The much anticipated Final Fantasy VII Remake has finally released, and people are already playing the Mako out of it. Finally hitting consoles some 23 years after the original game released back in 1997 on the Playstation 1, players have been steeped in anticipation for the release of Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Players who boot up the game will notice that they have a couple of options regarding the difficulty level. At the start, players have access to Easy, Normal, and Classic Modes. However, one option players may be seeking in light of a real challenge is the game's Hard Mode.

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Fortunately, it's easy to do. After beating the game, players unlock Hard Mode, as well as a Chapter Select option. However, players cannot start an entirely new game over in Hard Mode. This is because enemies are substantially tougher and require fully kitted out characters to stand a chance. Thus, Hard Mode can only be selected by using the Chapter Select option.

As the name suggests, Hard Mode is hard. However, many aspects can make a game challenging, so what does Final Fantasy VII Remake change to make the journey more perilous? For starters, basic enemies are now boasting more health and higher damage output. Bosses have upgraded their arsenal and have new attacks to squash players. Additionally, their attack patterns have changed, requiring players to rethink their movement strategy. But probably the most devastating change introduced in Hard Mode is that players cannot use items at all. MP also doesn't regenerate and cannot be restored by using resting spots. Instead, resting spots only recover HP.

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Now all of this sounds bad, but there's a silver lining to all this. In Hard Mode, Manifests (which gives additional Skill Points) will unlock access to more Sub-Cores for weapons. Additionally, by beating the game once already, players will be granted a 2x XP and 3x AP bonus. This means that players will be able to max out character levels and Materia quickly. Finally, Hard Mode allows players to skip two Biki Minigames in Chapter 4 and 18.

As one final warning, players attempting Hard Mode should use Magnify-Cure sparingly. Magnify-Cure heals all the characters within your party with one cast but costs MP. Since there's no way to replenish lost MP in Hard Mode, players will want to use this powerful healing spell only when absolutely necessary. Otherwise, you might find yourself fighting a boss on an empty tank of MP. Knowing these ins and outs of hard Mode will definitely help players, but be sure you don't take the challenge lightly.

Final Fantasy VII Remake is available now for PlayStation 4.

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