My playthrough (1.5 on Arrange type)

Alright it's time for me to finally playing this mod seriously, YEAH long story I have discover of this mod since about 1 or 2 years back then I unfortunatly didn't have the PC version of FFVII so I couldn't play it, at the beginning of this year I did get the FFVII's PC version and I had started the 1.4 version of this mod, I didn't go very far because at the time I was discovering a lot of games that becomes among my favorites such as Persona 5, Nier : Automata and SMT : Nocturne (also the FFXII Remaster because FFXII is my personnal favorite FF and I was begging for this Remaster since a very long time XD) plus I was in beta testing of an FFVIII's french mod (and I did a LP of it after it was completed) so all in all I put this mod on rest but now that my list of games to do has decrease and since this mod is for what I have understand officially complete, I'm gonna do it seriously so few things to note :

-I decided to go on Arrange Mod because it wasn't there in the 1.4 and so I wanted to test it out.
-My playthrough is partially blind cause I have start watching a playthrough of another player who was playing on Normal I watched it up to the point where he unlocks the Rank system, and I already test the arrange mod up to Aps Senior so until Aps Senior I completly know what to expect, after Aps Senior I know what will occur but I don't know what will be different between Normal and Arrange.
-I've started an LP of the mod but it's in French you can watch it here if you wish : My Let's Play But I will not post the episodes just my feedback.

So far in my current playthrough I just got Aerith so my note for now :

-Obviously between normal and arrange ennemies seems to hit a lot harder but this is actually manageable thanks to the potion restoring 300HP on combat tough for the first Reactor it seems that we can get pretty low on potions if we aren't carefull in Arrange Type but that's a good thing, outside of the boost in offensive stat I didn't note any major differences for Mob fight between Normal and Arrange
-I like the idea of all characters having their own innate passive abilities, that already makes each character unique, the stats being modify greatly are also nice and characters seems to well benefit out of this (Tifa mainly while outside of the Powersoul she isn't that great in the original I can already see that she will be a good physical glass-canon low HP and Defense but High Strength and Dexterity)
-The modification of equipment is interesting seems that it will not be about just watching what equipement gives you the highest defense or Attack power anymore also like how some Materia gives you element (Cure being Holy or Heal being Water (by the way really good that we can finally get Osmose instead of Poisona which honnestly was kinda useless for me in Vanilla) I suppose that the abilities of these materia theselves aren't of the element but this will said with Blue Element materia later on.

Regarding bosses I like what was done to makes them different between normal and Arrange like the fact that they are a little harder but not only because of their stats being increase so as follow :

-Scorpion Guard (nice FFVIII easter egg for having rename it X-ATM) : I like how now instead waiting and doing nothing while his tail is raise he actually attack you with Tail Laser in Arrange, he hits hard but is still mangeable thanks to having an attack pattern (basically Magnetic Scop --> One attack (either W-Rifle, Venom Tail or Shock) --> Magnetic Scop --> One attack --> Raise Tail --> Tail Laser 2 times --> Drop the Tail --> Repeat) but that is a nice change 

-Plasma Buster : I was surprise for this one the first time wasn't expecting to fight 2 of them at the same time and in a Pincer Attack, I had to play it more safe than Normal.

-Aps Senior : Like the idea of having to fight with only 2 characters, wasn't expecting it so I had to do it with Cloud and Tifa but Aeris was the one who had the earth and the Barrier Materia also good idea to put a save point just before fighting him.

Now I'm really curious about what differences will occur between Normal and Arrange for future bosses but these first 3 are a good warm up for what can happen next, so has I said once I reach Aps Senior I will be in unknow territory for the difference between Normal and Arrange and once I get to the point we unlocks the Rank up system the rest will be complete mystery.

On the few details I like that we can disable Random Encounter (tough sometimes it doesn't seems to work) and use a tent without going to the menu.
Well anyway I am hype to see what this mod will have to offers next.

Alright so now currently I make it out of midgar so my notes :

-The mob Eligor can Morph into a Star Pendant a really good accessory at this point immune the owner to Silence and poison and +10 magic that's really nice, tough I didn't get more than one cause Eligor didn't want to appear anymore and I want to avoid grinding to much just to keep things more interesting (by the way I like how there is like a sort steps to the Level curve like how at some point the EXP needed to LVUP becomes a lot higher almost forcing you to progress because the current area's mob basically doesn't give enough EXP anymore so that's cool).

-Reno was a very easy boss thanks to the Deadly Wastes dropped by the 2 Plasma busters, I like how his Pyramid can now only be break with magic, I didn't understand his last attack called Refraction from what I read on the description in a video of another player it also inflict Reflect that's clever, but as I said he dies fast thanks to the Poison and the Deadly Watses.

-Got some new fights a little a revenge against a not fully repair Scorpion not a Hard Fight I steal a Mythril Claw from him a nice weapon for Tifa she loses a little of Attack power but as far as I'm concern that 30 point in dexterity makes up for it, also on the topic of new bosses I encounter a Carry Armor like named the Curator and of course he kicked my ass I think we will come later for this guy ^^" tough on a side note since it doesn't give a game over (thank god) dying against him fully restore our characters so that's always nice, also for mobs encouter a 3rd Class Soldier and I manage to steal him Mythril Sword and Morph him into another Mythril Sword (why not), since I'm using Cloud more as a spellcaster than a physical fighter right now I equip it for the Magic bonus.

-Red XIII's innate ability looks really great for long fight I may try him seriously for once XD, for the boss after him well that's clever we have to kill his little minions to weaken his defense so there is actually a point in killing them for once and they allow us to learn Matra Magic an AoE spell that deals decent damage so that's nice on that note the fight takes longer than it should because I didn't realise Red was starting with a Destruction materia and had DeBarr would have shorten the fight, I take Barret with me as a Tank and Barrier user, Cloud was my main healer, the isn't to bad I was actually excpecting him to be harder.

-After some cutscene I like how we are giving the option to save before the Elevator Fight and they specifically say it's gonna be tougher from now on, we even have a merchant before the elevator, so far the Elevator fight is the only fight that give me some deaths, wasn't excpecting to fight 3 bosses at once that's clever, after some try I come to the conclusions that killing the 2 little flying machine is better they have low HP and are the most annoying with statut effect while the Tank has much more HP and takes longer to kill not to mention that he deals a lot of damage in the last phase, I focus first on the left Robot because he is weak to Bolt, Barret and Red are my main Damage Dealer for this 2 while Aerith is on Healing duty, the Thunder Gunner is arguably the most annoying he absorbs Thunder but he takes more damage than the 2 other from Matra Magic for some reasons, once that's done I can take on the Tank with Quake, Bolt and Attacking with Barret can be tough and I had to play it safe.

-Thank god we are giving the option to save before Rufus so that's good, tough Rufus and Light Nation are easier once I figure out that Light Nation is impossible to kill, the only real challenge here is to be able to deal over 740 damage to Rufus between each Light Nation's White Wind, which isn't to hard I was dealing 200 damage per spell and 350 with Cross-Slash, he absorbs Poison tough, by using Barrier and healing when needed it's really an easy fight.

-And Barbarricia GT (nice FFIV reference here by the way ^^) for this one I facepalm myself because like an idiot I completly forgot to redo my Materia's set up and so Cloud was the only one who had Materias and he was set up for Solo fight, somehow I manage to first try this boss despite that big mistake, the main issue here is probably Yellow Gale which can confuse our characters but I guess I was lucky it didn't confuse to much, I was managing with items for healing my main Damage Dealer was Tifa with her Limits (she was taking so much damage anyway), Yellow Storm and her Arms attack hits like a truck but were still managable, I got really scared when I saw him become inflicted with the Peerless statut but fortunatly the duration isn't to long I paniced a little and use my Megalixir at the end tough ^^ I should maybe have reset but I didn't want to restart the all fight but at least I beat her and finally out of midgar guess things are gonna be harder for now on ^^