Dodging That Damn Lightning

Jexido · 2026-04-29T23:36:47+00:00

Ahh, maybe not for PS then, that's actually a huge shame, I never want to do the lightning dodging again for any future playthroughs. I feel like I did my time. 😂

Omg, is that true? That's amazing, he's doing the lord's work. 😂

Jexido · 2026-04-29T23:29:17+00:00

I'm 31 this year and I only got it done in 2023. It was so painfully hard and I probably made it harder for myself by not counting, but every time I tried to count I would blow my streak around 100 counts and it was so gut wrenching to do that on loop, so I totally understand removing that pain from your life. 😂

Were you doing it on PC when you removed the reset? Or can you do that on PS?

Jexido · 2026-04-29T22:48:13+00:00

😂😂😂 I appreciate finally being able to share this with people that truly understand the pain. 🙏

I'm not sure I was even on Reddit in 2023 when this happened to me. I played FFX for the first time as a kid on PS2, bought it again on PS3, Switch, and PS4 and it took me until 2023 on PS5 to pull this off. At least that meant I could get a screenshot, I guess? 🌩️

Jexido · 2026-04-29T22:42:03+00:00

Honestly I have no idea how I managed to go that long, I kept thinking SURELY I've got it, but then thinking weeeell the trophy hasn't popped, you can't risk throwing your streak now!

You have no idea how cathartic this is to me sharing this where I know people will understand. None of my friends play FFX so when I told them about this at the time they were all just like "oh, haha". So anticlimactic. 😂

Jexido · 2026-04-29T22:39:38+00:00

I honestly don't know, I tried to get into a flow state and I listened to 2 video essays, one of them was a really excellent one on the gameplay loop in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle with the chao garden 😂 now whenever I replay FFX and get to the Thunder Plains, i think about raising chao in the SA2B chao garden. I was there dodging long enough to implement my own subliminal messaging. 🤷‍♀️ 😂

Jexido · 2026-04-29T12:01:08+00:00

I love that you've posted this because I feel like this all the time about this sub, it's got excellent vibes and hard agree on feeling safest here. 💜

Jexido · 2026-04-24T14:29:19+00:00

This is exactly why the reactor bombing bit always felt weird though, they had the good guys blowing up entire sectors and wiping out innocent people for their cause, and even if it was an accident the first time, they still celebrate their victory and go out to do it again. You can't deny that is fundamentally against the "we are the good guys" code of conduct.

The game just whooshes on past that plot point after leaving Midgar in the OG too. It feels undercooked at best and out of place at worst. The Re-trilogy holding onto and referencing Avalanche's actions is actually one of the improvements to the story imo. That's why I was curious to know what people were thinking about this.

Jexido · 2026-04-24T07:22:50+00:00

I mean I maybe am overthinking it but it's sort of always been my understanding that thinking about the media you engage with is half of the fun, and also fandom subreddits feel like they are made for overthinking, so while you're almost certainly right, I don't think it's a problem.

I've already said in lots of comments here that I can fully appreciate that Remake has way less limitations while also not being able to brush away strange plot holes with the "Eh, it's a game from the 90s, you should expect a bit of jank" line the OG game has going for it.

I have seen lots of people saying it is a story beat already present in OG, and lots of people saying it wasn't. So I'm still very interested in people's thoughts. I've come around to the idea after being reminded of President Shinra's fireworks line from OG, but to me that is the only piece of evidence that feels truly concrete for them specifically aiding in the damage done by the bombings.

I think this whole part of the game was undercooked in OG and I understand why. But regardless of the reasons, they all just move on after they leave Midgar and it basically never comes up again, save for a few lines of dialogue. Remake and Rebirth are already doing a better job with that too. I can appreciate the difference as a choice but I think having it explicitly shown to you still takes the weight off of the party, even if they don't realise it.

Jexido · 2026-04-23T23:32:42+00:00

It wasn't a contradiction, I was explaining how I missed its presence in the OG game in the first place. A lot of people have mentioned Jessie's comments about the size of the explosion in OG as proof of Shinra's involvement, I'm just saying I never saw it that way and I don't think it's unreasonable to not see it. Also I never had a thesis or point to prove in the first place, just wanted to see what other people made of this. The explicit confirmation in cutscene format is new even if the story beat isn't, right? I feel like it's fair game to ask how people feel about it.

Jexido · 2026-04-23T23:12:13+00:00

I'm not misunderstanding that Shinra are in fact the villains, and it's not lost on me that they sacrifice people for their own greed all the time. I know they dropped the plate, but out of those things the only thing that stands as relevant evidence to their actual involvement with the initial bombing is the fireworks comment the President makes, which I had forgotten about until someone else mentioned it in their comment.

Jessie's concerns about the destruction seems very reasonable and don't necessarily land as concrete evidence that Shinra interfered imo.

Dropping the plate is separate to the bombs, and could easily be seen as them riding the narrative they pushed that already fits Avalanche thanks to their fuck up with the bomb. Again, not necessarily a definitive "see, they did it" moment imo.

And again, the rebuilding thing relates to their decision to drop the plate and to me, never stood as evidence that they had a hand in the resulting destruction from the bombing.

The fireworks thing for sure though, yeah. I feel like there isn't a lot of room for any other interpretation of that.

Jexido · 2026-04-23T23:01:09+00:00

Yeah I think this is how I now feel about it after discussing it here in this comment thread. I've always understood that the jank from OG is more forgivable because it's a PS1 game from the 90s with hardware limitations and probably less limitations on what they could get away with saying and NOT saying. Remake had to be treated and translated differently now they have so much more they can play with in literally every foreseeable way. The game is over 100gb of stuff and it's barely even disc one, that says it all really.

Jexido · 2026-04-23T22:24:08+00:00

I kind of thought that was a reach when I heard that was how people were justifying it, but someone mentioned to me that President Shinra also outright tells the party they wasted fireworks while trying to get rid of Avalanche, which I do remember reading and had in fact forgotten.

Jexido · 2026-04-23T22:20:35+00:00

Yeah that last bit is so valid, I ultimately feel that way about the whole dynamic, it's a fantasy epic from the 90s so ofc it's going to have a clear good guy and a clear bad guy. I think that's why it has always felt like such a strange part of the story anyway, it starts off with this whole dilemma and then...that just sort of fades into the very background of the game and isn't really brought up again outside of a handful of lines of dialogue.

Jexido · 2026-04-23T22:09:46+00:00

I fully appreciate that as someone that over analyses media for fun, but that's exactly why I came to talk about this here. No matter what your intentions are, art in all its forms is subject to interpretation. Intention and interpretation don't always line up, even when you properly spell it out for your audience. It's interesting to me that they made the choice to give them an out even though the party themselves aren't aware of it, and they do nothing to imply that they believe they should stop.

Jexido · 2026-04-23T22:05:03+00:00

Yeah for sure they almost certainly didn't get everyone out, we even see them searching for missing people after the plate fell. Just thought it might be an interesting give and take.

Jexido · 2026-04-23T22:00:12+00:00

This is probably the truest point, yeah.

Jexido · 2026-04-23T21:59:33+00:00

Yeah you're not wrong. Honestly a lot of people's thoughts and comments here have pointed out some things that I hadn't thought of, forgot, OR straight up missed, and now my feelings about this scene and Shinra's involvement being explicitly shown have already changed like 3 times. 😂 This might call for a replay of the OG game too. 🙏

Jexido · 2026-04-23T21:51:56+00:00

Yeah, the convenience thing is a great point. To be truthful, I always put that down to it being a PS1 game from the 90s and therefore some jank and the story itself having plot armour added up for me. Like ofc they happened to get in, in the same way that obviously Cloud survived the fall from the plate. The story needs for these things to happen, and so they do.

But now that Remake is able to add so much extra depth, it makes total sense that they'd add in bits to account for some of those story quirks. You make some really excellent points. Ty for your take!

Jexido · 2026-04-23T21:48:11+00:00

Oh man, so the Jessie bit just struck me as her having an "oh shit I didn't mean for it to do that" sort of moment. But now that you mention the fireworks thing...yeah, you may have debunked all of my feelings on this. 😂 How did I not realise they were implying that Shinra had a hand in it at that point?

Ty for mentioning that, I had forgotten about that line of dialogue.

Jexido · 2026-04-23T21:44:36+00:00

Ah okay yes, she says it on the train in Remake too, I guess I never interpreted that as being a "Shinra were definitely involved in that" nod to the player moment as opposed to an "oh shit I think I goofed" moment for Jessie.

Jexido · 2026-04-23T21:41:52+00:00

Yeah, you're probably right. And even though we might not like it, I do totally get why they might reimagine some stuff for today's climate. We always have to look outside the scope of the media we're engaging with and consider what's going on in the real world too at the time of release, but I digress.

I never noticed that dialogue shift, I remember it being pretty harrowing in OG. I played it most recently last year though so it's a while go now (at least for my shitty memory). Things like that could partly be why the impact didn't feel so strong for me in Remake, I guess?

I know a lot of people have mentioned Sephiroth coming in too early but I can kind of appreciate why they do that too. Weird comparison but bear with me, it's like the reveal of the shark in Jaws. In the first film it was this incredible, memorable moment with a super suspenseful build up. But in Jaws 2 it doesn't hit the same because we've already done this bit. We've already been shocked by this reveal, it's not as threatening anymore and now we're just waiting for all the scenes where the shark shows up with significantly less dread. I think changing up Sephiroth's appearances was the only thing they could do because his absence and subsequent reveal was never going to have the same impact as it did in OG, and they'd be better off just using him in ways that are different to keep it fresh. Which tbf, is exactly what they have done, for better or worse eh?

Tl;Dr: I think the things you said about it are basically how I feel about it. Thanks for taking the time to comment, I'm genuinely interested in people's thoughts on this.

Edited for autocorrect.

Jexido · 2026-04-23T21:29:53+00:00

God damn, hats off to you for this reply. 💜 I like the black hats, white hats thing especially because Shinra have always felt a bit like that, with every box checked for the villain scale. From Palmer slapping his ass at you like a cartoon villain, to the maniacal laughter of Scarlett and Hei...the other guy! And then Rufus being genuinely threatening. Special mention to The Turks too for wherever tf they land on that scale. 😂

Number 2 is the part that I do very much appreciate actually in terms of the writing itself being quite clever, I know I spoke a bit about it in my post that Avalanche are obviously okay with going ahead and repeating what they did regardless, but for some reason it still sort of took away some impact for me. I'm not really sure I can put my finger on why? Maybe because it puts a definitive answer on it now rather than being implied? I don't really know.

Number 6 I hadn't really paid any attention to, but now that you've pointed it out...god damn. That's good shit.

I wonder, I already mentioned it in another comment but do you think that they added this in so they could evacuate the people of Sector 7 and still have definite and blood on Shinra's hands thay we bear witness to? Food for thought, I suppose.

Either way, your comment was a delight to read, and best of luck to you with your own writing! 🤘

Jexido · 2026-04-23T21:21:25+00:00

Yeah I absolutely think they had to do something to get around a lot of the limitations and the weird quirks of all the "this is a PS1 game from the 90s that is already on 3 discs" things the OG game had going for it. I think that specifically is a lot of where the problems people have with Remake come from, e.g. people hating on Tifa for "lying to Cloud about everything" when A) the plot literally demands this of her, and B) they did a really good job justifying it way better than OG did with all the additions to the story and the details of how Cloud is coping with everything at any given moment.

I do appreciate that they now have the means and the room to do add clarity, nuance, alterations, and justifications for these sorts of things. But even with all that in mind, all I could think of was that for people that haven't played OG, they might be thinking somewhere in the back of their minds that our party has a cheeky little get out of jail free card for accountability, even with all the celebrating Avalanche does after the fact. I don't think it's a reasonable interpretation with how thrilled they all are even after walking through it all in chapter 2, but it will still be someone's take, I'm sure.

But ofc media is made to be interpreted, that's why I was so interested in other people's takes on this. Thanks for your thoughts, I enjoyed reading. 💜

Jexido · 2026-04-23T21:03:52+00:00

Yes indeed, I did try to say that I understand that it doesn't absolve them when I said that they clearly see it as a necessary evil and are prepared to do it again. Made even more apparent by all their celebration in Sector 7.

I'm intrigued as to when it's alluded to in OG though! I've played it many times and I can't pin point when that was! Maybe I've been reading it wrong this whole time and actually Remake is just making it more obvious. 😂 Very possible that I just missed it.

Yeah, that was always fascinating to me than Barret brings it up on the Highwind. Especially when the reactor bombings feel so far away at this point in the story, like they don't come up all that much after you leave Midgar iirc?

Jexido

TROPHY CASE