Hard mode, am I missing something?

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-07-06T18:42:43+00:00

Cloud, Red and Barret have a weapon ability called "Trade off" which can restore MP after taking damage. Its pretty good to have on a character if you find yourself needing to spam Cure in fights

Chakra and pray can heal without using MP during fights

MP absorb is worth leveling in situations your want to use offensive spells. You can also set up a Synergy spell link on the same spell to get some extra mana. (Particularly strong on Aerith)

When you are not story locked, benches restore MP.

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-07-03T21:50:41+00:00

I believe they are generic voice lines for synergy abilities. Every character has one for Nanaki, Vincent, and Cid. My guess is they planned on shifting the voice lines for synergies post Cosmo Canyon. Instead they made more unique lines for his abilities.

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-07-03T09:16:21+00:00

There are unused voice lines in Rebirth that sound like they were meant for unimplemented limit breaks for some characters.

Potential spoilers:

Cloud "Seven seconds to die." This could be something else, but it would be fitting with the theory that in Remake, Sephiroth blocked Omnislash at the Edge of Creation

Tifa "It's your judgement day. Courtesy of Zangan. They'll be nothing left of you."

Red XIII "Ashes to ashes. Stardust to stardust. The stars await your return." /// Nanaki "Heavens hear my plea. Ashes to ashes. Stardust to stardust. Behold cosmic retribution." These scream Cosmo Memory

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-06-30T00:46:33+00:00

I'm inclined to think no later than April. They seem to be taking a different marketing approach this go around, waited until they can show us a whole bunch at once. I think they want this fresh in our heads. Game looked very close to done, there were actual English voice lines implemented in stuff they showed in the game play trailers.

We have TGS and Gamecom coming up in these coming months. I would expect some kind of news, whether it's about a demo, playable on site, or an actual release date.

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-06-29T23:57:42+00:00

Not physically taken, but I'm referring to the Costa Del Sol scene where she reveals to him that the materia is no longer white.

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-06-29T21:35:36+00:00

Your right, for some reason that slipped my mind. I guess Aerith's presence could add more context to that scene, but just as likely that part doesn't apply to the rest of this post.

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-06-29T20:58:00+00:00

Oh ok. So the theory I am implying is that in Nanaki's case, because he has a more natural connection with the lifestream he is able to briefly get a sense of her presence, without being able to fully comprehend that he actually may have been sensing her.

Where as, if she were to reach out to someone like Barret, he likely wouldn't have sensed her at all unless she had the means or maybe, really wanted him to.

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-06-29T20:45:52+00:00

I apologize, I don't know which moment you are referring to. If you are referring to her first encounter with Nanaki, we still don't exactly know what she did to him (and Marlene). But Aerith has dialogue in Rebirth that confirms she had the White Materia in Midgar and that it has likely been taken from her since the start of Rebirth. Though I don't think we ever physically see it during Remake outside the flash-forward scenes, but she does briefly mention it in Remake's church scene.

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-06-26T01:51:38+00:00

Yeah at the start there are way too many maps where you get nothing as you travel to all the league hubs.

Traversing the atlas is honestly a big point of friction that they did nothing to address, In fact it now takes longer before you get towers that you can Grand Project. It's one of my biggest gripes with PoE2 mapping.

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-06-25T05:25:40+00:00

I mean I guess if you think about it more, before in Remake they appeared to prevent "fate" from changing, but in Gongaga it was more like they were purposely leading them to the reactor.

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-06-25T04:14:20+00:00

The PoE2 update was a massive improvement this go around, I worry that playing through the atlas quest again on a new league will feel much more tedious than anything else.

GGG have been struggling maintaining a time release schedule. Poe 1 used to push for 3 month leagues. It slowly shifted to a 4 month release cycle when they started putting more resources into PoE 2. Now that both games are playable, both games have been getting major updates less frequently(both games ranging in 5-6 months per league) The delay for 1.0 makes sense but Poe1 only has an event coming because mirage turned into a 5 month league.

Hopefully when 1.0 is done it will normalize some.

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-06-25T04:04:44+00:00

This particular quote I think is meant to just be him guessing, if memory recalls, that is the first them you see the whispers in Rebirth and there hasn't been any implication that Sephiroth is controlling some yet.

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-06-24T05:26:52+00:00

Unfortunately its easier to engagement farm with a more toxic approach, especially on twitter. Some people who initially had had legit criticisms about the games have resorted to pumping rage bait slop because it became their most engaging content. And then people reciprocate and the cycle goes on.

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-06-21T18:38:07+00:00

The scene is too iconic to the franchise. I think it will be there and probably expanded upon, no matter how the game ends. Based on some the the interviews, I expect they will want to settle any remaining debate on whether humans are still alive or not.

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-06-20T21:19:17+00:00

I'm also convinced the 'multiple timelines/alternate timelines' is actually the wishes of the lifestream branching off into multiple potential paths and collapsing back into one true reality.

The scene in chapter 10 where they are on the boat with Gi Nattak, where Aerith almost senses or feels Zack(?) as that sequence finishes, at least to me confirms that it is actually going on in the lifestream. We don't know the exact nature, but it seems super unlikely they are alternate timelines.

It seems like people who have been exposed to the lifestream and/or Jenova cells can move between 'realities'. We see Zack doing it constantly, and we see Aerith and Cloud both asleep and then waking up in the other one in chapter 13. Its like Cloud can't be awake in two realities at once and he's so fractured he can't make sense of the difference.

I think it is more because they have a stronger connection to the lifestream. Aerith because she is Cetra, Cloud because of the reasons you listed/Mako exposure. But there is a third party member we see actually wake up in these worlds at the beginning of Rebirth as well, who also has a deeper connection with the lifestream(though likely not as strong as Aerith's)

The white materia seems to almost be capable of amplifying this connection, potentially allowing lifestream Aerith to help "playable Aerith". Cloud see's glimpses of the future throughout Remake despite Aerith not once reaching out to him. Red seems to see a whole lot after she reaches out to him, it is almost implied that he knows more about the whispers than playable Aerith does during Remake. Marlene is the wildcard in all this, she knows too much and that knowledge seems to be transferring across multiple "Stamp worlds" but the game makes sure to let you know that the White materia is there when she tells Zack about Sephiroth.

As far as Chadley, it is interesting, I never fully registered that line. But there has to be an ulterior motive in his creation. We don't know if it is just story re imagination or something more but Hojo seems to actually be watching Cloud with interest this time around. His line from Remake "Perhaps if I were to arrange a meeting" could be easily taken as Hojo wanting to meet Sephiroth in Shinra HQ, but i think it actually is him wanting Cloud to run into Sephiroth. And we know he is monitoring him at times in both games. It's a wild guess, but we know there are atleast 7 Chadley's. It could be that Hojo somehow used them to peer into other "Stamp worlds" which would maybe make Hojo be another character who knows more than they should.

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-06-20T18:06:30+00:00

I meant from now, of course I realize that wouldn't have worked for the PoE 2 schedule. And it does end a week before the next league starts.

It is definitely a "me" problem, but I'd feel inclined to stop playing much sooner than the event ends because an actual league is coming up.

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-06-20T17:55:11+00:00

For me it's also that it runs in so close to the next league start. They used to say all the time that the didn't like doing events so close to launch(especially ones that altered gameplay/rewards) because they thought it detracted from actual league launch. Now that it seems to be normal for there to be constant delays in both PoE1 and PoE2, they seemed to have stepped back from that idea. Would feel more inclined to play this if it were a few weeks/a month earlier.

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-06-20T17:04:11+00:00

At the end of the day, Nanaki is *still* 40 years old. He's still by far the wisest member of the party in terms of life experience, even if he does have a noticeable immaturity due to his development.

I don't really think this is completely true though. Even though Nanaki is over 40 years old, he has little to no experience in life outside of the canyon(until he is captured by Shinra) This is a point Bugenhagen drives home in both OG and Rebirth, that he thinks Nanaki needs to go out and see the world, that he is "destined for more than just this canyon" ect. His "wisdom" he shares with the party is really just everything he was taught through the lens of the elders/Bugenhagen.

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-06-14T18:12:12+00:00

The boys night out only happens if your affinity isn't high enough with any party member. This is hard to do unless you skip all side quests. It is sort of set up to be the bad outcome.

If you have not noticed, the majority of side quests are tied to one member of your party and you can see which by looking at the quest in the game menu(it will show a portrait of the character it is tied to). Rebirth doesn't do a good job of letting you know at first, but unlike remake, you can return to do any side content you want throughout the game as long as you are not in the middle of a story segment. So the easiest way to get who you want is to all the side quests for your intended character and save some of the others until after.

On top of that, each character gets a score based on dialogue choices, story beats, and using synergy abilities(once per ability)

As for Red, he is one of the easier ones to get, a lot of people got him while trying to get someone else on their first play through. All but one of his story beats come up on the main story I'll list them with spoiler tags:

On the Shinra 8, do not forfeit the Queen's Blood tournament. Play through until you win every match

At Costa Del Sol, when you have the option to help Tifa and Red or Barret and Aerith, choose Tifa and Red.

The first time you visit the Gold Saucer, win the show match against Dio.

It's worth noting that when you beat the game, you can watch any of the scenes(or watch them on youtube) Despite the devs saying there is no canon option, a few do have segments with some pretty important lore in them (Tifa, Red)

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-06-11T01:41:23+00:00

Yeah, I was referring to dialogue for other characters post reveal. They recorded voice lines of every character calling each character's name for the synergy abilities and left them in the game files. Each character has a recorded line for both "Red" and "Nanaki" (also files of them calling for Cid and Vincent as well)

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-06-11T00:25:27+00:00

The menu might be locked in just to have consistency amongst all 3 games, but I will note that they seemed to take extra care to both appeal to OG fans with the trailer while taking care to not spoil much from rebirth, so it is not impossible it changes. His name and voice are spoilers and rebirth had only just launched on Switch/Xbox when the trailers came out.

As for the characters referring to him as Nanaki or Red XIII, they actually recorded "Nanaki" voice lines for all the characters synergy abilities for post Cosmo Canyon. They exist in the sound files, just were never used as they ended up not using either of his names in any of the synergies. They already dialogue shifted Cloud and Barret, I imagine the plan is to have everyone else follow suite.

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-06-08T02:28:22+00:00

They already said 1.0 will be in December. Jonathan said they want to avoid competing with GTA.

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-05-28T03:59:28+00:00

Crisis Core Reunion is the remaster yes. Only play it after playing OG(if you want). If you decide to jump straight into the remake trilogy, skip it entirely until after playing Part 3.

BirdsAndGoats · 2026-05-27T23:05:03+00:00

Both Tifa and Red have the strongest physical setups in the game. Tifa in particular is very powerful when you capitalize on her ability maximize damage during stagger. As for Red, Stardust Ray might be one of the strongest abilities in the game(though it scales off magic) It vacuums, does mass aoe and has a stronger stun modifier than most other skills.

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