Flintlock
Pro Adventurer
R.I.P.
Final Fantasy VII Community Playthrough
- Thread starter Flintlock
- Start date
Fangu
Great Old One
for the n'th time,
HE'S NOT DEAD
This time I noticed, if you talk to him after he's sat down, he says "I'm... still alive." Hint enough for ya?
Flintlock
Pro Adventurer
I tried talking to him when he was on the floor, but for some reason I couldn't. Anyway, just because somebody he said he was alive then, doesn't mean he was alive a little while later. There's no in-game evidence that he made it out of the temple before it shrunk.
But yes, you're right, Tseng isn't dead. I'm reminded of a biology class I took back when I was about ten years old, where we had to categorise things into "dead", "alive" and "never alive". Tseng is in the last of those groups
But yes, you're right, Tseng isn't dead. I'm reminded of a biology class I took back when I was about ten years old, where we had to categorise things into "dead", "alive" and "never alive". Tseng is in the last of those groups
We'd probaboy be invited to a bbq if the weather is good, but the weather fortunately stinks 
Flintlock
Pro Adventurer
Chapter 14: Over the snowy fields
18th - 21st May 2012
Skype and stream: Sunday the 20th of May, what time?
As Cloud put it at the end of the last chapter, "Aeris will no longer talk, no longer laugh, cry, or get angry". Her death means the party are suddenly and unexpectedly at a loss for how to save the planet from Sephiroth. They decide to go after him anyway, to try to stop him from using the black materia. He said he was heading north, over the snowy fields, to the Promised Land, so that's where we'll go, braving the cold and the wilderness along the way.
Our target is Holzoff's Cabin. There's a picture below. You might find yourself there earlier than you think, so feel free to head south again until you've finished exploring the Great Glacier. The chapter ends when you are ready to continue to the north.
Questions:
18th - 21st May 2012
Skype and stream: Sunday the 20th of May, what time?
As Cloud put it at the end of the last chapter, "Aeris will no longer talk, no longer laugh, cry, or get angry". Her death means the party are suddenly and unexpectedly at a loss for how to save the planet from Sephiroth. They decide to go after him anyway, to try to stop him from using the black materia. He said he was heading north, over the snowy fields, to the Promised Land, so that's where we'll go, braving the cold and the wilderness along the way.
Our target is Holzoff's Cabin. There's a picture below. You might find yourself there earlier than you think, so feel free to head south again until you've finished exploring the Great Glacier. The chapter ends when you are ready to continue to the north.
Questions:
- The Icicle Inn seems like a nice enough place. There's a cozy inn and pub, a few houses with some people to talk to and items to pick up, and a weapons shop that sells expensive but powerful equipment. What did you get up to there?
- There's also one empty house in the village that contains some videos about the planet and Aeris's past. What did you make of them?
- How good are you at the snowboarding game? What was your time, if you can remember, and which path did you take? Note for first-time players: don't worry about getting balloons, they don't make a difference at this stage.
- The Great Glacier is a vast place, and the map you picked up isn't particularly useful, so it's easy to get lost and possibly pass out before you've visit everywhere you want to. What did you do there, and how many visits did it take?
- Share your choice of characters, their levels and set-ups at the target. If you know what's coming up at Gaea's Cliff and beyond, do you feel adequately prepared, or do you regret not picking up a certain item or materia earlier, for example?
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Fangu
Great Old One
I just got the Lunar Harp. I'll leave other items for later.
I equipped Cloud with the Water Ring, but the other two members weren't killed as I was careful to use Big Guard and heal. I used Beta, Bolt 3 and limit breaks and I didn't have any problems really.
The first time I played the game I knew what was gonna happen, but I didn't know exactly where. So when I recognized the scenery I was all "nooo I'm not ready!"
I've read the explanation behind it (the game project participant of whose name I can't remember, sorry, lost his mother) and I like how they decided to "leave her dead" and not bring her back (save for all the lifestream stuff in AC), even if "it's just a video game". The scene is quite shocking and happens quite suddenly and I can see why it was a shocker back in the days. I remember fighting Jenova LIFE with sadmusic still on being a tiny bit awful. Aerith's gone but you still have to keep fightning, because that's what life is like - you have to go on. It's like when Joss Whedon (who also lost his mother) in Buffy chooses to not use 'comfort music' for the viewer to hold on to - instead all you get is dead silence, because that's what losing someone is like - life goes on around you, and you just have to keep going - no breaks are given.
I like the fact that Cloud decides that he wants to go on fighting. Even though in sorrow, he's not willing to give up, for Aerith's memory.
You have to walk around the stone pillar in front of him. It's pretty daft.
I'm available from around 18/19 Oslo time, depending on when I get home. I also want to fit in a little 13 if Lex is up for it
Flintlock
Pro Adventurer
- Did you only bother searching for the Lunar Harp in Bone Village, or did you get any other items? If so, what where they, and how long did it take you?
- Did you have any trouble with Jenova LIFE? It's impossible to lose if you have the Water Ring equipped, but of course, you might not know that if it's your first playthrough...
- What did you make of the events of this chapter? It contains one of the most famous and memorable moments in the whole game, and probably the whole Final Fantasy series. Share your thoughts on it in as much detail as you like. I'm only asking three questions for this chapter rather than the usual five because this one demands a little more detail.
I gave Cloud the Water Ring for Jenova LIFE, so I couldn't lose. With Tifa and Cid dead, the Yoshiyuki was dealing awesome damage as usual, so the fight went down very smoothly and quickly. It's so disappointing that two of the four Jenova bosses can be rendered harmless with the right equipment. BIRTH usually presents the biggest challenge of the lot, I find, which is not how it should be.
I've never had a problem with Aeris's death. In fact, I think it's brilliant. Games need to surprise the player every now and then, and it was definitely a surprise the first time. I thought the sequence could have been executed better, though, as it has never made me feel particularly sad. I appreciate that it is a critical part of the game's story, though, particularly when
the party visits the Forgotten Capital later in the game with Bugenhagen and the Key to the Ancients, which reveals that Aeris managed to use the white materia before she was killed. The ending of the game is great too, when her face flashes up on the screen to let you know that she had been responsible for invoking the Lifestream. My assumption has always been that she wouldn't have been able to do that if still alive.
Lex
Administrator
I need to train myself to start typing up these chapter completion things as soon as I've done it, because I'm having to resort to a notepad document to get it all out here. This is where procrastination truly leaves you, with too much to do and almost nothing to show for what you have done 
I did everything you can do at that point (I think) including a bit of levelling in Mideel and building up the rest of the characters limit breaks as far as possible, which involved going to Mideel to get them to actually have limit breaks, then jumping back to the Mythril caves to farm enemies. Didn’t take too long.
I got omnislash before I went to Wutai, and I didn’t even find it that difficult or time consuming. The most challenging part IMO is getting enough GP, which isn’t actually that hard when you get better at the basketball minigame. It really helps if you turn off the sound and use a metronome. I think it took me around 45 minutes when I had the GP, and you really don’t need the ribbon although it helps. A decent enemy skill with a white cape equipped does the trick, with the counter attack materia equipped. I found that having Cloud with a limit bar around2/3 of the way full going in really helps, because this way you can use meteorain on whatever the last enemy is, which will kill it with the Yoshiyuki equipped as long as you didn’t roll weapon broken (this only happened once). With this setup you can kill most enemies with 1 or 2 hits and take out the groups with one Beta or Aqualung. I also went back and picked up 3 championship belts.
This allowed me to use omnislash against rapps, which is something I’ve been dying to do since the first time I faced him. I realised you can totally chop his balls off with magic hammer, but a one command kill is always enjoyable.
I ran away from the compulsory battle square fight, because the rewards are shit and not unique and I therefore find it to be a complete waste of time. I got Tifa for the date, and I did the play sequence “correctly” though I found it less amusing than I usually do – I’ve gotten used to the other character getting mad an hitting people.
I dislike Cait Sith. He’s only really useful for his early high magic and HP on a speed run, other than that I completely ignore him. I levelled his limit to Slots then dumped him back in the PHS standby, never to be used again (aside from that one sequence where you have to use him).
While it’s a bit scary to look at the first time, it’s a pretty linear path. The only thing I remember getting in the way of a few playthroughs my first times through is the part where you have to walk towards the screen (into the back of the gate that has a Turbo Ether at the front of it) to come down the stairs. I get through fine now though. I used the trick to pick up the Luck Plus materia.
I think a rock hit me in the rolling rock room for the first time in AGES. It bothers me that you have to get to the end of it then run back down to the middle, but meh. I went to rooms 4 and 5 to pick up the useful items there but ignored the rest. I usually do them all but I didn’t have the patience. I knew about the nail bat collection process but decided against it. Maybe I should have since it is a unique item .
I got rid of red dragon quite easily, picked up bahamut, then used…. Omnislash? On Demon’s Gate. I usually bring Tifa here for her reaction to the “Aerith’s star and Cloud’s star” blah blah-ness. But I told myself I would try to use characters I don’t normally use on this playthrough, so it was a bit strange to see Barret’s reaction… which is barely a reaction in itself. Although he has a good line of dialogue jumping down into the crater when Cloud goes all psycho.
In line with my trying not to use characters I always use, I forgot about this and continued the next chapter with Barret and Tifa… oops. Well, it seems appropriate actually, given the content of the next chapter.
Got the lunar harp. Didn’t bother with anything else, I find it kind of useless unless you miss crucial other items. JENOVA-Life went down easily enough.
Sad death scene is sad. The best part is having to fight the boss while Aerith’s theme plays, and a sad time is had by all. I actually don’t know what else to say here, except the Ancient city is one of my favourite locations in the game, for the music, the mysteriousness and the complete emptiness of the place. I find myself thinking about who lived where and what each building was for each time I’m there. Did they all live in the top part, or the part at the bottom of the crystalline staircase? Why can’t I go back down those stairs after the story events have occurred? Where does the little fish come from? Also, the entire place has a water theme which is cool.
Phew. I should be free to skype later for the next chapter.
- Learn the Magic Hammer and Death Force enemy skills in Wutai. Magic Hammer is used by Razor Weeds (grassy areas), and Death Force is used by Adamantaimais (beach areas), both of which you must manipulate.
- Do the Wutai sidequest. If you don't have Yuffie in your party, get her from a forest near Rocket Town, where she has a near-100% encounter rate. Then go to the western continent and head north, up the slope. You'll trigger a cut-scene to initiate the sidequest. It might seem irritating, but aside from one boss battle, it's really not too difficult. In fact, I've always found it to be a lot of fun, and a nice change. You'll get a lot of good items and gil along the way (or when it's done), and you'll open up the...
- ...Pagoda sidequest. You can do it now, but you might want to at least leave the fifth and final boss fight until after you've got the Highwind, so that you can learn Trine on all four Enemy Skill materias. There is nowhere else to get it in the game at that point, as the only other enemies that know it are Materia Keeper (boss) and Stilva (enemy in a one-time location). You might find the last boss too difficult now anyway, unless you know what's coming and are prepared accordingly. The other four can all be problematic if you haven't faced them before, but they are easily beatable with an normally levelled Yuffie.
- Get Kjata, a powerful but annoying summon. You will be visiting the area where you can pick it up - the Sleeping Forest, beyond Bone Village on the northern continent - in the course of the story very soon, but if you want to grab it now, you can.
- Speaking of Bone Village, you can dig up some items there. Not the Lunar Harp, which you'll be needing later, but you can get a Mop, for example, which would make a fine weapon for Cid in the Wutai sidequest.
- Level up in the Mideel area. If you take the Tiny Bronco to the north of the Temple of the Ancients, go around it and then head south when you can, you'll eventually be able to access the southern continent. You can't visit any locations there yet, but you can fight some fairly powerful monsters like Head Hunters, who are good for levelling up and learning new limit breaks.
- Visit the blacksmith to the east of Gongaga. When you get there, you'll have a conversation about the Keystone. Afterwards, you can talk to him again and he'll ask you for Mythril. If you got some from the sleeping man in the cave on the first continent (see chapter 9 for details), you can exchange it for the contents of either a big box or a little box. The big one contains a Gold Armlet - nothing special, considering you have been able to buy them since visiting Rocket Town and steal them since visiting Mt. Nibel - while the small one contains Great Gospel, Aeris's final limit break. If you want to teach it to her, now is the time.
- Fight another Fort Condor battle, if you want to.
- Catch up on anything you missed in the earlier parts of the game. If Lost Number was too difficult for you before, you might want to try again now so you can get Vincent to join your party. He can be pretty useful to have with you in Wutai. Or perhaps there are some Enemy Skills you skipped getting earlier.
- Visit the Gold Saucer, not just for the compulsory story (which is triggered by looking at the Keystone in Dio's gallery), but for everything there. There is a prize in the Speed Square which isn't available for much longer, and although you can still get them a little bit later, now is the most convenient time. You need over 5000 points to get it. Now is the first opportunity to get Omnislash, Cloud's final limit break, from the Battle Square, as well. It will be much easier to get it later - you'll need fewer points, and you'll also have access to a very handy accessory - but if you're already on his third limit level, you might want to get it now.
Questions:
- How many of the above things did you do?
- What did you make of Wutai - the town itself, and everything that happens there? There's a fairly well-known theory that Wutai and Shinra mirror Japan and the USA from the real world. How accurate would you say that is?
- How did you fare against Rapps, and what did you do to win the battle?
- How many of the rounds did you survive in the compulsory Battle Square fight? It doesn't matter if you die there, so you might as try to go as far as possible. After that, who did you date, and how did it all go?
- Cait Sith is my least favourite character of the main FFVII cast. What do you think of him, and who is your worst character and why?
I did everything you can do at that point (I think) including a bit of levelling in Mideel and building up the rest of the characters limit breaks as far as possible, which involved going to Mideel to get them to actually have limit breaks, then jumping back to the Mythril caves to farm enemies. Didn’t take too long.
I got omnislash before I went to Wutai, and I didn’t even find it that difficult or time consuming. The most challenging part IMO is getting enough GP, which isn’t actually that hard when you get better at the basketball minigame. It really helps if you turn off the sound and use a metronome. I think it took me around 45 minutes when I had the GP, and you really don’t need the ribbon although it helps. A decent enemy skill with a white cape equipped does the trick, with the counter attack materia equipped. I found that having Cloud with a limit bar around2/3 of the way full going in really helps, because this way you can use meteorain on whatever the last enemy is, which will kill it with the Yoshiyuki equipped as long as you didn’t roll weapon broken (this only happened once). With this setup you can kill most enemies with 1 or 2 hits and take out the groups with one Beta or Aqualung. I also went back and picked up 3 championship belts.
This allowed me to use omnislash against rapps, which is something I’ve been dying to do since the first time I faced him. I realised you can totally chop his balls off with magic hammer, but a one command kill is always enjoyable.
I ran away from the compulsory battle square fight, because the rewards are shit and not unique and I therefore find it to be a complete waste of time. I got Tifa for the date, and I did the play sequence “correctly” though I found it less amusing than I usually do – I’ve gotten used to the other character getting mad an hitting people.
I dislike Cait Sith. He’s only really useful for his early high magic and HP on a speed run, other than that I completely ignore him. I levelled his limit to Slots then dumped him back in the PHS standby, never to be used again (aside from that one sequence where you have to use him).
While it’s a bit scary to look at the first time, it’s a pretty linear path. The only thing I remember getting in the way of a few playthroughs my first times through is the part where you have to walk towards the screen (into the back of the gate that has a Turbo Ether at the front of it) to come down the stairs. I get through fine now though. I used the trick to pick up the Luck Plus materia.
I think a rock hit me in the rolling rock room for the first time in AGES. It bothers me that you have to get to the end of it then run back down to the middle, but meh. I went to rooms 4 and 5 to pick up the useful items there but ignored the rest. I usually do them all but I didn’t have the patience
. I knew about the nail bat collection process but decided against it. Maybe I should have since it is a unique item .I got rid of red dragon quite easily, picked up bahamut, then used…. Omnislash? On Demon’s Gate. I usually bring Tifa here for her reaction to the “Aerith’s star and Cloud’s star” blah blah-ness. But I told myself I would try to use characters I don’t normally use on this playthrough, so it was a bit strange to see Barret’s reaction… which is barely a reaction in itself. Although he has a good line of dialogue jumping down into the crater when Cloud goes all psycho.
In line with my trying not to use characters I always use, I forgot about this and continued the next chapter with Barret and Tifa… oops. Well, it seems appropriate actually, given the content of the next chapter.
Got the lunar harp. Didn’t bother with anything else, I find it kind of useless unless you miss crucial other items. JENOVA-Life went down easily enough.
Sad death scene is sad. The best part is having to fight the boss while Aerith’s theme plays, and a sad time is had by all. I actually don’t know what else to say here, except the Ancient city is one of my favourite locations in the game, for the music, the mysteriousness and the complete emptiness of the place. I find myself thinking about who lived where and what each building was for each time I’m there. Did they all live in the top part, or the part at the bottom of the crystalline staircase? Why can’t I go back down those stairs after the story events have occurred? Where does the little fish come from? Also, the entire place has a water theme which is cool.
Phew. I should be free to skype later for the next chapter.
Flintlock
Pro Adventurer
- The Icicle Inn seems like a nice enough place. There's a cozy inn and pub, a few houses with some people to talk to and items to pick up, and a weapons shop that sells expensive but powerful equipment. What did you get up to there?
- There's also one empty house in the village that contains some videos about the planet and Aeris's past. What did you make of them?
- How good are you at the snowboarding game? What was your time, if you can remember, and which path did you take? Note for first-time players: don't worry about getting balloons, they don't make a difference at this stage.
- The Great Glacier is a vast place, and the map you picked up isn't particularly useful, so it's easy to get lost and possibly pass out before you've visit everywhere you want to. What did you do there, and how many visits did it take?
- Share your choice of characters, their levels and set-ups at the target. If you know what's coming up at Gaea's Cliff and beyond, do you feel adequately prepared, or do you regret not picking up a certain item or materia earlier, for example?
I like watching the videos in Gast's house. The first time I found them, I was surprised that they were there, and I thought I had stumbled upon a great secret. They don't actually make all that much sense on their own, but they help fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle that is the rest of the story, so they're interesting. They also reveal more of Hojo's wicked ways.
I strongly dislike the snowboarding game. I bump into everything. My time was reasonable this time at 03:40, on the right-right path, but that's mainly because I did it in the race and thus had some recent practice. I think it's poorly designed, and I say that as a huge fan of other snowboarding games, like SSX (PS2) and Cool Boarders (PS1).
I got absolutely everything from the Great Glacier, but it took me two visits, and I passed out soon after getting the Safety Bit on the second attempt. I got about ten Elixirs by exploiting the glitch before I got bored of that as well. The Added Cut materia is the most important thing to get, really, and Circlets (stolen from Snow enemies) come in very useful as well.
Cloud
Level 42
Limit level 4, Omnislash
Weapon: Yoshiyuki
(Counter Attack) (Long Range)
Armour: Dragon Armlet
(Restore)=(HP Plus) (Steal)=(Enemy Skill) (Deathblow)=(Added Cut)
Accessory: Ribbon/Champion Belt (depending on who I'm fighting)
I feel completely ready for Gaea's Cliff and everything that happens afterwards, up until Cloud leaves the party. With only one character to worry about, I can put a solid combination of armour, accessories and materia on Cloud to make Schizo a walk in the park, while Jenova LIFE is always easy. I'm more worried about what will happen afterwards, when I have to use my other, underlevelled characters, but that will just be part of the fun
Flintlock
Pro Adventurer
Chapter 15: Only a failure made it here
21st - 25th May 2012
Skype and stream: Monday the 21st of May, some time in the evening
The explorer Holzoff has a cautionary tale to tell of the ferocious cliff face that lies to the north of his cabin. Rumour has it that the cliff was formed by something falling from the sky a long time ago - sound familiar? The only way is up, but it's a tortuous and bitterly cold climb, and once Cloud and the others reach the top, it's straight back down the other side, into the Whirlwind Maze and... the Promised Land? It's time for a meeting of great powers: Sephiroth, Cloud, Shinra, and the planet's very own guardians.
Our target is Junon, when you have control of Barret for the first time. Picture below. Actually, I noticed something when taking this screenshot. Although Barret's arms are normally tied, when you touch the save point, they suddenly become untied...
Questions:
21st - 25th May 2012
Skype and stream: Monday the 21st of May, some time in the evening
The explorer Holzoff has a cautionary tale to tell of the ferocious cliff face that lies to the north of his cabin. Rumour has it that the cliff was formed by something falling from the sky a long time ago - sound familiar? The only way is up, but it's a tortuous and bitterly cold climb, and once Cloud and the others reach the top, it's straight back down the other side, into the Whirlwind Maze and... the Promised Land? It's time for a meeting of great powers: Sephiroth, Cloud, Shinra, and the planet's very own guardians.
Our target is Junon, when you have control of Barret for the first time. Picture below. Actually, I noticed something when taking this screenshot. Although Barret's arms are normally tied, when you touch the save point, they suddenly become untied...
Questions:
- Gaea's Cliff is one of the more difficult areas in the game to get through. As well as being a large and complex place that requires some backtracking, it has tough enemies like Stilva and Malboro, and a tough boss in the form of Schizo. How did you get on? Did you learn the enemy skills that the two aforementioned monsters know?
- How good are you at getting through the Whirlwind Maze without being hit by the wind/energy/lightning? Or did you deliberately get hit so you could fight some Wind Wings, who know the White Wind enemy skill?
- How did your fight with Jenova DEATH go, and what did you make of all the scenes before and after it? Specifically, Sephiroth showing Cloud the events of Nibelheim and making him question who he is - something Hojo also mentions.
- The FMV near the end of this chapter, of WEAPON waking up, is ranked by most fans as one of the best in the game. What do you think of it, and what's your personal favourite FMV, if not that? And how do you think the videos of VII compare to other games in the series?
- After that scene, the Cloud-less party escapes with Rufus and the other Shinra executives on the Highwind airship. Cast your mind back to the first time you played VII (or maybe this is your first time) - did you believe Shinra and the party would maintain some level of cooperation in the face of their common enemies - Sephiroth, WEAPON, and now, Meteor? Do you think they should have done?
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Lex
Administrator
Got the enemy skills (Magic Breath and Bad Breath) as well as learning Trine on the other two enemy skill materia... woo. Schizo was a pushover, as usual.
Managed to get through the maze part without getting hit once. I seem to have varying luck with this. I remember during the race getting hit so many times it was incredibly frustrating.
As I mentioned on Skype, the only thing I notice these days when playing through that scene is how awkward the line where Cloud says "What you're trying to say is that you're trying to confuse me, right?" after saying something completely different beforehand. Irritates me for some strange reason. This part also contains that awesome moment where we realise Tifa has been naughty.
Regarding the FMV, boing boing.
I always thought that might be a turning point for the whole Rufus vs. the heroes dynamic in the story, but then he's all "we're going to execute you" which is disappoint.
ONWARD TO THE NEXT CHAPTER!
Flintlock
Pro Adventurer
Chapter 15
I grabbed both Breaths, Magic and Bad. Learning Magic Breath went perfectly - Stilva opened with it, I replied with a Deathblow which killed him in one hit. Bad Breath took two battles because Counter Attack dispatched the first Malboro before it used the skill. Speaking of enemy skills, I also learnt White Wind in this chapter from a Wind Wing, the first time I had ever done that. It was the only place in the game to get it in this challenge, because of the problem with manipulating Zemzeletts I described in a previous chapter. It was quite tricky to do. Wind Wings can't be manipulated, so they have to be confused. But before I could cast confu, I had to take some HP off so it would actually use White Wind. I found that if I took less than 50% of its HP off, it would use White Wind before I confused it on the next turn and therefore it would be back to full health again. Eventually I realised I could use Lvl 4 Suicide on it, which meant that even multiple castings of White Wind wouldn't bring it back to 100%. After that, confu missed about 50% of the time, and then the dragon cast the spell on itself more often than not, which also cured its confuse and meant I had to try again. I was very relieved when I finally got it, because now my enemy skill materia finally contains a restorative skill, meaning I don't have to keep a restore materia equipped the whole time.
The rest of the Great Glacier went by very quickly and easily. Against Schizo, Cloud absorbed fire, nullified ice, and halved lightning and earth, so I didn't need to cure even once in the battle. I used Omnislash and then regular attacks (not Deathblow-Added Cut because my linked materia slots were all taken already). Jenova DEATH was even easier - like I said, very disappointing.
I never have any trouble with the first two parts of the Whirlwind Maze, but the third one usually takes me a couple of tries because I find it too difficult to think about the timing of the lightning as well as the other two obstacles. I just chance it when the wind is down and there's no energy thing.
I really, really like the scenes after the Jenova fight. They reveal a lot, but not quite the full story, as there's still something to come later. I've always wondered why Tifa keeps schtum the whole time, but from a narrative perspective, at least it keeps the player in the dark, and that makes sense, considering Cloud doesn't know the truth either. I also love the "real Sephiroth" scenes - pretty much everything with the Reunion music playing, which is one of my favourite tracks in the whole game. The following FMV is definitely my favourite. There aren't that many where all the characters are fully rendered, which is one reason why I think it sticks out. Also boobs.
The first time I played, I really was expecting at least a temporary Shinra-AVALANCHE (if we can call them that) alliance. I think it would have been really interesting, though I can understand why they didn't go with it - it would have been a little out of character for Rufus, for one. Actually, his decision to execute the party is a defining moment for his character. All the stuff he said at the northern crater made him seem fairly likeable, but then he shows his cold, ruthless side again.
I grabbed both Breaths, Magic and Bad. Learning Magic Breath went perfectly - Stilva opened with it, I replied with a Deathblow which killed him in one hit. Bad Breath took two battles because Counter Attack dispatched the first Malboro before it used the skill. Speaking of enemy skills, I also learnt White Wind in this chapter from a Wind Wing, the first time I had ever done that. It was the only place in the game to get it in this challenge, because of the problem with manipulating Zemzeletts I described in a previous chapter. It was quite tricky to do. Wind Wings can't be manipulated, so they have to be confused. But before I could cast confu, I had to take some HP off so it would actually use White Wind. I found that if I took less than 50% of its HP off, it would use White Wind before I confused it on the next turn and therefore it would be back to full health again. Eventually I realised I could use Lvl 4 Suicide on it, which meant that even multiple castings of White Wind wouldn't bring it back to 100%. After that, confu missed about 50% of the time, and then the dragon cast the spell on itself more often than not, which also cured its confuse and meant I had to try again. I was very relieved when I finally got it, because now my enemy skill materia finally contains a restorative skill, meaning I don't have to keep a restore materia equipped the whole time.
The rest of the Great Glacier went by very quickly and easily. Against Schizo, Cloud absorbed fire, nullified ice, and halved lightning and earth, so I didn't need to cure even once in the battle. I used Omnislash and then regular attacks (not Deathblow-Added Cut because my linked materia slots were all taken already). Jenova DEATH was even easier - like I said, very disappointing.
I never have any trouble with the first two parts of the Whirlwind Maze, but the third one usually takes me a couple of tries because I find it too difficult to think about the timing of the lightning as well as the other two obstacles. I just chance it when the wind is down and there's no energy thing.
I really, really like the scenes after the Jenova fight. They reveal a lot, but not quite the full story, as there's still something to come later. I've always wondered why Tifa keeps schtum the whole time, but from a narrative perspective, at least it keeps the player in the dark, and that makes sense, considering Cloud doesn't know the truth either. I also love the "real Sephiroth" scenes - pretty much everything with the Reunion music playing, which is one of my favourite tracks in the whole game. The following FMV is definitely my favourite. There aren't that many where all the characters are fully rendered, which is one reason why I think it sticks out. Also boobs.
The first time I played, I really was expecting at least a temporary Shinra-AVALANCHE (if we can call them that) alliance. I think it would have been really interesting, though I can understand why they didn't go with it - it would have been a little out of character for Rufus, for one. Actually, his decision to execute the party is a defining moment for his character. All the stuff he said at the northern crater made him seem fairly likeable, but then he shows his cold, ruthless side again.
Sprites
Waiting for something
- AKA
- Gems
Oh my goodness it’s been a long time since I updated but here finally is my Chapter 11 summary and I’ve done a hell of a lot of stuff in between that time…7/8 hours worth of stuff to be honest including mastering several materia, pretty much everyone’s Fire, Ice and Lightning materia are mastered, with the remaining magic ones I have equipped and several All materia close to being mastered too.
First things first I grabbed Magic Hammer along the Wutai area and then went cruising about in the Tiny Bronco to go and get Great Gospel, and then grab some Diamond Bangles and Kjata materia from Bone Village. After that I spent a lot of time levelling around the Mideel area with double growth weapons mostly to get materia levelled and not to level up my characters as they’re already highly levelled.
The Wutai sidequest: Well I happen to be one of these people who’s a wee bit OCD and meticulous about her characters keeping the same materia they’ve had so far, so how do I do that for the Wutai sidequest? Well that meant spending about 10 minutes writing down on some paper the materia and the AP each one has earned for each character equipped with, that way when Yuffie mixes it all up later I can re-equip my characters with their exact materia, a little odd I know but I like my stuff kept organised. Now as I happened to have a few mastered materia I equipped some characters not the in party with a few of the “new-born” materia to save some space which they were left with after Yuffie nicking most of it, but I ended up not using them as my characters attacks were doing higher damage than level one spells and Swift Bolts and Fire Veils are very handy. I also bought a bunch of these to help me in the Gold Saucer battle arena later when I was locked out of magic materia.
For my party I kept Aerith but decided to choose Cid as my extra member and I love the journey to the actual town as it’s a great place to farm for X-Potions. I love the town itself and yeah it does have that resort feel to it, but it’s also quite a traditional seeming place, if I could visit a place in FFVII I think I’d really like to visit Wutai. I have a feeling I’ve missed a Turtle’s Paradise flyer somewhere though because when I talked to the guy at the bar I didn’t get my prizes so I think I’ll have to retrace my steps to Cosmo Canyon to see if I missed one of the flyers there.
The Rapps fight was incredibly easy, again this was one of those battles where I was lucky to have every character on a Limit Break, so there was a Great Gospel from Aerith so that I’d quite happily end that battle without any damage. A Jump Boost from Cid and a Meteorain from Cloud and he was gone like that. After that battle I rearranged my materia and bought some new weapons from the shop there and grabbed the HP Absorb materia, saved my game and then headed back to do Yuffie’s sidequest. I shuffled my materia around a bit and had no problems defeating the 5 Padoga bosses. I know that Godo is one of the only sources of Trine but I already have 2 Enemy Skills with it equipped and I can get it with the third one at the Northern Crater., whilst the fourth available Enemy skill materia I just won’t be using at all. So I gave Yuffie her All Creation Limit, equipped her with Leviathan materia and we’re good to go.
I decided like Lex and Flint that I too was gonna try and go for Omnislash on disc one (for the first time on a playthrough) before going to Temple of the Ancients. This meant spending about 2 hours getting GP from Gold Saucer playing the basketball game which I sucked at, at most I was getting 6 dunks in a row and then messing up, but after a couple of hours I had 255GP, which seemed like enough to be on the safe side considering Omnislash costs around 51200BP to get around this point, it also meant I had 5GP to save at the station and then 250GP to spend on battles so if anything went wrong I could easily reset the game and be close to the battle arena.
It took me a couple of frustrating tries and different switches of materia combos to feel comfortable and confident enough to take on the enemies without worrying to much about loosing with the handicaps added. There were a couple of really good runs where I got stuff like ½ hp and ½ mp constantly and broken materia or weapons which netted me about 11000BP but then there were the bad luck ones where I was petrified at one point on the third battle and at another point I kept receiving cure slots and lucky 7 slots (no handicaps) about 3 times in a row and on the last slot meaning I only received about 120BP for one round. But it finally paid off and after using 100 odd GP I’m now the proud owner of Omnislash on disc 1 before heading to Temple of the Ancients.
After that I went on ahead and did the compulsory battle and went all the way, I reset once because I messed it up and wanted the extra accessories without having to buy the Choco Feather later and to have it added early enough to my inventory.
My date is always Aerith, doesn’t surprise me as she’s always in my party and I like her so I’m always happy to get her and I don’t like to mess the date up so I chose the correct options. Cait Sith is a character I’m not a major fan of just in general and Vincent too, they’re never in my party and I avoid using them as often as possible, I know I could easily just not get Vincent in the basement but for story purposes I always recruit him. Anyways off to finally start chapter 12 I go, stats as usual are below
First things first I grabbed Magic Hammer along the Wutai area and then went cruising about in the Tiny Bronco to go and get Great Gospel, and then grab some Diamond Bangles and Kjata materia from Bone Village. After that I spent a lot of time levelling around the Mideel area with double growth weapons mostly to get materia levelled and not to level up my characters as they’re already highly levelled.
The Wutai sidequest: Well I happen to be one of these people who’s a wee bit OCD and meticulous about her characters keeping the same materia they’ve had so far, so how do I do that for the Wutai sidequest? Well that meant spending about 10 minutes writing down on some paper the materia and the AP each one has earned for each character equipped with, that way when Yuffie mixes it all up later I can re-equip my characters with their exact materia, a little odd I know but I like my stuff kept organised. Now as I happened to have a few mastered materia I equipped some characters not the in party with a few of the “new-born” materia to save some space which they were left with after Yuffie nicking most of it, but I ended up not using them as my characters attacks were doing higher damage than level one spells and Swift Bolts and Fire Veils are very handy. I also bought a bunch of these to help me in the Gold Saucer battle arena later when I was locked out of magic materia.
For my party I kept Aerith but decided to choose Cid as my extra member and I love the journey to the actual town as it’s a great place to farm for X-Potions. I love the town itself and yeah it does have that resort feel to it, but it’s also quite a traditional seeming place, if I could visit a place in FFVII I think I’d really like to visit Wutai. I have a feeling I’ve missed a Turtle’s Paradise flyer somewhere though because when I talked to the guy at the bar I didn’t get my prizes so I think I’ll have to retrace my steps to Cosmo Canyon to see if I missed one of the flyers there.
The Rapps fight was incredibly easy, again this was one of those battles where I was lucky to have every character on a Limit Break, so there was a Great Gospel from Aerith so that I’d quite happily end that battle without any damage. A Jump Boost from Cid and a Meteorain from Cloud and he was gone like that. After that battle I rearranged my materia and bought some new weapons from the shop there and grabbed the HP Absorb materia, saved my game and then headed back to do Yuffie’s sidequest. I shuffled my materia around a bit and had no problems defeating the 5 Padoga bosses. I know that Godo is one of the only sources of Trine but I already have 2 Enemy Skills with it equipped and I can get it with the third one at the Northern Crater., whilst the fourth available Enemy skill materia I just won’t be using at all. So I gave Yuffie her All Creation Limit, equipped her with Leviathan materia and we’re good to go.
I decided like Lex and Flint that I too was gonna try and go for Omnislash on disc one (for the first time on a playthrough) before going to Temple of the Ancients. This meant spending about 2 hours getting GP from Gold Saucer playing the basketball game which I sucked at, at most I was getting 6 dunks in a row and then messing up, but after a couple of hours I had 255GP, which seemed like enough to be on the safe side considering Omnislash costs around 51200BP to get around this point, it also meant I had 5GP to save at the station and then 250GP to spend on battles so if anything went wrong I could easily reset the game and be close to the battle arena.
It took me a couple of frustrating tries and different switches of materia combos to feel comfortable and confident enough to take on the enemies without worrying to much about loosing with the handicaps added. There were a couple of really good runs where I got stuff like ½ hp and ½ mp constantly and broken materia or weapons which netted me about 11000BP but then there were the bad luck ones where I was petrified at one point on the third battle and at another point I kept receiving cure slots and lucky 7 slots (no handicaps) about 3 times in a row and on the last slot meaning I only received about 120BP for one round. But it finally paid off and after using 100 odd GP I’m now the proud owner of Omnislash on disc 1 before heading to Temple of the Ancients.
After that I went on ahead and did the compulsory battle and went all the way, I reset once because I messed it up and wanted the extra accessories without having to buy the Choco Feather later and to have it added early enough to my inventory.
My date is always Aerith, doesn’t surprise me as she’s always in my party and I like her so I’m always happy to get her and I don’t like to mess the date up so I chose the correct options. Cait Sith is a character I’m not a major fan of just in general and Vincent too, they’re never in my party and I avoid using them as often as possible, I know I could easily just not get Vincent in the basement but for story purposes I always recruit him. Anyways off to finally start chapter 12 I go, stats as usual are below
Cloud: Level 49
Murasame: Poison+All, HP+, MP+ *Enemy Skill
Diamond Bangle: Lightning+All, Ice, Kjata, Deathblow
Accessory: Peace Ring
*Enemy Skills: Frog Song, L4 Suicide, White Wind, Big Guard, Death Force, Flame Thrower, Laser, Matra Magic, Beta, Aqualung, Trine, ????, Death Sentence, Magic Hammer
Limit Level 4: OMNISLASH!!!
Aerith: Level 49
Aurora Rod: Heal, Restore, HP+, MP+ Odin
Diamond Bangle: *Enemy Skill, Lightning, Fire+All
Accessory: Jem Ring
*Enemy Skills: Frog Song, L4 Suicide, White Wind, Big Guard, Death Force, Flame Thrower, Laser, Matra Magic, Beta, Aqualung, Trine, ????, Death Sentence, Magic Hammer
Limit Level 4: GREAT GOSPEL!!!
Yuffie: Level 47
Razor Ring: Destruct+All, HP+, MP+, Leviathan
Diamond Bangle: Earth+All, Fire, Ice, Manipulate
Accessory: Fairy Ring
Limit Level 4: ALL CREATION!!!
Time Clocked: 29hrs32mins
Gil Remaining: 105868
Murasame: Poison+All, HP+, MP+ *Enemy Skill
Diamond Bangle: Lightning+All, Ice, Kjata, Deathblow
Accessory: Peace Ring
*Enemy Skills: Frog Song, L4 Suicide, White Wind, Big Guard, Death Force, Flame Thrower, Laser, Matra Magic, Beta, Aqualung, Trine, ????, Death Sentence, Magic Hammer
Limit Level 4: OMNISLASH!!!
Aerith: Level 49
Aurora Rod: Heal, Restore, HP+, MP+ Odin
Diamond Bangle: *Enemy Skill, Lightning, Fire+All
Accessory: Jem Ring
*Enemy Skills: Frog Song, L4 Suicide, White Wind, Big Guard, Death Force, Flame Thrower, Laser, Matra Magic, Beta, Aqualung, Trine, ????, Death Sentence, Magic Hammer
Limit Level 4: GREAT GOSPEL!!!
Yuffie: Level 47
Razor Ring: Destruct+All, HP+, MP+, Leviathan
Diamond Bangle: Earth+All, Fire, Ice, Manipulate
Accessory: Fairy Ring
Limit Level 4: ALL CREATION!!!
Time Clocked: 29hrs32mins
Gil Remaining: 105868
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Sprites
Waiting for something
- AKA
- Gems
Double Post as I managed to get the next two chapters done incredibly quickly
So this is going to be a double chapter because it’s so short, so here’s chapter 12&13 combined. It’s so short because it was just a straight run through because I didn’t really need to do any side quests as I did everything during the last playthrough so here we go.
The maze was really easy, I’ve gone through it so many times that I do know it off by heart and usually have no trouble picking up all the items. I did pick up all the items and the rolling rock room is essentially all about timing so once you figure out the timing then you can get through it pretty quickly. I like the clock room and always fall off to get the Nail Bat, I like the extra fight and to add it to the inventory.
Red Dragon was easy enough but Demon’s gate was difficult enough just because of its high defence, it didn’t come close to killing off any of my characters but it was a long battle, I did get Great Gospel during it but that was about it and even that didn’t last long enough.
The first time I ever saw Cloud freaking out in Temple of the Ancients I thought it was really confusing because until then Cloud always seemed quite calm and collected so to see him freaking out and the double versions of him was quite confusing but that’s what I love about it because as a player you’re kept in the dark pretty much in the same way as most of the party is about Cloud. I also couldn’t believe it when he beat up Aerith, it just didn’t make sense even with him freaking out so much I never got that as a point that he’d attack Aerith like that, just goes to show how much of a mental struggle he was going through.
For my New party I decided to keep Yuffie and add Tifa in there as there is a specific part of the Northern Crater where you have to keep her so I may as well get her levelled and a bit more experience. She’s been given all of Aerith’s materia and equipped with the same accessories and it shouldn’t take her too long to catch up on the levels.
I never search for extra items the first time going through Bone Village as I’d rather just get the Lunar Harp and go forward, it did however take me 2 attempts to get the location correct. Jenova LIFE wasn’t hard at all and I didn’t even equip the Water Ring, the only thing that did take a while was waiting for her to use Aqualung for my third enemy skill materia which I finally gave to Yuffie, but apart from that there’s been no bother.
The events of this chapter are one of the most emotional I’ve ever experienced in an FFgame, Aerith’s death and Zack’s in CC are the only two FF scenes that have ever made me cry and yes I happily admit that. Aerith is one of my favourite characters in the game and always has been so for me it’s always quite a loss when she’s gone and I never feel the same about using another character and every game I start she’ll always be in my main party until the inevitable.
Apart from that, there’s not much else for me to talk about so here are my character stats with the addition of my new party member Tifa.
So this is going to be a double chapter because it’s so short, so here’s chapter 12&13 combined. It’s so short because it was just a straight run through because I didn’t really need to do any side quests as I did everything during the last playthrough so here we go.
The maze was really easy, I’ve gone through it so many times that I do know it off by heart and usually have no trouble picking up all the items. I did pick up all the items and the rolling rock room is essentially all about timing so once you figure out the timing then you can get through it pretty quickly. I like the clock room and always fall off to get the Nail Bat, I like the extra fight and to add it to the inventory.
Red Dragon was easy enough but Demon’s gate was difficult enough just because of its high defence, it didn’t come close to killing off any of my characters but it was a long battle, I did get Great Gospel during it but that was about it and even that didn’t last long enough.
The first time I ever saw Cloud freaking out in Temple of the Ancients I thought it was really confusing because until then Cloud always seemed quite calm and collected so to see him freaking out and the double versions of him was quite confusing but that’s what I love about it because as a player you’re kept in the dark pretty much in the same way as most of the party is about Cloud. I also couldn’t believe it when he beat up Aerith, it just didn’t make sense even with him freaking out so much I never got that as a point that he’d attack Aerith like that, just goes to show how much of a mental struggle he was going through.
For my New party I decided to keep Yuffie and add Tifa in there as there is a specific part of the Northern Crater where you have to keep her so I may as well get her levelled and a bit more experience. She’s been given all of Aerith’s materia and equipped with the same accessories and it shouldn’t take her too long to catch up on the levels.
I never search for extra items the first time going through Bone Village as I’d rather just get the Lunar Harp and go forward, it did however take me 2 attempts to get the location correct. Jenova LIFE wasn’t hard at all and I didn’t even equip the Water Ring, the only thing that did take a while was waiting for her to use Aqualung for my third enemy skill materia which I finally gave to Yuffie, but apart from that there’s been no bother.
The events of this chapter are one of the most emotional I’ve ever experienced in an FFgame, Aerith’s death and Zack’s in CC are the only two FF scenes that have ever made me cry and yes I happily admit that. Aerith is one of my favourite characters in the game and always has been so for me it’s always quite a loss when she’s gone and I never feel the same about using another character and every game I start she’ll always be in my main party until the inevitable.
Apart from that, there’s not much else for me to talk about so here are my character stats with the addition of my new party member Tifa.
Cloud: Level 51
Murasame: Poison+All, HP+, MP+ *Enemy Skill
Dragon Armlet: Lightning+All, Ice, Kjata, Deathblow
Accessory: Ribbon
*Enemy Skills: Frog Song, L4 Suicide, White Wind, Big Guard, Death Force, Flame Thrower, Laser, Matra Magic, Beta, Aqualung, Trine, ????, Death Sentence, Magic Hammer
Limit Level 4: OMNISLASH!
Tifa: Level 42
Diamond Knuckle: Restore+All, HP+, MP+, *Enemy Skill
Aurora Armlet: *Lightning, Fire, Odin, Heal
Accessory: Peace Ring
*Enemy Skills: Frog Song, L4 Suicide, White Wind, Big Guard, Death Force, Flame Thrower, Laser, Matra Magic, Beta, Aqualung, Trine, ????, Death Sentence, Magic Hammer
Limit Level 3: Dolphin Blow
Yuffie: Level 49
Razor Ring: Destruct+All, HP+, MP+, Leviathan
Diamond Bangle: Earth+All, Fire, Ice, *Enemy Skill
Accessory: Jem Ring
*Enemy Skills: Aqualung
Limit Level 4: ALL CREATION!!!
Time Clocked: 31hrs5mins
Gil Remaining: 115008
Murasame: Poison+All, HP+, MP+ *Enemy Skill
Dragon Armlet: Lightning+All, Ice, Kjata, Deathblow
Accessory: Ribbon
*Enemy Skills: Frog Song, L4 Suicide, White Wind, Big Guard, Death Force, Flame Thrower, Laser, Matra Magic, Beta, Aqualung, Trine, ????, Death Sentence, Magic Hammer
Limit Level 4: OMNISLASH!
Tifa: Level 42
Diamond Knuckle: Restore+All, HP+, MP+, *Enemy Skill
Aurora Armlet: *Lightning, Fire, Odin, Heal
Accessory: Peace Ring
*Enemy Skills: Frog Song, L4 Suicide, White Wind, Big Guard, Death Force, Flame Thrower, Laser, Matra Magic, Beta, Aqualung, Trine, ????, Death Sentence, Magic Hammer
Limit Level 3: Dolphin Blow
Yuffie: Level 49
Razor Ring: Destruct+All, HP+, MP+, Leviathan
Diamond Bangle: Earth+All, Fire, Ice, *Enemy Skill
Accessory: Jem Ring
*Enemy Skills: Aqualung
Limit Level 4: ALL CREATION!!!
Time Clocked: 31hrs5mins
Gil Remaining: 115008
Flintlock
Pro Adventurer
Chapter 16: Quit slapping me, you old wench
25th - 28th May 2012 (notionally)
Skype and stream: Monday the 28th of May, 19:00 UTC
The target for this chapter is outside Mount Corel, before going inside, but after visiting Mideel. It's quite a short chapter on paper, but this is the first time you have access to the Highwind, so you can start doing a few side-quests.
Picture:
Questions:
25th - 28th May 2012 (notionally)
Skype and stream: Monday the 28th of May, 19:00 UTC
The target for this chapter is outside Mount Corel, before going inside, but after visiting Mideel. It's quite a short chapter on paper, but this is the first time you have access to the Highwind, so you can start doing a few side-quests.
Picture:
Questions:
- Apart from Hundred and Heli Gunner, Junon is the first time in the game that you have to fight without Cloud in your party. It can feel pretty tough if you haven't been levelling Barret, Cait Sith and Yuffie (if you got her in the first place). How did you manage? More generally, if VII was one of the Final Fantasies that lets you switch the party leader out of the battle party, would you still use Cloud a lot?
- You get access to the Highwind in this chapter. Obtaining an airship is an important moment in all Final Fantasy games, for the freedom it gives you and the sidequests it opens up (though VII has comparatively few sidequests available at this stage). How do you think the Highwind compares to other airships from across the series, and what did you get up to with it at this stage? For example: there are some new items to pick up at various places around the world, and many shops have new items, while this is also your first opportunity to raise Chocobos. You can also get the fourth Enemy Skill materia now and, by utilising a glitch, you can get the Quadra Magic materia without having to breed a blue Chocobo.
- Mideel has a lot of new items to buy, but they come with hefty price tags. There are a couple of things you can get for free - the Contain materia and the Curse Ring accessory - but only if you know how. What did you get?
- Were you surprised by Tifa's decision to leave the party, particularly so soon after Cloud left? And do you think Cid was the correct choice to be the stand-in party leader, or would you have given the role to someone else? How do you think all the different characters would have performed?
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