FFVII Crisis Core – Part 51: The Seven Wonders: Four (Laughing Safe)

Summary: Easily one of my favorite parts of Crisis Core so far; perhaps even my outright favorite. IT’S SO MUCH FUN!! A pure puzzle section with atmosphere out the wazoo (that piano music!! ) as Zack uncovers the mystery of the laughing safe in the Shinra Mansion.


Nibelheim

-The kid confirms that the next Wonder is in the Shinra Mansion. Laughter comes from the safe, and it’s up to Zack to find the code to the safe. I’m betting that I can’t just use the code I found in FFVII, so not going to even try that.

-On the way to the Mansion, got a letter from Cissnei. She wants to go with him to the theater to see the new production of LOVELESS to help him think of answers regarding Genesis. OR FOR A DATE? Probably not. I really like Cissnei.

Into the mansion.

---

Shinra Mansion

-The music here is fantastic. Piano.

-I hope (but don’t expect) that there won’t be combat in here and that I just get to puzzle solve. The atmosphere, the ambience, it’s all so wonderful.

-I get to look through a keyhole in a door I can’t open! Some empty chairs and a window. I’m expecting a jump scare but thankfully don’t get one.

A peek through a door on the right shows Dorky Faces hovering around.

-A few cupboards and the doors on the first floor are locked. Let’s see if I can find a key.

-Found the safe room. A letter inside gives clues to each of the four digits. Pretty obscure ones, at that, but it’s a place to start.

-One of the upstairs room has a bookshelf. Something there could have to do with knowledge overflowing. It’s locked… maybe I’m supposed to glean something, like maybe the digit of knowledge overflowing is the number of books that fell outside the bookshelf? Seems a bit… arcane, but I’ll keep it in mind.

-Can’t find a key anywhere obvious, so I’ll guess the clues are something like my guess above. There are three Dorky Faces floating in that room, so I’ll guess that the second digit is “3.”

-The first room on my left in the mansion has chairs. Three of them. I’ll guess the fourth digit is three as well, but I’m immediately suspicious, the way I would be at a multiple choice test in high school where the first three answers I found were “B.”

-Pleasant surprise btw: no combat so far! I’m fine with a boss battle, but random encounters here would’ve wrecked the mood. Bravo, game. Really good choice.

-There’s a room with beds in it. That’s more likely to be “Resting on all four feet” than the chairs, but in either case there are three beds in this room too.

Loving the art design in here.

-One of the rooms upstairs that I spy through the keyhole has cans of soda or beer or something. Or food? There are four of them. I’ll guess that’s the third digit.

-In the other room upstairs that’s locked, I spy the bookshelf with four books on top of it and two laying outside it. I’ll guess the number is 6, but it could also be 2.

-Ok. Let’s try it. 6-3-4-3. If I were a betting man, I’d bet this is wrong.

-Yeah. Both 6-3-4-3 and 2-3-4-3 are wrong.

-Went back to the food room, and saw three things that I assumed were candles are actually purple fruit. Maybe the combined number of the food and drink? Let’s try 6-3-7-3, 6-3-3-3, 2-3-7-3-, and 2-3-3-3.

All wrong.

-Whoops! Missed a fruit hiding in that room. So 6-3-8-3, 6-3-4-3, 2-3-8-3, 2-3-4-3 to try…. Again, all wrong.

Think about this, Coldrun. Come on.

1st digit: Knowledge overflowing - …
2nd digit: Unwelcome faces – Certain this is “3.”
3rd digit: Tasty reminders of home – Could be 4 or 8, depending on whether the tasty reminders of home include both fruit and drink. I’ll assume it’s 8, since both are tasty, but will keep 4 in mind.
4th digit: Resting on all four feet. – Assume it’s 3, since 3 chairs in that locked room.

-The Dorky Faces are only in locked room, and the food is only in one locked room. I’ll proceed for the moment off the assumption that the four feet and knowledge overflowing are also in one locked room each, but the fact that I have access to unlocked rooms in the mansion as well makes me doubt this.

-AHAAHAH!!! Found a fourth Dorky Face hiding just out of sight. 2nd digit is 4 probably.

-“Knowledge overflowing.” Hm… Assume this is just focused on the books in the locked room remaining.

Knowledge overflowing?

There is a bookshelf. One of the books on the bookshelf is open, face down. One book is on the floor, another on a table, and four atop the bookshelf. I’ll ignore the face one for this next bout of guesses, and guess first that it’s just referring to the two books off the bookshelf entirely, but as a backup it could be referring to those plus the four atop the shelf for six total.

1st digit: 2, or 6
2nd digit: 4
3rd digit: 8, or 4
4th digit: 3

So in order to try: 2-4-8-3, 6-4-8-3, 2-4-4-3, 6-4-4-3. I’m more optimistic than I was before. Fingers crossed…

YESEYSUILFHUIFEHWFUIOEW OH GOD THIS FEELS SO GOOD. It was “6-4-8-3.” My heart is racing, my arms are goosebumped… See, FFVII Crisis Core developers? You don’t need relentless combat to make awesome gameplay!

I have the game paused. The mansion has my nerves jangling, and I’m freaked about a likely grotesque and giant Secret Number (I think that was the safe boss’s name) emerging.

LOLOLOL – I couldn’t have possibly been more wrong.

It was a little cactuar that sproinged (that was the noise it made) away once I opened the safe.

Basically, my initial reaction on seeing the cactuar spring out.

ZACK: “Was that… somebody’s pet?”

-On returning to the kid in Nibelheim, he’s disappointed, but points out rightfully that we did a good thing. The cactuar must’ve gotten trapped and was actually crying out for help, not laughing. I don’t know if I buy this, since if it were trapped in there long enough to become a legend, one of the Wonders of Nibelheim, it would probably have long since died… but that’s easy enough to handwave away as “it went into hibernation” or something, so I’ll buy it.

Sure. Why not? When a segment is this fun, I can be generous.

-Ethicist and game critic Tauriq Moosa often expresses frustration at how games can rely too heavily on combat rather than non-lethal exploration and puzzles and the like. Segments like this feel like case in point. And I don’t mean to come down too hard on Crisis Core specifically. Pretty much the entire FF series to this point has been combat driven, and it’s especially to its detriment when it uses combat not to enhance story or drive character development, but as a filler, a means of avoiding character development. (I’m looking especially hard at you, FFIV: The After Years and your endless repeats of the Sealed Cave and the Underground Waterway.)

Combat can be fun in its own right if it’s new or challenging. I just happen to believe it works best as a supplement to other parts of the game, a side dish or spice rather than heaping it onto my plate as the main dish.

---

Next time: the fifth Wonder.