Shinra Building
-Zack seems to be talking to Angeal as if he’s writing him a letter or just talking to him in his head.
-Huge jump in time! The war is over. No sign of Angeal since that day.
-Sephiroth calls Zack on the phone, telling him to head to Lazard’s room.
-Kunsel emails Zack telling him about Hojo, who’s now in the Shinra Building. He titles the email “Angel in White?”
Um… no.
[-Oh, hey! I just started the game up for my next session and saw that the title screen is Zack standing amidst feathers. Some black, but some look to be white. Hm.]
-Time to clear some new missions.
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Mission: Genesis’s Forces > Genesis’s Forces on the March > Foes on the Waterfront
-Some Genesis troops near the coast.
-Just some of those generic assassins and their attack puppies.
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Mission: Genesis’s Forces > Genesis’s Forces on the March > Massive Machines
-Soldiers in a cave. This campaign I guess is about wiping out his forces, but I’m curious about what the campaign’s later stages will be like.
-More mechs in this cave, but nothing new. That’s all I have so far from this campaign.
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Mission: Hojo’s Laboratory > Sample Monsters Lv. 1 > Experiment No. 102
-Hojo has a sample of Bahamut for me to fight. This is… weird. Seeing Bahamut as one of the intro-level summons, I mean. In FFI he was the gateway to power via a class change, and in everything since he’s basically been a god. Now he’s Monster #2.
-He’s tougher this time than when Genesis first summoned him. When I try to run behind him for a critical hit, he slaps me away, and sometimes uses Jump.
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Mission: Zack, the Materia Hunter > Starting Out > Clash with Genesis Troops
-Genesis’s troops are stealing Shinra’s stuff, so Zack has to get it back.
-Just noticed that my Libra materia is different from past games. It’s no longer a spell I cast that tells me the monster’s hp and weaknesses. Instead, it just grants me some passive detection of enemy status.
-Desert mission. Dogs and soldiers.
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Mission: Zack, the Materia Hunter > Starting Out > Rematch with Bahamut
-I think I see the pattern here. Someone attacks Zack with a summon (first fight). Hojo replicates that summon in a virtual setting (second fight). And then Shinra reverse engineers the materia’s true location (third fight).
-Oh god, Bahamut’s casting something new called “Laser Orbs.”
It’s a series of light orbs that spam me, but I got saved by the modulation. (Whenever I get a “modulating phase” – what’s that called, btw, limit verge? – any attacks headed my way get blocked. It’s a nice get-out-of-jail-free card.)
-AAARGH THIS VERSION HAS MEGA FLARE
Bahamut soared into outer space, charged up…
…and released!
-Awesome cinematic. Hurts like hell, and also seems to have drained all my mana and AP.
-Turns out I can outrun the Laser Orbs.
-Phew! Survived it. That was a nasty fight, as befitting Bahamut.
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Mission: Zack, the Materia Hunter > Starting Out > Escape from Hojo’s Lab
-A monster escaped from Hojo’s lab which I have to kill. If this is one of Nanaki’s family, I’m going to freak out.
-Open field for this mission. Some floating eyes and chickens. The boss is some kind of souped-up demon ostrich thing.
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Mission: Zack, the Materia Hunter > Starting Out > Mystery Materia
-Some kind of mysterious materia was found in a cave. Final mission of this sub-campaign.
-Some bugs and the occasional mandragora in the cave.
-uuuuuhhhh
-wtf is that
-“Hungry.” It chased me a bit, I dodged it, then whacked it from behind with my sword until dead.
-AND GOT AN ODIN MATERIA? That seems… disproportionate to the goofy little critter I just defeated.
-That’s the end of the sub-campaign for now. The next sub-campaign, “To Hell and Back,” opened up, but the first mission is “Very Hard” so I’ll hold off for now.
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Next time: back to the main story by talking to Sephiroth.
