Thank you. This mod has put new life into this game. So far in progress I have just left Midgard, and fought the Turks in the cave. Some things I have liked:
- The distinction between the characters, does make each character feel different. What I disliked most about the base game was that all that seemed to matter was the material
- The weapons and armor. The choice of equipment really matters, more then any other game I have seen. The choice changes the use of the character. Did I want steel, titan, or mithral armlets? Should Tifa keep the weapon that does more damage, or the one that raises dexterity? Those were all hard choices.
-The special encounter where Jessie fights with you, was a nice easter egg.
- The special designed boss fights. The fight where you first get Red, and you fight a boss that starts off with extreme high defense but keeps getting weaker, combined with Red getting stronger through out the fight was genius. The fight in the elevators where one of the helicopters gets healed from lighting, was an unexpected challenge, especially since I gave Barret elemental and lightning materia in his weapon, Red's demi was ineffective against it, and Aeris was struggling to keep up with healing. I did win that fight on the first try, but I did need to adjust my strategy.
- That was a much better introduction to Yuffie.
- I noticed a lot of interesting dialog change. Did Barret always &%$#?%@ that much? or was that added in?
- Best moment of all:
Tifa: "Jessie said we need to hit these three switches at the exact same time."
(I pull the switch totally out of sync)
Barret: "@?#@?#@ close enough."
(and the door opens anyway.) That was hilarious.
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The main thing that I would like to see changed is the difference between the first row and the back row. It seems to me that the difference between the two rows is too much, and it seems like a better strategy is to almost always keep characters in the back row and spam magic. Even melee favoured characters like Tifa, seem to be able to better this way. She has enough MP to spam spells like lighting during long battles. I do keep her in the front row and fight with fists usually for role playing reasons, but it doesn't seem like the best strategy. I do think the back row defense should only be about a 25% bonus. And their needs to be more advantages to the front row, such as limit breaks suffering the same range penalty as default attacks. Or if the front row gave a bit of an ATB speed boost, then it would make even choosing whether to put casters in the front or the back a bit of a choice. In general I think the game would be more fun if the front row is usually the better choice, with the back row available for special occasions or builds. Even Aerius generally being considered better on the front row would be more fun. She can use spells most of the time, but then hitting someone with her stick is always a possible choice. But right now, that front row is the scary line of doom.
And the basic spells might not use enough MP. Life drains MP fast, and with extended cure spells I can run out. But with lighting and fire, I don't usually have to pay attention to MP at all.
