crash 3, and this. Tonal whiplash doesn't begin to cover it.
Oh... Oh god.
I have not teared up at this scene in years, and yet, here I am. God damn it.
Functionally, I think this is why people are usually so positive about Final Fantasy 7, and why it ranks so highly. Yes, other games do what it does, sometimes better. Some are better paced, some have better mechanics, god knows many are better translated (bar 8). But this moment? This hurts.
Looking forwards to the rest of the playthrough. I'm going to go watch something that'll make me happy cry.
I think it's TeamFourStar I heard this from, but one of that group makes a solid point. A lot of time, a character will say something corny or silly, and then the script will call out that the dialogue was corny or silly, and undercut any tension or impact the line actually had. If you have the confidence to let the line stand on its own though, it can hold up.
This is an example of that. What Cloud is saying is overly dramatic, but because the game treats it entirely sincerely, lets him have his moment, the lines work.
FelOnyx
Love and Peace!
- Location
- Gunsmoke
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I never did look into mods that added actual content tied to it. Assumed they probably existed, but I was mostly thinking of generic hacks to unlock all achievements you can do with any Steam game. If there's one that's actually good I might try it then. Was thinking of replaying it soon anyway, which is why it came to mind as an example of the legacy of Aerith's death.
Counter point - while in the scene itself she didn't get to do much, she did make decisions that led to it - namely, leaving the party to go and save things alone (recall Don's mansion? Aerith being reckless didn't come outta nowhere).
Heard people say that her death's a fridging. Because of that, can't say I agree.
Statistically, somewhere, there's a player who recruited Yuffie's in the narrow time between Aerith's departure and her death, and I suspect they've laughed.
Heard that too.
Vincent picked a bad time to nod off
To expand upon this a little:
The New Threat Mod is designed on the asumption that the player has completed FF7 before. In the Source Point menu, all party members except Aerith are listed as 0/4, 1/4, etc, depending on how many Source Points they have. Aerith is capped at 2, because she dies at the Forgotten Capital, a promise on the modder's part.
This changes if she is saved, with her cap updating to 4 after the battle with Jenova LIFE. If the player kills her to make the fight easier they get a Ribbon, likely the first as New Threat changes a lot of items around.
- Location
- Not your place of residence
To be more serious about this scene, I don't think it's faultless, but a lot of the faults are connected to how this was supposed to be a surprise. You know what's happening when you see the video start to play, and from there, Sephiroth using his Dair on Aerith doesn't surprise. It does hurt though, won't deny that. But the lines...also don't work for me, and all of this combines with the fact that I knew Aerith dies half a decade before I ever played, and thus was pretty sure that the point where she leaves the party was the last we were going to be having her in the party. In my mind, this doesn't reach Galuf's death or Celes' suicide attempt, though I do wonder how I'd view things differently in a world where I didn't assume Aerith was dead the minute the scene began. Truly, DJ Khaled is Suffering from Success.
Connelly
As useless as a penguin with mittens
- Location
- Salamanca, Spain
... Oh. Oh. Ok. That's enlightening. I do get now why people never shut up about Teh Spoiler tm.
Coincidentally, the other day came out an interview with the guy in charge of character writing in Baldur's Gate saying: "I'm very competitive," Ohlen says. "I went and played Final Fantasy VII and was like, 'Oh my good god, these characters make ours look like a bunch of cardboard cutouts. This is terrible.'"
Coincidentally, the other day came out an interview with the guy in charge of character writing in Baldur's Gate saying: "I'm very competitive," Ohlen says. "I went and played Final Fantasy VII and was like, 'Oh my good god, these characters make ours look like a bunch of cardboard cutouts. This is terrible.'"