Chapter 812: Mr. Chen Really Gets It!

Song Ren gradually advanced through the game's story, and because he chose normal difficulty, he hardly encountered any frustrations in the game.

The only difficult part was helping the proprietress of the Wall Market Massage Parlor to clear a round in the Underground Colosseum.

It was somewhat similar to the Challenge Arena in Xenoblade Chronicles, where Cloud and Aerith could fight in the coliseum to gain extra equipment experience, money, and other rewards.

The earlier battles weren't difficult, but the only part Song Ren found challenging was the final opponent that appeared: Hell House.

Compared to the coliseum plot in the remake of his previous life, Mr. Chen Xu removed many unnecessary battles, preventing the game's pace from being artificially prolonged, and also slightly rebalanced Hell House's HP settings.

Even so, Hell House's design primarily aimed to make players understand the benefits of different attributes in combat.

To easily defeat Hell House, one needed to bring various Materia spells that countered its attributes; if one blindly charged in, it would mostly rely on overwhelming stats.

Furthermore, in this battle, the player's party only consisted of Aerith and Cloud, and with one person missing, it was impossible to form the classic "Warrior, Mage, Healer" iron triangle.

At least for Song Ren, this battle left him a little exhausted. In the end, he quietly chose to switch the difficulty from normal to easy.

Although he was also a veteran Firelinker, for this type of game, he preferred to follow his heart a little more.

After all, Souls series games offer no other choice.

Besides, why is this easy difficulty here?

Isn't it for players to choose?!

Happily dispatching Hell House, Song Ren then reverted the options in the system interface and restarted the story.

'Cloud, remember.'

'Beauty knows no gender.'

After successfully preparing a dress for Aerith, seeing Aerith in the red gown, Song Ren in the game also felt a moment of awe.

Following the script, he advanced the plot, prepared to obtain the relevant invitation, and once again arrived at the Honeybee Inn.

After controlling Cloud to dance with the flamboyant Anian.

Then, with the various Honeybee Girls and Anian's makeup.

Cross-dressing Cloud shone brightly.

"This feels even more impactful than in the promotional video!" Inside the game, watching Cloud, who was expressionless, walking away quickly, and pretending not to hear Aerith's calls, Song Ren couldn't help but smack his lips.

The cross-dressing Cloud moment had already been shown in the game's pre-release promotional videos. The only thing that surprised Song Ren was that in this particular segment, he was actually controlling Aerith, allowing him to observe Cloud from every angle, 360 degrees without blind spots.

Nebula Games truly understands their players!

Song Ren watched Cloud rush towards Don Corneo's mansion and couldn't help but feel emotional.

After arriving at Tifa's place, this part of the story was quite relaxed and enjoyable.

The only thing was that Don Corneo really seemed too annoying and perverted.

Moreover, from his mouth, Cloud and his companions received shocking news.

That is, in order to destroy Avalanche, Shinra had decided to blow up the giant plate in the sky, completely obliterating Sector 7.

Of course, what really frustrated Song Ren was that the game's official narrative had already voiced all the complaints a player might have.

Facing Cloud, who wanted to leave after getting important news, the perverted Don Corneo spoke to hold them back.

'Wait a minute! Listen to what I have to say, it'll be quick!'

Hearing this, Cloud and the two women stopped.

'When would a villain like me blabber out all the truth, non-stop?'

"Of course, when I absolutely need to win!"

Seeing the three different options in front of him, Song Ren was completely dumbfounded.

The moment his words fell, the floor beneath them opened up, and Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa in the game plummeted directly into a large pit.

Next up was the indispensable sewer sequence, a staple of RPG games.

Whether it was a regular ARPG or a traditional, turn-based strategy RPG, there was one place that seemed unavoidable.

That was a sewer-like setting. Perhaps they had different names, but they all shared common characteristics: cold, damp, dark, and filled with unpleasant-looking monsters.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, God of War, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Xenoblade Chronicles, The Witcher: Wild Hunt – these RPGs under Nebula Games also strictly followed this 'unspoken rule,' and now it was Final Fantasy's turn.

The only thing that relieved Song Ren was that this kind of traditional RPG-like dungeon wasn't very long in Final Fantasy. It only symbolically featured a few small levels and elite monsters to help players grow.

This was another change made by Mr. Chen Xu. In his previous life, SE, with the Final Fantasy remake, found ways to extract money from players and also designed the game in chapters to mitigate risk.

But in reality, much of the game's content was repetitive and tedious, designed solely to prolong player playtime.

This was also because the first chapter's setting was confined to Midgar, and it was itself a departure from the original plot, harboring greater ambitions.

For Mr. Chen Xu, who was preparing to release the full version, such measures were unnecessary.

Although Mr. Chen Xu planned to separate the stories of main characters like Yuffie, Zack, and Vincent and present them to players as DLC.

However, the stories of characters already in the game, such as Barret, and later additions like Red XIII and Cait Sith, would be revealed to players during their journey. Additionally, there would be adventures involving breeding Chocobos and exploring dungeon areas like the Mythril Mine, Condor Peak, and Cosmo Canyon, ensuring players wouldn't feel any lack of content.

Of course, like Xenoblade Chronicles, this part wouldn't be interspersed within the main story, but rather left for players to explore on their own.

Because the main story content itself was already long enough.

As for why Zack, Vincent, and Yuffie were made into separate DLCs, while Barret and others remained in the base game.

Just look at these characters' appearances, does it even need to be said?

Regarding these future contents, Song Ren, as a player, was still unaware.

Now, he had only one thought: had he opened the wrong game!?

Coming out of the sewers, he prepared to return to the slums.

But this return path's scenery was entirely different.

Night, the gloomy location of abandoned trains.

'Normally no one approaches here. After all, there aren't just monsters, but also scary rumors...'

'The Train Graveyard is haunted! I heard that if you enter the Train Graveyard at night, you'll never come back.'

Seeing Tifa's serious expression, Song Ren, who wasn't particularly brave and always broke into a cold sweat whenever he pretended to be courageous and played horror games from Nebula Games, felt a bit scared at this moment.

Although this was an RPG, the environment felt genuinely eerie with the immersive VR presentation.

"So... can't I just walk behind?" Seeing Tifa and Aerith following him, Song Ren felt a little nervous.

However, as the map progressed, this nervous feeling quickly dissipated.

When the 'ghost' information appeared on a container, Aerith suggested going to check it out, but Tifa was a little worried.

'Don't worry, we have a formidable bodyguard!' Aerith said, smiling and grabbing Cloud's arm.

'Ghost hunting isn't my specialty...' Cloud said, a little helplessly.

The next second, Tifa also ran over and grabbed Cloud's arm, pleading sweetly, "Don't say that... please think of something!"

Watching this scene unfold, Song Ren's previous nervousness completely vanished.

At this moment, he had only one thought.

Mr. Chen really gets it!

As a player, this is exactly the kind of experience he wanted!

(End of Chapter) <>