Shademp's "Dirge of Cerberus" Stream

[Arianna]

Being overwhelmed by my lack of passion for this restream, I had to cancel it early. I only streamed a playthrough of Chapter 1.

I am terribly sorry for disappointing you guys. Tres set his alarm clock in vain and Mage will probably rage now. But I couldn't allow myself to stream without the appropriate amount of passion. I could barely get myself to talk today when I first began.

This is me with my visual arts and writing... Probably hence my lack of gaining much skill and moving upwards in the those arenas? Anyhow, I understand, though I also understand others' disappointment. You just have to have that passion to get through it. (I've also started games, to take two steps and decide, "not today.")

 

[Shademp]

Today's stream uploaded to my YouTube channel. My first long video on there. Had to activate the feature to upload videos that are longer than 15 minutes.

 

[Octo]

Hey don't worry about it. It was probably too soon to do a restream anyway, and you wouldn't want a weird difference in tone between parts 1 and 2 anyway. Just wait until you're feeling more enthusiastic about it

 

[Ami]

I already said this to you in the stream and on Skype, but I'll repeat it here because three times the charm and all that jazz.

If you honestly don't have the energy to re-watch, re-stream, re-anything, then you shouldn't have to. Take a break from the game for a while and come back in a couple of weeks maybe feeling refreshed. That is, if you still want to resume it at some point. No one's going to hold it against you either way. If they do, throw them to my fiery pits of hell and I'll have my way with them.

But your rants were quite enlightening, I have to admit. Your commentary voice is compelling, too. You should stream more often, but don't strain yourself!

 

[Pixel]

Havent watched the parts you put on the TLS channel yet, but I'm enjoying what you just posted. It's an interesting commentary on the game as a whole

 

[Ravynne Nevyrmore]

Have you considered having someone else who hasn't played the game before doing the part 1 stream in your place? A friend of yours, maybe, who you could guide through the process? So that it's genuinely a first time experience being captured.

 

[Shademp]

Thank you everyone for your support.

@Ravynne
I think that if the purpose is to line up the re-stream with the chat from last weekend, I will have to do to it myself. Otherwise there will be a clash between the style of the new Chapters 1-9 episodes and the old Chapters 10-12 episodes.

 

[Ravynne Nevyrmore]

Thank you everyone for your support.

@Ravynne
I think that if the purpose is to line up the re-stream with the chat from last weekend, I will have to do to it myself. Otherwise there will be a clash between the style of the new Chapters 1-9 episodes and the old Chapters 10-12 episodes.

k.

 

[Mage]

D00d. D00D. Dat accent. You need to stream more to soothe my ears. You have an absolutely perfect voice for this sort of work. I'm gonna marathon session what's been done tomorrow hopefully, so I'll chuck in something constructive when I'm done, even if it's only a 'pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease do moar stuff in future'-type comment.

 

[Clement Rage]

It's interesting, while watching this you were talking about how insanely big DG was, something occurred to me. Most of that level is just a ruined town, there's not that much that has to have been built by Shinra, apart from the reactor, the rail network, and the pillars at the edge. We already know Shinra was built on pre-existing towns (I'm not buying into your Spira theory, mostly just because I dislike that part of the canon), they probably just put a dome over preexisting structures.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

With the town being so far underground, though, who but Shin-Ra would have had the resources to build it? It also seems to have been built with the reactor as a focus.

 

[Tetsujin]

I was thinking Shinra built the town as housing for DG employees.

God, DG is so idiotic a concept.

 

[Clement Rage]

Towns get built on the site of other towns all the time, there's like nine different ruins on top of each other on the site of troy. It wasn't underground when it was built, maybe?

It just seems so different from everything else Shinra built, they build in steel and put their logo on everything (unless they're building a replica of somewhere a la Nibelheim), that town is mostly built of stone and is in ruins. Stone buildings tend to last, unless destroyed by weathering, or storms or something, which couldn't happen in underground DG. So we have three options.

1)Shinra deliberately built a ruined town for ambience.
2)The DGs deliberately destroyed their own buildings (plausible, given Rosso's 'kill a thousand of my own soldiers for no reason' policy.)
3)Most of that cavern predates Shinra.

I'm loving your 'super relaxed rant' LP style, incidentally.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I'm actually quite fond of the idea (something I made up myself) that Deepground was originally a Cetra site and was why the Midgar area proved to be such a goldmine (mako mine?) for Shin-Ra in the first place, but there's obviously no evidence that this is the case.

As for the town that was down there, and architectural differences between it and Midgar above, do recall that Deepground pre-dates Shin-Ra's rise to power. They built it during the war (not the Wutai War; the one before that) as a recovery area for the original SOLDIERs (the non-Jenova types preceding Sephiroth) who were wounded.

The Deepground reactor is also enumerated "reactor zero," so it presumably came before reactors one through eight above.

The real question about Deepground needing to be answered: Given that the only known means to access Deepground is that elevator under the Shin-Ra building itself, going right down through Midgar's central pillar, what is their means of egress for the Dragonflies and such?

 

[Ravynne Nevyrmore]

The real question about Deepground needing to be answered: Given that the only known means to access Deepground is that elevator under the Shin-Ra building itself, going right down through Midgar's central pillar, what is their means of egress for the Dragonflies and such?

Rufus's escape tunnel. It was just chutes and ladders all over the place.

 

[Skan]

I'm actually quite fond of the idea (something I made up myself) that Deepground was originally a Cetra site and was why the Midgar area proved to be such a goldmine (mako mine?) for Shin-Ra in the first place, but there's obviously no evidence that this is the case.

I like this, partially because we have evidence that the Cetra do build underground. There's an underground section to the Forgotten Capital. There's also the question of the Minerva statue beneath Banora; given the proximity of the location to the Lifestream and the fact that the statue seems to predate Banora (and is obviously connected to the Planet), could it also be a remnant of some Cetran civilization? I don't think there's a whole town there -- there's no evidence of it, iirc -- but just a thought.

(Also, just the thought of ShinRa building on top of an existing town is a really attractive idea to me. A rather literal covering up of history.)

 

[Octo]

Hey.....like.....why the fuck did they bother to rebuild Nibelheim? I thought everybody was killed and/or taken in by Shinra (and then experimented on) Couldn't they have just said it was an accident - one of them friggin dragons did it? Then sealed off the area. Why go to all that effort to build an exact replica of the town? (aside from providing a plot detail to fuck with Cloud's head?)

 

[Shademp]

Hey.....like.....why the fuck did they bother to rebuild Nibelheim? I thought everybody was killed and/or taken in by Shinra (and then experimented on) Couldn't they have just said it was an accident - one of them friggin dragons did it?

SHH, NO WORDS

JUST ACCEPT IT

 

[Octo]

 

[Skan]

Hey.....like.....why the fuck did they bother to rebuild Nibelheim? I thought everybody was killed and/or taken in by Shinra (and then experimented on) Couldn't they have just said it was an accident - one of them friggin dragons did it? Then sealed off the area. Why go to all that effort to build an exact replica of the town? (aside from providing a plot detail to fuck with Cloud's head?)

Especially considering that they didn't even try to do the same for Banora, which is weird, since Banora seems to have had more world presence due to the export of the apples/juice.

Also, there apparently weren't that many visitors to Nibelheim anyways in the meantime.

"Periodic Report to Professor Hojo"

[...]

2 Confidentiality Report

A total of eight people have visited this town this quarter.
Fortunately, none knew about the incident five years ago.
Therefore, no one knows the town was restored exactly as it was five years ago.
Our staff, disguised as townspeople have improved their acting skills, and we do not report any problems at this time.
That is all.

 

[Ravynne Nevyrmore]

I wouldn't mind being a ShinRa employee paid to just live in Nibelheim and pretend I've been there forever for 8 people per season.

 

[Clement Rage]

QUOTE button isn't working, too lazy to type it.

Should we take this to some other thread?

Y'know, for a race of nomads for which building permanent dwellings amounted to treachery, they sure did a lot of masonrywork.

"As for the town that was down there, and architectural differences between it and Midgar above, do recall that Deepground pre-dates Shin-Ra's rise to power. They built it during the war (not the Wutai War; the one before that) as a recovery area for the original SOLDIERs (the non-Jenova types preceding Sephiroth) who were wounded."

I dunno, it seems too big for that, it doesn't seem like there were ever THAT many SOLDIER.

"Hey.....like.....why the fuck did they bother to rebuild Nibelheim? I thought everybody was killed and/or taken in by Shinra (and then experimented on) Couldn't they have just said it was an accident - one of them friggin dragons did it? Then sealed off the area. Why go to all that effort to build an exact replica of the town? (aside from providing a plot detail to fuck with Cloud's head?)"

Compilation actually justified this pretty well. Shinra relies on the reputation of SOLDIER, but two of their three poster boys have already gone crazy. If Sephy goes too, SOLDIER loses all credibility, so they gave him a heroic death. If the town was damaged, that would mean he failed in his mission. Also anyone Shinra missed now has no credibility 'destroyed town? What are you talking about, it's right there!"

 

[Pixel]

I always thought of Aerith's church as a place built by cetra settlers as a holy place, built there because of the strong lifestream vein.

 

[Ravynne Nevyrmore]

Sure, start a new thread.

Was building permanent buildings considered treacherous for the Cetra? I've never heard that before.

But even, say, the Dothraki in A Song of Ice and Fire had a permanent city or two for ceremonial purposes, and they pretty much kill everyone who doesn't believe in living life on the back of a horse. Maybe the one or two Cetra ruins could have served that sort of purpose? A place to hold important ceremonies, or a location to pilgrimage to, or a place for the old and feeble to chill?

 

[Skan]

I think Clem's referring to this quote from Sephiroth, right before he burns the village:

You ignorant traitor. I'll tell you.
This Planet originally belonged to the Cetra. Cetra was a itinerant race. They would migrate in, settle the Planet, then move on...
At the end of their harsh, hard journey, they would find the Promised Land and supreme happiness.
But, those that disliked the journey appeared. Those who stopped their migrations built shelters and elected to lead an easier life.
They took that which the Cetra and the planet had made without giving back one whit in return!
Those are your ancestors.

Please keep in mind, however, that Sephiroth is batshit crazy at this point and only has Hojo's (maybe Gast's?) notes to go off of. He could easily be wrong, given that he was also totally wrong about other things. Do we have any other evidence confirming that Sephiroth is not just drawing his own faulty conclusions from notes found in the mansion's basement?

He could also be factually correct (i.e. modern humans are the descendents of settled Cetra), but be totally wrong about how actual settlement was viewed by the true Ancients. How would he know? For that matter, how would Hojo or Gast even know? Written records (assuming enough exists to open a window into the "Ancient mindset") can be incredibly biased.

EDIT: Actually, rereading his words, I'm pretty sure he's not even saying that the Ancients viewed settlement negatively themselves. Just that he personally thinks they were lazy, and that the "true Cetra" sacrificed themselves for descendents of these lazy Cetra who didn't even deserve the help.