I'm replaying Final Fantasy VII for the third time now. When the game first came out, it was my first PS1 game that I bought. And it was also the first RPG that I played. I loved the story that I just kept going to the next place. As a result I completely missed the Chocobo Ranch and ran across the swamp without getting attacked by the snake. I was either lucky or unlucky because I missed the Choco/Mog materia. There is also two ribbons in the game, but you have to know where they are at because they are in a location that you cannot go back to. In my two subsequent plays through I have missed getting the second ribbon. Its funny though because back in 1998 my friend was telling me to get the ribbon and there is only one in the game. I told him I had two.

My third play through comes after finishing Crisis Core. That was a great game too. I like how the two stories intertwine. After finishing FFVII, I thought I would play Dirge of Cerberus and watch Advent Children.

Currently, my dilemma is do I spend time breeding chocobos and fighting weapon or just play through the story? I'm thinking the latter, but then again I have not seen the Knights of the Round.

Update: I've been able to breed a black chocobo, which I used to obtain two different materia (HP<-->MP and Quad Magic). I am still working on getting a gold chocobo. The Chocobo Sage is slow at giving information. So far he has only told me about breeding green, blue, and black chocobos. The guides I have read say to breed a black chocobo with a S-ranked chocobo and use a zeio nut, but so far it has not worked. It has been time consuming and frustrating to get enough gil to buy greens, race a lot, and get stuck at only being able to breed a black chocobo. The only secondary task that I accomplished from this was racing chocobos and obtaining GP for attempting the Battle Arena at the Gold Saucer.

Using the submarine, I fought emerald weapon underwater, but my party was 1-hit killed. I am not strong enough for him yet; probably too early in the game to take him on. As far as my progress goes in the story, I am on disc 2, obtained the four huge materia, and took Bugenhagen to the City of the Ancients.


On a side note: I've been using this one-handed controller called the ASCII Grip. I have become so acclimated to this controller that switching to a regular one feels foreign. My 10-month-old son likes the ASCII Grip as well.



Update: I have bred my gold chocobo and the Knights of the Round is awesome. They made quick work of Ultimate weapon. I have Ruby and Emerald weapon left to try my hand at. I gave another go at Emerald and this time I survived 2 minutes . I will need to check out their weaknesses. I have found that Absolute Steve has an excellent guide on GameFaqs.

I picked up two other materia that are new to me as well: Mime and W-Item. Mime is great for helping you kick some ass in battle, and I look forward to duplicating items. They sure put the W-Item materia in an out-of-the-way location. You have to go about 12 screens down to a dead end.

I found a bit of story in the game that is triggered by Vincent being in your party when returning to the basement of Shinra Manor. It explains a lot about Zack and Cloud after the incident at Nibelheim. Really ties in well with Crisis Core.

The Brave Do Not Fear the Grave: I solved my lack of ribbons dilemma. You can morph Ho Chu in the Special Battle Arena. Now all of my characters are protected from status effects

UPDATE: I beat Ruby weapon , but Emerald is kicking my ass . I'm having trouble getting a turn. Emerald gets about 4 attacks to my 1. Kills my party with Aire Tam Storm. I have Final Attack + Phoenix materia on one person but Emerald seems to take out that person's MP so he can't summon Phoenix. I feel like I am constantly on the defensive using the duped mega-elixirs. I can't seem to chain attacks together or use Mime due to Emerald's counterattack.

UPDATE 3/14/11: I gave up on Emerald, so I went ahead and finished the game. By this point I was too over-leveled. Sephiroth didn't even stand a chance. Pretty much all my attacks did 9999 damage and I didn't even need Knights of the Round.

UPDATE 3/21/11: The following weekend I watched Advent Children. I enjoyed it. Pretty much fan service and excellent graphics.

Started Dirge of Cerberus. This is my second play through; the first time was three years ago according to the save on my memory card.

UPDATE 3/28/11: I finished DoC. I enjoyed the story and gameplay which took me about 14.5 hours. The game tries to be a third person shooter but falls short of being good for that type of gameplay, but if you look at it as an action RPG then the gameplay is okay. I would recommend this game for people who are fans of FFVII and want to know Vincent's story.

It was fun to go through the four stories back-to-back.

Now for my next game: I'm thinking Nocturne followed by the Digital Devil Saga (I have not played either of these).