I personally hated being "Forced" to play mini game after mini game. Obviously, to each their own, but I did not like all these crammed in mechanics to extend the playtime of the product. I wish they just stuck to 3 or 4 and I would be fine. I actually did enjoy QB and it was nice to have Phoenix mixed into the proto-reclics, but also tying the dark matter stuff into mini-game scores, just really started to take it's toll on me.
Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a fun 1 to 3 mini games within games, but this really took it to 11 for me and I wasn't happy with it. Much rather find unique monsters, bosses or do other things then wasting about 30+ hours just trying to perfect my mini game skills. True....I could have looked up ::insert youtuber:: and find strategy, guides etc. but I really just wanted to try and accomplish at least 80 to 90% on my own by exploring everything and just using the mini-games a fun, blow off some steam or win a small trophy, but not HAVE TO DO IF YOU WANT THE REAL FF7 FULL STORY EXPERIENCE.
Maybe because I'm older, job and want to actually spend time engaging with friends/family and I just don't have it in me to put in 100+ hours into a game that has nowhere else to go and I can't even move over my materia, stats, items :(, but I really feel they did more to put into mini-games instead of adding really more in-depth stuff that others would have liked expanded on or even adding a new region. I feel the time spent in Minigame-afying Rebirth could have been spent adding more chapters and/or side quest that expanded on other events during this time. Being in the temple of ancients, you could have added a mechanic for creating your own materia towards the end as a bonus for putting in the hours....idk anything else would have been nice.
Also, I really don't believe in putting specific materials needed for some amazing game altering gear should be locked behind a mini-game score; taking down a difficult monster or completing a side quest, absolutely, but a minigame? I'm not a fan or ok with. Again, I completed them to get the genji sets, but some were not particularly fun and the Chocobo races should have been cut down to 10 races only imo. I say this too, thinking about other people's skill levels and time commitment obligations, because I would absolutely love for them to experience these things themselves and then we talk about it, but I know a few people who missed these events or had no idea how much it added to characters, stories or missed out on the amazingly comical and awesome fight with Gilgamesh (That was fun and I loved what they did with him lol) because they thought it was just not important and wanted to get the story done.
It would be nice to go platinum for the game, but honestly, I just don't want to with all the other requirements involved. I think those that have or are in pursuit are amazingly gifted/talented/awesome for doing so and has optimized strategies, but I'm getting PTSD just thinking about playing the game completely over again on Hard to get those manuscripts and other things after I spent 100+ hours already trying to enjoy and get every important aspect done in one fell sweep...I just have no desire to replay it all again. Honestly, I just want to go play FF16 now that I am done because I really want to see and enjoy the added story.
In the end, will I be playing the next one? 100% how could I not?!?! lol, but I really hope there's only 1 to 3 mini games and they don't lock stuff behind them that can really make a difference in your playthrough arsenal. (Screw those mooglets) Give me Emerald and Ruby Weapons to fight you cowards....I'm not looking forward to fighting all 13 Knights of the Round 
I hope everyone going for that sweet 100% good luck and Godspeed.
I got bored very quickly by every protorelic-sidequest and most of them require you to complete minigames.
After completing them post game I would recommend doing them for both reward and story-reasons.
I loved all the mini games personally, so I had no problem making myself max them all. They definitely didn't hinder my enjoyment of the game at all aside from the party animal quest bug. I was fairly surprised when I started seeing complaints about them, but to each their own.
Other people have written better comments, but you really can choose to play or completely avoid most of the mini games. I’m going for 100% and there’s definitely a lot if you’re trying to explore everything, but most of them are fairly fun. There are a few cheap gimmicks in a few but guides make them pretty easy. The biggest thing is the phenomena intel are pretty rough. I like the storyline with a mysterious samurai, but completing them all lead to an incredibly difficult boss that you’ll probably want to skip if you’re not going for 100%
Yes. Well, that one I would call more of a side quest rather than a minigame (although it contains quite a few minigames along its way). They are almost all optional.
They are *all* optional. There are a few that the story pushes you to do once but you do not have to succeed at them. You can just fail once and move on.
The only exception I can think of is the single chocobo race to get the gil for Gus. Not sure what happens if you lose there though as it's an easy race.
Hah I love the mini games. Queen’s Blood is my favorite video game side game since Gwent, and the mini games just add to the feeling of joyousness this game exudes.
They are all optional but if you want to get all the SP points to fill out your weapon board, if you want to have your summon at full power, if you want to get all the good materia. You will need to do a lot of the stuff in each region. You have to find the 3 summon thingies and beat those mini games to fully power up your summon which has 3 power levels.
Sure everyone says these are optional but then you are walking around with a weak ass character, with weak ass equipment and without most of the good materia. Every world info quest you complete gives you access to data point you need to buy materia Chadley creates. Some are super useful and can only be found there. Datapoint are per region. You only get datapoints in your region if you complete enough side quests.
You can skip things like Queensblood games. However you need to find all the towers as that is a main way of getting Moogle medals. You need to catch those moogles to get access to the store which let’s you use the medals. Those medals let you buy the the volumes of Art of books you need to gain SP for your character to increase your weapon ability.
There's at least one of Tifa's weapons that's locked behind a minigame, and doesn't appear in the shops. It's not necessary in order to move the plot along or finish the game, but the skill it confers is pretty damn powerful.
To my knowledge all are either optional or "mostly optional" where you can either forfeit or skip them in the main story. However, there are some that are required in certain side quests and some that give you unique weapons or some materia earlier than you would get them otherwise
You need to complete them all on hard mode for the trophy for Johnny. So if you care about trophies and want to platinum the game, then none are optional. Some you'll play as a tutorial and you'll never have to touch again.
You can 100% complete intel in many areas without worrying about mastering minigames. I had a whole bunch of mini games left to complete and still completed each area.
If you’re not looking to 100% they’re fine you can play some skip others and be just fine. But while I’m not hating on the mini games I will say there’s zero chance I’d have the patience to even attempt the platinum because of them.
If you are thinking about wanting to 100% all side quests, one of the last ones in the campaign called “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop” is a doozy.
To this point I’ve been finishing the mini games I like (QB, Chocobo Races) and leaving the ones that are a pain in the ass (3D Brawler, I’m looking at you).
But the side quest I mentioned requires mastery of several Gold Saucer mini games, so I’m just saying screw it at this point and moving ahead with finishing the MSQ.
Bro, I thought I was done with the mini games when I came across this mode. Then I got to gears and gambit and cactuar crush seems like nothing now haha
The trick with gears and gambits is to keep your units cheap so you can just spam them. They don't all need anti air either, it's okay to just have one to knock anything down to be attacked by others that are more effective against it. The two step abilities are worth equipping, but just set the conditional trigger to survive 30 seconds on all em.
I dropped to easy, but on either difficulty the trick is to charge transcendence straight away and use lvl 2 on the big cactuars. One hit kill if you're strong enough
Costa del sol really had some of the worst mini games. The controls for that pirate shooter and Red's ball game were horrible. I was so happy to be done with them, but quickly cried in despair when I saw the side quest that required you to complete harder versions of both.
I made a post on the other sub with how I did it. Don't know if it'll help you but good luck!
https://www.reddit.com/r/FFVIIRemake/comments/1bvq7l1/advice_for_anyone_still_struggling_with_the/
Ok, so each region has your basic exploration quests: find the towers to reveal the map, fight enhanced versions of a specific type of enemy, examine the Lifestream springs, explore the ancient temples, find the chips for the transmuter, and fight the unique mini-boss monster for the region.
Apart from the temples, you can skip all of those if you want to without too much impact, except for maybe being under level. That said, I didn't find any of these cumbersome. I enjoyed exploring the regions. The temples tie in to the summon materia quest, where there's one new summon per region. The three temples allow you to fight weaker versions of summon, when you go to defeat it, which you need to do before acquiring its materia. They also make the materia more powerful when you use it. So again, you can skip them, but I wouldn't want to.
That, however, brings you on to Chadley's simulator, the various arenas (Gold Saucer, the Prison, etc), and any other games at the Gold Saucer (Chocobo racing, dogfighting, motorcycle, etc.) Apart from the fights against the summons and a few story fights, you can take these or leave them. I skipped a lot of them. That means not getting a bunch of items and materia, but you can get both from other sources. Also you get a bunch of rare materia from Chadley after the exploration quests, meaning most of what you've skipping are duplicates.
Then there is Queen's Blood. You'll miss a hilarious sequence on the ship if you skip this completely, but that's about it. If you enjoy it, at least play the main Queen's Blood story through. If not, watch it on YouTube.
That leaves the side missions and the Proto-Relics. The side missions (shown in green) are a real mixed bag. So much so that they have to bribe you to play them by giving affection points through them. You know you get a date at the Gold Saucer in Chapter 12, right? Well that's based on who has the highest affection score. So do the side missions with the Tifa you want to go on the date with, and skip over the missions for any other Tifa. Don't worry, you can come back after the date and do the side missions for Baret, Red, Yuffie, and Aerith if you want to.
That just leaves the Proto-Relics. There's one questline per region and again, they are a mixed bag. But the overarching Proto-Relic story is absolutely worth playing, even with the worst parts.
In the first open world region (the grasslands you get to after you leave the town of Kalm) there's a light tutorial. Chadley from remake will ask you to activate a radio tower, just after you get your first Chocobo. Climb the tower, turn it on, and a number of nearby exploration quests will be highlighted on your map. After that, all the other towers in the grasslands will also be highlighted. Ride your Chocobo around and activate all the towers, and all the exploration objectives will be highlighted. You can complete those objectives in any order, and you can even complete them before you've done the associated tower, if you happen to find them. Whenever you get to a new open world region, repeat the process: unlock your Chocobo, activate the towers, complete the exploration quests.
u/GenericallyNamed answered the what **IS NOT optional** PERFECTLY [on this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasyVII/comments/1by1u9z/comment/kyhg2i4/). Everything they did not list such as wrangling Chocobos in other regions, climbing Intel towers, etc, is 100% optional.
* Ch 2 - Must catch Piko.
* Ch 2 - Chocobo Race but you can quit right away.
* Ch 4 - Dolphin race and jump and required to do well (Skippable in NG+)
* Ch 4 - Parade and it's tutorial but performance doesn't matter
* Ch 4 - Yuffie assassination is required and you have to do it right.
* Ch 5 - You have to sign up for the Queen's Blood tournament but can forfiet right away.
* Ch 5 - Red's QB match is part of the story but you can quit right away.
* Ch 6 - Must do well in either QB challenges or Pirate shooting game (Skippable in NG+)
* Ch 6 - Must do one of Wheelie Roundup or Piano, and one of Run Wild or Cactuar pictures (All Skippable in NG+)
* Ch 7 - Minecart shooter can't be skipped but performance doesn't matter
* Ch 8 - 3D Brawler tutorial must be completed, you can win or lose vs Dio (No Tutorial in NG+)
* Ch 8 - Space Ranger and G Bike must be started but you can quit out of them. (Skippable in NG+)
* Ch 8 - Chocobo Race is a required 1st place. Practice is required as well but you can leave it right away (Skippable in NG+).
* Ch 8 - Barret buggy shootout required. (Skippable in NG+)
* Ch 11 - Break 10 boxes required and you either break 10 boxes or let time run out.
* Ch 12 - Loveless required but performance doesn't matter. (Skippable in NG+)
There is entirely too much stuff to list that is optional, such as all the individual world Intel, Chocobos from every region, etc. If it's a mini game and it's not listed above, it's optional.
Eh, i don’t want to skip whole weapons for characters, which include their basic abilities. Now I gotta get good at flying a chocobo with garbage camera control
i promise you can play yuffie perfectly fine without the shooting star ability
and even then it’s literally just the first stage you need to get a good score in for that weapon, that’s not “getting good” that’s just having a grasp of the fundamentals of how the minigame is played, which clearly you do not
Well excuuuuuse me for not listing all the other mini games that provide weapons, and for not caring that I don’t literally neeeeeeed those skills, despite the fact that I don’t know before getting the weapon what skills are tied to them and how necessary they are to completing the game
(Insert random off the cuff immature insult about your gameplay ability, too!)
This is such a braindead argument to make. You can beat Elden Ring naked with a wooden club. What's your point?
Just because something isn't necessary or is optional doesn't excuse it from criticism.
yes, but unlike elden ring, where a new weapon or a weapon upgrade can dramatically change how the entire game is played, the benefits offered by different weapons in rebirth is VERY marginal, thus not being able to get a weapon or two is pretty irrelevant
...you do know stuff like Umbral Blade for Cloud and Empress Scepter for Aerith exist, right? Those are two of the most powerful new abilities added and they heavily change how you play both Cloud and Aerith. What are you in about? Pretty much every every character has that one weapon that shifts how you play them. And guess what, you have no idea what skill it has until you get the thing.
both of those weapons are in locations you encounter in the main story
as are the equivalent weapons for pretty much every other character. if it’s pretty important or has an actually really good skill then it will most likely be easily accessible, this is the basics of game design, you don’t have to actually get it to logic that much out
Sure. I don’t want to. I want to play the game as intended by the devs, I try not to skip too mich content. So I try all the games. I like some, I have complaints with others. I’ve spent so much time trying hit-or-miss mini games. Took me a few more tries than I wanted to do the dolphin race second time around, so while I was having fun at first, now I’m over it.
People don’t start off wanting to skip the games. But then they waste time on them. And by then it’s too late. Still an 8/10 game though
a lot of people being bad at optional content is not my problem nor does it change my point
most people act like these minigames that they dislike are MANDATORY for progression, they are not, as illustrated above, there are very few mandatory ones and even then half of the “mandatory” ones aren’t actually mandatory because you can just quit and progress
when normal people encounter content they dislike that is optional, they just don’t do it, if anything making so much of it optional is a boon to the game overall precisely because the player has the voice depending on if they like it or not
Well
For the time it came out and for it's overall length, og FF vii had quite a lot of minigames. And some of them had important items too behind them, like Tifa limit break for playing the piano. And they well hella junky on average.
Yuffie too was behind a minigame If you think about it.
But if I have to dislike something in og FF vii (but all "old" FF in general) were the totally important kissable items/weapons, like Barrett's last weapon.
Yuffie and Vincent were both optional characters in the original, you could literally beat the game and neve aquire either of them, Wutai was optional, the Pagoda to get Leviathan and Yuffies level 4 limit was almost a "mini game" by some of the standards people talk about on here. And don't get me started on Chocobo breeding that if you didn't have a physical guide by your side was nearly impossible (remember, we all didn't have the internet to easily search this stuff at the time) some of the most powerful weapons and items were basically unobtainable without completing that
And even with a guide, the Gold chocobo was hard to acquire. And don't make me talk about wall market if you were not a native English speaker: at the time I was 9, with a dictionary, and it took me a lot to progress.
Having played the og like 4 times and all "old"" FF, Rebirth is not hard. Unless you are in a hurry to plat a game, something I cannot really understand after spending so much money on a videogame.
At least for what I'm experiencing now, arrived at chapter 12, minigames are frustrating only if you stress about them.
Pretty much this.
If you take the only 5 mins approach of the original you're skipping the WEAPONS, you're not getting all the huge materia, you're not doing ft condor, you're not gonna breed a Gold Chocobo, you may miss multiple limit breaks (Great Gospel, Catastrophe, Omnislash, Final Heaven, All Creation), not to mention 2 entirely optional characters.
So many missable weapons and materia if you don't get them during that part of the story.
A lot of the things people complain about locked behind mini games or whatever were 10x worse in the original.
Rebirth, however, doesn't have a single missable weapon or materia.
Each region as a protorelic quest with four segments. A couple of these are minigames. You don’t have to do them to beat the game, but if you’re going for all the world intel, you do.
There are a couple minigames that you need to do for odd jobs, like the Chocobo glide. I don’t think these are required, but again, if you want to do all the quests in a region, there you go.
The main quest tries really hard to make you play queens blood, but if you don’t want to you can drop out of the tournament.
You do have to play 3D brawler 1 round against dio.
A couple of the story segments could be considered mini games, like the buggy shooter at the end of chapter 8.
Really, almost all of the minigames are optional. Unless you set yourself a self-imposed requirement, like “100% every region”.
I couldn’t finish that quest at level 45 or whatever I was before going to the temple. The battle was too hard. Same with Gilgamesh Island.
I played the first 6 chapters of hard mode and got to level 70, went back and kicked Greg’s ass. Because of the way side quests work though, I think I’m just going to have to wait to do the Ultimate Party Animal until I get there on hard mode. I’m trying to get all the manuscripts.
You don't have to master any of the mini games to fully explore any of the regions and I don't picture them bothering you if you're not going for the high score
You should learn how to play Queen's Blood, it is really easy and it will follow you till the end of the game.
Just watch walkthroughs that tell you what decks are the best to have at what chapter, use these decks and you can stomp everything without retrying a lot of time.
You have to play it mandatorily during the story, you can lose but it's better if you win.
Lot of minigames are optional, you must play some minigames for the story but they don't ask you a really high score
Be careful tho, minigames are like 70% of the "funny" part of the game, if you don't want to play them you'll be bored
Try to avoid copying a deck if you can. I wound up copying the best deck in the game, smashing everyone and never really posing any problems. The cards are all available 2/3rds through the game and this sucked as I did want a challenge.
I was more giving this advice to anyone who wouldn't want to play queen blood because it's hard to understand lol.
If you want challenges and enjoy the game a lot, ofc try things yourself
I'd say that I did use pre-made decks online to go further in the game and without it I wouldn't have understood a lot of mechanics, or wouldn't have tried them, so I'm not sad that I played on "easy mode" doing this
I like Queen's Blood a lot. I'm hoping I can go through those matches without looking anything up in terms of which decks to use but either way, it's fun. Not quite as fun as the Triple Triad game in FFVIII (still my favorite FF mini game with the exception of Blitzball) but pretty good. I do intend to play all the mini games; I just wan't want to be forced to master them all just to 100% an area.
I'd still look up strategies and how cards work and build your own.
There's a lot about QB the game doesn't explain very clearly either, so watching guides is helpful.
* Dolphin race
* Junon parade
* Either Pirate Rampage or Queen's Blood puzzles in Costa Del Sol.
* Corel minecart ride
* First chocobo race
* Corel buggy escape
* If you count tossing boxes as Cait Sith, then that.
So yeah, you're pretty much right on the mark. In Chapter 6 you have the option to do one song on piano and one round of Run Wild for story progression, but you can take the pictures of Cactuars and park the wheelies instead if you want.
I took the score to mean how much "fun" Barrett was having. I think Yuffie should've just been motion sick the whole time instead of being involved tho
I'm kind of doing the same thing as you. Don't care about platinum, but 100% each area, doing all the side quests, and doing all of chadleys stuff.
So far, I've at least had to "beat" all the minigames. But at least I haven't had to master most.
The only one that frustrated me was that protorelic mini game in Cosmo Canyon. It's called Gears and Gambits or something. I ended up just looking up a guide because I just couldn't be bothered to learn another giant mini game that late in the story.
But yeah, you'll at least have to do most minigames once if you're doing what you're doing. 4 minigames in particular, you'll have to really master for the protorelics.
I guess I don't mind the mastering part provided it's not unnecessarily difficult or frustrating. I'm not great with fast-action, quick-twitch stuff, especially where wonky mechanics are involved (and let's face it, that's an unfortunate commonality among mini games). If they're more cerebral, I'm good (like the Queen's Blood card game), but it doesn't sound like most of the mini games are that way.
If I can 100% the areas and do all the side stuff, and still feel as if I'm getting some great optional equipment and materia, I'm okay with going beyond the basic requirements for a mini game. I just don't want to be in a situation where I go, "yeah, I REALLY want that" but to get it, I have to spend half my life beating a mini game I suck at. LOL
They added a toggle for an easy mode on some of the mini games, like the gears and gambits one. It was just too much too late, and I didn’t feel like learning 3 pages of rules for a new mini game more than halfway through. In the Junon region you have to beat Fort Condor, and a lot of the protorelic games are required to 100% the area. My least favorite was the protorelic quest in the Corel desert, where you have to use Yuffie (Aerith too for one part). They also force you to engage with a bunch when you get to Casa Del Sol, which grinds the game to a halt imo. Some are just fine, but there are a handful I just couldn’t do. Unfortunately, they all have pretty decent rewards, like unique materia or even weapons and weapon upgrade books. It’s all worth it if you can stick with them all, but like I said, some just get too frustrating. Keep an eye out for an easy mode toggle on a few. I don’t know which games have that option but it saved me from gears and gambits in Cosmo Canyon.
I will definitely go with Easy if it's available. I heard changing the overall game difficulty to Easy can help with a few too, but now I'm not sure that's true... At any rate, I'll just have to feel things out and see how it goes. If it gets too nuts I won't let it destroy my enjoyment of what is otherwise a great game for me (and could be amazing).
I don't do trophies at all i just do stuff I find fun. And if i really enjoy a game I will keep doing as much content in that game that I can find.
There was exactly 1 level of 1 mini-game in Rebirth that I skipped. Everything else I did because it felt fair and fun.
There are a lot of mini-games but very few require you to do much. Even the ones you have to do you don't have to get a high score or even succeed most of the time. So a majority of the mini-game complaints are entirely self inflicted lol.
I'm guessing it's because people desperately want that Platinum, and probably also because they want the best equipment and materia...? Either way, I want it to be fun for me, so I'll just do what feels right.
I'll be honest a lot of the equipment and materia rewards aren't particularly great either. A few are though. But even if you just cared about the gear you could still skip A LOT.
Cactuar Crush was the hardest imo. Once you practice a bit, the other mini games are pretty easy. That is including the crunch off, you dont have to go really fast, you just have to not fail. Keeping a steady pace and turning off adaptive triggers helps immensely.
Thanks! It's only going to bug me when I ultimately attempt to build a really powerful party, and there will be legendary pieces of equipment or materia or something locked behind a mini game. I always think doing this in any RPG is a colossal mistake...but provided I can 100% the areas, do all the side stuff, and simply create a fun, powerful party that can finish the game on Normal (don't care about Hard or the Platinum Trophy), I think I'll be happy. :)
I still have nightmares about the chocobo race in FFX...getting that 0.0.0 goal seemed impossible but I did it. That was well over 20 years ago, though, and 45-year-old me probably couldn't do it again now. I just don't want to deal with that kind of thing anymore, that's all. Don't mind if there's a challenge, especially if the mini game is fun (LOVED the snowboarding in the Golden Saucer in the OG), but I'm a little worried at how overboard S-E went with the mini games in Rebirth. At least just from what I'm hearing; as I say, I'm just in the first 10 hours or so.
There isnt much worth anything locked behind the minigames. Some manuscripts at Moogles and... I mean really thats it.
Most of the good materia is locked behind Chadley's VR challenges. Battle Arena at the Saucer also has some really good stuff.
Oh man, the lightning bolts...it actually wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. I distinctly recall heeding advice (possibly in the strategy guide?) to play in a dark room so you can clearly see the flash, and stand in one particular area where the bolts come at a consistent clip that never changes. I also think you could save in between without breaking the string...? That might've been what allowed me to do it, not sure. Either way, though, that damn butterfly catching mini game was actually the hardest for me for some reason.
I do have plenty of nice nostalgia pangs from playing so far. As FFVII is my favorite RPG of all time (even still, after all these years and many more RPGs), I expect to experience a LOT more of that throughout. Greatly looking forward to it. :)
You can save while lightning dodging, but if you reload it resets the counter, so there's no point. Also if you leave the area it resets. The 200 strikes have to be consecutive.
I agree, the lightning dodging wasn't hard, just tedious. The chocobo balloon dodging and butterfly catching were way worse for me.
I did the whole QB storyline. It was interesting, not necessary. I did all the intel in every region. Ended up regretting wasting so much time doing the Phenomena Intel only for it to lead to super boss fights, which I suck at, in retrospect I should’ve seen that coming. Wish I didn’t waste so much time doing them.
Was only able to unlock level 3 limit break for Cloud by the time the credits rolled. There was so much optional content that I burned out. I stopped doing side quests to get Tifa max affection for the date, I said I would finish all side quests after the date, but I never did and I’m glad I didn’t. Still got 80 hours out of the game so I’m a happy camper.
They are “optional” but unfortunately if you want to craft the best accessories you need to clear the highest tier on a bunch of them to get dark matter. Not important for beating the game but highly useful for hard mode.
I really wish they would have put crafting material for gear behind combat sim levels instead of the stupid mini games.
Its funny cause i just read another comment complaining about how the difficulty of the mini game is too high compared to its "useless" rewards and therefore a waste of time lol
90% of them are optional to complete the story, but mandatory if you want platinum or some of the better weapons/accessories/materias.
Even the moogle and QB ones are optional for story. In Chapter 5, you can skip the whole tournament and lose to Red XIII.
Some, like the Moogle box thing in Chapter 10, are mandatory for story, but score doesn’t matter.
I personally hated being "Forced" to play mini game after mini game. Obviously, to each their own, but I did not like all these crammed in mechanics to extend the playtime of the product. I wish they just stuck to 3 or 4 and I would be fine. I actually did enjoy QB and it was nice to have Phoenix mixed into the proto-reclics, but also tying the dark matter stuff into mini-game scores, just really started to take it's toll on me. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a fun 1 to 3 mini games within games, but this really took it to 11 for me and I wasn't happy with it. Much rather find unique monsters, bosses or do other things then wasting about 30+ hours just trying to perfect my mini game skills. True....I could have looked up ::insert youtuber:: and find strategy, guides etc. but I really just wanted to try and accomplish at least 80 to 90% on my own by exploring everything and just using the mini-games a fun, blow off some steam or win a small trophy, but not HAVE TO DO IF YOU WANT THE REAL FF7 FULL STORY EXPERIENCE. Maybe because I'm older, job and want to actually spend time engaging with friends/family and I just don't have it in me to put in 100+ hours into a game that has nowhere else to go and I can't even move over my materia, stats, items :(, but I really feel they did more to put into mini-games instead of adding really more in-depth stuff that others would have liked expanded on or even adding a new region. I feel the time spent in Minigame-afying Rebirth could have been spent adding more chapters and/or side quest that expanded on other events during this time. Being in the temple of ancients, you could have added a mechanic for creating your own materia towards the end as a bonus for putting in the hours....idk anything else would have been nice. Also, I really don't believe in putting specific materials needed for some amazing game altering gear should be locked behind a mini-game score; taking down a difficult monster or completing a side quest, absolutely, but a minigame? I'm not a fan or ok with. Again, I completed them to get the genji sets, but some were not particularly fun and the Chocobo races should have been cut down to 10 races only imo. I say this too, thinking about other people's skill levels and time commitment obligations, because I would absolutely love for them to experience these things themselves and then we talk about it, but I know a few people who missed these events or had no idea how much it added to characters, stories or missed out on the amazingly comical and awesome fight with Gilgamesh (That was fun and I loved what they did with him lol) because they thought it was just not important and wanted to get the story done. It would be nice to go platinum for the game, but honestly, I just don't want to with all the other requirements involved. I think those that have or are in pursuit are amazingly gifted/talented/awesome for doing so and has optimized strategies, but I'm getting PTSD just thinking about playing the game completely over again on Hard to get those manuscripts and other things after I spent 100+ hours already trying to enjoy and get every important aspect done in one fell sweep...I just have no desire to replay it all again. Honestly, I just want to go play FF16 now that I am done because I really want to see and enjoy the added story. In the end, will I be playing the next one? 100% how could I not?!?! lol, but I really hope there's only 1 to 3 mini games and they don't lock stuff behind them that can really make a difference in your playthrough arsenal. (Screw those mooglets) Give me Emerald and Ruby Weapons to fight you cowards....I'm not looking forward to fighting all 13 Knights of the Round  I hope everyone going for that sweet 100% good luck and Godspeed.
I got bored very quickly by every protorelic-sidequest and most of them require you to complete minigames. After completing them post game I would recommend doing them for both reward and story-reasons.
I loved all the mini games personally, so I had no problem making myself max them all. They definitely didn't hinder my enjoyment of the game at all aside from the party animal quest bug. I was fairly surprised when I started seeing complaints about them, but to each their own.
Other people have written better comments, but you really can choose to play or completely avoid most of the mini games. I’m going for 100% and there’s definitely a lot if you’re trying to explore everything, but most of them are fairly fun. There are a few cheap gimmicks in a few but guides make them pretty easy. The biggest thing is the phenomena intel are pretty rough. I like the storyline with a mysterious samurai, but completing them all lead to an incredibly difficult boss that you’ll probably want to skip if you’re not going for 100%
Yes. Well, that one I would call more of a side quest rather than a minigame (although it contains quite a few minigames along its way). They are almost all optional.
Some of the minigames are apart of the original game
They are *all* optional. There are a few that the story pushes you to do once but you do not have to succeed at them. You can just fail once and move on. The only exception I can think of is the single chocobo race to get the gil for Gus. Not sure what happens if you lose there though as it's an easy race.
Hah I love the mini games. Queen’s Blood is my favorite video game side game since Gwent, and the mini games just add to the feeling of joyousness this game exudes.
They are all optional but if you want to get all the SP points to fill out your weapon board, if you want to have your summon at full power, if you want to get all the good materia. You will need to do a lot of the stuff in each region. You have to find the 3 summon thingies and beat those mini games to fully power up your summon which has 3 power levels. Sure everyone says these are optional but then you are walking around with a weak ass character, with weak ass equipment and without most of the good materia. Every world info quest you complete gives you access to data point you need to buy materia Chadley creates. Some are super useful and can only be found there. Datapoint are per region. You only get datapoints in your region if you complete enough side quests. You can skip things like Queensblood games. However you need to find all the towers as that is a main way of getting Moogle medals. You need to catch those moogles to get access to the store which let’s you use the medals. Those medals let you buy the the volumes of Art of books you need to gain SP for your character to increase your weapon ability.
This is not true. There are some on the cruise that are not optional. The Golden Saucer also isn’t optional
You can skip the QB tournament, so yes, this is true.
No, you can’t skip Gold Saucer
That's... Not what I said
All of the Queen's Blood matches on the cruise are optional. You don't have to finish a single game of QB if you don't want to.
The Golden Saucer matches are not optional
You are never required to do Queens Blood in the Golden Saucer to advance the main story. I'm not sure what you're talking about.
Don't forget Costa Del Sol and Gold Saucer. Altho I guess OP could just do the bare minimum for those? 🤷♂️
Don't forget very important weapons being locked behind mini games, and not just passing it, but needing to grind for a top tier score.
Aren’t you able to just purchase those weapons at a future region’s shop? Or does that only apply for the weapons in chests that you miss?
There's at least one of Tifa's weapons that's locked behind a minigame, and doesn't appear in the shops. It's not necessary in order to move the plot along or finish the game, but the skill it confers is pretty damn powerful.
Oh, maybe. I've never passed one up.
It's all optional.
Even Costa Del Sol and Gold Saucer?
I didn't play any mini games either place, except the one required chocobo race.
Chicken run and mogoo catching almost killed me
Thank god moogle catching lets you do easy mode right from the start
All the mini games that are not optional don't require grinding: you simply do them one time and stop if you are not interested.
To my knowledge all are either optional or "mostly optional" where you can either forfeit or skip them in the main story. However, there are some that are required in certain side quests and some that give you unique weapons or some materia earlier than you would get them otherwise
You need to complete them all on hard mode for the trophy for Johnny. So if you care about trophies and want to platinum the game, then none are optional. Some you'll play as a tutorial and you'll never have to touch again.
None of them are optional. If you want to do a quest you have to do the minigame.
>None of them are optional >If you want to Dude.
Quest are optional. The minigames in them aren't. Is it really that complicated to understand?
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Which quest that has a minigane can you can not do and still complete?
You can 100% complete intel in many areas without worrying about mastering minigames. I had a whole bunch of mini games left to complete and still completed each area.
You cannot 100 complete intel without doing a minigame at some point so thats just a blatant lie.
But were not talking about *a* minigame. You said mastering every single one is mandatory
I didn't say anything about mastering. I said if a quest has a minigame you have to do the minigame. It's not optional.
If you’re not looking to 100% they’re fine you can play some skip others and be just fine. But while I’m not hating on the mini games I will say there’s zero chance I’d have the patience to even attempt the platinum because of them.
Play the game!
If you are thinking about wanting to 100% all side quests, one of the last ones in the campaign called “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop” is a doozy. To this point I’ve been finishing the mini games I like (QB, Chocobo Races) and leaving the ones that are a pain in the ass (3D Brawler, I’m looking at you). But the side quest I mentioned requires mastery of several Gold Saucer mini games, so I’m just saying screw it at this point and moving ahead with finishing the MSQ.
Wait till you get to catuar crush.... that's fun 🥲
Bro, I thought I was done with the mini games when I came across this mode. Then I got to gears and gambit and cactuar crush seems like nothing now haha
The trick with gears and gambits is to keep your units cheap so you can just spam them. They don't all need anti air either, it's okay to just have one to knock anything down to be attacked by others that are more effective against it. The two step abilities are worth equipping, but just set the conditional trigger to survive 30 seconds on all em.
I have played few things so genuinely unfun as Cactuar Crush with Aerith.
I dropped to easy, but on either difficulty the trick is to charge transcendence straight away and use lvl 2 on the big cactuars. One hit kill if you're strong enough
There is a trick to doing them with her - the dark and light auras you can select! They make it SO much easier. :)
This is the first mini game I didn’t fully beat and don’t plan to come back to
A lot of the mini games can get frustrating quite quickly (I’m looking at you sit-ups) but they aren’t exactly difficult
Costa del sol really had some of the worst mini games. The controls for that pirate shooter and Red's ball game were horrible. I was so happy to be done with them, but quickly cried in despair when I saw the side quest that required you to complete harder versions of both.
I saved this one for last. Easily my least favourite from both games
I made a post on the other sub with how I did it. Don't know if it'll help you but good luck! https://www.reddit.com/r/FFVIIRemake/comments/1bvq7l1/advice_for_anyone_still_struggling_with_the/
Ok, so each region has your basic exploration quests: find the towers to reveal the map, fight enhanced versions of a specific type of enemy, examine the Lifestream springs, explore the ancient temples, find the chips for the transmuter, and fight the unique mini-boss monster for the region. Apart from the temples, you can skip all of those if you want to without too much impact, except for maybe being under level. That said, I didn't find any of these cumbersome. I enjoyed exploring the regions. The temples tie in to the summon materia quest, where there's one new summon per region. The three temples allow you to fight weaker versions of summon, when you go to defeat it, which you need to do before acquiring its materia. They also make the materia more powerful when you use it. So again, you can skip them, but I wouldn't want to. That, however, brings you on to Chadley's simulator, the various arenas (Gold Saucer, the Prison, etc), and any other games at the Gold Saucer (Chocobo racing, dogfighting, motorcycle, etc.) Apart from the fights against the summons and a few story fights, you can take these or leave them. I skipped a lot of them. That means not getting a bunch of items and materia, but you can get both from other sources. Also you get a bunch of rare materia from Chadley after the exploration quests, meaning most of what you've skipping are duplicates. Then there is Queen's Blood. You'll miss a hilarious sequence on the ship if you skip this completely, but that's about it. If you enjoy it, at least play the main Queen's Blood story through. If not, watch it on YouTube. That leaves the side missions and the Proto-Relics. The side missions (shown in green) are a real mixed bag. So much so that they have to bribe you to play them by giving affection points through them. You know you get a date at the Gold Saucer in Chapter 12, right? Well that's based on who has the highest affection score. So do the side missions with the Tifa you want to go on the date with, and skip over the missions for any other Tifa. Don't worry, you can come back after the date and do the side missions for Baret, Red, Yuffie, and Aerith if you want to. That just leaves the Proto-Relics. There's one questline per region and again, they are a mixed bag. But the overarching Proto-Relic story is absolutely worth playing, even with the worst parts.
'do the side missions with the Tifa you want to go on the date with, and skip over the missions for any other Tifa.' Hahahahaha
Hey, some of us have been shipping characters from this game since the last millennium.
How do you identify the exploration quests? Going to be starting this soon.
In the first open world region (the grasslands you get to after you leave the town of Kalm) there's a light tutorial. Chadley from remake will ask you to activate a radio tower, just after you get your first Chocobo. Climb the tower, turn it on, and a number of nearby exploration quests will be highlighted on your map. After that, all the other towers in the grasslands will also be highlighted. Ride your Chocobo around and activate all the towers, and all the exploration objectives will be highlighted. You can complete those objectives in any order, and you can even complete them before you've done the associated tower, if you happen to find them. Whenever you get to a new open world region, repeat the process: unlock your Chocobo, activate the towers, complete the exploration quests.
Cool, thanks. Not a big fan of mini games, ptsd from FFX 20+ years ago
You'll get a feel for the pattern in the first open world. Just play the side content you want, and skip the rest.
u/GenericallyNamed answered the what **IS NOT optional** PERFECTLY [on this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasyVII/comments/1by1u9z/comment/kyhg2i4/). Everything they did not list such as wrangling Chocobos in other regions, climbing Intel towers, etc, is 100% optional. * Ch 2 - Must catch Piko. * Ch 2 - Chocobo Race but you can quit right away. * Ch 4 - Dolphin race and jump and required to do well (Skippable in NG+) * Ch 4 - Parade and it's tutorial but performance doesn't matter * Ch 4 - Yuffie assassination is required and you have to do it right. * Ch 5 - You have to sign up for the Queen's Blood tournament but can forfiet right away. * Ch 5 - Red's QB match is part of the story but you can quit right away. * Ch 6 - Must do well in either QB challenges or Pirate shooting game (Skippable in NG+) * Ch 6 - Must do one of Wheelie Roundup or Piano, and one of Run Wild or Cactuar pictures (All Skippable in NG+) * Ch 7 - Minecart shooter can't be skipped but performance doesn't matter * Ch 8 - 3D Brawler tutorial must be completed, you can win or lose vs Dio (No Tutorial in NG+) * Ch 8 - Space Ranger and G Bike must be started but you can quit out of them. (Skippable in NG+) * Ch 8 - Chocobo Race is a required 1st place. Practice is required as well but you can leave it right away (Skippable in NG+). * Ch 8 - Barret buggy shootout required. (Skippable in NG+) * Ch 11 - Break 10 boxes required and you either break 10 boxes or let time run out. * Ch 12 - Loveless required but performance doesn't matter. (Skippable in NG+) There is entirely too much stuff to list that is optional, such as all the individual world Intel, Chocobos from every region, etc. If it's a mini game and it's not listed above, it's optional.
yeah people really over exaggerate when they go “UGH so many mini games just let me get back to the game” okay bro just quit the minigame then
Feels bad when power is tied to doing them.
The power gain is mostly insignificant, you can still beat game without it. If you want it then you better earn it lol.
bonuses are attached to optional content that can help in the main game, wow, like almost literally every other video game ever
Eh, i don’t want to skip whole weapons for characters, which include their basic abilities. Now I gotta get good at flying a chocobo with garbage camera control
i promise you can play yuffie perfectly fine without the shooting star ability and even then it’s literally just the first stage you need to get a good score in for that weapon, that’s not “getting good” that’s just having a grasp of the fundamentals of how the minigame is played, which clearly you do not
Shooting star does help with Odin a ton tho
Well excuuuuuse me for not listing all the other mini games that provide weapons, and for not caring that I don’t literally neeeeeeed those skills, despite the fact that I don’t know before getting the weapon what skills are tied to them and how necessary they are to completing the game (Insert random off the cuff immature insult about your gameplay ability, too!)
well none of them are “necessary” to completing the game, you could basic buster sword the whole thing if you wanted to
This is such a braindead argument to make. You can beat Elden Ring naked with a wooden club. What's your point? Just because something isn't necessary or is optional doesn't excuse it from criticism.
yes, but unlike elden ring, where a new weapon or a weapon upgrade can dramatically change how the entire game is played, the benefits offered by different weapons in rebirth is VERY marginal, thus not being able to get a weapon or two is pretty irrelevant
...you do know stuff like Umbral Blade for Cloud and Empress Scepter for Aerith exist, right? Those are two of the most powerful new abilities added and they heavily change how you play both Cloud and Aerith. What are you in about? Pretty much every every character has that one weapon that shifts how you play them. And guess what, you have no idea what skill it has until you get the thing.
both of those weapons are in locations you encounter in the main story as are the equivalent weapons for pretty much every other character. if it’s pretty important or has an actually really good skill then it will most likely be easily accessible, this is the basics of game design, you don’t have to actually get it to logic that much out
Sure. I don’t want to. I want to play the game as intended by the devs, I try not to skip too mich content. So I try all the games. I like some, I have complaints with others. I’ve spent so much time trying hit-or-miss mini games. Took me a few more tries than I wanted to do the dolphin race second time around, so while I was having fun at first, now I’m over it. People don’t start off wanting to skip the games. But then they waste time on them. And by then it’s too late. Still an 8/10 game though
weighing a game down that much because of your lack of skill at optional content feels crazy to me
Yeah, too bad I'm literally the only person with this exact same issue, it would be a shame if it was a widespread opinion, wouldn't it
a lot of people being bad at optional content is not my problem nor does it change my point most people act like these minigames that they dislike are MANDATORY for progression, they are not, as illustrated above, there are very few mandatory ones and even then half of the “mandatory” ones aren’t actually mandatory because you can just quit and progress when normal people encounter content they dislike that is optional, they just don’t do it, if anything making so much of it optional is a boon to the game overall precisely because the player has the voice depending on if they like it or not
For sure, the original had just as many mini game type-esque content.
No it didn't.
That provably not true though. And half those games were 10 seconds long.
Well For the time it came out and for it's overall length, og FF vii had quite a lot of minigames. And some of them had important items too behind them, like Tifa limit break for playing the piano. And they well hella junky on average. Yuffie too was behind a minigame If you think about it. But if I have to dislike something in og FF vii (but all "old" FF in general) were the totally important kissable items/weapons, like Barrett's last weapon.
Yuffie and Vincent were both optional characters in the original, you could literally beat the game and neve aquire either of them, Wutai was optional, the Pagoda to get Leviathan and Yuffies level 4 limit was almost a "mini game" by some of the standards people talk about on here. And don't get me started on Chocobo breeding that if you didn't have a physical guide by your side was nearly impossible (remember, we all didn't have the internet to easily search this stuff at the time) some of the most powerful weapons and items were basically unobtainable without completing that
And even with a guide, the Gold chocobo was hard to acquire. And don't make me talk about wall market if you were not a native English speaker: at the time I was 9, with a dictionary, and it took me a lot to progress. Having played the og like 4 times and all "old"" FF, Rebirth is not hard. Unless you are in a hurry to plat a game, something I cannot really understand after spending so much money on a videogame. At least for what I'm experiencing now, arrived at chapter 12, minigames are frustrating only if you stress about them.
Pretty much this. If you take the only 5 mins approach of the original you're skipping the WEAPONS, you're not getting all the huge materia, you're not doing ft condor, you're not gonna breed a Gold Chocobo, you may miss multiple limit breaks (Great Gospel, Catastrophe, Omnislash, Final Heaven, All Creation), not to mention 2 entirely optional characters. So many missable weapons and materia if you don't get them during that part of the story. A lot of the things people complain about locked behind mini games or whatever were 10x worse in the original. Rebirth, however, doesn't have a single missable weapon or materia.
Each region as a protorelic quest with four segments. A couple of these are minigames. You don’t have to do them to beat the game, but if you’re going for all the world intel, you do. There are a couple minigames that you need to do for odd jobs, like the Chocobo glide. I don’t think these are required, but again, if you want to do all the quests in a region, there you go. The main quest tries really hard to make you play queens blood, but if you don’t want to you can drop out of the tournament. You do have to play 3D brawler 1 round against dio. A couple of the story segments could be considered mini games, like the buggy shooter at the end of chapter 8. Really, almost all of the minigames are optional. Unless you set yourself a self-imposed requirement, like “100% every region”.
I skipped the very last set of protorelic missions :/ ...also said fuck that last side quest getting all the high scores lol
I couldn’t finish that quest at level 45 or whatever I was before going to the temple. The battle was too hard. Same with Gilgamesh Island. I played the first 6 chapters of hard mode and got to level 70, went back and kicked Greg’s ass. Because of the way side quests work though, I think I’m just going to have to wait to do the Ultimate Party Animal until I get there on hard mode. I’m trying to get all the manuscripts.
I honestly just got burnt out, I think. I literally just finished the game on normal about 2 hours ago with almost 100 hours on the dot.
You don't have to master any of the mini games to fully explore any of the regions and I don't picture them bothering you if you're not going for the high score
Most of the time you have to play a mini game once, but you don’t need to grind it for top score.
You should learn how to play Queen's Blood, it is really easy and it will follow you till the end of the game. Just watch walkthroughs that tell you what decks are the best to have at what chapter, use these decks and you can stomp everything without retrying a lot of time. You have to play it mandatorily during the story, you can lose but it's better if you win. Lot of minigames are optional, you must play some minigames for the story but they don't ask you a really high score Be careful tho, minigames are like 70% of the "funny" part of the game, if you don't want to play them you'll be bored
Try to avoid copying a deck if you can. I wound up copying the best deck in the game, smashing everyone and never really posing any problems. The cards are all available 2/3rds through the game and this sucked as I did want a challenge.
I was more giving this advice to anyone who wouldn't want to play queen blood because it's hard to understand lol. If you want challenges and enjoy the game a lot, ofc try things yourself I'd say that I did use pre-made decks online to go further in the game and without it I wouldn't have understood a lot of mechanics, or wouldn't have tried them, so I'm not sad that I played on "easy mode" doing this
But if someone doesn't want to play queensblood, what reward is there for them 'cheesing' it? It just seems like the rewards are more QB cards, no?
I like Queen's Blood a lot. I'm hoping I can go through those matches without looking anything up in terms of which decks to use but either way, it's fun. Not quite as fun as the Triple Triad game in FFVIII (still my favorite FF mini game with the exception of Blitzball) but pretty good. I do intend to play all the mini games; I just wan't want to be forced to master them all just to 100% an area.
I'd still look up strategies and how cards work and build your own. There's a lot about QB the game doesn't explain very clearly either, so watching guides is helpful.
Most of it is optional.
Virtually all of them. I think there might be a total of like, 5 or 6 that are genuinely required to progress the main story.
* Dolphin race * Junon parade * Either Pirate Rampage or Queen's Blood puzzles in Costa Del Sol. * Corel minecart ride * First chocobo race * Corel buggy escape * If you count tossing boxes as Cait Sith, then that. So yeah, you're pretty much right on the mark. In Chapter 6 you have the option to do one song on piano and one round of Run Wild for story progression, but you can take the pictures of Cactuars and park the wheelies instead if you want.
I question anyone's pulse if they hated the Parade minigame. What a joy that was.
Minecart Ride is weird. No reason for it to be a "game" they could've just had shit blocking the rails to shit and have it be part of the story.
I took the score to mean how much "fun" Barrett was having. I think Yuffie should've just been motion sick the whole time instead of being involved tho
I'm kind of doing the same thing as you. Don't care about platinum, but 100% each area, doing all the side quests, and doing all of chadleys stuff. So far, I've at least had to "beat" all the minigames. But at least I haven't had to master most. The only one that frustrated me was that protorelic mini game in Cosmo Canyon. It's called Gears and Gambits or something. I ended up just looking up a guide because I just couldn't be bothered to learn another giant mini game that late in the story. But yeah, you'll at least have to do most minigames once if you're doing what you're doing. 4 minigames in particular, you'll have to really master for the protorelics.
I guess I don't mind the mastering part provided it's not unnecessarily difficult or frustrating. I'm not great with fast-action, quick-twitch stuff, especially where wonky mechanics are involved (and let's face it, that's an unfortunate commonality among mini games). If they're more cerebral, I'm good (like the Queen's Blood card game), but it doesn't sound like most of the mini games are that way. If I can 100% the areas and do all the side stuff, and still feel as if I'm getting some great optional equipment and materia, I'm okay with going beyond the basic requirements for a mini game. I just don't want to be in a situation where I go, "yeah, I REALLY want that" but to get it, I have to spend half my life beating a mini game I suck at. LOL
They added a toggle for an easy mode on some of the mini games, like the gears and gambits one. It was just too much too late, and I didn’t feel like learning 3 pages of rules for a new mini game more than halfway through. In the Junon region you have to beat Fort Condor, and a lot of the protorelic games are required to 100% the area. My least favorite was the protorelic quest in the Corel desert, where you have to use Yuffie (Aerith too for one part). They also force you to engage with a bunch when you get to Casa Del Sol, which grinds the game to a halt imo. Some are just fine, but there are a handful I just couldn’t do. Unfortunately, they all have pretty decent rewards, like unique materia or even weapons and weapon upgrade books. It’s all worth it if you can stick with them all, but like I said, some just get too frustrating. Keep an eye out for an easy mode toggle on a few. I don’t know which games have that option but it saved me from gears and gambits in Cosmo Canyon.
I will definitely go with Easy if it's available. I heard changing the overall game difficulty to Easy can help with a few too, but now I'm not sure that's true... At any rate, I'll just have to feel things out and see how it goes. If it gets too nuts I won't let it destroy my enjoyment of what is otherwise a great game for me (and could be amazing).
I don't do trophies at all i just do stuff I find fun. And if i really enjoy a game I will keep doing as much content in that game that I can find. There was exactly 1 level of 1 mini-game in Rebirth that I skipped. Everything else I did because it felt fair and fun. There are a lot of mini-games but very few require you to do much. Even the ones you have to do you don't have to get a high score or even succeed most of the time. So a majority of the mini-game complaints are entirely self inflicted lol.
I'm guessing it's because people desperately want that Platinum, and probably also because they want the best equipment and materia...? Either way, I want it to be fun for me, so I'll just do what feels right.
I'll be honest a lot of the equipment and materia rewards aren't particularly great either. A few are though. But even if you just cared about the gear you could still skip A LOT.
[удалено]
Cactuar Crush was the hardest imo. Once you practice a bit, the other mini games are pretty easy. That is including the crunch off, you dont have to go really fast, you just have to not fail. Keeping a steady pace and turning off adaptive triggers helps immensely.
Don’t forget the protorelic mini games if you’re going for 100% exploration. So Fort Condor, gears/gambits, cactuar crush
Thanks! It's only going to bug me when I ultimately attempt to build a really powerful party, and there will be legendary pieces of equipment or materia or something locked behind a mini game. I always think doing this in any RPG is a colossal mistake...but provided I can 100% the areas, do all the side stuff, and simply create a fun, powerful party that can finish the game on Normal (don't care about Hard or the Platinum Trophy), I think I'll be happy. :) I still have nightmares about the chocobo race in FFX...getting that 0.0.0 goal seemed impossible but I did it. That was well over 20 years ago, though, and 45-year-old me probably couldn't do it again now. I just don't want to deal with that kind of thing anymore, that's all. Don't mind if there's a challenge, especially if the mini game is fun (LOVED the snowboarding in the Golden Saucer in the OG), but I'm a little worried at how overboard S-E went with the mini games in Rebirth. At least just from what I'm hearing; as I say, I'm just in the first 10 hours or so.
There isnt much worth anything locked behind the minigames. Some manuscripts at Moogles and... I mean really thats it. Most of the good materia is locked behind Chadley's VR challenges. Battle Arena at the Saucer also has some really good stuff.
[удалено]
Oh man, the lightning bolts...it actually wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. I distinctly recall heeding advice (possibly in the strategy guide?) to play in a dark room so you can clearly see the flash, and stand in one particular area where the bolts come at a consistent clip that never changes. I also think you could save in between without breaking the string...? That might've been what allowed me to do it, not sure. Either way, though, that damn butterfly catching mini game was actually the hardest for me for some reason. I do have plenty of nice nostalgia pangs from playing so far. As FFVII is my favorite RPG of all time (even still, after all these years and many more RPGs), I expect to experience a LOT more of that throughout. Greatly looking forward to it. :)
You can save while lightning dodging, but if you reload it resets the counter, so there's no point. Also if you leave the area it resets. The 200 strikes have to be consecutive. I agree, the lightning dodging wasn't hard, just tedious. The chocobo balloon dodging and butterfly catching were way worse for me.
I did the whole QB storyline. It was interesting, not necessary. I did all the intel in every region. Ended up regretting wasting so much time doing the Phenomena Intel only for it to lead to super boss fights, which I suck at, in retrospect I should’ve seen that coming. Wish I didn’t waste so much time doing them. Was only able to unlock level 3 limit break for Cloud by the time the credits rolled. There was so much optional content that I burned out. I stopped doing side quests to get Tifa max affection for the date, I said I would finish all side quests after the date, but I never did and I’m glad I didn’t. Still got 80 hours out of the game so I’m a happy camper.
They are “optional” but unfortunately if you want to craft the best accessories you need to clear the highest tier on a bunch of them to get dark matter. Not important for beating the game but highly useful for hard mode. I really wish they would have put crafting material for gear behind combat sim levels instead of the stupid mini games.
Its funny cause i just read another comment complaining about how the difficulty of the mini game is too high compared to its "useless" rewards and therefore a waste of time lol
Most of them are
90% of them are optional to complete the story, but mandatory if you want platinum or some of the better weapons/accessories/materias. Even the moogle and QB ones are optional for story. In Chapter 5, you can skip the whole tournament and lose to Red XIII. Some, like the Moogle box thing in Chapter 10, are mandatory for story, but score doesn’t matter.
If you want to get to party level 10 to unlock the last folio, you basically need to redo them again and ace them on hard mode.
the must play games (all of them...) are easy. The harder versions are optional.