So, we go on our motorcycle chase, which is pretty cool. I keep expecting Roche to show up, weirdly enough he doesn't. At one point a bridge falls on us and the Ghosts have to save us. We're not even giving the leads the escape from the Shinra building unassisted, are we?
I die five separate times to the MOTOR ball, I think I keep mixing up accelerate and brake again. Eventually we come to the end of the line, and Sephiroth shows up to say hello and taunt us into following him into a swirling vortex, as the Whispers of Fate emerge.
I... feel like we're rushing into this decision a bit. Accordingly, I run in without returning to the vending machine, and belatedly realise that I have only two ethers. Crap. That means I have to do a lot less magical healing than normal, and I make it as far as Bahamut before losing out. I actually come close to beating him, but can't keep up healing well enough when his health gets low.
Before then, we meet three Whispers of Fate... one that fights by hand, one with a sword and one with a gun... fighting against Cloud, Tifa, and Barret. They're 'fighting to protect the future that created them'.
Wait. Waitwaitwait. Am I killing the future incarnations of ourselves from an alternate timeline? If so, that's, uh, maybe not the best plan?
Are we sure defying fate is a good idea, here, guys?
Second time around, I stock up properly, but I still don't have enough materia for everyone, which makes the switching back and forth thing tricky.
Our three Whispers are easy enough, Bahamut deals a lot of damage, but properly stocked I can deal with him. I summon Fat Chocobo here to play to my audience. He doesn't appear to do that much.
Then we move on to Sephiroth, who has been waiting.
I'm suspicious of this. If Aeris has knowledge of this, then Sephy probably does too, and he would want to change his own fate as well. Eventually, we ...beat him, and he takes Cloud to look at the exploding universe and gives him seven seconds to act.
I'm not really sure what happens next. Somehow Zack's alive...maybe? And the Whispers swarm the Shinra building for some reason.
So, we defeated the Arbiters of Fate, and so are now free to alter the timeline... but so is Sephy. We sacrificed the eventual happy ending in the hope of finding a better outcome, but we also sacrificed Sephiroth's sure defeat. It's all up in the air now, we don't know what happens next.
Huh. Okay. Interesting. I'm not sure I fully understand what just happened, but honestly, if you are reading an 'altering the timeline' story and you properly understand it first time through it's probably been written wrong.
I'm caught a little off guard by the ending because I somehow convinced myself this game had 24 chapters. Well done me for successfully managing doublethink in an effort to avoid spoilers.
Chapter by chapter mode is now unlocked, except I can't really think of anything I want to go back for. I've done nearly all the quests (missed one in sector 7) and don't care enough to try and look at all the different dresses.
I'm going to save my final thoughts for elsewhere for now.
Edit: Humiliating Death Count stands at an embarrassing 18 unless I'm counting wrong.
