If you want to play the original Final Fantasy VII — whether you’re a first-timer or an old fan revisiting a classic — you should probably use cheats.
That might sound sacrilegious, but I’m not talking about level boosters or item duplicators. Some of FFVII‘s new cheats are actually tools that make the game significantly more enjoyable to play, letting you ditch some of the musty old relics of ’90s role-playing. Specifically: You can A) speed up the game; and B) turn off all random encounters.
Yes, you can turn off all random encounters. Every single RPG should have this option. It’s brilliant; all you have to do is press a couple of buttons to enable or disable encounters at will, so you can just breeze through dungeons at your discretion. Then, if you’re feeling underpowered, you can put random encounters back on but speed up the game so they don’t waste too much of your time.
These cheats were originally released in the iOS version of FFVII, which came out earlier this year, and they’re also in the PS4 port that Square published on Saturday. (FFVII is a currently on sale for $16.45.) To access the cheats on PS4, you have to push in the thumbsticks as follows:
L3 – speeds up everything by three
L3+R3 – turns off random encounters
R3 – automatically heals everyone and gives them infinite limit breaks
That last one is a bit much, but the first two are SO GOOD. Sick of that sprawling Knights of the Round animation? Want to get through the Midgar slums without having to fight any of those dumb houses? Don’t have 40-50 extra hours but want to replay FFVII anyway? This is the version for you.
Here, check out the “cheats” in action:
With just these two simple tools, Final Fantasy VII has transformed from semi-antiquated to a genuinely great use of your time in 2015.
Comments
44 responses to “Two ‘Cheats’ Make Final Fantasy VII Way Better On PS4”
Yeah, re-playing old games that people have idealized definitely brings about a few frustrated sighs of boredom as you go through some tedious old crap that some people seem to equate with being ‘quintessential’.
You put this here for me to see, didn’t you.
😉
(The truth is the truth, Jimu. You can’t hide from it.)
I’m going to argue this, since I’m comfortable going back as far as the 16bit era & play games & enjoy it.
Modern updates (as opposed to throwing out the baby with the bathwater) are a great way to get me interested.
Sure, old games can be harder & clunkier but if you give them a proper go rather than giving up in the first half hour because the controls don’t fit today’s standard, you’re doing them a disservice.
I think there’s something very wrong with the way people disregard the quality of something because it’s old.
Everyone always throws the nostalgia card at me, as if that’s the only reason I enjoy playing old games. It’s not always true.
I’m thinking more about design decisions than controls. There gets to be a certain point where ‘filler’ gets tedious and gets in the way. It’s why ‘Repel’ in Pokemon is so great, and why a function to disable random encounters is awesome.
It’s the reason that when playing FF8 you intentionally level up your base attacks+MP attacks so you can deliberately avoid using summons all the time because they have shorter casting animations because fuck waiting 2 minutes for an absolute certainty to kill something that never, ever, ever, ever even remotely posed a threat to your over-levelled ass and yields no reward.
Inconveniences that yield no entertainment are one of the evils of the older games, just as bad as the accusations leveled today about feather collectibles as padding in UbisoftGameX(tm).
“Oh! He selected ‘Attack’ from the menu seven times in a row until everything was dead, what gripping and challenging gameplay! So timeless and unique and valuable to the experience, it should would be a shame if we weren’t forced to repeat that tedious shit eighty fucking thousand times such a time-honoured staple were to disappear! Oh my god, how varied and challenging it would be when an enemy comes up that is weak to fire and they can use firaga instead of ‘attack’…”
But I like selecting attack 80,000 times 🙁
I believe it was Fire3 not Firaga in FF7… 😛
I actually actively avoided encounters once I got Encounter-None.
The “scaling” difficulty actually works against you in that game. In fact to this date I still consider FFVIII one of the most broken and abusable systems in an FF game… and not in a good way =/
I actually love how broken FFVIII was. It’s certainly not something I noticed on my first playthrough and it added new depth to following playthroughs.
The system seemed unique when you first play… but at the end of the day Junction was just insanely counter intuitive.
For example leveling up actually is *bad* for your party once you reach a certain threshold because some monsters just become stupid hard from being fat and insanely high Damage output (specially the Dragons and T-Rex)
The junction/magic system basically proactively made sure you *never* used Magic as depleting your stock meant not only having to re-draw (or card convert) you also reduced your basic stats if the skill is junctioned.
It was interesting at first but once you really got into the nitty gritty of the system it was basically all about *NOT* “playing” the game… which shows because your given so many abilities and shortcuts to actively *avoid* getting Experience and get Magic (ie. Card, Eat, Card Convert, etc)
Yeah, junctioning to strength and attacking was far superior to summoning GFs all the time… but it wasn’t just about selecting attack. I had to press R1 at just the right time to get the gunblade shot off as well. 😛
Remake 8 🙁
I like to play the games the way they are “meant” to be played the first time. But once I clock a game, I feel like I should be able to explore it in different ways. Ive clocked ff7, Ive been through the hard slog of random encounter no#885 on my way through an area. On my later playthroughs I feel like it’s cool to turn them off if I need. I mean, Ive been there, done that.
I already play it pretty damn quickly as it is.
But I would def speed through the flashback in Kalm.
But, but if the challenge isn’t arbitrary and unnecessary, why would you even bother to play a game…. EVER!?
Variety. 🙂 Variety is the spice of life. Mindless, predictable repetition is the death of fun. Additionally, plenty of games impose challenges which become intellectual exercises – watch anyone playing Portal, for example, as they adapt to the challenge of each new puzzle within that world’s framework. It’s why people can complete something that seems like repetition but for the difference of an unpredictable human opponent, such as what you find in MOBAs (as much as I hate them). That’s a challenge worthy of a game, unlike the ‘bash your head against a custard tart’ challenge that is the majority of early Final Fantasy combat. Done it once, you’ve done it all.
They’re chalk and cheese. Maybe if you’re under-leveled and a rare boss fight provides some interesting mechanics facilitating some clever and strategic skill use but the majority of your random encounters aren’t going to be that.
Yeah, nah 😉
I don’t need you to accept the soothing balm of logic and reason, Jimu… for I have already won.
Mmm, how’s that Remake gameplay footage look? Pretty frickin’ sweet, right? 😀
Oh yes, it’s so great that they’re doing the right thing by the franchise and fans like me.
*rubs self seductively with gameplay trailers*
Mmmm. Yes. Yes. GOD this game is going to sell well and set the stage for the future, for years to come…
#graciousinvictory
Us handheld-bottom-feeders have opinions too, y’know!
My gloating was cruel. I’m sorry. Forgive me. It’s not your fault that you like bad things which are bad.
*foetal position*
Every first person shooter should have God mode
Is there a cheat to make it a more reasonable price? Cmon on square, the cow is almost dry, give her a rest until remake is released
Better yet, why don’t all games just come with a “You win!” button, where you just give that a push and bam, the game’s over.
I mean, who wants to PLAY games these days anyway?
Lots of games, especially story driven games, should have I win buttons. The challenge is enjoyable, but being stuck in a part you can’t surmount but want to continue on has stopped more than one gamer in their tracks, why do you care how someone enjoys their games? And if you couldn’t resist using an I win button should it be present how is that everyone else’s problem?
Personally I’d love an I win button on hacking in FO4,ive done so many it’s just tedious now and it takes 5 times as long as lock picking for often no greater reward (some times significantly less)
I knew there’d be one of these people here. You aren’t describing playing, you’re describing ignorance. There are many ways to enjoy music, games, films, books etc. don’t trash everyone else because you’re uneducated.
I bow to your superior intelligence my lord. Maybe one day, I too can appreciate what it’s like to experience a film you do not have to watch, or a book you do not have to read, or music you need not listen to!
Alas, I am but a mere lowly peasant.
I don’t like cheats, though one I always use is: X-X!V”Q
Respect for anyone that recognises it without googles.
Wrong post
That sir is one of the most awesome “modes” ever for a game 😀
It’s basically the epitome of high risk + high reward mode!
Speed up and stop random battles are great. Are these on VITA too?
I want to play FF7 again but don’t have much time anymore and the random battles and long summonds took up too much time.
There’s a massive back catalogue of PSX games on vita, including this. They’re straight emulations though, no HD treatment.
I googled it for you. No cheats/tricks to speed up the Vita version, I’m afraid
The ability to do this was one of the reasons I loved bravely default
The first two seem pretty cool, the last one however seems it would make the game far too easy.
Maybe, but can you really say the appeal of Final Fantasy VII was in the challenge of combat? I mean it’s not strategic, you can brute force your way through pretty easily, and if you put even a little thought into your party and materia you’ll ROLF stomp pretty much everything anyway. I wouldn’t use it but I can see the appeal of turning random encounters off, turning on god mode and enjoying it purely on a story level.
Now I think about it they sort of have to have it there. If you play with random encounters off too often you’re going to need it to advance past the non-random encounters. That plus the speed boost and you’ll be able to get back on track pretty quickly if you find yourself stuck.
As a comparison, the Steam port of FF7 only has the R3 one, and the ability to save your game onto a cloud. A cloud for your Clouds, I suppose.
As an aside, the Japan-only International Zodiac Job System edition of FFXII introduced the L3 one, turning that game into a powerleveler’s paradise. Hope we get a FFX-style HD Remix of that.
What no pressing X to get Aerith back in your party, I feel like that is a missed chance there.
http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/356908
Me in the late 1990’s
“Wow! Aerith sure does level up fast”
“Wow! Great Gospel is the best limit break, I’m going to save it for all the bosses”
*Gets to the City of the Ancients*
“God dammit”
if i’ve bought ffvii on psn for my ps3 do I get this version free on ps4?
I did a hash hack on FFX on PS3 when it was released, and it made things so much better. And what’s even better is that it transferred to PS4 with the hacks intact
Random encounters didn’t bother me last time i played ffvii earlier this year. Im certainly more patient these days then i was as a kid because it used to bother me. Personally playing in speed mode would ruin the game for me. Achievements shouldnt work if your going to play like that.
Is the music the same as the original release? or is it the same shoddy .midi files they gave the steam/PC release in the beginning (later fixed) ?