FFVII Crisis Core – Part 17: Get Back, Hojo

Summary: The war in Wutai has ended. Zack gets promoted to SOLDIER First Class, but seems grumpier than usual. He goes through some tests with the horrifying Hojo. I dip my toe into the mechanic of Materia Fusion.


 
Shinra Building

-There’s a “large anti-Shinra” organization wreaking havoc in the world. Genesis’s group or a new player?

-OH GOD I WAS WRONG IT’S NOT GENESIS’S ORGANIZATION

THIS IS AMAZING!!!

-I forgot about them. It’s so cool that we’re starting to link up with the events of FFVII. …unless…. Could Genesis’s group be the same thing? (I doubt it.)

-A newsletter from President Shinra confirms the end of the war with Wutai, in large part thanks to SE-PH-ROTH! Ahem. Sorry. It’s really tough to say his name without hearing the music from “One-Winged Angel.”

The war’s end also allows Shinra to develop/distribute mako around the world now. Talk about a tight-knit military-industrial complex.

-Ran into my colleague Kunsel by the elevators. Sephiroth gets all the press, and Zack got none for his heroics. Zack’s jealous. Kunsel responds by launching a truth bomb: “Heroes are chosen by the media; that’s just how it is.”

-The mood around SOLDIER is pretty somber about Angeal and Genesis. They miss him. It’s pretty sad.

-Angeal’s mom used to work for Shinra’s Science Department. Hm.

-THE PLOT THICKENS! One of the scientists in the Materia Room says that Angeal’s mom was specifically working on cloning SOLDIER members.

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Shinra Building – Training Room

-Hojo’s in the Training Room, and his subordinate scientists don’t seem to like him much. Good.

-Ok. This has to be in the pantheon of worst ideas ever, but Zack volunteers to help participate in a training simulation for Hojo.

-First test is a few Wutai privates, one-shots. Progressive series of monsters follow, varying kinds of dogs, which Zack defeats. Eventually, Hojo wants to test Zack against his own special program, and his fellow scientists freak the fuck out on hearing it. “Not THAT program!” etc. Piqued my curiosity.

-Hojo is the kind of scientist who laughs in a sinister way as the test is about to begin. I wish I were a doctor so I could do the same thing. “Don’t worry, kid. It’s just a booster shot. Nothing to be afraid of. Or IS IT? Hehehe…. Mwahahahaha!”

-It’s a behemoth.

”Experiment No. 88.”

A literal and figurative beast who hits hard as hell.

-Zack defeats it, and gets the worst reward and most horrifying slash fiction prompt of all time:

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FFVII Crisis Core – Part 17: Get Back, Hojo (continued)

Shinra Building

-Someone in the Exhibit Room tells me that they’ve selected Cid Highwind to pilot the rocket.

-FFVII keeps up its tradition of …weird… sexual politics by having the female receptionist express to Zack how she’ll only use her office romances to date executives or above. Um. Ok, game.

-The Exhibit Room also has a painting of the Highwind airship we eventually use, and a motorcycle which is the one I think Cloud eventually uses to escape the Shinra Building in a notably frustrating mini-game.

A painting of Cid’s ship.

-IN a visit to Director Lazard’s office, Lazard promotes Zack to SOLDIER First Class. I was expecting a happy dance or something, but Zack is astoundingly muted. No reaction, then looks at his hands: “Huh. I thought I’d be happier.” Aw. I think he misses Angeal.

-Whoa! Zack went from happy puppy to “Order of the Phoenix”-emo puppy. Sassing Sephiroth and giving an exasperated “Whatever” to the prospect of a new assignment.

-BUT FIRST! Wardrobe change! Zack gets his new SOLDIER First Class uniform, AND NOW CAN USE SIX MATERIA UP FROM FOUR WOOHOOOOO!!!

-And not only that, but now Zack gets to use “Materia Fusion.” Let’s see what’s up here.

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Fusion Time!

-The researcher who tells me about this gives me Fire and Blizzard materia to fuse. This is already surprising to me because I thought I’d only be able to fuse a standard materia (Cure or Blizzard or something) with a support materia. But maybe I can fuse two main materia.

-Blizzard and Fire would combine to make Thunder. Interesting! I gotta play around with this. Especially because of two things:

1)I don’t have to complete the materia fusion to see the result
2)I have so many duplicate and extra materia at this point that I can afford it.

Each combine costs some SP (the stuff I get from winning a battle), but I have tens of thousands at this point.

Time to try some stuff out:

-Fire + Fire = Fira as I was hoping. Just make “Fire” with +1 MAG. Meh.
-Thunder + Silence = “Dark Thunder.” UMM. It says it enables thunder spells with status ailments.

[Non-rhetorical question: Is all Dark Thunder created equal then, or is the [Thunder + Silence] Dark Thunder different from the [Thunder + Poison] Dark Thunder?]

Materia fusion screens.

-Assault Twister + Fire = “Fira Blade,” and AP skill.

-My mind is SPINNING. THIS SYSTEM IS SO AWESOME, AND SO MUCH MORE EXPANSIVE THAN I HAD IMAGINED SQUEEEEEE

-Cure [master] + HP Up [level 1] = Cura [level 1]. I wonder if THAT’S how I make higher level spell materia then… master it and combine it? Let’s see what my other mastered ones would give.

-Cure [master] + Dash [level 1] = Curaga [level 1]. This is tempting… but I actually want Cura more. Curaga seems too expensive at the moment, but I’ll keep this fusion in mind.

-Cure [master] + Barrier [master] = “Elemental Ward.” Oh gosh. I don’t even know what this is and I want it. (Probably halves elemental damage received or something.) But I want Cura more for the moment.

-I’m going to go through this more in depth next session. The researcher adds though that there’s more to come regarding this system that hasn’t been yet unlocked.

-Got a newsletter just now announcing that Genesis Rhapsodos and Angeal Hewley (hi, full names!) were killed in action. Chances of this letter being a cover-up for Shinra not knowing what’s up with these two: 1,000,000%

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Next time: More fusion! I’ll also try to check out Sector 8 more widely before accepting the next story mission. Train to Aeris please? Maybe?