SPOILERS Hard Mode Discussion

[The Twilight Mexican]

Chakra only restores up to 40% of damage taken ...

This wording is confusing to me, and makes me not want to equip it. XD

I don't know if that means it will heal up to 40 percent of your maximum HP on each use ... or if it means it will only bring you back up to 40 percent, then stop working.

 

[Cannon_Fodder]

It means it heals 40% of of the difference between your current HP and your max HP. So if you have 2000 HP and your max is 9999, it should heal you for around 3200 or something. Not sure if the healing accessory boosts this, but I think it does.

 

[Theozilla]

This wording is confusing to me, and makes me not want to equip it. XD

I don't know if that means it will heal up to 40 percent of your maximum HP on each use ... or if it means it will only bring you back up to 40 percent, then stop working.

It’s specifically referring to the damage taken amount.

Let’s say a character has 1000 Hp total, they take 600 points of damage and have 400 hp left. Using Chakra means the character gains the equivalent of 40% of 600 in Hp, so 240 Hp in this case making you have 640 hp. If you used Chakra again then you gain 40% of 360 in Hp, thus 144 hp, and so on.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Ah, that's much clearer. Gracias.

 

[KetaKitty]

My biggest tip is to utilize the two elemental materia as well as possible, taking advantage of weaknesses with basic attacks and enemies healing you during any event will save MP.
Aerith's Soul Drain does a good amount of damage and also recovers MP with one ATB gauge.
First-Strike materia with ATB assist, and stagger is my personal favorite combo as I can get through the first stage of boss fights quickly because I can remain heavily offensive so little MP, if any, is wasted early. This clears through smaller enemies too so I'm not healing myself between benches as much. ATB Stagger can really help you do massive damage on some of those short lasting Stagger gauges.
I keep Magnify on different things according to what I am fighting, but if you use it on attack spells and equip a second of the same element linked to MP absorb you will attack multiple enemies with the spell and gain MP for each hit, you can add a HP absorb materia linked to a third of the same element to get more of a stacked effect.

 

[ForceStealer]

an offensive spell on enemies can heal you/restore your MP??

HP and MP Absorb were from the original game you know

 

[Mayo Master]

Yaaay! Finally finished Hard mode yesterday. Got the platinum along with it. A few notes:

- took me only 110+ hrs (and being already 99% done with Hard mode) to figure that Soul Drain is only efficient on staggered enemies
- Hell House was not as difficult as I had feared, BUT I already had the Gotterdammerung. Being able to have a Limit available each time the Tonberies showed up probably made a huge difference. Got almost jumped when the Sweepers showed up in the end, though.
- Fights I had trouble with were: the sweepers fight in chapter 4 before fighting Roche, Rude (I had done a bunch of side-quests on chapter 8 which had depleted my MPs), Ghoul, Eligor, the fight vs. 2 zenenes when you have Aerith and Tifa in chapter 17. Even though I defeated Arsenal on the first try, it was tough and very long (the fight took me an hour). The most difficult battle for me in the entire game was Bahamut.
- IMO The final fight vs. Sephiroth was tough, but personally I liked that it felt a lot like a duel of swordsmen (Punisher Mode + Guard, Counterstance FTW). Reminded me a bit of playing SoulCalibur The friend I'm sharing my playthrough with could not stand this fight, as his reflex is always to dodge and never to guard, so he always got ripped to shreds.
- Platinum is enough for me, I don't think I'll get to the "ultimate 100%" with assessing every single enemy and whatnot. I'm not a completionist at heart, I only go for platinum when I particularly enjoy the game AND when getting the platinum does not imply playing the game in a manner that I don't like (excessive grinding, or "get trophy if you've completed the game with every factions, even the ones you hate" are generally a killer for me).
- My personal objective is to be able to play a "regular" playthrough but making all combats as seamless as possible (minimizing tactical mode). Playing in the manner that makes the action on screen look cool is something I particularly enjoy (the execution isn't always right, I'm not that good ). That's what I'm going to work on for my next playthroughs.

 

[Keveh Kins]

Holy Hell House Batman!

Beat it on my fourth try, but man oh man was it getting tense towards the end there. Cloud had 2 mp left so if Aerith went down he was flying solo. Managed to stagger it with possibly the most beautifully timed Blizzaga I'll ever achieve, and then hit it with Infinity's End to finish it off.

Feck me, what a bastard.

 

[ForceStealer]

Lol, this thread makes me go back and forth so much between "hm, maybe I will do hard mode, doesn't sound so bad" to "ehhh, maybe not" :lol"

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I know I'm definitely doing it when I get that far.

 

[Arianna]

Should I keep trying the Hard level simulations or should I go through the game again in Normal level? I used Classic for my first playthrough... Just not sure what to do. I tried the first of the hard battles with Cloud alone, and got beat. Please give some advice, thanks!

 

[KetaKitty]

Should I keep trying the Hard level simulations or should I go through the game again in Normal level? I used Classic for my first playthrough... Just not sure what to do. I tried the first of the hard battles with Cloud alone, and got beat. Please give some advice, thanks!

I advise that you grind for AP/exp on hard mode, not normal mode as gained AP is tripled. Pick a chapter like Chapter 6, 10, or 15 to return to where you have a three person team that can level materia, once you run out of MP, or get stuck on a boss, just reload the chapter or move elsewhere to grind AP. Getting your purple/blue materia maxed will help a lot, especially first strike materia for the simulations.

 

[ForceStealer]

Your AP is tripled and your EXP is doubled on any difficulty once you've cleared the game, it doesn't have to be on Hard. @KetaKitty @Arianna

 

[RhinoKart]

Just finished my Hard mode playthrough. I assumed I was going to end up with some combination of Cloud-Tifa-Aerith against Sephiroth, and set my team up accordingly. Instead I got Cloud-Tifa-Barret.... things didn't go well. I died, and when I tried to start the fight again the game wouldn't let me open the menu to mess with my materia, so we just slogged our way through it.

In the end Cloud went down, and Barret went down (both with the revival materias equiped so it was permant) and Tifa had 263 hp left. Things were pretty grim, but at the last moment before Octo slash came down upon her, Tifa sucker punched Sephiroth in the face and won.

I don't care what cutscene the final part of Remake gives for how Sephiroth dies, Tifa doing a walking up and sucker punching him into oblivion is my new headcannon.

 

[Makoeyes987]

I mean, one thing I fucking love about the final battle of part 1, is how it's so unique to your player experience. The game manages the transitions and options so well, that it can fool you into thinking it's how it's always supposed to be.

I got that preferred combination in my original playthrough and I legit thought it was the sequence everyone else had. My mind was blown that people had different combinations because it felt so damn natural

Sucks that you got shafted by it, but think of it as a badge of honor. You beat hard mode, with the team you didn't prepare for, and Sephiroth got his jaw broke for his troubles. That's a true ending right there.

 

[Theozilla]

My Hard Mode final boss team was the same as my Normal mode team except the order that Tifa and Aerith joined was different, normal had been Tifa first, then Aerith, while Hard was Aerith first, then Tifa. Also I made sure to max out four Revival Materia so I never had to worry about having a character without one.

 

[Makoeyes987]

My Hard Mode final boss team was the same as my Normal mode team except the order that Tifa and Aerith joined was different, normal had been Tifa first, then Aerith, while Hard was Aerith first, then Tifa. Also I made sure to max out four Revival Materia so I never had to worry about having a character without one.

That's exactly what happened to me, except in reverse. Aerith was first and then Tifa on Normal. Hard Mode was Tifa then Aerith.

I made sure to prepare Barret just in case but he definitely would have been my less optimal team choice, just through the sheer fact I didn't have as many good materia to give him. I used him a lot and got his abilities/weapons, it's just there's only so many materia, Elementals, Wards, and Magnifys to go around

 

[RhinoKart]

I mean, one thing I fucking love about the final battle of part 1, is how it's so unique to your player experience. The game manages the transitions and options so well, that it can fool you into thinking it's how it's always supposed to be.

I got that preferred combination in my original playthrough and I legit thought it was the sequence everyone else had. My mind was blown that people had different combinations because it felt so damn natural

Sucks that you got shafted by it, but think of it as a badge of honor. You beat hard mode, with the team you didn't prepare for, and Sephiroth got his jaw broke for his troubles. That's a true ending right there.

I played the game twice on normal and first I had Tifa then Aerith, and second time I had Aerith then Tifa. So even though I knew Barret might join I had just assumed I'd be playing the same way and get the ladies again. I didn't really mind that I had Barret if the menu button had worked before the fight. I saw the prompt but it just wouldn't work.

Doesn't matter, team Avalanche got there in the end!

 

[Theozilla]

I played the game twice on normal and first I had Tifa then Aerith, and second time I had Aerith then Tifa. So even though I knew Barret might join I had just assumed I'd be playing the same way and get the ladies again. I didn't really mind that I had Barret if the menu button had worked before the fight. I saw the prompt but it just wouldn't work.

Doesn't matter, team Avalanche got there in the end!

Did you make sure to press the square button for long enough? If it’s not pressed long enough (like triangle for skipping cutscenes) it won’t register as a menu request.

 

[RhinoKart]

Did you make sure to press the square button for long enough? If it’s not pressed long enough (like triangle for skipping cutscenes) it won’t register as a menu request.

I mean it is totally possible I messed it up, but I've done it before successfully, so I think I was doing it right? I could see the prompt triggering on the screen, and a little dot appearing over it when I held down square but the menu wasn't opening. I was thinking it might be because I died and selected the "try from start of this battle" instead of the start of the entire battle (because that would have taken me back to the whisper harbinger fight).

 

[Theozilla]

I mean it is totally possible I messed it up, but I've done it before successfully, so I think I was doing it right? I could see the prompt triggering on the screen, and a little dot appearing over it when I held down square but the menu wasn't opening. I was thinking it might be because I died and selected the "try from start of this battle" instead of the start of the entire battle (because that would have taken me back to the whisper harbinger fight).

I had to restart from the start of battle once for that fight and the menu opened for me still. So I don’t think it was that.

 

[Purple]

Just began my hard mode run and I need some tips.

1. What are the best weapons for the 4 characters?
2. Is HP absorb crucial? And what’s the best materia to pair it with?
3. Any recommended Tifa material loadouts?

Thanks a bunch

 

[looneymoon]

I've been using:

Cloud - Iron Blade
Tifa - Purple Pain
Barret - EKG Cannon

Haven't gotten to Aerith chapters yet. I bested Airbuster on first attempt today, so this setup has been serving me well! I have barely needed to change it up as well. I ended my normal playthrough at level 36, but everyone is maxed out now.

I've been leveling up HP absorb in case I need it at some point later. I haven't really had any use of it yet. I have autocure and HP ups on Barret, who acts as a tank. I use Tifa as a mixed attacker, with a lot of MP ups to apply buffs (only really use haste tbh) and cure/raise when she needs to.

Lightning + elemental. I swear half the enemies are weak to lightning, if not more. Triple slash is your friend when it comes to Cloud. Spam it in regular battles, make it quick work. Maximum Fury for Barret is good for those annoying, faraway guys. Steadfast block on Cloud is essential, especially for those annoying one-on-one fights (Roche is the only one I've encountered so far) where you're best tactic is to stay in punisher mode and block + parry.

Pray and chakra are good to avoid MP use for curing. Pray is better because it heals everyone, and more.

I noticed while fighting Airbuster that Cloud was getting back MP somehow, so it was constantly full. I am assuming this is a weapon ability? Tifa also has concentration, which starts her triangle ability at "Omnistrike" which is one less thing to think about.

 

[Ite]

Wrapping up Chapter 6 in my hard mode run. Also using this run to get a few things I missed, such as Biker Boy and Chocobo & Moogle — those were VERY hard on hard mode, I probably didn’t need to put myself through that lol.

I skipped every sidequest in Chapter 3, I’ll be going for the Barret Date, and then I’m planning to make my last trophy the 9 Dresses one. Yes, I’m going for the platinum for a game I’m still angry at

It’s an infinitely better game when I can skip the cutscenes. Can’t believe I said that, especially about a FF, but here we are.

 

[oty]

I don't think any game I ever played was good enough to make me actually rewatch the same cutscenes on a second playthrough, specially right after the first playthrough. Hell, my second playthrough of OGVII was pratically 50% me just pressing through the dialogues. I know, don't kill me.