Cannon_Fodder
Pro Adventurer
So, finally beat it for myself today. I know it's largely beating a dead horse, but here are some of my thoughts on Chapter 18:
- Whisper Harbinger is a dumb fight. The spectacle is kinda weak, the fights against the minions are repetitive and visually unimpressive, and the constant camera cuts to show Harbinger's reaction when you stagger a minion makes the battle choppy. And since I didn't get Bahamut for myself, it was disappointing to have my first impression of him to be the result of a Gurren Lagann-lite combination sequence.
- The fight against Sephiroth is pretty fun, but in a game with really strong bosses, I wouldn't call it the best. Still, the scene transitions were cool (especially since they seemed to be tied to staggering Sephiroth?), and having party members rejoin one at a time escalated the fight well. Cloud's Counterstance ability kinda clowned him out though; I felt like the power dynamic had reversed because every time Sephiroth used a particular attack Cloud just sat his ass down.
- Storywise, my impulse to spoil endings for myself really saved the day. I got my disappointment out of the way a week ago, and even though I don't especially like the ending, I can't say it really gets under my skin. It doesn't change my opinion of this game, it just makes me wary of the story next time. That said...
- I'm in for part two on gameplay alone. Hopefully the story there is good, but I've loved games with terrible stories before.
- When I saw spoilers, I thought that Zack was alive. When I watched it myself, I thought he was dead. The only constant is that I don't like that this is a question I'm even thinking about.
- I'm kind of annoyed that Red's role in this part is to spout all the expository banter about fate, destiny, and other bits of bullshit, but he still had his moments so I won't complain.