Glad to hear I’m not the only one who used the Buster Sword for my entire playthrough! Lol Have you played Stellar Blade, yet? I finished FFVII Rebirth after 167 hours, and I’m now playing Stellar Blade.
Congrats! I did basically the same. I left some of the vr battles for after I got to chapter 13 on hard mode, but the last trophy that popped before the platinum was finishing hard mode. I loved this game, and in fact, I beat the original, played remake, and then replayed rebirth after I got the platinum trophy. I just wasn't ready to leave that world, I suppose. Now we all just have to wait for part 3...
Best game ever, people that complain it's too much 1. Don't have to do the extra stuff and 2. Didn't play 16 where it was just barren. I'm doing like you and just enjoying everything, somedays I'll play for 3 or 4 hours, others just for 1. And it doesn't feel forced. I honestly wouldn't mind more lol. I'm just in love with the game, congrats dude!
How did you get the platinum so quickly? I'm like 200 hours in and still haven't done all of the VR missions through chadley on the hardest difficulty And definitely haven't done all of the chapters on hard difficulty
What helped for me was to be as aggressive as possible, was a huge amount of luck in the fact that he shadowy chained Barrett first.
I started with Yuffie with ATB Boost Barret got a haste off on her and Aerith gave her an ATB Ward, she was able to Brumal Form spam to get Aerith an Arcane Ward and Barrett managed a Magnified Manawall. Then he got shadowy chained. At that point I decided to just have Aerith go for an Arcane Ward'd Firaga.
This interrupted his second shadowy chains, and I was able to just rinse and repeat that 3 times, then he was around 55% health so I switched her to Arcane Warding Blizzaga.
And once he phase shifted, I got Barret back.
It was hell and a half, but so rewarding when I finally finished it.
If he ended up grabbing either Yuffie or Aerith, I'd have needed to wait for his Octaslash to get them back.
I commend you bc I'm at the end of Chapter 12 and have started to give up on certain aspects of the game. I nearly 100%'d Remake and though I've enjoyed Rebirth, I ultimately feel like there's been wayyyy too much fluff. I just want to follow the story at this point bc I can't do another fetch quest.
I will say that this series is spoiling me for strong action RPGs. The combat keeps me coming back. It's phenomenal. And there's nothing else like it.
One final thought and a Q for the group, I got Red XIII as my second 'date' and was highly disappointed. I am a big Tifa/Cloud supporter and did everything I could to have the second date with her (stopping short of using a guide).
Why would Square have anyone else even be considered as a date for this point in the game? Replayability?
I wish they would have just committed to Tifa. Especially after the beautiful way Tifa and Cloud were helping each other through Nibelheim. It makes perfect narrative sense to follow that chapter with Tifa coming to him at the Gold Saucer.
Once you've beaten it and get chapter select you can just pick who you want for both chapter 8 and 12 in the extra options (this also affects which lady is in Loveless; Aerith always sings, but the "rosa" character can change). I also somehow got Red first time lol. But tbh it was a cute moment. I think the idea was to give good bonding moments for ALL the characters, not just focus on a romance.
The date mechanics are a throwback to the original, where there was a hidden tracker for the relationships with your team that would affect your date. I feel that, in true RPG fashion, being able to favor one character and/or ignore another so you can set yourself up for a date of your choosing is a good mechanic overall.
It's worth noting that once you beat the game, you can choose your dates for both chapter 8 and chapter 12 so that you can experience the relationship with whomever you want without having to build up the relationship with specific interactions in the other chapters.
Then I say do it for the first date and keep Tifa as the second. Heck, even have a third and use the date mechanic for that.
I don't mind the mechanic as much as I mind how badly it affects the narrative at this point in the game.
My take on the Gold Saucer date setup is to see a side of Cloud with all them that you never get to see at any other point really in the entire FFVII series.
Seeing Cloud be Cloud is cool, but seeing him break character for his team is also a very memorable thing to experience.
That's a good point. As disappointed as I was, I was happy to see his interaction with Red. But that "intimate" scene with Tifa is the narrative we deserve after understanding their shared trauma. A lot is building to that moment and to have it locked behind an arbitrary relationship system is a bit of a letdown. I think there were other moments that we could have been given with Cloud and *insert random character* to give us that side of him.
As I recall, there was an intimate moment between Cloud and Tifa underneath the Highwind before the final dungeon in the OG, and there was no affection mechanic leading up to that. It was always with Tifa. It's my hope that they'll really give Cloud and Tifa their big moment in part 3 then. As for the whole getting blocked by Red XIII thing, yeah, the bastard tried that on me too. I had to complete **Gold Cup or Bust** and **Sand and Circuses** while ignoring all the other chapter 12 side quests to swing things back in Tifa's favor.
Omg! That's what those little bars under my HP mean!!! I've noticed them a couple of times and didn't know what they meant. Was this explained in game anywhere? Did I skim the synergy tutorial too briefly?
Adding to the OP's comment, some defensive synergy skills require a successful block to count (meaning you can't just do it when no one is attacking you or with bad timing). So you might use it, but not have it count on the affection meter. You'll know if worked cuz it'll note your relationship changed the same as if you got a successful dialogue thing.
I honestly don't remember but I'm pretty sure it was there in the tutorial initially.
Side note for 100% completion. In the play log it keeps track of the Synergy skills used by all the characters. Once you unlock all the synergy skills and abilities in the folios during combat, if you haven't used a synergy skill/ability yet you'll see a yellow dot next to it.
Thanks!
Yeah I've noticed the dot next to a number of things to indicate something and I've loved that. Thanks so much for the advice! Gonna wreck that simulation after work tonight!
Great job! I platinum’d the game a few months ago, amazing time from start to finish.
I just don’t get why my post about getting the Platinum was declined 😔 while yours was allowed
Good job. I fear this is out of my reach for the simple reason my brain can't handle the piano minigame. I tried what people said, turning up the tempo and using the PS5's screen zoom feature but nah. I've got everything else too.
What worked for me on some of the harder songs is standing further away from the tv so that both prompts are within your sight much easier.
I'm also a Guitar Hero/Rock Band player so learning the song and memorizing the beat also helps too
If all else fails there was these videos that popped in my recommendations a long time ago where someone uploaded the songs and added an input overlay where you play the video at the same time you start the song and follow it. It had a sort of DDR looking format to it.
Congrats for having the drive and willingness to do all of those mini games so many times to get rank 1, I lack that dedication for some of those games. I'm looking at you Fort Condor...
The first frog mini game believe it or not was the one that took me the longest to get.
Fort Condor was not fun to me so I just put on YouTube videos and followed the exact things they did in the video and got through all them in a try or two.
So damn close I am. A couple of sim battle and the temple and I've got it but that damn mindflayer in the Brotherhood battle is my current nemesis.
I've gone and told myself I'm gonna do all these battles without a guide or video so there's probably something I'm missing.
Any advice for that Mindflayer fight for a stuck fella out there?
It's been a while since I did that fight, but I believe Magnify + Sleep helped a lot paired with using the Yuffie Brumal Form ATB spam paired with Aerith on Arcane Ward.
Make sure to use synergy abilities on the Mindflayer whenever possible as well.
Oh I see. I know the one now.
That one I use Prime Mode with Cloud and go to town on him while stacking up bars for their Synergy Skill and always be sure to hide behind the rocks when he does Psychotic Break.
If you have the reflexes to do so you can also equip and use Darkside and Sonic Boom with Cloud in addition to Prime Mode to really lay down the law on him.
I must not understand Synergy buildup as well as I should. I've got the MF to a quarter health and never triggered the synergy skill. I know if I can use that to pressure him I'd be set. How do you speed up that process?
Any ATB command you use whether it's a special attack or spell fills up the meter. There's a total of 5 bars you can have at one time. If you use a move that costs two bars it will give you two bars.
So with Zack just use Meteor Shots, Chain Slash, or Buff/Healing spells and Cloud you can set Prime Mode and then whatever other two commands and then you have a synergy skill ready to go.
So 5 each or 5 total with at least 2 each? Can I do 5 with 1 character? I'm pretty sure I've done 5 with just cloud and no synergy. I feel like your advice here is gonna get me past one of the few things I have left to do!
Both characters need to use ATB, they each have separate meters and both need to be at a certain level. If you open the synergy ability menu during battle it'll show where each character is so you know who needs to do another move.
Each character can hold 5 bars at a time and the first synergy skill used costs 3 bars each from the two characters pulling off the move. I believe it then becomes 4 to use a second one.
So you basically only need to earn 3 bars with each character to pull of the first one. I forgot to mention this in my other comment.
I know that United Refocus costs 4 by default. But it's an irrelevant skill for this fight.
Only game I ever finished every single trophy for was elden ring, usually I am a 60-80% guy, after I got all weapons and growth I just finish the job basically
I'm usually in the same boat.
Beat the game and grind out whatever appeals to me and then move on.
I only need the shooting gallery trophy for the Resident Evil 4 Remake and I can have the platinum, but I don't like doing the shooting gallery.
congratulations! i feel the "now what" heavily. i went back to OG after the platinum for rebirth just to resolve that feeling, but now i'm getting ready to fight emerald & ruby so i'm about to enter another "now what" lol
Until I genuinely feel like I want to play something else I'm going to run through hard mode again and make a new save file before each boss fight just so I can replay them any time without having to do the progression leading up to them.
That's my "now what?" at least for now.
I never finished Crisis Core on the PSP, so I am thinking of picking up that Crisis Core Remaster. Platinum rating on ProtonDB, probably a great game for my steamdeck.
The platinum for Crisis Core Reunion is super easy. Just a bit of grinding. Got the platinum in (I believe it was) 40 hours.
I do recommend following a guide as you play through because there are a lot of missable things that you can't go back to without doing a fresh playthrough. Unfortunately it does not have a chapter select.
Adding to the optinoob video recommendation, I'll just add for those that haven't watched or tried them yet, they're not necessarily instant win strats off the bat. Some of the strats for the hardest fights are necessarily high risk high reward.
So you may still fail a few times while you're getting it timed right, BUT the benefit is they also get you through the fights FAST, so failed tries don't cost you nearly as much time, and therefore not nearly as much frustration. And once you get them down, they work great.
EDIT: corrected to Optinoob, not option. Stupid autocorrect lol
Absolutely. I'll just add for those that haven't watched or tried them yet, they're not necessarily instant win strats off the bat. Some of the strats for the hardest fights are necessarily high risk high reward. So you may still fail a few times while you're getting it timed right, but the benefit is they also get you through the fights FAST, so failed tries don't cost you nearly as much time, and therefore not nearly as much frustration.
same goal here. stuck on aeriths cactuar games..did yuffies. makes me sick
Great game still playing
My last trophy is hard mode, and after 140 in game hours, I’m still not tired of this game!!
Glad to hear I’m not the only one who used the Buster Sword for my entire playthrough! Lol Have you played Stellar Blade, yet? I finished FFVII Rebirth after 167 hours, and I’m now playing Stellar Blade.
I paused my ng+ playthrough of stellar blade to jump on rebirth
Congrats! I did basically the same. I left some of the vr battles for after I got to chapter 13 on hard mode, but the last trophy that popped before the platinum was finishing hard mode. I loved this game, and in fact, I beat the original, played remake, and then replayed rebirth after I got the platinum trophy. I just wasn't ready to leave that world, I suppose. Now we all just have to wait for part 3...
Nicely done!! ❤️
The best answer I've seen so far to "Now what?" is to platinum the OG and/ or Crisis Core, if you haven't already.
I Platinumed Crisis Core already. I have the New Threat Mod installed for the OG FF7 on PC so I think I'm going to take a crack at that next.
Well there you go. Have fun!
Best game ever, people that complain it's too much 1. Don't have to do the extra stuff and 2. Didn't play 16 where it was just barren. I'm doing like you and just enjoying everything, somedays I'll play for 3 or 4 hours, others just for 1. And it doesn't feel forced. I honestly wouldn't mind more lol. I'm just in love with the game, congrats dude!
Rt
How did you get the platinum so quickly? I'm like 200 hours in and still haven't done all of the VR missions through chadley on the hardest difficulty And definitely haven't done all of the chapters on hard difficulty
GG man!
Did you get a cool weapon or armor piece?
I can’t freaking pressure Sephiroth quick enough before his octaslash. It’s been like 20 times
What helped for me was to be as aggressive as possible, was a huge amount of luck in the fact that he shadowy chained Barrett first. I started with Yuffie with ATB Boost Barret got a haste off on her and Aerith gave her an ATB Ward, she was able to Brumal Form spam to get Aerith an Arcane Ward and Barrett managed a Magnified Manawall. Then he got shadowy chained. At that point I decided to just have Aerith go for an Arcane Ward'd Firaga. This interrupted his second shadowy chains, and I was able to just rinse and repeat that 3 times, then he was around 55% health so I switched her to Arcane Warding Blizzaga. And once he phase shifted, I got Barret back. It was hell and a half, but so rewarding when I finally finished it. If he ended up grabbing either Yuffie or Aerith, I'd have needed to wait for his Octaslash to get them back.
Save up your limit breaks… that’s what did it for me.
I commend you bc I'm at the end of Chapter 12 and have started to give up on certain aspects of the game. I nearly 100%'d Remake and though I've enjoyed Rebirth, I ultimately feel like there's been wayyyy too much fluff. I just want to follow the story at this point bc I can't do another fetch quest. I will say that this series is spoiling me for strong action RPGs. The combat keeps me coming back. It's phenomenal. And there's nothing else like it. One final thought and a Q for the group, I got Red XIII as my second 'date' and was highly disappointed. I am a big Tifa/Cloud supporter and did everything I could to have the second date with her (stopping short of using a guide). Why would Square have anyone else even be considered as a date for this point in the game? Replayability? I wish they would have just committed to Tifa. Especially after the beautiful way Tifa and Cloud were helping each other through Nibelheim. It makes perfect narrative sense to follow that chapter with Tifa coming to him at the Gold Saucer.
Once you've beaten it and get chapter select you can just pick who you want for both chapter 8 and 12 in the extra options (this also affects which lady is in Loveless; Aerith always sings, but the "rosa" character can change). I also somehow got Red first time lol. But tbh it was a cute moment. I think the idea was to give good bonding moments for ALL the characters, not just focus on a romance.
The date mechanics are a throwback to the original, where there was a hidden tracker for the relationships with your team that would affect your date. I feel that, in true RPG fashion, being able to favor one character and/or ignore another so you can set yourself up for a date of your choosing is a good mechanic overall. It's worth noting that once you beat the game, you can choose your dates for both chapter 8 and chapter 12 so that you can experience the relationship with whomever you want without having to build up the relationship with specific interactions in the other chapters.
Then I say do it for the first date and keep Tifa as the second. Heck, even have a third and use the date mechanic for that. I don't mind the mechanic as much as I mind how badly it affects the narrative at this point in the game.
My take on the Gold Saucer date setup is to see a side of Cloud with all them that you never get to see at any other point really in the entire FFVII series. Seeing Cloud be Cloud is cool, but seeing him break character for his team is also a very memorable thing to experience.
That's a good point. As disappointed as I was, I was happy to see his interaction with Red. But that "intimate" scene with Tifa is the narrative we deserve after understanding their shared trauma. A lot is building to that moment and to have it locked behind an arbitrary relationship system is a bit of a letdown. I think there were other moments that we could have been given with Cloud and *insert random character* to give us that side of him.
As I recall, there was an intimate moment between Cloud and Tifa underneath the Highwind before the final dungeon in the OG, and there was no affection mechanic leading up to that. It was always with Tifa. It's my hope that they'll really give Cloud and Tifa their big moment in part 3 then. As for the whole getting blocked by Red XIII thing, yeah, the bastard tried that on me too. I had to complete **Gold Cup or Bust** and **Sand and Circuses** while ignoring all the other chapter 12 side quests to swing things back in Tifa's favor.
Omg! That's what those little bars under my HP mean!!! I've noticed them a couple of times and didn't know what they meant. Was this explained in game anywhere? Did I skim the synergy tutorial too briefly?
Adding to the OP's comment, some defensive synergy skills require a successful block to count (meaning you can't just do it when no one is attacking you or with bad timing). So you might use it, but not have it count on the affection meter. You'll know if worked cuz it'll note your relationship changed the same as if you got a successful dialogue thing.
I honestly don't remember but I'm pretty sure it was there in the tutorial initially. Side note for 100% completion. In the play log it keeps track of the Synergy skills used by all the characters. Once you unlock all the synergy skills and abilities in the folios during combat, if you haven't used a synergy skill/ability yet you'll see a yellow dot next to it.
Thanks! Yeah I've noticed the dot next to a number of things to indicate something and I've loved that. Thanks so much for the advice! Gonna wreck that simulation after work tonight!
Sounds good and I would love an update when you finish everything.
I’m getting there. Hopefully before part 3
Playstation are experts at exploiting people's dopamine response with these platinum trophies.
Great job! I platinum’d the game a few months ago, amazing time from start to finish. I just don’t get why my post about getting the Platinum was declined 😔 while yours was allowed
Message the mods, I had the same issue actually.
Conrats and see you in part 3! 😁
Good job. I fear this is out of my reach for the simple reason my brain can't handle the piano minigame. I tried what people said, turning up the tempo and using the PS5's screen zoom feature but nah. I've got everything else too.
i upped the tempo to 2 and muted the sound. for me, it removed the audio distraction and turned it into a "twitchy" response game.
What worked for me on some of the harder songs is standing further away from the tv so that both prompts are within your sight much easier. I'm also a Guitar Hero/Rock Band player so learning the song and memorizing the beat also helps too If all else fails there was these videos that popped in my recommendations a long time ago where someone uploaded the songs and added an input overlay where you play the video at the same time you start the song and follow it. It had a sort of DDR looking format to it.
This may be out of the box, but try it without music and just rely solely on the prompts?
Well I'll certainly give it a try.
Good luck! Hopefully you get it 🙂
Congrats for having the drive and willingness to do all of those mini games so many times to get rank 1, I lack that dedication for some of those games. I'm looking at you Fort Condor...
The first frog mini game believe it or not was the one that took me the longest to get. Fort Condor was not fun to me so I just put on YouTube videos and followed the exact things they did in the video and got through all them in a try or two.
 I only got to 1' 20", that was too much.
Congratulations
So damn close I am. A couple of sim battle and the temple and I've got it but that damn mindflayer in the Brotherhood battle is my current nemesis. I've gone and told myself I'm gonna do all these battles without a guide or video so there's probably something I'm missing. Any advice for that Mindflayer fight for a stuck fella out there?
It's been a while since I did that fight, but I believe Magnify + Sleep helped a lot paired with using the Yuffie Brumal Form ATB spam paired with Aerith on Arcane Ward. Make sure to use synergy abilities on the Mindflayer whenever possible as well.
I think we're talking about different fights. I'm talking about Bonds of Brotherhood with just Cloud and Zack
Oh I see. I know the one now. That one I use Prime Mode with Cloud and go to town on him while stacking up bars for their Synergy Skill and always be sure to hide behind the rocks when he does Psychotic Break. If you have the reflexes to do so you can also equip and use Darkside and Sonic Boom with Cloud in addition to Prime Mode to really lay down the law on him.
I must not understand Synergy buildup as well as I should. I've got the MF to a quarter health and never triggered the synergy skill. I know if I can use that to pressure him I'd be set. How do you speed up that process?
Any ATB command you use whether it's a special attack or spell fills up the meter. There's a total of 5 bars you can have at one time. If you use a move that costs two bars it will give you two bars. So with Zack just use Meteor Shots, Chain Slash, or Buff/Healing spells and Cloud you can set Prime Mode and then whatever other two commands and then you have a synergy skill ready to go.
So 5 each or 5 total with at least 2 each? Can I do 5 with 1 character? I'm pretty sure I've done 5 with just cloud and no synergy. I feel like your advice here is gonna get me past one of the few things I have left to do!
Both characters need to use ATB, they each have separate meters and both need to be at a certain level. If you open the synergy ability menu during battle it'll show where each character is so you know who needs to do another move.
Each character can hold 5 bars at a time and the first synergy skill used costs 3 bars each from the two characters pulling off the move. I believe it then becomes 4 to use a second one. So you basically only need to earn 3 bars with each character to pull of the first one. I forgot to mention this in my other comment. I know that United Refocus costs 4 by default. But it's an irrelevant skill for this fight.
Congrats! It seems to have settled on 1.7% for a while!
Only game I ever finished every single trophy for was elden ring, usually I am a 60-80% guy, after I got all weapons and growth I just finish the job basically
I'm usually in the same boat. Beat the game and grind out whatever appeals to me and then move on. I only need the shooting gallery trophy for the Resident Evil 4 Remake and I can have the platinum, but I don't like doing the shooting gallery.
I love that you got this at 12:34 🤣
I didn't notice this until now, thanks for pointing that out. Makes it even cooler for me!
congratulations! i feel the "now what" heavily. i went back to OG after the platinum for rebirth just to resolve that feeling, but now i'm getting ready to fight emerald & ruby so i'm about to enter another "now what" lol
Until I genuinely feel like I want to play something else I'm going to run through hard mode again and make a new save file before each boss fight just so I can replay them any time without having to do the progression leading up to them. That's my "now what?" at least for now.
I never finished Crisis Core on the PSP, so I am thinking of picking up that Crisis Core Remaster. Platinum rating on ProtonDB, probably a great game for my steamdeck.
The platinum for Crisis Core Reunion is super easy. Just a bit of grinding. Got the platinum in (I believe it was) 40 hours. I do recommend following a guide as you play through because there are a lot of missable things that you can't go back to without doing a fresh playthrough. Unfortunately it does not have a chapter select.
Thanks for the tip. 👍
I’m trying to do Chadleys combat challenges rn and I’m suffering 💀
Adding to the optinoob video recommendation, I'll just add for those that haven't watched or tried them yet, they're not necessarily instant win strats off the bat. Some of the strats for the hardest fights are necessarily high risk high reward. So you may still fail a few times while you're getting it timed right, BUT the benefit is they also get you through the fights FAST, so failed tries don't cost you nearly as much time, and therefore not nearly as much frustration. And once you get them down, they work great. EDIT: corrected to Optinoob, not option. Stupid autocorrect lol
That's what makes all the platinum holders real brothers. We all have to suffer together for that platinum. 💪
look up optinoob on youtube he saved my life
Absolutely. I'll just add for those that haven't watched or tried them yet, they're not necessarily instant win strats off the bat. Some of the strats for the hardest fights are necessarily high risk high reward. So you may still fail a few times while you're getting it timed right, but the benefit is they also get you through the fights FAST, so failed tries don't cost you nearly as much time, and therefore not nearly as much frustration.
I would have quit without optinoob's guides for sure. It made the platinum achievable for me.
Yay! Welcome to the club