[Retr0gamer]

Originally Posted by RedXIV

As I recall, Materia Keeper is next who can knock 500HP off everyone at once with Trine magic so perhaps that may lead her to focus more on defence

If she's got Cure all set she'll be fine. If she has enemy magic materia she can throw that crap back in his face

[RedXIV]

Originally Posted by Retr0gamer

If she's got Cure all set she'll be fine. If she has enemy magic materia she can throw that crap back in his face

That reminds me! She was looking at enemy skill, extremely annoyed at the fact she still only has two (Flamethrower and Frog Song) and has been trying to figure out how to get more. And then she came out with the startlingly astute deduction of using manipulate materia.

Now she hasn't quite mastered it yet, she attacks them after manipulating them (going back to the idea that enemies with their back to you take more damage) but she's on the right track with this!

I do think I'd like her to lose, just once or twice more in the game, a game over here and there really makes you reassess your strategy (and knocks confidence back towards human levels)

[Retr0gamer]

You don't want to put her off the game either though

Wait until she gets to Wutai. I had trouble there with the normal enemies when Yuffie took my materia. It's more of a high level optional area for later on but if you take it on right after getting the plane/ship then it can be difficult. Saying that she's probably well able to deal with it at her levels. Maybe you could be sneaky and berate her when she inevitably accidently collides with Emerald Weapon and tell her he's a cake walk

I honestly don't see her having any trouble for a while now unless she decides to do the pagoda challenge. Those enemies are more puzzles than battles and since she is unfamiliar with the FF system the later ones might have her stumped. Maybe Demon Wall? Although the only people that have trouble with him are the ones that run away from most battles before him. If she keeps her levels that way and doesn't panic she should destroy him as well.

[Draupnir]

Originally Posted by Retr0gamer

It's more of a high level optional area for later on but if you take it on right after getting the plane/ship then it can be difficult

True that, I gave up FF7 for about two months when Yuffie nicked my materia and everyone was killing me in simple random battle. I hadn't in any way realized that players could be developed by battling at that point of my life so my chars were at the bare minimum levels for the different areas.

[Aurongroove]

Yuffie isn't going to be a popular chicken once that chapter is over...

I had simply the most epic battle in the word against that bird thing yer man sets on you in a recent play through.
I think I killed him after cloud alone (other teams mates dead) had ran out of ways of healing 1300+ Hp in one go and I literally used my last attacking item (an S-mine I believe) and it just killed him.

the fight lasted about 25 minutes too. I was so under levelled every attack the bird thing dealt killed one team mate per turn except cloud who had about 1500hp (hp plus) and thus could survive one hit.

[Pure Loonamus]

If you want to give her a bit of a challenge, I would tell her to go into the battle arena in the golden saucer(if it is available yet), it can be tough and a good way to get to know the different things that can be thrown at you, and will teach you how to defend against them(frog, small, slow etc). She might also die(but not really )

Thread is awesome btw, brings back some great memories

[RedXIV]

Really short update here guys

We got into the cave with the pipes and the materia keeper and unfortunately she went straight into the first pipe, meaning she didn't get a chance to knock the ladder down to get back up afterwards. The first pipe also drops you in front of materia keeper himself but she was wise enough to take a few steps back and go to the nearby save point. After a few attempts to get back up to the pipes she resigned herself to the inevitable and walked into the Materia Keeper.

Another great boss battle here, almost immediately she received the Trine enemy skill. By the time I'd looked over to see her fighting Materia Keeper, she had already cast Bio and Seal Evil on it rendering it almost useless. She was doing fantastic until I realised she wasn't getting the implication of the colour of the numbers on screen. She cast Fire2 about 8 or 9 times on him, curing him each time, as well as accidentally casting cure2 on him. She also cast Quake which I believe also cures him but I couldn't see it properly. On more than one occasion in the battle was she reduced to one character, usually Aeris. Aeris appears to be her rock, as long as she's alive she seems perfectly capable of bringing people back, she'll wait until she gets a limit break (which at level 1, is quite fast) and then cast seal evil, freezing her opponent giving her time to revive and cure her comrades.

It was close a few times but she did eventually beat him first time. BUT, on a brighter note, after her battle (and a save and tent) she went into a random battle with a Dragon who wiped her out! The dose of humility has been successfully administered! I can't really knock her attempts at strategy as shes using everything, she tries sleep, mini, toad and bio on all bosses, she hasn't been using haste as much as she should but she's using it and she's throwing in the occasional Deathblow and steal/sense.

So at the moment she's just finished in the mountains and is soon to be heading towards rocket town where she'll get some joke boss fights but then its on to Wutai where the materia stealing episode may cause alot more trouble than expected

[Retr0gamer]

Might be worth telling her what the colour of the numbers means, she should have got it by now, unless you still want her to keep going through it with no help?

[RedXIV]

Originally Posted by Retr0gamer

Might be worth telling her what the colour of the numbers means, she should have got it by now, unless you still want her to keep going through it with no help?

Yeah I probably should. Thing is, she's gone woefully cocky and to be fair, it says all this in the manual which I've told her to read about 15 times so I'll let her crack on.

Yes I am that kind of a jerk

[Retr0gamer]

The two headed dragon will teach her a lesson I'd say

[noodler]

Tell her to steal gold armlets from those dragons. Best you can get at that stage of the game.

Or don't tell her as the case may be!

[ride-the-spiral]

Originally Posted by RedXIV

Really short update here guys

Another great boss battle here, almost immediately she received the Trine enemy skill. By the time I'd looked over to see her fighting Materia Keeper, she had already cast Bio and Seal Evil on it rendering it almost useless. She was doing fantastic until I realised she wasn't getting the implication of the colour of the numbers on screen. She cast Fire2 about 8 or 9 times on him, curing him each time, as well as accidentally casting cure2 on him. She also cast Quake which I believe also cures him but I couldn't see it properly. On more than one occasion in the battle was she reduced to one character, usually Aeris. Aeris appears to be her rock, as long as she's alive she seems perfectly capable of bringing people back, she'll wait until she gets a limit break (which at level 1, is quite fast) and then cast seal evil, freezing her opponent giving her time to revive and cure her comrades.

End of disc one's gonna go down well

[RedXIV]

Ok so when I got home last night she was already in Rocket town after leaving Mt. Nibel. We'd been speaking over email about her getting there and I told her how much I like the character of Cid in this game, probably because I spent so much time stuck before getting to him and I think he's probably one of the most likable characters in the game.

We obviously have completely different tastes as Ms RedXIV is very unimpressed with the sexist pig that is Cid and how he treats his wife (as she has perceived Shera already). I had also jokingly put Cid into the ring as a name to give our son born last year (along with Ryu, Zack and Dante) and the look of disgust she gave me with "You wanted to name our son after HIM!?" after Cid's outbursts at Shera. Obviously we have a long way to go before we begin to enjoy his rascally nature. The fight with Palmer went as expected, the guy is not really a challenge and the end of the fight is probably the most random thing that happens in the entire game. So with relative ease, she finished off Palmer and the FMV where the crew get the Tiny Bronco is played.

This was the moment that we all knew would tell a lot about how she played the game. She obviously is craving some sense of direction as she flat out told me that I had to tell her where to go with the Tiny Bronco so I pointed out the western continent and told her to go there. She landed on the beach in Wutai, with Yuffie in her party and proceeded up the cliff where you see Yuffie's ambush. The roar of frustration and accusation after the fight with just Cloud and Aeris to fend off two soldiers and she checked her materia to see it all gone. Now remember, she's not a gamer so her first reaction was "30 hours of fighting to waste?! for this?! what a load of BALLS!!" followed by "This is all YOUR fault!! You told me to get Yuffie and look what she did!" with a finger pointed right at me and then "You've been waiting for this haven't you!?". We have one seriously unhappy camper here. Even more so when the very next fight she got in resulted in a game over and she realised she hadn't saved since her fight with Materia Keeper.

While an unfortunate way to find out, at least she now knows the benefit of saving often and after any big event. In Mt. Nibel she half considered not bothering looking around to get the materia again ("Whats the point, its all going to be taken again!") but in the end decided to do it anyway on the hope that she would get it all returned to her at some stage.

At this point I should point out, no, I didn't tell her you get all the materia back. In hindsight as I write this maybe I should, it seemed obvious to me back then that the game was hardly going to confiscate all the materia permanently but she may not be aware of this.

Once again she flew through Rocket town, this time however stocking up on high potions, phoneix downs and nearly ethers until she realised there is no point in getting them Got slightly annoyed at the fact you can't skip much of the story but suffered through and beat Palmer. She had Yuffie in her team again and I'm not sure if it was deliberate or not but after the fight with Palmer, Yuffie was the only team member dead.

She since went with Barret as a team member to replace Yuffie and this time was well prepared for the hike to Wutai. In Wutai, she saw Yuffie and chased after her, but she still is bearing a grudge and quite annoyed throughout the process, rather than enjoying basically a game of hide and seek. She has left it here in disgust after Yuffie drops out of the ceiling to steal your newly acquired MP Absorb materia. It may be tough to get her back into this game. But yeah, Yuffie vs Cait Sith vs Cid for the bottom spot has been white washed by the hatred for Yuffie at the moment Ah the memories this game brings is awesome

[Mindkiller]

The Yuffie section should really be skipped the first time through imo, at least until disc 2. If you're not overlevelled you're going to have a tough time of it getting to Wutai and beating Raps or Aps or whatever he's called. Those birds with the lightning attack are a pain.

[noodler]

..........I think you can at least remind her to save man!

I think all the challenge and benefits of Wutai are goen by disc 2 so would urge her to go on.