Image by Flickr User: Borgs Dalisay (CC)
Final Fantasy VII is one of my absolute favorite games from the good ol’ PSOne, probably number…4 after Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage, Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon, Crash Bandicoot 2: Wrath of Cortex, and Crash Bandicoot: Warped. (What can I say? I like my classic platformers!) I love almost everything about this game: the story, the world, and the diverse characters, not to mention the secrets (oh those lovely, lovely secrets!). Final Fantasy VII‘s music is a particular favorite. There’s just something about it that immediately sucks me into its world, the Mako Reactor theme in particular. With all this excellence crammed into just 3 CDs, it’s no wonder this game ranks among the favorites of myself and a great many others. Here’s the thing though: I haven’t yet managed to finish it.
Over seven years and as many attempts, I’ve attempted to resolve this…problem. It’s a quest that one would think should be easily resolved, and they would be right. Final Fantasy VII can be a tricky game, even difficult (as least up to where I’ve gotten), but not so much that it defies completion (I doubt it would be as highly regarded were that the case). No, each failed attempt has suffered from the same problem: a lack of proper attention.
Distraction has always been the enemy. Usually instigated by getting stuck on a difficult enemy (Like say that stupid giant snake),
and then cemented by the release of a shiny new game; BioShock Infinite being the most recent interruption that just demanded to be played. The end result? An altogether too late return to game; All sense of direction gone. All sense of purpose faded in its entirety. Nothing to do but start over again…and again. I’ve gotten further each time, all the way to disk 3 even, but have always come up short.
Well the time has come once again to make an attempt to finish this most excellent of games, and this one…this will be the one that finally ends it! Much like Simpleek, I’ve issued myself a challenge: before the month of June is out, I will finally complete Final Fantasy VII! Following her format, I’ll have a progress report for you mid-month and a final result at the end. Can’t expect to accomplish a goal without checkpoints to meet right?
I end with a couple of questions for those who have seen all that the game has to offer: Is gettng Aeris’ “Great Gospel” limit break worth it, and would you recommend taking on the optional Weapon fights?
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Do you have any unfinished games that somehow manage to keep escaping you? Can you tolerate having an unfinished game on your record?
I managed to beat “FFVII”, but that final boss is tough. (And Sephiroth’s Super Nova attack is unbelievably long.) The game I really can’t beat is “Final Fantasy VIII”. The bosses get tougher the higher you level up, and so grinding is not a good method of beating the final boss, even if it was in every other RPG I’ve played. I can’t, for the life of me, figure out how to beat that game, and I don’t know if I ever will. It bothers me….
Good luck on beating the game.
Thanks. So what’s the usual strategy for beating a FFVIII boss? Is it based on some sort of skill? Also, do bosses match you level for level?
I have no idea what the strategy is. I watch these videos where people completely annihilate the bosses, while my characters can barely get over 100 per attack. It’s rather sad. I wish I knew what exactly they were doing to fight so well. And I don’t know how exactly the boss levels match your characters’ levels, either. They seem to have a range from level 1 to 65, but I don’t know what that’s based off of.
It’s absurd, really. The battles get no easier the stronger my characters get, and until I can figure out what I’m doing wrong, I’ve given up on the game. It’s a shame, because leaving a game unfinished bugs me.
Great Gospel, while awesome, is a waste of time. Entirely unnecessary for the first part of the game, and you’ll only have it for the first disc anyway.
Definitely do the Omega Weapon optional fights after the initial fight, since it gives you Cloud’s best weapon and let’s you access the forest where you get Typhoon. Can’t remember the rewards for beating Ruby and Emerald but I know I always made a point of doing it, and it was a point of pride that I could beat the Emerald Weapon without the underwater materia, will my brother and father couldn’t. Ah memories… time to setup the ps3 and replay it I think.
Ultimecia is a hell of a fight, especially as you can’t use GFs against her, since she’ll just destroy them and ruin your junctions. From memory she can potentially destroy magic as well, but it’s not as common. The way I beat her (and I’ve done it a few times) was having Rinoa with all of her limit breaks learnt, fully junctioned for defense, and everyone else set up for offense. Seems like in that final fight, Angelo’s life saving moves go off far more regularly than normal, so Rinoa was able to stay alive and keep everyone else standing for as long as possible. The issue is that if someone gets knocked out and isn’t raised immediately, they’re gone. A couple of times it came down to Rinoa making a list stand against Ultimecia on her own, whittling her health down. Took about an hour or so if I recall correctly.
As someone who also has yet to compete FFVII, I’m rooting for you!
I have so many unfinished games in my backlog, it’s terrible! But right now, the one that’s bugging me the most is Metroid Prime. After a failed attempt at playing it long ago, I made a triumphant return to it last year. Right now I’m stuck on Thardus, so I still have a ways to go with the game, but I just haven’t had the time to invest in it recently. I really want to finish it so I can move on with the series!
Thardus is the rock/ice monster right? I remember that one being tough too. It’s awesome that you still get to experience that series fresh! Just wait until the final boss fight! It’s so incredibly epic and does exactly what a final boss should do: Put all the skills you’ve learned to the test! So good…and it gets better in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes!
Agreed. Working through my third play through at the moment.
Nice! Would you say it’s worth leveling Aeris up or not?
The game does a pretty good job of letting each character level up in a balanced manner for the first disc (i.e. when Aerith is alive) so I would level her up simply b/c she does serve as an asset in the first disc (i.e. when she’s alive). Healing Wind in a pinch = lifesaver. Otherwise, you can manage just fine with a healer that only has basic skills.
Alright, I’ll do that then. Thanks for the tip!
Huh, apparently I managed to reply to myself some how. That’s what I get for posting from my phone. Was meant to be a redone to theduckofindeed and Hatm0nster…
Phones: messing things up ever since they got “smart”. :D
That’s great! Good luck in finally beating the game! I can’t wait to read your progress reports. :)
Thanks!