MARREND'S PROFILE

Setting aside Yanfly's party system for a moment, being able to swap party members mid-battle would mean including various classes/functions/variables that exist in Scene_Party, and moving them wholesale into Scene_Battle. While I might have some familiarity of Yanfly's party system for Ace, I'm not sure what all functions Yanfly includes in their MV code, so, I will not dare to comment further as to what all items would be needed.

As for selecting party members from a list of 20 down to a list of 12? The thought in my head is that you might be able to use...
...this line of code after calling the party menu as normal to cut down the party size down to 12. Re-adding the cut members afterward could be done through a function-call, which could look like...
...this? That should reset the party structure to being sorted by their ID as defined in the database. Which might not be ideal, but, it's the least complex solution I can think of.

The method I wrote has all the damage done simultaneously to all available targets. The return value at the end would just generate a message for the damage dealt to the initial target.

I kinda suspect part of the reason might be because, well, look at the achievement list, sorted by recipients. The last event that handed out achievements was an asset-making event, which wasn't even on-site. It was run entirely on our Discord channel, to the best of my knowledge.

It ran April and May of 2022. So, even in the best case, it's been somewhere around 8 months since an event, and I feel I need to stress this, any event, actually produced achievements. Now, maybe this is just me talking, but, does that not seem more than kinda demoralizing, it it's own right?

*Edit: Did a quick cross-check. Here's a list of events that have related achievement casualties:
Seasons 5 of RMN
RMN's 15 Birthday Bash
Rainbow of Pos2vitity
Swap in 3 Middle with You
Resurrect the Dying

Last time, Cloud did his best to leave Aerith at her home, but, found her waiting for him while on his way to Sector 6. Knowing he won't be catching a break from her any time soon, he allows her to accompany him.

At any rate, Aerith claims to know a shortcut through Sector 6 that avoids Wall Market altogether. Which suits Cloud, since he'd rather reconvene with Barret and the others sooner, rather than later. The area that lays before me is somewhat familiar territory, with a mech's hand practically right in front of me. There's a few of these in this area that are used for puzzle-solving material, and one such puzzle leads me to our first All materia. It's called Magnify in this game, but, from the effect text, it functions similarly enough to an All.

After the stretch of puzzles and goons is a playground. The two take a small breather, have a short conversation before continuing on their journey. I find it kinda interesting that, in this game, Cloud has a seizure fit when Aerith speaks the name of her first boyfriend. Because of that, neither Cloud, nor the player, actually get to hear what she said. Whereas, in the original FF7, Aerith doesn't even bother with the name-drop. As for this LP, I've been trying to avoid name-dropping as a general rule, though, the Shinra executives mentioned earlier will probably be name-dropped eventually.

Anyway, Aerith crawls through an opening of a giant moogle head, opens a manhole that's hidden underneath, explaining that it's the best way to get to Sector 7. Cloud doesn't seem entirely willing to just leave Aerith behind. If you ask me, his personality so far might indicate that whatever Aerith's problems are, they aren't his business anymore. However, the attention of both Aerith and Cloud is directed to a giant door opening, and a carriage moving past them. It's occupant is...



...a nicely-dressed Tifa? Cloud jumps on the back railing of the carriage, and Tifa explains she's on the way to talk to, well, let's just call him a mob boss for now. She doesn't expound further details as to why she thought this was a good idea, due to the circumstances at hand. Cloud considers her advice of continuing towards Sector 7, but, Aerith is of the mind that Cloud should help Tifa. I wouldn't say he's reluctant, but, he's not exactly gung-ho about the idea either.

The pair eventually catch up to the carriage again, but, this time, it's missing it's occupant. They try asking the driver as to where she went off to, but, he's not responding. The chocobo makes a small ruckus, another guy comes out, and the pair tries to get some info out of him instead. The player has a three-way SHOW CHOICE concerning a description of Tifa. For the sake of curiosity, I did a bit of save-scumming, trying each choice to see the results of each. The immediate effect doesn't seem to matter, as Aerith complains to how Cloud is describing Tifa, while the guy picks up on who Cloud was referring to regardless of the choice made.

However, there may be some far-reaching consequences here. In the original FF7, characters had a hidden relationship value that determines who appears with Cloud in a date sequence later in the game. It's possible this SHOW CHOICE increments a similar value, but, I'm not 100% sure which choice would be best if one would want a high value for/with either Tifa or Aerith. I also find it somewhat interesting that there's no mention anywhere of what clothes she was last seen wearing, the color of her eyes, or the color, and styling, of her hair. Or, you know, anything more than a one-line description.

All that aside, I poke around the town, attempting to get my bearings a bit before I hit the mansion in the back. Now, we've heard that Tifa's being interviewed by the mobsters, and that interview is probably going to be inside that building. As for what she's being interviewed for, the mob boss guy runs an escort service as his front business, and has this tenancy to keep some of the prettier consorts for himself. Tifa's in the running for such a position, aligning with her plan to "talk" to him. Though, I would still very much like to know why she thought it was a good idea to gather information in this way. Or, at least have some idea of what kind of information she's looking for.

As for what the plan is to extricate Tifa from that building, one might expect from the game so far, is for Cloud to make a ruckus. Then, while Cloud is distracting gaggles of goons and thugs with his personal style of mayhem, Aerith sneaks in, and gets Tifa out of there.

To say the least, this is not the plan. Apparently, the plan is to get Aerith into the interview, so that she can help Tifa from the inside. While it's not quite specified what Cloud would be doing during that time, there's a few things the we need to do to get Aerith into the interview. There's a trio of individuals to talk to, but, only one of them considers helping the pair.

Naturally we need to do her a favor first, and this involves winning all rounds in the coliseum. In the original FF7, the coliseum had seven or eight rounds, each round applying some manner of negative side-effect, and the fights were solo. Perhaps it works like this later, but, for now, Cloud fights with Aerith, the break room provides a bench and vending machine, and you're allowed to use both between rounds.

That done, while Aerith is getting all dressed up and fancy, Cloud is left to his lonesome for a while. However, if you thought this was another opportunity for side-questing, you would be... correct! Only three quests are available here, and, as before, I'll be doing a brief summary of them.

So, first, is a visit to the gym to do some squats. This was a thing in the original FF7, and this instance of the squatting mini-game doesn't deviate too much from the formula. There are button prompts to assist with the rhythm/timing of the mini-game, but, it does fade/vanish after some time. I was able to keep up the rhythm to beat the opponent pretty soundly. Next up is the clothing store, sorting out a family and their business by way of chaining together fetch-quests. As per the nature of fetch-quests, I was running around Wall Market like an idiot. Then, another bout in the coliseum.

Those now done, it's high-time to reconvene with...



...a dressed-up Aerith. Cloud's been thinking lately how this plan of getting Tifa out might be more dangerous than he thought, and isn't willing to let Aerith go in there alone. This matches Aerith's thoughts, and after some convincing on her part, and a Dance Dance Revolution mini-game (which I totally suck at, by the way), Cloud...



...also joins in the dress-up gang. Cloud cross-dressing to help save Tifa was part of the original FF7, but, getting to that point was certainly a different sequence of events than it is here. Regardless, Cloud just wants to get this over with, and, frankly, so do I. The pair eventually meet up with Tifa, and we finally hear her story for why she's even here in the first place.

So, after the split-up at Reactor 5, some guys were poking their noses about Avalanche's activities. Tifa found out they were mobsters after a bit of digging, but, wasn't entirely sure what their angle was in knowing Avalanche's activities. She thought that, by questioning the boss, she'd be able to get that info. There was no guarantee she'd get one-on-one with him, but, now that there's three people, the chances of getting the info Tifa was trying to get increases.

Though, I'm going to have to echo Cloud's "Seriously?" sentiment. There had got to be a better way to go about this. However, here we are. I've been able to get Cloud chosen by the mob boss maybe twice in my various playthroughs of the original FF7. With this playthrough of this game, the mob boss lands on Cloud. I don't pretend to know the precise conditions for this choice in either game, so, I will not expound on this further.

The game has a cut with Cloud and the don before cutting to Aerith and Tifa being presented to some goons for "entertainment". Except these ladies aren't going to play with them that way. The two then mop 'em up in their finery. A guard from before, that seems to work with on one of the trio that we visited earlier, drops off their regular clothes and equipment. After a fade out and in, it's time to meet up with Cloud and the don. After some threats, the don relays some info.

It's no surprise to learn that Shinra wants to eliminate Avalanche. To this end, they used/paid the mobsters to find Barret, his team, and that their hideout was in Sector 7. However, if the don is right, they are going waaaay overboard with their removal options. They plan to release the support pillar that holds the sector up to eliminate not just Avalanche's hideout, but, pretty much level the entirety of Sector 7 to dust. Of course, our heroes are delayed from acting on this info by way of a trick floor that is opened, sending them into the sewers. This marks the end of this chapter. Will our heroes make it out of the sewers in time to save Sector 7? Find out next time, on the Final Fantasy 7 Remake LP!

Alternate hack: have an actor with no graphic, and slide it it between each actual follower.


This one I tested with in a new/empty project/map, and the results were looking pretty good.