Rocket Town
-We head north from Mt. Nibel to find a town.
-There’s a ginormous rusty rocket in town.
Chekhov’s rusty rocket? (…maybe not. Sounds like something from Urban Dictionary.)
-The music is bouncy and mischievous… hey, it’s the Wall Market theme!
-The “Captain” runs this town. He was a former Shinra astronaut (!!!), back when they were trying to build a space program.
-The weapon store is run by a gun fanatic. Comforting.
-A lot of strange details in the town. The gun fanatic, someone in the bathroom at the Shanghai Inn, someone looking at a painting on the wall wondering if it’s real or fake. Oh god… wouldn’t it be awesome if Relm were a recurring character the way Kain and Cid are?
-Some of the townsfolk clearly don’t know they’re in a Final Fantasy game. They jinx themselves. HARD.
-Behind someone’s home is a pink airplane, “Tiny Bronco.”
A woman named Shera comes out and introduces herself – seems like she works with the Captain and was expecting new Shinra approval for the space program.
-OH FUCK RUFUS IS COMING HERE
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Rocket Launch Pad
-CID IS THE CAPTAIN I LITERALLY MENTIONED HIS NAME LIKE TWO MINUTES AGO AND NOW HE’S HERE HAHAHAHA I’M LAUGHCRYING THIS IS AWESOME
-Shinra was a weapons manufacturer before it was a Mako producer, and the rocket design was part of that. They had a major space program, but Shera messed up somehow and now Shinra just does Mako.
-And Cid’s only hope for restarting the space program is to talk to the new President.
-Oh boy. Yet again, Cid seems like a decent guy whose talents are being used by the bad guys.
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Rocket Town
-Someone in town gives us “Yoshiyuki.” It’s a sword that gives Cloud better attack and worse defense than his Rune Blade. It activates when an ally falls – auto-phoenix down maybe? But it has fewer materia slots and normal growth rather than double. I’ll stick with Rune Blade.
-Bought some new materia from the shop: “Barrier” and “Exit.”
-Back at Cid’s house, he actually acts like a major dick to Shera.
Cid acting like a jackass. Part one of many.
AERIS: “Sheesh! What bad manners.” At least he gets called out on it. I know he’s raging at something, but lay off Shera.
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Flashback – Preparation for the Launch of No. 26
-It’s not just a bad mood. He was being a major dick to Shera even then. She’s checking the oxygen tank more than he’d like, but he’s confident it’s fine. (prediction: it’s probably not fine.)
-And he’s totally not a dick to the guys he works with, just with Shera.
-Countdown begins.
-An emergency though! An engineer is still in the engine section.
-OH GOD SHERA
-SHERA
-She’s worried about the unsatisfactory results of the oxygen test, and is willing to sacrifice her own life to make sure her tests are accurate and the rocket launches successfully.
-We actually see the countdown as Cid decides whether to launch the rocket and kill her or not launch and wait 6 moths. Although I know the outcome, it’s really well done.
-WAIT WHAT
-HE LAUNCHED. HE IGNITED
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Rocket Town
-Nm. Just after igniting, he aborted.
-I’ll just say this: Fuck Cid. If he had only waited like a day until his engineer felt the tests were sufficient, he wouldn’t have had to go through that. And now he’s preying on her guilt to keep her attached to him and constantly cussing at her and yelling at her?
Fuck. That. There’s a line between “lovably gruff” and “manipulatively abusive.” And it’s not even that fine a line. I’m sure it’ll turn out that she didn’t mind, and that he really loves her, and she accepts it because of reasons, but still. He’s been acting like this towards her for SIX YEARS.
I feel like the game’s trying to say, “Hooray! What a swell guy! He stopped short of murdering her!” Want a gold medal? Fuck that.
-Rufus has arrived. He doesn’t want to restart the space program, but rather to take Tiny Bronco. Sephiroth flew across the ocean (I thought he was heading atop Mt. Nibel, no? Maybe I misunderstood, or maybe that’s only eventually he’ll return to Mt. Nibel.)
-While Cid and Rufus are arguing, Shera directs us to the plane, where one of Rufus’s henchmen is guarding it. Boss fight.
Palmer.
-Easy fight… but Palmer’s taunting us? Like, dancing, laughing, and smacking his butt. Um.
-He moves to leave, to get on the plane and fly away.
-UNTIL A TRUCK HITS HIM LOLOL – that was Shera, right? I wish we could get her as a playable character rather than Cid.
-We hop on the plane and fly away.
-Cid hops onto the plane with us, and we fly away, but one of the Shinra soldiers shot the plane’s tail.
-We crash land on the water, and have to pursue Sephiroth to the Temple of the Ancients. Cid will join us. Bleh. (Sorry – I’m sure lots of people love him, and I did in past games, but seeing how he treated and played on her guilt when it was at least as much if not more his doing as hers, makes me really angry.)
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Next time: to the Temple of the Ancients.
