FFVII – Part 71: Heartless Angel

Summary: First crack at Sephiroth. It… doesn’t go well. I’m slow on the uptake and confused about the mechanics, and then his second form, the angelic octopus, kills me.


Northern Cave – Bottom

-He looks like he’s got on Jenova riding him or welded to his head or something. Like Jenova, he’s not saying anything.

The bizarrely named Bizarro Sephiroth.

-Seems to have three parts.

-This fight is really confusing. Not sure what the value of splitting the party. Not sure what part of Bizarro Sephiroth is casting what spell. His head died and then was revived. Somehow? Whatever.

-It keeps asking me if I’m worried about my other party members. Not really I guess, but not sure what I should do.

-I killed a few different Sephiroth parts, but when I switched to the other party, those parts are alive again. ???

-Sephiroth A keeps healing. B keeps reviving. C is invincible. I’ve been going round in circles for a while.

-Killed B. AGAIN. New plan: Keep attacking A, then cast Reflect on A when B revives so that the heals go to me. Asura style.

-It didn’t work. Reflect didn’t block the heal. WTF AM I SUPPOSED TO DO. B keeps reviving. This is pretty boring.

-It’s just spamming heals on itself, and I’m about to turn the game off.

“Head Portion (B) Revived.”
“Head Portion (B) Revived.”
“Head Portion (B) Revived.”
“Head Portion (B) Revived.”
“Head Portion (B) Revived.”
“Head Portion (B) Revived.”
“Head Portion (B) Revived.”

FHDKLSFHDSHFDJKLSHFLLDS

He just keeps healing himself. OVER AND OVER AND OVER. WHAT THE FUCKING FUCKING FUCK

-God in heaven this is so boring

-If I had a SAVE POINT I’d take a break and come back with a fresh mind, since I’m sure I’m missing something. Grrrrr.

-Ok. Trying a different strat. Switching to the other party and killing all the stuff again.

-Barret’s weapon is completely ineffectual. Did I accidentally equip him with some garbage low level weapon?

-Ok. That must’ve been it. Now part C is the only one that’s left… and I still can’t do any damage. Probably have to swap to the left party and kill the body yet again.

-At the left party, and we’re back to Bizarro Energy heal spam. WTFFFFFFFFFFFFF

-YES! Killed a hiding part E with the right party, and now the core is down.

I should’ve paid closer attention to this early in the fight.

-BUT I SWITCHED BACK TO THE LEFT PARTY AND EVERYTHING REVIVED AGAIN????

-This game is doing just an awful job of explaining/showing what is happening in the fight.

-Now the core defense for Cloud’s party is down. Why? Dunno. Moving on.

-And we’re back to Bizarro Healing. But at least I can damage part C now.

-Part C is dead. But I’m still stuck in this hell.

-It tells me to swap to another party when a part dies. I’ve been doing that for a while now, but that can’t be the right way. I’m now on the right party with nothing to attack. This is a nightmare. WHY IS PART A ALIVE FOR THE LEFT PARTY BUT NOT AVAILABLE FOR THE RIGHT PARTY

-HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DEFEAT PART A’S HEALING

-FINALLY

-Something new happened. It cast “Heartless Angel.”

-Killed part B. Yet again. It asks me to swap to the other party, but fuck that. Not falling for that again. Going to try going HAM on the middle part, part A.

-DAMMIT I ACCIDENTALLY CLICKED TO SWITCH PARTIES

-now I have to wait until part b revives.

-It’s stopped healing its body for some reason. Ok.

-holy lord

-I think he’s dead. I mean, I’m sure he’ll have more forms, but yeesh. 

Safer Octop… ahem, Sephiroth.

-He’s now like a weird octopus angel who lost his left wing in a tragic harping accident. If Ursula died and went to heaven, this is what she might look like.

-Oh shit, “Super Nova” is killing me with math formulas

-hahahhaa – sorry, I know this is supposed to be super dramatic, but it’s showing a comet streaking and blowing up Pluto and Saturn and shit on its way here XD XD

-P.S. A meal is as good as a feast with spell effects imo. I get this is the end boss, but still - this is taking waaaay too long. Just get back to the damage and show me if I died. Though at least it gives me some time to sit back and appreciate the music. Really like it.

-And I’m dead. DOING THAT WHOLE DUNGEON OVER JESUS FUCKING CHRIST.

-God is this not fun. No dialogue with that whole fight either. No clue what Jenova’s thinking or who she is. No clue what Sephiroth’s thinking or where his motivation’s at right now. No idea what he feels, or how he feels about Cloud and his party, or anything.

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Next time: We try again. I got this!

[Post-session note: I got pretty frustrated this session. It was a tough fight, but I’m sure it was fair. Some of the frustrations in this still feel legitimate in hindsight, like the lack of interaction and dialogue or clarity in the first phase, but some of it was just me being imperceptive about the first phase’s mechanics, part salty/nervous about the potential of having to redo the dungeon.

Apologies if it sounds negative at times, but it is what it is, and I wanted to preserve that initial reaction. I’ll kick ass next time! ]