Sector 8
-One of Genesis’s fan clubs is in serious danger of financial collapse.
-Oh no! The son of a Genesis fan said his mom just up and left. Sorry kid
-A newsletter says that the various attacks on reactors was the result of an anti-Shinra organization. Riiiight.
-Found the mother at the train station. Zack tries to convince her to stay. He uses Angeal’s sense of honor to do so. It works.
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Sector 5 Slums
-Still confused on the spy thing. The third spy looks like he does business with Shinra, but I’ve talked to everyone possible. Someone in Sector 5 mentioned that I can get above the plate through the slum market. Is he referring to the train to Sector 8?
-Yeah. That must be what he’s referring to.
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Sector 5 Slums – Church
-Zack tells Aerith he’ll be right back.
Good. That’s sure to come true.
-They start their flower selling project. It doesn’t attract a lot of people.
-This whole scene is pretty funny. Zack’s trying HARDCORE BUSINESS NEGOTIATION tactics to sell individual flowers, and it’s not working.
-Zack sees Tseng watching and speaks to him while Aerith is occupied. He’s… less comforting than he intends: “Don’t worry about Aerith. Protecting the subject is part of surveillance duty.” But Zack trusts Tseng.
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Shinra Building
-Back at headquarters, Zack sees Cloud who’s part of the team. They got a nice little party together, led by Sephiroth.
-OH SHIT
-OH SHIT
-OH SHIT
-THAT’S WHAT THIS PARTY IS. IT’S THE PARTY TO NIBELHEIM. TIFA IMMINENT! TIFA IMMINENT!
-End of act.
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Nibelheim
-They enter, basically re-enacting that scene that got so warped and then un-warped in flashbacks from FFVII. This is awesome.
-Still weird to see Cloud as basically Generic Infantryman #2. It’s confirmed here that he’s just in Shinra’s infantry, not SOLDIER at all.
-Tifa appears, meets Zack.
I’m initially not wild about the look tbh. I don’t remember the flashback, even the photo in FFVII, having her show that much skin. If that’s the character, that’s the character. It just feels like they might be trying to sexualize her image beyond what’s needed?
I dunno. I’m a guy, and not best qualified to speak on this. It’s probably fine, and I’m probably overreading into this. What do you all think?
-Anyway. She acts pretty weird, as if she knows something even know and is surprised that only TWO Firsts were sent.
-A boy in town seems to offer a mini-quest line, exploring the “Seven Wonders” of Nibelheim which are likely hoaxes. First one to explore is that the town’s water is red. COULD IT BE BLOOD? (Probably not.)
-That was fast. Turns out it’s a red materia in the water. WHOA! A Phoenix materia! A new summon for the DMW.
-The second wonder is related somehow to a painting in the inn.
-Talked to Sephiroth. We depart for the reactor at dawn.
-Found the painting. It’s eerie, but painting stuff always creeps me out.
-NO!!! DAMMIT, GAME. God, I hate when games do that. I talked to Sephiroth to see if he had anything new to say, and it took me to the next phase of the game. Fuck that – I’m restarting from my last save. I wasn’t ready to go.
-Back to the kid telling me about the Wonders. The second wonder is that the girl sometimes leaves the painting and wanders around our world.
The nopest of nopes.
-NOOOOPE. Nope nope nope Don’t care that it’s 99.9999% a hoax. The thought of this creeped me out in “Provenance,” in “The Witches,” in Owzer’s Mansion back in FFVI… just… no thank you.
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Next time: Exploring the Wonders of Nibelheim.
