Mt. Tamblin – Animal Trail
-More ambushing soldiers. Zack whisks Lazard to safety and moves to return to Angeal.
-No map here.
-To reiterate: this music is amazing. It’s weird to hear guitar/rock/metal for Final Fantasy, but it fits in this case.
-Two ambushers lying dead, but they’re not Wutai troops. Huh.
-WHAT THE FUCK
-A ball of fire appeared and out popped “a summon” I recognize is Ifrit. I thought for a second we were transported to a hellscape of some kind, but that’s just what Ifrit does to the land.
-He looks astoundingly good. Both in combat and his cinematic when he casts Hellfire. Combat went well because I got some “No MP cost” rolls and could spam Blizzard.
-Won the fight – ahem, I mean, resolved the conflict, but Ifrit kept roasting me before Sephiroth swoops in to save the day.
Let me take a second to appreciate the weirdness of that sentence.
-Genesis, the missing First Class, was one of the ambushers. AND A COPY OF HIM WAS THE SECOND ONE?? Is this Hojo/Gast at work already?
-Angeal is gone, and Sephiroth claims that Angeal betrayed Shinra. Zack’s stunned. I’m not that stunned, but more confused since I don’t know who the other side is. I doubt it’s as simple as “he defected to Wutai.”
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One Month Later
-Really unexpected time jump.
-Angeal’s still gone, and especially given how big he was on honor, this crushes Zack.
-New assignment from Lazard: to investigate Genesis’ hometown for signs of him. Lazard already “dispatched some staff” – it’s the Turks, right? They cut to Lazard’s computer screen and showed the torsos of two people in suits, but not their heads. Gotta be the Turks.
-TSENG SHOWS UP! Good to see ya, you kidnapping jerkface who I sort of ended up being ok with. His face gets added to the DMW.
Weird without facial hair.
Still not sure what that’s about. Tseng is now on the DMW as “0%,” but both Sephiroth and Angeal are listed as “10%.” My best guess is that the more of their stories I uncover, the higher percent I’ll get for them. Or something?
I also will guess that each face corresponds to some bonus I could get if the DMW rolls all three of the same of that face. I get six faces to manage in my main menu, so perhaps when I get more than six I’ll be able to swap them around depending on what bonuses I want to give myself.
-I have more materia now. “Assault Twister” (my first AP materia), “VIT Up,” and “Thunder.” Thunder came from a Shinra supply pod and “Assault Twister” came from beating Ifrit, but where’d VIT Up come from?
Only have four active slots for materia though. I’ll use Fire, Blizzard, Assault Twister, and Cure.
-Just discovered a new DMW screen, one that breaks each image down into Limit Breaks and Limit Verges. Um.
-Ooh! All KINDS of new missions available to me now!
This is just the main category window.
Gonna try them. Sorry, Tseng. You gotta wait.
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Mission: To End the War with Wutai > Pursue the Remnants > Wutai Units Found
-It’s a desert zone. Beautiful as always.
-Found a Wutai soldier with his lion dog things. Easy fight, and…
-…wait, that’s it? Ok. I actually want to try it again explore the map more fully.
-Oh. The map was very limited. Just that fight.
-HAHAHAH – Ok, I tried it again, got the “Modulating Phase” screen, and I was right. The images the DMW pulls up are related to the result. I got three Tsengs, and it called him in for an Air Strike. It was AWESOME.
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Mission: To End the War with Wutai > Pursue the Remnants > Anti-SOLDIER Monsters
-So these missions will be campaigns basically, starting with easier missions but building a cohesive story. Cool.
I like that you can see the boss monster before you get to the encounter.
-Same desert. The enemies I have to defeat here are the same type of monsters as the Vajradharas in Wutai. Makes sense.
-Not too tough a fight. Got a Bulletproof Vest for my troubles. I replaced the Bronze Bangle with that. It lowers my HP, but increases my Vitality (which I think helps my defense).
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Mission: To End the War with Wutai > Pursue the Remnants > Pursue the Deserters
-This one is listed as “Very Hard,” which makes me nervous, but I’ll give it a shot.
-And I died! Just in normal combat. Hm.
-Tried the mission again. This time, watched my health pool more closely, and tried exploiting my various positive statuses better. For example, when the DMW gave me “No MP cost,” I spammed “Fire.”
-It was just Wutai soldiers rather than monsters, but they were very tough. The sergeants had a ton of HP, but I got em.
-Went back into this mission afterwards to get some treasure chests I missed.
Non-rhetorical question: if I were to just get those new items and then abort the mission, would I keep them or do I have to complete the mission to keep the items?
-The DMW wheel is making more sense now. One of my favorite things in gaming is when mechanics are tied to story, and this is the case with DMW. When it rolls three images of “Angeal,” for example, Zack hears Angeal, his mentor, say in his head, “Prove your honor.” Zack then performs a particular Rush attack inspired by him.
This is beautiful to me.
Non-rhetorical question: I think I get that “power surges” give me different boosts. Is it based on the number? Like, if I get a power surge, and the first picture is 1, the second 7, the third 4, will it give a minor boost to HP, a major boost to MP, and a medium boost to AP?
Same kind of question with the “Breaks.” A “break” in something, MP for instance, seems to overload my MP, giving me more available MP than my max. My guess is that it just means I essentially get free MP to use for that period. Is there an extra bonus to these “breaks” that’s hidden?
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Next time: I continue the mission chain “To End the War with Wutai.”
