This thread are sick - Let's Play Final Fantasy VII!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > This thread are sick - Let's Play Final Fantasy VII!

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Tupperwarez: Apr 4, 2004; "phphphphphphpht"? this is what you're going with?

you sure?

Sometimes I wonder if you could make a whole game about cleaning up all of ~~Shinra's~~ Hojo's secret experiments.

The intro could be someone going through Shinra HQ and uncovering an entire room, wall-to-wall with file cabinets filled with reports like Elentor's update. Just hundreds and hundreds of nightmares buried all over the globe, waiting for some random schmoe to uncover them.

# ? May 14, 2014 16:24

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# ? Apr 24, 2024 23:39

Some Numbers: Sep 28, 2006; "LET'S GET DOWN TO WORK!!"

Well, that certainly wasn't what I was expecting. It's really good, but even though I remember the Gelnika really well, I had some trouble following it.

Are we going to get a video of the Turks fight or did I manage to miss it in all the black bars?

# ? May 14, 2014 16:33

ZevGun: Sep 6, 2011

Some Numbers posted:

Are we going to get a video of the Turks fight or did I manage to miss it in all the black bars?

There are a few clickable portions of the document. Just give it all a good mouse over and look for the finger.

That was a really cool way to cover this side area, Elentor.

# ? May 14, 2014 16:46

Kanfy: Jan 9, 2012; Just gotta keep walking down that road.

BioMe posted:

This was a pretty good update.

Let's not get carried away, Shadow Hearts had dobermans standing up on their stomachs vomited inside-out so they could attack you with all four limbs.

I did say almost.

Also FFVII lacks the lovely descriptions.

# ? May 14, 2014 16:52

Magil of Shadow: Dec 28, 2009; Proposal: Form a friendly relationship immediately.

"You have GOT to be kidding me"

ZevGun posted:

There are a few clickable portions of the document. Just give it all a good mouse over and look for the finger.

That was a really cool way to cover this side area, Elentor.

I do hope that whenever this thread gets archived, that those links are kept in, because reading though the 'letter' was great enough, but seeing all the added touches made it even better.

# ? May 14, 2014 16:58

Pesky Splinter: Feb 16, 2011; A worried pug.

That update was amazing.

As is the Unknown model.

Elentor posted:

It's really loving cool.

# ? May 14, 2014 17:28

FeyerbrandX: Oct 9, 2012

On the last file page, how did you fit "FUCKfuckfuckfuckgently caress It's Emerald Weapon!" in two small words of redacted blocks?

# ? May 14, 2014 17:31

FinalGamer: Aug 30, 2012; So the mystic script says.

Holy gently caress man that was an amazing update :allears:

I think this thread needs a platinum label now.

How many 5's does that take? Cuz I'll 5 it every day if I have to now, that was just beautiful. It reminded me of this awesome old book I had on cryptozoology that had those exact same reports. I almost thought they were actual reports even! ...one time I thought they were real :saddowns:

But that was really loving cool and short as it was, that wait was worth it between updates just to see that.

# ? May 14, 2014 18:43

Kalenn Istarion: Nov 2, 2012; Maybe Senpai will finally notice me now that I've dropped :fivebux: on this snazzy av

I am a baddie and hadn't done so before but thread is now 5'd. Excellent update. How long did it take you to build the model?

# ? May 14, 2014 19:07

Attestant: Oct 23, 2012; Don't judge me.

Tupperwarez posted:

Sometimes I wonder if you could make a whole game about cleaning up all of ~~Shinra's~~ Hojo's secret experiments.

But isn't that basically what the game is about already?

# ? May 14, 2014 19:17

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

Attestant posted:

But isn't that basically what the game is about already?

This game and Crisis Core.

# ? May 14, 2014 19:30

Minera: Sep 26, 2007; All your friends and foes,
they thought they knew ya,
but look who's in your heart now.

That was cool. I really like the unconventional updates!

# ? May 14, 2014 19:41

Fur20: Nov 14, 2007; すご▞い！
君は働か░い
フ▙▓ズなんだね！

God drat, you put so much effort into this and it's all worth it. That was fantastic, and kinda cute... from a presentation perspective, of course. What it's actually talking about is gross as hell.

# ? May 14, 2014 20:29

ReturnOfFable: Oct 9, 2012; No tears, only dreams.

If this thread is not gold-mined when your done Elentor, I will be very disappointed. That was great.

# ? May 14, 2014 20:35

habeasdorkus: Nov 3, 2013; Royalty is a continuous shitposting motion.

I highly enjoyed the Shinra emails. Especially the Rufus one. "A better tomorrow starts with a better today. A better today starts with Shinra" is dead on the nose for corporate sloganeering, if you didn't borrow it from somewhere else you deserve all the kudos in the world.

# ? May 14, 2014 20:42

Silegna: Aug 20, 2013; Hey, heads up. I'm about to unleash my rage.

Gah, I always had difficulty getting OUT of the Gelinka, because Emerald Douchebag was waiting for me.

# ? May 14, 2014 21:22

Glazius: Jul 22, 2007; Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.; Clapping Larry

That was an amazing mini-update. Fits the tone of the place pretty well, all secret-project-y.

# ? May 14, 2014 22:17

CmdrKing: Oct 14, 2012; Maybe if I called it 'Interpretive Stabbing'...

Silegna posted:

Gah, I always had difficulty getting OUT of the Gelinka, because Emerald Douchebag was waiting for me.

Emerald loves to park there, yeah. Fortunately, there's a trick to it; if he's currently set to 'gelnika' mode, he won't move, so you can immediately surface and avoid him.

# ? May 14, 2014 22:22

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

Oh okay that's the bonus area I was waiting for for the LLG.

Now to remember how the hell to write words about not gaining EXP.

# ? May 14, 2014 22:35

Silegna: Aug 20, 2013; Hey, heads up. I'm about to unleash my rage.

Orange Fluffy Sheep posted:

Oh okay that's the bonus area I was waiting for for the LLG.

Now to remember how the hell to write words about not gaining EXP.

How longs it been since you've written them, out of curiosity?

# ? May 14, 2014 23:22

Hawaiian Shirt: Oct 10, 2006; I barely even drink a lot

Man, that update reminds me of how a really good strategy guide would cover side quests. Was the unknown model a tearful tribute to H.R. Giger? :v:

# ? May 14, 2014 23:38

Macaluso: Sep 23, 2005; I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG, BROTHER!

So I don't want to sound like a party pooper, cause that update was awesome, especially going to the trouble of doing up a whole model for that boss. But are you going to show your actual run through that dungeon too?

I actually forgot that place even existed.

# ? May 14, 2014 23:44

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

Silegna posted:

How longs it been since you've written them, out of curiosity?

June of '13 it looks. I was right on Elentor's heels back then, but needing the Gelkina immediately after the underwater reactor meant I had to hold off.

# ? May 14, 2014 23:46

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

How in the gently caress would you survive that place with an LLG :psyduck:

Please post soon, I gotta see this!

# ? May 14, 2014 23:48

Kith: Sep 17, 2009; You never learn anything
by doing it right.

I love the Conformer. I always use Yuffie as my caster and the Conformer gives her just as much attacking damage as everyone else without having to worry about taking off her various magic materia. It also makes Morphing stuff WAY easier.

# ? May 14, 2014 23:52

bradzilla: Oct 15, 2004

Elentor that update was fantastic.

Two Finger posted:

How in the gently caress would you survive that place with an LLG
Please post soon, I gotta see this!

Also eager to know this, I'm following OFS' LP as a guide too. :v:

To me the low level experience is generally grenades, right arms and luck.

# ? May 15, 2014 00:29

AndwhatIseeisme: Mar 30, 2010; Being alive is pretty much a constant stream of embarrassment.; Fun Shoe

I never knew about that bug before,is it only Vincent's mug command that triggers it? What causes that, and why does it seem like Vincent gets all the weird combat bugs?

# ? May 15, 2014 01:45

whitehelm: Apr 20, 2008

Two Finger posted:

How in the gently caress would you survive that place with an LLG
Please post soon, I gotta see this!

Run away from everything.

# ? May 15, 2014 01:57

Twiddy: May 17, 2008; To the man who loves art for its own sake, it is frequently in its least important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived.

Two Finger posted:

How in the gently caress would you survive that place with an LLG
Please post soon, I gotta see this!

This. More specifically, when I replayed this game because of this thread forever ago, I had a really simple materia system. Specifically, I just worked on leveling materia that needed leveling without a real care about who had what or what went where. The vast majority of the time I had no enemy skill, and I'm pretty sure it was uncommon for my blue materia to actually be linked to something useful. I played almost the entire game, sans super bosses, like this.

The other exception was the Turks in this goddamn plane. These guys are assholes and forced me to use enemy skill. Considering the above words, I wouldn't be surprised if they're the hardest boss for their location in the game even for experienced players.

# ? May 15, 2014 02:52

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

Last time, we... uh...

Oh right, thanks. When you aren't killing cops you're a nice guy, you know?

I forget if Mideel's accessory shop sells these before it explodes or if I just fail to find it until then, but, eh, elemental resistance accessories I'll never use.

No I'm not joking I never use them.

So here's the fun of the underwater reactor: It's got entire gauntlets of unavoidable battles we haven't seen since the likes of Shinra HQ.

And yes, I tried to run. There's quite a few fights here worth several thousand experience each, and the worst part is, I have to off my own characters so often.

CLOUD is designated EXP-getter because he's been out for so long.

Loses a bit of its punch when the game refuses to let you avoid this, huh?

...Wait. I could've tried petrification via added effect. Dammit!

One of the problems of having to off the party is that the party is damned tough compared to how awful they are at killing. Most of the emphasis is on surviving the enemy with the knowledge that eventually enough right arms and freezes will be fatal.

Then we throw in random encounters and lord am I thankful for Escape. That was the best gil ever spent.

For reasons unfathomable to even me Cop Killa becomes designated EXP haver. I think my justifcation was I had used everyone else but Clispaeth recently and he's going to be mandatory soon enough.

There are a lot of fights here with rewards screens like this.

Low levels in FF7 are in the low twenties for a reason, by the way.

And now for the third worst fight in the game behind Demon Wall and the Icicles.

Gah gently caress how did this even happen

Wait what the hell is

What the hell

Woah gently caress what is this poo poo I didn't even get a turn without barrier he one-shots my party

Okay seriously Lapis Laser can go to hell

code:

   If (1/3 Chance) Then
   {
      Choose All Opponents
      Use Lapis Laser on Target
   }

Because he has a 1/3 chance of using it during his AI set-up at the start of the battle. Some enemies deploy minions or have dramatic pose changes that take advantage of battle models having higher detail.

Carry Armor kills you. Thankfully, Lapis Laser costs MP. Using Magic Hammer twice takes away all 200 Carry Armor has, making this fight possible at all.

His gimmick of grabbing people is dangerous as hell, too, if you don't know how it works. The arms have 10000 HP so killing them in one hit's impossible, and the lower their HP makes them more likely to grab. Given how hard Carry Armor can hit this can get pretty fatal. Now keep in mind at low levels I'm not doing more than about 4000 to all enemies even if all three characters use Right Arms. This would leave the arms at low health, so they'd grab two people - living ones, too. Taft is near perpetually dead so it's an instant loss.

The solution, then, is to ignore the arms entirely and hit Carry Armor with Freeze relentlessly. It isn't exactly obvious unless you're a cheating motherfucker like me who looks at AI scripts.

It's still a tense fight considering the lingering threat of grabbing, and it's also long because Freeze is not particularly strong of a main offense. Here, we see me violating various RPG sensabilities and using an Elixir.

And sometimes tactical suicides go very wrong.

It took me about eight tries, if I recall.

Two of them were to a preemptive Lapis Laser that ended the entire attempt before I could even move.

gently caress Lapis Laser.

Uh, a weapon for the perpetually level 7 character! Yay?

More important is this Trumpet. It's Cop Killa's time to shine.

Better you than me.

You see, there's a marathon of battles against troopers, and in order to conserve resources I don't revive CLOUD and Taft between fights.

I'm doing this on an emulator you know. If this fight wiping me meant I had to retry Carry Armor, well, I might've vomited.

I've beaten Ozma at level 1 at FF9 on console, okay? I deserve some loving breaks.

Thank gently caress we can not kill the last few guys. EXP gain spared!

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I just sorta launch torpedoes relentlessly and get the huge materia anyway!?

Finally, unqualified success! No failure, no exploits!

Immediately I head for the Gelkina. Some of the loot here will make the rest of my life significantly easier.

The rooms are short enough I can usually get through without a random encounter, and even then Escape is my new favorite spell.

Full recovery to the entire party! It'll be handy eventually.

I like elemental immunities, even if they don't come up that often from here on.

Now this is the real beaut here, especially when combined with the next chest.

So yes here's your confirmation that I'm getting Yuffie eventually.

The timing's very tactical I assure you.

Badass new sword for CLOUD makes his magic attack look like a real stat for late disc 2!

And that's all we can get. No Hades or Highwind, as Turks are in the way. Turks who are worth experience, and this fight not being mandatory means I am honor-bound to flee in cowardice and never improve unless I absolutely have to.

So tune in next time for-

gently caress

Actual next time: SPACE MADNESS

# ? May 15, 2014 03:04

Elentor: Dec 14, 2004; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Kalenn Istarion posted:

I am a baddie and hadn't done so before but thread is now 5'd. Excellent update. How long did it take you to build the model?

Hey, thanks.

The model took about 8 hours. The rest of the update took a bit over 20. I did it over the course of four weekends.

# ? May 15, 2014 03:06

Silegna: Aug 20, 2013; Hey, heads up. I'm about to unleash my rage.

Orange Fluffy Sheep posted:

So tune in next time for-

gently caress

Actual next time: SPACE MADNESS

Ah yes, that happens to me so often. I didn't know you could surface, as the person who responded to me so helpfully stated, I died so often to the Emerald Douche-bag, nor did I know his gimmick.

# ? May 15, 2014 03:43

TravelLog: Jul 22, 2013; He's a mean one, Mr. Roy.

Wait you beat Ozma at level 1? How? Doesn't he have high probabilities of just straight up murdering the party regardless of level due to the way his AI script works in conjunction with the battle animation ATB poo poo?

# ? May 15, 2014 03:47

KataraniSword: Apr 22, 2008; but at least I don't have
a MLP or MSPA avatar.
I am my own man.

TravelLog posted:

Wait you beat Ozma at level 1? How? Doesn't he have high probabilities of just straight up murdering the party regardless of level due to the way his AI script works in conjunction with the battle animation ATB poo poo?

Exactly. That's why it works - Ozma's equally as likely to bullshit you at Level 1 as he is at Level 99. Once you know his tricks, it just comes down to patience and grinding up Quina, Freya, and Zidane's fixed-damage skills.

# ? May 15, 2014 03:54

Schwartzcough: Aug 12, 2009; Don't tease the Octopus, kids!

That was an awesome update, Elentor. Things like this separate the great LPs from the also-rans.

And I'd forgotten you hadn't gotten Yuffie yet, OFS. It seems like getting optional characters (whose level is determined by the rest of your team's level) early in a LLG would be the way to go, so they could soak up EXP throughout the game instead of coming in at a higher level anyway without having contributed to the cause. But verifying this would take research and math, so meh.

TravelLog posted:

Wait you beat Ozma at level 1? How? Doesn't he have high probabilities of just straight up murdering the party regardless of level due to the way his AI script works in conjunction with the battle animation ATB poo poo?

I imagine it would be a lot of "Have Freya spam Dragon's Crest. Have everyone else healing statuses and reviving."

# ? May 15, 2014 03:55

Vapor Moon: Feb 24, 2010; Neato!; The Human Font

Someone 'leak' that Unknown model.

# ? May 15, 2014 04:13

Fur20: Nov 14, 2007; すご▞い！
君は働か░い
フ▙▓ズなんだね！

KataraniSword posted:

Exactly. That's why it works - Ozma's equally as likely to bullshit you at Level 1 as he is at Level 99. Once you know his tricks, it just comes down to patience and grinding up Quina, Freya, and Zidane's fixed-damage skills.

He's actually more difficult at 99 because Star Flare's formula is [50 * lv], but once you hit the high 70s, I think the only characters whose HP/lv greater than 50 are Freya, Steiner, and Amarant... two of which you never, ever wanna bring with you to that fight.

Schwartzcough posted:

I imagine it would be a lot of "Have Freya spam Dragon's Crest. Have everyone else healing statuses and reviving."

Funny thing, the strategy is exactly the same as it is at all levels: Do the Friendly Animals sidequest, and then just spam well-timed Thievery, Dragon's Crest, Limit Glove, and have your fourth toss a Dark Matter.

v Shoulda pumped Speed with the "stat EXP" method. That's so much easier than stealing a couple thousand times.

Fur20 fucked around with this message at 04:17 on May 15, 2014

# ? May 15, 2014 04:13

FeyerbrandX: Oct 9, 2012

The White Dragon posted:

I think the only characters whose HP/lv greater than 50 are Freya, Steiner, and Amarant... two of which you never, ever wanna bring with you to that fight.

I actually used Steiner. I never had the patience to max out Thievery, and as long as Steiner didn't get mini'd he'd do as much damage as Freya

# ? May 15, 2014 04:15