Board 8 > FFVII Rebirth SPOILERS AHOY

(+) Yeah! (+)

Brutal VR fights done. Those last two fights were a huge bitch. Time to figure out how to do the remaining legendary ones.

Yeah I finally managed to beat Clouds legendary fight and I have a feeling the others are going to be so much worse. Anyone else do these before hard mode?

I destroyed Rulers of the Outer Worlds in 4:11 earlier with the Yuffie/Aerith ATB Ward + Brumal Form + Firagas spam of doom strat. This approach also trivialises any boss fight in the main game on Hard mode where you have access to Yuffie.

I thought I'd describe it in detail and leave some tips below for anyone who wants to win and can't be bothered putting in the time to learn the block timing on Shadowy Chains. I still need to do Chapter 14 and the Legendaries for the Plat.

My loadout:
Yuffie:
Weapon & Armor: Crescent Sickle + Hades Armlet. [Weapon skills: Opening ATB Bonus, ATB Charge Rate Up; others didn't matter]
Materia: First Strike, HP Up, Speed Up, ATB Assist, Vitality Up, Spirit Up, Healing; Ele <> Fire (on armor) [other slots didn't contribute anything]
Accessory: Speed Demon Keychain (mandatory)

Aerith:
Weapon & Armor: Ceremonial Staff + Cetran Armlet [Weapon skills: Enduring Ward, MATK + 20, Fire Damage Up, Reprieve]
Materia: Magic Focus <> Fire and Ice, Swiftcast <> Fire; Ele <> Fire, MP Absorption <> Fire; HP Up, First Strike, Magic Up [Enemy Skill would be good for the 5% magic up; I forgot it]
Accessory: Genji Gloves

Cloud:
Weapon & Armor: Rune Blade + Cetran Bracer [Weapon skills: Full Power Magic; MATK + 20; ATB Charge Rate Up]
Materia: MP Absorption <> Lightning, Magnify <> Empowerment, Healing; HP Up; Magic Focus <> Lightning and Wind; Magnify <> Time; Ele <> Fire; STR Up; ATK<->MATK
Accessory: Chocoking's Cape

General tips:
- The first few seconds of fights are absolutely critical. You want Yuffie to be leader, Aerith to be in position 2 (to the right), and Cloud/Barret in 3. You run to the left behind the 3rd character, keeping an eye on which enemies have aggro'd you and instantly casting Haste with Cloud and ATB Ward with Aerith (on Yuffie). You need both up for the ATB generation to work. The point of the strat is to use Brumal Form on ATB Ward to generate ATB for the other two party members, and for them to spam -ga spells to blow up the enemies quickly while using MP Absorption to sustain themselves (while Yuffie will probably draw/evade a lot of aggro). To that end Faith (especially) and Arcane Ward can be useful. Brumal Form needs to be on a spammable shortcut.

- You need to practice it a fair bit to get slick with the inputs; if you can reliably go into the command menu when you are in the air to cast spells with other party members it greatly reduces the chance of Yuffie getting hit between Brumals. Obviously have the command menu on its maximum slowdown setting. It's a very simple strat though once you get used to it though.

- There is some RNG. One is that the amount of ATB First Strike gives is somewhat random; sometimes Aerith won't have a block till a couple of seconds after the start, which delays getting ATB Ward up and increases the risk of interruption. Gilgamesh can CC you with Silence or Frog (found this to be rare though).

- While Yuffie/Aerith/Barret is great for learning the strat as Barret is tanky, and if you put Steelskin/Lifesaver/Barrier/etc. on him there's less chance of things falling apart in fights 1-4, Barret's low MP pool and lower offensive power hurt against Sephiroth and increase the risk of him getting Shadowy Chains off. I preferred the faster runs with Cloud; I got to Sephiroth four times in a row before winning.

- Offense is often the best defence. If you are barely hanging on getting one or two -gas off can be enough to stagger and recover. This happened in my winning run against Gilgamesh. I took the focus on offense to heart and gave Aerith the Genji Gloves and Cloud Strength Up + MATK <> ATK (the materia swaps Strength and Magic, despite it's name - so you basically turn Strength Up into a second Magic Up with it). I didn't even bother with Revive materia - to be honest while recovery if someone dies is possible, it's so difficult and slow I preferred to restart unless I was going to win anyway.

1st fight (Kujata + Phoenix): This is basically a training session since with Ele-Fire on everyone they aren't killing you. The only thing that can really go wrong is if Kujata aligns to fire, but with the level of offensive power Cloud and Aerith pack he should never live long enough to do it.

2nd fight (Titan + Bahamut): Prioritise Titan first as he can give himself a whole bunch of resistances (including fire) if he lives long enough. They generously spend their first turns casting shields so you will pretty much always get ATB Ward off on Yuffie and Haste-all, greatly increasing your chances of winning, then they'll both get pressured (and stunned) once you break their shields. Bahamut is no joke however, and can kill Yuffie if you mess up. Thankfully he will eventually switch to charging up with Particle Charge and this strat murders the wings instantly, pressuring him. One other thing that can go wrong is Bahamut using an AoE move at the start which disrupts Aerith's ATB Ward cast.

3rd fight (Odin + Alexander): I don't think I ever lost this fight without making a very bad error; this strat dominates it. Odin will probably start by throwing Soaring Spear, but you should be able to cast Haste + ATB Ward even before dodging it (you can just book it left and outrun it - the only way to get hit is to dodge roll too early). Cloud can throw up AoE Faith but don't even bother with Arcane Ward - just whack him with 2 or 3 -gas and he'll Vanish. It's basically over at that point. When Alexander was staggered Cloud's Thundaras were hitting for 9999. Only threat is wasting ATB on spells that get ignored due to Odin's cutscenes when he comes back, but even if that happens you probably win anyway (but you want to be healed to full for next fight)

4th fight (Gilgamesh): He has lots of attacks and is very aggressive. He must aggro Yuffie so you can get ATB Ward and Haste off. Thankfully most of his moves are fairly short range combos so he rarely interrupted Aerith. Again, I didn't bother with Arcane Ward until later into and attacked immediately after thowing up Faith as knocking out his weapons weakens and briefly stuns him. Even if you get hit prioritise pushing damage. If he does combo Yuffie you can swap to Aerith or Cloud to distract him then jump back to start generating ATB again. When you stagger him use the time for Yuffie to pump out a Cura/ga or two in between ATB charging. Cutscenes run if he's low and alive when he exits stagger so take care not to throw spells into the ether (can happen vs. Odin too).

5th fight (Virtual Sephiroth): I was trying builds based on tanking Shadowy Chains -> Octaslash and kept losing. But then I realised something so obvious that won it for me - you can interrupt his Shadowy Chains' cast animation with a -ga spell! And therefore he can be killed without ever casting it. So the first couple of seconds must go correctly; aggro him on Yuffie, get Haste and ATB Ward up and use Brumal Form to evade his first round of attacks (he almost always does a very fast dash in for a combo after a couple of seconds of running at the start) and start generating ATB. Then Cloud and Aerith can start the -ga spam - but be careful to make sure there's a bit of a gap in when the spells land to maximise the stunlock they generate (this happens naturally if they both cast at the same time due to Swiftcast on Aerith); I deliberately had Cloud throw out Faith to de-sync them with Aerith going first. If you get the stunlock going it's over unless you make a bad error; if he gets Shadowy Chains off it's over for you unless you can block it (I did this like 1 time in c.8 attempts; so bad). Just remember to switch to Blizzaga and Thundaga once he casts Affinity Fire and enters the second phase.

Video of the idea being demonstrated, which you might have already seen a variant of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2OIhl6KDnw

Reading that made me lose interest in going for the platinum lol. Holy shit that sounds miserable. I like hard stuff in games but it feels like they went kinda overboard with the brutal and legendary challenges.

But maybe I just need the stat boosts from max materia and max weapons? How significant is the boost for level 9 weapons?

Weapon levels help but I don't think they make a huge difference in most cases (maybe if a really valuable skill is unlocked). Maxxing materia will do more. There are lots of ways of winning the fights though beyond the method I described above, just that most of them either take a lot longer (e.g. the PowerPyx recommended strat is based on tanking all the damage with Barret/Cloud/Red, but it'll take an hour) or require at least some reactive timing skills/perfect parrying.

Edit: And yes I think they've gone too far with this stuff. I don't mind the difficulty, but does everything need to be a 5- or 10-round endurance run?! Staking that much time completely disincentivises taking risks or experimenting since even 5 runs could take up most of your evening. Weiss was great fun. FFXIII still has the best post-game in an FF I think (characterised by relatively short and intense battles).

Yeah Weiss was the perfect difficulty level for this kinda game. So I don't need to fight 5 Weiss level bosses back to back.

Also most of these fights are just hard because you're getting blasted and interrupted by off screen stuff which sucks.

I think in general the move away from area/space-based combat towards reaction-based combat doesn't stress this battle system's strengths (if anything, it stresses its weaknesses and forces the player to look to exploit them). I find myself cursing the camera angle and the frequent cuts away from my character to in-battle cutscenes a lot more than I did when I could afford to be a bit slower. Fights like Air Buster, (Hard) Eligor, Ghoul and Arsenal in Remake were better on a conceptual level than anything in this game. My advice to the devs would be "don't try to make Bloodborne or Devil May Cry, cause you ain't gonna"!

Two other general tips which people might not have picked up but I think really matter on Hard/in the post-game:

1. A lot of synergy abilities stun-lock enemies, even bosses (the "Refocus" abilities don't, but most of the rest do, some for quite long periods). So don't sit there watching the animation - swap to the third character and get in some free ATB charging or spells.
2. Whenever a character you are controlling gets hit/knocked-up, swap to another character instead of waiting for them to recover. The AI will fairly quickly switch aggro to the character you've swapped to, but in the interim you get free time to charge ATB or act as the other character (you are far more efficient than the AI at attacking/building ATB).

Oh I made it to the Brutal Challenge with the worms. Lose a party member and it's over. I would have prefered if they just split up the 10 rounds into two challenges of 5.

Kotetsu534 posted...

FFXIII still has the best post-game in an FF I think (characterised by relatively short and intense battles).

Walking around to 60+ waystones that tell you to go to the other side of the map...for one try.

I'm pretty sure you could save/reload before most fights in FFXIII? Presumably intended behaviour since you were given limited quantities of critical items if I'm remembering right (those aerosols that give you buffs). If you could save your state during a gauntlet this would be much less time consuming.

Save/warp points weren't that convenient so just trekking across stuff was annoying.

Kotetsu534 posted...

I'm pretty sure you could save/reload before most fights in FFXIII?

Not save, just retry as long as you don't actually win. But if you got 4 stars when you were going for 5...

I think the battles were good though.

Yes I had a lot of other problems with FFXIII's design, but I got really into its battle system.

Having just finished Hard mode and watched all the scenes in Chapter 13 and 14 again, I liked them quite a bit more with more of an idea of what was going on. Still think it's a mess, but the visceral negative reaction I had the first time has lapsed. Leaning towards "kernel of a decent idea but very badly executed" and away from "utter butchery". I hope they major on commit to Cloud's mental breakdown and how the rest of the party deals with it in game 3; they've spent most of the back third of this game building up the degradation of his mental state; need to do something with it now.

As for the boss rush itself, I actually quite liked it, but only because I had a lot of prior knowledge to work around some baffling design decisions (multiple cheap moves in one fight + no ability to change loadouts for your party members). I think I counted 9 separate fights, albeit at least 4 are against the same HP bar with different party members.

Now for the legendaries...

I think the inclusion of mobile game Cloud Dad is probably the most egregiously awful aspect of it all somehow. It made cutting away to Rufus something to dread rather than anticipated.

At least that's who I assume that guy is! Everyone told me it was.

I died on 9/10 of a brutal fight and wasted 15 minutes so yeah I think I'm moving on without the platinum. Great game overall but damn they need to chill on these combat sims.

Yeah I was immediately discouraged from trying those challenges when I saw they were 10 rounds.

It's just cruel to make them so long. Maybe one day I'll have the patience for them but eh

Ready for the post game:

https://twitter.com/TarvouldsQuest/status/1771665125201559677?t=yyLVklzquqv8QL7j7ws4BQ&s=19

Rufus was so goddamn hard and felt so much relief when it was over.

Only to be greeted by the bullshit of Ultimate Party Animal Colisseum. It's the most unfun thing ever.

Alright I was able to clear the Party Animal sidequest by using Brumal Yuffie exploit. The double joker + toad fight was still ridiculous

All solo legendaries done. I will be happy not to play as Cait Sith again for, oh, five years. I got pretty close to a rage during a row of deaths to the Mindflayer. Enjoyed the other six sets of fights though. Felt like the game could have used some more tuition on the nuances of the characters' kits ahead of this point, but so be it.

Now the the duos...

But Cait is the most fun character to play. You're crazy.

Cait recovery is a pain

I found the most effective way to play him was to drop the moogle and then run away and hope it acted as a decoy while I got in some pot shots and ATB from a distance. Not really the most exciting gameplay loop compared to the rest.

One duo (To Be a Hero) down, one to go... might come back tomorrow as I'm tired and that was pretty stressful at the end.

I just realized there's a walled off snowboard minigame in Gold Saucer. We so coming back in part 3 for more minigame madness.

BK_Sheikah00 posted...

I just realized there's a walled off snowboard minigame in Gold Saucer. We so coming back in part 3 for more minigame madness.

I think there was also a comment saying it was in the middle of expanding and adding new stuff so that seems like a fair assumption

And that's the Plat. Glad those gauntlets are all in the past. I hope they tone down the endurance challenges next time, the harder 10-round Brutals and Legendaries plus RotOW were over the top IMO.

Hard Mode beat. What a difference it makes when Aerith is actually decked out with all her moves/items and not be completely useless. Still, fuck whoever made the scenes unskippable each time for each phase

Now to figure out how the fuck to do Cloud/Zack challenge

I used the Aeroga build that's going around.

Spoilers in video and text below for a method to win Bonds of Friendship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvNzI4VEkAI

I swapped out Enemy Skill for Revive which I don't think I actually used on my winning run, but did bail me out on a couple of earlier runs.

You are squishy, but with Genji Gloves and Magic Focus'd Aerogas with Faith on you blow enemies up very quickly while sustaining yourself so the runs become fast. With a bit of practice rounds 1-8 will soon become largely busywork (except occasionally 4 can get lucky bursts on you), round 9 is fairly repeatable once you figure out the right tempo to adopt (Hold ATB for the wings, then one Aerora each to blow them up, then get your licks in). I think if you get good enough at fight 5 you could probably ditch the Ele-Fire & Ice for stat boosts or w/e - didn't feel like I needed it once I got slick at handling him.

Kotetsu534 posted...

I used the Aeroga build that's going around.

Just to be clear (since the video didn't include the loadout): hp absorb, mp absorb, swiftcast and magic focus? Do multiple magic focuses stack? I'm assuming Lightning+Wind is paired with swiftcast? I always dismissed the absorbs but I guess with genji and the faith/fury boosts it's really a full hp/mp refresh...

125 hours, did everything except for the gilgamesh island super battles and that one quest that got glitched with the recent patch. looks like I might be able to do it easy in chapter selection.

wow. this game was PERFECT. really blown away by everything. this might be the last AAA console jrpg we get of this quality based on where the market is headed. couldn't have asked for a better game to go out on.

I'm also not convinced that "our" Aerith is actually dead.

1. In a game that makes it very clear that it understands the iconic moments in the source material the scene where cloud lowers Aerith's body into the water isn't included. We get everyone sitting by the edge being sad, but not this. It's omission seems really telling.
2. Cid randomly asks "what did Aerith actually do" or something in the very end.
3. No one actually says "I can't believe she's dead" or anything like that
4. Cloud can not only see Aerith and have conversations with her, but he also sees the big scar in the sky that no one else can

So it's possible that it's a "two worlds overlapping" thing going. It's for sure meant to be ambiguous at least.

Also I thought for sure Lodbrok was going to be cloud's dad or old cloud from an alternate timeline all the way until the ending, so don't listen to me

Kotetsu534 posted...

I used the Aeroga build that's going around.

Spoilers in video and text below for a method to win Bonds of Friendship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvNzI4VEkAI

I swapped out Enemy Skill for Revive which I don't think I actually used on my winning run, but did bail me out on a couple of earlier runs.

You are squishy, but with Genji Gloves and Magic Focus'd Aerogas with Faith on you blow enemies up very quickly while sustaining yourself so the runs become fast. With a bit of practice rounds 1-8 will soon become largely busywork (except occasionally 4 can get lucky bursts on you), round 9 is fairly repeatable once you figure out the right tempo to adopt (Hold ATB for the wings, then one Aerora each to blow them up, then get your licks in). I think if you get good enough at fight 5 you could probably ditch the Ele-Fire & Ice for stat boosts or w/e - didn't feel like I needed it once I got slick at handling him.

Well that was sure helpful. Got to round 9 on it for initial go once used to it only to get screwed by Gigaflare (manaward didn't save me like it did with Alex). The magic one wasn't fully upgraded so might work on that first.

MartinFF7 posted...

Just to be clear (since the video didn't include the loadout): hp absorb, mp absorb, swiftcast and magic focus? Do multiple magic focuses stack? I'm assuming Lightning+Wind is paired with swiftcast? I always dismissed the absorbs but I guess with genji and the faith/fury boosts it's really a full hp/mp refresh...

Yep that's the right idea - link (maxed) MP Absorb, HP Absorb, Magic Focus and Swiftcast to the same Wind materia and throw on Ele-Fire & Ice to absorb those elements. Remainder of slots given to HP Up, Magic Up, Enemy Skill (for magic and HP up), ATB Boost. And that's exactly the idea - you can heal with your own attacks so it becomes a game of quickly using Prime Mode (with ATB Boost) to grab 2 MP bars, putting up Haste and Faith with Zack, then blasting huge damage + healing with Aeroga (obviously Genji Gloves are hugely valuable as the damage during stagger goes way over 9999).

I don't know if 2x Magic Focus would stack, but the fact I haven't seen anyone try suggests it almost certainly doesn't. I can't check just now.

Checked and it doesn't double stack. Genji Glove also doesn't let that characters' Summon break the damage cap.

colliding posted...

I'm also not convinced that "our" Aerith is actually dead.

There has to be something more to what went on than "Cloud tried to save Aerith, but it turns out fate is unstoppable even when acted against." That's somewhat nihilistic for a big JRPG.

Kotetsu534 posted...

Checked and it doesn't double stack. Genji Glove also doesn't let that characters' Summon break the damage cap.

There has to be something more to what went on than "Cloud tried to save Aerith, but it turns out fate is unstoppable even when acted against." That's somewhat nihilistic for a big JRPG.

Yeah. As a big fan of Twin Peaks: The Return, I'm all about artists refusing to give audiences the ending/expectations they want. I think ambiguous endings are typically better than happy ones. If the devs wanted to do this, they would've. They're setting up a revival/reunion payoff for the third game I think.

No one knows for sure, but I definitely think it's a lot more than "Cloud's crazy and just seeing things" or "it's Jenova." Like Red XIII acknowledges Aerith's presence (kinda sorta).

I think Aerith has to "die" so that they can actually do the rest of FF7 without major changes. But I think that we'll definitely save her at the end of part 3 somehow.

Most of the narrative for FF7 has been the same as the original so I don't think they want to completely change the outline for part 3.

So yeah be prepared for some time travel or something.

I was enamored right up through Costa del Sol, then hated most of the game through Nibel, then loved every minute afterwards and was both cheering and crying multiple times by the end of the game. i have no idea what to rate it

main things I hated were Dyne and Red's voice lol

from the gold saucer date onwards they really got the emotional hooks back in me and i forgot all about which minigames i hated and the fact nothing happened for 30 hours and that gongaga didn't need to be a region

Everything about Gongaga was suffering.

Eliminate this from the game entirely and it's a better game.

That Tifa in the weapon shit was so unbelievably lame.

Gongaga area theme was a banger at least! Which I suppose is still only 3rd best next to direct-main-theme Grasslands and Nibel...

I guess they needed the Tifa lifestream dive to introduce the warring whisper factions, but yeah... takes a chunk out of the Mideel segment in next game? Though assume they will rework that anyhow (probably also including more new stuff/more "worlds" narrative dumping)

Kotetsu534 posted...

Checked and it doesn't double stack. Genji Glove also doesn't let that characters' Summon break the damage cap.

Yeah makes sense. Well, thanks for checking!

Gongaga > Junon > Grasslands > Corel > Nibel > Cosmo Canyon

Year of Cissnei let's goo

colliding posted...

wow. this game was PERFECT. really blown away by everything. this might be the last AAA console jrpg we get of this quality based on where the market is headed. couldn't have asked for a better game to go out on.

Damn can't imagine loving it this much and still doubt part 3 is gonna be at least pretty dang good.

pjbasis posted...

Damn can't imagine loving it this much and still doubt part 3 is gonna be at least pretty dang good.

That was largely in reference to the fact that non-Switch console gaming is basically dead in Japan and AAA game costs are (with a few exceptions) no longer profitable based on sales numbers. I expect the third game to be smaller and a little more like Remake. Which some people will think is a positive!

I have no doubt it will be good, but I don't think I will ascend while playing it like I did during this game. We've run through most of the good stuff from the source material (all due respect to escaping from Junon and the lifestream section). It's downhill from here.

I was expecting this game to go way more off the rails, so that part 3 would be basically an all-new game with a few references to the original. But the game actually adhered to the source material way more than I thought it would.

Steiner posted...

main things I hated were Dyne and Red's voice lol

Dyne was fine, at least he only occupies a small section of the game. Red's kid voice is dumb and I couldn't even continue using him in combat because of it.

Overall I loved the game immensely, but it's so weird how often it frustrated me with pointless nonsense. Time wasting overworld crap, overtuned challenges, some of the minigames just straight up suck.

Yet it's still a great game somehow. The story and characters are all on point, combat is better than ever (until you get to the endgame and it becomes a chore in some cases), and the world is beautiful even though it's often a slog to travel through.

I expected to hate the overworld stuff based on what I'd been hearing but I ended up loving 90% of it.

As someone who HATES Horizon, which the director cited as an influence, I expected the worst. What separates it is that this game's combat is actually fun to play, the music and sound effects are extremely good, and the writing is stellar. There's also not a lot of pointless loot/gear. Gongaga sucked to get around in but I found the overworld stuff addicting for the most part.

The areas are largely well-designed too, in that you can tell where to go without looking at the map if you so chose. In Horizon, following the icons are essentially required.

I definitely would take Elden Ring and modern Zelda over this model but this was a pretty good open world

skullbone posted...

I think Aerith has to "die" so that they can actually do the rest of FF7 without major changes. But I think that we'll definitely save her at the end of part 3 somehow.

Most of the narrative for FF7 has been the same as the original so I don't think they want to completely change the outline for part 3.

So yeah be prepared for some time travel or something.

I think there will be some additional swerves and changes based on Cait Sith's fortunes. I think Cloud might finish off Sephiroth's lifestream shenanigans once and for all with Black Materia infused Buster Sword as he called it a lucky color

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/5668cbef.jpg

oof super compressed

https://imgur.com/58Zn4VD

FFDragon posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/5668cbef.jpg

oof super compressed

https://imgur.com/58Zn4VD

FF7 players:
https://youtu.be/t478uHgasII?feature=shared

I basically agree with the "Beagle Universe" reading but I don't think Cloud is "confused." It's beyond reason to think no one would've said "Hey Cloud, Aerith is actually dead" and that wouldn't have been talked through. I think Cloud is aware with what's going on. He's emotionally stunted and under the influence of Jenova/Sephiroth cells but he's not completely divorced from reality.

colliding posted...

I basically agree with the "Beagle Universe" reading but I don't think Cloud is "confused." It's beyond reason to think no one would've said "Hey Cloud, Aerith is actually dead" and that wouldn't have been talked through. I think Cloud is aware with what's going on. He's emotionally stunted and under the influence of Jenova/Sephiroth cells but he's not completely divorced from reality.

I dunno. It could be interpreted as that at least at that point. After the temple episode they may just be trying to avoid setting him off for the time being.

Yeah and whenever anyone tried to bring up Zack in the first game he static'd out and didn't hear what they were saying. Same thing could be happening here with Aerith

colliding posted...

That was largely in reference to the fact that non-Switch console gaming is basically dead in Japan and AAA game costs are (with a few exceptions) no longer profitable based on sales numbers. I expect the third game to be smaller and a little more like Remake. Which some people will think is a positive!

The change in this regard in the last decade has been astounding. If you'd said in 2015 that part two of the FFVII remake would be a big budget game with a good critical reception and (after about a month) it'd sell c.300k in Japan while (presumably) selling a couple of million in total you'd have been laughed at. We're at the point where the audience for even a mainline FF is going to be >75% (probably >85% in six months time) non-Japanese. That's an interesting situation for Square to manage.

That said I wouldn't totally write off the profitability/value of a game like this with a straight revenue less costs assessment after a month. Huge releases like this also pave the way to support a boatload of other content (mobile games/spin-offs/merch etc... heck I've just spent the game's price again buying a concert ticket to listen to some of the OST performed!) and generate a long tail of word of mouth and sales running way into the future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euPgi8zOWnk