Modeo Ravine
-The instructions come across my screen for how to do this stealth.
I have a feeling this is going to suck.
-god fucking dammit, two seconds in I get caught. Couldn’t spin my camera to see around me. The game’s poor camera system is a major downside right here.
-Walked near the exit to hide and it reset. This. Is. Awful.
-GOD DAMMIT WHAT THE FUCK. Yeah, every step I take here I get caught. Any way I move my camera just makes the game look at my face or a wall or something. No way to zoom out. Can’t even spin 360 degrees.
And some enemies apparently are okay with me in their line of sight, like five feet away, but can’t see me? I really don’t get what the safety or danger zones are supposed to be.
What a frustrating, boring, and just flat-out bad mini-game. Whatever.
[Later edit: I acknowledge this may well just be me being both unskilled and impatient for stealth gameplay here. Maybe this is an awesome, popular, and well-regarded mini-game! I’m curious to know y’all’s thoughts and experiences.]
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Mako Excavation Center
-Two ways to go. Left or right.
-Left takes me to a dead end. Let’s try right.
-Elevator.
-As I exit the elevator, I get a little cutscene of Genesis stalking down Hollander, who seems freaked.
“What’s the meaning of this?!”
-Ok, so best as I can understand, Genesis doesn’t want Hollander doing his dinky little maintenance to save Genesis from degradation. He wants to use Jenova cells directly. Hollander won’t tell where they are, and says he’s the only one who knows.
-lol – it amuses me that Cloud kind of sucks here. Zack threw Hollander to him to hold down, and Hollander basically threw Cloud to the ground.
-Genesis decides to “willingly accept [his] fate,” intending to “take the world with [him].” Well. That sucks I guess.
-Pretty sweet duel between Zack and Genesis.
I predict Angeal will swoop in shortly.
-And now combat. With the actual Genesis. (I think it’s the real one, at least.)
Love the camera angle as Genesis charges Zack head-on.
-He has a spell called “Black Flurry,” where he says “Howl in terror, Shinra lapdogs!” Sends a swarm of black feathers at me.
[Note on pronouns: this is the first FF game where it feels like it makes sense to use the first person for Zack. In every prior game, there was an ensemble cast. Here, it’s Zack as the only real playable character and a bunch of helpers.]
-Ifrit steps in before things get too hairy.
-Wow. Seems like Genesis is really dead.
That was… quicker than I was expecting. Not in terms of combat – I know I’m overleveled – but in terms of the story. Unless he’s got another form or something ready to pop out.
-Zack seems pissed at Genesis more than anything else, pissed at him for abandoning SOLDIER, for abandoning honor.
-But Genesis is doing that “I’m dying, but going to monologue and flap about for a bit” thing. Says he’ll take the world with him. Jumps off a ledge, but no explosion, no flying back into the air in some hyper-monstrous form. Just falls. We don’t see a body, but he really seems dead.
-……..WHAT.
-He’s been added to my DMW. That’s AWESOME! And totally unexpected. I can’t wait to see what he and Zack do for Limit Breaks.
-Also unexpected is that Angeal didn’t show up. And what happened to Hollander? I hope that Cloud took him.
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Next time: onto Modeoheim. Probably a bit of a mission break.
