The Highwind
-As much as I love Yuffie, Nanaki, and Cait Sith, I feel it’s most appropriate to keep Barret and Tifa in my party.
-Talked to Yuffie, and she wants Cloud to sign a contract that she gets all the materia after the war. Lol. He doesn’t sign.
-LOL – Tifa asks Cloud to tell her things will be alright. An option menu appears.
-Cid talks about a play, “LOVELESS,” that’s been going since he was a kid. When I first said I hadn’t seen it, it ended the conversation. When I then said I had, he opened up more. Saw it when he was training as a pilot. Fell asleep, and someone told him his snoring was too loud.
He woke up for that ending, when the sister of a character says, “Do you really have to leave?” The guy responds, “I made a promise. People I love are waiting.” That whole exchange, that whole scene, now clicks with him in a way it didn’t before. Cool.
-Nanaki continues to be awesome.
-We head down into the crater.
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Northern Cave
-A gargoyle casts “Level 4 Death” on us, but to my surprise it we don’t learn it as an Enemy Skill.
-Huh. An item outside the cave is something we can use to create a save point.
-This place has a very “final dungeon” feel to it, but the game says we just finished part 2. If this is part 3, there’s gotta be a lot left. Unless part 3 is just a finale, a coda.
-I really hate the character select controls in combat in this game. It’s totally unreliable how to switch my cursor from one character to another. Sometimes I press left, sometimes up, sometimes right… bad job, game.
-NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
-TONBERRY. Not just any Tonberry, but “Master Tonberry.” Dammit.
-He one shots Cloud and Tifa with “Everyone’s Grudge” quickly, despite them having Safety Bits. Wtf.
[Later edit: On further encounters with this jerkface, I notice it just does huge damage rather than being an instant death mechanic. It only one-shots Cloud.]
-How the fuck is this a random encounter and not, say, a final boss fight?
-Survived. Somehow. Jesus. Creating a save point here to rest up.
-Next fight. Thank goodness! It’s just a giant evil dragon. If it were another tadpole, I’d have rage quit.
-Made it to the bottom of the drop. We split into two groups. This makes me nervous, because I haven’t really geared up more than a few of us. Also, WAS THAT ONE THING OUR ONLY SAVE POINT?
The worst final dungeon in the series by far was Final Fantasy III. It was a massive gauntlet full of nasty random encounters and brutal bosses and sub-bosses, with basically zero save points. Maybe one? I just hope the series isn’t repeating that.
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Left Party
-Cloud, Nanaki, and Yuffie. Cait Sith is sitting out.
Current materia set-up:
Cloud:
Weapon: HP Plus, Lightning, [Added Cut + Earth], Counter Attack, Cover
Armor: Long Range, Leviathan, [All + Restore], [Steal + Destruct]
Nanaki:
Weapon: [All + Restore], [All + Time], [All + Heal]
Armor: Exit, Lightning, Sense, Fire, Ice, Bahamut, Kujata
Yuffie:
Weapon: [All + Restore], [Added Effect + Ice], [All + Revive]
Armor: Time, Phoenix, [All + Barrier], Enemy Skill, Neo Bahamut, [MP Absorb + Comet]
Part of the reason I’m writing this all down is because it took a while to match those all up, and I’m freaked out that if I die and don’t find another save point, I’ll have to rejigger these all again.
-Oh man, our party splits yet AGAIN! Cait Sith and Yuffie head up, Cloud and Nanaki head down.
-A German eyeball mob (“Allemagne”) appears. Thankfully, it’s not “Ahriman,” and doesn’t do that terrifying haste + death sentence attack he’s known for.
-Ran into another Master Tonberry in my little party of just Cloud and Nanaki. Thank the sweet lord that I had equipped an Exit materia on Nanaki. We escape.
-Got a pretty neat materia: “MegaAll.” Adds “All” to every action.
-We reach a bottom of sorts, and Tifa and Cait Sith both arrive. Huh. Does this mean I don’t get to play as the other sub-parties?
-Tifa found “Mythril” and gave it to us. If there’s a part after this cave, I’m definitely taking this to the weapon crafter who needed metal. If I were a betting man, I’d be he’ll give us Excaliber.
-LOL – everyone gives Cloud something they found. Mythril, remedy, etc. Yuffie pretends she didn’t find anything until Cait Sith calls her out.
-Gotta reiterate how freaked out I am that there’s no more save points yet…
“They’re coming!” Who’s coming? Not sure. Only three can move on, so I go with Cloud, Nanaki, and Yuffie because their materia are set up already.
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Next time: deeper into the North Cave.
