SPOILERS Hard Mode Discussion

[The Twilight Mexican]

Well, I've gotten the entire Play Log filled out except for Cloud's black dress (the one you get for not doing all three sidequests in Chapter 9 while Aerith is getting changed). Turns out I couldn't get the Bomb fight in the colosseum (in order to get the final manuscript) without doing both of the other quests first, so I'm going to have to play through Chapter 9 one more time for that last trophy.

Apparently, to have gotten all the dresses and manuscripts in only three playthroughs of the relevant chapters (once on Normal, twice on Hard), I would have needed to let Cloud get the black dress the first time through -- and who the hell is going to do that instead of trying to do all the quests available to them? -__-

In any case, with all the manuscripts now acquired, I can do this last run through of Chapter 9 on Normal -- and I don't need to worry about redoing Chapters 3 or 8 this time since Aerith and Tifa have all their dresses, and since this most recent run allowed me to get Barret's resolution scene.

Platinum awaits!

 

[Sasseli]

You go!

Wow, I still have SO MUCH to do! I'm on chapter 9 right now, not that much motivated atm, but I'm sure that your and everyone else's tips on here will help me immensely. There's stuff I didn't even manage in normal mode...

 

[Strangelove]

2nd aps battle kicking my ass

 

[Ite]

2nd aps battle kicking my ass

Oof I know. Harder than the final boss gauntlet for me. Avoiding the insta-kill of the deluge attacks was a frantic frenzy of character switching, running them into the 2-foot triangle safe zone, switching characters and moving them into the triangle while the AI moves the other characters out, screaming, repeating. The shoats are also BEASTS in that fight, they just won't go down.

 

[Strangelove]

that deluge attack (the non-scripted ones) got me. i was doing okay before then, i had managed to summon ifrit, thought i might make it but then sewage knocked out tifa and barret and then all the little bastards ganged up on cloud and he went down quickly

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I think I've just gotten really lucky during that fight. The deluge attack has never hit me. I guess I've just serendipitously already been standing in the right spot every time, or fortuitously moved the character under my control there.

I've seen it wreck other players on YouTube, of course, so I know what it's supposed to do, but I have wondered a couple of times if my Abzu is just broken.

In other news, my Play Log is now filled out. Pride compelled me to go ahead and do my last run of Chapter 9 on Hard once again -- which seemed like a bad idea, but I kind of, sort of demolished Hell House without any trouble this time?

But I guess if I didn't start to get better by the third time I fought him on Hard, that would be more weird.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

It's not bothered me until now that the PS4 can't record or broadcast during Chapter 18. I beat the whole bike mini-game segment on Hard in a single go (no "restart from last battle" refreshing for HP), but I had no way to preserve the achievement. =(

 

[Strangelove]

sure you did

 

[RhinoKart]

Is there any point in attacking the wheels of The Arsenal boss in chapter 17? I feel like I'm really bad at this fight as it takes me forever to win (talking 20+ minutes). I mean I consistently win, but I'm obviously not doing it properly.

 

[Theozilla]

Is there any point in attacking the wheels of The Arsenal boss in chapter 17? I feel like I'm really bad at this fight as it takes me forever to win (talking 20+ minutes). I mean I consistently win, but I'm obviously not doing it properly.

No, in this case you do not want to focus on the wheels. I learned that after my first two attempts.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Yeah, taking out the wheels doesn't even really limit its mobility, because it can still use that attack where it charges across the room. =\

And of course in its final phase, it doesn't try to move at all anyway.

 

[Lex]

that deluge attack (the non-scripted ones) got me. i was doing okay before then, i had managed to summon ifrit, thought i might make it but then sewage knocked out tifa and barret and then all the little bastards ganged up on cloud and he went down quickly

I think I've just gotten really lucky during that fight. The deluge attack has never hit me. I guess I've just serendipitously already been standing in the right spot every time, or fortuitously moved the character under my control there.

I've seen it wreck other players on YouTube, of course, so I know what it's supposed to do, but I have wondered a couple of times if my Abzu is just broken.

This has been bothering me for days but I didn't reply for some reason.

I might be misunderstanding this attack but I haven't been hit by it either, don't you just have to make sure you're not standing in front of any of the pipes? That's what I did and it's never hit me.

 

[Odysseus]

Alright so I went through chapter 9 again to get the other set of manuscripts, and Hellhouse is actually a push-over when you know what you're doing. I beat it first try this time... It was more fun when I was grossly unprepared...

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I don't remember ever thinking the bastard was a pushover, but my third time fighting it on Hard Mode was definitely easier.

 

[Odysseus]

I diiiiiiiiiid it. After several hours lol. Fucking Bahamut. Time to never use this item because I'm not a cheater like some people.

just gonna write out my strategy for fun.
Shiva:
I decided right of the bat that I didn't want to deal with her, so I just gave Cloud immunity to ice. Just hit her with punisher and use focus thrust until she staggers, then use everyone's big attacks on her. Then attack her until she uses diamond dust, then stagger her again and finish.

PHAT CHONKOBO
He's pretty easy. Cloud's hold triangle move in punisher make it vulnerable, so just doing that and then using focus thrust twice was enough to stagger it. It has a long stagger phase so it's easy to get it to under half health in one go. I mostly just ignored the toys, they died in the crossfire usually. Barrett was the healer and reviver so I avoided drawing agro to him.

Leviathan
I realized that if you kept the pressure upon it, it would never use it's big attack, so just rushing in and attacking was the name of the game. I would just tank hits and have Barret heal because I'd just get the mp back in the next round anyway lol. Barret has to handle the second phase himself mostly though, so I had Tifa as a back up healer. She would consistently get her limit break right before Leviathan would stagger the second time, so I just had her use that to end the fight.

Mean dragon man:
Have Cloud and Tifa double team him while Barret intermittently heals them, and use max fury to free them when they get grabbed. Ideally you can kill him before he even uses mega flare but i only managed that once. Ifrit is a non issue, i just ignored him until Vahamut was dead. I gave Tifa Shiva to help with that, and made Barret immune to fire so there was no threat to him from Ifrit. Cloud had Barrier so he and Barret could survive mega flare, Tifa didn't have enough HP.

Robot dude:
I died to him like an idiot the first time because i was too cocky after beating bahamut. This fight is really easy, just stay behind him so he can't use the laser and can't grab you. Just don't let the healer die like a moron.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Congrats!!!

 

[Odysseus]

So I haven't actually finished hard mode yet. Somehow I doubt anything is harder than that though.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Harder? Maybe not. Similar? Wellll, you let us know.

 

[Lulcielid]

The final boss rush is the most comparable fight and I would argue it's overall (slightly) harder, since during all phases (pre-sephiroth) you're always fighting 3 bosses at once, you don't get the benefit of restoring %HP/MP at any point and thus attrition has stronger impact when you reach Sephiroth.

 

[kathy202]

Congrats!! Personally, I didn't find the hard mode bosses anywhere as hard as this one. If anything, for the average boss, you won't need to prep for something with 5 different strats.

 

[cold_spirit]

I died to him like an idiot the first time because i was too cocky after beating bahamut. This fight is really easy, just stay behind him so he can't use the laser and can't grab you. Just don't let the healer die like a moron.

I blame this forum for making me too cocky for the Pride and Joy fight lol. Someone referred to it as a "victory lap" after Bahamut, and I guess that went to my head. Lost Aerith to the big beam in the opening, then Cloud got spiked into the ground and didn't get back up. Ran around as Barret until my health dwindled away. It was fine, I mean I forgot to assess Bahamut and Ifrit anyway so I was gonna replay it, but damn.

I also found the Whisper Harbinger battles to be the hardest offering in the game.

 

[Odysseus]

I blame this forum for making me too cocky for the Pride and Joy fight lol. Someone referred to it as a "victory lap" after Bahamut, and I guess that went to my head.

Yeah I remember reading that too. I figured I could get away with just being a little reckless because it didn't seem like it would be that hard. Barret was my main healer since he could reliably stay out of danger as long as I wasn't actively playing as him, but I think he got hit with the laser as I was trying to take out the thing's legs. With him down I couldn't use revive anymore and eventually Cloud and Tifa bit it too.

I also found the Whisper Harbinger battles to be the hardest offering in the game.

I can see that, since it's such a long fight. I guess I'll get say what I think about it once I do it. I stopped after the VR battle because I was dreading doing the drum again. It takes too long.

 

[Odysseus]

Double post because

Phew, I did it, I finished hard mode. The Whisper harbinger fight was a little annoying and I did have to restart a few times, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the summon gauntlet was. Sephiroth was surprisingly easy, I was expecting him to have more annoying new moves. All in all I think I liked Hard mode more than the standard play through, I really felt like I had to learn how fight worked to succeed.

Now I just gotta finish the play log...

 

[looneymoon]

going through getting all the dresses. staying on hard mode because i can't really go back without getting severely bored.

just popped into say that I really wish I understood staggering a little bit more clearly before, because Hell House is kinda a pushover once you have a solid grasp on how the battle system works :/

I also wish that I knew that HP/MP ups are the most essential matera to master for you to free up slots. Ah well.

 

[Odysseus]

going through getting all the dresses. staying on hard mode because i can't really go back without getting severely bored.

just popped into say that I really wish I understood staggering a little bit more clearly before, because Hell House is kinda a pushover once you have a solid grasp on how the battle system works :/

I also wish that I knew that HP/MP ups are the most essential matera to master for you to free up slots. Ah well.

I honestly kinda miss when I didn't understand things so well lol. Like you say, Hell House is pretty easy once you figure out how simple it is to stagger it. Heck, I can even get through that ridiculous summon gauntlet without much stress now, I took my time down from 22 minutes to 17 when I went back to get the asses on Ifrit and Pride & Joy.