So, we wake up in Aeris' old quarters and hear from Wedge about how HQ is sending a chopper...to the President's private landing pad. I foresee problems with this plan. Apparently they're on board because Wedge asked really really nicely (and somehow wandered into the Shinra building unscathed.)
If Rufus is secretly behind this, I swear...
Although AVALANCHE obviously wouldn't want the last Cetra in Shinra hands, so maybe they're really on board.
So we head through the lab and meet Sephiroth, who talks his usual spiel. It's interesting, because if Aeris knows about the script, then Sephy probably does too, and he would also be on board with changing fate. Are we sure fighting fate is such a good idea?
Anyway, Cloud attacks, and he tosses them all into Hojo's secret dungeon. We find out that Hojo ships Aeriseph and he challenges us to navigate his dungeon.
I'm not really sure why they play along, as there's no particular reason to believe Hojo will actually let them out when they're done, and he has a vested interest in keeping Aeris contained, but we are forced to do a bunch of switch pulling and monster fighting. Other than AVALANCHE awesomeness, I'm not sure what these tests are supposed to achieve, but anyway, they're tough.
It all goes well at first, then my AerTi team dies to a bunch of bloodhounds twice, before I win through. My Cloret team then dies to the teleporting hammer thingies, and then very narrowly survives the Brain Pods, and I believe I lose another AerTi team to Zenenes.
I don't have enough materia to go around, so I have to keep swapping around Aeris and Barret's setups. Eventually, we get to the Swordipede, and my Cloret team wins, but then we switch to AerTi who are not set up for battle properly, and I lose them three separate times before finally getting the hang of things.
For those keeping track, the humiliating death count stands at 13, assuming I haven't lost count.
Eventually Hojo lets us out because he's secretly a shipper, and we head up to the Presidential lounge, where President Shinra is hanging off the side of the building with impressive arm strength. I guess we still can't give Shinra staff any dignity unless they're Turks.
Barret hauls him up, and he gives an interesting speech about how Barret really just want to clear their names rather than shut down the reactors, apparently feeling that having a gun keeps him safe from the terrorists that have carved a path through his security. Sephiroth gets bored and stabs him in the back, and the Fanbase ghosts show up to yell at him for going off script. But he is not interested, and kills Barret, forcing the ghosts to heal him after an admittedly very cool Jenova battle, where we are left to wonder if Barret is really dead.
Then Rufus arrives, and there is a... battle with Cloud, complete with another unnecessary shot at the infantry who flinch when Rufus doesn't. The whole thing plays up Rufus badassery at every turn, which is so over the top it's ridiculous, but still annoying. He's also wearing a dress now for some reason? Not that that's a problem, it's just a bit unexpected.
. Because our leads aren't allowed any real victories, Rufus badassily flies away while his chopper shoots Cloud off the building, forcing Tifa to rush in and save him.
Remember how people were saying it made more sense for President Shinra to show up in hologram in Reactor 5 rather than in person? This is even more insanely dumb, and they played it up instead of down.
...Sigh.
Anywho, Aeris, Barret, and Red have to fend off a machine in an annoying battle where you have to do a lot of hiding and sniping with magic. I win, but it's a long slog.
Wedge fights the ghosts, who are upset that he's alive and appear to throw him off the building, which is...weirdly played for comedy? Okay...
In the lobby, we end up surrounded by infantry and Heidegger in person, leading to more slapsticky infantry antics as Cloud takes them out, and once Heidi is alone and undefended AVALANCHE decides it's too dangerous to stick around and flees.
That was a weird chapter. Most of it is taken up by Hojo's quite difficult gauntlet, and then suddenly all the plot is crammed in at the end, with a bunch of gratuitous Rufus badassery that makes no sense and undermines every other character. There's a quite interesting story about fate underneath it, but it's sidelined in favour of gratuitous Rufus badassery.
I'm sorry about the tone of this one, it's just... what's going on with these writing choices? I'm confused.
The first time I used Banish against the spider daemon I was like "This is awesome"
