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[Rentahamster]

As the enemies scale with you it means fuck all.

No they don't. If you go back using chapter select you demolish them.

I was super careful with stat tinkering for the first 9 chapters or so. Then i realized that i could just automate and not care.
And i did just as good. Made the game super boring. Heck i never even changed clouds weapon in the entire play through besides 2 battles..

If you're too good for the normal game experience, that's what hard mode and the special battles are for.

 

[Nymphae]

I saw a video the other of a guy beating the final summon battle on hard with no damage taken, it was pretty badass.

Edit: Here it is

Spoiler

 

[Spukc]

No they don't. If you go back using chapter select you demolish them.


If you're too good for the normal game experience, that's what hard mode and the special battles are for.

dude chapter select... srsly? that is obviously not the way to play, I grinded and played through the first half of the story and it absolutely made 0 impact on the difficulty. Then after chapter 9 i rushed passed everything no side quests nothing., and it was just as hard. Like i said all those stats means fuck all when the enemies just stay on the normal difficulty.

There is no sense of progress that you grow more powerful. That's like playing diablo 3 for 400 hours and never getting wrecked by enemies.

 

[Rentahamster]

dude chapter select... srsly? that is obviously not the way to play, I grinded and played through the first half of the story and it absolutely made 0 impact on the difficulty. Then after chapter 9 i rushed passed everything no side quests nothing., and it was just as hard. Like i said all those stats means fuck all when the enemies just stay on the normal difficulty.

There is no sense of progress that you grow more powerful. That's like playing diablo 3 for 400 hours and never getting wrecked by enemies.

Chapter select is only after you beat the game the first time. You can't access it before then. It's like new game +

The point of me bringing up chapter select is that you can use it to prove that there is no enemy scaling. After you beat the game, go back to chapter one normal difficulty, and it'll be pretty obvious that the enemies didn't scale to your level.

 

[Xeaker]

Combat was OK but I would have preferred the original ATB Battle or something like FFX

 

[Shrap]

There are a lot of issues with the combat but the most glaringly obvious has to be the aerial combat and the camera. It's like they couldn't figure it out and just gave up on it, especially for Cloud. I have no idea why they didn't rework it or, failing that, just remove it entirely and have flying enemies hover slightly above the ground.

 

[sublimit]

Ever since they showed the combat for FFR7, I loved the idea of it. I prefer ARPGs over turn-based combat (although I love games like Dragon Quest), and they somehow manage to balance both styles to make everyone happy.

The combat is super fun, however there are two things that suck really bad:

1) AI party members are dumb as hell. I know that the combat system encourages you to switch characters constantly and micro manage things manually, but sometimes you just need to focus on something with one character. AI characters should be able to do something useful. There should be a menu about what you want characters to do when they are not being controlled, like heal, attack, defend, etc. That's something very common in games with AI characters.

2) This is the biggest flaw in my opinion:
Since the combat is materia based, and you choose which materia to equip, it becomes a game of trial an error, which gets annoying very fast. For example: You start a fight and realize that enemy's weakness is ICE, and you go "oh shit, I don't have ICE matiera equipped. So you have to either try to beat the enemy without it and take ages, or just quit the fight, equip the right materia, and start over.

This completely sucks! It's annoying as hell! In combat simulator for example, they don't tell you which enemies you are fighting when doing it the first time, so you have to constantly start over because there is no way you can't carry every single materia to win every fight!

To use Dragon Quest XI as an example: You unlock abilities to use in combat as you progress an level up, but those abilities are always there to use, so no matter what type of enemy, you can beat it. Then you have pep powers that depend on which characters are active in combat. However, if you need one particular Pep power, you can switch characters to be able to use it. It doesn't lose any strategy by having everything at your disposal.

In Final Fantasy VII, if you don't equip something, you are screwed. There is no way to equip anything mid-fight, and there is no way to win with what you have (specially with bosses) if what you have is the wrong choice of materia.

Amen brother!

It's possible to beat some bosses without having the right materia but it's a process that can become tedious AF. For example i beat HellHouse on my first try with only having

Spoiler

thunder

equipped and it took me ages to beat it. Some people say "just quit and restart the battle" but this is stupid. It really shows how flawed the battle system is if every time you enter a boss fight and you realize that you don't have the right materia and you have to restart.

I think the battle system was designed with NG+ hard mode in mind where you will have all the tools at your disposal and the boss knowledge to help you stratigize your tactics. But for NG and especially early in the game when you often have just one or two characters with a very limited range of weapon materia slots the game made it impossible to experiment and forced you to quit battles in order to re-organize your materia and abilities.
That beat the fun out of the combat for me and it wasn't until the Shinra sections where i had more party member and more materia slots to experiment that i started to really like the combat.

The camera was also terrible at some points especially in aerial ranged combat when often you couldn't even see the enemy in order to lock on to it.

 

[and 3 others]

I hated how bosses always knew who the player character was. Always pisces me off in games.

 

[Rentahamster]

Some people say "just quit and restart the battle" but this is stupid. It really shows how flawed the battle system is if every time you enter a boss fight and you realize that you don't have the right materia and you have to restart.

A big element in RPGs is preparation. In many games of the past, if you come badly prepared for a boss fight, it's your ass and you potentially lose half an hour or maybe more, of progress. It's a clear design decision that they wanted to improve QoL and make this process as painless as possible, which is why it only takes mere seconds to restart back at the beginning of a boss fight.

Or, you can power through without changing materia, it's your choice. But it's also your choice that you decided to not use a "jack of all trades" materia build despite not knowing what's coming next. It's your own decision as a player and you have to live with that decision. You gambled with a specialized build, and you met a boss that is strong against it. Deal with it. Adapt, or fail. Do you want a game that holds your hand the entire time?

 

[sublimit]

A big element in RPGs is preparation. In many games of the past, if you come badly prepared for a boss fight, it's your ass and you potentially lose half an hour or maybe more, of progress. It's a clear design decision that they wanted to improve QoL and make this process as painless as possible, which is why it only takes mere seconds to restart back at the beginning of a boss fight.

Or, you can power through without changing materia, it's your choice. But it's also your choice that you decided to not use a "jack of all trades" materia build despite not knowing what's coming next. It's your own decision as a player and you have to live with that decision. You gambled with a specialized build, and you met a boss that is strong against it. Deal with it. Adapt, or fail. Do you want a game that holds your hand the entire time?

A big element in RPGs is also having the tools and the "right" to be able to strategize "on the go" with what you have at your disposal without having to restart every time you enter a battle. I love to study an enemy and look at my inventory to find the right weapon or the right item or the right buff in order to adapt to the situation at hand and beat the boss with what i have without the battle to become tedious.
That rewards player's thinking even if his character is underleveled or doesn't have the perfect tool to beat the boss in seconds. It's all about designing the game by giving the player a variety of choices in order to adapt to a given situation even if he doesn't have the most optimal ability,weapon or item equipped.
Just as the OP said there are many RPGs who are doing that right.

FFVIIR however did it wrong,at least until the later part of the game.

 

[Rentahamster]

A big element in RPGs is also having the tools and the "right" to be able to strategize "on the go" with what you have at your disposal without having to restart every time you enter a battle.

1. That's very true.
2. You can do this in FF7R. You just need to prepare with an "all around" build instead of a "specialist" build. If you min/max the wrong way, that's the player's fault. By nature, min/maxing means you pump up some stats at the detriment of others. For Hell House, you chose to sacrifice your magic variety to buff your party in other areas. Why do you blame the game when it presents you with a boss that challenges your decisions?
3. Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I can remember, mid-battle gear change was only available in Final Fantasy 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. It hasn't been a part of the series since 6.

I love to study an enemy and look at my inventory to find the right weapon or the right item or the right buff in order to adapt to the situation at hand and beat the boss.

Me too. You can totally do that in FF7R. Just not in the middle of battle. What game/games specifically are you drawing this experience from where you change out your gear or talent spec in the middle of battle?

That rewards player's thinking even if his character is underleveled or doesn't have the perfect tool to beat the boss in seconds. It's all about designing the game by giving the player a variety of choices in order to adapt to a given situation even if he doesn't have the most optimal ability,weapon or item equipped.

I agree! You can totally do that in FF7R. Just not in the middle of battle.

Just as the OP said there are many RPGs who are doing that right.

I never played DQ 11, but I assume there isn't a command that let's you restart the battle instantly? The mechanic is still there in FF7R. It's just implemented in a way that matches the gameplay more. The core of the materia system is that you are constrained by your choice of skills. If you have everything at your beck and call, your party is OP and there is no meaningful resource management or decision making to be had in your loadout. Strategy is basically out the window.

 

[Kumomeme]

A.I is not a problem..its common complaint but actualy it not a problem..this is basically still turn based combat..do turn based combat had A.I? i see people want to put gambit system but they just actually being spoiled by that things..not everything need that system..i wonder if gambit system never existed..do we will get same complaint?....A.I would destroy the combat and make things easier.

its not a problem at all..whole playthrough i didnt have grip about it....all important is how you managed the system..they give us the so-wanted character switching mechanic so we can utilize it at the fullest..materia set up is important if someone want to speed up atb load and the game never intent to player focused on only 1 character..we already had freedom of instantly controll any character..no need for A.I..we are better than A.I

however there materia like auto cure that probably line up to people interest and the devs can expand things through that

 

[Moogle11]

Getting interrupted was the main thing that really bothered me about the combat. Sucked to lose the ATB when you get interrupted trying to heal etc. Though I agree that not being able to change materia was annoying as well as even on normal some fights could take ages if you’re missing a needed spell. I prefer games where you have access to all spells in battle, especially if elemental weaknesses are a big part of the combat system.