FFVII Crisis Core – Part 22: Death Machines

Summary: Not as exciting a session as the title indicates. Did some missions hunting down Genesis’s and Wutai’s forces, and got to see the limit breaks for Aerith and Cissnei.


Mission: Genesis’s Forces > Genesis’s Forces on the March > Destroy the Death Machines! (4/6)

-Well. That’s quite a mission name. Shinra found a cache of stuff and three “death machines” (chainsaw, lancer, missile launcher) are guarding it.

-I’m pretty comfortable with my tactics against these, so pretty easy.

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Mission: Genesis’s Forces > Genesis’s Forces on the March > Eliminate the Death Machines! (5/6)

-More death machines in the desert.

-OH NO! I was about to get a triple Aerith and see what her limit break did, but then the monster window came up and I got Ifrit. I like you, Ifrit, but not now! What a troll.

-After I took out the three Death Machines at once, the campaign stopped. Can’t access 6/6 yet. Hm. Next campaign.

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Mission: Hojo’s Laboratory > Sample Monsters Lv. 1 > Experiment No. 103 (3/6)

-Aw. Hojo has a copy of the Angeal Sahagin monster to fight.

-These guys cast Blizzard a bunch. I can dodge since it’s a delayed effect, but I pop on the armor (“Frost Armlet”) that lets me just negate the damage.

-Big map with no treasure. Non-rhetorical question for y’all: Is my reward for completing a mission impacted by whether I clear out all the monsters?

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Mission: To End the War with Wutai > Behind the Scenes > Foes in the Corel Mines (1/6)

-A new group of Wutai remnants is massing near Corel.

-The boss, a Vajradhara, is slow but brutal.

Depletes half my life when he connects, and takes a ton of hits to go down.

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Mission: To End the War with Wutai > Behind the Scenes > Remnants in the Slums (2/6)

-New Wutai are joining with other non-Shinra folk in the slums of Midgar.

-This mission is listed as “Hard” and it shows. Just ran into a Vajradhara as a standard monster, not even a boss.

-FINALLY saw the Aerith (still weird to say that and not “Aeris,” but I’ll get used to it) limit break.

It’s Zack in the church flower garden, hearing her voice. “Good luck!” Healing spell. Fits with her combat, though I suppose I was hoping for a more active role than just saying “good luck,” but they did just meet, and it’s in line with, like, Angeal saying “Prove your honor to me.” Sorta.

-Going to hold off on continuing this campaign for now. The next mission is “Very Hard,” and unless I reach a “Very Hard” mission as the final one in the campaign, I want to put it off until it goes down to just “hard.”

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Mission: Seeking Precious Items > Zack, the Treasure Hunter > Items in the Plains (1/6)

-This may also be a one-off, since it’s listed as “Hard.”

-Bombs and bugs here in the plains.

-Just noticed the Cursed Ring gives big stat boosts… and yet, that curse…

-Interesting! I just got Cissnei’s DMW limit break for the first time (complete with a cutscene cinematic of her and Zack working together), and it’s “Lucky Stars.” No immediate combat effect, but it changes Zack’s DMW rate from normal to Heavenly.

It persists after combat, and I think it means he’s more likely to get more limit breaks throughout. That’s pretty great – for normal fights, probably the best limit break yet!

-Another Cissnei limit break causes the meter to go from “Heavenly” to “Sky High,” and almost immediately after nets me another limit break from Sephiroth.

-Next mission is “Very Hard,” so going to start a mission from a new campaign to finish off this section.

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Mission: Seeking Priceless Things > Precious Things > Search and Destroy (1/6)

-This one is listed as “Easy,” so I may be able to finish this campaign.

-Shinra found one of Genesis’s bunkers and wants me to go kill them and take their stuff. Very killy game. (Like most FFs, I suppose.)

-Got another limit break (I see you, Silhouette Cloud!), and afterwards my limit meter dropped to “High.”

Now what spikey-haired jerk could that be?

I think this means that every time I get a limit break when my meter is extra high, it drops the meter down a bit.

-Beat the final Genesis here, and the reward is another book like the craftsman manual, and “Item Fusion Tome.” Once I get back to the Shinra Building I’ll see if I can turn it in to the materia folks for some reward. The other possibility is that once they open up materia fusion to allow items as well as materia, this may help.

The Craftsman monthly may enable me to make a car or something. I already have “Premium Tires” – maybe I’ll pick up more along the way!

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Next time: continuing with the “Seeking Priceless Things” campaign.