Game:

Final Fantasy VII (1997)

Duration: 14:12

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12

The end of Midgar.

4 boss battles in one segment are never fun (and the next time this happens, it will be even worse...). Even though Hundred Gunner requires almost no luck at all, Heli Gunner, Rufus and Motor Ball do quite extensively.

In fact, it is possible to skip Heli Gunner's spinning phase entirely, which allows one to save quite some time. Of course, this is achieved by getting a critical Limit Break. Apart from that, Heli Gunner may or may not afflict a character with Sleep or even very easily kill someone if one of its attacks becomes critical. Neither can be accepted.

Rufus is an incredibly annoying boss. In order not to lose time on him, one needs to get a first turn and kill Dark Nation. Unfortunately, due to random variation of damage, a Braver or a Grenade might not even kill Dark Nation (140 HP) in one hit, which yields a swift reset. Additionally, Rufus should never use his pointless "laughing fit" attack as it slower than his Shotgun move and Cloud needs to sustain enough damage to gain a Limit Break.

Finally, even Motor Ball's AI is not completely deterministic. During its first two turns, it will use Arm Attack and it can use it twice per turn. Obviously, Arm Attack should be used only once both times. As a matter of fact, one can defeat Motor Ball before it uses Twin Burner for a second time, which is faster than seeing a second Twin Burner. However, as I need to have Limit Breaks for Mystery Ninja, I had to force a second Twin Burner.

Also, it does make a difference which party members one takes to Kalm. Having Barret and Tifa skips one text box on the departure screen outside of Midgar. Yet, taking Tifa and Red XIII is still slightly faster because one will not have to witness Red XIII's howling animation before being able to leave the screen.

01:40:59
1 random battle
14 battles

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