Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Pt. 2 Rebirth

[Mad Pierrot]

Seems the game won some Joystiq awards:
*Cloud's voice actor won Best Lead Performer
*Aerith's actress won Best Supporting Performer
*Rebirth won Best Narrative
*Rebirth won Best Soundtrack

Now to prepare to see if it wins a Game Award. It's ridiculous that it's paired up with an Elden Ring DLC but I think Elden Ring has won more stuff than The Last of Us

[Kafriel]

For TGA, I'd bet on music direction or best RPG, GotY is pretty hard though - I expect Wukong to take that as well. IMO GotY should go to either Rebirth or AstroBot, but we'll find out soon enough.

[JagdPanther]

*whew*

Beat the main game this evening. Man, did that chapter suck. Took me a little under 3 hours from the time I loaded in (making a few last equipment changes) to the time the credits finished rolling (yeah, I watched them all) and got the ability to save again.

We're like, what, 9 months since release? I don't know if we're totally free of Spoilerville, so to be safe, I'll put story stuff here:

Spoiler for end of game:

Okay, so, WTF. My 3-hour run to the end started off with a lot of confusion. I don't get what happened to Aerith. Did Cloud miss Sephiroth's sword? Did he imagine he even tried to stop Sephiroth? Did Cloud kill Aerith himself? I am sooooooooo confused.

As for Aerith, playing with the Japanese voices, I found it interesting that she says "Sayonara" at the end. If I understand correctly (I learned this only earlier this year), "sayonara" is very, very specific in Japanese, basically said only when you expect to never see someone again.

I think the nicest touch was Nanaki reacting when Aerith seemed to touch him. I was really hoping that she'd place her hand on Tifa's, and Tifa would feel better for no reason known to herself.

I was talking to a friend last night and speculating about another Intermission in the next 1-2 years years featuring Cid and Vincent since you couldn't play as them in Rebirth, but the ending reminded me that they could make Wutai an Intermission. That would be another Yuffie-focused one, but since you didn't actually play as Yuffie for most of the Wutai sidequest in the original game, maybe that's okay here.

As for the final battle itself... woof. It was as bad. lol

Spoiler for final battle stuff:

I actually don't remember all of my combinations. I think I had Tifa and Nanaki for Jenova's first phase. I had Yuffie, Barrett, and Nanaki for Sephiroth Reborn's final phase.

I apparently got bad intel on Breach removing Jenova's barrier... or for whatever reason it just didn't work. So, that was a wasted materia slot for that particular fight (I switched it out when you can hold square before the next battle). Also, I really, really struggled with the last phase of Jenova. I blew like 10 Phoenix Downs on the last phase because I just could not for the life of me stay alive. I nearly got a TPK at one point; I think Cait Sith had like 100 HP left as I tried to build up ATB to raise someone.

Sephiroth Reborn was a pain and was the only place I got killed. Cloud got annihilated on the second phase. Thankfully, I read about the stupidity of how the "Retry" prompts are written and I picked the right one to avoid having to redo a ton of stuff. Once I managed to avoid getting killed right off the bat trying to use Assess, it was actually fairly easy from there, just grindy. The only trouble I had after that was Bahamut Arisen Whisper using Gigaflare when OF COURSE not a single character had a full ATB bar for me to pre-heal. Thankfully Tifa was nearly full health, anyway, so she survived while Yuffie and Cait Sith died and was able to res them both.

Sephiroth was actually not THAT bad. I nearly got F'd over in the first like 15% of his health because I must've not been paying attention to my HP and got TPK'd, but thankfully I'd put a Revival Earring on the Aerith. I nearly got TPK'd a second time shortly thereafter, but managed to have Aerith dodge long enough to build up another ATB and res Cloud. I was so focused on using Firework to upgrade the Limit Level twice that I must've gotten over my skis.

After that, it was actually shockingly so-so. I just always kept someone is at least 1 ATB (preferably 2) so that when Sephiroth used Heartless Angel I was immediately ready to toss a Mist Giga Potion. Had to do that only twice (though I think I burned a combined 8-10 Mist Mega and Mist Giga Potions in the final battles overall). Once I got to the final phase, I had Finishing Touch ready to go... though I thought I used it too early and was going to run out of juice right before Sephiroth was defeated. Thankfully, there was one more strike and he was down.

Man, that was rough.

Onto post-game stuff. I'm starting with redoing Chapter 11 because I am soooo pissed I finished with Tifa at 99% relationship; I am pretty sure the only thing I am missing is that I didn't Perfect the White Haired Angel quest since I strayed too far from the cats on the way back to Nibelheim. So, gotta run through the chapter, unlock that quest, and do this over... I want her at 100% come hell or high water. After that, I'll probably dive into Battle Sims and Musclehead Colosseum.

[Tactics]

Originally Posted by JagdPanther

*whew*

Beat the main game this evening. Man, did that chapter suck. Took me a little under 3 hours from the time I loaded in (making a few last equipment changes) to the time the credits finished rolling (yeah, I watched them all) and got the ability to save again.

We're like, what, 9 months since release? I don't know if we're totally free of Spoilerville, so to be safe, I'll put story stuff here:

Spoiler for end of game:

Okay, so, WTF. My 3-hour run to the end started off with a lot of confusion. I don't get what happened to Aerith. Did Cloud miss Sephiroth's sword? Did he imagine he even tried to stop Sephiroth? Did Cloud kill Aerith himself? I am sooooooooo confused.

As for Aerith, playing with the Japanese voices, I found it interesting that she says "Sayonara" at the end. If I understand correctly (I learned this only earlier this year), "sayonara" is very, very specific in Japanese, basically said only when you expect to never see someone again.

I think the nicest touch was Nanaki reacting when Aerith seemed to touch him. I was really hoping that she'd place her hand on Tifa's, and Tifa would feel better for no reason known to herself.

I was talking to a friend last night and speculating about another Intermission in the next 1-2 years years featuring Cid and Vincent since you couldn't play as them in Rebirth, but the ending reminded me that they could make Wutai an Intermission. That would be another Yuffie-focused one, but since you didn't actually play as Yuffie for most of the Wutai sidequest in the original game, maybe that's okay here.

Hamaguchi already confirmed there will be no Intergrade for Rebirth.
The reason is he wanted to funnel all the resources to third game since he considered it the most difficult (airship, world map, access to past areas, etc).

He also confirmed that adventure happened during Remake and Rebirth were adventure from Cloud POV instead of third-person.
So if there's anything lore-related awkwardly done or missing, it's on purpose and Cloud fault.

[Kafriel]

Originally Posted by JagdPanther

*whew*

Beat the main game this evening. Man, did that chapter suck. Took me a little under 3 hours from the time I loaded in (making a few last equipment changes) to the time the credits finished rolling (yeah, I watched them all) and got the ability to save again.

We're like, what, 9 months since release? I don't know if we're totally free of Spoilerville, so to be safe, I'll put story stuff here:

Spoiler for end of game:

Okay, so, WTF. My 3-hour run to the end started off with a lot of confusion. I don't get what happened to Aerith. Did Cloud miss Sephiroth's sword? Did he imagine he even tried to stop Sephiroth? Did Cloud kill Aerith himself? I am sooooooooo confused.

As for Aerith, playing with the Japanese voices, I found it interesting that she says "Sayonara" at the end. If I understand correctly (I learned this only earlier this year), "sayonara" is very, very specific in Japanese, basically said only when you expect to never see someone again.

I think the nicest touch was Nanaki reacting when Aerith seemed to touch him. I was really hoping that she'd place her hand on Tifa's, and Tifa would feel better for no reason known to herself.

I was talking to a friend last night and speculating about another Intermission in the next 1-2 years years featuring Cid and Vincent since you couldn't play as them in Rebirth, but the ending reminded me that they could make Wutai an Intermission. That would be another Yuffie-focused one, but since you didn't actually play as Yuffie for most of the Wutai sidequest in the original game, maybe that's okay here.

As for the final battle itself... woof. It was as bad. lol

Spoiler for final battle stuff:

I actually don't remember all of my combinations. I think I had Tifa and Nanaki for Jenova's first phase. I had Yuffie, Barrett, and Nanaki for Sephiroth Reborn's final phase.

I apparently got bad intel on Breach removing Jenova's barrier... or for whatever reason it just didn't work. So, that was a wasted materia slot for that particular fight (I switched it out when you can hold square before the next battle). Also, I really, really struggled with the last phase of Jenova. I blew like 10 Phoenix Downs on the last phase because I just could not for the life of me stay alive. I nearly got a TPK at one point; I think Cait Sith had like 100 HP left as I tried to build up ATB to raise someone.

Sephiroth Reborn was a pain and was the only place I got killed. Cloud got annihilated on the second phase. Thankfully, I read about the stupidity of how the "Retry" prompts are written and I picked the right one to avoid having to redo a ton of stuff. Once I managed to avoid getting killed right off the bat trying to use Assess, it was actually fairly easy from there, just grindy. The only trouble I had after that was Bahamut Arisen Whisper using Gigaflare when OF COURSE not a single character had a full ATB bar for me to pre-heal. Thankfully Tifa was nearly full health, anyway, so she survived while Yuffie and Cait Sith died and was able to res them both.

Sephiroth was actually not THAT bad. I nearly got F'd over in the first like 15% of his health because I must've not been paying attention to my HP and got TPK'd, but thankfully I'd put a Revival Earring on the Aerith. I nearly got TPK'd a second time shortly thereafter, but managed to have Aerith dodge long enough to build up another ATB and res Cloud. I was so focused on using Firework to upgrade the Limit Level twice that I must've gotten over my skis.

After that, it was actually shockingly so-so. I just always kept someone is at least 1 ATB (preferably 2) so that when Sephiroth used Heartless Angel I was immediately ready to toss a Mist Giga Potion. Had to do that only twice (though I think I burned a combined 8-10 Mist Mega and Mist Giga Potions in the final battles overall). Once I got to the final phase, I had Finishing Touch ready to go... though I thought I used it too early and was going to run out of juice right before Sephiroth was defeated. Thankfully, there was one more strike and he was down.

Man, that was rough.

Onto post-game stuff. I'm starting with redoing Chapter 11 because I am soooo pissed I finished with Tifa at 99% relationship; I am pretty sure the only thing I am missing is that I didn't Perfect the White Haired Angel quest since I strayed too far from the cats on the way back to Nibelheim. So, gotta run through the chapter, unlock that quest, and do this over... I want her at 100% come hell or high water. After that, I'll probably dive into Battle Sims and Musclehead Colosseum.

As far as the plot goes, after many, many months of theorycrafting...

Spoiler for Plot stuff:

Think of it as the Lifestream containing infinite possibilities, which we get to glimpse at times. Cloud, Zack and Aerith have come to close contact with it (as well as death), which is why they get the whole "life flashing before my eyes" experience, except it includes other worlds too. Sephiroth is in the know and actively tries to destroy every other possibility, besides the one where he wins; this part is the only one I can 100% confirm, because Sephiroth Reborn is omnipresent - the damage he takes in Zack's life carries over to his fight against Cloud. In the same vein, if Sephiroth joins with the Lifestream many times over many worlds collapsing, he becomes that many times stronger... which I believe is the hook for part 3.

So, yes, Aerith did die and became a part of the Lifestream, but her will still lingers. Cloud can talk to her because he is... special. He only had a glimpse of saving her because he can't really deal with her death at the moment.

And now, for the combat stuff!

Spoiler for Final Fight:

JENOVA was the toughest part of the fight for me as well. Although the game gives you a lot of freedom as to how you want to customize your characters for various roles, for JENOVA I just HAD TO use Barret, Nanaki and Cait Sith as tank/support. Barret was the easiest one with Turbulent spirit, Lifesaver, Steelskin, ATB assist materia and Chakra spam. I had to be extra careful with Nanaki to build his vengeance gauge, had him and Cait Sith on ATB boosts for extra heals. Those death lasers are a real pain to deal with! Other than that, I had a bit of trouble as solo Cloud vs Sephiroth Reborn, practically had to beat him with zero damage taken, but at least the final Sephiroth was easy enough, because Aerith really makes it count.

Did you get to use Zack's limit break? Seeing it for the first time was awesome!

For sidequests etc: if you still don't get 100% after the white-haired angel, try to look for special dialogue in other quests, for which you might need Tifa. Before you go into the battle sims... do yourself a favor and max at least a few materia: HP/MP absorb, all the stat UPs, magic focus, skill master, ATB boost, ATB assist, magnify, elemental, time, precision defense focus (MUST), steadfast block. Ironically, the white-haired angel is the best quest for AP farming!

You might also want to finish your folios to make your own life easier for the last few battles, but that requires a hard game playthrough, so... give the fights a go, and if they get too hard, try again later.

P.S: Finishing the protorelic quests will prepare you well for some of the hardest fights in the game... trust me, you'll play them many times. Have fun and congratulations for beating the game!!!

[JagdPanther]

Originally Posted by Tactics

Hamaguchi already confirmed there will be no Intergrade for Rebirth.
The reason is he wanted to funnel all the resources to third game since he considered it the most difficult (airship, world map, access to past areas, etc).

He also confirmed that adventure happened during Remake and Rebirth were adventure from Cloud POV instead of third-person.
So if there's anything lore-related awkwardly done or missing, it's on purpose and Cloud fault.

I think I knew that but forgot. That kinda sucks in a way.... and it better mean that Wutai is part of the 3rd game.

Originally Posted by Kafriel

And now, for the combat stuff!

Spoiler for Final Fight:

JENOVA was the toughest part of the fight for me as well. Although the game gives you a lot of freedom as to how you want to customize your characters for various roles, for JENOVA I just HAD TO use Barret, Nanaki and Cait Sith as tank/support. Barret was the easiest one with Turbulent spirit, Lifesaver, Steelskin, ATB assist materia and Chakra spam. I had to be extra careful with Nanaki to build his vengeance gauge, had him and Cait Sith on ATB boosts for extra heals. Those death lasers are a real pain to deal with! Other than that, I had a bit of trouble as solo Cloud vs Sephiroth Reborn, practically had to beat him with zero damage taken, but at least the final Sephiroth was easy enough, because Aerith really makes it count.

Did you get to use Zack's limit break? Seeing it for the first time was awesome!

I did, yeah. Definitely cool. Definitely didn't do the damage I was hoping. lol Maybe used it too early in the fight?

For sidequests etc: if you still don't get 100% after the white-haired angel, try to look for special dialogue in other quests, for which you might need Tifa. Before you go into the battle sims... do yourself a favor and max at least a few materia: HP/MP absorb, all the stat UPs, magic focus, skill master, ATB boost, ATB assist, magnify, elemental, time, precision defense focus (MUST), steadfast block. Ironically, the white-haired angel is the best quest for AP farming!

You might also want to finish your folios to make your own life easier for the last few battles, but that requires a hard game playthrough, so... give the fights a go, and if they get too hard, try again later.

P.S: Finishing the protorelic quests will prepare you well for some of the hardest fights in the game... trust me, you'll play them many times. Have fun and congratulations for beating the game!!!

Thanks!

And, yeah, I plan on doing some XP/AP grinding in the sims/Colosseum before tackling the new stuff. I understand the Grassland Level 2 sim is pretty good for that.

I don't know if I'll do any of the chapters on hard. I know that kneecaps you a bit with the folios, but I'll run that risk. Just don't want to have to replay stuff just to get them. Maybe the shortest chapters, really.

I am powering through Chapter 11 on normal right now just to get the White Haired Angel sidequest. That has to be the reason why I didn't 100% Tifa. I *think* that Perfect finish on the sidequest counts for *something* with the affection gauge as it is an "odd job" (which is all I'm missing).

[Kafriel]

The side quests are pretty short, actually, even on hard. I found out that the largest part of NG was actually Chadley stuff, which carries over. Some mini-game records are genuinely hard, though. I tried a few things for AP farming, like running around the Gongaga site, but killing bees is the fastest method by far; you just get to the queen bee and let her summon all the time, until you eventually kill her after 4-5 loops. It's important to know which materia are the hardest to level (magic focus and swiftcast) and prioritize them with a chocobo armband and/or AP UPs.

The max weapon level thing is mostly for the extra stat boost, though I think some weapons unlock some vital abilities at Lv9 too. It's not 100% necessary though, what matters the most is being prepared. One of the things I wish the game did better is the consecutive battles in the arena/sim: you have zero intel about what you're fighting, so I had to look up every fight and plan accordingly, while it could have easily been included in a pre-battle screen. This hit me especially hard when I got petrified in a solo battle, total waste of a run.

[JagdPanther]

Originally Posted by Kafriel

The side quests are pretty short, actually, even on hard. I found out that the largest part of NG was actually Chadley stuff, which carries over. Some mini-game records are genuinely hard, though. I tried a few things for AP farming, like running around the Gongaga site, but killing bees is the fastest method by far; you just get to the queen bee and let her summon all the time, until you eventually kill her after 4-5 loops. It's important to know which materia are the hardest to level (magic focus and swiftcast) and prioritize them with a chocobo armband and/or AP UPs.

The max weapon level thing is mostly for the extra stat boost, though I think some weapons unlock some vital abilities at Lv9 too. It's not 100% necessary though, what matters the most is being prepared. One of the things I wish the game did better is the consecutive battles in the arena/sim: you have zero intel about what you're fighting, so I had to look up every fight and plan accordingly, while it could have easily been included in a pre-battle screen. This hit me especially hard when I got petrified in a solo battle, total waste of a run.

When I was maxing materia in Remake, I read a guide that made sense to me: unless you have everything else maxed, don't bother with AP-boosting items/materia because you'll always gain more AP overall but having as many materia in your equipment as possible. But, that makes sense that the ones that require the most AP will end up being last to level up, so you can eventually find use for the AP-boosting stuff.

I didn't get a lot of time to play tonight so I saved right at the start of White Haired Angel. I forgot that the quest ends with having to play the piano... I did A-rank it before, so... hopefully I can repeat that. BUT, I don't think *that* plays into Perfect completion for the mission like not straying from the cats does.

I am keeping 2 saves just in case I have to revert and retry the mission.

[Mad Pierrot]

I wonder how is it that part 3 could adapt Cloud and Tifa's night under the ship. Probably their most intimate moment from the original game.

[Kafriel]

That's one of the big questions, isn't it? I am more interested in the WEAPON battles; Armored Core 6 has shown us what a truly colossal fight can entail, WEAPONS are meant to scale to a size larger than entire villages, so ~16m tall and 10m wide, sort of like colossal Metal Gears... these battles are going to be absolutely epic.

Other interesting parts will be:

Spoiler for part 3 story stuff & more:

- Cid's story, because if you take away the Shera part, he's actually a cool guy... but that part is inextricably tied to his character. So, how do you make him approachable without changing a core part of who he is?

- Medeel. We've seen many games about exploring a person's inner world, from Sennua's Sacrifice to Persona 5, so I expect this part to be better than Tifa's introspection when she briefly joined the Lifestream.

- Wutai. This has to be a central plot piece, but it begs for expansion, since in the original there was frankly little to do. Yuffie's arc is far from over, and I honestly don't know how they'll go about it.

- Return to Midgar. Another extra awesome part from the OG, I loved the cinematic pieces from Rebirth, so I just can't wait for this part. Bonus points if they expand on sector 5 stuff, like going to Elmyra's or the orphanage.

- Chadley. Believe it or not, as much as we were ham-fisted Chadley and his comms, I think that the original characters of FF7R are good. I loved Roche and his story, so I look forward to seeing what goes down between Chadley and Hojo.

- Knights of Round. If they're added into the actual in-game lore, like Max predicted, I expect them to be the human leaders who wiped out the ancients, coming back to kill JENOVA, whom they had personally faced in the past.

- Reunion at the North Crater. If Cody returns for best lead 2027, this will be his crowning moment.

- Lv4 limit breaks and all of Vincent. He'll be the third ranged party member, enabling a Barret/Yuffie/Vincent team of maximum artillery fire, but I'm more interested in how his Chaos forms will translate in-game and what his general playstyle is going to be; for now, I'm guessing 2-ATB cost moves for pressure, stagger and damage as well as unique debuffs like marking opponents, raising the party's crit chance against them. He could have a type of mist dodge too, or a reload mechanic for his unique ability. I'm equally hyped for Cid, but I feel he is much more straightforward.

- Materia loadouts. This has been confirmed to be in part 3 and I can't wait to absolutely break the game's balance to tiny pieces with whatever crazy combinations we can all manage.

[Tactics]

Wutai not really beg for expansion. Rufus in VIIR already mentioned Wutai is place that will prove his 'might makes right' ideology.
Its easy to tweak the story so either Yuffie stole their materia on their way to Northern Crater or party sympathizing with her (after Gongaga and Barret's past) then agreed to check Wutai. Might as well get Shera involved with it to lessen strain of map and interaction.

Vincent OTOH got Dirge sub-plot lurking in background.
At least, since Chadley exists and acted as Tsviets supervisor, its easy to devise cliffhanger, be it for expansion or new installment as Kitase himself wouldn't mind Dirge remake if VIIR Vincent proven to be satisfying to control (its possible to not see Chaos if they kept Weiss and Nero away from main plot).

I think Weapons are the challenging ones to deal with since one of their charm was you found them on World Map then hit them with your ride.
Hats off if they keep the scale true to OG instead of using FF XIV scale. IIRC Ruby Weapon is nearly as big as Gold Saucer while Diamond Weapon can easily crush Sector 7 with its foot.

[JagdPanther]

I feel like they've sort of backed themselves into a corner with Yuffie and Cid. Not sure how they'll get out of it without significantly changing the original stories (or just ignoring them).

In terms of post-game content, did some Musclehead Colosseum 3-and-3 battles today. King Zu was a problem, but I've kinda figured out a system when it's paired up with another boss. Takes a while, but it's reliable-ish so far.

Switched over to the Gilgamesh Island challenge. Did the first 2 battles and saved in front of the Odin/Alexander battle; I'll try that tomorrow. I understand that one is a pain in the butt if you can't kill Alexander quickly. The most annoying thing about those battles so far is that trying to have Aerith take advantage of Arcane Ward is that the Summon I wasn't targeting kept interrupting Aerith. Sooooo frustrating.

Going to try to finish Gilgamesh Island to get Swiftcast and then go spend a lot of time AP farming in Gongaga.

[Kafriel]

If you want to clear Alexander quickly, you'll probably need Tifa, Yuffie or both. He's weak to lightning, so either lightning ninjutsu for banishment 3, or electric discharge for omnistrikes (true strikes on stagger). He plays a bit like a boss from FFXIV, you need some environmental awareness to dodge his stuff, but you can definitely kill him before divine judgment.

For Odin, Cloud and Nanaki are the best characters to use, since they can pressure him the fastest. His very telegraphed attacks build the vengeance gauge fast, translating to even faster staggers. Aerith and Barret are among your slowest, unless you've got radiant ward down, but can still be tough to move around Alexander's light shenanigans and tracking beam. Try to position yourself in a way that you can focus on Odin's attacks and still keep an eye out for Alexander's move names - they all have enough delay for you to disengage Odin and dodge.

[JagdPanther]

Originally Posted by Kafriel

If you want to clear Alexander quickly, you'll probably need Tifa, Yuffie or both. He's weak to lightning, so either lightning ninjutsu for banishment 3, or electric discharge for omnistrikes (true strikes on stagger). He plays a bit like a boss from FFXIV, you need some environmental awareness to dodge his stuff, but you can definitely kill him before divine judgment.

For Odin, Cloud and Nanaki are the best characters to use, since they can pressure him the fastest. His very telegraphed attacks build the vengeance gauge fast, translating to even faster staggers. Aerith and Barret are among your slowest, unless you've got radiant ward down, but can still be tough to move around Alexander's light shenanigans and tracking beam. Try to position yourself in a way that you can focus on Odin's attacks and still keep an eye out for Alexander's move names - they all have enough delay for you to disengage Odin and dodge.

I wussed out and switched to Easy mode after several brutally failed attempts. My inability to dodge was a big part of it. Odin was railing me left and right no matter what I did to try to avoid his attacks, and then of course Alexander was constantly interrupting me. I had watched a guide that didn't involve blasting down Alexander's arms with Lightning spells and figured, "Okay, that takes a while, but seems doable." Nope. Could not dodge Odin for the life of me, so he quickly built up to Zanketsuken and wasted me, and even though I had Reprieve weapons on Cloud and Aerith and Revival earrings on Tifa, Alexander would very (in)conveniently immediately hit everyone with an attack, so I got wiped.

I did Gilgamesh on Normal, though. That took like 6-8 tries but I eventually got him by using the Enhanced Expeditionary Medal on Cloud and then several limit breaks from both him and Tifa. Final one was courtesy of Aerith's 3rd Limit Break filling up Cloud's gauge again. Gilgamesh was very... spongy.

Now onto AP farming. Tried a run through southern Gongaga. Not sure I did it right, so I switched to the Seahorse intel on Corel's beach, which apparently is another fast-ish way to grind AP. Did about 30 minutes of that before stopping for the day.

[Kafriel]

Odin is meant to be mostly countered, either by Cloud or Red, unless you perfect parry him (which is considerably harder). He's got a counter that changes every time he hits, whiffs, gets blocked or gets hit, so counterattacks give you extra points towards Sleipnir's Furor. No two ways about Alexander, you just need the damage for it.

Gilgamesh is susceptible to poison, fire and dispel. IIRC he's got 120k HP on normal, so yeah, it's meant to be a long fight, but you can turn it to your favour if you make him drop his weapons... which requires hitting him hard. Good job on getting this far, many people never finished the protorelics and didn't get to listen to Gil's epic soundtrack!

As a fellow Gongaga farmer, I believe the bee quest in Nibelheim is by far the fastest way to go about it. I looked it up, but I also tried to find something better, since the game's still new and all - I've yet to succeed in that endeavour. Take it easy with the AP grind, it's a few hours in total, but IMO necessary for a large part of the battle sim extras, and as such worth the trouble.

[JagdPanther]

Originally Posted by Kafriel

Odin is meant to be mostly countered, either by Cloud or Red, unless you perfect parry him (which is considerably harder). He's got a counter that changes every time he hits, whiffs, gets blocked or gets hit, so counterattacks give you extra points towards Sleipnir's Furor. No two ways about Alexander, you just need the damage for it.

I probably misunderstood how to beat him because I defeated his summon at its lowest power by just blasting the hell out of him. I did see a note somewhere about using Punisher Mode against him, but I didn't actually do that.

Gilgamesh is susceptible to poison, fire and dispel. IIRC he's got 120k HP on normal, so yeah, it's meant to be a long fight, but you can turn it to your favour if you make him drop his weapons... which requires hitting him hard. Good job on getting this far, many people never finished the protorelics and didn't get to listen to Gil's epic soundtrack!

Maybe the HP scales. My assess showed 142k-ish HP.

As usual, one of my biggest challenges was gaining ATB to hit him with.

As a fellow Gongaga farmer, I believe the bee quest in Nibelheim is by far the fastest way to go about it. I looked it up, but I also tried to find something better, since the game's still new and all - I've yet to succeed in that endeavour. Take it easy with the AP grind, it's a few hours in total, but IMO necessary for a large part of the battle sim extras, and as such worth the trouble.

Yeah, I put in about 45 minutes today. I saw online that once you start whittling down your needed materia that you can fill extra slots with tons of Time materia and sell them for a 100% profit. Not sure what Gil is even needed for at this point but I figure I might as well try since there are plenty of open slots now with mostly green materia being maxed out. Long way to go with blue and purple materia. I gotta look up what is a good amount of purple materia to have so I go buy what I need before another grind session.

I did see a tip to use HP<-->MP switch materia so you don't have to replen MP anytime. I've died a couples times but no biggie since Tifa and Aerith can take care of the mobs.

[Kafriel]

Maybe the HP scales. My assess showed 142k-ish HP.

I probably remembered wrong, no worries.

I never used the stat switch materias in any of my strategies, since I had MP absorb at Lv2 and used synergy materia for free comets.

Not sure what Gil is even needed for at this point

I spent a lot of gil, but I can't remember what I spent it on... probably accessories and basic materia for the whole party. Oh, you can try out Spare Change materia!

I gotta look up what is a good amount of purple materia to have so I go buy what I need before another grind session.

Off the top of my head? Seven HP UPs (one per member), three precision defense focus (for your mains, optionally another 3 for team 2), one MP UP for Nanaki or Cait Sith (optional), one STR UP, one MAG UP, two VIT UPs, two SPR UPs. You can play with LUK UPs if it's your thing, but Crit rate is hard to raise past 40%. Definitely worth trying it on Cloud, Tifa or Cait with their crit dmg weapons. Happy grinding~

[JagdPanther]

Originally Posted by Kafriel

I probably remembered wrong, no worries.

I never used the stat switch materias in any of my strategies, since I had MP absorb at Lv2 and used synergy materia for free comets.

I was thinking of removing the HP<-->MP Switch materia when MP Absorb gets up to Level 2. With the Switch materia on it's absorbing a hilarious amount of MP per hit.

That's a good idea with the Synergy materia. I'll try that, too.

I spent a lot of gil, but I can't remember what I spent it on... probably accessories and basic materia for the whole party. Oh, you can try out Spare Change materia!

The only thing I could think of was materials from the Chocobo shops? I don't mean Chocobo gear; don't the chocobo shops also hawk transmutation materials for gil? That could be a use, I guess.

Off the top of my head? Seven HP UPs (one per member), three precision defense focus (for your mains, optionally another 3 for team 2), one MP UP for Nanaki or Cait Sith (optional), one STR UP, one MAG UP, two VIT UPs, two SPR UPs. You can play with LUK UPs if it's your thing, but Crit rate is hard to raise past 40%. Definitely worth trying it on Cloud, Tifa or Cait with their crit dmg weapons. Happy grinding~

Okay, so I'm pretty much on course for that already. I am pretty sure I have at least 7 HP Ups, and then I think most of the rest you can't get more than what you get via the story anyway.