FFVII – Part 16: War Buddies

Summary: Cloud begins to tell the story of the nature (and eventual breaking) of his relationship with Sephiroth. Flashback to them after the war, on the way to a faulty Mako reactor near Nibelheim.


Overworld

-We’re in the overworld for the first time! Huzzah! It’s surprisingly dark compared to every other main overworld in the FF series (not counting, like, the moon in FFIV or the dark world in FFV).

-I head northeast.

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Kalm

-The full party regroups at the inn.

-Ooh, exposition time! The story of Cloud and Sephiroth.

-Cloud joined SOLDIER to be like Sephiroth. They worked together and became friends. “War buddies.” It was SOLDIER’s duty after the war (against who?) to put down resistance to Shinra. Ah, so SOLDIER is Shinra’s military wing. What are the Turks then? Some kind of special forces type deal?

-This was five years ago, when Cloud was 16. So he’s 21. About what I thought, maybe a bit older.

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Flashback - Train

-Some soldiers on a train, with Cloud and a silver-haired dude. Is that Sephiroth?

-Cloud’s pretty warm here, checking in with how the other soldiers are doing. Interesting change from the colder Cloud we see today.

-Oh, he’s wired. Maybe that’s why. He got some new Materia that he’s eager to try. It is Sephiroth.

The squad leader it seems. And a war hero. Cloud signs up for the missions because he only made First Class before the war ended, and wants to take every opportunity to win glory.

-They’re about to attack an old Mako reactor that’s malfunctioning, creating lots of angry beasties. In Nibelheim. (Hee! Fun name.) Cloud’s from Nibelheim!

-The train gets attacked by a Monster.

IT’S A HUGE FUCKING GREEN DRAGON AWESOME

-Sephiroth does thousands of damage, and has an awesome sword. Dunno if it’s the same sword as was in President Shinra’s back, but it’s much more slender than Cloud’s ridiculously proportioned sword now. There’s a name for the one Sephiroth has, but I can’t think of it. Not a rapier. …GAH. Can’t think of it.

-The dragon knocks out Cloud, and Sephiroth finishes it off. It sounds like in canon Cloud just was a bystander, in awe at the strength of the master warrior Sephiroth, though in the combat mechanics the dragon knocked Cloud out.

(Btw, the victory flourish Sephiroth gives as he sheathes his sword looks really cool.)

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Flashback – Nibelheim

-They reach the town. Sephiroth claims to not have a hometown. His mother is Jenova (?!!?! I guess this is not a specific creature, but rather a race) and he doesn’t say who his father is.

Entering Nibelheim.

-The town was quiet. Everyone was afraid of the monsters. “Or maybe they were afraid of us.” Much like Avalanche, I like this duality of how people in this world aren’t sure which is the “good” or “bad” side.

-CREEPY ARGALDHJDKLS

-Ok, so Sephiroth released Cloud. They walk to the reactor at dawn, and Cloud can chill until then. Cloud walked into a house, and a woman walked up to him. The screen went white and static sounded briefly, then she disappeared. Or wasn’t there. IS THIS “TOTAL RECALL” OR SOMETHING??? More memories merging with reality.

-The storytelling here is really interesting. Cloud in the flashback walks into a house, says it was his house, then is about to leave when we hear Barret and Aeris both interject, wanting more. His mom was alive then, and healthy, but died a few days later.

-AND NOW WE SEE THE SCENE HE FLASHED TO EARLIER. “The girls must never leave you alone,” etc., where she tells him to find an older girlfriend. His mother.

-We keep flashing around. It’s hard to tell whether it’s a storytelling technique to skip passages of time, or whether the skips are lost memories in Cloud’s head.

-He went to Tifa’s house. To Tifa’s room.

-Where… he takes “Orthopedic Underwear”?

LOL – he’s just fucking around. Can tell Tifa whether he’s kidding or not. I say he’s kidding, since stealing underwear is… yeah, no.

-He plays the piano a bit. Do-re-mi-ti-la. Do-re-mi-so-fa-do-re-do. (Writing it down in case it’s important later. Piano playing was a thing in FFV.)

-At another house, a mother and her kids know Cloud. The kids want him to fight the monsters.

-We see Tifa’s father outside. He tells Cloud to stay away from Tifa.

-That seems to be as far as we can progress. There’s a mansion that Cloud says he’ll come back to, and a path to Mt. Nibel, which he’ll tell everyone about later.

-In the inn, we meet Zangan. A martial arts teacher who taught Tifa.

-Sephiroth’s looking out the window. “I feel like I know this place.” I feel like that’s not just a throwaway line.

-Bed time.

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Next time: Flashback continues to the reactor.