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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v2.0.999992)
« on: 2025-11-11 16:07:10 »
I just finished up my run in New Threat 2.0 so I want to give some feedback from my time with the mod. I know this is really long, so definitely feel free to not approve the post. This is more for you, Sega Chief, than anyone else anyway.
First off, thank you for making this mod. It's been an incredible experience.
For context, I played B-Type on Hard mode with the Triple-link materia option enabled.
Midgar
Just wow, this section of the game is chef's kiss. This different sequence of events is so good, it really should be canon. It never made sense to me that Shinra would drop the plate over a tiny group of terrorists. The way the events tied together to bring everyone together feels so natural, even Elmyra. This could be the only thing in the mod and it'd be auto-install for me forever. I can't gush over this enough.
Difficulty
I feel like "Hard Mode" is at war with itself. Increasing your exp gain along with 0 gil isn't a recipe for more difficulty. It's a recipe to get over-leveled even faster while you grind out the money you needed in the first place. Hard Mode stopped being Hard about 5 feet outside of Midgar and it never returned.
Dex availability
The amount of Dex you can effortlessly stack up in this mod is insane. I would either cut it in half on all sources or take it off of every materia with "Counter" in its name, possibly both. I feel like this mod is supposed to be a little harder than vanilla but I had the opposite experience. It's not a problem to be doing half as much physical damage when I'm getting 5 times as many turns.
Magic Counter
It's really weird that Counter Attack and Command Counter lower strength and vitality and then Magic Counter.. also lowers strength and vitality. I think lowering the related offensive stat is a cool balancing feature but this should be consistent. Make Magic Counter lower Magic and Spirit.
W-Item
It is utterly wild to me that this got moved so much earlier in the game, when W-Magic is basically around for 5 major fights. For the entire game, magic in general is utterly struggling to keep up with Tifa and then W-Item pops in and makes her wonder why she even needs a mage. This should not be at the beginning of Disc 2. One suggestion here is to at least make those Lay Flat bugs on Mt Nibel morph to Reagan greens instead. Still worth a ton of gil, but won't short cut W-Item so incredibly hard. Though if it were up to me, I'd just swap this with W-Magic. That's strong but it doesn't bend the game over its knee. OR maybe put Comet there (Choco Meteor reference?) and move W-Item somewhere else.
Gold Armlet
It's literally lore (according to the visual assets, eg Sephiroth) that this has 2 sets of tri-link slots. I feel like this was a missed opportunity for the Tri-Link setting.
The Bosses
I really enjoyed the new bosses in the game. I actually came to love the scorpion boss by the end of the game (actually I think it was Temple of the Ancients). Some of them were pretty challenging, while others helped maintain the pace in the slower parts of the game. That party member themed boss was amazing, I was absolutely cackling the whole time. The only thing that I wish we got more of was Reno. It felt like he was just deleted from the early parts of the game.
The SP System
I put a whole lot of thought into this.. and then never used it. By the time I got to Jenova Birth, Tifa was already game breakingly strong and I honestly didn't want to make her any stronger. I think the idea of this system is really good, but it needs some other stuff to be nerfed for it to shine in my opinion.
The Cast - # is rank in overall strength imo, averaged out over the course of the game (Parenthesis are their strongest roles)
Tifa - 2nd (Physical Damage Dealer)
I'm not really sure what happened here. I feel like maybe Sega Chief really likes Tifa or something ;p No hate, I can't blame him, she has some pretty big character beats.
She has the craziest glow up of all the characters in the mod. She has stat growth that rivals vanilla Cloud. At every point in the game, you just happen to have everything Tifa needs to be cracked out of her mind. Walking up to Jenova Birth with 251 dex AND Haste really set the expectations for my run and it never deviated. By the end of Disc 1 she had Powersoul and a Cursed Ring (her passive ignores the death sentence) and was dealing 3k + 2k to most regular enemies with deathblow + added cut, then healed for 300 because it was also linked to HP Absorb. Then I got W-Item at the beginning of Disc 2 and naturally put it on my fastest character. Sonic Tifa went brr.
I really liked the scene between Tifa and Cloud at Icicle Inn. That was some quality story telling.
Barret - 5th (Physical Counter Tank)
I really like what you've done with Barret. I pretty much never used him before this mod. He is so good at counter tanking that he's practically set and forget. I'm not sure if it's intended but Enemy Launcher turning counter attacks into Slash-All counter attacks is REALLY COOL. I even had some spotty (maybe glitchy) interactions with Mug, where maybe 10% of the time he'd Mug-all too. Super cool take on the character and an awesome weapon to be sure.
Aerith - 1st (Mage or Magic Counter Tank)
She's as much of an over the top "I win" button as ever. There's a particular secret boss fight where you're supposed to be very careful with your actions and Great Gospel just trivializes the fight. I feel like that fight needs a specific counter to Peerless. I liked the weapon compatibility with some of Cid's weapons. Aside from that, I feel her personality in the mod is a bit.. I dunno, weird I guess? She doesn't seem like herself in any of the in town interactions, with a certain Junon scene just being straight up out of character. She isn't the same self-sacrificing person she is in the story scenes.
Nanaki - 6th (Any)
I honestly didn't use him much. There was a stint near the end where I had him counter tanking with the Behemoth Horn and he ended up being better at it than Vincent (actually kinda bummed about that) even though nothing in his kit (besides this one weapon) screams counter tank. He can legitimately do whatever you want, but he doesn't particularly excel in any role either. Maybe other people found more use for him. I just ended fights way too fast throughout the game to feel like I would get any use out of his passive. He is dead last at getting his triple growth weapon and not by a small margin. I feel like a lot of this stuff was intended to weaken him. I just feel like it was a little too much. When you've got Tifa, Reeve, Barret and Aerith in this mod, Nanaki is fighting to be remembered.
Yuffie - 4th (Physical Damage Dealer or Physical Counter Tank)
She's the hyper carry, which in final fantasy terms, that means put her in the very back of the party roster until she gets the thing. When she gets the thing, she invalidates everyone else. With Conformer, Yuffie is basically vanilla Yuffie, which means she's hitting quad 9s on anything that matters. Before that, she's easily among the worst characters. She shares a critical annoyance with Cloud and Cid in that you basically can't use Defend unless you want the defend thing to happen and when you're forced to morph for money most of the game, this is a hindrance.
Reeve - 3rd (Mage or Magic Counter Tank)
He got the second biggest glow up out of everyone, barely edging out Barret. I was planning on using Transform to get through a certain super boss, until I found out Great Gospel doesn't get adequately countered by it. I was kinda bummed it wasn't necessary. His party MP recovery is super useful and he makes a very good mage. When you're morphing and don't have anything for him to do, he's still there providing value. I love this guy!
Vincent - 9th (Physical Counter Tank)
I feel like Vincent really got the short end of the stick. His passive isn't that impactful and it really only does anything for him in trash encounters (since your first 2 actions vs any boss should be Haste and Wall). The changes to his ultimate weapon was a huge kick in the pills. I understand that getting rid of overflow damage was a good thing and necessary, but he lost his status as the "other good morpher". Vanilla death penalty also got the special morph damage treatment (even at low kills) and it was decent, though not as good as Yuffie. He has the worst materia slots on his Triple growth weapon (Buntline) too, as if he needed that kick in the teeth. In his current state, I feel like he slots in as a second fiddle dedicated counter tank (to Barret) and doesn't really shine in any roll. He even has an anti-synergy as a Mage. I feel like he's weaker, relative to the rest of the cast in this mod than he is in vanilla and that's unfortunate. He's always been the character I've wanted to love, as his character design is really cool.
I have some thoughts on what could be done to help him. He above all other characters really stands out as the one guy who might hang onto his Limit, so if we're shuffling ultimate weapon effects around, Death Penalty should get Premium Heart's original effect. It makes a lot of sense, since he already had a reputation of being the one character in vanilla that could really make use of Death Blow (which is even better here) and that can be used with a full limit gauge. I'm not sure what to suggest about his passive, I am not really familiar with the limitations of the modding possibilities for this game.
I really enjoyed his town interactions. Every place I found him in was worth at least a chuckle.
Cid - 8th (Physical Damage Dealer)
This poor man. He went from "He's the guy." in vanilla to "What exactly is it, ya do here?" in this mod. Every advantage he had basically got handed out like candy and all he got in return was some mediocre medicine effects and self wall on his defend that has the additional effect of "I'mma kill your morph target" if everything is going great. To add insult to injury, he is NO Tifa. He just doesn't have the Dex to keep up with her, so he is straight opportunity cost. In vanilla, he was basically an upgrade to Tifa at a time where her limits are starting to get annoying to hit. In this mod she kills things too fast to care about her limit in the first place. To the back of the bus with this guy.
And finally, Cloud - 7th (Mage or Magic Counter Tank)
I dunno, the counter attack thing seems cool in theory but in practice he just doesn't have a defend command on hard mode. He promises he will absolutely, every single time, delete the money target cuz he got mad. I can take counter attack materia off my counter tank for farming, but I can't stop his defend command from equipping 12 of the damn things. He's not even that good of a counter tank because he wants to be in the front row and all his stats are middling at best. He's not a good physical fighter because Tifa exists. He's most useful as a Mage, but his competition in that role leaves him in the dust. At least he's good in the Battle Arena, I guess.
Battle Commands
I think a lot of the unwanted defend stuff could be fixed by giving characters specific commands for that stuff. I know that's possible because Postscriptthree's gameplay tweaks injects the PHS command into the battle menu. Cloud, Cid and Yuffie desperately need this. I think Reeve having it being tied to defend kind of works. It'd be broken if he could just toggle it.
In Summary
I know I probably wrote more criticism than praise, I have a tendency to pick apart the things I like the most. I really enjoyed my time with this excellent mod. I've already recommended it to a few friends and will continue to do so in the future. Next time I get the itch to play FFVII, it probably will be whatever update you have for this mod. Cheers and again thank you for making this!
First off, thank you for making this mod. It's been an incredible experience.
For context, I played B-Type on Hard mode with the Triple-link materia option enabled.
Midgar
Just wow, this section of the game is chef's kiss. This different sequence of events is so good, it really should be canon. It never made sense to me that Shinra would drop the plate over a tiny group of terrorists. The way the events tied together to bring everyone together feels so natural, even Elmyra. This could be the only thing in the mod and it'd be auto-install for me forever. I can't gush over this enough.
Difficulty
I feel like "Hard Mode" is at war with itself. Increasing your exp gain along with 0 gil isn't a recipe for more difficulty. It's a recipe to get over-leveled even faster while you grind out the money you needed in the first place. Hard Mode stopped being Hard about 5 feet outside of Midgar and it never returned.
Dex availability
The amount of Dex you can effortlessly stack up in this mod is insane. I would either cut it in half on all sources or take it off of every materia with "Counter" in its name, possibly both. I feel like this mod is supposed to be a little harder than vanilla but I had the opposite experience. It's not a problem to be doing half as much physical damage when I'm getting 5 times as many turns.
Magic Counter
It's really weird that Counter Attack and Command Counter lower strength and vitality and then Magic Counter.. also lowers strength and vitality. I think lowering the related offensive stat is a cool balancing feature but this should be consistent. Make Magic Counter lower Magic and Spirit.
W-Item
It is utterly wild to me that this got moved so much earlier in the game, when W-Magic is basically around for 5 major fights. For the entire game, magic in general is utterly struggling to keep up with Tifa and then W-Item pops in and makes her wonder why she even needs a mage. This should not be at the beginning of Disc 2. One suggestion here is to at least make those Lay Flat bugs on Mt Nibel morph to Reagan greens instead. Still worth a ton of gil, but won't short cut W-Item so incredibly hard. Though if it were up to me, I'd just swap this with W-Magic. That's strong but it doesn't bend the game over its knee. OR maybe put Comet there (Choco Meteor reference?) and move W-Item somewhere else.
Gold Armlet
It's literally lore (according to the visual assets, eg Sephiroth) that this has 2 sets of tri-link slots. I feel like this was a missed opportunity for the Tri-Link setting.
The Bosses
I really enjoyed the new bosses in the game. I actually came to love the scorpion boss by the end of the game (actually I think it was Temple of the Ancients). Some of them were pretty challenging, while others helped maintain the pace in the slower parts of the game. That party member themed boss was amazing, I was absolutely cackling the whole time. The only thing that I wish we got more of was Reno. It felt like he was just deleted from the early parts of the game.
The SP System
I put a whole lot of thought into this.. and then never used it. By the time I got to Jenova Birth, Tifa was already game breakingly strong and I honestly didn't want to make her any stronger. I think the idea of this system is really good, but it needs some other stuff to be nerfed for it to shine in my opinion.
The Cast - # is rank in overall strength imo, averaged out over the course of the game (Parenthesis are their strongest roles)
Tifa - 2nd (Physical Damage Dealer)
I'm not really sure what happened here. I feel like maybe Sega Chief really likes Tifa or something ;p No hate, I can't blame him, she has some pretty big character beats.
She has the craziest glow up of all the characters in the mod. She has stat growth that rivals vanilla Cloud. At every point in the game, you just happen to have everything Tifa needs to be cracked out of her mind. Walking up to Jenova Birth with 251 dex AND Haste really set the expectations for my run and it never deviated. By the end of Disc 1 she had Powersoul and a Cursed Ring (her passive ignores the death sentence) and was dealing 3k + 2k to most regular enemies with deathblow + added cut, then healed for 300 because it was also linked to HP Absorb. Then I got W-Item at the beginning of Disc 2 and naturally put it on my fastest character. Sonic Tifa went brr.
I really liked the scene between Tifa and Cloud at Icicle Inn. That was some quality story telling.
Barret - 5th (Physical Counter Tank)
I really like what you've done with Barret. I pretty much never used him before this mod. He is so good at counter tanking that he's practically set and forget. I'm not sure if it's intended but Enemy Launcher turning counter attacks into Slash-All counter attacks is REALLY COOL. I even had some spotty (maybe glitchy) interactions with Mug, where maybe 10% of the time he'd Mug-all too. Super cool take on the character and an awesome weapon to be sure.
Aerith - 1st (Mage or Magic Counter Tank)
She's as much of an over the top "I win" button as ever. There's a particular secret boss fight where you're supposed to be very careful with your actions and Great Gospel just trivializes the fight. I feel like that fight needs a specific counter to Peerless. I liked the weapon compatibility with some of Cid's weapons. Aside from that, I feel her personality in the mod is a bit.. I dunno, weird I guess? She doesn't seem like herself in any of the in town interactions, with a certain Junon scene just being straight up out of character. She isn't the same self-sacrificing person she is in the story scenes.
Nanaki - 6th (Any)
I honestly didn't use him much. There was a stint near the end where I had him counter tanking with the Behemoth Horn and he ended up being better at it than Vincent (actually kinda bummed about that) even though nothing in his kit (besides this one weapon) screams counter tank. He can legitimately do whatever you want, but he doesn't particularly excel in any role either. Maybe other people found more use for him. I just ended fights way too fast throughout the game to feel like I would get any use out of his passive. He is dead last at getting his triple growth weapon and not by a small margin. I feel like a lot of this stuff was intended to weaken him. I just feel like it was a little too much. When you've got Tifa, Reeve, Barret and Aerith in this mod, Nanaki is fighting to be remembered.
Yuffie - 4th (Physical Damage Dealer or Physical Counter Tank)
She's the hyper carry, which in final fantasy terms, that means put her in the very back of the party roster until she gets the thing. When she gets the thing, she invalidates everyone else. With Conformer, Yuffie is basically vanilla Yuffie, which means she's hitting quad 9s on anything that matters. Before that, she's easily among the worst characters. She shares a critical annoyance with Cloud and Cid in that you basically can't use Defend unless you want the defend thing to happen and when you're forced to morph for money most of the game, this is a hindrance.
Reeve - 3rd (Mage or Magic Counter Tank)
He got the second biggest glow up out of everyone, barely edging out Barret. I was planning on using Transform to get through a certain super boss, until I found out Great Gospel doesn't get adequately countered by it. I was kinda bummed it wasn't necessary. His party MP recovery is super useful and he makes a very good mage. When you're morphing and don't have anything for him to do, he's still there providing value. I love this guy!
Vincent - 9th (Physical Counter Tank)
I feel like Vincent really got the short end of the stick. His passive isn't that impactful and it really only does anything for him in trash encounters (since your first 2 actions vs any boss should be Haste and Wall). The changes to his ultimate weapon was a huge kick in the pills. I understand that getting rid of overflow damage was a good thing and necessary, but he lost his status as the "other good morpher". Vanilla death penalty also got the special morph damage treatment (even at low kills) and it was decent, though not as good as Yuffie. He has the worst materia slots on his Triple growth weapon (Buntline) too, as if he needed that kick in the teeth. In his current state, I feel like he slots in as a second fiddle dedicated counter tank (to Barret) and doesn't really shine in any roll. He even has an anti-synergy as a Mage. I feel like he's weaker, relative to the rest of the cast in this mod than he is in vanilla and that's unfortunate. He's always been the character I've wanted to love, as his character design is really cool.
I have some thoughts on what could be done to help him. He above all other characters really stands out as the one guy who might hang onto his Limit, so if we're shuffling ultimate weapon effects around, Death Penalty should get Premium Heart's original effect. It makes a lot of sense, since he already had a reputation of being the one character in vanilla that could really make use of Death Blow (which is even better here) and that can be used with a full limit gauge. I'm not sure what to suggest about his passive, I am not really familiar with the limitations of the modding possibilities for this game.
I really enjoyed his town interactions. Every place I found him in was worth at least a chuckle.
Cid - 8th (Physical Damage Dealer)
This poor man. He went from "He's the guy." in vanilla to "What exactly is it, ya do here?" in this mod. Every advantage he had basically got handed out like candy and all he got in return was some mediocre medicine effects and self wall on his defend that has the additional effect of "I'mma kill your morph target" if everything is going great. To add insult to injury, he is NO Tifa. He just doesn't have the Dex to keep up with her, so he is straight opportunity cost. In vanilla, he was basically an upgrade to Tifa at a time where her limits are starting to get annoying to hit. In this mod she kills things too fast to care about her limit in the first place. To the back of the bus with this guy.
And finally, Cloud - 7th (Mage or Magic Counter Tank)
I dunno, the counter attack thing seems cool in theory but in practice he just doesn't have a defend command on hard mode. He promises he will absolutely, every single time, delete the money target cuz he got mad. I can take counter attack materia off my counter tank for farming, but I can't stop his defend command from equipping 12 of the damn things. He's not even that good of a counter tank because he wants to be in the front row and all his stats are middling at best. He's not a good physical fighter because Tifa exists. He's most useful as a Mage, but his competition in that role leaves him in the dust. At least he's good in the Battle Arena, I guess.
Battle Commands
I think a lot of the unwanted defend stuff could be fixed by giving characters specific commands for that stuff. I know that's possible because Postscriptthree's gameplay tweaks injects the PHS command into the battle menu. Cloud, Cid and Yuffie desperately need this. I think Reeve having it being tied to defend kind of works. It'd be broken if he could just toggle it.
In Summary
I know I probably wrote more criticism than praise, I have a tendency to pick apart the things I like the most. I really enjoyed my time with this excellent mod. I've already recommended it to a few friends and will continue to do so in the future. Next time I get the itch to play FFVII, it probably will be whatever update you have for this mod. Cheers and again thank you for making this!