Merrith
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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Oddly enough, I kind of enjoyed Gongaga being quite the puzzle to figure out getting around. Mostly b/c music and hanging out there was a vibe I was enjoying. One thing that felt weird about it is very much felt different from the areas before it in that virtually all the main story was up front and you could have it on your plate to move on to next area of main story really quickly before doing much if any side content/exploring. Maybe that's just how I went through it, though. First 2 zones I was so intent on exploring everything i put off main story until 100%ed them, and Corel area was pretty split up getting around a lot of different areas in between main story events.
Hard Mode is still a decent jump up in difficulty, although skill level at the combat varies quite a bit I've noticed from watching other people play. The crafting system and farming mats always felt pretty relevant on my first playthrough, mainly because you usually wanted to make the best armor pieces with as many materia slots as possible just for better loadouts/leveling more materia as you go. Although you pretty quickly learn that certain reseting/reloading and fast travel can make static material spawns easy to farm.
Hard Mode is still a decent jump up in difficulty, although skill level at the combat varies quite a bit I've noticed from watching other people play. The crafting system and farming mats always felt pretty relevant on my first playthrough, mainly because you usually wanted to make the best armor pieces with as many materia slots as possible just for better loadouts/leveling more materia as you go. Although you pretty quickly learn that certain reseting/reloading and fast travel can make static material spawns easy to farm.