am i missing something how is this game a 5 difficulty rating?

[MatThaRiPP3R84]

from the moment you hit walled city on hard mode literally every encounter is a white knuckle fuck fest, and bahamut is absolutely impossible. he can't be staggered, he destroys 70% of the health of any character that i switch to without even so much as an attack warning. is there some illusive cheat mode that cheeses this game to a 5? because after playing it for a bit i get bored and just find myself watching youtube or something.

 

edit: game has a weird adaptive difficulty thing, if you do well it gets really hard, if you die it makes it get easier. i guess thats why it's a 5, never noticred till now.

Edited July 27, 2020 by MatThaRiPP3R84

[PeachyJacobs]

30 minutes ago, MatThaRiPP3R84 said:

from the moment you hit walled city on hard mode literally every encounter is a white knuckle fuck fest, and bahamut is absolutely impossible. he can't be staggered, he destroys 70% of the health of any character that i switch to without even so much as an attack warning. is there some illusive cheat mode that cheeses this game to a 5? because after playing it for a bit i get bored and just find myself watching youtube or something.

Did you get the Gotterdammerung accessory on your normal run? That makes a lot of the fights much easier. The key for me was grinding on my normal run and levelling everyone to 50 and maxing out all the materia I would need for my hard run. Everyone should have 2 MP UP and 2 HP UP (Barrett only needs 1) at all times and then I swapped out others as I went depending on the fight. I had a ton of materia maxed and ready to go though - 2 of each element, 2 barrier, 2 magic up etc. Also make sure the Healing Carcanet is always on your designated healer. As for Bahamut, Manawall is essential. The fight is impossible without it as his Mega Flare will destroy you. Are you fighting him in the VR simulator or the combat challenge one at Shinra HQ?

[MatThaRiPP3R84]

the damerung is a reward for beating pride and joy on hard mode only. thats what i'm on, struggling with atm, funny how it gives me the reward when I don't need it lol. if i can't do this i have to level another shitty hp try with barret instead of tifa. sigh

 

saw a guide where you go in full glass cannon with no h[p up or heals or anything, just fury ring and crazy atb gain, i managed to do shiva straight away, fat chocobo in one stagger before i even saw a tonberry but leviathan just completely ruined everything. 2nd time i got arcande ward up straight away and put 6 thundagas into him and he still didn't stagger

[nrs1nrs1]

Yeah Vs. Top Secrets is fucking me up. Leviathan is always hit or miss if he's able to get off a Tail Whip and almost ohko my entire team. If he gets in the air I just spam Thundara to conserve MP. Bahamut is a completely different story. I keep doing the glass cannon strat and this guy keeps standing up at the wrong time/not getting pressured/I can't get the damn characters back in the damn Arcane Ward. If he summons Ifrit its a wipe for me. The gauntlet has essentially come down to "can I get past Leviathan? If so, I die to Bahamut and his buddy." It's super frustrating.

 

edit: ok I finally did it, just stuck to the Shinryo video to the letter (took me about 15 tries) and finally knocked it out

Edited August 6, 2020 by nrs1nrs1

[AndresLionheart]

On 27/7/2020 at 5:08 PM, MatThaRiPP3R84 said:

from the moment you hit walled city on hard mode literally every encounter is a white knuckle fuck fest, and bahamut is absolutely impossible. he can't be staggered, he destroys 70% of the health of any character that i switch to without even so much as an attack warning. is there some illusive cheat mode that cheeses this game to a 5? because after playing it for a bit i get bored and just find myself watching youtube or something.

 

edit: game has a weird adaptive difficulty thing, if you do well it gets really hard, if you die it makes it get easier. i guess thats why it's a 5, never noticred till now.

It has adaptive difficulty? That's the first time I hear that. I went through the whole hard mode without losing a single battle and I only Cloud died once against Eligor (I was playing blind, I didn't know I was gonna be unable tu use healing spells).

I only clenched my cheeks against the lots of dogs in the lab when you play with only Tifa and Aerith (forgot to switch the gotterdamerung).

 

I don't think the game was getting harder while performing well.

 

If you grind to level 50 while getting some materia up before starting hard the games gets super easy. It takes like 30-45 minutes. I got 2 sets of elemental spells maxed out and HP Ups and MP Ups to 3-4 stars (2 HP and 1 MP for Tifa and Cloud, and 2 MP for Aerith, although I ended up never needing that much MP).

Then I got the accessory with the basic setup, except I added another Barrier materia to make sure I got the Manawalls in time.

Bahamut doesn't need to warn you of his attacks because he follows the same exact pattern. It was like 3 different attacks. The only annoying one being the 2 orbs that are unblockable and kinda hard to dodge as well.

When Ifrit got summoned I bursted him down with Cloud and Tifa's Limit Breaks. Pretty simple fight when you have that under control.

When Megaflare countdown gets to 1 you cast the manawalls and make sure that Aerith has 1 ATB for a magnified Curaga, which heals all the damage right away.

 

I think the glass cannon strat is cool looking but way harder because one mistake could ruin the whole run.

[Deadly_Ha_Ha]

It's harder than a 5 in my opinion definitely. I guess it's subjective because that means for the guide writer that it was a game which presented an average challenge for him. But certainly Hard mode is a step up from what most people consider average difficulty (the gauntlet Pride and Joy arena especially)

[Baker]

I think a 5 is spot on. I died zero times during my hard playthrough. I tried a bit of a hard strategy for the Pride & Joy Prototype and failed a few times but when I tried it normally it also took me one attempt. If you set up you’re materia right for every encounter or boss battle I think it’s really easy. Maybe a 5 is even too high. Worst boss battle is definitely Hellhouse on Hard in chapter 9.

[Bizurke2003]

Bahamut before Pride and Joy is a real shit show. I had a lot of trouble with it but persevered and eventually got it done.

 

Edited August 9, 2020 by Bizurke2003

[MatThaRiPP3R84]

hell house wasn't a problem, hit it with the opposite element ga spell when it's flying, or attacking, counterstrike it's charge, cast bioga so that when it spits out tonberries they all instantly die without a hit, and when it sucks you in any spell or braver, it was soul sucking for me though, having to wade through 100 materia every other encounter, pride and joy was annoying as hell.

 

i went from normal directly to hard without any preperation, I was level 50 pretty quick though. I needed to kill pride and joy in hard for the damerung, eventually i figured out a build that can instantly fil the limit break and i recked the game with it, there was plenty of times where i went into fights and got wiped out, only to go back to it and just wipe the floor with it no problem doing nothing different at all.

 

it certainly wasn't easy but i only maxxed out my hp materia by chapter 14 i think. i was around lvl 37 when starting hard, those bloody rats u gotta fight for that quest, my god that shit made me pull hair.

Edited August 9, 2020 by MatThaRiPP3R84

[Spacey_Dweeb]

I see this a lot. I started mentally adding 2 to the difficulty scores once they get above 5 or 6 when I'm deciding what to play. Don't know if half the guide writers have something to prove or not by rating games lower than they are. 

[Bos10George]

I would say 6 to 7 is fair. I definitely cursed at the TV several times.

 

1) Aerith and Tifa vs 6 bloodhounds.

2) Bahamut and Ifrit top secrets

3) Whisper Bahamut sending you back to the start of the entire fight.

4) Witnessing that God-awful ending a second time.

[PeachyJacobs]

On 30/07/2020 at 10:39 AM, MatThaRiPP3R84 said:

the damerung is a reward for beating pride and joy on hard mode only. thats what i'm on, struggling with atm, funny how it gives me the reward when I don't need it lol. if i can't do this i have to level another shitty hp try with barret instead of tifa. sigh

 

saw a guide where you go in full glass cannon with no h[p up or heals or anything, just fury ring and crazy atb gain, i managed to do shiva straight away, fat chocobo in one stagger before i even saw a tonberry but leviathan just completely ruined everything. 2nd time i got arcande ward up straight away and put 6 thundagas into him and he still didn't stagger

What do you mean on hard mode only? I unlocked mine in my normal playthrough and had it equipped at the very start of my hard run and used it for my entire second playthrough. You can select the Pride and Joy fight on your normal playthrough, it just sets the difficulty to hard for that fight.

[MatThaRiPP3R84]

the damerung is only available in hard mode on ng+ it clearly says that in the description, specifically it says hard mode only, also those fights do not even appear unless your in ng+ and presumably difficulty too. i only got the damerung for the first time about 100+ hrs in it said nothing anywhere about doing pride and joy on normal.

[nrs1nrs1]

i think the game is between a 5 and a 6. I died maybe once on hard mode outside of the fights against Hell House and the 7-star challenge, in which I died maybe 8 times on Hell House and 15 on the boss gauntlet. The game definitely rewards you for swapping materia setups to best fit the section of the game you're on, and Hard Mode is definitely something in which the developers expect you to max your materia and be level 50 before starting.

[easterkeke]

On 8/9/2020 at 7:55 PM, Herr Hieb said:

I see this a lot. I started mentally adding 2 to the difficulty scores once they get above 5 or 6 when I'm deciding what to play. Don't know if half the guide writers have something to prove or not by rating games lower than they are. 

I've come to accept that I'm not very good at games but sometimes I really wonder about the kinds of people who write guides or vote "lol 5 at most np ez game" vs. average baddies like myself.

 

I struggled on so many fights even in Normal mode for FF7 Remake and just barely clutched out the latter chapters that the prospect of tackling Hard is... let's just say I'm going to have to give it a rest before returning. I appreciate the game for kicking me around though; modern AAAs have gotten a bit too easy, especially those in the Ubisoft style "open world third person stealth action with crafting, collectibles and RPG-lite progression" mold. 

[PeachyJacobs]

On 8/11/2020 at 1:16 AM, MatThaRiPP3R84 said:

the damerung is only available in hard mode on ng+ it clearly says that in the description, specifically it says hard mode only, also those fights do not even appear unless your in ng+ and presumably difficulty too. i only got the damerung for the first time about 100+ hrs in it said nothing anywhere about doing pride and joy on normal.

I realise where the confusion is. I completed my normal playthrough and levelled everyone up to 50 and had all the materia I wanted for my hard run. Then I used chapter select to complete the 1 remaining Colosseum challenge needed. I then used chapter select again to play chapter 17 but this time selected hard and then completed all of the Shinra VR Battle Challenges and got the Gotterdammerung.

 

I then started out my full playthrough on hard from chapter 1 with the Gotterdammerung already equipped.

 

Apologies for the confusion. I forgot about having to go through chapter select to pick hard, I thought you selected difficulty when picking the challenge not the chapter.

[MatThaRiPP3R84]

i found a build that instantly fills limit break guage without the damerung, and it also does ridiculously good damage, so I managed to basically 1 shot everything towards the end of the game on hard. many of the hard battles on normal are easier on hard in ng+ but, certain fights are exceptionally hard, if an enemy is weak to fire the GA spell will destroy it, and u can link the rare materia that lets your linked spell aoe switch it to the ga spell and it obliterates entire rooms. a youtuber called Blitz has some great videos for strategies.

 

but i did this blind only using a guide for bits i got stuck on, and it was a slog the way i did it, but in the end it enjoyed it for a long time. finishing up my levels grinding and questing in hard mode.

[Snake2410]

On 8/27/2020 at 9:18 PM, PeachyJacobs said:

I realise where the confusion is. I completed my normal playthrough and levelled everyone up to 50 and had all the materia I wanted for my hard run. Then I used chapter select to complete the 1 remaining Colosseum challenge needed. I then used chapter select again to play chapter 17 but this time selected hard and then completed all of the Shinra VR Battle Challenges and got the Gotterdammerung.

 

I then started out my full playthrough on hard from chapter 1 with the Gotterdammerung already equipped.

 

Apologies for the confusion. I forgot about having to go through chapter select to pick hard, I thought you selected difficulty when picking the challenge not the chapter.

For the VR's you can play ch 17 on any difficulty to get to Chadley, then when you go into the VR sim and pick the Top Secret it will change the difficulty to hard for that sim.  So you don't have to already be on hard to be able to choose the hard sims.  Just in NG+.

[PeachyJacobs]

6 hours ago, Snake2410 said:

For the VR's you can play ch 17 on any difficulty to get to Chadley, then when you go into the VR sim and pick the Top Secret it will change the difficulty to hard for that sim.  So you don't have to already be on hard to be able to choose the hard sims.  Just in NG+.

Ah, I see. Thank you! I was getting confused as to how I had done it ?

[Calypox]

On 9.8.2020 at 5:25 PM, BB-BakkerJ said:

I think a 5 is spot on. I died zero times during my hard playthrough. I tried a bit of a hard strategy for the Pride & Joy Prototype and failed a few times but when I tried it normally it also took me one attempt. If you set up you’re materia right for every encounter or boss battle I think it’s really easy. Maybe a 5 is even too high. Worst boss battle is definitely Hellhouse on Hard in chapter 9.

 

I know difficulty is rated differently by everyone, but... how can you say Hellhouse is harder than Bahamut in the Combat Simulator? ??

This fight is making me cry.

I have all material maxed out and tried different set-ups, but I just can't manage to survive when Bahamut summones Ifrit - it kills me each time at that point.

Edited September 9, 2020 by Calypox

[Baker]

1 hour ago, Calypox said:

 

I know difficulty is rated differently by everyone, but... how can you say Hellhouse is harder than Bahamut in the Combat Simulator? 

This fight is making me cry.

I have all material maxed out and tried different set-ups, but I just can't manage to survive when Bahamut summones Ifrit - it kills me each time at that point.

I don’t remember my complete set up but I used fire+elemental on my armor so Ifrit basically can’t damage you. Take him out fast. Don’t know what makes it hard, I beat it first try... So I can’t really help you.

Edited September 9, 2020 by BB-BakkerJ

[sephiroth4424]

27 minutes ago, Calypox said:

I have all material maxed out and tried different set-ups, but I just can't manage to survive when Bahamut summones Ifrit - it kills me each time at that point.

You need to defeat Ifrit asap in this fight. So have limit breaks ready for him and blast him immediately. He doesn't have much hp. With Cloud's and Aerith's limit breaks, the fight is not hard, just need to time them

[Fish613]

On 7/27/2020 at 4:08 PM, MatThaRiPP3R84 said:

from the moment you hit walled city on hard mode literally every encounter is a white knuckle fuck fest, and bahamut is absolutely impossible. he can't be staggered, he destroys 70% of the health of any character that i switch to without even so much as an attack warning. is there some illusive cheat mode that cheeses this game to a 5? because after playing it for a bit i get bored and just find myself watching youtube or something.

 

edit: game has a weird adaptive difficulty thing, if you do well it gets really hard, if you die it makes it get easier. i guess thats why it's a 5, never noticred till now.

I noticed you're still pretty new to trophy hunting (based on your profile). Something you have to keep in mind when looking at a guide, is to be prepared for the difficulty to actually be 1-3 points higher than what the guide says. That's not always the case, but a lot of times it is. Why? Because once someone beats something, they look back and say to themselves "that actually wasn't too hard".... even if it was the most difficult thing they've ever done in their life lol. Idk if you've ever experience that before, but I have. I'll platinum a game that was so difficult for me, but then once I finish it, i think "I guess it wasn't THAT bad". 

Also, a lot of people who make guides base the difficulty on overall trophies (and this wrong of them to do). The difficulty rating should be based on the hardest trophy. Because you're rating how difficult it is to platinum the game. And if a game has 50 trophies, and 48 of them has a 99% completion rate, while one of them has a 1% completion rate.... that game should be a 10/10 difficulty.

 

So just keep all that in mind for future games you play. Hope this helps

[Joe Dubz]

42 minutes ago, Fish613 said:

I noticed you're still pretty new to trophy hunting (based on your profile). Something you have to keep in mind when looking at a guide, is to be prepared for the difficulty to actually be 1-3 points higher than what the guide says. That's not always the case, but a lot of times it is. Why? Because once someone beats something, they look back and say to themselves "that actually wasn't too hard".... even if it was the most difficult thing they've ever done in their life lol. Idk if you've ever experience that before, but I have. I'll platinum a game that was so difficult for me, but then once I finish it, i think "I guess it wasn't THAT bad". 

Also, a lot of people who make guides base the difficulty on overall trophies (and this wrong of them to do). The difficulty rating should be based on the hardest trophy. Because you're rating how difficult it is to platinum the game. And if a game has 50 trophies, and 48 of them has a 99% completion rate, while one of them has a 1% completion rate.... that game should be a 10/10 difficulty.

 

So just keep all that in mind for future games you play. Hope this helps

I have to agree wholeheartedly with this statement here. I have written a handful of guides for PSNP and I am always debating with myself what difficulty rating to pick! It is very easy at the time to be struggling with a particular part and think to yourself "fuck that, this should be 10/10". But once you beat it, in retrospect your brain perceives it as not so bad! In most cases, it comes down to those 1 or 2 ultra rare (or insert lowest rarity trophy here) trophies being the biggest barrier towards obtaining a plat. That being said, for me I am always open to other input and have adjusted 1 or 2 of my guide difficulty ratings after others thought they were harder than I did. 

 

Basically for me, I would rather rate something 8/10 and your impression was more of a 5/10 than the other way around!!

[Calypox]

5 hours ago, BB-BakkerJ said:

I don’t remember my complete set up but I used fire+elemental on my armor so Ifrit basically can’t damage you. Take him out fast. Don’t know what makes it hard, I beat it first try... So I can’t really help you.

 

5 hours ago, sephiroth4424 said:

You need to defeat Ifrit asap in this fight. So have limit breaks ready for him and blast him immediately. He doesn't have much hp. With Cloud's and Aerith's limit breaks, the fight is not hard, just need to time them

 

I also finally did it, but with the full-glasscannon-build.

If I'd have failed that last try I would have tried playing with the Fire + Elemental tactic.

Ist does really sound like a great tactic!

Thanks for your help and ideas