Topic: What PS4 Games Are You Currently Playing?

@JohnnyShoulder Ah nice, would love to hear more of your thoughts about it when you've finished the game! It's slowly becoming one of my favourite horror games of all time. It's just so expertly crafted.

@LtSarge It is all over the place plot wise, but I don't mind that. It's also hard, as you say.

I don't think it's expertly crafted though. I played it when it released and it was not in the best state, performance wise for one. And the balancing is just weird sometimes, I don't mind hard but I almost got my save stuck in a boss fight without any resources.

Still, I personally love it (or the idea of it, despite it's flaws) and the second one is even better, although more conventional I guess.

@kyleforrester87 I mean, resources running out is an issue with any survival horror game. I remember @nessisonett mentioning a while back that he couldn't continue in Code Veronica for that reason. I also got stuck and couldn't continue in REmake because I ran out of bullets, so I had to start over from the beginning and be more mindful of my ammo. You do learn after experiencing multiple horror games that you need to create numerous save files so that you can go back to previous sections if you need to. Not to mention be more conservative with ammo and collect as much resources as you can. Even if I ran out of ammo for the revolver and shotgun, I still had like 50 parts that I could use to craft more bolts for the crossbow.

But obviously it's important that the game keeps giving you just enough ammo across the playthrough. I did notice that chapter 7 where you're exploring the catacombs that I wasn't finding much ammo at all. But other than that, the game has been decent in giving you enough ammo thus far.

@LtSarge Yeah, I played that a while back and I remember saying to @kyleforrester87 that it was a great game but also insanely janky and a bit of a fun mess. It’s also really really really too long.

@LtSarge Yeah I dunno, I'm all for the resource management but I was 80% of the way through and nearly had to bin my save because of the loop I was stuck in. I think in the end I had to run in circles around the boss and melee him to death actually. Eh, I guess it was my own fault. Still seemed a little harsh though lol.

@Th3solution @colonelkilgore I may have encountered a game-breaking bug in FF7R, in the sense that I can only cast Cure spells even with Fire, Lightning and/or Ice materia equipped. What, if anything, do you advise?

(Only the option of Cure shows up whenever I go into the Spells menu)

@TheBrandedSwordsman hmmm... no clue buddy. The only suggestion I can think of is maybe loading an older save? Not ideal I know but, hopefully you may have some saves that aren't too much earlier than your current level.

Edit @Th3solution and @colonelkilgore Is it simply because I haven't filled my ATB meter that the option of casting those spells doesn't appear yet? Might be a simple solution, and, if so - how do I know when my ATB meter is full?

Also, finally, @Th3solution, and sorry to keep troubling you but I haven't gotten the Wind Materia from Chadley yet, and I assume I need to fight two bosses - i.e build up my ATB enough to cast spells against two bosses that prey on their weaknesses, as fodder enemies won't stay alive long enough for me to build up my ATB meter in order to get the Wind Materia from Chadley, however I am currently on Chapter 8, in the side quests section and don't know if there are two bosses left before Hell House! nor do I know their weaknesses! please help! 😂😓

@TheBrandedSwordsman maybe mate, it's been about 18 months since I played it and the only memories I have are in regards to the story really, in-game mechanics have long left my 'hard-drive'.

@colonelkilgore The problem has been there during the whole game so that won't help, but thanks anyway, (I only discovered that spells would essential to future gameplay recently so had been ignoring them up until this point).

@TheBrandedSwordsman Forgive me if this comes across as either confusing or too basic, but here goes —
So the ATB (Active Time Battle) meter is that blue meter on the HUD over on the right that charges up over time during a battle. A few things can accelerate it building faster like blocking and attacking. Also some materia has ATB boosting properties, like accelerating the rate of it charging or making it possible to go into battle with the gauge already fully charged. But it should be filling up automatically even if your just dodging around during battle, so eventually when at least one of the bars is full you should be able to pull up that little menu during battle and the spells, items, and a few other special skills will be highlighted and available to use. Before the ATB is filled they are greyed out and not selectable.

Basically it’s just puts a timer on how quickly and how often you can use those skills and spells. Some of the more powerful skills require two full ATB bars to be charged.

So is it possible you’re not equipping your materia to your weapon or armor? It’s not adequate to just have the materia, you have to equip it into those little circular slots. And there is some strategy to which materia you equip and how it’s equipped. For example some weapons and armor have two connected materia slots, and that means you can equip a materia (usually a blue colored one) which has an enhancing effect in conjunction with the other slot it’s connected to.

Anyways, so if you haven’t placed the appropriate materia on the active weapon (or armor) you’re using, then you won’t see the spell on the little menu during battle. Is it possible that’s what’s happening?
You’ve got to press the pause menu, then select “materia and equipment” then press …I think it’s triangle, and it takes you to the materia slots on the equipment. From there pressing X will pull up all your materia and you choose which one to put in that slot.

Anyways, like I say, I hope I don’t sound too basic here, but I’m wondering if that’s why you aren’t seeing your spells on the pop up menu during battle.

Edit:
Also, as it relates to the Wind materia, I think you can find one in a treasure chest somewhere in the early levels, but it’s also available for purchase from vendors.
Chadley has some other materia that you have to do those special tasks for him to unlock. I don’t think the Wind one was one of them though; I think it’s a common one sold by just the average materia vendors.

@Th3solution Thanks for all your suggestions, I do currently have lightning, healing, assess and ifrit materia currently equipped on my iron blade, and I have that weapon equipped, yet the only spell I am seeing in that menu is 'cure', so I think, as I say, I may have unfortunately come across a game-breaking bug.

@Th3solution That's a shame, oh well, I guess at least it wasn't my fault that I couldn't beat this one - got any other similar games you could recommend? I would start again but I don't want to do everything all over again from the beginning.

@TheBrandedSwordsman Wow, that’s a really weird bug. Have you downloaded any available updates for the game? Perhaps an update patch has fixed the issue and maybe downloading it would make it work right.

Otherwise, I can see how you’d not really be able to finish the game without access to your magic spells. Unfortunate, as it seems like you had been enjoying it. But yeah, it would be going back a lot of hours to restart, which I wonder if it would work correctly even then. 🤔

Game recommend wise, did you say you’ve tried Shadow of Mordor or Shadow of War? I completely forgot if you’ve tried those. I know you’re a Tolkien fan, so those two games come to mind.

@Th3solution I've tried them both, (Shadows) I'll double-check for the updates but otherwise I might give Ys IX: Monstrum Nox a go, are you familiar with that game?

@TheBrandedSwordsman No, I haven’t played any Y’s games but they certainly have their fan base.
If your enjoyed the part of FF7R that you’ve played, it’s possible you might enjoy it’s older brother, FFXV. I think the battle system is somewhat related. I haven’t played the game, but have always wanted to.

@Th3solution I've taken your advice as well as that of @colonelkilgore and purchased FFXV, I've just started it and whilst the combat is clunkier than FF7R, it's certainly enjoyable and from what I've read online, magic just isn't a necessary part of combat throughout the game, considering starting FF7R from the beginning again one day though, just not right now. How are your games going?

@TheBrandedSwordsman I’ll be interested to hear how FFXV goes for you. I bought it a long time ago and never got around to playing it. It’s always been on my “one of these days…” list.

In FF7R I am finally out of Ch 9 and into a new area in Ch 10. As is the pattern, the end of the chapter had a really great boss fight but not nearly as hard as Hellhouse. Still fun though.

@Th3solution Glad to hear you're making progress in FF7R, I am also making progress in FFXV, Prince Noctis is a very different character to Cloud, but, hey, no spoilers. Monsters and demons seem to be more the order of the day rather than giant robots in this game, but I am getting used to the combat and overall mechanics of the game now. You have to regularly set up camp at night as you can't travel then due to fear of demon attacks, and you also have to drive and refuel your car to get around, so it's quite different in that regard. I'll keep you posted.

@colonelkilgore Any of this ringing any bells for you?