(Chapters 7 & 8 thread) We're making progress...FLANITORS! CHOCOBOS! HELL YEAH!

[Shoeberto]

Chapter seven had me in awe at multiple points. Totally, totally great stuff there. I called it quits after I got to eight, after spending about thirteen gazillion CP.

I still giggle when the crystarium tells me "You have no CP."

[Moon Rabbits]

OMG I FINALLY GET WHAT THE BIG FUSS ABOUT FLANITORS IS.

[Del Murder]

Chapter 7 was long, or maybe I just don't play very much. It was nice to finally have 3 people in battle again.

It was also refreshing that (SPOILER)Hope's dad was a nice guy and genuinely concerned with his son and willing to help the team any way he could. Based on how Hope talked about his father I expected him to be the typical RPG mean dad who kicks his son out because he's branded or 'too weak' or whatever (ie Jecht).

[Flying Arrow]

Chapter 7 is pretty long. Some good battles and a great setting. Kind of fizzles out near the end with a too-easy boss, but loved using Odin against tougher match-ups.

Chapter 8 is very trying and kind of obnoxious. Glad it's short. Good ending, but all the running around leading up to it is stupid and pointless. Either give us the meat of the game or make the downtime interesting and not shallow, SE.

Spoiler for Chapter 9: (SPOILER)The "reveal" about Sazh's suicide is awful. I'm hoping it's the last "twist" of this kind in the game.

[Ashi]

Chapter 8: (SPOILER)Trouble with Bryn-something

[Sephiroth]

Chapter 8: (SPOILER)Trouble with Bryn-something

(SPOILER)All the eidolons can fill their bars when your character uses his 3 main job classes. For Sazh for example you have to use your physical attacks of the commander, range magic of the ravanger or your supporter magic of the synergist. I know the enemy is not that easy but actually you just have to attack him. People often say attacking eidolons is not the way to win the battle and even Final Fantasy XIII says dealing damage is not the way to win the battle but in fact attacking your summon is the way to win the battle. Just take care of your HP, use some physical attacks of Sazh with the Commander job and some magics with Vanille's Ravager job class and then change both to Ravagers to use your magic. And of course you have to heal yourself from time to time.

[Shlup]

Equip Ember Rings so you don't have to spend as much time healing. Sephiroth is right, attacking fills the bar the fastest I've found.

[finaloblivion]

Chapter 7 and 8 get 10/10 from me! the chocobos...oh the chocobos. and those little sheep? omfg....SE what the smurf. i couldnt even play cuz i wanted to look at them open their freaky-yet-cute toad mouths lol. maybe its just me. oh and did anyone else think the music while you play as snow and hope in ch 7 is just freakin awesome?!? chocobo theme was great too. i love how all the people are complaining about how bad they smell lmao

still a little worried about the game clock at this point...but from what ive been reading the last 3-4 chapters contain just about the whole game. and i looked ahead in my guide...a little...and saw (SPOILER)a bunch of stuff relating to sidequests and trophies connected to them. there's...a lot! pretty excited for it.

[Wolf Kanno]

Finished Chapter 7 and 8 and I'm well on my way into Chapter 9 at the moment.

Definetly a remarkable set of chapters. Hope actually became a likable character, Snow is just awesome, Lightning finally gained a personality and Vanille stopped acting like one of those dumb blondes on the slutty college girl porn they advertise at night I just wish it didn't take nearly 20 hours to make the cast likable. I'm still waiting for a real plot thank you.

Hope's story is resolved in a pretty satisfying way and thank god I now know longer have to listen to him talk about Operation Nora and how Snow is the devil. Lightning finally gained a real personality though I found her angsty revelation in the tunnels to be more hilarious than thought provoking. Her motherly feelings toward Hope is both amusing and unsettling at the same time.

Fang is just smurfing awesome. There is very little not to love here. My only gripe with Chapter 7 is much like everything lately in the game, it feels very long winded. That Chapter took forever... I'm beginning to get burned out on the combat system even; so now the long boring dungeons are getting a bit worse for me. Chapter 9 has been killing me.

Chapter 8 was amusing but like others have mentioned, I felt SE seriously dropped the ball here and could have given players a break from the constant battling and boring dungeon design. Though the simialrities between Nautilus and the Gold Saucer were quite amusing. Anyone else notice how the actual "dungeon" part of the chapter had elements found in the Speed Racer minigame from VII in the background? The Chocobo theme was awesome.

Sazh's story really reached a powerful moment in this one which was very nice. (SPOILER)He really is my favorite character now even if the whole scene walked the thin line between being emotionally powerful and being cheesy melodrama. Vanille is a bitch.

The game is finally moving in a favorable direction but lately I can't shake how much this game is reminding me of Xenosaga. Specifically Episode II, with similar dungeon design and a battle system that is slowly gone from making fast fun battles to very long drawn out conflicts. I take down bosses faster than some enemy groups now. We'll see where it goes from here later. Back to Chapter 9.

[Edge7]

I think I agree with Wolf Kanno more on FFXIII than on any other game in the series. The way they brought on Lightning's epiphany was hilarious.

Lightning:... I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT!!!!

That aside, I'm finally regaining some respect for Hope, and I even started to like him by the end of the chapter. He's on a roll. Let's pray (trying not to use the word "hope") that He'll maintain this status. Snow's just ShlupxAaronluvluv awesome. (SPOILER)When you cab carry a 14 year old boy on your back, while climbing a latter, while wounded, you've earned the title of "man". Fang also rocks.

Just started chapter 8, What's everyone's opinion of (SPOILER)Ifrit's (and who I assume is Ramuh's voices)

[theundeadhero]

Guessing I'm about to the end of chapter seven.

(SPOILER)I'm glad Lightning finally manned up and did something about feeling guilty the way she directed Hope. It was a pretty awesome scene. This game conveys the characters emotions so well.

The scene where snow comes in and saves the party is epically awesome! It made me want to jump out and go cruising on my Harley. I get that Cid is all anti-Sanctum and willing to help the L'Cie, but so far it makes no since why, especially with him being a military commander. When I got Snow back he had over 17,000 CP It was enough to max out all his roles.

Hope and Snow's boss battle was pretty easy. I guessed it was coming so I itemed it up and went basic strategy: COM-RAV until the chain gauge was about to the dot in the percentage then Rav-Rav until it was full. Once full, COM-RAV it to death.

Surprising to see that Vanille and Fang know each other. I'm glad she's a playable character now, she's pretty awesome.

[theundeadhero]

Onward with chapter 8, but haven't completed it.

(SPOILER)How awesome would it have been for Hope to of actually had the chance and gone through with killing Snow while he was on the ledge?! Sure it would have changed the story entirely but it would have been massively epic. Definitely more shocking than when Aeris died and that dropped my jaw in disbelief. SE just doesn't have the daring to kill of a main character anymore. Afterwards Snow showed a lot of heart dragging Hope on even though he was struggling after getting hurt. It made me appreciate his character more. Fighting the boss thing after Lightning and Fang showed up was interesting seeing as how I didn't get to set up my paradigms how I would have liked beforehand, though still pretty easy.

I didn't realize the boss at the end of chapter seven had multiple targets to choose from at first I was holding my own just attacking the main but it was taking forever so I let myself die to shift around my paradigms more successfully. Then right at the start I realized my mistake and with the right roles assigned it was pretty easy, 5 stars.

(SPOILER)For those who didn't like Vanille too much because she was always so cheery and carefree I hope you began to appreciate her more in these chapters. I liked her alright to begin with but it was nice seeing the standard SE archetype change and have her with her moments of worry and depression.

[Croyles]

Onward with chapter 8, but haven't completed it.

(SPOILER)How awesome would it have been for Hope to of actually had the chance and gone through with killing Snow while he was on the ledge?! Sure it would have changed the story entirely but it would have been massively epic. Definitely more shocking than when Aeris died and that dropped my jaw in disbelief. SE just doesn't have the daring to kill of a main character anymore. Afterwards Snow showed a lot of heart dragging Hope on even though he was struggling after getting hurt. It made me appreciate his character more. Fighting the boss thing after Lightning and Fang showed up was interesting seeing as how I didn't get to set up my paradigms how I would have liked beforehand, though still pretty easy.

I didn't realize the boss at the end of chapter seven had multiple targets to choose from at first I was holding my own just attacking the main but it was taking forever so I let myself die to shift around my paradigms more successfully. Then right at the start I realized my mistake and with the right roles assigned it was pretty easy, 5 stars.

(SPOILER)For those who didn't like Vanille too much because she was always so cheery and carefree I hope you began to appreciate her more in these chapters. I liked her alright to begin with but it was nice seeing the standard SE archetype change and have her with her moments of worry and depression.

I agree with you in that (SPOILER)it would have been awesome if Hope had just killed Snow. It would have been very shocking and made me like Snow all of a sudden, as imo he is the weakest character out of the lot (not Vanille! She is infinitely more interesting than Snow to me!.)
I think that if in FF7 Aeris had lived, I most likely would not have liked her very much.