Shinra Building - 63rd Floor
-I have the option now to go to the 65th floor, but the keycard also opens up the 63rd and 64th floors. I’ll go there first to explore.
-Another puzzle. I can open up doors three times on this floor. The computer terminal warns me not to climb into the air ducts.
-Opened up three doors, and got an item, a coupon for “Item B.” Hm. There’s also an air duct that I have the option to climb into. Let’s try it.
-I head up there successfully. It plops me down next to a coupon for “Item A.”
-Back at the computer terminal, I can exchange the coupons for two items, or try once more to get a third item, an “All” materia. I really want that… let’s try it.
-This is really interesting. I don’t see a straightforward way to get to the third item. Maybe some secret drop in the air duct?
-No luck. I think I’ll actually hold off for now to try the 64th floor, in case there’s a way to drop down to the Coupon C item room. If not, I’ll come back and get items A and B.
---
Shinra Building - 64th Floor
-This place seems to be a fitness and rest center.
-I spend 250g on a health drink. Doesn’t do anything at the moment.
-There’s something in a locker here, but I can’t take it with me. Hm. Another puzzle.
-So. There’s a bathroom out of order, the Shinra head of security lifting weights, an energy drink machine, but no matter how I try, I keep failing to make any sense of this all. The Shinra Building as a whole has made me feel like a massively clueless doofus. Gah.
-Whatever. Moving on. Back to 63, I pick up the Star Pendant and Four Slots.
---
Shinra Building - 65th Floor
-Lots of rooms here, but no people. The only open chest here had “Midgar Parts,” parts of a city model.
-In the middle of the floor is a big model of Midgar. Broken in parts. I replace one of the missing parts, which opens up something somewhere else on the floor. This floor feels vaguely Zelda-esque.
Cool-looking monsters guarding the Midgar model.
-Cloud: “When construction of sector 6 finishes, Shinra’s plan will be complete. That must be why he took Aeris…” Still lost as hell. I don’t know if I’m supposed to be lost, or if I’m just really slow on picking things up. Probably the latter. Is he saying that Aeris’s Ancient magic powers will speed up the construction? Like she’s a Breaker in the Dark Tower series?
-I also learn that Midgar is made from Mako. Cool. But if my theory that Mako is human souls is true, then also terrifying.
-Completed the model, got the keycard.
---
Shinra Building - 66th Floor
-Random worker: “Hey, when you’re in the bathroom, do you ever hear whispers from from somewhere else?” AAAAUGH CREEPY
-Oh, not so much. We’re able to climb into the ducts and listen to a board meeting. I was thinking it was going to be a Moaning Myrtle thing.
-They’re not rebuilding Sector 7. Instead, restarting the “neo-Midgar” plan. “The Promised Land will soon be ours.” I don’t know what this means, but I’m pretty sure that I don’t want President Shinra getting into the Promised Land.
Spying on the board meeting.
-Plans to raise the rate of Mako by 15%, but someone else worries the people will lose confidence. What does this mean? They’re selling Mako? Or the rate they’re harvesting it? How will any of this make people lose confidence? Confidence in what? Why am I so bad at understanding things?
-An evil Scientist, Hojo, reports that Aeris is like 18% worse than her mother, Ifalna, as a subject. That was probably the woman who handed off Aeris to Elmyra at the train station. These experiments must have brought her to death’s door.
In case you wonder why I call him “evil” after spending like two seconds with the guy.
Random female worker: “Whew, I’m so tired from carrying all these files. But I get to meet lots of guys! That’s the benefit of being a secretary.” Uh…. Hm. Yeah.
-We follow Evil Scientist Hojo up to the 67th Floor.
---
Next time: Higher up in the Shinra Building.
