Final Fantasy VII Community Playthrough 2015

[Clement Rage]

Junon and Rocket:

Spoiler

I think the elevator guard could really stand to raise his bribe price a little. 10 Gil. Have some self respect, soldier, make it at least 100. Although buying some weapons in Mideel has left me basically broke, maybe he/she is right.

The two guys practicing gun spinning in the locker room are gone, hope they're okay.

"We're missing something?" It's okay, guys, you can say it, lots of NPCs are already talking about the missing cannon.

Squad of ten runs away. Good policy guys.

The brutal murders of people trying to protect the Planet begin with the two in the elevator, right in front of the attendant. This may have been more sinister if her immediate reaction wasn't "Great...there went two perfectly good men."

"For Junon!" Aw, sorry, guys. Soldiers really hate Barret for some reason. AVALANCHE have enough standards that they don't kill dogs, apparently. Good policy.

Is there a pilot in the Guardian, you think? Oh well, killed it anyway.

I feel like they could have grabbed the Junon materia sooner, since it just involves a robot arm.

Hi Reno!

Now for what I consider the most difficult bossfight in the game, apart from the optional ones I don't care about. I saved specially before this one, Carry Armour has only two real tricks, but they're very effective. Grabbing your people and squeezing them to death, taking them out of the game until they die, which can be very annoying when they grab your designated healer just before their Cure2 is needed to save you from death by laser. It takes several attempts even now, and I burn through supplies of X potions and Megaelixirs to get through it. And going by the name, this thing was mainly designed to just carry things around, its main function isn't even killing things.

Eventual victory, so I loot the docks -Wait, Leviathan Scales? Here? Why? Why is a relic of Wutai's God lying in an unguarded chest in Junon docks? A trophy of some kind? Then why transport it somewhere this awkward and then just dump it in a box in a reactor.Also, I could summon Leviathan since Disc 1, why wasn't that enough to breach Dai-Chao's seal? I had the actual God of Wutai at my command, but I needed it's cast off skin?

Can we put this somewhere that makes sense in the remake?

"Come a long way since we got on that train" True dat.

"Fiddle with controls and we'll get somewhere." Uh...okay.

Remake: Please make underwater look pretty. We surface, and urgently need to get the rocket so naturally I go visit Bugenhagen. Where he tells me "No time to be humming,with the Planet nearing imminent death." Fair enough.
e doing it.
So I head to the rocket. It never entirely sat well with me, killing everything guarding the rocket apart from Rude. One other guy may have survived.

Palmer comes closest to killing us all out of all of Shinra. And the take off blast completely wrecks rocket town.

I actually cracked the code this time, I've never got all the huge materia before. Never really got behind the quest, I wasn't sure why we were doing it. Same cutscene whether no materia or three. Maybe something for the remake, make what you do here matter somehow? Is it possible to lose the Fort Condor materia and survive?

Shera finally gets some respect.

Back on the Highwind, "Did we do the right thing?" Little late for that.

"Don't worry! Think!" Great thought, Tifa.

Interesting contrast, Cloud's time in space= Planet is huge, I'm insignificant
Cid's time in space= Planet is tiny, it needs our help. So we all decide to go to Bugenhagen. But first, time to desecrate Wutai's most sacred shrine using the dandruff of their god. Also visit Gelnika. Rude has bounced back quick from the beating we gave him in the rocket, but this battle is probably the easiest encounter in the Plane. So the UnKnowns are Anti Sephiroth Weapons

"This is terrible- It's all messed up!" Oh no, the crashed plane of dangerous monsters is not neatly arranged. And the Highwind is here for some reason.

Hmm... I remember being ambushed by Weapon exiting here before, but it didn't happen this time. Dock in Junon and Save. I snagged the Key while wandering around underwater, so that saves time.

 

[Clement Rage]

Spoiler

Wow, terrorism is lucrative- I was broke heading into Junon, after the rocket lands I have 64,000 gil without grinding. I refuse to enter the lift at Junon again and the soldier calls me a cheapskate. It's mostly the time, but I can't really argue.

Materia shop guy in the canyon is rethinking his life.

Aeris was felt by everyone but nobody mentioned it. Thanks.

Never got all Huge Materia before, it gave me Bahamut Zero. (not from the Summon coloured huge materia, for some reason. Neat, although I'm mostly just using Trine to crush everything in my path since Disc 1.

Yuffie points out that the Ancients likely not as peaceful as we've heard, as much of their wisdom involves destroying stuff.

Reeve got to tell Elmyra. Nice of him

Vincent: How long before we're the Ancients?

Red: Aeris used to pat me on the nose. I wanted to apologise for how we first met

Tifa: She didn't plan to die. Looked forward to the future a lot. She must have had a rough life.

Stop in on Shera, who is fairly accepting that she can handle Meteor.

How can Bugenhagen hear the Planet if he's not an Ancient? And how does he know it's a music box. Pretty sure he's just trolling us now.

I cheated the fetch quest to save time. At least it's less annoying that the one from FFXIII-2. I feel like I'm rushing this now and not doing it justice, but I'm running out of time.

"I'll do the rest."
"That's WE!" Tell em, Barret.

How is Reeve surprised about the giant cannon being moved?

You have to hand it to the Executives, they did have fairly solid plans under the circumstances.

Scarlet's idea works pretty well. Although they're acting like they just named it Sister Ray, when the label was on that back when Tifa was running on it.

NPC in Kalm: Cannon is pointing due North.

I believe you mean Northwest. Take that game.

Diamond Weapon is a really well thought out bossfight, You have the whole sense of the slowly advancing, slow moving monster that you're barely significant to, as it steps forward lazily spitting fireballs at you.

People talk about Sabin suplexing a train, but how about Tifa Meteodriving a forty stories tall monster. She's got some muscle.

Rufus feels the need to flick his air before firing the cannon. Naturally.

Reeve and Barret's little argument is one of my favourite moments in the game.

I took this too fast, missed some things I should have commented on. I like how much Reeve comes into his own here, directing you around the major points of resistance in his city. In the remake I'd like to see some kind of stealth sequence where you're hiding from the main Shinra response for some of it.

I don't get the Turks here. They're using the exact opposite philosophy to the one they had in Wutai -There, Elena wanted to carry out an order beyond the call of duty, and they chewed her out for it. Here, she doesn't want to carry out an order beyond the call of duty, and they also chew her out for it. Girl can't win, even though she's tougher in combat than either of them. This is the only difficult encounter with the Turks in the game, they seem to get a lot of crits. It takes some strategic adjustments of equipment to get through. Elena feels the need to fix her hair before she flees for her life.

I wander in the wrong direction for a while, snag the W-Item materia, which is a pretty nice one. I also loot the Shinra shop and the Megaphone on Floor 64 even though I have no intention of using Cait Sith for anything. My restore materia levels up against a Brain Pod on floor 67 of all places

Tifa is on her knees in the winding tunnel for some reason, but she says she's okay. So I climb out and say Hello to Heidegger and Scarlet.

'killed so many of my precious soldiers' I presume she's referring to mechanical ones?

Turns out, anti-WEAPON artillery isn't all that great against infantry, who knew? Still, Ragnarok is a good sword so the whole thing wasn't a complete waste.

Grosspanzer is a tough encounter, but once again Trine ruins its day. Trine and Frog Song basically beat over half the game for me.

Hope the SOLDIER 1sts are more dangerous in the remake. Keep the encounters rare, it makes them more special.

Hojo as a character is a lot of fun, he never seems like he gives a shit but plays everyone like a fiddle regardless. In the remake I'd like a reason why Shinra can't just storm the cannon though.

"I was wrong... the one who should have slept was You, Hojo! I always bring Vicne for this, just for that line. Hojo even seems to feel a bit of regret, the next line is "I was defeated... by my desire to become a scientist.

Pretty tough guy, 13,000 HP isn't bad. And he's using the same monsters that were in the Gelnika, nice touch.

Is there a limit to how many capsules he has? Think about checking but ultimately don't bother.

Destroy both his arms and Helletic Hojo dies. Didn't know that. Final form easy enough, I have Counter equipped on Cloud, which means if he uses Combo I get five extra attacks on the turn.

Vincent is pretty gracious afterwards . "Hojo... rest in peace.

Cloud makes his speech about reasons to fight. Barret recognises blowing up reactors was wrong.

Tifa has basically lost everything she's ever had, twice. One tough lady.

I'm looking forward to seeing the emotions on their faces in this scene, they did pretty well with polygons. Got the high affection this time, where Tifa has a much more extreme reaction to the prospect of the others spying on.

Reeve wanted to come himself, but couldn't get away. Pretty brave, considering these people could still decide to kill him.

Aeris theme here is perfectly timed.

And the crew arrive. "Yes, sir! This is our home" Aww, cute.

Insert disc 3 image. Aeris watching the Highwind fly away. Seems like a mistake, but pretty appropriatew hen you think about it.

And that was disc two, which seemed a lot shorter than disc one. Normally I mess around with subquests now, but I think I'll just make a drive for the end next. Thanks for sticking with me, readers!

 

[Clement Rage]

Insert victory theme here.

Spoiler

This playthrough I'm not bothering with subquests. I didn't even get the Key to Sector 5. I just fly round, shop in Mideel, and then head back to the crater.

Aw, the music...very purposeful, it's nice.

Something I occasionally think about is whether Deepground could get through this cave if Heidegger had survived and tried to use it to invade. It's hard to judge, they have numbers and artillery but are weak on magic, and there are plenty of monsters resistant to physical attacks. It's also pretty defensible, there are lots of narrow windy paths and confusing layout. Whether monsters would attack an army would depend on how much control Sephy has on them, but there are also wild cards like Nero... Something like Level 4 Death could be devastating to an invading force... Anyway, moving on.

In the remake, I want this to be a proper labyrinth, If I'm not frustrated getting through it's not done right. Encounters that you can avoid as well as compulsory ones, character dialogue building tension, and so on.

There are plenty of monsters with annoying tricks here, Gargoyles and Scissors, but there are also weird ones that seem out of place, like Gheeghee and Christopher. Easiest Route is probably through the swamp. FF7 monsters have Lower HP that many later parts of the series because it's harder to hit the damage cap. Still can be tough, though. Hmm, some of the monsters were here in Disc 2, like the Marlboro.

We reach the first fork in the road, another nice touch. I take my dream team and divide the crew randomly.

"Don't any of you die on me." No promises.

I wonder is 'Materia Forever' meant to be a big in universe series.

Anyway, we keep going. I choose to escape from several encounters to save time, no major problems until we get to the bottom, although I take a while to remember how to get that MegaAll materia. Too overpowered to use right now, though.

I use the Save Crystal (another nice touch to make the dungeon stand out), Sephy's so genre savvy he even destroyed the Save Points on the Way In.) at the bottom of the Cave, and then loot all my teammates. Yuffie gives me a Megaelixir after Red makes her, then asks me to give it back. Sorry, single use item. As I leave, a large number of monsters attack. How much control does Sephiroth have over them?

Vincent: This might be fun to pass time.

I run ahead to face nice music and tough monsters, fortunately, Frog Song is still super overpowered. Iron Man is tough and dangerous without it, he deals a lot of damage quickly. Dragon Zombie also tricky enough if you fight fairly, which I don't.

JENOVA packs more of a punch than I remember, I actually fail on the first run because she finishes her countdown. Second run she loses on '1' and we all fall through the ground after a detour of Holy. JENOVA gave us lots of EXP, which is helpful. Barret also got Grenade Bomb just in time for the Final Boss.

So here we are, with everyone unconscious. Sephiroth makes his appearance and we're all immobile and stupidly air running in his mere presence.

He doesn't feel the need to say anything, distinguishing himself from every other end boss I can think of that had a story based game. Sephiroth is a character that impresses through what he does, not what he says. His two biggest monologues, in the Mural Room in the Temple and in Shinra Manor, are probably his weakest moments.

'he's way out of our league'. Normally,. the villain makes this point in a long speech, here Cait makes it for him.

Barret namechecks AVALANCHE, nice that he remembers the old crew.

Cloud: We came... to tell you... our memories. Odd statement.

First up, Bizzarro Sephiroth. I hold off for a while until I Sense everything but the main body, which can't be sensed. He hits pretty hard, some attacks can kill individuals at full health. But once I start attacking seriously, he doesn't have much...

Wait, Heartless Angel? I thought only the second form could do that. Anyway, I beat him into the ground until he falls over, and then...

The Planet Screams, then we face the second form , the infamous One Winged Angel (more like 9, but anyway)

He opens with Wall, which is a fairly good plan, it takes the teeth out of some of my better attacks. Oh well, back to Trine.

Shadow Flare packs a serious punch, he can take down any barriers you put up, and then there is of course the gloriously long and over the top Supernova. Now we get to see how it feels to have someone pull a summon against you. I burn through my megaelixirs, no point in saving them now

I love Tifa's Limit, the damage just stacks and stacks -Wait what? How did I manage to do 4 HP of damage that time.

Fittingly, I later kill him with a full damage limit. They make the disintegration as slow as possible, so you can enjoy it (or pause the game and make coffee.)

Interestingly, there's no sense of triumph among the gang. Everyone is visibly tired, but they don't know what's coming next.

"This is all we could do."
"We can go home proud."

There's one last jumpscare that raises the possibility of Sephiroth taking control of Cloud. Everything we've just done isn't all that relevant, Sephiroth is still laughing. I'm not sure what happens here, does Sephiroth summon him? Does the Planet send you to him? Aeris? Or is this a side effect of the earlier connection? Regardless, we win, and Aeris theme and Tifa's theme switch out for each other.

Barret has huge hands. When Cid loses his cigarette, you know it's serious.

Wait, the airship just flew down to pick us up? Why didn't we use it to come this far?

Oh, we nearly crash. I see.

Back to Midgar for the finale. It's pretty much wrecked.

Meteor is still partially broken, maybe the rocket did do some good after all.

"We're too late...Holy is having the opposite effect."

Um... oops.

Tifa has really long hair.

And with that vital observation, we close. Bright light, flashback to Aeris, Laughter, and stars.

Roll credits.

And there we have it boys and girls, only nine months late. Thank you for your time. I won't lie, parts of this were a slog, but overall I'm glad I did this. This may actually only be my second or third full playthrough, although there's been a lot of bits and pieces in between. I'd forgotten a lot, and remembered a lot, and done some things I've never done before, although still not Ruby and Emerald Weapon, because fuck that. Still, I was enjoying myself for most of it, and it's nice to get an excuse to watch the ending, because I haven't really watched the whole thing in a long time, it's been years since I've seen it properly. So thank you, TLS, for the opportunity.

 

[Lex]

Thanks for posting your progress, it's been a fun read