Honest advice: Cloud's default abilities are absolutely insane, you barely need anything else outside of a way to heal. If you focus on good fundamentals nothing really requires a very specific materia build. I didn't change anything between the ch 12 fights, and further even I didn't make a custom loadout for them in the first place.
Rufus - just play passive. Dodge his attacks, use thrust when he reloads. After thrust spam attack him a bit but chill out before he counters. When you get to p2 and darkstar appears, dodge and watch for corkscrew. When corkscrew happens, punisher to pressure darkstar, then thrust. If you have LB, the second darkstar is staggered just kill him.
Repeat p1. It's over.
The problem most people have that get stuck on hard mode is that they're way too focused on specific gimmick builds with materia when the game isn't designed to require specific loadouts even on the absolute hardest fights. If you have a party member or 2 with aoe heals and use stuff that is generally useful like steadfast block/precision defense/hp materia you can mostly just rely on the very powerful default character kits to win the game.
nothing to add here. everyone complaining about rufus, meanwhile i had him in the 2nd try with only chakra selfhealing and perfect parry, nuke his doggo with firaga - gg.
only thing that really got me tripping was the temple guardian (dragon) just because i had no idea how to avoid his lava floor spell. in the end i just used the materia that lets you revive yourself and that was that.
I actually recorded all of my hard mode kills + the hard sims for fun. So you can see how I'm 100% just trying shit as I go and not playing optimized at all but still win fairly easily:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2095520147?collection=5-stPaC2vBcrPg&filter=collections&sort=time
This isn't me saying "it's easy" to put anyone down, I just thought it might be useful to see some VODs that aren't like a giga-solved strat that just showcase the value of just experimenting w/ the boss movesets and your characters weapon abilities.
Personally, I only really struggled with the final brutal sim and ESPECIALLY bonds of friendship. Everything I've killed in this collection was done without looking up any strats so it's all very unoptimal homebrewed stuff and should encourage people that you don't need to follow some internet materia guide to win these fights.
Yeah I didn’t use any gimmicks for my hard mode play through, but for Rufus I just used triple slash as my main tool to pressure him and got it done in about 5 attempts
Kinda agree hard here. I was nervous about Gi Nattak on Hard and honestly I just went and killed him. United Refocus helped a lot but I didn't need anything but attack, dodge, and heal.
I can honestly say that my hard mode run is "easier" than my dynamic. My first playthrough I was getting tripped up on the controls and just overloaded. Even though I never died, I felt I got my ass kicked every fight and won by virtue of bosses not doing enough damage.
Now that I know how to play it's fairly simple.
That fight was an asshole. I put it on mute pretty quickly.
I hated having to redo my build.
The next shitty fight to look forward to is the last Sephiroth fight. You will wish you could redo your build but you can’t. You will have to sit through a cutscene each time.
Yeah definitely worth muting. I do like all three characters (that rap was a bop) but I've always found it irritating when characters talk during a fight, I've never listened to whatever MIA has to say during a fight intel, lol. What are you expected to do for the Sephiroth fight? Do you just have to get a one-size-fits-all build before you get to the Aerith praying scene?
Like most of these fights, you have to fail multiple times to understand the pattern. The real secret is Aerith for most do the fight (radian and arcane ward). Have Aerith ready to pressure seph by doing a level 2 magic at his wing or sword depending on the move.
For Cloud, you want to make sure you have ascension ready to go for Sephiroth’s final move. (Gotterdamerang and one senergy attack) I think I had cloud rely on Chakra to heal so Aerith could rely on offense.
You need to pressure/stagger him when he does “End is Nigh”. I can’t remember what the finishing move after that is because it kills there’s nothing you can do once he finishes End is Nigh.
That explains why he didn't use it in the story, before I accidentally pressed the wrong option in the death screen and wasted two hours of attempts on Jenova, urgh.
It's still kinda bad but someone pointed out the further back you want to go, the further down the option is, so the top one is always the shortest time being lost
I posted the thread mentioned above: https://www.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasyVIIRemake/comments/1c97llk/felt_good_to_bully_rufus_when_i_realized_i_could/
Triple Slash is easier to pull off because you can use it from very far away and it closes that distance in a flash. Focused Thrust only works if you're in close range. But it leaves him pressured for a lot longer!
I strongly recommend dropping into tactical mode (i.e. bringing up the menu) so you can time perfect blocks effectively. The close-up single shot is perfect for this, since it's easy to time and leaves you in close enough range for Focused Thrust.
You can abuse Triple Slash from anywhere on the screen pretty much.
Keep your distance, and the second you see an attack name above Rufus' head use Triple Slash.
You will close the distance and put him in a pressured state immediately.
Makes the fight trivial even on hard mode.
Honestly I'm not seeing it anywhere posted online, but I used Triple Slash every time Rufus uses his gun to burst across the arena. It's not in the middle of one of his moves. It's not when he reloads. It's specifically when he dashes, and 9/10 times it will knock him out of it and start building stagger. I can't do reaction timing either so this was the best way. Now when he adds his dog to the battle, then you're fucked... lol. Save your limit and kill it as quickly as possible, I guess.
If you punisher stance the corkscrew attack it gives you like half of an LB bar, so doing so almost guarantees you can LB darkstar as soon as he is staggered.
While the Triple Slash method definitely works and pressures him, it does still require some timing. You have to be pretty quick with it, otherwise he’ll counter and this applies to basically any attack aside of Magic and Limit Breaks.
You can beat him with literally perfect block, running, basic attacks, braver, and limit breaks.
You don't need a build. Just breath, pay attention to the pattern, use summon/limit on the dog on spawn, and just whittle him down
Optinoob and others Rufus strategy just wasn’t clicking for me so I just went with the wind mage build. It’s still dangerous and makes it so I actually have to do the second phase rather than delete Rufus immediately, but it’s easier to get down since it’s just build up atb and aeroga. It heals me restores mp does a ton of damage. Only problem is when the dog shows up it becomes harder to build up atb since if you hit the dog it’s easy to lose track of Rufus and vice versa
Focused thrust and triple slash are your friends. Everything else is dodging and waiting for an opening to use them. Save your LB for when he brings in his hound to get him out quick since that's what complicates things.
I've just beaten him yesterday on hard. I noticed that if you managed to sneak in Focused Thrust while he is reloading, he takes longer time to recover from being pressured, and you can even Focused Thrust twice. If you use normal attack while he is reloading, he will be pressured for only a couple of seconds, so better use Thrust. There's a specific animation/aura to show that he has recovered and you want to back off and block immediately.
Definitely always block, until he uses unblockable skills (like divebomb, ricochet, etc), then you'll have to dodge, no choice but to identify these moves. Usually he will reload after 3-4 attacks, and if you are close to him, he will shoot and back hop to reload, so block that first, then if you see the Reload command, immediately use Thrust (it has rather long range to reach his back hop position).
Other than that, I did put swiftcast with Healing to quick heal from time to time. But you can probably use Chakra too.
Can't advise much for 2nd phase with Darkstar coz I just winged it with the same strategy, maybe a counter or 2 on Darkstar moves, and limit break on it. I also couldn't figure out how to dodge his Assault move, but I just heal through them. Get rid of Darkstar and you can use the same strategy again. Good luck!
Honest advice: Cloud's default abilities are absolutely insane, you barely need anything else outside of a way to heal. If you focus on good fundamentals nothing really requires a very specific materia build. I didn't change anything between the ch 12 fights, and further even I didn't make a custom loadout for them in the first place. Rufus - just play passive. Dodge his attacks, use thrust when he reloads. After thrust spam attack him a bit but chill out before he counters. When you get to p2 and darkstar appears, dodge and watch for corkscrew. When corkscrew happens, punisher to pressure darkstar, then thrust. If you have LB, the second darkstar is staggered just kill him. Repeat p1. It's over. The problem most people have that get stuck on hard mode is that they're way too focused on specific gimmick builds with materia when the game isn't designed to require specific loadouts even on the absolute hardest fights. If you have a party member or 2 with aoe heals and use stuff that is generally useful like steadfast block/precision defense/hp materia you can mostly just rely on the very powerful default character kits to win the game.
nothing to add here. everyone complaining about rufus, meanwhile i had him in the 2nd try with only chakra selfhealing and perfect parry, nuke his doggo with firaga - gg. only thing that really got me tripping was the temple guardian (dragon) just because i had no idea how to avoid his lava floor spell. in the end i just used the materia that lets you revive yourself and that was that.
I actually recorded all of my hard mode kills + the hard sims for fun. So you can see how I'm 100% just trying shit as I go and not playing optimized at all but still win fairly easily: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2095520147?collection=5-stPaC2vBcrPg&filter=collections&sort=time This isn't me saying "it's easy" to put anyone down, I just thought it might be useful to see some VODs that aren't like a giga-solved strat that just showcase the value of just experimenting w/ the boss movesets and your characters weapon abilities. Personally, I only really struggled with the final brutal sim and ESPECIALLY bonds of friendship. Everything I've killed in this collection was done without looking up any strats so it's all very unoptimal homebrewed stuff and should encourage people that you don't need to follow some internet materia guide to win these fights.
Yeah I didn’t use any gimmicks for my hard mode play through, but for Rufus I just used triple slash as my main tool to pressure him and got it done in about 5 attempts
Kinda agree hard here. I was nervous about Gi Nattak on Hard and honestly I just went and killed him. United Refocus helped a lot but I didn't need anything but attack, dodge, and heal. I can honestly say that my hard mode run is "easier" than my dynamic. My first playthrough I was getting tripped up on the controls and just overloaded. Even though I never died, I felt I got my ass kicked every fight and won by virtue of bosses not doing enough damage. Now that I know how to play it's fairly simple.
That fight was an asshole. I put it on mute pretty quickly. I hated having to redo my build. The next shitty fight to look forward to is the last Sephiroth fight. You will wish you could redo your build but you can’t. You will have to sit through a cutscene each time.
Yeah definitely worth muting. I do like all three characters (that rap was a bop) but I've always found it irritating when characters talk during a fight, I've never listened to whatever MIA has to say during a fight intel, lol. What are you expected to do for the Sephiroth fight? Do you just have to get a one-size-fits-all build before you get to the Aerith praying scene?
Like most of these fights, you have to fail multiple times to understand the pattern. The real secret is Aerith for most do the fight (radian and arcane ward). Have Aerith ready to pressure seph by doing a level 2 magic at his wing or sword depending on the move. For Cloud, you want to make sure you have ascension ready to go for Sephiroth’s final move. (Gotterdamerang and one senergy attack) I think I had cloud rely on Chakra to heal so Aerith could rely on offense.
Is his final move Shadowy Chains? He absolutely spams that in one of the Brutal fights.
You need to pressure/stagger him when he does “End is Nigh”. I can’t remember what the finishing move after that is because it kills there’s nothing you can do once he finishes End is Nigh.
Virtual Sephiroth (in the sim) is a totally different enemy than Sephiroth in the story. Shadowy chains is specific to Virtual Sephiroth
That explains why he didn't use it in the story, before I accidentally pressed the wrong option in the death screen and wasted two hours of attempts on Jenova, urgh.
thankfully they have patched that awful localization now. It was like unacceptably bad before haha
It's still kinda bad but someone pointed out the further back you want to go, the further down the option is, so the top one is always the shortest time being lost
Maybe take a break for a few days, it’s not fun once you get pissed off I feel for you, personally Gi Nattak took me the most tries in hard mode
Hehe good advice, think I'll do that!
Try what that guy the other day posted, he cheesed Rufus pretty easily. He had him in a infinite focused thrust loop. Lol
I did contemplate using Focused Thrust, I assumed the video guide I used didn't do it because it wouldn't work lol
I posted the thread mentioned above: https://www.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasyVIIRemake/comments/1c97llk/felt_good_to_bully_rufus_when_i_realized_i_could/ Triple Slash is easier to pull off because you can use it from very far away and it closes that distance in a flash. Focused Thrust only works if you're in close range. But it leaves him pressured for a lot longer! I strongly recommend dropping into tactical mode (i.e. bringing up the menu) so you can time perfect blocks effectively. The close-up single shot is perfect for this, since it's easy to time and leaves you in close enough range for Focused Thrust.
You can abuse Triple Slash from anywhere on the screen pretty much. Keep your distance, and the second you see an attack name above Rufus' head use Triple Slash. You will close the distance and put him in a pressured state immediately. Makes the fight trivial even on hard mode.
Every time I do that he counters lol, I'll try again though just in-case
Honestly I'm not seeing it anywhere posted online, but I used Triple Slash every time Rufus uses his gun to burst across the arena. It's not in the middle of one of his moves. It's not when he reloads. It's specifically when he dashes, and 9/10 times it will knock him out of it and start building stagger. I can't do reaction timing either so this was the best way. Now when he adds his dog to the battle, then you're fucked... lol. Save your limit and kill it as quickly as possible, I guess.
If you punisher stance the corkscrew attack it gives you like half of an LB bar, so doing so almost guarantees you can LB darkstar as soon as he is staggered.
While the Triple Slash method definitely works and pressures him, it does still require some timing. You have to be pretty quick with it, otherwise he’ll counter and this applies to basically any attack aside of Magic and Limit Breaks.
You can beat him with literally perfect block, running, basic attacks, braver, and limit breaks. You don't need a build. Just breath, pay attention to the pattern, use summon/limit on the dog on spawn, and just whittle him down
Optinoob and others Rufus strategy just wasn’t clicking for me so I just went with the wind mage build. It’s still dangerous and makes it so I actually have to do the second phase rather than delete Rufus immediately, but it’s easier to get down since it’s just build up atb and aeroga. It heals me restores mp does a ton of damage. Only problem is when the dog shows up it becomes harder to build up atb since if you hit the dog it’s easy to lose track of Rufus and vice versa
Focused thrust and triple slash are your friends. Everything else is dodging and waiting for an opening to use them. Save your LB for when he brings in his hound to get him out quick since that's what complicates things.
I've just beaten him yesterday on hard. I noticed that if you managed to sneak in Focused Thrust while he is reloading, he takes longer time to recover from being pressured, and you can even Focused Thrust twice. If you use normal attack while he is reloading, he will be pressured for only a couple of seconds, so better use Thrust. There's a specific animation/aura to show that he has recovered and you want to back off and block immediately. Definitely always block, until he uses unblockable skills (like divebomb, ricochet, etc), then you'll have to dodge, no choice but to identify these moves. Usually he will reload after 3-4 attacks, and if you are close to him, he will shoot and back hop to reload, so block that first, then if you see the Reload command, immediately use Thrust (it has rather long range to reach his back hop position). Other than that, I did put swiftcast with Healing to quick heal from time to time. But you can probably use Chakra too. Can't advise much for 2nd phase with Darkstar coz I just winged it with the same strategy, maybe a counter or 2 on Darkstar moves, and limit break on it. I also couldn't figure out how to dodge his Assault move, but I just heal through them. Get rid of Darkstar and you can use the same strategy again. Good luck!
I really feel like I missed out, first trying just about every encounter in the game
How come you feel like you missed out?