Quick Feedback on why FF7 Hardcore is a bit cheesy (Story Spoiler)

[Chippy]

Just wanted to offer some constructive feedback on the hardcore mod installed through bootleg.  In the Shinra building, first act, just escaped from the detention cells with the mako monsters on the loose and a trail of blood to follow.

There's a random encounter with a worm and a bug thing - the worm 'needles' 2 party members off the screen, and the bug casts 'roulette' instantly KO'ing the third before my character round even begins.  This is with ATB set to wait, and my cursor hovering over the enemy - meaning they get those actions before any in my party could ever respond. 
So this encounter is essentially harder than Ruby weapon within the first act of the game.

The above happened 3 times in a row, on the 4th the bug made a different attack and party survived.  Don't want to sound negative - but I don't see meta gaming through multiple trial and error as 'hard' as it's either meta-gaming or luck, not strategy and skill.

I would have uninstalled the mod if I hadn't seen that 4th scenario.  It's like the GM of a tabletop RPG just randomly rolling a 3-sided die and saying "If I roll 1 the whole party just dies". 

Different gaming tastes I suppose. 

[Covarr]

If you grind for speed they won't be able to consistently get the jump on you.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of grinding in RPGs, but FF7's battle system doesn't allow much in the way of better forms of difficulty.

[Chippy]

Yeah, I don't mind the grinding - it's just the quantity of it that needs to be done.  I was level 30 at the time.

*Goes back to grinding*.

[dkma841]

There are plenty of other gameplay mods you could try

[EQ2Alyza]

I give credit to the author for making such an expansive mod, but I do agree with the OP on describing it as a bit "cheesy" at times. You are only level 30 at the first Shinra visit, but wait until later on when a large amount of status ailments are added to almost every enemy. It crippled my strategies for gear/materia layouts because I was limited to Ribbons or Wizard Bracelets + Added Effect Combos.

• Ribbons block Barrier/MBarrier/Wall, so my defense/resists had to come from Tranquilizer Sadness and Elemental Armlets. Often times I ran Dragon Armlet + Ribbon + Sadness effect by default because I simply couldn't sacrifice dealing with 3+ status ailment attacks over greater resists or defense.
  
• Wizard Bracelets + Added Effect allowed more flexibility, but it was a bit of a grind to go that route because Added Effect has one of the largest AP pools.
  
• There are several key battles in the game that have insta-death added in which cannot be blocked by any death prevent measures (that I could find).
  
• Ruby's throw-off-screen ability shows up in several occasions as well.
  

There are several really GOOD battles though, so I know it can be balanced. To me, a good difficulty is one that figures out the perfect balance between gear/materia layout and offense/defense rotations vs. enemy AI. This is a turn based RPG, so once these factors are figured out, it becomes "easy," but honestly, all turn-based RPG work this way. That is the nature of the beast. I don't think increasing HP, damage, and random kill factors is the right way to make something more difficult.

[gjoerulv]

You are only level 30 at the first Shinra visit...

30? You mean shinra HQ? Isn't that a bit high lvl? I'm usually 20ish when I leave Midgar.

[Luceid]

(My english isn't the best but I'll hope it's somewhat understandable)

My party was level 18~19 and it did work, although some fights were annoying (our three SOLDIER friends f.e. - but manged them after some tires, even got a silver bangle from one of them).
Level 30? That would be insane grinding and AFAIR you didn't had this level on your youtube-vids Alyza o.o

The mentioned roulette scene happend to me only ones - bad luck (literally ^^).

Still: This mod is needed! FF VII isn't like it's (mechanic wise) awful successor (kill bosses with one normal hit, etc.) but it's still kinda "easy".

@Chippy: As mentioned above you had bad luck. Some fights you'll about to see are absolutely awesome others will reduce you to tears (like the dragons on Mount Niebel/Nibl if you can't escape them ). F.e. I had massive problems with the first JENOVA encounter and wiped quiet some times. This thing is horrible strong compared to the original. After some thinking I brought in Aerith (+ Yuffie as always) - still hard but worked due the healing-Limit Breaks of the ladys. I can't even think of any other way of beating that beast (except grinding of course - but grinding eliminates the challenge).

@gjoerulv: Although your mod is great and there is a mod that's even more difficult, I believe a "smoothed" version would be perfect for a an broader audience. Heck, I remember wiping before the first Savepoint because of the enemies damage and my limited lousy potions @.@
Let's be honest: The people often argued about the best party (iow: Barret/Yuffie or Barret/Cid or Yuffie/Cid).
In this mod (and of course in Nightmare) due the absolute need of the back-row even for creepers you're always up to Barret & Yuffie (+ Cloud with the ranged Materia (forgot it's name ^^)).
It's not like in vanilla, that using f.e. our infamous Cait Sith is more inefficent, it's simply crucial to stick with the ranged characters in hardcore (or one needs to grind).
But that's just my PoV and I know this mod IS about challenge, while using the mechanics to ones ultimate advantage and not about "what does Red XIII say in this scene?".


Still: If you are ever in the mood to mod some stuff, drop some levels of the enemies (so grinding would not be necessary) and the mechanic/idea of the fight would be intact but not restricting. And it would help stealing (which is sometimes a pain in the ass, because enemies are much higher level-wise than your characters)

[gjoerulv]

My mod is not about balance.  #¤%& balance!