Author: Trafficblast

This is it: the final chapter of Final Fantasy 7 Remake is also the toughest, pitting you and your team against some of their greatest challenges. Below is everything you need to know to make your way through Destiny’s Crossroads, survive the battles, and finish FF7 Remake.

Check out the rest of our Final Fantasy 7 Remake guides so you don’t miss a single secret or collectible. You can also read our FF7 Remake review.

Chapter 18 Walkthrough: Destiny’s Crossroads

You’ve got another motorcycle mini-game to contend with, this time with more enemies and more variety. The battles themselves are relatively straightforward, though: be sure to utilize Cloud’s guard ability to minimize incoming damage, and break to avoid bombs from helicopters. You’ll eventually take on a M.O.T.H. Unit, which will fling blades at you before getting electrically charged and coming in for closer fights, and some 3-C SOLDIERS, who have swords of their own. Just be sure to guard against their attacks to make it through.

Boss Fight: Motor Ball

The chase culminates in the battle with another robot boss. This one is pretty easy, since the high mobility of your motorcycle allows you to avoid all its attacks without much difficulty. Pull in alongside the boss and swing away, smashing its wheels. When Motor Ball lifts up on three wheels, hit the brakes and peel away so it can’t smash down on you, and guard when it readies its guns to avoid getting blasted.

Slash at the wheels until you destroy all six of them, staggering the boss. When that happens, attack it as much as you can; drive up its stagger percentage and use your Spinning Attack for big damage. The boss will eventually recover, adding new attacks to use against you. Repeat the process and keep going after the wheels, but keep an eye on them–eventually, some will be shielded, forcing you to pick other targets.

Generally, Motor Ball doesn’t throw anything at you that you can’t see coming. When it readies its flame spin move after being staggered, brake and stay clear until it’s all over. If the boss pulls ahead, reduce your speed a bit to avoid the electric bombs it drops on the highway ahead of you. As soon as you can, close the distance and attack its wheels again. Watch out for it to charge a big laser as well, which it’ll shoot at one side or the other; again, hit the brakes and head to the opposite side. When the boss pulls ahead and shoots the laser back at you, cut to one of the sides of the road to avoid it.

Keep hammering the boss and avoiding its attacks until you finally destroy it. It takes a while, but it never gets especially tough.

After winning, you’ll have a quick chance to heal up. Take it and stock up on any items you need. You’re going to need them.

Make sure all four members of your party are outfitted with Healing Materia and their best weapons that are as upgraded as you can get them. You’ll also want some big spells spread around your team–although keep one of each elemental spell Materia with Aerith, as you’ll want her fully outfitted later. Equip a strong Barrier Materia as well.

Boss Fight: Whisper Harbinger, Whisper Croceo, Whisper Rubrum, And Whisper Viridi

Once you’ve progressed through the destroyed highway a bit, you’ll face the giant arbiter of fate, the Whisper Harbinger. You don’t have to deal with the huge colossus directly, luckily–instead, you’ll fight three smaller Whisper bosses, called Croceo, Rubrum, and Viridi. Each has a different weapon, mirroring Barret, Cloud, and Tifa.

Contending with all three of the creatures is tough, but you only need to take down one of them right now. It’s your choice, but we had the easiest time focusing on Rubrum. Cloud can counter its Flurry attack with Punisher mode to do some damage–Guard your way through its other attacks, like Crimson Arc. Hammer away at the Rubrum with Punisher mode and ATB attacks to give it as much damage as you can; the more you pour on, the quicker you’ll pressure the Whisper and drive up its stagger meter. Guard as much as you can to avoid taking too much damage, while keeping yourself topped up with items and healing spells.

Hurt one of the Whispers enough and you’ll advance to the next section of the fight, where you’ll face the three Whispers again. In addition to their other moves, they sometimes like to use powerful spells like Firaga from Rubrum, Blizzaga from Viridi and Thundaga from Croceo. Follow up with the same approach, allowing your AI teammates to keep the other enemies busy while you focus on Rubrum. It’ll add a new attack, Sweep, to its moves, but you’ll still mostly want to guard as much as you can to avoid taking a lot of hits. Keep countering Rubrum and hitting it with your big ATB attacks to rack up damage, and you’ll eventually knock it out of the fight. The Harbinger will intercede again, opening up the path forward.

When you get to the end of the next pathway, you’ll take on Whisper Rubrum by itself. It’ll use the Temper attack to power itself up and become more aggressive, adding more swings to Flurry and Crimson Arc. Guard through them to land counterattacks with Punisher mode, then do as much damage as you can with ATB attacks. Your best bet with Rubrum is to duel your way through, but don’t be afraid to overwhelm the Whisper with attacks from your teammates. Just don’t use Fire magic, as the creature can absorb it. Stagger the boss and you can damage Rubrum can do some damage to the Harbinger.

With Rubrum down, you’ll fight Croceo and Viridi together. Pick one and go after it; Viridi is best attacked from behind while its attention is elsewhere, especially because the boss will protect itself with a shield. Watch out for Viridi’s Azure Plume attack, which will stun anybody caught in it. Like Rubrum, hit the Whisper to do as much damage as you can to stun it, then finish it off to do more damage to the Harbinger.

Croceo is next, but it’s probably the least of your problems. Watch out for its Amber Judgment attack, an orb that will track you, and Amber Whirl, a laser beam that cuts straight toward you and then out to the sides. Dodge the lasers as best you can, guard against Croceo’s shotgun Scatter attack, and use ATB attacks to knock the Whisper out and stagger it.

You’ll fight the three Whispers again in a moment. Repeat the process to do some damage to one and you’ll trigger the real next phase of the fight.

Boss Fight: Whisper Bahamut

When combined, Rubrum, Croceo, and Viridi become a lot more dangerous as Whisper Bahamut. The dragon is fast and carries a bunch of powerful moves, most of which are really difficult to dodge. Expect Bahamut to come after you right away with melee swipes, as well as a spinning attack where it barrels its whole body through you. Dodging those moves is pretty tough; flip to Punisher mode and guard to minimize your damage so you can at least strike back against Bahamut when it comes after you.

Quickly try to get Manaward barriers on your team to deal with Bahamut’s powerful attacks. Watch out for Bahamut’s Umbral Strikes attacks, where it throws two big explosive blasts at you. The first arcs in from the left, and the second from the right–if you dodge right and then left, you can often avoid them. Its Umbral Inferno hits you with a bunch of painful lasers, but running or dodging sideways can usually get you out of the line of fire of most of them. Flare Breath will knock you down, but if you can get around to the side or behind Bahamut, or dodge backward, you should be able to avoid it.

You’re going to take a lot of damage here, though. Keep Aerith on-hand to restore health with Tifa backing her up to keep your team going. Meanwhile, keep hitting Bahamut with ATB attacks from Cloud and Tifa whenever you charge them. Try to get your Manawards up before Bahamut uses Mega Flare, its ultimate attack. Do your best to keep your team topped up on health from items and spells so that the attack doesn’t wipe you out.

If you can keep up the damage, you should be able to knock Bahamut to the ground and pressure it. Use that opportunity to hit it with Focused Strike and Focused Thrust to push up its stagger meter as fast as you can.

Kill off Bahamut and the Whispers will separate again, but they’ll be a lot weaker. Focus on one and start pounding away to kill it, giving Barret an opportunity to attack the Whisper Harbinger. Repeat the process twice more to finish the giant creature.

Boss Fight: Sephiroth

The Whispers aren’t giving up–they’re now creating a version of Sephiroth to challenge Cloud. Like past one-on-one battles, this is more of a sword duel and you’ll need to rely on guarding and using Punisher counterattacks to beat Sephiroth, especially in the first part of the fight.

Some of Sephiroth’s attacks you should guard against for counterattacks to damage Sephiroth and increase his stagger, while you’ll need to dodge others. Stand your ground against standard melee strikes and Telluric Fury, although be sure to keep your guard up through the entire attack, because Sephiroth will hit you with multiple blows most of the time. When you see Sephiroth ready Aeolian Onslaught, dodge sideways, because the attack will juggle you into the air and Sephiroth’s movements make it ineffective for you to counter it. After countering, hit Sephiroth with some Punisher mode strikes to pressure him. He’ll sometimes ready powerful spells like Blizaga and Firaga–if you can hit him hard enough, you might be able to interrupt them, but it’s usually better to guard against them so you don’t take the full brunt of the magic.

Keep countering Sephiroth until you stagger him. Aerith will then join the battle, which shouldn’t really change your approach, but will give you more opportunities to do damage to Sephiroth. Get some Manaward barriers up if you can to cut the damage you take from Sephiroth’s spells and keep hitting him. You can also hit Sephiroth with some spells, especially when he’s charging magic of his own or preparing attacks, but try to conserve MP for later in the fight. Make sure to keep Cloud topped up on health as much as possible, because Sephiroth is going to hit you hard all the way through.

Keep landing counterattacks on Sephiroth to stagger him again. Tifa will join the fight next, but Sephiroth will become more powerful, using elemental magic for Infusions to amp up his moves and make them more effective. Pay attention to which element he uses, then hit him with the opposite spell–this is why you set up Aerith with all those spell Materia at the start of the chapter. When Sephiroth fires up Wind Infusion, blast him with Lightning magic; when he uses Lightning Infusion, he’ll be weak to Wind magic. You’ll do a lot of damage and push up his stagger meter if you can hit him with opposite spells.

Meanwhile, keep dueling Sephiroth with Cloud as much as you can, while using Tifa to alternately top off your health and hit Sephiroth with ATB attacks to push up his stagger meter. Countering Sephiroth and hitting him with opposite spells will put him down on one knee so you can deal some serious damage, but make sure to guard for the long haul with his wind-based sword strikes, and be careful of the lightning strikes with his Lightning Infusion, which will rain down around the battlefield.

As you damage Sephiroth more, he’ll pull out new attacks, like Shadow Flare, creating gravity wells around the battlefield that then explode. Try to stay out of them as much as you can; the same goes for his Heartless Angel attack, which will light up the floor red and decimate your team if they’re caught in it. When Sephiroth readies it, run for it.

By that point, however, Sephiroth should be close to finished. Keep up the pressure with everything you have left and take him down. When he’s done, you’ll have plenty of downtime as you watch Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s lengthy ending.

Congratulations! Finishing the game unlocks an additional challenge in Hard Mode, which also includes a Chapter Select menu that will let you jump around in the game. Defeating bosses and completing side-quests in Hard Mode will also earn you more Manuscripts, which will give you more SP to upgrade weapons for each character. Your experience point gain is doubled in Hard Mode, and AP is tripled, which should allow you to wrap up things like finishing Chadley’s Battle Intel objectives and earning his final summon, or clearing the optional Combat Simulator fights that now open up in Chapter 17.

We’ve also got more guides to help you find every single thing in FF7 Remake, a rundown of what’s going on with that ending, and a spoilery discussion from the GameSpot team covering everything about the game.

This review contains spoilers for the Season 2 premiere of Kaguya-sama: Love is War, now streaming on Funimation in the US. Episode 1 premiered on April 11, with new episodes rolling out weekly.

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What might be anime’s best romantic comedy, Kaguya-sama: Love is War (now stylised with a question mark at the end of the title) at last makes its more-than-welcome return. Directed by Shinichi Omata and written by Yasuhiro Nakanishi, the show is adapted from the immensely popular weekly seinen manga from Aka Akasaka (with the translated title: “Kaguya Wants to be Confessed to: The Geniuses’ War of Hearts and Minds”). The show is focused on a battle of wits between the wealthy heiress Kaguya Shinomiya and the workaholic star student and council president Miyuki Shirogane, both trying to make the other confess their love for each other, as they’re both too proud to admit it. In the hands of anyone else it’d be a boring and routine “battle of the sexes,” but Love is War has continually shown itself to be above such clichés.

With its James Bond-esque opening titles (scored with an infectiously catchy number from “Japan’s King Of Love Songs” Masayuki Suzuki) and penchant for ludicrous escalation, the first season made hysterical overreaction its whole modus operandi. The ridiculously elaborate schemes by Shinomiya and Shirogane to make the other confess their love constantly defy predictability, as any one might find itself undone by their meddlesome friends, pure coincidence, or one of the two panicking at the prospect of intimacy with the other. The show is kept at a ridiculous and intentionally infuriating stalemate, as the stubborn leads refuse to be honest with each other or themselves.

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What keeps this back-and-forth interesting is how the comedy stays informed by character; Shirogane’s obsessive work ethic stems from his family’s financial insecurity, while Shinomiya’s emotional insecurity stems from her lavish and extremely sheltered upbringing. The incredible voice performances from Makoto Furukawa as Shirogane and Aoi Koga as Shinomiya both keep the intentionally frustrating dynamic fresh and funny even without interruptions from fan favourite agent of chaos Chika Fujiwara (Konomi Kohara, excelling in conveying a bubbly hyperactivity) and the human punchline Yū Ishigami (Ryōta Suzuki, keeping a precise monotone).

The first season was more from the perspective of Shinomiya, examining the lifelong insecurities that drive her obsessive psychological battle with Shirogane, and her inability to be emotionally honest. That surprisingly genuine sincerity of the first season’s latter half revealed Love Is War’s surprising depth and capability for a lot more than simple laughs at the character’s expense. The second season looks to expand this sympathy to the supporting characters, first and foremost Ai Hayasaka, Shinomiya’s long-suffering but nonetheless loyal attendant. As with the previous season each episode is split into three or four vignettes, with the first of this new episode opening on a characteristically ridiculous scenario with Hayasaka at the center, detailing the absurd lengths she goes to meet Shinomiya’s impossible demands, and preserve the happiness of her mistress.

It also appears that animation studio A-1 Pictures has a little more weight to throw around – scenery and characters are drawn and animated with loving exactness – with a particular adoration of absurd facial expressions in almost every cut to a close-up. Even the most mundane scenarios of the episode make use of wild, exuberant movements and great detail. It’s almost reminiscent of shows like Nichijou, as Love is War makes use of anachronistic homages to other genres such as action thrillers even in the most mundane of stories. Case-in-point, the episode’s first part has Hayasaka fully decked out in tactical spy gear as she infiltrates the Student Council room to swap out Shirogane’s coffee for decaf (he almost immediately passes out upon drinking it, reacting as though it were poison – a relatable action).

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The new episode is crammed with jokes from beginning to end, full of subtle but extremely funny callbacks to the previous season alongside its farcical set-pieces, sharp one-liners and clever visual humour. There will no doubt be some jokes lost in translation (the opening credits jokingly crosses out the extremely long subtitle of the original Japanese), with various plays on words and blink-and-miss-it accompaniments to graphics, but the script moves at such a pace that it doesn’t really matter – it only makes it more rewatchable. The timing of each scene is impeccable, and perfectly balanced with the ongoing commentary of an omniscient narrator that recalls the pithy reality checks of Ron Howard in Arrested Development, only with a more intense delivery in this case.

The following chapter, “The Student Council Has Not Achieved Nirvana”, revisits the continuing story of a student couple given (mostly bad) romantic advice by Shirogane and Shinomiya, the boy having returned from summer holiday to gloat about his happiness. The newfound confidence leads Shirogane and Ishigami to suspect that the couple have “experienced nirvana”, and Love is War continues to walk the line between a refreshing frankness about sex while having the characters act hilariously coy when talking about it (in this scene, the act is only ever referred to as “nirvana” or “the divine dance”). It continues into a breakdown of the student council’s lacking understanding of the dynamics of romance, getting plenty of mileage at their bewilderment at each other’s expectations (“holding hands on the first date?!” Shinomiya gasps).

All-in-all, it’s an excellent and well-rounded reintroduction to the show, showcasing and perfecting its most common kinds of scenarios. Take “Kaguya-sama Wants To Get Married,” a fairly typical set-up for a number of the last season that once again has Fujiwara create a game that Shinomiya and Shirogane take far too seriously, and only suffer for doing so. In this instance it’s a bastardized version of The Game of Life, which inevitably leads to overreactions about fictional marriage and the road it leads down. For Shinomiya, it becomes a darkly comic reflection on the life that could await her, should she follow the pre-ordained path that her closed-off father has decided for her. She ends Fujiwara’s game as an immensely wealthy but miserable business magnate (for Shirogane, it’s mostly just debilitating debt).

“Kaguya Wants to Celebrate” ends the episode on a light note, with a tense back-and-forth between Shirogane and Shinomiya as the latter tries to persuade the former to celebrate his birthday, attempting to coax the date (which she already knows) out of him by having him join in on a horoscope reading with Fujiwara and Ishigami. Shirogane refuses, claiming it’s foolish but secretly being an obsessive fan of horoscopes (“Yes! Virgos is in first place!”), and being quietly devastated at having read in a previous one that he and Shinomiya are incompatible. Scored with overly-dramatic music, the stubborn back-and-forth leads to some wonderful facial expressions (like Kaguya’s rage leading her head to expand like a balloon) and quick one-liners. It’s a fairly familiar conclusion to an episode firing on all cylinders, but if the first season of Love is War proved anything, it’s just how much this show is truly capable of.

Here at IGN we occasionally like to showcase something from geekdom’s rich history — a pop-culture Time Capsule, if you will, that gives us a peek in to the past, perhaps providing a new appreciation for previous projects. If you’d like, please check out the past few Time Capsules:

• George Lucas’ first day writing Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
• The Rock kicking Seven of Nine’s Borg butt on Star Trek: Voyager
• The Tom Waits interview that may have inspired Heath Ledger’s Joker
• Christian Bale auditioning in Val Kilmer’s batsuit from Batman Forever
• Kevin Feige’s 2006 tease for the Avengers and the MCU

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If one thing still holds true after 30 years, if one universal constant still remains, it’s that bustin’ makes us feel good.

Once upon a time, a quartet of unlikely heroes stopped – nay! – busted a battalion of ghouls and ghosts, preventing them from turning New York City into, well, to be honest, a much nicer and friendlier place.

Their first challenge was to defeat a shapeshifting, apocalyptic entity named Gozer. They got covered in goo. Then, a few years later, they vanquished a seemingly-immortal 16th century tyrant using a river of pink slime that had formed in the sewers. They got covered in goo again. Then… these champions vanished. When the gooing got tough, the tough got gooing.

But did you know that phantom menacers Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler, and Winston Zeddemore were close to having one last ride about 20 years ago? Yes, Ghostbusters creator and star Dan Aykroyd wrote a full Ghostbusters III script, subtitled Hellbent, back in 1999. And the story put the Ghostbusters in the crosshairs of… Satan himself!

Usually, with these Time Capsules, there’s a fun little video component. Nothing like that exists for this particular slice of retrovertigo, but here’s a look at the screenplay in all its “dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria” glory…

So then what was Hellbent all about? IGN actually made grabby hands at the screenplay back in 2002 with an exclusive script review. At the time, we didn’t give out too many spoilers, since the movie was only in the sixth concentric circle of Development Hell, but now, with Ghostbusters: Afterlife serving as a direct franchise sequel, we can dig into the Hellbent plot a bit more.

The place? New York City. The people? Still WALKIN HERE!

Hell, which is a darkened mirror version of NYC called “ManHELLton,” has become overstuffed and congested. So much so that, like actual heartless Big Apple landlords, it’s evicting people. Those cursed souls then make their way back into the world of the living. The Ghostbusters, now a few years removed from their museum showdown with Vigo the Carpathian, slip-slide into Hell and confront the Devil – who is presented as a smarmy business mogul named Mr. Sifler. Luke Sifler. Lu-cifer. I think you get it. Don’t get it? It’s Lucifer. Got it now? Good.

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Ghostbusters III isn’t wholly about the main squad however. The original characters only have supporting roles as the story, smartly, set out to set up a new generation of wrath wranglers. In the script we read, Ray and Egon cope with Venkman retiring from the team and leaving with Sigourney Weaver’s Dana Barrett. In the film’s big twist, Venkman then appears as a ghost in the final scenes, having died off-screen (somehow), now existing in a form he once so eagerly busted. The reason Venkman was more marginalized in the Hellbent script was because Bill Murray repeatedly refused to participate in the project and the thought was he might come back if he only had to shoot for a day or two.

The new characters, according to our report, weren’t that impressive. The lead, Franky, is described as “a body-pierced, tough New Jersey punker.” In fact, given the era, the rest of the squad seems suited for background work in Crazy Town’s “Butterfly” video.

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Alas, this movie never came to pass. Instead, Ghostbusters was rebooted in 2016 by Paul Feig and now, though delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, from Jason Reitman, will serve as a decades-later follow-up to Ghostbusters II. The original surviving cast, except for Rick Moranis, will all appear in some capacity as the new cast — Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, and Paul Rudd — discover a crucial connection to the ’80s Ghostbusters team in a small Midwest town.

And if you’re clamoring for moving images and synced sound, here’s a trip back to 2009 for IGN’s review of the Ghostbusters video game. Why this project? Well, at the time — with Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson all onboard — this was Ghostbusters III. It’s a direct sequel to the two movies. And while the story isn’t Hellbent, some of the alternate dimension ideas that are featured in the game were based on concepts from that script…

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Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

Warning: this article contains full spoilers for all eight episodes of FX’s Devs!

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FX just wrapped up its limited series Devs, ending with a mind-bending finale episode that could only have come from creator Alex Garland. If you need a recap of what exactly happens, what it all means and whether there’ll be a second season to explore the fallout, we’re here to help. Read on for a full breakdown of the Devs finale.

If you haven’t watched the series yet. You should definitely stop reading now and instead check out our Devs series premiere review for more on why this is one show you should absolutely binge.

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Why Couldn’t Devs Predict the Future?

Devs doesn’t waste a lot of time before revealing its key plot twist to viewers. Devs (or Deus, rather) is a quantum computer so advanced it can recreate reality down to individual particles. Using the rigid laws of determinism and the best algorithms tech guru money can buy, It can peer into the past with seemingly perfect accuracy and even show the future before it unfolds. The problem, however, is that Deus is unable to render the future beyond a specific point in time. The moment when a distraught Lily shoots Forest and sends their elevator pod crashing down, the future simulation crashes. Neither Forest nor Katie can figure out why this is; they only know that Lily is somehow the one x-factor Deus can’t quite account for.

As we see in the finale, that’s because Lily is the first person who makes a genuine choice and behaves in a way that contradicts Deus’ predictive algorithm. To draw a comparison to another famous sci-fi AI system, Deus is sort of like HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Hal is programmed to assist the astronauts aboard the Discovery in their mission to Jupiter, but its NASA handlers also instruct it to complete the mission at all costs, even if it means sacrificing the astronauts. That creates a contradiction in its programming which slowly drives HAL insane. In the case of Deus, the system knows Lily should behave one way based on all the rules of determinism. But once Lily is shown how she’s going to act in the future, she chooses to act differently. Deus renders one future even as its complex intelligence comprehends that Lily seeing her future is going to change that future in ways it can’t predict. It doesn’t know how to proceed, therefore the simulation can’t progress beyond that point. Deus doesn’t know how to handle the paradox it has created.

Unfortunately for Lily, her decision to defy fate and make a choice doesn’t actually mean much in the end. Thanks to Stewart deactivating the pod, she and Forest still wind up crashing to the bottom of the Deus habitat and suffocating to death in the vacuum. Lily may have made a choice, but the future still ends up proceeding basically as Deus predicted. A lot of time travel fiction deals with the notion that the timeline is self-sustaining and will course-correct whenever something attempts to alter its flow. Time is like a river. A fallen tree may block off part of the river, but the water will simply move around the log and continue flowing in the same direction. Stewart may simply be time’s way of ensuring that the normal flow is maintained.

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Life in Simulation: What Happened to Lily and Forest?

Once the series revealed to us that the Devs team had designed a reality-simulating quantum computer, it became increasingly obvious that Forest was harnessing this technology to somehow bring his dead wife and daughter back to life. At first, it wasn’t 100% clear whether Forest was somehow attempting a literal resurrection or merely preserving his family in digital form. But in the finale, his full plan is revealed.

Deus’ ability to revisit the past and predict the future turns out to be a means to a larger end. Forest needed to prove (mostly to himself) that his system is so accurate that the simulations it creates are indistinguishable from reality. That’s why he reacted so angrily to Lyndon’s “Many Worlds Theory” algorithm earlier in the season. At that point, Deus’ simulations were still fuzzy and indistinct, and only grew more so the farther back in time they went. Reality simply has too many tiny variables for the system to take into account. Lyndon’s algorithm attempted to sidestep those variables, drawing on the theory that an infinite number of parallel universes exist alongside our own, each slightly different from the next. Forest was insistent that any deviation at all from our reality means the Amaya he sees inside Deus isn’t really his daughter.

But by the end of the series, Forest no longer seems to care about this possibility. He says as much to Katie when he’s first recreated inside Deus after his death. Having just seen his death play out as planned despite Lily’s act of free will, Forest has decided that these small deviations don’t matter in the end. If the overall flow of time remains unchanged in any reality, his daughter will always be his daughter.

To be clear, the original versions of Forest and Katie are well and truly dead. The versions that now exist inside Deus are simulations based on the real people just before they died. But as far as Forest is concerned, that’s a meaningless distinction. Deus has recreated both of them down to the smallest particles. Within their new world, they’re physically and mentally indistinguishable from their real selves. Forrest didn’t resurrect his family, but instead built himself an entire, self-contained universe where they never died in the first place. Maybe this universe isn’t “real” from the perspective of the outside world, but it might as well be to anyone who exists inside the simulation.

Here the series draws on the concept of simulation theory, another popular sci-fi trope. Philosopher Nick Bostrom once argued our own universe is probably a digital simulation. The idea being that if we accept it’s possible for an advanced civilization to create a simulation so lifelike its own inhabitants believe it to be real, then those simulated people will eventually be able to create their own perfect digital simulations, and on and on. If that’s the case, then statistically the odds of our reality being the “real” one are extremely low. Who’s to say our reality isn’t like the one Forest built inside Deus? If it is, are we better off not knowing the truth?

Interestingly, Westworld: Season 3 is currently exploring many of these same ideas. Not only is Westworld also a show about the intersection of humanity and AI and the question of free will, Season 3 has introduced its own all-powerful, behavior-predicting AI named Rehoboam.

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Will There Be a Devs Season 2?

Most likely there won’t be a second season of Devs. Devs was originally announced as a limited series with a self-contained run of eight episodes. Creator/writer/director Alex Garland told Collider he hopes to reunite some of the show’s cast for a new TV project, and he’s already worked with star Sonoya Mizuno on several past projects like Annihilation and Ex Machina. But whatever that reunion project ends up being, it probably won’t be Devs: Season 2.

That’s not to say this story couldn’t theoretically be continued. The finale is a fairly open-ended one, especially where Lily is concerned. We’re left wonder exactly how she’ll come to terms with her new existence. Will she try to expose Forest? If so, how would she go about proving her reality is a simulation? Will she wind up building her own version of Devs? Some people argue the best way to test simulation theory is to build enough simulations within simulations within simulations that the entire structure becomes so enormous and memory-intensive our simulated reality finally crashes. Maybe Katie could turn Forest’s own tech against him.

There’s also the question of how the outside world might react to the existence of Deus and its simulated reality. Katie is shown striking a bargain with Senator Laine to ensure the system is allowed to keep running undisturbed. But can she really guarantee Forest’s personal utopia won’t get switched off? What if the US government or a rival tech firm decides there are better uses for the most advanced computer system in human history?

In short, there’s plenty of potential for a Devs sequel of some sort. We may not see that sequel come to pass, but surely there’s a universe where it does exist.

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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

We’re quickly nearing the end of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, but there are more bosses to fight and secrets to find along the way as the story ramps up toward its conclusion. Our spoiler-free walkthrough can help you battle through everything Shinra has to throw at you as you approach the end of the game. Keep reading below to find strategies to beat every boss and find every secret.

Check out the rest of our Final Fantasy 7 Remake guides so you don’t miss a single secret or collectible. You can also read our FF7 Remake review.

Chapter 17 Walkthrough: Deliverance From Chaos

Make sure all four of your characters are outfitted with weapons and Materia before you leave Aerith’s room. Open the chest in the corner to grab the Reinforce Staff weapon for Aerith. As you follow Tifa and Aerith out of the room, be sure to check the cells on either side of the hallway for chests with an Enfeeblement Ring accessory and a phoenix down. There’s also a chest near the exit of this hallway with an ether.

As you move through Hojo’s lab, you’ll be blocked by debris and attacked by more of Hojo’s Unknown Entity specimens. Once the way is clear, cross to the east side of the exit hallway to find a break room with a vending machine and a bench.

Soon after, you’ll make your way through an area called “The Drum.” As you pick your way among the white pods, look for a path that leads north and then east. It hides a Poison Materia at its end.

Ahead, use the specimen pods heading north to reach a treasure chest with a phoenix down, before following the path south. You’ll find another break room here, so make use of the vending machine and bench before you continue.

You’ll rejoin Barret next and fight a slew of enemies–first Monodrives, then some Unknown Entities, and finally a M.O.T.H. Unit robot. This last one has a saw blade around its lower body that can tear you up if you get close, so when that’s spinning, hang back and use (ideally Thunder) spells to do some damage. Watch out for its powerful electrical discharge attacks, too. Double-back to the break room if you need to after this fight to heal up before pressing forward. Past the next door, open the chest to find the Twin Stinger weapon for Cloud. After you meet up with Tifa and Aerith ahead, check the room just past the test subject pods for a chest with 3,000 gil inside.

Switch groups and head up to the door to the Third Ward, where you’ll also find a break room. Use the switch to activate the test subject pods, then cross to find a chest with an ether inside before you switch back to the other group.

After fighting the Blast-Ray, look for a lever to extend a bridge to the central terminal. Head left across the bridge to pick up an orb of Time Materia. Open the door to the Third Ward and switch teams.

Inside the Third Ward, get ready to face some Unknown Entities. Be sure to interrupt their Thundaga spells to avoid major damage. In the room full of cages, go around the ones on the east wall to open a chest and get a mega-potion.

You’ll battle some Guard Dogs in the next room. When they’re dead, leave through the door and turn left to find a chest with 3,000 gil in it. Head the other way and you’ll find an enemy called a Zenene. Stay clear of it when it rolls up and charges at you, then close the distance to pummel it with a few of Tifa’s Unbridled Strength attacks. It won’t put up too much of a fight if you continually hit with ATB abilities, but dodge clear of its various attacks.

You’ll fight a pair of Zenenes in the next room. When they’re dead, use the switch on the west wall to open the door and reveal a chest in the cage just outside, which houses a Force Bracelet accessory. On the other side of the room, the ladder will lead to a chest that contains a mega-potion.

When you exit the Third Ward, go down the stairs and head south to another staircase to find a chest behind it, which contains an ether. Back above and in the other direction, you’ll run into three Sentry Launchers. Hit them with Thunder or drop one of Tifa’s Chi Trap ATB abilities on them to quickly stagger them. Continue to the end of the path to open the way the Second Ward.

Switch parties and head into the Second Ward. After you fight two Zenenes, you’ll pass through a hallway into Robotics Testing. Turn right to go east and duck behind the crates to find a chest with an Astral Cuff armor.

You’ll fight a M.O.T.H. Unit next, and in the room after that, a new enemy called a Sledgeworm. These guys pop up out of the holes in the ground to slug you with hammers, poisoning you and doing a bunch of damage. Your marching orders are to dodge clear of them when they pop out of the holes, then respond with Punisher melee attacks and Thunder spells to stagger them. When they pop out of the ground, be sure to get out of the way–among the attacks they like to drop on you is one that causes Stop, which freezes you in place to wait for more brutal moves.

When you get up to where Hojo was, turn around and head up north instead of pursuing him to the south. In the second room at the end of this path, spin around and check the southeastern corner for a chest with two remedies inside.

Heading back the other way, enter the room with the test subject pods and turn right from the stairs. Head to the back of the room, behind some crates, to find a chest with a Chain Bangle armor in it.

You’ll hit a battle with the Brain Pod miniboss next. This thing likes to spew poisonous sludge in an area around it with its Noxious Whirl attack, so stay clear and hit it with Thunder and Barret’s ranged attacks as much as you can. After it takes some damage, it’ll replicate itself to make a whole bunch more Brain Pods. Keep yourself as healthy as you can as you try to whittle them down using abilities like Cloud’s Triple Slash and Barret’s Maximum Fury. The pods aren’t too tough, so once you start staggering and clearing them out with melee attacks and ATB abilities, you shouldn’t have too hard a time coming out victorious. You’ll leave the Second Ward right afterward.

At the door to the Fourth Ward ahead, you’ll find a break room where you can heal and stock up on items. Fight off the Unknown Entities, then switch teams for a big battle. These will all be enemies you’ve dealt with before, including Sledgeworms and Unknown Entities. Tifa is particularly good at driving up the stagger meter on Sledgeworms with her basic attacks, especially with Unbridled Strength. Use Aerith to back her up with Thunder spells and you should make short work of the robots, as well as the Unknown Entities.

You’ll eventually find your way back to the Central Terminal to open the door to the Fourth Ward and switch parties again. Inside the Ward, enter the big pipe, turn left, and follow it to its end to find a chest with a mega-potion inside.

Boss Fight: Swordipede

The Swordipede looks a lot worse than it is. Melee attacks are pretty ineffectual against this giant robot, which is basically all sawblades; Cloud’s sword will bounce off the sides of the creature, and it has a saw in its head that’s likely to mess you up if you’re in front of it. Forego melee in favor of big elemental spells: Thunder, surprisingly, doesn’t seem especially effective against the Swordipede, but Firaga and Aeroga hit for huge damage.

The Swordipede has a few big attacks you need to watch out for that’ll send it spinning around like a big saw blade, dropping electric bombs out of the air, and flying around trying to electrocute you. None are particularly dangerous as long as you move to avoid them. Concentrate on ranged attacks and landing big spells when the boss is floating around and you should hit it very hard, very quickly, without much danger.

Halfway through the fight, the Swordipede will blast through the wall and attack your other party. Take advantage of the prompt to hold Square and access the menu during the cutscene, which will allow you to swap high-powered Fire and Wind materia from one team to another, should you need to do so. Once you’re outfitted, repeat the process against the Swordipede at the Central Terminal. Move to catch it as it floats around the middle so you can hit it with spells–if you’re not careful, they’ll hit the pillar in the center of the room and get interrupted. A few big magical blows should put this one down for good.

When you’re done, follow the gooey trail. You’ll hit a bench and vending machine when you reach the roof.

Boss Fight: Jenova Dreamweaver

Fighting Jenova Dreamweaver is all about managing the battlefield and watching your positioning. The creature has two big tentacles sticking out of its sides, and your primary goal is to keep hacking those off to limit its attack capabilities and push up its stagger gauge. Avoid going behind Jenova, however–there’s a third big tentacle back there that’ll send you flying if you tempt it, and you can’t cut that one off.

Get in close with your melee team and start wailing away on Jenova, while keeping an eye on what it’s up to–if you see it readying its “Cast Aside” attack or start to see purple smoke swirling around it, dodge away and wait for the attacks to pass. Punisher counter-attacks are good for use against the tentacles, as is Tifa’s Omnistrike, which can nearly cut one off in one shot. When the tentacles are gone, go to town on the boss. Meanwhile, Jenova’s generally somewhat resistant to magic, so Aerith is best used as a support teammate here, although big spells will still hurt the boss as well.

Jenova has a lot of punishing attacks it’ll throw at you. Watch out for Vengeance, a laser beam that hurts quite a bit, after you kill its tentacles–get behind a column to avoid it, or guard through it, because it’ll knock you down otherwise. It’ll regrow the tentacles periodically, so keep cutting them off to pressure it and get more damage in.

In its second phase, Jenova will introduce more attacks to threaten you. Watch out for the swirling smoky pit that will move around the battlefield; if it catches one of your characters, it’ll hit them with Stop, freezing them in place for a time. You also want to avoid the Mourning Wail attack, which will catch any characters too close to Jenova in a whirlwind they can’t escape. Jenova will also add some ranged attacks and spells like Bio and Aero to its repertoire, so make sure to spend some time on healing and additional protection like Barrier and Manawall.

When you cut off the tentacles, Jenova will be pressured and briefly vulnerable, but it’ll also use an attack called Rejection to hurt you if you get in close. Use ranged attacks and abilities like Tifa’s Chi Trap to do damage to the boss while keeping yourself safe.

The third stage sees Jenova at its most aggressive, with tentacles growing up out of the ground. You’ll want to eliminate these, even though they keep regrowing, because they’ll limit your movements; the good news is, Tifa and Cloud can cut them down quickly with moves like Triple Strike and Omnistrike, and Aerith’s spells are effective as well. Kill the tentacles as quickly as you can, though–Jenova will ready attacks like Dream of Vengeance, which turns every tentacle into a Vengeance laser gun, and Dreams of Quietude, which fires orbs that can put Stop on your characters, making it much harder to avoid those attacks. In the meantime, watch out for Jenova casting a Reflect spell on itself that will bounce your spells back at you; focus on the tentacles around the room instead.

Destroying all the tentacles quickly will further pressure Jenova and leave it open to attack. At this point, you should be close to staggering it, so lay into it with stagger attacks like Focus Thrust and Focus Strike to push Jenova over the edge and get in some serious damage.

When Jenova’s down to about a quarter health, you’ll hit its fourth and final phase. Jenova will now teleport around the battlefield, summoning up tentacles and attacking you with third-level elemental spells like Firaga and Aeroga. Keep up the same strategy as before–send Tifa or Cloud around to hack down all the tentacles around the room to cut back Jenova’s ability to fight. You’ll see the floor turn purple around the tentacles as you destroy them, indicating that acid will drop on you from the ceiling, so keep moving to get clear. When the outlier tentacles are all gone, close in and cut off its Left and Right Tentacles to pressure Jenova.

Watch out for the boss’s various big attacks: Quietude will send those pools of purple smoke that will Stop your team, while Vengeance will cut through you with powerful lasers, and Mourning Wail will trap you in a whirlwind. Jenova will sometimes alternate barriers, so check the icon next to its name to determine if you should hit it with physical attacks or magic. Just keep your team healed and maintain as much damage as you can to finish off the boss.

Boss Fight: Rufus Shinra

After some more story scenes, the son of Shinra’s president, Rufus Shinra, will appear to challenge Cloud to a one-on-one fight. This is a duel similar to the ones you fought against Roche and Rude, requiring a lot of blocking and a lot of well-timed attacks to get through Rufus’s defenses. The big outlier here is Rufus’s dog, Darkstar, which you’ll want to deal with first so you can take down the boss unimpeded. Darkstar heals Rufus whenever you do much damage to him, so until the dog is put down, you won’t make much progress.

Rufus and Darkstar have a bunch of tandem attacks, where the dog knocks you down or holds you up, and Rufus closes in for a shotgun blast and a lot of damage. Generally, try to stay back from the two of them, forcing the dog to extend its leash to come after you, so Rufus can’t close the gap easily to back it up. If you stay too close for too long, you run the risk of the team comboing you extensively for a lot of damage. Watch out for Darkstar casting Lightning on Rufus; when it does, Rufus will shoot a lightning blast called Thunderclap at you. You can dodge it, but you’ll need to pay close attention, because it hurts bad to get hit.

You can pressure Darkstar with Punisher attacks, but the best way to push up its stagger meter is to damage Rufus. Your best bet is to use Triple Strike when Rufus is reloading or between attacks. Hitting both the dog and the master will break Darkstar’s leash, giving you a chance to lay into the dog with melee attacks while Rufus is staggered. Don’t overcommit, however–Rufus will eventually start trying to shoot you, so get clear before he recovers.

Once you’ve hurt Darkstar enough, Rufus will add some coins to his repertoire of attacks, which will give him new ways to hit you. Watch out for the Bright Lights attack, which fires lasers your way, but which is very dodgeable. You’ll also want to be sure not to get caught in the hail of bullets from Guns Akimbo, as it’ll leave you vulnerable to a follow-up strike from Darkstar.

Repeat the strategy of baiting and damaging Darkstar until you can finish the dog off, leaving Rufus on his own. At this point, he’ll start using his guns to help him zip around the battlefield. He’s pretty much invulnerable in most situations and will counter just about all of your attacks. You need to hit him at a particular moment: when he reloads. All other strikes will leave you vulnerable to his counters.

The trick here is to avoid all the big attacks, while guarding through the smaller ones. Bright Lights shooter a laser at you that you can dodge; Think Fast turns a handful of coins into bombs, so dodge backwards to avoid them; and Up In Smoke will stall you up if it catches you in its smoke cloud. You can avoid the fire of Guns Akimbo if you run sideways, but it’s a riskier endeavor than just guarding. You want your guard up most of the time to stop Rufus’s quicker, smaller gunshots, while staying ready to dodge the big ones.

Try to stay close to Rufus so that when he steps back to reload, you can close the gap quickly to attack him. Hit him no more than three times; when you see a sphere of distortion surround him, that means he’s ready to counter your next blow. Three strikes lets you hurt him without getting attacked back. But the better move is to save up your ATB and use Focused Thrust on Rufus when he’s reloading. That’ll put him down on one knee and give him a bunch of damage, slowing his next move and giving you a second to breathe or hit him again.

Keep repeating the pattern of avoiding his big attacks and catching him with Focused Thrust until you get your Limit Break. Use it on Rufus while he’s reloading and you’ll stagger him instantly. You’ll need to be patient, but keep up the damage while protecting yourself and your sword should win this gunfight.

Boss Fight: The Arsenal

The fight against the Arsenal isn’t about dealing damage right away–it’s about accomplishing a few steps to open the Arsenal up to attack. The good news is, there’s plenty of cover in the first part of the fight, allowing you avoid damage while you wait for your moment to attack. Stay back in cover when the Arsenal does its Saturation Fire, Homing Laser, and Voltaic Discharge attacks. When the boss readies its “Primary Fire” attack, step out and shoot its cannon, the weak point.

As soon as you blast the cannon, Red XIII will use the opportunity to stagger one of the drones projecting the barrier on the Arsenal. Hit it with your strongest attacks to destroy it, then repeat the process to take down the other two. Breaking down the barrier allows you to hit the Arsenal directly to do damage and push up its stagger bar.

Keep moving and blasting away at the Arsenal, while hiding behind debris and cover to avoid most of its attacks. When it activates its Physical Defense Protocol, start hitting the boss with Lightning attacks, particularly when it starts to fire up its Pulse Cannon. A big bolt of lightning will knock it out for a second, allowing you to continue attacking. That should prompt the boss to switch into a Lightning Defense Protocol, allowing you to continue with physical attacks. Watch for its wheels to stop being protected by a barrier, then attack those and try to cripple them to further stagger the boss.

In the next phase of the fight, the Arsenal will get more aggressive, blasting through the cover debris in the room and using its Firewall attack to trap you between two walls of flame. Keep an eye out for the Primary Fire attack, which you can interrupt by attacking the Arsenal’s main cannon, just like before.

Once you damage the Arsenal enough, it’ll create Firewalls to trap your team and charge up an attack called Cry Havoc. Turn around and duck behind the piece of debris behind you to avoid the attack, then lay into the boss with as much damage as you can manage. When it starts to charge up Cry Havoc again, you’ll only have a few minutes to destroy the boss once and for all. Use Lightning spells to do serious damage and finish off the boss before it finishes you.