Idk if this is even a big deal to anyone but did I do it good? This is how I have him displayed all the time now, really love this figure. There are some partial limitations with the head since his neck is a bit too short and his buster sword sits a little too low down.
Cloud and Tifa are the two characters that instantly come to mind for myself, although not necessarily as a pair but in separation. Cloud's longing to come off a certain way towards others yet truly being someone else at heart is something I truly resonate with as someone who feels quite avoidant in life as suppressing one's real self can come off too natural to me. Despite how he comes off, he's not a very emotionally strong person (even Nomura said this) too which is something I feel very strongly towards.
With Tifa, it's generally her people pleasing and conflict avoidant side that speaks to me. There are things she wants to say to others that she can't build the courage to say out of fear. She very realistically doesn't want to upset people and I really like that Aerith brings out a little more of that confidence in her when they're around together.
It can be the smallest thing regarding a character that really speaks to some people, it doesn't even have to be their entire character as a whole.
Decided to gather all my Cloud figures once again given it was his in-universe birthday. I used to have bring arts Cloud too but his arm broke, I wasn't too fond that figure in the first place so I'm not too mad about it. The play arts shin figure is absolutely the best of the bunch here.
I did the same sort of picture last year but oh well.
We all know that almost every portion of remake and rebirth is hugely extended compared to the original game along with sidequests, discovery markers etc and that it can get frustrating at times. There's so many more character interactions, it's amazing and it more than likely would've sucked if these characters weren't so well written.
On the other hand, the reason why (from what I see) a good amount of players don't mind it is because of the character interactions that make them significantly more bearable. Even if I personally have my issues with it at times, there are definitely moments when I can look past it.
Some of My Own Favourites:
• Barret and Cloud poking fun at each other during the underplate sun lamp section.
• Yuffie saying she'll clone Tifa and calling Cloud a pervert at his reaction in the tonberry king sidequest.
• Cloud calling Aerith mean after she teases him a bit too much during their date sidequest in costa del sol.
• Tifa kicking Gus in the stomach during Leslie's sidequest in the corel prison.
• Cloud not understanding that Barret was asking what his age was and thought he was referring to his SOLDIER class in the bombing mission.
• Cloud and Tifa's 1 to 1 moment in gongaga where she tells him it's her turn to save him this time.
• Aerith and Tifa saying: "guide me o' Tifa", "come, my child" during their costa del sol section when getting the tickets and switching between each other. Almost all the scenes between just Tifa and Aerith are great in general.
There's way more than that but those are the ones I can think of right now. I'm sure others have many more moments that they really enjoy too if you're willing to share them.
Reminds me of the Eminem Cloud meme from about two months ago. He's now real.
If you keep running into a specific corner in costa del sol, Cloud will slowly and gradually crumple forward and all the way around lol.
I finished my third playthrough of rebirth about two weeks ago and have started played remake again from chapter 1 (with a bit of practice in the combat sim in chapter 17 beforehand) and you can definitely feel how much smoother rebirth feels.
This absolutely isn't a knock against remake at all in any way (besides the air combat, that sucks) since I've spend over 600 hours in that game. I know it may be quite a repetitive thing to say but the changes I definitely feel the most, with only some being more obvious than others are:
• Far less materia than I remember being able to work with, especially with green/magic materia. There's a lot of good independent materia to use, however.
• No green/magic materia to specifically increase physical or magic damage, magic up and luck up seem to be the only stand-ins.
• Atb charge rate feels quite a lot faster in remake compared to rebirth.
• Cancelling some actions feels a little slower in remake.
• Hitting 9999 damage feels a lot harder (without Tifa on a stagger) compared to rebirth but that could be since character's max level is 50 in remake whereas rebirth is 70.
• Limit breaks feel a lot slower to gain but still feel extra special to land because of that.
• An extremely obvious one but air combat is very bare bones in remake and massively overhauled in rebirth.
• Cloud's evade has the smallest bit of i-frames in rebirth (it has worked against the particle status effect from bahamut arisen) whereas remake is just a repositioning tool.
• Getting 9999 HP is far easier in remake as HP up can stack.
• Some attacks combo far snappier into each other, for example Tifa's whirling uppercut into divekick.
• A rather obvious one again but you're forced to take damage when blocking in remake as there's no precision defense.
A Change I Personally Love The Most:
In remake, Cloud's punisher mode counter or counterstance will still take minimal damage when successful, the damage is just a little less when done perfectly. Rebirth fixed that massively and made it have much more reward with far higher multi-hit damage, full immunity and fully cancellable at any point in the animation. Really love that change since Cloud is my favourite character to use.
What I mean by that is when your personal life or the world in general is feeling especially tough or stressful then bionicle is the thing you generally turn to. It may come from a place of nostalgia for some (it is for me even if I'm considered a younger fan, I remember inika all the way to g2 in stores)or the vibe of the the bionicle universe in general.
It might sound a bit silly but it's just how I feel personally at least. I don't mean just liking bionicle in general btw because of course we all do here.
I know I most likely won't be heard out on this but I'll say what I think anyway.
I've currently been doing a self-imposed challenge of doing solo Cloud against rulers of the outer worlds and I can't get any reasonable practice against gilgamesh since the 3 rounds before it takes about a solid 5 or 6 minutes. Gilgamesh is an especially tough boss who is hyper active so I'd like to get to practice him alone properly in the sim. All the combat challenges are already done for me.
Also on that note, why has there never been any materia loadouts at all? A massive sore spot especially when it can take a good few minutes to set up a specific team.
This specifically ISN'T about brutal challenges being too difficult, but that they're too long and could have a practice type feature on single rounds. Sort of how you can technically practice the summons individually in preparation for rulers of the outer worlds, bonds of friendship and to be a hero.
**How I Think it Should Work:**
After a certain stage of gauntlet/bout has been reached for the first time, the combat simulator menu can have a tab that allows to fast forward to one specific stage so that enemy (or enemies) alone can be practiced against which then makes it easier when going through the entire bout from start to finish.
It would make this much more efficient and save players from experiencing a huge amount of frustration. Also materia loadouts again, still baffled why that isn't a thing 2/3 into these games.
In general I feel this is how it should work because even the 10 round brutal challenges are egregiously long and having to retake the entire challenge after losing one stage feels extremely shitty.
This old school type of design of redoing an entire enemy gauntlet because you lose in 5 seconds to the next stage that you aren't accustomed to yet seriously needs to be scrapped in revelation. I know I most likely no one will hear me out but I'll say what I think anyway.
I've currently been doing a self-imposed challenge of doing solo Cloud against rulers of the outer worlds and I can't get any reasonable practice against gilgamesh since the 3 rounds before it takes about a solid 5 or 6 minutes. Gilgamesh is an especially tough boss who is hyper active so I'd like to get to practice him properly and I don't have a save before boss fight on his island which I don't feel like is much of a genuine solution anyway.
It's incredibly dated design that would only make sense if this game was like 20 years old so the possible "it emulates old school games" reasoning doesn't work. Also on that note, why has there never been any materia loadouts at all? A massive sore spot especially when it can take a good few minutes to set up a specific team.
How I Think it Should Work:
After a certain stage of gauntlet/bout has been reached for the first time, the combat simulator menu can have a tab that allows to fast forward to one specific stage so that enemy (or enemies) alone can be practiced against which then makes it easier when going through the entire bout from start to finish.
It would make this much more efficient and save players from experiencing a huge amount of frustration. Also materia loadouts again, still baffled why that isn't a thing 2/3 into these games.
In general I feel this is how it should work because even the 10 round brutal challenges are egregiously long and having to retake the entire challenge after losing one stage feels extremely shitty.
Specifically during the Jenova lifeclinger fight, I think there was a serious missed opportunity and subtle but enormous oversight with the how the characters still use their typical battle quotes despite so much being on the line emotionally. Such a thing would have gone such a long way in making this boss fight have even bigger emotional weight.
The party should be enraged throughout this battle from what they've just seen with their own friend dying but are instead pulling off one liners like "yeah!" "let's go!" I would've loved to see what the party would have to say in the moment when they're in such an emotional and vengeful state. It creates this really odd disconnect where these characters are supposed to feel one way yet the voice lines in gameplay clearly aren't communicating that. The actual gameplay itself is still good/engaging even if I think the boss rush is a bit too much.
An Example of Rebirth Already Doing That:
I don't think this would've been too much to ask either since they were able to do this for Dyne's battle where Barret's attacks have different and more appropriate lines. An example of that would be how he says "forgive me" when using overcharge instead of the usual lines.
Also the demon door boss fight having Cloud say "it's a homecoming" or laughing to himself when switching to him mid-combat. I only just found out about this one about 2 days ago.
Specifically during the Jenova lifeclinger fight, I think there was a serious missed opportunity and subtle but enormous oversight with the how the characters still use their typical battle quotes despite so much being on the line emotionally. Such a thing would have gone such a long way in making this boss fight have even bigger emotional weight.
The party should be enraged throughout this battle from what they've just seen with their own friend dying but are instead pulling off one liners like "yeah!" "let's go!" I would've loved to see what the party would have to say in the moment when they're in such an emotional and vengeful state. It creates this really odd disconnect where these characters are supposed to feel one way yet the voice lines in gameplay clearly aren't communicating that. The actual gameplay itself is still good/engaging even if I think the boss rush is a bit too much.
An Example of Rebirth Already Doing That:
I don't think this would've been too much to ask either since they were able to do this for Dyne's battle where Barret's attacks have different and more appropriate lines. An example of that would be how he says "forgive me" when using overcharge instead of the usual lines.
Hi all, I just finished my third playthrough of rebirth yesterday and with the knowledge fresh in my mind, I wanted to make sense of it in the most concise way that I can. I love getting to talk about these games but I'm sorry if it comes off like I'm spamming the sub.
From what I've gathered and taken time to understand: Cloud clashed with Sephiroth/Jenova which caused two worlds to collide, Aerith still dies while Cloud is stuck seeing two worlds at once, the party fights Jenova lifeclinger, enormous boss rush ensues, the party is then left with Aerith being dead meanwhile Cloud is seeing two worlds at once and acting unreasonably at ease while still having the black materia.
The Cool Stuff:
Gameplay & Music – The actual fights themselves in the boss rush are pretty fun, have a great sense of scale. Very great to interact with and can feel pretty challenging. Great job also keeping Aerith's theme still playing in the background of Jenova's first phase.
Black materia – The black materia still being in Cloud's possession after all this and needing to hide it is a neat change that doesn't require story events to be changed around too much. It'll make for some added drama next time which I'm looking forward to.
Anticipation – The fact the writers managed to form a way that made everyone truly wonder what would happen in an otherwise set-in-stone moment. Even now, it's pretty awesome to think what could happen two years on from rebirth's release. Aerith as a character alone has been exceptional too so losing her still feels bad.
The Weird Stuff:
Confusion & Perhaps Too Much Cinematic Scale Over Sadness – I can empathise with the people who don't like it as the whole segment goes for confusion instead of letting Aerith's death scene breathe. If the confusion element pays off in revelation with showing everything that truly happened, then fair enough.
Zack – This character feels like he's made out to be a big deal but I personally don't feel much towards him. Nothing against his character in general or people who like him, he just seems to kinda be there and that's it.
Personal Feelings or Gripes:
Personally, I think something this ending falls flat on for me is that the insane boss rush overshadows Aerith's death. I think one big battle with Jenova lifeclinger would've been really good and possibly some whisper amalgamation of Sephiroth would've been fine. Just those two alone would've been fine. I think the ending overall is just fine but not necessarily something I'm majorly against or love entirely.
A SMALL/SUBTLE BUT COOL THING I'D CHANGE: Also is it just me or would it have been amazing to have the party have more enraged, emotional and vengeful voice lines throughout the Jenova lifeclinger fight over the top of their normal attacks? Similar to how Barret's change in his fight with Dyne. It feels a little odd seeing hearing the characters verbally treating Jenova lifeclinger like any other big boss fight or at least that's how I see it.
This comes from a place of love for both the original game and the remake trilogy so far, this isn't an 'new bad, old good' post.
In my opinion, I feel that rebirth misses the point of this scene as it instead goes out of its way to show everything that was previously left up to interpretation.
Everything about this moment is shown firsthand to the player with no room for interpretation. Most specifically that the entire party see the midgar zolom die after it exits the water which entirely removes what made this specific moment so effective. I will say that the fight itself in rebirth is still suitably pretty difficult (on hard mode at least) just like the original, so that's pretty great.
My own little revision of this would be this:
- The midgar zolom does not die after the boss fight finishes as it instead slithers away deeper into the swamp, moreso in a show of disinterest or annoyance. To give that sense of 'wow, that thing was tough and it's barely bothered by us fighting back.'
- After some more swimming with the chocobos to get to the mythril mine, a distant muffled screech is heard.
- The party see the zolom on the tree and then the 'did Sephiroth do this?' part would still be included and make sense once arriving at the scene. Sephiroth would not be shown at all.
This comes from a place of love for both the original game and the remake trilogy so far, this isn't an 'new bad, old good' post.
In my opinion, I feel that rebirth misses the point of this scene as it instead goes out of its way to show everything that was previously left up to interpretation.
Everything about this moment is shown firsthand to the player with no room for interpretation. Most specifically that the entire party see the midgar zolom die after it exits the water which entirely removes what made this specific moment so effective. I will say that the fight itself in rebirth is still suitably pretty difficult (on hard mode at least) just like the original, so that's pretty great.
My own little revision of this would be this:
- The midgar zolom does not die after the boss fight finishes as it instead slithers away deeper into the swamp, moreso in a show of disinterest or annoyance. To give that sense of 'wow, that thing was tough and it's barely bothered by us fighting back.'
- After some more swimming with the chocobos to get to the mythril mine, a distant muffled screech is heard.
- The party see the zolom on the tree and then the 'did Sephiroth do this?' part would still be included and make sense once arriving at the scene. Sephiroth would not be shown at all.
This comes from a place of love for both the original game and the remake trilogy so far, this isn't an 'new bad, old good' post.
In my opinion, I feel that rebirth misses the point of this scene as it instead goes out of its way to show everything that was previously left up to interpretation by intention.
Everything about this moment is shown firsthand to the player with no room for interpretation. Most specifically that the entire party see the midgar zolom die after it exits the water which entirely removes what made this specific moment so effective. I will say that the fight itself in rebirth is still suitably pretty difficult (on hard mode at least) just like the original, so that's pretty great.
My own little revision of this would be this:
- The midgar zolom does not die after the boss fight finishes as it instead slithers away deeper into the swamp, moreso in a show of disinterest or annoyance. To give that sense of 'wow, that thing was tough and it's barely bothered by us fighting back.'
- After some more swimming with the chocobos to get to the mythril mine, a distant muffled screech is heard.
- The party see the zolom on the tree and then the 'did Sephiroth do this?' part would still be included and make sense once arriving at the scene. Sephiroth would not be shown at all.
I used to have the bring arts Cloud too then his arm broke off, but I didn't quite like that figure much anyway, unfortunately.
Play arts shin Cloud in the first image looks almost exactly like he does when the menu is opened in rebirth. Just felt like showing them since they might be appreciated here.
Hi there, I'm currently in my third replay of rebirth and since my last proper playthrough of it was two years ago, I'm trying to jog my memory on some stuff.
Personally from my entire experience, I used the limit level increase and infinite mp the most.
United refocus, while I didn't use it much, absolutely has its utility in that it benefits specific builds where atb generation is probably essential.
The stagger increasing one however, that is the one I've found to be unfortunately the least effective. Nice damage, but the animation length itself sometimes doesn't make the extra stagger time worth it.
How would you rank synergy abilities and why? I'd love to know.
Maybe this sounds like a bit of a lame take, but I think synergy abilities specifically, specifically NOT synergy skills, should grant immunity during the animation similar to limit breaks.
They can take a while to get online given they take 3 atb charges from two different characters and then 5 atb charges if you're considering ever doing a second one. Thankfully synergy abilities do fully stun enemies after the first hit lands so they can play out successfully, but there have been many times where an enemy can tank the damage without being stunned causing one of the characters to eat a big hit and die.
Just something I hope they change for the next game.
I know that the eyes may seem a tad too large/wide open and some of the hair bangs being a little too short for my taste. Overall, I love this figure, it's like he stepped right out of the game and is definitely a big step up from the version 2 figure. Which figure do you prefer more?