/vr/ - Retro Games

Absolute Steve's guide on gamefaqs is probably the best FF7 guide out there.

Also, the final boss levels with your party, if I remember correctly. He's still a pushover though.

>>2499619
The only disadvantage is that it will become really, really hard to grind that high that early.

>>2499619
>grind them to level 99 before disc 2.
Why? There's absolutely no need to do this.

>>2499631
Leveling still helps. I was about level 50 the first time I fought Sephiroth and it was a struggle (He cast Supernova on me 3 whole times). My next playthrough I went against him while level 80 and it was SO much easier.

>>2499619
They're aren't any disadvantages to leveling up too much early game.

Bizarro Sephy gains additional stats and HP for each character at Lv 99, levels 1-98 have no effect on his stats.

He also gains a extra chunk of HP if you use KOTR on Jenova Synthesis in the crater, but if you have KOTR it won't be a problem anyway.

Stat maxing is mostly done by farming items so leveling early has no penalties

>>2499639
That makes sense. I wanted to be at level 50-60 going into disc 2, I'll probably grind to lvl50 before doing Nibelheim.
Again, just wanted to make sure that there's no drawback..I thought maybe once the characters get to lvl99 maybe their materia can't level up or something like that.

>>2499658
>Bizarro Sephy gains additional stats and HP for each character at Lv 99
Good to know. Do you know if the stat increases are substantial enough to want to avoid getting characters to lvl99? Or at that point is generally not an issue?

I'm not saying you that's the way you should have fun or anything, but aren't you afraid you're gonna be trivializing the entire game? At least there are the weapons super bosses at the end that will pose a bit of a challenge even if you are lvl 99.

also even if you are 99 you'll still have to grind for ap to level up your materias

>>2499660
Characters always will gain AP
just be warned that Ultimate Weapons offer zero AP gain so don't use them when leveling Materia.

>>2499673
Not really, while it ia a pretty significant boost to his stats, a whole team of 99's will still be able to beat him without much trouble. Shit like supernova will always suck because its percentage based damage and thus can't be lessned.

>>2499619
Just finished Emerald and Ruby weapons in my game. i'm around lvl 80. Have all the big stuff. Might head to arena and grind for the useless items. You're a trooper if you can grind that high on one disk. Took me months of late game grinding just to get where I am.

>>2499619
43 before Nibelheim is extremely high. You'd normally be around 25-30.

Aside from making the game even easier, there's one item called a Vagyrisk Claw (supposed to be Basilisk claw) that can only be stolen or obtained from Bagrisks (also supposed to be Basilisks) by losing the first few Fort Condor battles, and it becomes harder to steal the higher your level is, becoming completely impossible to steal around the high 60s if I recall correctly. The item itself is nearly useless, so it doesn't matter unless you want a 100% file, but if you do want it, it's going to take you a very long time at those levels. The optimum level for stealing one as quickly as possible is 11.

Since I want at least one of everything in my file, I'm keeping Tifa dead for most of the early game so it will be easier to get one later with her low level.

>>2499705
>43 before Nibelheim is extremely high.
Spent a Lot of time leveling up in the sewers I think..there was the spot where guardss will just keep pouring out. Got those three characters up to the high 20s before moving on, spent about 10 hours there. Fighting Lost Number now and it looks like these three characters are all going to go up another level before I leave here.

>keeping Tifa dead for most of the early game
Why Tifa? Just wondering.

>>2499750
She has the least useful limit breaks and a pretty low starting level that leaves a large margin for error. Her HP gains are pretty low early on too, compared with Cloud and Barret.

>>2499750
>Why Tifa? Just wondering.
for rapey fun times :^)

>>2499761
Keep her weak and dumb...shit, I'd take her shoes off if I could. ;)

Are Yuffie and Vincent worth getting?

>>2499772
you get extra quests with them once you get the airwing and submarine. the vincent one is particularly important to the storyline

>>2499772
Why wouldn't you get them?

>>2499793
>Why wouldn't you get them?
If they're not worth getting. I have them both now. :^)
He came in at lvl46 so I'm going to catch the others up and then save.

Levelling is what inflates your damage in FF7..stats seem to be an afterthought, at least stats that aren't dex and spirit, dex when maxed can give you like 150% physical evasion with mystile on and make you invincible to anything that isn't a weapon basically.

I've noticed that strength is an irrelevant stat for the most part, my recent playthrough I levelled up from like 74 to 75 and my damage went from 2700 to 3200 with only 1 point gained in strength.

Even when duping to max my strength it stops mattering past 160 since the attack stat will always be maxed at 255 after that point, and it gives you hardly any damage, any weapon except for ultima weapon will always only do like 4-5k damage a hit.

So levelling is the best thing you can do it seems to alter your damage, but its not really needed in the game for the most part, nor that early, but I tend to level to around 55 before I do the temple of the ancients, as I can basically ignore grinding for the entire game after that point, and it still only takes like an hour and a half if you level at the place where the wutai sidequest starts.

>>2499948
FF7 most likley factors in Level to the damage formula much more than STR like in FF6, mainly because ouside esper boosts and HP and MP, units in FF 6 stats don't go up on level

>>2499985
get

>>2499985
>units in FF 6 stats don't go up on level
really? all exp you get before gaining an esper are completely wasted, then?

I don't really get power leveling early in JRPG's unless you need a specific skill or ability for the boss. I don't really get power leveling everyone to 99 anyways unless you need to in order to take on the bonus bosses. Its just a waste of time.

>>2499631
he's still annoying as hell with a special move that takes an hour.

>>2500009
Aside from HP and MP yeah, thats why Min-Maxers will tell you to avoid leveling before you get Espers to maximize your stats.

it's not terribly important though, the game and the postgame content in the ports are managable and are more inclied on strategy rather thans stats.

And even then boosts from equipment generally do the job anyway.

And the only stats really worth even maxing are whatever stat your character uses for damage, Strength for Melee fighters and Magic for spell casters.
You can toss a few points into the other for ballance

Stamina is next to usless because all it does is increase your odds to avoid instant death (and there are relics which can block entirely) and damage/healing from Posion and Regen (yes leveling stamina makes Posion do more damage)

Speed can be usefull but you have to dump a ton of points into it to have an effect (and in the SNES ver only Odin grants it and its lost if you convert him into Raiden) plus it's just easier to cast haste instead.

But the Damage formula in 6 factors in level much more than other stats, so leveling up will still overtime cause you to inflict more damage even with the same gear.

Oh, and in FF 5 stats aside from HP and MP never increase at all aside from equipment boosts. Each character has the same stats with each Job no matter what.

Last Year Jirard The Completionist did a series on FFVII and it's themes, as well as recapping the story and explaining plot elements tied back to a huge paper he did in college. I just watched it today and if you're a fan of the game you should totally check it out, it's pretty lengthy at about 2 and a half hours just for the main game. There are a few additional videos on the prequel and Dirge of Cerberus as well as Advent Children, but I didn't really watch them because I never played the games or watched the movie. It was really well done and if it was edited all together it could make a decent documentary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXhG0MFmHmM&list=PLPrHmEKxAl05Wa-FqrZKUt4cP3Utqsip-

Here's the first video, if you have a few hours to spare it's worth it.

>>2499619
>Are there any disadvantages to leveling up the characters that high that early?
Well, yeah. It's an absolutly boring waste of time. But if you find it fun to throw your days away making an easy game even more of a joke I guess there are no downsides.

>>2500164
Does FF5 have that level-based damage thing too, or is your damage solely affected by your equipment?

>>2500591
5 has Level based damage as well.
Game would be much harder if it didn't

>>2500545

I watched those back when he released them any they were really good.

I'm still not sure why Arin (Egoraptor) was in it, he really didn't add anything to the video. I lost all gaming respect I had for him through Game Grumps, especially the latest aLttP series they did, where he demonstrates he really doesn't know jack shit about his 'favourite game' that he acts as if is the second coming of Christ.

>>2500545
>>2500689
Are those videos loaded with spoilers? I almost feel silly asking because I assume they are.

>>2500572
You haven't seen anything yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOM8xYUTgn4

>>2500164
>Oh, and in FF 5 stats aside from HP and MP never increase at all aside from equipment boosts. Each character has the same stats with each Job no matter what.

Each character has base stats that are multiplied by the class, Lenna/Leena typically has higher magic, Faris has higher speed, Bartz has higher attack. This usually just means like 4~8 point difference and isn't significant.

Equipment is very important though

>>2499772

Yuffie's Limits are pretty good and the Conformer is boss.

>>2499772
If you care about the story at all, Vincent's sidequest deals a big amount of backstory if you can find the thing without a guide.

>>2500545
Fanboy wank: the series.

You can't steal some shit if your level is too high

>>2499619
>FF7
>grinding
Why would you want to make this cakewalk even easier?

>>2501525
This. First time I finished it when it was just released I beat Sephiroth at lv 55 without Knights of the Round. Then I moved onto endgame things.

>>2501541

>>2501450
Whoa there friend, you seem to have forgotten what thread you're in :^)

>>2501182

>>2501334
Whoops forgot about the neglible differences between characters, but yeah its not that much of a difference.

Id hazaard and say FF5 Is one of the most gear dependant in the franchise.
even though level factors in a lot, most people wont be super high by then end anyway.

Last time I beat it my team was arround 32-34

>>2501334
Krile has the highest speed.
Faris is balanced all around (which is funny, when you think about it. Males have higher physical stats, females magical, but Faris, who's a female posing as a male is good at both).

>>2501947

Faris spent her entire life living among pirates, so it makes sense she would be tough as nails. I'm not sure where she gets the magical aptitude, though. Maybe her royal blood?

>>2500545
Pretty good vids. Just watched all 7. I wasn't too crazy about their "guests" that really didn't know what they were talking about. Good watch though.

>>2501993
Ever in Final Fantasy have they intimated that royal blood is at least partially magical.

Rosa, Faris, Aerith, Rinoa, Garnet, Yuna - all were royalty or descended from great noble houses/races.

>>2501905

Levelling is also harder in FF5, on the gba version I have been purposefully trying to grind to 99 while on the shitter and its ridiculous. As you say by the end you can be late 30s to early 40s in the game, and I'm like 71 or something on my file and its a slog and has nearly 0 benefit other than hp going up like 100-200 per level or so.

>>2502229
It's a pretty bad grind post game. I hit 99 in the gba version and it took hours of grinding one of the floors in the bonus dungeon to get there.
though like mentioned I was in the low 30's when I best Exdeath the first time.

And only about 10 levels later I was hotting consistant max damage with weapons and spells, the last 50 ish levels are only usefull for the Extra HP/MP it gives you.

Real fun bit is that you can steal the best weapons in the game from various parts of Neo-Exdeath. And while you could do this in the SNES/PS version the GBA lets you save afterwards and refight him.

Its fun to have everyone dual weilding Ragnarok's

>>2501905
>I'd hazard and say FF5 Is one of the most gear dependent in the franchise.

It's up there with FF6 and FF9.

I think FF6 might be more gear orientated because of the leveling system.

FF9 is full of so many statistical problems that I don't even know where to start.
I don't even think I'd be willing to play FF9 without a cheat that lets me keep everyone level 1 til I recruit all characters and that switches Eiko's real stats in from Marcus.
Maybe also something that increases the framerate of animations.

>>2499619
>not playing the fan retranslation

>>2502960
>being this fucking bitchy about a game

Jesus, just play it

>>2503020

I don't know, FF9 is pretty bullshit with how your gear dictates your stats, but the game doesn't tell you this...its really stupid and makes no sense to add a mechanic like this and not bring it to the players attention.

Yeah over the course of a game it doesn't add up to much, unless you know about it before hand, and since spirit affects your trance time, and its arguably the best thing to boost, it can have an impact if you min/max it.

But yeah if you aren't OCD or a completionist who gives a fuck.

>>2503025
>>2503020

I was interested in using characters other than the main 4.

Leveling beyond level 1 before you gain a character lowers the amount of blue spheres you gain to customize them by how many levels you've gained.

Eiko, being one of the characters I wanted to use, is gimped pretty hard by not having her own statistical block but having Marcus's statistics instead.

I don't really mind leveling without the best equipment because the game doesn't require you to have perfect stats to get by, but the loss of blue spheres just irritates the hell out of me.

>>2501947
That's only because she's the most masculine of the females, so she's in between two guys and two girls.

>>2499660
Why exactly do you want to level so hard so early?

>>2503148

Its like all those faggots that play clicker heroes for thousands of hours, they just like to level up

>>2502962
>playing "romanization - the fan-translation".

>giving Cloud 8 Counter and 8 Mimics
>perform Omnislash
>enemy hits Cloud
>counters with 9 mimic'd Omnislashes

They'll fuck this up somehow in the remake. That remake is going to suck hard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO-0o8yXRUQ

>Tifa figurine comes with a Touch Me

Subtle.

>>2499641

There are people that just get more joy out of seeing numbers grow rather than completing a challenge. My brother leveled all of his characters in FF Tactics up to 99 in the first chapter.