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[TTOOLL]

Awesome

P.S.:
And Jessie?

Spoiler

 

[TTOOLL]

Making my way through hard mode now, onto chapter 6. Crab Warden was TOUGH!

 

[TGO]

I love all the side characters, Biggs, Wedge, Jessie and Kyrie and Johnny is my fav

 

[Rentahamster]

Fair enough. I just seem to suck at situational awareness and can never tell what the right timing is to execute abilities.

You might be in "action game" mindset too much. Slow down the pace a little and think. Press X to enter the ability menu to slow down time. Then unlock the targeting and use the right stick to look around. Use L2 and R2 to switch between characters to see what's going on in their part of the battlefield. Then, make your decisions. Use a skill, just keep attacking, change characters, etc. It's hard to notice during the heat of battle but every enemy telegraphs what move they're going to use before they do it. If you can see that pattern, that will better inform your decisionmaking as to attack, block, skill, magic, dodge, or run.

The aggro mechanics also don't make a ton of sense to me.

Most of the time they just aggro whichever character you're controlling. It's not like an MMO where the majority of the attention is based on threat (damage done or HP healed)

Knowing this, you can take advantage of the behavior. Attack with one character. When the enemy turns its attention to that character, switch to another character and keep attacking. Rinse, repeat. This behavior is really apparent if you use Barret and Aerith. Have Barret shoot a monster. When the monster runs up to you and gets in your face, switch to Aerith and start range attacking with her. Rinse and repeat. The enemy will ping pong back and forth and you get to deal lots of safe damage.

You can take this strategy further to deal more DPS using skills. For example:

Shoot a mob with Barret, build up 2 bars of ATB. Then switch to Aerith. Once the mob's attention turns to Aerith, press L2 or R2 to bring up Barret's skill menu and choose Maximum Fury or do two magic spells twice, or do a magic spell followed by Maximum Fury. You can queue up skills which makes things easier. Now, the mob's attention is still on Aerith while you can kite around the mob and Barret unloads "for free". Once Barret is done with this skills and has 0 ATB, switch back to him. By this point, Aerith should have two bars, so when the mob's aggro turns to Barret, use L2/R2 again to nuke with Aerith. Again, when you're in the ability menu, time is slowed down, take this opportunity to scan the battlefield and focus your decision making.

Don't get me wrong, the combat is a lot of fun and I'm enjoying it, but I think something that is more deliberately paced and clearly communicates (to me at least) what is going on like FFXII's combat is a bit more up my alley.

Because of bullet time, the pacing is as fast or as deliberate as you the player choose it to be. You're playing the game too action-y and it's distracting you from all the cues going on. After you've beaten the game and tried the hard mode trials, see that gameplay vid I posted earlier. It demonstrates what I've talked about more clearly than I can explain it in text.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

You might be in "action game" mindset too much. Slow down the pace a little and think. Press X to enter the ability menu to slow down time. Then unlock the targeting and use the right stick to look around. Use L2 and R2 to switch between characters to see what's going on in their part of the battlefield. Then, make your decisions. Use a skill, just keep attacking, change characters, etc. It's hard to notice during the heat of battle but every enemy telegraphs what move they're going to use before they do it. If you can see that pattern, that will better inform your decisionmaking as to attack, block, skill, magic, dodge, or run.


Most of the time they just aggro whichever character you're controlling. It's not like an MMO where the majority of the attention is based on threat (damage done or HP healed)

Knowing this, you can take advantage of the behavior. Attack with one character. When the enemy turns its attention to that character, switch to another character and keep attacking. Rinse, repeat. This behavior is really apparent if you use Barret and Aerith. Have Barret shoot a monster. When the monster runs up to you and gets in your face, switch to Aerith and start range attacking with her. Rinse and repeat. The enemy will ping pong back and forth and you get to deal lots of safe damage.

You can take this strategy further to deal more DPS using skills. For example:

Shoot a mob with Barret, build up 2 bars of ATB. Then switch to Aerith. Once the mob's attention turns to Aerith, press L2 or R2 to bring up Barret's skill menu and choose Maximum Fury or do two magic spells twice, or do a magic spell followed by Maximum Fury. You can queue up skills which makes things easier. Now, the mob's attention is still on Aerith while you can kite around the mob and Barret unloads "for free". Once Barret is done with this skills and has 0 ATB, switch back to him. By this point, Aerith should have two bars, so when the mob's aggro turns to Barret, use L2/R2 again to nuke with Aerith. Again, when you're in the ability menu, time is slowed down, take this opportunity to scan the battlefield and focus your decision making.




Because of bullet time, the pacing is as fast or as deliberate as you the player choose it to be. You're playing the game too action-y and it's distracting you from all the cues going on. After you've beaten the game and tried the hard mode trials, see that gameplay vid I posted earlier. It demonstrates what I've talked about more clearly than I can explain it in text.

Thanks for the tips. I had a feeling the mobs just focused on the character you're controlling for the most part, but good to have confirmation. Also, great advice to pause the game and *unlock* targeting to look around and think about what's going on. I hadn't been doing that.

 

[mango drank]

So, probably been asked before, but in terms of direction and dev team, do you guys think the rest of the VIIR game releases are going to be helmed by Nomura and the rest of part 1's higher-ups, or do you think they're going to move over to FFXVI instead, and hand the reins of VIIR over to others to finish up?

Basically, is FFXVI going to be a Nomura joint, or is he on FFVIIR for the long haul?

 

[Rentahamster]

Thanks for the tips. I had a feeling the mobs just focused on the character you're controlling for the most part, but good to have confirmation. Also, great advice to pause the game and *unlock* targeting to look around and think about what's going on. I hadn't been doing that.

It's a lot to take in, I know. This particular fusion of action/tactical/strategy has never been done quite this way before. I think that it's brilliant because it plays into the strengths of each player depending on the style they have more affinity to.

If you're more of an action player, then feel free to go ham with the quick action commands and fly around and rely on your reactions and real time spatial awareness skills.

If you're more strategy oriented like you seem to be, the game also allows you to slow down the pace and gives you time to really think about your skill/magic flowchart.

Good luck.

 

[bargeparty]

I love all the side characters, Biggs, Wedge, Jessie and Kyrie and Johnny is my fav

I'm really curious as to why? I can't understand anyone who enjoys these characters. I skipped all the side quests after a certain point so I may have missed anything that involved Kyrie.

 

[Rentahamster]

I'm really curious as to why? I can't understand anyone who enjoys these characters.

For me, they provide an insight into the larger world at hand and helps put a more personal face on the world you're experiencing. Each character has their own hopes, dreams, and personalities that you discover through the story, as well as their backstory that informs you of their motivations and why they do the things that they do. They're more than just window dressing and they contribute to the lore in meaningful ways.

The voice actors also aren't terrible.

The game is a good example of how an artform, whether it be books, TV, movies, or videogames, incorporates the philosophy "show don't tell". The game shows you a lot of things and character interactions to inform the worldbuilding. It doesn't just have it written down somewhere in some text.

 

[wzy]

Show don't tell? Every single one of those characters tells you, explicitly and without any prompting or prodding on the players part, exactly what is on their minds every single time you interact with them.

 

[wzy]

There is an entire sequence in the game whose sole narrative purpose can be summarized as "Biggs reads the Wikipedia entry on Jesse to Cloud, thereby explaining her motivation to the player."

 

[wzy]

Barret pulls you aside in a hallway when there are way, way bigger things going on to tell you--again, totally unprompted--that Wedge admires Cloud.

 

[Rentahamster]

All those things you mentioned - the game actually shows you too.

 

[TwiztidElf]

Show don't tell? Every single one of those characters tells you, explicitly and without any prompting or prodding on the players part, exactly what is on their minds every single time you interact with them.

Pretty standard for a JRPG.

 

[Dacon]

There is an entire sequence in the game whose sole narrative purpose can be summarized as "Biggs reads the Wikipedia entry on Jesse to Cloud, thereby explaining her motivation to the player."

I mean, this kind of exposition is pretty common in films and games. It's not totally out of the realm of possibility that a dude would tell you about his friend whose parents youre about to rob.

 

[bargeparty]

For me, they provide an insight into the larger world at hand and helps put a more personal face on the world you're experiencing. Each character has their own hopes, dreams, and personalities that you discover through the story, as well as their backstory that informs you of their motivations and why they do the things that they do. They're more than just window dressing and they contribute to the lore in meaningful ways.

The voice actors also aren't terrible.

The game is a good example of how an artform, whether it be books, TV, movies, or videogames, incorporates the philosophy "show don't tell". The game shows you a lot of things and character interactions to inform the worldbuilding. It doesn't just have it written down somewhere in some text.

Even though I wasn't posing the question to you, you still haven't answered why you like them. Just because they're a little more fleshed out (emphasis on "little") you immediately like them as characters? Their personalities are so harsh and grating. Maybe except for Biggs, but that's just because he does the least and is the least annoying of the 3.

I have to put a caveat here, because during these expanded sections early on, like the mission with Jessie, I was pretty much asleep from boredom. I had zero interest in what was happening so I probably tuned out everything happening and being said. And I'll be honest, I think their attempt at fleshing them out was pretty poor as well. Except for maybe Jessie but again, she's an annoyance so I just wanted her off the screen as quickly as possible.

But I think my defense is from what I state just below, these characters didn't interest me nor did I like them so why would I pay attention to them?

Jessie - Annoying personality. She's constantly bugging Cloud and flirting with him, something he's rejected from the start. I saw somewhere else people saying "oh she's just messing with him cause she's acting, she's always wanted to be an actress." Which somehow excuses her behavior.
Wedge - Also annoying. His voice, his appearance, his attitude, it bugs me to no end.
Biggs - The least annoying just because I think they didn't put much effort into him. They can't make him like Zack would be, and he absolutely cannot be similar to Cloud or Barret, so he's just whatever and doesn't do much.

I also have an issue with the relationship between Aerith and Tifa. In the OG they don't really get along at all, for a while. But here they're like besties straight away? Makes no sense.

 

[Lethal01]

I'm really curious as to why? I can't understand anyone who enjoys these characters. I skipped all the side quests after a certain point so I may have missed anything that involved Kyrie.

I think they are all funny, nice and cool looking.
Same reason I like Cloud and Barret.

Their interactions with the main cast make for tons of laughs and drama.
Like it's fine if you aren't entertained by Cloud being hit on by Jessie but It's weird to be puzzeled when others are.

Johnny and Roche are 2 of my favs.

 

[bargeparty]

I think they are all funny, nice and cool looking.
Same reason I like Cloud and Barret.

Their interactions with the main cast make for tons of laughs and drama.
Like it's fine if you aren't entertained by Cloud being hit on by Jessie but It's weird to be puzzeled when others are.

Johnny and Roche are 2 of my favs.

Appreciate your answer. I'm not sure what you mean by
"Like it's fine if you aren't entertained by Cloud being hit on by Jessie but It's weird to be puzzeled when others are. "

is that directed at me?

 

[Kev Kev]

how many hours yall got in the game so far?

im around 100 and still looking forward to playing it... thats a good sign for me personally. im usually way done with a game after 50 hours... hell sometimes way less than that. but im really enjoying the shit out of leveling up my materia, weapons and crew, replaying levels to get certain things i missed and im really taking my sweet time on hard mode. ive even gone back to classic to grind for a bit and max out a bunch of materia. all that and im still looking forward to playing it. my complaints havent really changed much... although i have got way more used to combat, so thats a little better at least.

 

[Lethal01]

Appreciate your answer. I'm not sure what you mean by
"Like it's fine if you aren't entertained by Cloud being hit on by Jessie but It's weird to be puzzeled when others are. "

is that directed at me?

Yes? It's a direct reply to "I can't understand anyone who enjoys these characters"

 

[TGO]

I'm really curious as to why? I can't understand anyone who enjoys these characters. I skipped all the side quests after a certain point so I may have missed anything that involved Kyrie.

You serious bro? can I call you Bro?

 

[bargeparty]

Yes? It's a direct reply to "I can't understand anyone who enjoys these characters"

OK I re-read it a few times and I think I get what you're asking, but I've decided not to further engage this line of discussion since it's not really worth it. That's not because of what you said, it's just I realized it won't do any good.

 

[Rentahamster]

Even though I wasn't posing the question to you, you still haven't answered why you like them.

Yes I did.

For me, they provide an insight into the larger world at hand and helps put a more personal face on the world you're experiencing. Each character has their own hopes, dreams, and personalities that you discover through the story, as well as their backstory that informs you of their motivations and why they do the things that they do. They're more than just window dressing and they contribute to the lore in meaningful ways.

The voice actors also aren't terrible.

Just because they're a little more fleshed out (emphasis on "little") you immediately like them as characters?

I appreciate characters who feel like they belong to the fictional world they inhabit, and are not just there to facilitate the plot. The plot is driven by their desires and motivations, not the other way around. And yes, they also have personality, which I like.

Their personalities are so harsh and grating. Maybe except for Biggs, but that's just because he does the least and is the least annoying of the 3.

That's your opinion, which is fine to have, but I don't see it the same way.

But I think my defense is from what I state just below, these characters didn't interest me nor did I like them so why would I pay attention to them?

You're the player, that's your prerogative.

I also have an issue with the relationship between Aerith and Tifa. In the OG they don't really get along at all, for a while. But here they're like besties straight away? Makes no sense.

Based on what? I don't remember anything that suggests they don't get along for a while, unless you specifically choose certain options that mess with the character affinity.

They kick off the banter right away.

Aeris
...Tifa?
Nice to meet you. I'm Aeris.
Cloud's told me a lot about you.


Tifa
...And you are?
Hey you're the one with Cloud in the park...


Aeris
Right, with Cloud.


Tifa
Oh......


Aeris
Don't worry. We just met. It's nothing.


Tifa
What do you mean, 'Don't worry'... about what?
No, don't misunderstand.
Cloud and I grew up together. Nothing more.


Aeris
Poor Cloud, having to stand here and listen to both of us call him nothing.
Right, Cloud?

And they get rid of the formalities with each other almost immediately after meeting.

Aeris
I grew up in the slums... I'm used to danger.
Do you trust me?


Tifa
Yes. Thanks, Ms. Aeris.


Aeris
Call me Aeris.

 

[Kev Kev]

You serious bro? can I call you Bro?

this was actaully pretty funny. i dont think i had any real, hard laughs throughout the game except for johnny calling cloud bro every chance he got.

 

[Rentahamster]

this was actaully pretty funny. i dont think i had any real, hard laughs throughout the game except for johnny calling cloud bro every chance he got.

The way they developed that character from the original game is pretty good.

 

[Dacon]

I really didn't like this games version of Jessie and outright hated how aggressive she was toward Cloud despite being repeatedly turned down, even forcing herself on the dude one time.

I always think of how disgusted people would be with this behavior if it were a man behaving like this with a young woman. The double standard always gets me.

Johnny, Biggs, Wedge, and Marle were pretty good imo.

 

[D.Final]

Spoiler

Jessie

 

[ManaByte]

Just started playing and got up to Tifa.

 

[recma12]

I really didn't like this games version of Jessie and outright hated how aggressive she was toward Cloud despite being repeatedly turned down, even forcing herself on the dude one time.

I thought Jessie was OK, especially that scene felt somewhat believeable IMO.
Cloud is a badass, saved her life and she is probably horny as fuck given the bums she hangs out with.
Wedge got so fucking friendzoned lol

I had more issues with Tifa & Aerith talking and giggling like two 12 year old girls tbh

 

[Dacon]

I thought Jessie was OK, especially that scene felt somewhat believeable IMO.
Cloud is a badass, saved her life and she is probably horny as fuck given the bums she hangs out with.
Wedge got so fucking friendzoned lol

I didn't say it wasn't believable, I just didn't like how she kept sexually harassing Cloud after the first time he turned her down.

I had more issues with Tifa & Aerith talking and giggling like two 12 year old girls tbh

You would not like the girls I hang out with.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Just finished Chapter 12... what a ride. Definitely an emotional chapter.

And, man, fuck the Turks. They really made these pricks annoying to the max in this.

Sad to know I'm nearing the end if this chapter. I really hope they figure out their production issues and can pump out the next one within a couple of years, because the format they've found is fantastic.

 

[Rentahamster]

They really made these pricks annoying to the max in this.

Annoying combat wise or personality wise?

 

[TGO]

I really hope they figure out their production issues and can pump out the next one within a couple of years, because the format they've found is fantastic.

Is this confirmed?
Are we really looking at 2 Years per chapter?
I'm thinking a year max
Surely they already half-way done with PT II
I just can't see them not having already started the next Part.
It should have been one big production split up into 3-4 parts
and parts 2-3-4 will just trickle out now it is on the roll.
I'm guessing we'll see a trailer this at the end of the year for PT II

 

[SantaC]

So epic. Chills at 4.10

 

[Dacon]

Is this confirmed?
Are we really looking at 2 Years per chapter?
I'm thinking a year max
Surely they already half-way done with PT II
I just can't see them not having already started the next Part.
It should have been one big production split up into 3-4 parts
and parts 2-3-4 will just trickle out now it is on the roll.
I'm guessing we'll see a trailer this at the end of the year for PT II

You're a very optimistic fellow.

 

[Rentahamster]

Is this confirmed?
Are we really looking at 2 Years per chapter?
I'm thinking a year max
Surely they already half-way done with PT II
I just can't see them not having already started the next Part.
It should have been one big production split up into 3-4 parts
and parts 2-3-4 will just trickle out now it is on the roll.
I'm guessing we'll see a trailer this at the end of the year for PT II

It depends how well they streamlined their pipeline. A lot of the legwork of the main characters, asset creation, battle mechanics, world interactivity, etc are already done so one would assume that future content creation isn't going to take as long.

However, given that next gen is right around the corner, they could do a lot of overhauling to the base framework so that it takes advantage of PS5. Especially if they go open world. That's a lot of new shit they have to make that's different from this first episode.

I'd say that within a year maybe we'd get some DLC. At the very least, we'd get a PC release, and I'm sure they'd have to release that with at least some extra content.

 

[gela94]

Is this confirmed?
Are we really looking at 2 Years per chapter?
I'm thinking a year max
Surely they already half-way done with PT II
I just can't see them not having already started the next Part.
It should have been one big production split up into 3-4 parts
and parts 2-3-4 will just trickle out now it is on the roll.
I'm guessing we'll see a trailer this at the end of the year for PT II

We are talking Squeenix here, they haven't even told us how many parts there gonna be but I hope you are right.

 

[Lethal01]

https:

Is this confirmed?
Are we really looking at 2 Years per chapter?
I'm thinking a year max
Surely they already half-way done with PT II
I just can't see them not having already started the next Part.
It should have been one big production split up into 3-4 parts
and parts 2-3-4 will just trickle out now it is on the roll.
I'm guessing we'll see a trailer this at the end of the year for PT II

I'm pretty certain it's not going to be less that 2 years between parts, most likely a little more than 3 but I could see it being less if they really get lucky.

 

[T_LVPL]

Went through hell and highwater and over 5 hours of trying but heroically just beat

Spoiler

Hellhouse

on Hard. Got him down to the last 10% over and over but i could just never manage to stagger him before those 2 complete bastard tanks arrive to kill me. Finally staggered him before they arrived and hit him with Ascension to bury him.

Best gaming moment i’ve had since Destiny all those years ago and that first time clearing Vault of Glass.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

im at 45 hours in, nearing the end of the game. damn the graphics are looking better and better. some of these environments are just amazing and i spend time just walking around and looking. the area last chapter w the massive skybox was so nice.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

 

[Nymphae]

When you are controlling Cloud, and you press R2/L2 to select party commands, why can I never get the camera to focus on these party members as I'm selecting them? It's frustrating to not be able to assess the situation around my other party members as I'm trying to select a command for them.

There is an option in the menu for that I think, and I tried both settings and it didn't seem to do anything, my camera is always focused on the party member I am controlling in a battle. I want it so that if I'm Cloud and I hit L2/R2 to select commands, the camera snaps to that party member, and after the command is selected, back to Cloud.

The battle settings frustrate me because you can't adjust them in battle and it's not like you can go easily find a group of battles to test things all the time. They should have allowed you to access game/control options from within battles.

Another little nitpick I'm finding bothers me is how many particle effects there are at times in battles, I literally can't see shit because everyone is shooting sparks from basic attacks.

 

[TTOOLL]

Holyshit!! Airbuster in hard mode kicked my ass 3 times before I could defeat it. Pretty hard indeed. Chi trap and lighting elemental damage with Tifa, Blade burst, lightning and pray with Cloud, Barret casting manawall and healing here and there.

Tifa is a MONSTER.

 

[Kev Kev]

When you are controlling Cloud, and you press R2/L2 to select party commands, why can I never get the camera to focus on these party members as I'm selecting them? It's frustrating to not be able to assess the situation around my other party members as I'm trying to select a command for them.

There is an option in the menu for that I think, and I tried both settings and it didn't seem to do anything, my camera is always focused on the party member I am controlling in a battle. I want it so that if I'm Cloud and I hit L2/R2 to select commands, the camera snaps to that party member, and after the command is selected, back to Cloud.

The battle settings frustrate me because you can't adjust them in battle and it's not like you can go easily find a group of battles to test things all the time. They should have allowed you to access game/control options from within battles.

Another little nitpick I'm finding bothers me is how many particle effects there are at times in battles, I literally can't see shit because everyone is shooting sparks from basic attacks.

yeah man, the game is full of these kinds of little flaws that, for me, add up to a big flaw. i really want to call this game a 9/10, but all those little things bump it down to an 8 for me. the worst part is they are like, really glaring, obvious problems, so they had to have known about them or at least heard complaints in testing or something... but for whatever reason, even after all these years of development, they manage to let dumb shit like that slip through the cracks.

the good news is they have a couple more installments to make adjustments... let's hope they do!

 

[Rentahamster]

When you are controlling Cloud, and you press R2/L2 to select party commands, why can I never get the camera to focus on these party members as I'm selecting them? It's frustrating to not be able to assess the situation around my other party members as I'm trying to select a command for them.

There is an option in the menu for that I think, and I tried both settings and it didn't seem to do anything, my camera is always focused on the party member I am controlling in a battle. I want it so that if I'm Cloud and I hit L2/R2 to select commands, the camera snaps to that party member, and after the command is selected, back to Cloud.

The battle settings frustrate me because you can't adjust them in battle and it's not like you can go easily find a group of battles to test things all the time. They should have allowed you to access game/control options from within battles.

Another little nitpick I'm finding bothers me is how many particle effects there are at times in battles, I literally can't see shit because everyone is shooting sparks from basic attacks.

yeah man, the game is full of these kinds of little flaws that, for me, add up to a big flaw. i really want to call this game a 9/10, but all those little things bump it down to an 8 for me. the worst part is they are like, really glaring, obvious problems, so they had to have known about them or at least heard complaints in testing or something... but for whatever reason, even after all these years of development, they manage to let dumb shit like that slip through the cracks.

the good news is they have a couple more installments to make adjustments... let's hope they do!

For the camera to focus on the non-active character:

Go to camera settings, Camera View: Ally Commands - set to "non active characters"

In battle, say Cloud is your current active character. L2/R2 to bring up the ability menu of a non-active character, say Aerith.

Note that the camera will not switch yet.

Hover over a skill that targets an enemy. At that point, the camera will switch to Aerith's perspective while you choose the target of her skill or spell. (Note that you can't do this if you don't have any ATB because you can't do skills without ATB)

Alternatively, you could just switch to Aerith really quick, do the skill really quick, and switch back to Cloud really quick. Both methods should take approximately the same amount of real time.

To your point, I think it would be nice if there was also a way to switch active characters while in bullet time.


Additional battle camera tip - if you're disoriented because of weird lock on behavior, then do this: Slow down time with the ability menu, unlock the target, then freely look around with R3.

 

[Nymphae]

For the camera to focus on the non-active character:

Go to camera settings, Camera View: Ally Commands - set to "non active characters"

In battle, say Cloud is your current active character. L2/R2 to bring up the ability menu of a non-active character, say Aerith.

Note that the camera will not switch yet.

Hover over a skill that targets an enemy. At that point, the camera will switch to Aerith's perspective while you choose the target of her skill or spell. (Note that you can't do this if you don't have any ATB because you can't do skills without ATB)

I'll try that, I did have that option set that way but I didn't ever notice the camera switch, perhaps because I was always using abilities when I was in control of the characters rather than selecting their abilities as Cloud. I think I was trying to use spells last night though and it was bugging me that it just doesn't auto focus on them when you are in the R2/L2 menus, I would have liked that behaviour.

Alternatively, you could just switch to Aerith really quick, do the skill really quick, and switch back to Cloud really quick. Both methods should take approximately the same amount of real time.

This just doesn't feel right, might be splitting hairs a bit, but it feels like it takes way longer that way and I don't enjoy doing the juggling, I get confused about which direction I have to press for which character in the heat of battle sometimes and I waste time cycling.

Additional battle camera tip - if you're disoriented because of weird lock on behavior, then do this: Slow down time with the ability menu, unlock the target, then freely look around with R3.

I don't find the camera all that bad now, I switched it to the non locked camera with free aim, so I have to do more managing of it, but I prefer that to the default camera behaviours.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

Walking around in Shinra HQ really enjoying the visuals. Game feels like it is taking a bit from Bioshock Infinite w the environmental storytelling.

Very cool. This area is one of the ones that benefits hugely from the full 3D experience. Just looking at these displays is awesome. Holy damn some of these cutscenes are beyond beautiful.

The surprise platforming segment with Tifa was very nice too!

 

[Rentahamster]

 

[#Phonepunk#]

Oh man I made it to the vr side area and these are the best fights so far

 

[#Phonepunk#]

ok. it looks like they put all their resources into the home stretch. i just started Chapter 16 an hour or two ago and it is just jaw dropping. it is like the quality texture work and level of geometry just keeps getting better and better.

there was one point where i was going up an escalator and thought, omg, this is the most beautiful escalator ride i have ever been on! it was like an escalator in cyber heaven or something. there was a glowing orange light alongside the steps. everything had a green metallic sheen to it. i don't know, it is hard to say why, but it was unnecessarily beautiful.

the lighting in this game is killer, especially on metallic or reflective surfaces. several minutes later i was in a bathroom and the way the lights hit the marble flooring, it was just so dope. i just spent some time looking at the floor. it looks damn good.

lots of the early game texture issues go away as you progress the story. the stuff in the later chapters is miles ahead. if you are playing the game and disappointed with some of the graphics, don't worry, the quality in the last 3/4 the game is top notch.