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Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




For whatever reason, I can't help but imagine that the driver of the truck was the one more likely to have been killed.

<Insert horrible pun about Palmer and airbags here>

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Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Actually, according to what I just read on the FF wiki (I know, take it with a grain of salt and all), Palmer is still alive at least by the time Shin-ra decides to kamikaze the rocket with a Huge Materia into Meteor. :spergin:

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Orange Fluffy Sheep posted:

:stare: Good gobbling gently caress I'll never compare with Omnislash with the fuckin' Nail Bat.

Speaking of the LLG, I did have an update written but when I went to preview the post I noticed you updated so I'll just wait for a new page.

By the way, all this talk about the Black Materia being incredible destructive power no one wants to really use reminded me of something.



...Geothermal energy? :shobon:

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Admittedly, I've never actually played FF7 (or any of the 3D FF games, save for 13).

But... drat, this is a rather depressing part of the game, and for the series as a whole. :smith:

Also, if I might recommend just a slight change... Could the video that shows the dirty deed being done be changed to one that starts playing Aeris's theme when the materia starts bouncing? That, to me at least, was what totally clenched the scene the first time I saw it; It didn't quite sink in just how sad the scene was until you hear those opening notes. :smith:

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Serifina posted:

I remember playing this game for the very first time ever. What struck me wasn't the imagery or the (few) words... but what wasn't said... and the music.

I cannot hear Aeris's theme without flashbacking to this scene. It's a beautiful, simple song... but powerful and sad, and it lends weight to the scene much more than almost anything else, to me. Admittedly, I'm very much an audio person, but to me, that theme added more than any ten thousand words or pixels could have done. It's also why that theme ranks the absolute highest in the game, for me.

It's even more beautiful when orchestrated. :unsmith:

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




So.

Today I finally caved in and bought the rerelease. After some wrangling with getting registered, I managed to get it running pretty smoothly. Only glaring problem I'm noticing is lowered music quality... Which brings me to my question.

I remember seeing somewhere in this thread something about a fan-made patch that plugs in the PS1 audio. Unfortunately... I'm currently searching frantically through the thread, but I can't for the life of me seem to find the relevant posts. :sigh: If anyone would mind helping me by directing me/posting the information, I would very greatly appreciate it.

Also: Thanks, Elentor, for giving me the motivation to actually go and buy this game. Even though I already know all of the major plot twists (I.E. Aeris/th dying and... Well... Ones that'll be coming up shortly), it's still quite something else to be playing this game. Already I've used the earlier segments of your LP for reference on stuff I might've missed.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Glazius posted:

So... Hojo was deliberately creating things to go run off and destroy the world. Rufus, why is this guy still on your payroll?

Technically, it was his father that first hired Hojo. :pseudo:

That, and wasn't Hojo supposed to be retired at Costa del Sol?

My guess is that Rufus dragged him along because, what with Gast being dead and all, Hojo was the most knowledgeable person in regards to the Ancients and Jenova he had under his employ/was readily accessible.

That, or he just decided to invite himself along for the ride. :v:

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




DeathChicken posted:

I guess Rufus hasn't had much time to screen new help. Same reason Scarlett and Heidegger are still there.

Not only that, but...

Guesstimating, one would probably assume that the party's adventures up to this point have only taken, what, a month or three? And Rufus has been on the move for a large amount of that time, too (since at least Junon, if I'm remembering correctly). He hasn't had the time to sit down and screen for new/better applicants for his father's Board of Research (or something like that).

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Granted, I know the answer is some heavy spoilers we won't cover for a little while yet, but...

Sephiroth had had the Black Materia since the end of the Temple of the Ancients, after taking a few moments to rub it in the party's faces. So, I suppose the logical question for someone going through this the first time would be: If he was so dead-set on getting it... Why didn't he try using it ASAP? Given the party fought JENOVA-Death near the center of the Northern Crater, it isn't much of a stretch to think that he's had ready access to it for some time. Yet, only when the protagonists are on his doorstep does he decide that hey, maybe it might be a good idea to use this magic that's supposed to elevate me to godhood, instead of taking advantage of the massive head start he would've had on them.

As I mentioned, I know the answer gets into spoiler territory, but... Still, food for thought and all that.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Pollyanna posted:

Wot? What game are you thinking of?

Knights of the Old Republic II. Though the deconstruction of EXP doesn't come in until the start of the end-game.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Randalor posted:

Hasn't it only been a very short amount of time since the game started though? If we're talking a span of weeks overall to reach this point, it's more than likely that any changes he implamented simply havn't worked their way down to the lower ranks (yay for bureaucracy), or considering that he was VP before his dad died, he had already had most of the things he wanted in place as-is.

Really, as far as Shin-Ra's upper management goes, it's important to remember that Shin-Ra is a SUCCESSFUL buisness, and it sounds like most of the people in upper management have had their positions for awhile. They're probably very good at their jobs, just that we don't seem them in that capacity.

That, and let's face it: Each of them's really been through the emotional wringer from President Shinra's Shishkabob Special forward. Add in the knowledge that they've got to be performing well above what they're used to if they don't want the new management to kick their rear end to the curb (if not worse, given all the stuff they've come to learn about the inner workings of the company over the years...), and the stress is bound to get to them sooner or later. Then add in all of the close calls they've had since Midgar till now, with the knowledge that they, not the chucklefucks that are the party, are probably the only evenly slightly possible hope for humanity's continued survival with a week to go, and something was bound to snap by now.

And/or they just have really stupid-sounding(-reading?) Evil Laughter. :v:

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Elentor posted:




Oh lord look at his face.

...Is it terribly, terribly wrong that I imagined this whole sequence going to a certain theme from a certain anime? :v:

But, seriously. Who the hell thought it'd be a good idea to leave open any possibility for Tifa to be able to move any part of her body around once she's strapped into the chair? It's just... Astounding... How Shinra can show some decent planning skills in one scene, then in the next (if not sooner), we're shown just how incompetent they can be.

Granted, who're we to be complaining when their negligence benefits the party? v:v:v

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Elentor posted:




Every time I see you falling I get down on my knees and pray.



I'm waiting for that final moment you'll say the words that I can't say.

I in no way, shape, or form mean to intentionally demean the scene or your LP in the slightest...

...But for whatever the hell reason, this was the first thing that popped into my head when I read that bit. :v:

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




ApplesandOranges posted:

One thing about Red's Lunatic Moon is that immunizing him against Berserk (via a Peace Ring or a Ribbon) still gives him the Haste and attack bonuses - it's basically all the good with none of the bad.

Also Earth Rave is better than Lunatic Moon, but they really dropped the ball with Red's Limits, just like they did with Kimahri.

Why does Square dislike animals.

They decided to cut to the chase for the audience members that'd never use 'em anyways, perhaps? Same deal with Gau from FF6, Berserkers in FF5, etc.

I got the impression that "beast-like" player characters in FF are the gimmicky/pain in the rear end types that really underperform compared to the powerhouse of the party late in the game.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




DeathChicken posted:

Yeah, Gau's pretty amazing if you bother to use him. So he isn't controllable? He gets spells like Fire 2 hours before anyone else. More than a fair tradeoff.

Don't get me wrong, I do know firsthand just how much of a powerhouse he can be. But... He's pretty much the most gimmicky PC you get, and (at least in my experience/memory) sorta petered out by the final dungeon, especially with the combos that almost every other character but him could perform that destroyed any semblance of difficulty.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




GrizzlyCow posted:

Leading people is hard, and Cloud seems to have (or, rather, had) a knack for it. After Cloud went out of commission, Barret avoided the position, tricked Cid into being the "leader". And now Cid realize what a lovely, stressful job it is. Both Barret and Cid probably realized along the way that Cloud was the most effective leader the party has had. It is a nice bit of character development, especially for Barret. In the beginning, he was the leader, the decision maker (or so he thought) and resisted Cloud's de facto position, but now, Barret understands he does not possess the qualities or skill set to lead people, or so I assume.

Though, that probably only a part of the reason they are visiting. Cloud is out of commission permanently as far as they know, so they probably are not expecting him to pick up the mantle of leadership again. It is probably safe to assume that they have no idea what to do next and are looking for direction even if it has to come from a severely mentally impaired man or his emotionally damaged, dependent admirer. Honestly, even on his worst days, Cloud was more competent at this than either Cid or Barret. The only thing they've managed on their own was to handicap any real attempt at saving world; that's like negative progress.

After Aeris, Cloud was the most competent party member. What a lovely bunch of heroes we have.

...It could always be worse? :v:

At least they're not sitting around, waiting for the world to end, and actually-- Oh, right, interfering with the people who have a marginally better idea of what the gently caress to do.

Uh... At... Least they're not having to deal with beast-children, regular children, and-- Wait, they'd probably be more competent than this crew at the rate this is going at.

..........At least Cloud actually says something, even if it's the incoherent ramblings of a guy in a vegetative state from extreme mental trauma, as opposed to being like a mute for the majority of the game, and acting like a colossal shitheel on the rare occasions he does speak?

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Dauntasa posted:

Seemed more like "Cloud was a better leader than me and was also a complete lunatic, so what does that make me?"

Worse than a borderline schizophrenic/ heavily PTSD'd soldier? :v:

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Falls Down Stairs posted:

It's like mashing the B button while trying to catch a Pokemon. It may not ever have really done anything but drat if every single person ever doesn't do it.

Isn't mashing B actually detrimental these days? (As in it'll abort the catch attempt)

Now, mashing A on the other hand... :smug:

And I am highly looking forward to the next section of the game. I'll admit, I already know what goes down, but... It's been so long since I saw these next scenes, and I love the commentary/thought-provoking.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Azure_Horizon posted:

Maybe I'm just glossing over something, but that last part always seemed silly to me. Was it because of Cloud's exposure to Mako that he was able to toss a fully grown man with said man's blade impaling him and not die afterward?

The sword acted as a-- Oh, wait, it fell with Sephiroth.

...He happened to have a Fire materia on him, and cauterized himself with some magic?

And thanks for this, Elentor. Even if I've never really played it all that much, it's still rather fun to see just why this is considered one of the most influential RPGs of all time. And not just for Aerith's death, either; it really is quite the doozy to see this part for the first time, as it all finally clicks together. Now to rapidly rush off to the conclusion. :v:

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Zarfol posted:

So Sephiroth (and Hojo?) is really just being a dick because he knows Cloud is all sorts of mentally hosed up and can take advantage of it?

Eh... It's probably more about how badly his pride must've been wounded. Remember, during the flashback sequence, the guy literally cannot take any damage whatsoever, and in-story, he's been constantly hyped up as the best of the best. To get himself beaten twice, in rapid succession, by Shin-Ra's equivalent of a rent-a-cop is not exactly something someone like Sephiroth would be able to live down.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Elentor posted:

Thank you for all the feedback, guys. I appreciate it.


This is the weirdest thing. I have a friend who's like a super-ultra-mega-FF7 fan, and she's never ever played the original game. But she owns the AC blu ray, the spin-off games, the soundtracks, and a plethora of Sephiroth posters. She's ready to defend the original game as awesome but she's never even played it.

Honestly I can understand people hating the game because of the fans.

I'm thinking at least part of it may also have to do with anime making its' mark in the Americas around the same time FF7 had become so popular/well-known in the general gaming consciousness over here. Suddenly, we had this proliferation of badass, borderline-effeminate-looking protagonists with impossible hairstyles and equally fantastic means of dealing with their enemies, with at least a good chunk of them spewing out fauxisophical meaningless bullcrap that many members of the audiences were too young to really realize how nonsensical it was. Even though FF7 was probably meant as a deconstruction of the various archetypes of protagonists in Japan (I.E. Barret, the hot-blooded leader type, admitting that he's probably the worst choice for leading the party), it went over the heads of many people outside, since this was probably some of their first exposure to those types of characters.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Scalding Coffee posted:

Do military outfits even allow that sort of thing when they are on destroy missions? Splitting the group seems like a horrible idea just because someone lives a block away.

Remember, the stated mission was just to check out a glitch in the town's reactor; they could thus afford to be rather laid back about the whole affair.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Schwartzcough posted:

I hope you were angrily yelling at the screen during Saving Private Ryan how unrealistic it was for a soldier to slowly walk back and pick up his arm during a chaotic firefight.

The point is, a warrior keeping a death grip (Wikipedia definition: "A death grip is an extremely tight grip, such as that exerted by a person in a panic for fear for their life.") on his only weapon when he's seriously injured, surprised, and being attacked, while also suffering a mental breakdown and carrying the HEAD he just CUT OFF HIS MOTHER is not that weird.

Honestly, I'm kinda surprised Cloud didn't flat-out sever Sephiroth's spinal cord. Even if Sephy did turn around just before in this version of it, the Buster Sword's still probably wider than he is (or, at least wide enough that it'd be rather hard to miss the spine if you got anything more than a glancing stab with it, which didn't seem to happen here). And that's not even getting into any ruptured arteries, slashed organs/muscles, and so on.

In other words, it's probably a drat near miracle that he was even able to still run Cloud through when he chased after Sephiroth. Hell, that might in part explain Cloud lifting him up by the blade, too; Sephiroth was in both mental and physical shock from getting so grievously wounded. :goonsay:

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




There's also the bit about Sephiroth being one of the most personal villains in the franchise up until that point. Before 7, the closest we got with the main villain was Golbez in IV, for reasons that'd be massively spoileriffic to that game. With all of them, even Kefka, there invariably was an eventual sense that they were hiding high and far away from the player until the plot demanded it.

With Sephiroth, there's that constant sense that he's always closer than you think, despite his few actual appearances. He knows Cloud better than Cloud knows himself, and exploits that connection/knowledge to absolutely and utterly break him. The events of much of the main plot? He did all of that just so he could gently caress with the one guy who had slighted him the most, even if it probably set his plans back a few years. It really does get quite a bit of a stalkerish undertone in that sort of light. Instead of the hammy, over-the-top villains of yore, we have a ruthlessly cold and brutal man that just seemed to be off even when he was ostensibly a hero.

'Course, years of fanfics have turned him into some sort of Freudian tragedy in the making that secretly wants to be loved deep down inside, but that's not for here. :v:

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Couldn't it just as well be that the Black and White materias are naturally occurring ones that happen to be more powerful than all the others? It'd certainly tie into the themes of having nature be better than civilization.

Or, alternatively, the Black was naturally made, while the White was created by the Ancients for some sort of duality to show how civilization is needed to solve some of nature's problems.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Namagem posted:

It was the first version I played, and let me tell you ahead of time: The ONLY thing good about it is that you can mod it to be closer to the PS1 version, music-wise. You could theoretically joy-to-key a psX controller to play it like the original, and then you have a crude facsimile of the better version.

But it's still just not quite as good.

Was it ever found out if you could mod the steam version the same way as the PC version?

Apparently you can mod it at least somewhat, since the very first thread for it on the Steam forum is a tutorial for putting in the high-quality music.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




penguinmambo posted:

since I can only see them similar in personality going by Cloud's original 2deep4u invented persona.

I'm sorry, I know you were making an altogether different angle of attack, but...

I can not not imagine Cloud being in some hip hop group going by that name, now. Or something music-related, at least. :v:

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Heran Bago posted:

In defense of the PC version and rereleases, it's pretty easy to get them to look and sound good.

The top mod on Steam is to fix the music, as mentioned, which actually uses looped OGGs made from the sound track that are better quality than the original. There are mods to make the characters not look like Legos and other fun things. Sure the period accurate music, models, resolution, and backgrounds have a certain charm but these are surprisingly common complaints for problems that are easily fixed.



Modding isn't a huge cumbersome process anymore and you have things like this that can do it all for you:
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=13212.0 Warning: inappropriate art what the heck dude?

The problem for most of us is that, over a decade after the initial release, Square couldn't be assed to at least have bumped up the music to the PSX quality instead of leaving us to mod it ourselves. That... Does not a good first impression make for someone who's never played FF7 before.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Expanded Universe; basically, everything that's a direct prequel, sequel, etc. of the original work.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Senior Woodchuck posted:

Celes and Locke, gently caress you.

I honestly find their romance as a bit of a mixed bag. In the first half, it's fine, since it takes its' time to develop and the game has no problem with poking fun at it in the Thamasa scene. But, most importantly, Celes is presented as an emotionally independent woman through most of it. In the second half, though, he becomes her crutch to keep going on.

And I'll admit I didn't find the Rachel bit creepy so much as Locke being unable to move on in life the first time I played through it.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




alcharagia posted:

FF8 had the romance of the player and Triple Triad, which was a much healthier love story than any of the other ones offered by the series.

Addiction to children's card games: Still better than loving comatose women. :v:

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Just switch genders on the "replacing a dead lover" part from Jack and Diane Locke and Celes?

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Because most of the exploration was still required to beat the game? FF2 at least has a plot that usually spells out pretty clearly where you're supposed to go next.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Mainly, it's because the DRM is a pain in the rear end, and Square didn't give a crap about the music, so nearly all of the BGM is rather noticeably inferior compared to the PSX version.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Elentor posted:

Just read this on Guru3D:


It's very weird to see that to this day, FF7 is still a top seller.

Then again, it could be explained by the sale they had this weekend; I re-bought it because of that and reading about SE finally officially patching in the original PSX music.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




I'd like to see an RPG with an FF6-style interchangeable and large party, where each character has some niche to fill combat-wise. Ideally, it also wouldn't have one character or command that's as massively better than everything else as 6's Magic was until the lategame (and even then, you had to run a specific getup for Attack to beat Magic).

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




MagusofStars posted:

Even in general, cutting edge Warcraft guilds have a fair bit of absurdity in item gathering - You'll see people go farm some piece of crap equipment from two expansions ago simply because while the stats are wildly underpowered, it has some weird oddball ability that just so happens to work well at nullifying a key ability or cheesing one mechanic for one phase of one boss.

Eh, by and large that's really no longer a thing, since, thanks to the massive amounts of stat inflation over just the past couple expansions alone, you're likely severely gimping your ability to damage, heal, etc... Which counts for quite a bit for progression-based raids.

On the other hand, transmogrification (putting the appearance of a piece of armor/weapon over that of one you're wearing) has made a horrible, horrible hoarder out of me... to the point where I've managed to fill up every means of storage to nearly the maximum possible capacity almost entirely with gear. :v:

Getting back to relevance, though... Admittedly, I'm the type that would probably save stuff like Megalixirs for the final battle, or any superbosses. Even though I know I'm still probably not going to use them out of force of habit.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Schwartzcough posted:

The animation was so long you could build up enough power to kill your desire to ever summon it more than once in a single casting!

Counterpoint: Quad-cast Knights of the Round.

Seriously, anything hit by that would be reduced to the molecular level, if not outright erased from existence.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Schwartzcough posted:

Unfortunately the explanation is still rather weak, since it's better to lose a finger than it is to die. The point remains that Shinra were the only ones with any sort of real plan. The protagonists are still relying on "we should just beat Sephiroth up!... even though we have no way of reaching him and world destruction is imminent."

I can't help but think it'd be a bit more traumatic to the Planet than that. Like, the destruction of the Master Materia would be like destroying the soul of the Planet: it'd still physically exist, sure, but it could potentially irrevocably gently caress up the Lifestream magnitudes more than everything else Shinra has done up to this point in the story combined.

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Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Nihilarian posted:

I would watch the hell out of a Saturday Morning Cartoon based on FFV.

I think there seriously was one. By all accounts I've read of it, it was kinda poo poo.

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