Mission: To End the War with Wutai > Pursue the Remnants > Wutai Remnants in the Slums
-Leaving the desert for this mission and heading to Midgar, to find a Wutai soldier trying to recruit anti-Shinra folks in the city.
-The music is wonderful as usual, and in a different way. It’s got this jazzy piano beat. Jazzy’s probably the wrong word.
-During the Tseng phase modulation, Tseng says something, and Zack yells into a cell phone, “I’m trying! I’m trying!” before Tseng fires at the enemy from his helicopter. What does Tseng say? It sounds like, “Is this the end?” but may be “Assist again?”
-Success! Got a “Muscle Belt” for my efforts, improving ATK and VIT. I swap it in place of the earrings, which were for magic. I figure most of my damage is done with the sword.
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Mission: To End the War with Wutai > Pursue the Remnants > Stop the Intruders
-Some of the intruders got through, and are heading for the Shinra Building.
-Died again. This one is tough!
-Pushed through a lot of fights, and now on the final one, filled with Wutai soldiers. So brutal.
Swarmed.
-Something interesting is happening at phase modulation. Instead of just getting an action, Zack sees a cutscene in his mind. He’s talking to Angeal about forgetting certain materia and just generally being freaked out about his mission while Angeal calms him.
Non-rhetorical question: do these DMW cutscenes grant any special bonuses beyond the standard limit attacks, or are they just flavor?
-Victory! Was touch and go, but pulled through. Got “Mute Shock,” an accessory that can make my attacks “Silence.” Gonna keep that in mind in case I come up against enemies that cast nasty spells.
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Mission: To End the War with Wutai > Pursue the Remnants > Search for Wutai Remnants
-This time, I’m heading to Fort Condor on rumors of Wutai remnants there.
-Back in the desert. Facing smaller contingents of soldiers than the last mission so far…
-There’s the monster in the distance. “Vadhrajara Cala”
Back attack.
-Great fight! He hit like a truck, had about a billion HP, but I was able to keep healed up from his tomahawk tosses, and kept waiting for openings to run around his back and slam him for multiple critical attacks in a row.
-Conflict resolved and mission accomplished! That’s the end of the “Pursue the Remnants” sub-campaign, and a new one opened up.
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Briefing Room
-I’m honestly faced with a question now: do I continue with the missions or the main story? I think I’ll go with the missions for now, at least for another sub-campaign at least. I love the side-quest feel to these missions. Just taking care of Shinra’s business.
-For those of you who played this game before, I’m curious – what did you do? Did you focus on missions, or main story, or bounce back and forth between them?
-As I think about it, I think I’ll mix up the campaigns a bit. Do one sub-campaign, then hop to another broader campaign and do a sub-campaign. So my next mission will move away from “To End the War with Wutai.”
-Huh. It’s funny that I’m thinking about this, because Kunsel, my fellow SOLDIER friend, just gave me advice on the issue. “You should always do as much as you can before a mission.” I actually agree with this.
So here’s my plan. I’m going to prioritize the missions. Do as much as I can, and then when that’s over and I’ve either reached only missions that are too tough for me or run out of missions, I’ll move on to the next assignment. I won’t follow it religiously, so if I get bored of missions I’ll move on, but I’ll try to clear them.
-Kunsel wants to go with me to Sector 8. Why? Dunno, but ok.
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Sector 8 – Fountain Plaza
-We get here, and Kunsel wants to immediately split up. This is weird, and Zack agrees, but he goes anyway.
-This is the Fountain Plaza. Loveless Avenue is beyond. The sector 1 station is nearby, which has a train towards the Sector 5 slums. I definitely want to do that – I think that way Aeris lies.
-A reporter is skulking around trying for info on Shinra, according to a guard.
-LOLOL – SOLDIER HAS FANS!! There’s a group of people here excited at first to see Zack is a SOLDIER but then dismissing him because he’s not Sephiroth or Angeal. They’re literally called “Sephiroth Fan,” “Angeal Fan,” and “Genesis Fan,” debating the best SOLDIER operative.
SEPHIROTH FAN: “Just imagining him stripped to the waist makes me dizzy.”
And then there’s a guy here who hates Shinra “with all his heart.” Huh.
-Not much else in the Fountain Plaza. I’ve tried clicking on doors and walls, but no secrets like that yet so far. I can choose to head to Loveless Avenue or the train to sector 5. I’ll start with Loveless Ave, since it’s still in Sector 8.
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Sector 8 – Loveless Avenue
-There’s a captain here, of a Shinra guard patrol, who doesn’t recognize Zack. Hm.
-Interesting! This captain is actively hostile to SOLDIER. He seems to see them as the army imposing where local police should work. Though it could just be a pissing contest, like, “does security or SOLDIER have better operatives?”
Probably the latter. The former sounds too subversive.
-There’s a play called “LOVELESS.” I can’t remember offhand, but I wonder if that’s the play that impacted Cid.
-Shinra newsletter just arrived, announcing Rufus’ appointment to VP.
-A guy here is bragging about his car. I wonder… is that the same car that Cloud, Aeris, Barret, and Tifa used to escape the Shinra Building?
-There’s been surprisingly little to do in Sector 8 so far, but that’s ok. Just a slice of life, and I get the sense that I’ll be back here later in the story.
-New mission! Talking to that security guy opened up a new sub-campaign. However, I’ll hold off on that to explore Sector 5 first.
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Next time: visiting Sector 5.
