(Potential spoilers) How would you rate the difficulty of this plat?

[BlackTorito]

Numerical scale based on your feelings is definitely why people use the scale wrong.

 

I think we all can agree that the spectrum 1-10, nowadays, should be heavily based on mechanical skills, where the most demanding games on that field fall into the higher ranges and then knowledge, which falls into the lower range, essentially, because knowledge is pretty much nullified by the existence of official guides and the internet.

 

This game is not too mechanically demanding, it requires far more knowledge and proper equipment, but it’s true that is not as simple mechanically as a traditional JRPG or a graphic novel, and requires some management in the battle, I would throw this game into the 5-6 range, but nothing past that.

[FearElemental]

I would honestly rate is a 6/10. It's hard, but not unexpectedly hard. It requires some knowledge of weapons, abilities, and materia to get past the Hell House. After that, it's a matter of getting all the Coliseum and Simulation Challenges done; only one battle gave me trouble. After obtaining the best accessory in the game, it gets very easy very quickly. 

 

The pull ups trophy was a bit tricky, but very doable. 

 

The rest was either easy or tedious. 

Edited June 20, 2020 by FearElemental

[AlanPauly]

4/10 overall. Even the Pull up trophy is just a minor annoyance. 

[Cherrywood]

I'd say a 4 or 5 is about right.  Hard mode, if you know how to play the game, and by the time you unlock it you do, isn't that bad at all; be smart, conserve MP and know where it gets automatically refilled, for the most part I found it as fun as the rest of the game was.  For me, Sephiroth and, especially, Hell House were difficult but that was it, and those were just two fights in the whole game.  Bahamut in the gauntlet wasn't easy either but he wasn't that bad; be prepared, take out Ifrit quick when he shows up, if you can beat Hell House, you can beat him.

[Gybelle]

5/10, if I compare with some other games scored with a 4/10 difficulty.

 

It's actually not that hard, but it's neither a 'just play the story and spend some extra time finding items' type of game. By the time you get to the hard mode playthrough, you'll understand how you have to handle them and I found it easier than my first playthrough, but only because I paid a lot of attention in my first :'D. Since you have to polish your battle style for each of them (and because of a certain nailbiting fight :'D) I would score it a 5. 

[FulgidoLucio]

Hard mode is definitely 8.5/10 to me. I JUST CAN'T. I obviously am at level 50, lots of fully evolved materias and weapons, I watched many videos for tips, I use the same exact strategy and equipment, but NO. You who rated this a 3/10 should be gods or something. I accept the defeat and stop at chapter 12 boss battle. I hate this game for all those Whispers nonsense, awful "finale" and terrible Materia system (not at all improved from a the original 23-year-old game).

[JD-D2]

Those rating this a 3 or “very easy” need to talk to people who don’t hunt trophies all the time. This is not a massively difficult game by any means, but almost anyone going for it is going to need to consult a guide (or 10) for optimal setups for different fights on hard mode. Getting to Pride and Joy took me about 7 tries even with everything maxed, the fastest way requires very precise timing and intricate knowledge of the game’s mechanics, which are already relatively complex. (Far, faaaar more complex than something like Spider-Man or HZD.) Everything seems easier in hindsight. 

To me this is a 6/10 that’s more like a 6.5. Anyone can do it with some effort, but you have to work for it, and it is a commitment. I’m 70+ hours in and still have to do 16 chapters on hard and clean up the dresses trophy, so it might wind up being closer to 90-100 hours in total. I’m impressed more than 20% of players have the plat on this — really shows how much FF fans love the game. (And it is a great game.)

Edited December 28, 2020 by JD-D2

[DaveMcDamage]

On 4/23/2020 at 6:32 AM, enaysoft said:

A lot of people are struggling and posting about darts, squats and sit ups and those are easier tasks than hard mode. It all depends on your overall dexterity for other game genres in general. I suspect a lot of FF7 fans will find the increase of different gameplay mechanics the biggest hurdle. Imagine if you were not able to skip the bike mini games on Hard mode.

When it comes to the darts game I wonder of those having problems with it are using a 3rd party pad by any chance? I too use one, especially for RPG games and they don't usually require the most finesse of movements, but for the life of me I couldn't get the darts game done. 

 

Popped on my official pad and breezed through it first time with 7 darts. Its not as easy as the Yakuza Kiwami 2 or Yakuza 6 darts game, but its still easy enough. Pullups is indeed a bitch because you're going not only against a button mash section but also the RNG of the AI. I drew (but lost) 3 times at 43-43, 42-42. 44-44, then in then in my very final attempt I won 44-42 I think. Some people have said they have won with scores like 43-39.  

[NoosaHeadz]

Just got the platinum and folk ranking it a 3 are having a laugh surely. That would suggest its a walk in the park, no challenge. 

Alot of its easy, then you run into hell House on hard, that's a challenging boss 

Then there's peerless pull ups, tricky to say the least

And finally sepheroth, ended up with tifa coming 1st then barret, spent 5 hours getting eviscerated and obliterated by that shit face, he was not easy

Id say 5 or 6 out of 10

[In4m471k3r]

I already stated that the time for platinum was set far too low in my oppinion.

 

Regarding the difficulty guides state, I can say, that personally I do not want to play a game rated higher than 6/10, as it must be hell to play it. What I played so far usually was set up to 5 or 6 of 10 and yes... I think this is underrated. I do not have comparison to higher rated games so I cannot tell, if there are really games that are that much harder to play. The current level is "hard enough" to me, so a 6/10 translates to 9.5/10 for me.

[DrBloodmoney]

I'd put it right in the middle of the average, at 5 or 6 out of 10

 

It's not a cake walk, and requires some effort and thought, but there is nothing in it that cannot be achieved with a little practice, and I don't recall having to retry any section or single fight more than 3 or 4 times to get through.

 

I agree that the time-to-plat estimate is off, but frankly, I think that number is under-estimated in 90% of guides anyway, and is used far more often as a little swing of the e-peen from the guide writers than an actual helpful number for the reader, so I always ignore those values anyway.

 

 

Edited April 6, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[Yuber6969]

I'd say a 4. If it wasn't for Hell House on hard mode and that one superboss (don't want to risk spoilers), I'd say 3.

 

I'm basing my score on Zone of the Enders (1) being considered a 5/10. That game was much harder than this, at least for me.

Edited April 6, 2021 by yuber1234

[starscream171]

Having platinumed the game I would still rate this platinum as 8/10. I even had some sleepless nights due to Pride & Joy gauntlet on hard which just gave me a major headache. Same with the legendary beasts, and that damn type O BEHEMOTH. Hellhouse The final boss, Jenova Dreamweaver, pull ups, Valkyrie robot on hard were a major pain. 

 

Arsenal was far easier than I had feared to be honest.

 

Shinra Top secrets aka summons gauntlet and pride joy ! That feelt good, what a ride it was !
Talk about a gigantic relief ! Phew, what a miracle and a dream come true !
Beating Sephiroth on hard without G o tt er d a mer rung was a demanding challenge, too.
Tifa was the key/star player in most fights ! Uppercut into uppercut into dive kick spam melted the bosses lifebars quickly. During Jenova Dreamweaver Aerith helped out the most.

 

Chapters and bosses on hard

1. Fair challenge - Scorpion sentinel is a fair, moderately tough challenge. Easy compared to the rest.
2. Easy as pie.
3. Easiest in the game. Still enjoyable.
4. Stupid dogs gauntlet and the boss is ok. Nothing special.
5. An intense boss, Crab warden can be tricky due to rails, but not that super hard.
6. JUST A SHORT BORING MAZE. NO BOSS THERE.
7. Airbuster can keep you on your toes, he is very tough. Got him on the 2nd try, though.
8. Reno is easy, Rude is tricky. Enjoyable side quests.
9. Hell House can give you hell. Took me 6 tries. One of the hardest customers.
10. Abzu is not that hard. Got him on the 1st try, that SKAVEN wannabe.
11. Ghoul can be very tricky, but I melted Eligor in 3 minutes with a proper setup ! = )
12. Rude and Reno are pretty tough !
13. Easiest boss in the game - magnify blizzaga with Barret and take down minions, then demolish the heart with Tifa's limit. =)
14. Abzu got burned to a crisp on the 1st try. I hate Skaven. ;-)
15. Valkyrie was surprisingly hard. Took me 7 tries to beat her due to her pinning barrage and sleeping powder...damn her.
16. More talk, less action ? That Cthulhu wannabe was cool but also tough, took me 3 tries.
17. THE HARDEST OF THEM ALL. Jenova was a tough custome - took me 3 damn tries, Rufus went down like a dufus, DESTROYED ARSENAL on my first attempt, I could not believe it ! 0_0
18. Spirits were easy if you went after Rudrum then Croceo first and Sephiroth without Go tter da merun g was an epic challenge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DaveMcDamage]

For me personally I'm at chapter 5 crab warden fight on hard mode. So far its been a mixture of really tough sections like the 'on the prowl' side quest which wrecked me so many times, to the tiresome ghost battle of chapter 4. At present I'd say its probably a 7/10 becauses its not a game you can go in blind in if you're not used to this kind of battle system or how to use your abilities etc. You can't tank your way through. 

 

But at the same time I can see where the guys giving it 2-3/10's are coming from, because when you do know how to use the system then it comes across very easy. Been watching the Youtube vids and some of those guys are wrecking the game to pieces. 

[MatThaRiPP3R84]

parts of this game are easily a 6, maybe even a 7 for some people. but then i played it the hardest way possible so for me it was way more of a pain then it had to be.

 

vast majority of the game is a 5. but first playthrough on normal has some difficult spikes made easier with underdstanding mechanics.

 

5 or 6 is pretty accurate (imo).

[Grondziu]

I think you generally also kind of forget that not all the people are 'hardcore gamers'. I mean, developers of Ghost of Tsushima lately announced that 50% of people who played their game finished story mode. STORY MODE! And that game was easy to finish without any guides whatsoever (plat as well) even for people not used to that genre. I struggled with Scorpion Sentinel in ch1 on Normal. And at that time I decided that I probably am not good enough to plat it (but loved the game and changed my mind later). If you want to finish FF7 on hard to either have to be experienced in games this type or go with a walkthrough/guide. Or struggle for dozens/hundreds of hours on some fights. It is not a game to finish in a weekend. It requires multiple plays, hard mode, some hidden things, some mastery of a game (skills, materia). Most bosses require a proper set up and/or strategy. I think games with such requirements for a platinum should be 4/5 in terms of difficulty.

 

I generally think that 1 is a Telltale game, 2-3 would be a game with no hard difficulty and just story, side quests, some gameplay trophies, no or little missables. This game is more complex and difficult than e.g. HZD or Spider Man. I mean in those games you can get a controller in a middle of a game and beat some bosses. 

[Lovenewton]

14 hours ago, Grondziu said:

I think you generally also kind of forget that not all the people are 'hardcore gamers'. I mean, developers of Ghost of Tsushima lately announced that 50% of people who played their game finished story mode. STORY MODE! And that game was easy to finish without any guides whatsoever (plat as well) even for people not used to that genre.

 

Just wanna mention that there are more relevant factors as to why people don't finish games than difficulty. It mostly has to do with people getting bored/losing interest, or just the length of the game. For example RDR2 is like a 40+ hour playthrough so it has 28% story completion.

[TommyG-LT]

Personally, I would give it a 4. Pretty enjoyable plat and great game overall. 

 

Hard mode is more like normal compared to other games on their hardest difficulties. Especially because it's NG+, smooth sailing from start to end. 

[running_Amok_86]

I personally think the current platinum percentage of around 19% suggests its easier than it is.  Not only is it a long platinum (I'm at chapter 13 on my hard playthrough and at 80 hours) but there is a very hard part.  I'm talking about the ultimate weapon trophy for beating the top secrets on hard mode.  This for me was very hard, though I did it after my normal playthrough and before starting hard mode.  I still had maxed out level and materia but it was very difficult.  Getting the reward from that is making the hard mode very easy (even easier than my normal playthrough).  Still am suprised 19% perople went through this.

[Spike_Hostile17]

On 18/04/2020 at 7:28 PM, ZandatsuRising said:

With NG+ I had no problems at all.  For me it was only a 3/10.

 

The good thing about hard diff is that it forces you to play it right. 

Agreed. Honestly, there isn't a single moment where you feel "damn it's hard". Even on Hard, just use the right Materia and take cover when needed, it's a breeze. And I'm not trying to gangsta like "oh supa eazy for me", it really is an easy plat. When i read 7/10 for some people, i m shocked. 7/10 is where i put Bloodborne (without DLC) and DS. that means for these people, yakuza kiwami or Super Meat Boy is like 15/10 if i follow the scale ?

[TommyG-LT]

FF series has a very specific fanbase, most of them love these games and the trophies are very straightforward to get, atleast in FF7R. Very linear, no pointless grinding needed and decent number of collectibles. 20% plat rate seems reasonable. 

 

It's the same for Bloodborne and Souls, very similiar plat %. It surprises me that a lot of people define them as crushingly difficult in modern gaming. Once you learn the game mechanics, it's very manageable and rewarding experience. 6-7 at most. 

[AndresLionheart]

2 hours ago, running_Amok_86 said:

I personally think the current platinum percentage of around 19% suggests its easier than it is.  Not only is it a long platinum (I'm at chapter 13 on my hard playthrough and at 80 hours) but there is a very hard part.  I'm talking about the ultimate weapon trophy for beating the top secrets on hard mode.  This for me was very hard, though I did it after my normal playthrough and before starting hard mode.  I still had maxed out level and materia but it was very difficult.  Getting the reward from that is making the hard mode very easy (even easier than my normal playthrough).  Still am suprised 19% perople went through this.

I think this may be the difference between people like me rating it 4/10 and others ranging from 6 to 8/10.

 

I also got that accessory right after finishing Normal (after grinding to level 50 and maxing some Materia to be more precise). Had no trouble with the simulator battles either. For the hard fight I just saved both Tifa's and Cloud's Limit Breaks and bursted down Ifrit before he got to do anything, and of course use manaward when the countdown got down to 1.

Gave that the accessory to Cloud, equipped Hardedge and an Initiative materia (or whatever the one that gives you full ATB at the start of battle was called), and every normal battle ended instantly. Either Triple Slash the group if it was just some small enemies, or Limit Break the big enemy and Triple Slash the survivors.

 

For bosses all I did was switch around which element I was gonna absorb. That way I could ignore part of the mechanics of the fight (like absorbing Thunder against Reno or absorbing Fire against the Crab Warden).

 

It was easier than Normal.

[DaveMcDamage]

I'm now at Hellhouse and gonna be stuck on this for some time. Had another two attempts today but man this is very tough. Optinoobs fool proof guides have been amazing for me, but I just can't get the same timing as what he gets to even get past phase 2. Pullups has been nothing compared to some of these bosses for me. I did pullups in about 11 attempts, where as some bosses have taken even more for me. 

[technole]

Net platinum % on PSN on recent FF games. Let's be real. PSN is a more realistic picture, not PSNp, which tends to skew towards trophy fans.

 

FF7R 2.9% 

FFVII 7.1% (3/10)

FFXV 8.7% (3/10)

FFVIII 9.2% (3/10)

FFXIII 2.2% (5/10)

FFXII 2.7% (5/10)

 

Now you see how 4/10 looks silly?

 

5 or slightly above is about right. Two playthroughs, challenges, instead of just the token difficulty trophy things in previous FF games. That is enough intangibles to move the needle.

 

 

[DaveMcDamage]

56 minutes ago, technole said:

Net platinum % on PSN on recent FF games. Let's be real. PSN is a more realistic picture, not PSNp, which tends to skew towards trophy fans.

 

FF7R 2.9% 

FFVII 7.1% (3/10)

FFXV 8.7% (3/10)

FFVIII 9.2% (3/10)

FFXIII 2.2% (5/10)

FFXII 2.7% (5/10)

 

Now you see how 4/10 looks silly?

 

5 or slightly above is about right. Two playthroughs, challenges, instead of just the token difficulty trophy things in previous FF games. That is enough intangibles to move the needle.

 

 

Yeah I love this site a lot, some of the features are amazing. But the numbers are only of any use for this site. 

 

I still rate it around a 7 and currently on chapter 12 and its rock hard for me. I spent so much time trying to beat bosses that in the end I forgot how to fight against basic enemies and can't even reach the boss on this stage lol. I think the whole giving a game a platinum difficulty number is pointless as no two people seem to have the same opinion, not to mention some gamers excel at some genres over others. I think the rating should be done the same as it is in gaming. Easy, medium and hard. With those three you pretty much cover your bases