Thoughts on stats and items carrying over to FF7R 2

I suppose this is one of the conundrums of telling a multi-part story.

How would you want them to handle your game character's stats going into the second game? There are a few ways you could go about it, I suppose, whether it be through level caps or starting fresh.

There will inevitably be at least some people who pick up FF7R 2 who have never played the first or have lost the means to carry over their save file from the first. Would you want a default "everyone starts at level 30 with reasonable armor" type of thing? Or do you just want to start fresh in the sequel?

Or, if your stats carry over, what do you do about someone who obsessively plays the first game to the point where they become OP? I guess it's their own fault, but it would make their experience through the second game a cake walk.

I've played a lot of games where the level reset of a sequel is written into the story, whether it be a time jump, a memory wipe, or something to that effect. But I don't suspect that'll be relevant, as they're just continuing to tell the same story from where it left off.

Discuss.

There should be some default stats for people who haven't played the first part or otherwise lost access to save files from it, but otherwise I'd prefer everything carry over. If you underlevel in the first part it might be nice to have it boost you to default stats as a minimum but it should still carry over your inventory and such (would be great if that's optional for people who want to be underleveled, but that's not me so it's not a major concern for me).

A direct transfer of everything is the only way to go. A new part 2 character can have a default set of gear/items/level, but I would want everything I did from the first game to carry over, whether it's over or under average.

I imagine it might be that each game is treated as completely separate, so you’ll be starting at early levels in each. But that’s just a hunch I have.

They should just take a page from the .hack playbook, in those games all your stats/items carried over but the level cap was higher in the next part. People don't lose the stuff they worked on in part 1, but also can't overlevel for part 2, and equipment/materia should naturally be better in part 2 so that'd be no issue. That only leaves items, and if people want to grind out a bunch of items to make the next game easier, well, whatever :p

I doubt they'd start you from level 1 where you had to relearn all the basic skills again. My guess is that they will port over levels and some materia/equipment but probably not all your inventory. And FFVIIR Part 1 will have some mechanic to cap levels or make grinding past a certain point incredibly tedious. They have the hard job of keeping the progression continuous but also making each part a fully realized game itself.

Personally I just wouldn’t immediately assume they’ll retain the exact same systems throughout the games, considering they’re all treated as individual games that will span at least two console generations

I hope one of them is a tactical strategy game! Or metroidvania.

They might have a level cap for part 1, I could see the thinking behind it. But there's no way the won't let you carry over your items and stats to the next entry... people would riot. For people starting part 2 before playing part 1 (weirdos) then it will be reasonably basic stats and items, just starting you at a higher level.

I feel the two biggest factors that will affect how data transfer is going to be whether FFVIIR stays exclusive to one console generation or if they will make say Episode 3 or 4 a PS5 exclusive. This probably won't be a problem for the PC version, but if later episodes ends up jumping to the next console cycle exclusively and depending on how Sony, Microsoft, and SE work around player profiles for their systems, I can see a later entry dropping data transfer but maybe just giving you a minor bonus if you had played the earlier games, but not do a pure 1:1 transfer.

The other factor at play here is what Fynn brings up, which is the mechanics of the game going through changes making certain items and abilities impossible to translate and rectify. I already see Episode 2 is going to make some gameplay changes based on fan feedback from the first game, and depending on how equipment, materia, and abilities work in the first episode, we can see some major changes that will make a direct transfer also not work too cleanly. Though in this case, it will probably be more of a case by case scenario where things like Summons getting nerfed between entries, or changing how limit breaks work. This area would only become a real issue if SE chose to delay an episode to overhaul the mechanics, which will really only happen if the game gets some severe backlash about the gameplay.

Course, the smartest move, and ignoring what I said above, would be to simply have the games have a level cap for each episode for the characters. Equipment shouldn't be too much of a problem, though I imagine Episode 2 may start you in a default mode, and than after the intro section, let you have access to all of your extra gear and leveled up materia after a certain point.

The kind of backwards compatibility that is being predicted fo PS5 makes me think there won't be any great challenge in using PS4 save data with the PS5 and hence no great excuse to forego it either. Plus, I fully expect part 1 to be ported to PS5.

There's going to be some kind of carry over for sure so they can figure out your Gold Saucer date.

I suspect it'll be very Falcom-y, in that some things will carry over but others won't.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fox

There's going to be some kind of carry over for sure so they can figure out your Gold Saucer date.

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You know the best option.

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Update:
Considering Hard Mode restricts items, some players (like moi) probably sold their usable items. Pt 2 would probably provide a kit to start with (if Cloud and crew are still level 50, Potions will likely be more potent "because destiny"). If their levels reset, it'd also be "because destiny".

In the Key Items list:

• Moogle Medals
• Combat Analyzer
• Sam's Coin
• Handmade Necklace
• Moogle Membership Card (if purchased)*
• Tournament Entry Form
• Andrea's Earrings (if earned)*

*At some point in Pt 2, I expect there would be an opportunity to earn these items. An actual moogle shop to purchase the membership from and another dance off (maybe vs someone else who has a pair of Andrea's Earrings).

I predict mostly iconic items will transfer over. Cloud's Buster Sword, Barret's Gatling Gun, maybe Aerith's Guard Stick. Of course, it's possible that all acquired weapons will transfer. Newbs who haven't played Pt 1 could likely buy all of the weapons en route to Junon. That's 5 for each character. Of course, Red never had such a collection but it's possible that shops will provide 5 additional weapons for him along the way. Of course, this setup would mean that the original foursome would likely not have access to a new weapon until after Junon... maybe.

Anyway, I think skill sets will be reset. Some skills will remain (i.e. Braver) but if there are skills to learn from the original 6 weapons, they'll likely be revamped, forcing even those who partook of Pt 1 to reuse those weapons to earn these "new" skills. I also believe there will be a skill management system, 'cause damn that menu got long.

Materia will likely be reset too. At this point, I've collected about 80 Healing materias. Not to mention shops sell them and there's no possession limit. Really there should be a limit. 4 would have been enough.

They'll probably have Yuffie steal all your materia at the beginning of the next episode as a convenient excuse for the player to start collecting them again. As for the stats and gear they hardly mattered from a story standpoint so they'll probably reset to square one.