Game - Final Fantasy 7, Day 51
Hours Played/Hours Total - 11 hrs / 54 hrs
Starting Point - Nearby Wutai.
Current Goal - Try to find Cloud. Save the world from Meteor!
What Happened - Day 51 is here to say...that it's Day 51! Oh yeah! (I'm sorry. That was horrible, but now it has happened so get over it!) Let's not dilly dally anymore....time for POST!
So, with the world as is, I figure it's time for some side stuff. Sure, I've already done quite a bit, but there is always more to be done! I began by getting more Enemy Skills. Well...I was actually getting old Enemy Skills for new Enemy Skill materia. Some skills are harder and more select to come by though, so I really only grabbed the best ones out of the bunch (namely Big Guard and White Wind). I might take time for a lot more later, but I figured the basic ones would be more than good for now. With that done, I began searching around the world for any places that I could now access. The Highwind opens up quite a bit of the planet for your exploration. On top of this, you can easily go back to anywhere with little time or trouble required for regular backtracking. Loooove airships! After all the monster battles, I made my way back to Wutai for a little side quest for Yuffie.
At Wutai, I made my way to the Wutai Pagoda for Yuffie's side quest of sorts. Basically, you have to climb this tower and defeat multiple bosses using Yuffie only. The last time I did this, I remember having quite a bit of trouble with the last couple of bosses, but this time around...things went really easy. MULTIPLE BOSS BATTLE TIME! For these battles, (as I just stated) I was forced to use Yuffie only against these bosses. Each boss is a reincarnation of previous monsters I fought (powered up of course). The first was a man named Gorki who changed into a flying demon monster of sorts. He was...easy. I started with Big Guard, and then let loose with mah magic! He went down, and it was time for Round 2! Next up was a kid named Shake who changed into a penguin monster. He was too easy, and no fight was even necessary. Round 3! Next up...a taller, thinner man who changed into...a purple lizard demon thing. (Yeah, my descriptions suck, but I don't plan to fix it for this part. I literally did it in like 15 minutes for ALL the battles.) A couple uses of Magic Hammer coupled with Big Guard made him basically useless. Smacked him around with physical attacks and magic. Time for Round 4! We met another older man named Staniv. He changes into...a rock creature with a wrecking ball on a chain...Trust me. It's something close to that. Anyways, He went down just as easy as the rest, but after him...comes Round 5! This is the final boss of the Wutai Pagoda. He's a devious man who is the strongest of all of them while combining their different strengths into one massive warrior. It's also Yuffie's father Godo. He basically challenges Yuffie to beat him in battle...or DIE! Thus begins the only remotely challenging battle! Godo changed into a giant three-faced warrior with a sword and such. Despite his massive and powerful appearance...he was almost as easy as the rest. He was able to heal though, so he lasted like 1-2 minutes longer than the others. He went down...and thus I beat the challenge. For defeating Godo, I was awarded Yuffie's 4th Limit Break item. For defeating all of them (accomplished when defeating Godo), I received the Leviathan summon materia. Yuffie shared a moment with her father and his fellow warriors. After that, the group headed on out. Of course, Godo asked Yuffie to try and get all the materia once the adventure was over. Nice touch there guys...
With the Wutai Pagoda quest done, it was time to...I got nothing. I decided to move on with the story. The next stop was the little town of Mideel. One of the few places I couldn't get to without the Highwind. Once there, I was looking about town when I came across a dog. Somehow it was relevant enough to continue the story. Tifa was petting the dog when she overheard some men talking. They mentioned something about a pointy-haired man washing up on the shore. Of course, the group immediately jumps to the conclusion that it is Cloud (Hey! It could be someone else...can't be the only dude with that hairstyle.). They point her to a nearby clinic, and she rushes over. The other two follow behind her (at this time, it was Yuffie and Vincent). Upon entering, she went to find out that Cloud..wasn't quite right. The doctor said that he had extremely high exposure to mako and was experiencing mako poisoning. They were surprised he was still alive. Apparently, he had ridden through the Lifestream! All the way from the North Crater...to this spot waaaay south. Hoping that Cloud will get through this, Tifa decides to stay here. The rest of the group goes back to the Highwind and tries to figure up a plan.
Barret comes forward and elects Cid as their new leader. Simply claims that Cid runs the Highwind, the Highwind is necessary for their saving the world, and therefore, Cid is the most qualified leader. He disagrees with this but takes the job nonetheless. Cait Sith, now playing the spy for us, lets us in on Shinra's next move. They're next objective is some large items called Huge Materia. They plan to collect all the Huge Materia they have been developing in Mako Reactors and launch that at Meteor to destroy it. That...just sounds like a horrible, horrible plan. Their first target is the Corel reactor. Obviously, things aren't going to go down very well, so I had to head them off. I flew straight to Corel and made a beeline for the reactor. Once there, I defeated a group of Shinra soldiers, but it was too late! They had the Huge Materia on a train, and they were going to plow right through Corel. Cid and company weren't about to let that happen. We grabbed another train (that was just sitting in the reactor I guess...), and we gave chase. I managed to haul ass and catch up. We then jumped over to the train, fought our way to the front, and successfully stopped the train from destroying Corel. Aaaaah yeah! With the town saved, I was allowed to claim the Huge Materia as well as Ultima Materia. They gave us a free stay at the Inn for saving their little dirt spot. Before leaving, I talked with a few people and received Barret's 4th Limit Break item. Woo! Next up on the Huge Materia list...Fort Condor!
For this Huge Materia, I had to fight another RTS battle of sorts. I believe I covered these battles earlier on, but this one was for all the marbles! Honestly, any other battle in this place up until now was basically pointless! THIS IS THE ONE THAT MATTERS! (Doing previous battles netted you free items though) I didn't place any soldiers down though. I let them just come straight at me, and I had to fight a BOSS BATTLE TIME! It was the evil and monstrous Grand Horn CMD! He was super extra...not that hard. With my team of Cid, Barret, and Vincent (same group I used for the Corel bit), I smacked him around for a number of turns, and he went down. With Shinra finally defeated here, things were at peace. And then crazyness happened! The Condor on top fell off (dead I guess), and its egg hatched finally! I went up to check on it and earned myself the Phoenix summon materia (Woo!). On the way down, I met with the leader at Fort Condor. He handed over the Huge Materia and explained a bit of the story. Shinra had forced them to work on the mako reactor, and once he saw what they were planning, he stole the Huge Materia. However, they did all the fighting purely to protect the Condor and nothing else. Alls well that ends well I guess. At this point, Cid suggested (to me) that the group go and visit Cloud and Tifa in Mideel. So...off I went!
However, before that, I spent a little time gaining some extra experience and limits. I spent around an hour or so doing this. Not a long time, but the benefits were most definitely worth it. By the time I was done, I had a few new limits, huge amount of Gil, and several new Mastered materia. Finally reaching a decent point, I proceeded into Mideel for the visit. Of course, we all know how this goes. It wasn't just a "visit", it was a story-based visit! Cloud didn't seem to be making any kind of recovery at the moment, and to make things worse, the town was getting a little visit from a big friend. Who? Ultimate Weapon. Cid and the gang ran out and started a fight for BOSS BATTLE TIME! Now this battle was the first truly challenging boss battle for me. He was able to deal out some fairly impressive damage..even with Big Guard up! Unfortunately for him, I came prepared with super magic! I flung spells and enemy skills at him. I did have to keep up with healing though. Lucky for me, White Wind! Nuff said. He wasn't staying around to die here of course. After dealing so much damage, he took off and flew away (PANSY!). With Weapon gone, things seemed okay now...but they weren't. The ground started to rumble, and things just got worse. The town began to evacuate. Tifa was trying to get Cloud out, but they were a bit too late. The two of them fell into the Lifestream, and now this is where things start to finally be explained.
This next paragraph is super spoiler time, so if you don't want spoilers, you should stop now. OMG! SPOILERS AHEAD! LOOK OUT! Continuing on...I gained control of Tifa and found myself in a very strange place with images of Cloud all over. She realized that all of this was about Cloud trying to realize who he really was. I went around talking to the various Clouds and tried to help him discern the lies from the truth. First off, Tifa admitted that Cloud did NOT come back 5 years ago. The person with Sephiroth was a different man. The next thing was their memory of a moment out by the well in Nibelheim. Tifa said that he remembered it, and that it was exactly how that night was. She was convinced that this was definite proof of him not being a Sephiroth clone. Next up on the list...turns out was the kid version of Cloud. He came to reveal a secret to Tifa. The big secret? DUN DUN DUUUUN! It's kind of complicated actually. When Cloud and Tifa were kids, they didn't actually know each other that well. Cloud wanted to be wit her, but he had to hang around her group (who he didn't like). Tifa's mom dies, and somehow this leads her to go along the dangerous path to Mount Nibel. Her friends only briefly followed before abandoning her, but Cloud kept after her. Then...they had an accident. They fell off at some point. Cloud was barely injured, but Tifa was in a coma for seven days (awful lot of sevens in this game...WE GET IT SQUARE!). This caused Cloud to want to become something stronger and better..like Sephiroth. With that in mind, he left town to join SOLDIER (when he was older of course). The actual secret is that he never made it into SOLDIER. On the day five years ago, he had come to town, but he was one of the Shinra soldiers with Sephiroth and Zack (it's told his name by now). When Sephiroth went to the reactor, Zack gave chase while Cloud followed later. When Cloud got there, Zack and Tifa were both down. He told Cloud to go kill Sephiroth. Cloud managed to hit Sephiroth while he was distracted, but Sephiroth knocked him away and kept going. Cloud made chase, and Sephiroth stabbed him. Now here's the funny part...despite being impaled by Sephiroth, Cloud managed to fling Sephiroth into the Lifestream below the reactor. HUH, I realize he might be running on rage and despair from his town burning down, but how did this guy NOT get in Soldier when he just tossed Sephiroth into the Lifestream with a giant sword going through him? Whatever, not important I guess. But basically, this proves that Cloud is most definitely real. With this in mind, Cloud is able to reform his thoughts and become not-crazy again.
(Side note! I couldn't think of any photos for this, so I threw in the following. It is a picture of Zack. It's actually from the PSP title FF7 Crisis Core, but who cares!)
Before heading that way though, I made several side trips all over the place. I was ready to get some ultimate weapons and final limits. First off, I traveled to Bone Village for a certain key. Digging around there, I managed to find the Key to Sector 5. With the key in hand, I could finally re-enter Midgar. Of course, there wasn't a whole lot to do inside of Midgar outside of one spot. In the Wall Market, there's a store with a strange machine of sorts. If you tried to access it early on, it would just shoot at you. However, with Cid and Tifa along, I was able to use the machine. It still messed up, but this time, it spat out an item...Tifa's ultimate weapon Premium Heart. With that obtained, I had nothing left to get in Midgar. I immediately left and set course for Nibelheim. Once there, I ran to Tifa's house and played the piano for...Tifa's 4th Limit Break item! Woo! At this point, I had 4th Limit Break items for Barret (already taught him his a while ago), Tifa, Yuffie, and Red XII. Most of them were barely up to the 2nd Level of Limits, so I had to start farming up some limits. And thus...began a 2 hour journey of farming. I spent quite some time doing this, but the benefits were well worth it. By the time I was done, I had the 4th Limit for Tifa and Yuffie. I also gained several more Mastered materia out of it. Bored of the farming, I did have one last thing I wanted to do before moving along with the story.
I made my way back to the Gold Saucer. Earlier on, it had been closed down on account of Meteor, but Dio had opened it back up again. My goal here...get Cloud's 4th Limit Break! He's been ready for it since Disc 1, but I couldn't get enough Battle Points to earn it then. This time...I had more than enough gil (and therefore more than enough GP!) to earn it! It took like 8 battles, but I finally had enough points. I taught Cloud his 4th Limit Break Omnislash, and it was finally time to continue. I flew off to Junon and began Operation Underwater Trouble (my name for it...it's not great). We had to infiltrate the underwater mako reactor and stop Shinra. They were transporting another Huge Materia from here for use in their kinda stupid master plan. Our mission (if we chose to receive it) is to get the Huge Materia before they can get away with it. I rushed though Junon and made my way underground. Turns out they have a cool underwater tunnel connecting Junon to the underwater mako reactor. Along the way, I remembered a random yet somehow necessary fact. In the water tunnel, you meet with this enemy that looks like an old wooden ship with a skeleton as the front decoration. There is only ONE of these available in the game (outside of the Battle Square), and you have to morph him into a special item. What you do with said item...I don't know. I'll have to look into that later. After taking the time to get it, I finally proceeded into the reactor. I had to fight through some rather pathetic soldiers, but I did make my way to the core. Unfortunately, they were slightly head of us. They had already grabbed the huge materia and were loading it into a submarine. I tried to go after it and ran into Reno. He said he didn't have time for us and sicked a giant robot thing on the group instead. BOSS BATTLE TIME!
For this Boss Battle, my team lineup was Cloud, Yuffie, and Cid. I'll be honest. The first time I did this, I wasn't paying attention, and he wiped the floor with my group. TWO ATTACKS! Two groupwide attacks that just tore them to pieces. I reloaded, didn't give him any time, and he was a pushover. Basically, I immediately drained his MP, and this eliminated his special attack that was so devastating. He wasn't completely out of the fight though. He had his main body and two grabbing arms. He used the grabbing arms to pick up a party member (he always went for Cid). While grabbed, he would slowly kill them, and he did succeed on Cid...twice. Despite these minor things though, he was mostly easy. Unfortunately, the battle was enough time for the submarine to get away, so I had to find an alternate solution. Lucky for us, there was a second submarine in the underwater reactor. I ran over, defeated all the soldiers on board, and then claimed myself a shiny new submarine. (Pictured below BUT grey instead of red)
The submarine opens a whole new world under the water. That world comes with some new places to go and lots of items to find. However, it also features one of the optional super bosses...Emerald Weapon. Despite my attempts to beat him in the past (not on this playthrough), I never really put even a small dent in the guy. I won't go into details, but I will say...He's hard as shit. He is easily 5 to 6 times harder than any of the final bosses, and he isn't the only one! There is also Ruby Weapon, and that one is somehow WORSE! Basically, the side bosses in this series are crazy as shit. Getting back to the game, I explored a bit of the ocean floor. Found the red submarine and picked up the 3rd Huge Materia. From there, I looked around a bit and managed to locate a few interesting bits. One item was some strange key that was dated to be thousands of years old and simply labeled "Key of the Ancients." Not sure what the point of it is, but I figure I'll need it later. I also located a strange cave, which led inward into one of the continents. Rising up, I found myself next to a mysterious waterfall. This waterfall proved to be important to one person...Vincent.
Luckily, I had him with me at the time, and thus I got a glimpse into Vincent's past. It showed off several scenes of young Vincent as a Turk escorting Shinra scientists. One of them was the love of his life. Her name was Lucretia, but she loved someone else...Hojo. Vincent accepted this at first because he wanted her to be happy, but then things changed. As I learned earlier on in the game, Hojo and Lucretia gave up their child to science for experimentation. Vincent disagreed with this, so Hojo shot him. He then proceeded to experiment on Vincent which resulted in Vincent's strange and horrific abilities. (This is related to his Limit Breaks where he changes into a monster.) Anyways, Vincent met with Lucretia there, and she asked if Sephiroth was still alive. Vincent simply denied his living status and confirmed that he had died five years ago. She then disappeared not wanting to hear or see anymore. Well...okay then. With nothing left I wanted to do, I made it back to the Highwind and set...air for Rocket Town. Once there, it seemed we were almost too late! Shinra was getting the rocket up and running. I rushed to it and attempted to board, but there was someone in my way...BOSS BATTLE TIME!
It's not what I'd call a true boss though. It was the Turk Rude plus two Shinra soldiers. They weren't any real challenge, and I easily disposed of him. With him out of the way, I was able to make my way into...more fights. I had to fight three more groups before I could board the rocket. Once there, I met up with the rocket technicians that were putting the finishing touches on the rocket. They were going to use the Autopilot to launch the rocket (now loaded with the Huge Materia) straight into Meteor. Cid volunteered to pilot the rocket instead, so they all left. However, the group was greatly opposed to this considering the consequences. Before they could say anything, the rocket launched! Turns out, they had finished the Autopilot, and Palmer forced the rocket launch. We were quickly shooting up towards Meteor. Cid was quite excited to finally be in space. I picked up the Huge Materia from its locked container, but now what? Cid mentioned there was an escape pod, so we made our way down. Then...bad things happened! One of the tanks below exploded and had trapped Cid. He told us to abandon him, but they weren't going to. Then...Shera walked in! She had stayed on board to make sure the Escape Pods were ready to go. Lucky that she did, we jumped in and got out of the rocket before it hit Meteor. Floating back down to earth, Cid was still admiring the vastness of space. And then...we saw the results of Shinra's plan.
Despite their best effort with the rocket, it seems it wasn't enough. The rocket caused a massive explosion, and despite its impressiveness, Meteor simply began to repair itself. This was kinda depressing. Despite their dislike of Shinra, the group was kind of hoping that would work. They knew that it was all up to them to finish this. Cid gave a good speech that perked the group right up! However, they were still unsure of what to do. Red XIII chimed in and said we should go visit his grandpa, Bugenhagen. With no other clues in mind, I made my way to Cosmo Canyon. Once there, Bugenhagen simply suggested that we think on it. He said that we were bound to have the answer already. The group gathered to consider what could possibly be the solution. After some thinking, the only thing they could come up with was...Aeris. What had she figured out? Why was she so determined and fearless when heading for the Forgotten Capital? With that being the only clue, the group decided to pack up and make their way to the City of the Ancients. Feeling interested, Bugenhagen decided to tag along. And thus, I set course for the City of the Ancients...
But seeing how I have so much, I figured it was time to check in and post this baby up! It's been a pretty big post and lots of things happened. Most of the time involved was farming though. Regardless, it will have great benefits before the game is done. Looking over my progress, I figure at least two more posts until I beat FF7! Once I beat 7, it's onward to 8! But enough about that, let's get this post up. You should stick around and wait for my next post! It's going to be chocked full of...side quests and getting to the last disc. Yeah, I can tell it's super exciting for the three people who read this! Out~
Ending Point - Nearby Junon.
Current Party -
- Cloud - Level 59
- Tifa - Level 52
- Barret - Level 53
Next Goals - Return to the City of the Ancients and figure out what Aeris was doing. Stop Sephiroth at some point. Save the world!
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
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