I suck and didn't beat the boss on the Final Fantasy VII Remake Demo

Randy writes: "I rode shotgun on my buddy’s PlayStation back in 1997 when the original Final Fantasy VII launched. And by 'I rode shotgun' I mean 'I watched him play all of it,' which was fine."

[isarai]

I beat it but damn did it eat through all my potions and Phoenix Downs. It's definitely a lot to get used to and learn.

[Rebel_Scum]

I find its really confusing that you can always attack but have to wait for the ATB to use the menu for magic & items.

Juggling watching the ATB and having to attack and evade on the fly is difficult at first. Can't wait for release.

[Kosic]

I found seeing the ATB bar a struggle during the combat. Sitting back across the room they are small, that I couldn't work out if I had 3 full bars or 3 empty ones.

I liked the combat. And the ATB idea. But found the UI on a large screen was fairly small (didn't check options if I could scale it) and it felt hard to juggle my view from centre, bottom left and bottom right of the screen to such small frames of detail (55" 4k TV).

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I keep forgetting this game encourages you to be constantly on the attack during that battle because that's really the only way to fill the ATB, get the shit beat out of me, attack like crazy to fill the ATB so I can use a potion. It wasn't that hard of a fight, just need to get the rhythm of the battle down pat.

[KOIMOJO]

After playing it a few times it seems like you just start to develop a mental clock. By the I fought the boss the second time I was actually fully focused on attacking and guarding which I didn't do at all on my first attempt. And I kind of had a feel for when my abilities would be ready.

[rainslacker]

It wasn't a super easy fight. Not super hard, but you had to do what it told you to do to beat it. The boss hit hard, so you had to take advantage of the times it was basically free to hit.

Don't think it means one sucks for not beating it, just have to try again, and know what to do to beat it. It wasn't set up as a throw away tutorial boss, and that's a good thing IMO.

I remember even in the original game the boss could kill you if you didn't use some potions. Barret also has a healing spell in the demo, although don't recall him having it in the original.

[CDbiggen]

Glad it wasn't just me. I just scraped through on the first try with just Barrett left, but I know it's because I was rushing and not paying attention during the fight - I foolishly assumed it was going to be a pushover and just spammed attack instead of weighing it up (using spells, cure, techniques). I think the gameplay and combat are amazing and reward thoughtful play, not just mashing attack.

[Thundercat77]

I beat it on the first try. It was challenging but no problem if you were paying attention to the tutorial.

The game is so amazing. I loved the graphics and the new system.

[rainslacker]

Beat it the first try also. But, both my characters died at different points. I rezzed them, and kept more of an eye on health for potions, then found Barret had a healing spell.

Boss hit hard, and there were a few moments where I thought I wasn't going to defeat it. To me, that's good design, because it means the excitement is higher, and there is no complacency to just button mashing to get through it.

Would probably be easier on a second try once you know what to do more. I was playing around with some different attack strategies for a bit.

[Thundercat77]

Exactly. I was looking to see if it was just a button smasher but is not. It requires real strategy and that's awesome.

[Majin-vegeta]

At least you aren't this clown😂
https://mobile.twitter.com/...

[thatguyhayat]

No way is that real loool i cant believe it. Journalists level gamer

[Spenok]

Journo level gamer 😂

[solideagle]

wow this was funny. I can't believe he works at kotaku and probably will review it.

[rainslacker]

Love this reply of a tutorial on the "complicated interlocking systems all thrown at you at once" that the Kotaku author thought made it hard.

"Attack button attack. Dodge button dodge. Block button block. When Do Thing Gauge is full, Do Thing button pauses time and opens Do Thing Menu, where you can select Thing you want to Do."

I think this guy actually is a real gamer. He's been around for a while. It just seems his complaint was really superficial. It's a demo, where they're trying to get the game play out there for people to see, because it's one of the biggest criticisms since it's not turn based. And I feel that SE achieved showing off how it works in a good way. Obviously, on a short-ish demo, you're going to have a lot thrown at you, but nowadays, games seem to throw a lot of mechanics into the mix, which can be hard to keep track of, and often times may go unused for most of the game until the game demands you learn them to progress. Most games I don't usually even use half the mechanics until it comes time to go trophy hunting. I also didn't find the controls in the demo that excessive, but they could be kind of overwhelming since they did throw them all at once, and I'm sure we all understand the nature of having tons of tutorials thrown at you in rapid succession, which they did on the way up to the boss fight.

That said, the Yoda video on the replies is priceless.

[Good-Smurf]

Took me my second try to beat it not hard I'd say compared to those claw enemies during the escape part.

[hentaicollector]

The claw enemies are actually really easy. Just switch to punisher mode and block. You will then automatically counter them and then you can beat them up.

[Good-Smurf]

I was never good at parrying and it really showed in Bloodborne and now FF7 Remake so that kinda explains my difficulty with claw enemies.

[Epicor]

Just torch those bastards! Fire magic does big dmg!

[Juancho51]

Yeah thats what I did, staggered the shit out of them.

[Juancho51]

I found that swinging at them and dodging works until you get your 1 ATB bar, then use fire and they're automatically staggered.

[Pyrofire95]

I mean I didn't think it was easy, I had some close calls.
Definitely room for me to learn the controls for it and like it so far.

[Orionsangel]

Same lol! I played it on normal. I tried twice and then rage quit lol. Got it on stream. https://www.twitch.tv/video...

[Jsm89k]

It was more annoying than hard. You have to memorize its patterns and a mistake I made was thinking I could interrupt my attacks with a block. So you have to stop attacking all together, wait for the attack animation to end, n then run away from the aoe. Other than that it's garbage day.

[sprinterboy]

"You have to memorize its patterns"

We don't need telling, is this your 1st game?

[Jsm89k]

Uh this is directed at people who can't beat the scorpion. Are you one of those people? Or do you feel personally attacked?

[InKnight7s]

Crisis Core was much harder even with "normal". I don't know how and why journalists says it is hard. Please, I am bored from Easy Action RPGs like Kh3, NNK2, FFXV and DQ Heroes 2. I am in no mean veteran gamer or a person who bares (or did) finish first levels of Dark Souls, but this, the Demo is just easy with tiny much little challenge. Tbh I hoped that the clock start with fighting the boss to add more thriller to the fight.

[AK91]

Oh jesus forgot about Crisis Core that game was a nightmare when it got to later levels in the game. Though that final boss fight was rad.

[rainslacker]

That's how I felt. It had challenge, and wasn't just a button mashing fight. While I don't mind button mashing sometimes, it can get boring. Button mashing was pretty much the main complaint about FF13 as well, although there was more to it than that, but it was hardly necessary to go further than that in the regular game. but I digress.

It wasn't super hard like a souls game, but it did require some attention to what was going on, and knowing what tools you had at your disposal to beat the boss.

If they put that much thought into how to make the first boss, which is basically a tutorial fight to use magic, or in this case breaking shields and magic, then it bodes well for content later in the game. Leading up to the boss was mostly just button mashing until about halfway through where it switched to changing characters and causing a break on a harder enemy.

[AK91]

I beat it on my first attempt though I'll admit it was quite challenging but then again I expect that for a boss fight.

[sprinterboy]

I know right, who would have thought a boss being challanging?
If the boss was too easy we would have had a million BS gaming articles on the boss was too easy.

[Larrysweet]

put it on classic sissy

[PCgamer98]

Not really hard actually as long as you watch out for your health and cure/potion accordingly you barely even need to dodge or block. But yeah since they turned this into a fast action rpg, micromanaging a party would be really hard for some.

[AnubisG]

I didn't beat it. It got on my nerves with that stupid shield and how fast it ate potions. Really put me off of the remake. I guess I just wasn't in the mood for that game either....

[jjb1981]

The only gripe I have about it is that you have to wait for the last attack to fully follow through before you can switch to punisher mode. I might just go back to classic mode because that's how I originally played it. 99:99:59

[talllpine]

Oh no he didn't beat it!!! OH NOOO!

[silenthillstrangler]

I beat it and thought it was a good level of difficulty, wasn't heaps easy but I wasn't ripping my hair out either and Im really only a filthy casual these days.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I agree, it was a good difficulty level, constantly switching characters and managing their health and attacks, I could have died if I didn't concentrate.

[OhReginald]

No one cares if you suck at video games!

[MrChow666]

I thought It was quite easy...

[Blackcanary]

I completed it in one go on Classic mode and Easy. Normal was a struggle. Died the first time on Normal then had to do the fight again. Since Barret had cure I focused on controlling barret as my healer.

[SeanScythe]

this is news worthy? imagine if everyone that played demons souls did this? This boss wasn't hard, sure you can get in a bind if you didn't take the time to learn the battle mechanics. But isn't that for the majority of games?

[Kostche]

the whole demo was amazing the combat switching to other members in group is shite, i hated it with passion, its totally killing the vibe

unlike ff7 orginal where i enjoyed using other characters, i can see me playing this game just using cloud, its all i done in demo, accept the one point that barret had shoot the turrets up high, also noticed the ai was bit shit for attacking stuff

as for dying to the boss ... lmao NO, i was not even at full life when started the fight, then just spammed clouds moves until it died, never even bothered swapping to barret, may aswell have just made it solo game with cloud doing it all.. because from the demo seems like that will be the play through...

[rainslacker]

Boss practically requires you use Barrett to break the shield. If you use cloud, it'll keep telling you to break the shield with barret. Spamming only Clouds attacks would take a really long time, and you'd probably run out of potions before you made a dent.

[Kostche]

i never used barret at all in the fight, he must have used the move himself

[Juancho51]

Block. So much damage is mitigated by just blocking. Switch to Barret and use lightning only, cure is useless because potions heal more, while Lighting does excellent damage. It was tough, but mostly if you go in mashing buttons not thinking of a strategy. Once the shield goes up and the shield generator bot is revealed on his ass, thats when it gets a little more wild but just have to stay on his ass and put pressure. I loved every second of that battle, wish there was a harder difficulty so I could replay it a few times before release lol.

[SwampthingsSon]

Thought this was a Kotaku story at first.

[FITSniper]

I was challenged but I beat it first try and nobody died.

[quenomamen]

Some people should stick to Fortnite

[Kosic]

I didn't fail to this boss. But I did seem to chain my potions at times. At times there didn't feel like a tactic and at other times felt like I had a reason to fight through. Was odd, wasn't amazing in the combat tactic. But I feel I may had done it completely wrong.

But it was impressive to watch, so I am now excited for ff7 remake. Just not a fan of Barratts voice.

[Harryvok]

I just didn't find the demo very exciting. The combat was pretty bland.