How long it takes - or am I that bad?

[Akrioz]

I platinumed the game in 61 hour, while playing on easy difficulty for my first playthrough. A couple of hours of grinding and skipping almost everything skipable on second playthrough got me there. I died, like, once for the whole journey(in the final fight on hard) and was stuck on push-ups for an hour. So, yeah, an estimate of 60 hours is basically almost a perfect platinum run.

 

[In4m471k3r]

11 hours ago, MyNameIs_Rainman said:

 

I've never equated FF games with really being..well...hard. They tend to be pretty accessible games for fans of JRPGs and have a low barrier of entry. So, while I can say that hard mode really did change my mind in that regard, I can see why many people enjoy playing Souls games because overcoming that difficulty is rewarding. It was very rewarding and felt awesome finally overcoming those VR challenges after countless strategies..or just seeing how much a world of a difference an efficient materia set up changes the whole trajectory of a battle.

 

I also had a feeling that its sometimes very random if you win a fight or not.

Fighting Rufus & Darkstar for example was odd. I needed multiple tries to kill them. Sometimes it was easy to kill the dog - sometimes I didn't even manage that. But the greatest oddity was Finally killing Rufus. I once had luck with the timing to stagger him by using Braver (as explained in the guide). I already had my Limit break ready and thus instantly got him killed then. The fight where I won took about 2 minutes (including killing Darkstar first) but the times I lost, it went down mostly after 6-8 minutes.

 

It's hard to learn, when you don't know what you did different that suddenly resulted in a big change.

[MyNameIs_Rainman]

5 hours ago, In4m471k3r said:

 

I also had a feeling that its sometimes very random if you win a fight or not.

Fighting Rufus & Darkstar for example was odd. I needed multiple tries to kill them. Sometimes it was easy to kill the dog - sometimes I didn't even manage that. But the greatest oddity was Finally killing Rufus. I once had luck with the timing to stagger him by using Braver (as explained in the guide). I already had my Limit break ready and thus instantly got him killed then. The fight where I won took about 2 minutes (including killing Darkstar first) but the times I lost, it went down mostly after 6-8 minutes.

 

It's hard to learn, when you don't know what you did different that suddenly resulted in a big change.

 

I wouldn't say its random if you win or not, but I think it does take a bit to find out the strategy that works best..and even then, it might not be the strategy that works best for YOU. I always try to keep that in mind because it can get frustrating when you try out all these thinks recommended and then you try something different and that ends up working. I always try to take a challenge head on and see if I can figure out the solution to it with my own team setups, etc, and try to use recommendations as a guideline cause sometimes someone elses technique may not work for you

[Silocia]

@In4m471k3r, Dont Worry about the 'time' on a trophy guide, just because it takes you longer doesn't mean that you're not good at the game. I only really use those times as a rough estimate. I take ages to complete games, me and my friend have a running joke about how long it takes me to play games. I can be playing a game all day and by the end of the session have gotten absolutely no where.

 

In regards to "hard" difficulty, I am following a guide outside of PSNP (it puts all the trophies in chronological order so that it makes it easier to visualise) and this guide has stated that the first boss is the hardest boss in on hard mode and it gets progressively easier. If you like the game, I would recommend trying to push on through that boss.  Don't be too hard on yourself.

 

 

[NoosaHeadz]

10 minutes ago, Silocia said:

@In4m471k3r, Dont Worry about the 'time' on a trophy guide, just because it takes you longer doesn't mean that you're not good at the game. I only really use those times as a rough estimate. I take ages to complete games, me and my friend have a running joke about how long it takes me to play games. I can be playing a game all day and by the end of the session have gotten absolutely no where.

 

In regards to "hard" difficulty, I am following a guide outside of PSNP (it puts all the trophies in chronological order so that it makes it easier to visualise) and this guide has stated that the first boss is the hardest boss in on hard mode and it gets progressively easier. If you like the game, I would recommend trying to push on through that boss.  Don't be too hard on yourself.

 

 

 

The 1st boss is tough for sure dunno if its the hardest though

 

If you want to make life easy on the hard playthrough get the gottardamurang before you even start  . Its tough without it . With it you breeze through everything but the nastiest bosses .

[Red-Izanagi]

See the estimated Time and Difficulty for every Guide as an litte example, what you can except on your Journey, when you going for a Platinum Trophy run. Some may take more time to explore the Game, others are straightforward and going directly for the Plat. Some have a better time understanding the Game mechanics and know what they are doing, others may struggle between this proccess.

 

So my personal advice: Take your time, learn the game, enjoy it to the fullest and go for that nice Platinum Trophy. It's an amazing Game with a nice Action. Strategy Combat System, Nice Grafics. good Story and a bombastic Soundtrack.

 

I Only needed between 60 to 70 Hours for the Platinum and i didn't skip my 1st Playthrough, Hard mode was a nice Challenge, once you know the Weaknesses of the Enemy and you do a nice Setup of Teambuilding and Materia, too, it will be a Journey to remember.

Edited April 2, 2021 by xTrap-ViisiioNz

[DaveMcDamage]

31 minutes ago, NoosaHeadz said:

 

The 1st boss is tough for sure dunno if its the hardest though

 

If you want to make life easy on the hard playthrough get the gottardamurang before you even start  . Its tough without it . With it you breeze through everything but the nastiest bosses .

Just completed my first playthrough. Took 40 hours 49 minutes and loved almost every part except for some of the mini game moments. 

 

Cheers for the tip on this, but isn't this only gotten by the toughest in game boss on hard mode?

[Crispy_Oglop]

@In4m471k3r - I agree with the folks here who are saying not to worry about the estimated platinum runtime for FF7R, or any game really. If you look at a site like https://www.playstationtrophies.org/ it's not accurate data or even reliable data by a long shot. The amount of information it excludes and how it is calculated makes it an almost arbitrary value. 

 

The only way it would be something you could reliably gauge things with is if it logged every single platinum achievers play-time and built an average out of that. It still wouldn't be accurate, because it doesn't take into account individual play styles and potential exploits/shortcuts/competencies with any particular game. But it would make it way more useful than how it is currently calculated.

 

Metacritic is also pretty flawed in how it generates its scores, which always makes me laugh when you see game companies use them as a way to define product success.

 

Sorry for the data rant there (I'm a data analyst in real life ?)

[NoosaHeadz]

1 hour ago, DaveMcDamage said:

Just completed my first playthrough. Took 40 hours 49 minutes and loved almost every part except for some of the mini game moments. 

 

Cheers for the tip on this, but isn't this only gotten by the toughest in game boss on hard mode?

 

You have to beat 5 bosses in a row the 1st couple and the last go down easy. Leviathan is trickier but goes down easy enough after a couple of tries. bahamut is tough but there's a good video I used to beat him fairly easily in the end. It's worth the effort and you need to beat them at some point if you want the platinum 

[In4m471k3r]

2 hours ago, Silocia said:

In regards to "hard" difficulty, I am following a guide outside of PSNP (it puts all the trophies in chronological order so that it makes it easier to visualise) and this guide has stated that the first boss is the hardest boss in on hard mode and it gets progressively easier. If you like the game, I would recommend trying to push on through that boss.  Don't be too hard on yourself.

Well, we'll see if it gets better after my recent progress in pushing the stats

 

1 hour ago, NoosaHeadz said:

The 1st boss is tough for sure dunno if its the hardest though

 

If you want to make life easy on the hard playthrough get the gottardamurang before you even start  . Its tough without it . With it you breeze through everything but the nastiest bosses .

 

That is exactly what I'm trying to do now. Have replayed for Colosseum with Aerith - looks like I had the first Aerith fight but missed that there is another. And while I was at it, I also did the remaining dress, best in business und the johnny trophy as well.

 

The Shinra simulator is also almost done. For the remaining final fights I still need to push some materia, but I will try.

 

44 minutes ago, Crispy_Oglop said:

@In4m471k3r - I agree with the folks here who are saying not to worry about the estimated platinum runtime for FF7R, or any game really. If you look at a site like https://www.playstationtrophies.org/ it's not accurate data or even reliable data by a long shot. The amount of information it excludes and how it is calculated makes it an almost arbitrary value. 

 

The only way it would be something you could reliably gauge things with is if it logged every single platinum achievers play-time and built an average out of that. It still wouldn't be accurate, because it doesn't take into account individual play styles and potential exploits/shortcuts/competencies with any particular game. But it would make it way more useful than how it is currently calculated.

 

Metacritic is also pretty flawed in how it generates its scores, which always makes me laugh when you see game companies use them as a way to define product success.

 

Sorry for the data rant there (I'm a data analyst in real life )

 

That is exactly how I feel about the given time estimates. And I thought those extremely low values are given by guide writers to boast how fast they can do it... But if it really is that way - who knows.

 

My proposal for the average given by users was exactly intended to do this: provide a more reliable value. Of course this can never be the ultimate number of orientation as everybody has different style, motivation and skill to play. Would be better as the current value though.

 

And in my younger times, I analised games to death as it was fun to me finding the most efficient way to do things. So all your data is welcome

 

[da-Noob123]

So I finished my first playthrough on Normal, "only" took 52 hours. I spent a fair amount of time on setting materia but not that much lol. I  really enjoyed it but that boss rush in the last 2 chapters ho boy that was a little rough.

[DaveMcDamage]

6 hours ago, da-Noob123 said:

So I finished my first playthrough on Normal, "only" took 52 hours. I spent a fair amount of time on setting materia but not that much lol. I  really enjoyed it but that boss rush in the last 2 chapters ho boy that was a little rough.

Yeah it was, but now think on that for hard mode when you can't use items and you can't rebuild Mp.... bleagh!

[da-Noob123]

9 minutes ago, DaveMcDamage said:

Yeah it was, but now think on that for hard mode when you can't use items and you can't rebuild Mp.... bleagh!

Don't remind me lol. I don't think I will go for it right away, going grind some materia and do miscellaneous trophies like the 300% stagger (which should have unlocked against that boss on the bike before the final bosses as the stagger was at like 500%). Then play something else to get me close to 7k trophies so the platinum can be numero 7,000. Quite the happy coincidence I'm so near that number. 

[amex_svk]

You still get MP from boxes and passive regen while in battle.

 

My medium playthrough with all possible side-quests and collectibles was 43 hours. I'm at 56 hours now (did a lot of grinding for AP to fully leveled up almost all my materia) and the only thing left is a hard playthrough, so I think my plat time will be ~70 hours.

 

Edit: Chapter 18 bike boss doesn't count for the 300% stagger trophy. I got it during the Fat Chocobo fight on Hard because he didn't survive long enough on the lower difficulties for me to build up stagger (even on Hard he was only a few HP from dying).

Edited April 13, 2021 by amex_svk

[DaveMcDamage]

I keep meaning to get another 2 fury rings. Is it quicker to go through chapter 9 twice or chapter 14, or are they equally slow to do. Also once you have it and save the game, can you then repeat without losing it or do you need to finish the chapters for it to register?

[amex_svk]

Definitely chapter 14. When you are leaving Sector 5 you'll get the Chocobo sidequest from the stablehand and you'll be able to use fast travel (free if you already did the sidequest). Fast travel to Wall Market and head directly to Don's mansion. Loot the chest with Fury ring, let the game autosave, reload the chapter and repeat the process.

 

Edit: You only need to finish a chapter to save sidequests/bridal dresses/dialogue choices. For XP/AP/items/etc. just save the game.

Edited April 13, 2021 by amex_svk

[DaveMcDamage]

3 hours ago, amex_svk said:

Definitely chapter 14. When you are leaving Sector 5 you'll get the Chocobo sidequest from the stablehand and you'll be able to use fast travel (free if you already did the sidequest). Fast travel to Wall Market and head directly to Don's mansion. Loot the chest with Fury ring, let the game autosave, reload the chapter and repeat the process.

 

Edit: You only need to finish a chapter to save sidequests/bridal dresses/dialogue choices. For XP/AP/items/etc. just save the game.

Cheers man. 

 

Got them done in next to no time on chapter 14. Though after getting them and spending 2 hours grinding up materia, I ended up dying twice as fast on hard lol. 

[MickeyMixLipa]

I've just started the game now as my first FF game & a group of friends on PSN have all said their times have been towards the 80 hour mark. I'm expecting mine to be at least 10/20 hours more down to inexperience. 

[JoaLoft]

I saw someone say in the "most recent platinum" topic they completed the entire trophy list from start to finish in four days and a bit. That's ludicrously fast, there's only one way you could've done that, and that's with a guide.

 

Just beat it myself on Hard - the last missing trophy, and I clocked in at just about 100 hours. Granted, the game idled for approx. an accumulated ten hours at least when I paused it on certain days to do other things and couldn't be bothered to turn it off. I did jump in between chapters for clean-up and a bit of Materia leveling too. I never look at how long a game should take to plat according to a guide, because experiences differ. Even more so, I don't care about how difficult or how long a game takes to complete.

 

I only pursue a game's platinum trophy if I'm willing to invest my time and energy into it, regardless of what any guide claims. I suggest you do the same, so as not to get burned out on platting games you have zero interest in.

[TommyG-LT]

60 hours is pretty accurate. Watching all cutscenes in the first playtrough, then skipping them all afterwards. Grinding isn't necessary as you level up everything on hard mode really quick. 

[Arcesius]

I just finished the game yesterday, with the following hours: 

1. Blind playthrough on Normal with all sidequests, no cutscenes skipped and no fleeing: 40 h
2. Trophy-Cleanup (6/9 dresses, Malboro, all Misc except Ultimate Weapon): 5 h
3. Hard-Mode playthrough with no sidequests, including Ultimate Weapon once I reached Ch. 17, no cutscenes, flee as much as possible: 15 h 

So yeah, the 60 h estimate from the guide was pretty accurate for me at least. Would have been even faster if I had done the first playthrough on easy. The Three-Person vs. Top Secrets had me stuck for a while, too ?

 

I guess the hard-mode playthrough could be longer if you decided to do some sidequests there. But the last couple of nodes you would be able to unlock from the manuscripts are pretty garbage if you ask me, so I decided not to do any during that run. 

Edited April 15, 2021 by Arcesius

[preciseRNG]

I just managed to beat the secret Lab boss (my adrenaline was over 9000 cause on the last fight one of my allies died) but managed to get the last few hits in! Great feeling.

My first playthrough in Normal took about 40+ hours with all the side stuff and challenges.

Had to play 9th chapter three times because I missed a Colosseum challenge for Aerith.

Only chapter 17 + 18 left on Hard and I'm at ~68 hours so far. Some pause times and breaks while leaving the game running are included here.

[Dr_Mayus]

It took me a little over 65 hours. I think 60ish is the average it should take.

 

 

On 4/15/2021 at 7:08 AM, Arcesius said:

I guess the hard-mode playthrough could be longer if you decided to do some sidequests there. But the last couple of nodes you would be able to unlock from the manuscripts are pretty garbage if you ask me, so I decided not to do any during that run. 

I decided to skip the chapter 14 quests as I was breezing through Hard mode anyways and didnt feel I needed them.

[DaveMcDamage]

I'm now at around 64 hours. On may final hard playthrough with the only 4 trophies you can get in hard mode. 

 

It took me a week to beat crab warden so that time isn't even calculated due to switching off and reloading. Now on the friggin air boss and just can't get it done. I estimate around 80-90hrs for myself as I garbage at the game. But in terms of reloads etc it'll probably be way over the 110hr mark. A week per boss attempt for some of them etc. 

Edited April 17, 2021 by DaveMcDamage

[kasorugi]

I finished this game today after 73 hours. It was my first Final Fantasy game I ever played and I was also not really good in this game (I never used all the possible game mechanics and was concentraded to the basics)

 

- First blind playthrough was on easy difficulty in 34 hours (all cutscenes, a lot of exploration, most story-related trophies, every possible sidequest, ...)

- Trophy-Cleanup (dresses, last two music discs, level up, max out materia, last side-quests, Whack-a-box, malboro, Joy and Pride, ...) in 17 hours

- hard mode playthrough (from beginning with Götterdämmerung, no cutscenes, with most sidequests for manuscripts) in 22 hours

 

For the most hard mode bosses and also marlboro and Joy and Pride I used some inspiration from guides regarding materia builds and possible strategies, so I got all bosses in first or second try, so the guides was a HUGE help.