Final Fantasy general

Vincent's storyline explained a little about Sephiroth's backstory (Mostly just the identity of his biological parents) but the jist of his childhood as raised by Hojo as lab rat and the Jenova Project is done independently in the main plot.

edited 26th Jun '16 1:08:48 AM by lycropath

edited 26th Jun '16 1:31:46 AM by Pulse

Of course, Jenova not being Sephiroth's mother is kind of an important detail.

Sephiroth was the first Big Bad in the series who was presented tragically and as a full three-dimensional character. There is a whole one-hour playable section dedicated primarily to seeing how he turned from a war hero to the greatest threat in the world. There was nothing like that before and indeed there's been nothing quite like that since.

As for why VII is so popular, tons of reasons. Too many to list, really.

edited 26th Jun '16 1:38:30 AM by Nikkolas

Hojo reveals quite clearly in the story that Jenova isn't truly Sephiroth's mother, even if Lucretzia's identity and role in full isn't discussed.

As a girl I can say that not All Girls Want Bad Boys. I always found Sephiroth's popularity weird. VII wasn't my first JRPG (this honour belongs to the fantastic Phantasy Star series), nor was it my first FF (that was IX), but I actually ended up liking it quite a bit, even though I had a case of Hype Aversion towards it before playing.

edited 26th Jun '16 2:52:35 AM by Kara

Aerith does say Sephiroth isn't an Ancient but it's one line and it's easily forgotten in the face of Sephiroth's extended monologues proclaiming that he is one much earlier on.

The only real information about what Jenova is comes from the video logs in Icicle, which are easily missed and totally optional. Even then, Hojo's mad speech to the party before his boss fight doesn't really explain anything.

Without Vincent or the Icicle video diaries, all you know is that Hojo was Seph's papa and there was a woman who carried and gave birth to Sephiroth. But where the hell Jenova or the Cetra plays into all this, who can say. Essentially, without Vincent or those videos, Sephiroth's origin is really incomplete and nonsensical.

edited 26th Jun '16 2:56:37 AM by Nikkolas

Hojo says quite clearly before you fight him "I offered the woman carrying my child to Proffesor Gast's Jenova Project. While Sephiroth was still in the womb we took Jenova's cells and..."

Jenova's nature as not a Cetra but as the alien "Calamity from the Stars" that destroyed the Ancients and their civilization with its shapeshifting parasite powers is also fully explained in the main story by I want to say Red XIII's grandfather.

edited 26th Jun '16 3:12:05 AM by lycropath

Hm, fair point about Hojo. He says more than I remembered.

But I'm pretty certain Bugenhagen says nothing about Jenova. Like, 90% certain. It is only Ifalna in the video logs with Gast and nowhere else. Sephiroth alludes to Jenova's powers but never talks about her being the Calamity from the Sky or how she is the reason the Cetra are all but extinct.

edited 26th Jun '16 4:02:50 AM by Nikkolas

Finally, my Record Keeper bad beat ended after three 11-pulls with zero 5 stars. I got 3 nice relics on the first event banner (although no Super or Burst Soul Breaks). Mog's Scarf, Kefka's Cloak, and Beatrix' Gauntlet.

I am... expecting to not get anything, due to these things only ever being announced a couple days beforehand.

Makes me wonder why Dena bothered with a newsletter thing when they only ever sent out two of them.

So was it worth it to do the thing, Julep? I'm still thinking about it.

I don't know if I should bother with it. I REALLY want Kefka's Cloak, though.

Spellcheck strikes again.

edited 26th Jun '16 2:01:05 PM by Aquaconda

I pulled on it once and just got a shield for some FF 2 character. Tempted to go again for Kefka's Cloak but Sentinel's Grimoire and Red's Magic Comb are higher priority.

Since the FFVII combat system was brought up earlier- I do hope that what we know of combat in the remake signifies that we're getting an extensive rework. In the original, battling felt weird and unfinished- there was little variation between characters other than stats, weapons, and ults (and even those were rather superfluous in some ways), and not a lot of combat options beyond what materia were available. Hell, materia and character placement practically were the only nuances to the battle system, and the latter was barely present at best.

I kind of get why they'd remake the older games when they updated the graphics and such, but it's kind of weird they're remaking 7 so extensively. I kind of sort of expect this remaking habit to get ridiculous enough that they'll be remaking 15 in like ten to twenty years.

.... That said I don't think I'd say no to a remake of 8. So long as they kept the draw system. I actually liked that about the magic system. And also the ridiculous card game.

They need to change the draw system a bit to make it... less broken.

VIII Was extremely boring if you had half a clue about what you are doing.

@Ace: Definitely, the first banner is one where you can't be wrong. There is no garbage relic, but OTOH you don't have a game breaker either. If you want a chance at the best wait for banner 4 (for Platinum Sword) and 5. Especially 5, it has Tyro's Sentinel Grimoire along with excellent relics for Ramza and Agrias, and those 3 are normal relics meaning you get a better chance than for SSB or BSB. Plus you get 2 different BSB.

B4 is good too but it features Vaan's blade which is not a very good relic. 1 and 5 have nothing bad. Of course you can get an off banner item (I got a generic Mage shuriken from VIII without SB) but if you get something from the banner, you will not be disappointed.

Note that I got the three relics with 100 mithril, not 50. 2 11-pulls. It wasn't a single godly one.

Mmm, I have like seventy Mithril at this point so I'm not sure I should try with this run though. Maybe I should stop using mithril to refill my stamina meter. *sigh*

edited 26th Jun '16 3:55:37 PM by AceofSpades

Yes you should, unless you are orb farming during a celebration event :P

What can I say, I'm very impatient when it comes to doing things. Like leveling up, and getting the gil out of the money dungeons.

That seems like kind of a strange way to put it. That's like saying that jobs and character placement are the only nuances to FFV's battle system, or that magicite and abilities are the only nuances to FFVI's battle system.

Yeah, the battle system is bare-bones if you ignore the materia system, which encompasses almost the entire character growth and battle system outside character levels, equipment, limits, and items.

The stats also made everyone fairly distinct, I mean sure you can give both Tifa and Aerith a bunch of Magic Materia but Tifa will wind up doing half as much damage as Aerith does.

I don't think the stat shifts were significant given everyone can hit the damage cap pretty easily eventually anyway.

Maybe in the endgame but for most of the grind your not going to say want Cait Sith trying to make his way with double cut or Tifa as your main wizard.