Banora – Factory
-Break into the factory is successful.
-Fighting off some bad guys… still not sure what this factory produces really. Maybe it’s PEOPLE.
-………….ok, wtf game. I was joking. It was a cute little throwaway “Soylent Green” joke. But the factory is literally producing people. This is the factory where Genesis makes his copies.
-A voice: “Infinite in mystery is the gift of the goddess. [Jenova?] We seek it thus and take to the sky. Ripples form on the water’s surface. The wandering soul knows no rest.”
It’s a dude in red. From the flashback, it may be Genesis.
-LOLOL – Genesis: “Settle down, Zack the Puppy.” This ANNOYS THE FUCK OUT OF ZACK and I’ll never get tired of hearing it.
-In addition to Genesis reading poetry or whatever, he’s got a soldier clone floating in a tank nearby that’s very reminiscent of the clone tanks in the Mt. Nibel Reactor.
-OH SHIT he just ROASTED Tseng with fire! “Shinra lapdogs!” Wait, does this mean Genesis is the good guy because he’s fighting Shinra? I keep forgetting we’re on Team Evil basically.
Things are not what they seem… I’m just not sure HOW they’re not what they seem.
-HJDFKLSHL AND ANGEAL STEPS FROM THE SHADOWS. AWESOME. Seems to be actually going against Genesis.
-He respects Angeal’s decision, sort of, and Angeal lets Genesis walk away. Intense shit right here.
-Not sure where everyone went. But some demon puppies attack and Tseng saves Zack.
TSENG: “All evidence of misconduct must be erased. Company rules.” This game has me liking Tseng so much that I keep needing stuff like that to remind me that he’s basically a corporate special ops guy. He’s calling in an airstrike to “neutralize” the compromised town, so Zack runs off to save Angeal’s mom first.
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Banora - Residential
-Wait… I was mistaken. GENESIS is the one who’s about to bombard the town. Zack has to slash incoming shells with his sword. (lol)
-This sounds like a mini-game. I have to pay attention to the sound and color of the shells. Um. I hope that makes sense in context.
-This is some bullet-time bullshit right here.
-I destroy nine consecutive shells, but they unexpectedly change the camera angle for the tenth to a shell’s-eye-view and it hits me. Ok. That’s really frustrating – I’m curious what would’ve happened if I hit the tenth. Got flustered by the angle change. Grrrr.
-DAMMIT IT’S A TIMED EVENT. AND NOW I CAN PICK UP THE GREEN GLOWY THINGS, BUT NOT ENOUGH TIME TO GET THEM ALL GRRRRR
Hate. Timers. So. Much.
-Got some of them. Tseng delayed the airstrike a bit, and gave me 900gil.
-Aaaaand Angeal’s mom is dead. With Angeal standing over her body.
-Zack rages out and stars beating the crap out of Angeal. “What the hell did you do?!” “Is that your idea of honor?” Etc. Though I’m pretty sure Angeal just saw the aftermath rather than killed her himself.
-uuuuum
-so
-Did Angeal just admit to killing his mother? “My mother could not continue to live… and the son” or something. Wtf broseph.
-THERE’S GENESIS. He got Angeal on his side I guess. Angeal walks away.
-Genesis is like the world’s most annoying English major this side of Metatron. What are you up to?
-……………………….
-You’ve got to be shitting me.
-Genesis summoned freaking Bahamut to attack me.
-This is horribly ironic. As Zack went to attack, he got a phase modulation and remembered Angeal. Images flashing in Zack’s mind about Angeal teaching him about honor, training him, mentoring him. Poor Zack.
-Well. I knew I outleveled this, but still. Bahamut didn’t get the chance to attack. Just got whomped.
-WHATTTTATTATT
-Genesis: “We are… monsters.”
And then he sprouted a single black wing, a la Sephiroth. Is Genesis a Jenova-cell-carrier? (Can’t remember if every SOLDIER member carries that.)
GENESIS: “We have neither dreams nor honor.” Then flies up into the sky on his one wing, soaring away. Leaving Zack alone as a confused mess amidst a sea of falling black feathers.
ZACK: “SOLDIER… doesn’t mean monster.” You keep telling yourself that, buddy. For now at least, though there are enough seeds of doubt to start a garden at this point.
-The airstrike begins. [I was wrong before again – it is Shinra’s airstrike.]
-Tseng flies in on his helicopter to pick up Zack, who watches the orchards, symbolic of Angeal’s honor, burning.
-Fade out. Title screen with Genesis’s smirking face.
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Next time: Jump forward in time.
