Game - Final Fantasy 7, Day 47
Hours Played/Hours Total - 8-1/2 hrs / 12 hrs
Starting Point - In the Train Graveyard.
Current Goal - Make it through the Train Graveyard. Reunite with AVALANCHE and warn them about Shinra's plans.
What Happened - Not too far along, but it should go fairly fast. My only problem at this point is keeping up with typing on here as I play. If I get too far, I might forget something. With that said, let's get to it!
I started off in the Train Graveyard. It's a fairly spooky-ish place, but there wasn't anything to be scared of. I walked all about and grabbed all the loot. After that, I charged on through and ran smack dab into my next goal. It seems Shinra was currently enacting their plan to destroy the pillar of Sector 7 and bring the plate down on the slums. Unfortunately for them, they weren't getting it without a fight. The members of AVALANCHE were already there and defending the pillar. Cloud and Tifa began climbing up the tower while they asked Aeris to take care of Wedge (who had just fallen off the tower) and to go get Marlene (Barret's daughter). And so I rushed up the tower!
Along the way, I found the other members of AVALANCHE, but they were all wounded and dying. I checked on them and shot up regardless as there was nothing I could do. At the top, Barret was defending the pillar with all his might. I joined up with him, but then a new foe entered the scene for BOSS BATTLE TIME! (Story Edition). The fight was with one of the Turks named Reno. Of course, it wasn't a true boss fight and only required I do so much damage. With only one of him and three of us, there wasn't too much to the fight. After doing enough, he eventually ran off and set the bomb on the tower. The group tried to disarm it, but we were informed by another Turk (Tseng) that this wasn't an option. The bomb was set to go off fairly soon, and only a high ranking Shinra member could disable it. He had also grabbed up Aeris while we were defending the tower, and he was taking her to the Shinra HQ. With no way to disable the bomb and no time left for other options, the group grabbed onto a nearby cable and swung out of Sector 7 as the plate was coming down.
They manage to escape but everyone left in Sector 7 was killed, including the trio of Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge. *Insert sad time here* Barret was freaking out over his daughter Marlene, but it seemed that Aeris had managed to get her out in time. Cloud made way to Aeris's home where he found her mom and Marlene were safe. Aeris had gave herself up in order for Marlene to be safe. Then Aeris's mom told everybody about Aeris's secret. It seems that she was a descendent of an ancient people known as...the Ancients (that's how you do it!). However, the woman there wasn't her real mom either. She had stumbled upon Aeris as a child who was with her dying mother. The mom simply asked the woman that she help hide Aeris. Over the years, Aeris showed to have some form of supernatural abilities that involved herself and the planet itself. Not only that but Shinra had been chasing her since day 1! She had managed to avoid them all this time until...right now. The group immediately agreed that they needed to go and rescue her immediately. Our next goal was to find a way to the Shinra HQ.
The only thought that we had was the Wall Market (where I was earlier with the cross dressing and such). So I made my way over there. The new deal everybody was talking about involved the weapon shop owner picking up some new scrap or something like that. I made my way over to him, and he sold us some batteries saying we will need them. I didn't know what he meant OR how he knew, but I got them anyways. I stocked up on some new equipment and items, and I made my way to a side part of the Wall Market. I was here earlier, but there wasn't anything I could do...I figured it's the only spot where I could possibly need to go next. Once there, it seemed that a giant wire had fallen down from above, and Barret called it a "shiny golden wire of hope." Not the BEST line ever, but I guess it's fairly accurate. So we begin the perilous climb to the top of the plate. It's a long climb up, and the batteries were very necessary! You use them to open up the paths so you can continue climbing upward. Also...one of them gives you treasure! (an Ether)
Once at the top, I was immediately taken to the Shinra HQ. Barret and Tifa debated between busting in and sneaking in (respectively), and the game left it up to Cloud (me) to choose. I picked sneaking in like I have in the past. The "sneaking" method takes quite a bit longer though because you climb upward along the side of the building using the stairs. You climb through almost 10 screens of stairs before you finally reach the top. Along the way, the group talks quite a bit, but it's mostly Barret complaining about the climb. It is a bit ridiculous, but it all gets even better. Turns out...the stairs only take you to Floor 59! Any floor after that requires a special key card PER FLOOR. Fantastic. However, I quickly acquired more as I rose in floor numbers. A couple of the floors didn't even have anything you had to do. They simply featured extra items and puzzles. Fast forwarding through those...
I found myself on floor 66, and some Shinra executives were going to have a meeting. Let's listen in! The basic point of the meeting was discussion over Sector 7's destruction. Despite the huge loss of money, they had no plans to rebuild. They were basically throwing all the common folk to the wind. Their next plan of action involved Aeris, an Ancient, and something called The Promised Land. A strange man walked in and talked about creating more Ancients to study. After that, the meeting closed and the strange man walked off. Guess who we get to follow? His name is Hojo, and he's the head of the Shinra Science Division (basically). He mentioned the Ancients thing and experimenting. Thus....he probably had Aeris. Up in his lab, more story came to light. Hojo was focused on some strange creature he called his "precious specimen." The group inspected it closer, but I also noticed a giant tank off to the side. Inside it was a crazy looking creature that Cloud identified as Jenova. He then had a bit of a seizure moment (foreshadowing much?), but he got over it and moved on. In the above room, we found Hojo about to experiment with his specimen and Aeris. I'll be straight...I think he was trying to get the two of them to mate. That way he'd have new specimens of both at the same time. The "precious specimen" turns out to be the next character!
He doesn't seem to have a name, and so he goes by Red XIII, which Hojo called him. You can't really tell by the head shot, but he's basically some sort of dog-cat creature thing. Anyways, as Hojo is starting his experiment, the group busts in and breaks open the cage where Aeris and Red XIII are. Red XIII attacks Hojo, but then Hojo releases a monster upon the group. I send Tifa off with Aeris. Then I get to fight a little BOSS BATTLE TIME with the newest recruit!
This Boss was some strange mutant monster with three little ball henchmen. However, he wasn't really anything to worry about. I can't find out their names without the Sense ability, and I don't always use it on bosses. So...you'll be getting whatever name/description I give. (I'M SORRY!) He did poison the majority of my party, but I kept after him and his little minions. Before I knew it, he was dead. Unfortunately, Hojo had run off, and it was rapidly approaching time for us to run. So I ran. I made it around and down, hoped into the elevator, and...got caught by the Turks. I was taken in front of the President of Shinra who gave me the entirety of his plan (for some odd reason). Basically, he wants to find the Promised Land because he thinks it will have a lot of Mako. The massive amount of Mako will be used to create a newer version of Midgar that he called Neo Midgar. Yeah...all this evil for money. Classic. They imprisoned the group, and things began to look grim. But then...strangeness happened.
The group awoke to find that their cells were open, but that everybody at Shinra HQ (at least on the upper levels) had been slaughtered. I followed along the blood trail, which lead past Jenova's container and up into Hojo's lab. Jenova's cage had been busted open, and it was missing (whatever it was). Moving further up, I found myself back on the top floor where the President was. This time...he was dead. He was in his chair with a giant sword shoved through him. Cloud immediately recognized it as Sephiroth's sword. They also caught one of the suits trying to run. He claimed that he saw Sephiroth come in and kill the President, and Sephiroth also mentioned something about the Promised Land. The group seemed very surprised to find out that Sephiroth was alive .(Apparently it was common knowledge that Sephiroth wasn't alive?) As if things weren't bad enough, Shinra's Vice President, Rufus, showed up as well. He was the President's son, and he came to take over as President. (I'm more curious how he found out so fast...) Cloud wanted to face him alone, and he told the rest of the group to run.
The group run back down, but they soon split up yet again! Tifa stayed behind to wait for Cloud, and the remaining three ran straight to the elevators. Once inside, I proceeded downward and was treated to BOSS BATTLE TIME! I was set up against another robot boss. He was a giant tank-thing with wheels and such. (How the hell did he even get out there?!)This game is all about their robot bosses. I had to fight him with Aeris, Barret, and Red XIII. The real kicker though...was the distance fighting. He was in the elevator beside us, and only Barret could physically attack him (gun and all). Lucky for me, I had more than enough materia to allow Aeris and Red XIII to hurl magic all at him. He was a robot, so his weakness was Lightning/Bolt. I kept after him and managed to beat him with little effort. However, it seemed the game wasn't letting me get off that easy with SURPRISE! BOSS BATTLE TIME #2! It immediately threw another robot at me. This one was some sort of helicopter bot with cannons. He didn't have as much health as the previous guy though, and he went down pretty fast.
As soon as I finished the battle, the game jumped back to Cloud who was preparing to fight Rufus. I got ready for STORY BOSS BATTLE TIME! Yeah, it wasn't a super serious battle, but it was a fairly tough challenge. With only one character, I had to hurry up and beat Rufus. He wasn't alone either. He had brought his magic-casting dog with him. As soon as the battle got going, the dog was just sitting there and buffing Rufus with protection. I had to quickly eliminate it, and then I focused my efforts on Rufus. Apparently, I was a bit higher on levels so this part was pretty straightforward and easy. I smacked Rufus around, and he ran off. With Rufus gone, I made a mad dash downstairs and reunited with Tifa. We proceeded downstairs, and now it was time to get the heck outta here. I was treated to a nice CG cutscene (one of my favorites in this game). It shows the characters walking about the Shinra HQ floor and jumping in a truck. It then moves over to Cloud who is riding on a motorcycle. They all drive upstairs and jump out a window onto a highway. From there, I'm treated to the first of several mini-games in FF7.
For this mini game, I (Cloud) ride around on my motorcycle and attack enemies that try to destroy the other group's truck. It's not super tough, but you do have to keep after the enemies. They go all over the place while trying to take out the truck. I just smacked them around with Cloud's sword (strange way to attack people while riding a motorcycle...but whatever!). As we got close to the end, we got chased down by a giant robot tank thing for...BOSS BATTLE TIME! Like I said, this game is obsessed with robots at this point. For this round, I was using Cloud, Tifa, and Barret. Despite some warnings on the guide (Yeah...I am already up on a guide, but it's purely for not missing items!), I had very little trouble with this vehicle robot. I kept after him with Bolt and a few Limit Breaks. A few turns later, he was gone, and we had escaped. At the end of the highway, the group was pondering what to do next. Cloud already had a goal in mind though. He was planning to track down Sephiroth and stop whatever evil scheme or plan he seemed to have. The group agreed to go with him, and so we left the confines of Midgar. Finally! I'm at the World Map! Our first destination was a small town Northeast of Midgar called Kalm. I stuck with my current team and ventured out into the wilderness of the World Map.
The first thing you'll notice is the area around Midgar. It's all blackened, dark, and lifeless. This view alone supports Barret's theory that the Mako being drained from the planet is killing it. I traveled the short distance to Kalm and met the rest of my party inside. I did a bit of shopping first and picked up some new materia and equipement. Then I met my party at the Inn for more story! This time around, everybody was curious about what all Cloud knew regarding Sephiroth. So it's time for a fancy flashback! IN-GAME!
We flash back five years ago and find ourselves with a young Cloud and Sephiroth. The first time we actually get to see him in-game! He looks something like this but obviously more pixel-ish and such.
After clearing up the problems, the two returned to Nibelheim. However, Sephiroth took off and went inside the nearby mansion known as Shinra Mansion. Inside there, he was exploring a secret hidden laboratory and looking through the books there. He spent the next couple of days (assuming) reading all of the books in the library. They revealed quite a bit to him, and by the time he finished it all, he had changed... for the worse. He had learned that Jenova was an Ancient (also known as the Cetra), and that the Jenova (some monster from both parts) was indeed his mother. He was planning to claim the Promised Land for his mother and himself. With that said, he left the mansion and set fire to the town. He was killing all forms of people, and then I saw this little scene.
Yeah, it's one of the many FF7 wallpapers that have been around forever basically. Anyways, he went up to the mako reactor yet again. This time, he was here to spring Jenova, his mother, from the reactor. Tifa had followed after him and witnessed him murdering her father. She tried to attack Sephiroth and failed. I checked on Tifa and then ran after Sephiroth. He was crazy talking at this point, and he planned to release Jenova and take her to the Promised Land. Cloud came in to fight him and then....The story ended.
That's a great and confusing way to end a story. Cloud claimed he couldn't remember anymore at this point. The group decided that their next goal should be to stop Sephiroth from getting to the Promised Land. Our next destination was...finding where he went. The only clues we had was mentioning of a Man in Black heading West of here. I left Kalm and made my way West-NorthWest. I ran into the Chocobo Farm where I learned a few things. I also got the Chocobo-Mog Summon (It's fun and weird). Basically, I couldn't go through the cave south of here (Mythril Mines) without a chocobo. Otherwise, I'd have to deal with a Midgar Zolom, a giant serpent plaguing the nearby swamps. In this game, you have to hunt down chocobos in the wild in order to ride around on one. This was easily done, and I continued to the cave. Once there, the first thing I found was a Midgar Zolom impaled on a giant tree (Sephiroth's handiwork). I continued past that and entered the Mythril Mines.
The Mythril Mines was a fairly small cave with just a few pieces of treasure. Halfway through, I ran into the Turks again (so annoying). This time, it was Rude (already met him), Elena (apparently a new one), and Tseng (that guy). They were following us and trying to get Sephiroth as well. Elena revealed the entirety of their plan, and Tseng wasn't too happy about this. They went on ahead and left me with the valuable intel of Sephiroth's heading to a city called Junon. I left the cave and began exploration of the new area. One new thing available to me was a strange tower known as the Fort Condor. It had a huge bird (Condor) perched atop it. Long story short, a group was defending it from Shinra. They wanted to obtain materia from the mako reactor, but they wanted rid of the Condor, who currently had eggs. I took the time to try out one of the battles for protecting the tower. It wasn't too hard really. You place Soldiers around, and they fight off enemies as they try to climb up. If they make it to the end, you have to fight them yourself. However, the first battle was pretty easy, and I won without much effort. Once that battle was done, there wasn't anything left to do for now, so I left Fort Condor and head towards Junon. However, I ran into something...
I ran into a mysterious person who tried to pick a fight. I easily defeated her, but the game took a strange turn. I found myself in an open field with the person we just fought. I went through a little event and had to answer correctly, or she would run off (I know this from experience...I used a guide for the correct answers >_<). After making it through, I gained myself another party member...Yuffie! (One of my personal favorites)
For this battle, I was using Cloud, Aeris, and Yuffie. There wasn't really anything to this battle though. He did ever so often cast a bubble over one person though. It would sit there and slowly drain their HP, but you can disspell it with magic. I kept whittling away at his HP, and the snake monster went down for the count. It was at a cost though. Priscilla wasn't breathing, and I (Cloud) had to give her CPR. One random mini-game thing later, Priscilla was okay. An old lady offered her house for the group to sleep in, and I slept all up in it. During the sleeping, Cloud was spoken to by the mysterious voice from earlier. Apparently, it is some sort of strange voice that doesn't belong to him and is able to tell him things he doesn't know. It questioned portions of Cloud's story from earlier and told Cloud to ask Tifa about them. He was about to when he woke up, but then the group heard some strange sounds outside.
I approached Priscilla's house, and she thanked the group for saving her and gave them her pendent (which turned out to be the Shiva summon materia!). The strange sounds were coming from the rest of the city of Junon. Apparently, they were celebrating the new President of Shinra (Rufus). It was decided we needed to infiltrate, but we couldn't take the front entrance. Priscilla was able to help us with this with her friend Mr. Dolphin (yeaaah...that's what I said). Using Mr. Dolphin, I was able to get up to the main part of Junon. I got my first glimpse at an airship in FF7 on top (later learned it was the Highwind)! However, I didn't make it far before getting wrangled into something else. A Shinra commander thought he was a soldier, so Cloud had to play along. Then, I had to be in a parade for Rufus. That went well.../end sarcasm. Oh well, there wasn't any real punishment for messing up. At this point, I had to do ANOTHER little mini-game of sorts with a soldier salute for Rufus. I was allowed to explore the town before this though, and I found lots of nice items along the way. I successfully did the salute and gained a nice new sword out of this. Then, I followed after Rufus who boarded a ship to make way to a different continent. While I was busy with all the nonsense, the group had also climbed aboard the boat. Now, we simply had to wait. However, we didn't get very far when the shit went down!
Partway through the trip, someone had "infiltrated" the ship and was causing havoc. Of course, the group thought it was them, but we quickly found out it was Sephiroth instead. I looked about the ship and finally located him on the lower deck. Once there, the group confronted him, but he simply acted puzzled towards Cloud. He flew off in a strange ghost-like fashion, and I was left to deal with BOSS BATTLE TIME! And thus began my first with many fights with Jenova. For Round 1 of Jenova, I had to fight Jenova BIRTH. As for the party, I had Cloud, Aeris, and Red XIII (I keep using Aeris cause she's the lowest leveled). It was a pretty rough battle, and I actually lost a person (my first KO of the game...Aeris if you were curious). Jenova had some fairly strong...laser attacks. I dunno how a living organism has laser attacks, but it did! I managed to beat it before it could do a lot more damage. Once defeated, Cloud did a small recap of the story so far. Basically, Sephiroth was mostly obviously at Shinra earlier, and he was planning to stop them from getting the Promised Land by obtaining it himself along with his "mother" Jenova. Regardless of all this death and destruction, the ship continued its course and landed at Costa del Sol.
It was some sort of tropical resort place where everybody was all good times. I did a bit of exploring and actually found out that Hojo was there. Apparently the ladies looove a scientist man because he was on the beach and surrounded by beach babes. He talked with the group but didn't reveal a whole lot. He went back to his "tanning" but not before revealing that Sephiroth was MAYBE heading West. A further inquiry through one of the ladies near him revealed a Mount Corel to the West. I stocked up on what I could (kinda low on Gil) and left town.
Seeing as I have a huuuuge post going here, I decided to save up and quit there for now. Ended up making this post about double what I originally planned. I actually wanted to stop around the time I got out of Midgar. ANYWAYS! Got a lot of stuff done here, and I'm a nice big step into FF7 now. Let's hope that I can keep up this somewhat decent pace and make it through 7 before July is up. Once again...I apologize for the awkwardly long post, but it does have pictures!
Ending Point - Outside of Costa del Sol.
Current Party -
- Cloud - Level 20
- Barret - Level 18
- Yuffie - Level 18
Next Goals - Follow after Sephiroth and keep him from getting the Promised Land.
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
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