Story :
I went Type B for more novelty. I currently am near the end, I just have to go in the depths of the crater, terminus being already reached.
The midgar part was largely different and I appreciated small details such as Cloud having his butt in flames instead of Wedge. I was surprised that sector 7 wasn't destroyed at all too. So I guessed that we could come back there later on, leading to more quests or story. But in fact, I couldn't ever reach sector 7 at all. Weird part is that the character doesn't even show in the place where the giant gate leading to Sector 7 is, the gate isn't destroyed though.
It was also fun to see that Rude is the trouble maker instead of Reno, but it didn't matter at all as I advanced to the story. It was awkward that there isn't any battle against them in the entrance of Gongaga but instead we get to fight a robot (I think) in the reactor to get Titan. Reno wasn't even introduced I think.
After getting out of Midgar, I felt like I mostly played the normal FF7 so I guessed it was experimental. I think I'll replay it in Type A next time until Type B gets more polished, to finish I loved the small bits of cut-scenes you added when you try to retrieve ultimate weapons and lv4 limits. QoL skipping parts are really useful, especially when I had to retry multiple times due to crashes or save files that I crushed by accident... But I can confirm that I had fun discovering differences between vanilla and NT (Tseng battle for example was fun).
Gameplay :
The many balance changes you brough up are really cool ! The whole system is on another level of depth, equiping materias and gear feels even more impactful than before. I guess it was to compensate from the sources being removed and replaced by the SP system. I believe in the 1.4 we had 8 upgrades instead of 4 now.
Balancing is overall a success in my opinion, spells feel more situational to use and given the new effects added to some materia, they are definitely satisfying to use. For example, the E.Skill Laser helped a lot throughout the game since it ignores Defence (Pagoda battles for exemple). It made the game challenging enough without being completely too hard to just drop the game).
But they some things I wish it would work in a another way. For example, I wish Esuna would heal from Dual Drain given the great cost of it. Also, why do we get X-cut by beating Weapons ? Almost every hard content, if not all is done at the end of it too. Long range too, I don't feel it added much especially at this point, it was even removed in 1.4 if I remember right. I guess W-cut could either evolve into X-cut like in the vanilla, or get it before beating Weapons would be nice.
I also had fun maxing as many Counter Attack materias as I could, I was wondering why my character would counter as much as it had materias equipped. A mastered materia doesn't give 100% chance of counter attack ?
As for the ultimate weapons, they feel underwhelming to use, especially Red XIII's, I would not use it at all and use Masamume instead. Scaling with limits are a bad idea imo as you can't use attack commands (Slash-All and X-cut too)...
Missing-Score damage formula nerf is not really justified given that most "AP needy" materias are actually already mastered, KotR, Quadra Magic for example. So it did felt underwhelming to use.
And Masamune, oh boy, it is me or it is way too overpowered ? it has 75 base damage, auto-crits and it ignores defence ?? I literally annihilated Weapons and Ozma in a few hits, dealing 9k+ damage per hit while 3k with the ultimate weapon instead. Maybe a nerf would be justified. Or maybe buffs for ultimate weapons instead, most of them have 0 base damage, which drastically lowers the damage output and doesn't feel rewarding to obtain them at the end.
I also recall that in 1.4, ultimate weapons were crafted instead of dropped on bosses. Was there a reason to remove the crafting part ?
I feel like there's also less content than in 1.5, there's no longer the round-robin battles in junon, or the funny Dark Cave quest for example. I loved that quest so I felt really sad when it got removed. Not that the current content is lackluster though. I currently have 60+ hours according to the save file, it is actually 80+ since I accidentally crushed my files multiple files. Speedhacks helped me to catch up to be honest.
Others :
I think the documentation isn't updated at some points, for example, it is said that Riibbon could be obtained by defeating 4*? (Ozma I guess), yet I obtained an item called 4*? instead (4*? is actually 4 times the interrogation point, but it is automatically converted to
?) .
I wish the 1/35 soldiers could be obtainable in a another way when missed.
I played Hard mode up until I went out of Midgar, it automatically swiched back to Normal difficulty in the World Map. I though you could get gils from Field battles but I realized that when I reached Costa Del Sol.
I encountered some bugs, I think it is not related to the mod but it did cost me some time :
- Some random crashes when switching screens from time to time, in a rapid succession
- If Barret has W-cut and Enemy Launcher equipped, sometimes Barrets get stuck between the first and second attack, game can be paused but since he's stuck, the game cannot continue. It was annoying because Enemy Launcher has Slash-All and Triple materia growth
- Casting Ultima with Quadra Magic leads to Emerald being frozen if it has his eyes opened, like Barret in the previous point, making Ultima difficult to abuse
More questions :
Regarding the 4*? item, what is it it's use ? I though of this item with that mysterious place where there are 4 inert save points in the crater (where you get Ultima). In the menu I can see that the item becomes usable, I try to use and the the screen fades to black and comes back to normal, that's all. It's like I just quit that place and came back again. Given that they are 4 inert save points, I guess there are 4 things to do before it becomes non inert anymore. Then I thought about that Chocobo in the Glacier, if you give a specific nut (I think), it tells you a creepy text :
Trapped in the sand: HEAD WALK CAST MUTE (1)
Forgotten in a house: DAZE FOR KEY CARDS (2)
Sealed in buried rock: GIVE SPECTRAL BILE LUCK (3)
Whirling in winds: HERO KING DROWNED IN WOE (4)
Not gonna lie, it freaked me out. I think 1 and 2 are respectively Ruby and Ozma but I can't guess which bosses are refered with 3 and 4. Emerald doesn't seem to match any of them as well. I probably missed something, I'm persuaded that it is linked to that mysterious place with these save points. When those 4 bosses are defeated, I can use the item and something should happen, right? I'd like some clarifications, maybe I'm totally wrong.
In all cases, I look forward updates on the mod, since it's so great to live that game again !
