Summary:
The hideout. We meet Tifa. Cloud decides to honor a childhood
promise, and signs on with Avalanche for the moment. Cloud explains
some shit.
Hideout
-Some kid shows me a pillar of some sort near the hideout.
Not quite sure what I’m looking at, but it’s probably important since we get this cutscene zooming up on the thing.
-Oh SHIT! Apparently, lots of innocent people got killed when we took out that reactor because we did it during business hours. Wow. Um.
I love the techy-ramshackle look of the hideout.
-Not sure what “Slot” or “Growth” mean in the equipment menu yet.
-Another random dude here says Avalanche is bad news, that they’re more “kill as many people as possible” than “save the whales.” Hey, FFVII! Stop fucking with the standard good-rebels-evil-corporation narrative I was expecting!
(jk)
-New playable character in the bar who seems friendly. Friendlier than Barret, though that’s a low bar.
The bartender, Tifa.
-Pretty music in this bar.
-WEDGE: “Even if you were with SOLDIER, you’re still a rookie here.” This is grammatically weird to me. I thought that Cloud was an ex-soldier, as in a former military man. This sentence makes it seem like SOLDIER is a group, an organization. Hm.
-Aw! Barret and Marlene.
-LOLOL – Barret just punched Wedge into the ceiling.
-Cloud wants to leave the whole Avalanche thing, but Tifa reminds him of a promise. Flashback time!
---
Flashback – Childhood Town
-He’s sitting in a town outside with Tifa, on a rooftop on a beautiful moonlit night.
-Even back then, he wanted to come to Midgar to join SOLDIER.
WTF? I thought he would be the bad guy. I still do, but maybe he won’t be as unabashedly bad as Kefka. Or possibly a Good Guy Fallen/Corrupted.
-The promise: if Tifa’s ever “in a bind,” Cloud will help her.
---
Present-Day Hideout
-Barret pays up, and Cloud agrees to stay on for 2000g. Money that was supposed to go to Marlene’s schooling. WAY TO GO CLOUD.
-We get a basic tutorial on Materia. It seems very esper-ish, but equipped in weapon Slot. Still confused as hell despite Cloud saying it would be simple, but I think I’ll understand it more as I try it out.
LOL THANK YOU BARRET
-Ok, we get a barrage of tutorial stuff. Some of it’s pretty funny to see, because it includes the advice to “chill out” if the game makes you upset or if you die. Don’t throw your CDs or hurt your computer!
-Interesting. Unlike prior FFs, you don’t automatically have the option to cast spells on everyone. Can only do that with linked slots where one of the links is “All.”
-Materia seems primarily different from espers in that players don’t learn the esper magic. Magic seems solely tied to whether the materia is equipped at the time.
-HEY. AUTOCORRECT. STOP TRYING TO CHANGE “MATERIA” TO “MATERIAL.” I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING.
-Wait… so materia CAN grow/merge/whatever? Confused again.
-Apparently, there’s something mysterious that can be done at a save point, but they won’t tell me what yet.
-“Fury” and “sadness” sound a lot like the lunar cycles in FFIV:TAY.
-That’s a lot. Gonna stop for now.
---
Next time: leaving tutorial land, and onto the next reactor.
Hideout
-Some kid shows me a pillar of some sort near the hideout.
Not quite sure what I’m looking at, but it’s probably important since we get this cutscene zooming up on the thing.
-Oh SHIT! Apparently, lots of innocent people got killed when we took out that reactor because we did it during business hours. Wow. Um.
I love the techy-ramshackle look of the hideout.
-Not sure what “Slot” or “Growth” mean in the equipment menu yet.
-Another random dude here says Avalanche is bad news, that they’re more “kill as many people as possible” than “save the whales.” Hey, FFVII! Stop fucking with the standard good-rebels-evil-corporation narrative I was expecting!
(jk)
-New playable character in the bar who seems friendly. Friendlier than Barret, though that’s a low bar.
The bartender, Tifa.
-Pretty music in this bar.
-WEDGE: “Even if you were with SOLDIER, you’re still a rookie here.” This is grammatically weird to me. I thought that Cloud was an ex-soldier, as in a former military man. This sentence makes it seem like SOLDIER is a group, an organization. Hm.
-Aw! Barret and Marlene.
-LOLOL – Barret just punched Wedge into the ceiling.
-Cloud wants to leave the whole Avalanche thing, but Tifa reminds him of a promise. Flashback time!
---
Flashback – Childhood Town
-He’s sitting in a town outside with Tifa, on a rooftop on a beautiful moonlit night.
-Even back then, he wanted to come to Midgar to join SOLDIER.
WTF? I thought he would be the bad guy. I still do, but maybe he won’t be as unabashedly bad as Kefka. Or possibly a Good Guy Fallen/Corrupted.
-The promise: if Tifa’s ever “in a bind,” Cloud will help her.
---
Present-Day Hideout
-Barret pays up, and Cloud agrees to stay on for 2000g. Money that was supposed to go to Marlene’s schooling. WAY TO GO CLOUD.
-We get a basic tutorial on Materia. It seems very esper-ish, but equipped in weapon Slot. Still confused as hell despite Cloud saying it would be simple, but I think I’ll understand it more as I try it out.
LOL THANK YOU BARRET
-Ok, we get a barrage of tutorial stuff. Some of it’s pretty funny to see, because it includes the advice to “chill out” if the game makes you upset or if you die. Don’t throw your CDs or hurt your computer!
-Interesting. Unlike prior FFs, you don’t automatically have the option to cast spells on everyone. Can only do that with linked slots where one of the links is “All.”
-Materia seems primarily different from espers in that players don’t learn the esper magic. Magic seems solely tied to whether the materia is equipped at the time.
-HEY. AUTOCORRECT. STOP TRYING TO CHANGE “MATERIA” TO “MATERIAL.” I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING.
-Wait… so materia CAN grow/merge/whatever? Confused again.
-Apparently, there’s something mysterious that can be done at a save point, but they won’t tell me what yet.
-“Fury” and “sadness” sound a lot like the lunar cycles in FFIV:TAY.
-That’s a lot. Gonna stop for now.
---
Next time: leaving tutorial land, and onto the next reactor.
