Reactor
-Picked up “Restore Materia.” I wonder if Materia will be this game’s version of espers.
-Down the hall, we move to start the reactor. Barret may be a specialist in this it sounds like, not sure, but Cloud eventually does it.
-And the screen goes red for some reason. He hears a voice saying it’s not just a reactor. CREEPY. I think that was just in Cloud’s head at least, as Barret seems unaffected.
-First boss comes!
“Guard Scorpion.”
It’s like the first boss in FFVI (the snail thingy) and FFIV (the Mist Dragon) in that it has a phase where we’re supposed to chill. When it’s tail is up, we don’t attack, and the fight goes fine.
-TEN MINUTES TO DETONATION? ALREADY? DAMMIT. If you’re new to this playthrough of the FF series, I fucking detest timed stuff. This is early in the game so I don’t expect it to be hard, but still.
-Backtracking. We grab Jessie and Biggs on the way and get out.
-Cool explosion scene as the reactor blows!
Final Fantasy VII, by Michael Bay.
-We get to some tunnel, and Jessie rigs some explosives to blow a hole out of wherever we are. We’ll regroup at Sector 8 Station.
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The City To Be Named Later Or That Possibly Was Named Already But I Didn’t Notice
-Hey, it’s the person with the flower from the start of the game!
Her name currently is just “Flower Girl.”
-We get some dialogue options for the first time, and buy a flower from her. For… reasons? I mean, my guess is flirtation and that this will be a love interest, but we’ll see.
-The city has graffiti/writing about Shinra and Mako.
So Shinra’s the evil corporation destroying the planet for its resources, and Mako is the life source energy thing that is being destroyed. Like Gaia maybe, from FFIII iirc, or even Gaia’s byproducts.
-Also, Avalanche are the “Protectors of the Planet” according to the same writing.
-Some soldiers find Cloud in the streets. He kills a few, gets surrounded, and then JUMPS ONTO A TRAIN BELOW TO ESCAPE HAHAHA - he's surly, but he's got some game.
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The Train
-The rest of the gang is on the train, discussing whether Cloud’s okay, whether he’ll stay and fight for Avalanche. Maybe he’ll get to be “Heart.”
-Cloud then swings in to the door like a ninja gymnast, surprising everyone. Barret grumps that Cloud’s just making a scene, and Cloud responds with “I’m not making a big scene. It’s just what I do.”
Really, Cloud?
-This line gives us the first cuss word of the FF series from Barret. Granted, that cuss word is “(*^%,” but I’ll still count it as a milestone.
-They all leave. Barret’s annoyed with Cloud, Wedge is impressed, and Jessie seems to flirt with Cloud sort of by wiping some smudge off his face. Hard to say, and these graphics make it really hard to tell whether it’d be age appropriate to ship these two, but even if it is I’ll have to say that Jessie (who I think is female based on the spelling) could probably do better. Cloud’s kind of an ass so far.
-They move up to the next train car, and one look at Barret’s warm and friendly visage makes some spiky-haired punks leave.
-Next stop: Station 7, “Train Graveyard.” MAYBE WE’LL SEE THE PHANTOM TRAIN?? Probably not.
-Oh, hey! The other guy is Wedge! Hooray for both Wedge and Biggs being in this, the third game! (I don’t think they were in FFV at least.)
-Jessie explains the Midgar Station to Cloud. The city is Midgar. There are 8 reactors, and we just blew up number one.
-No more towns any more, just numbered districts. Katniss will save us!
-The… wait, “the city doesn’t have day or night.” Am I reading that right? Are we in an underground city, Matrix style? But then he calls it a floating city. So maybe we’re in a floating, domed city… Hm.
-I think I sort of see now. So there’s a lower city that’s full of crap and pollution and probably poverty, and an upper city (that Barret calls a pizza lol) which is probably much better and wealthier. People stay below either because they love their home no matter what or because it’s too expensive to move up to “the Plate.”
-We get off the train and head back to the hideout.
-Some kids hanging around here talk about ghosts in the train graveyard. Maybe the phantom train thing wasn’t a joke.
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Next time: the hideout.
