Monday, August 17, 2015

FFVII Crisis Core – Part 52: Unstable Reaction

 Summary: Zack, Sephiroth, Tifa, and Cloud head up to the Mt. Nibel Reactor to check out what’s been going wrong there. Sephiroth learns the truth of his existence as a “monster” thanks to a surprise appearance by Genesis. He doesn’t take it well. Oh, and Cloud gets shot on the way out by a Genesis clone.




Nibelheim

-Fifth wonder time.

-Oh man. This one is looking into shrieking beneath the earth, from the caverns beneath the Shinra Mansion. Sephiroth has the key. …am I going to meet Vincent for the first time ever? I don’t remember his timeline, if he was in that basement already or if he got there only later. We’ll see.

-!! Zack is SUCH A DICK!! I went upstairs in the inn to see if he had a new reaction to the girl being in the painting now that he knows what it means, and he fucking stole the innkeeper’s 8-gil nest egg. WTF IS YOUR PROBLEM ZACK??

-I see the spot in the Mansion that leads into the basement. But not sure how I get the key from Sephiroth, since it’ll probably start the mission the next day. I don’t see another option though – let’s talk to him.

-Weird. Sephiroth thinks he’s seen the Nibelheim landscape before. How?

-Yeah, talked to Sephiroth and it started the mission to Mt. Nibel. The Fifth Wonder will have to wait I guess.



A familiar photo.

-..wait. This is strange. The mission is going by in photo flashbacks…. Oh, I see. It’s just the trip to the reactor that’s done in this montage.

-I really don’t like what Crisis Core does with Tifa in this montage. It’s a series of pictures of her looking overwhelmed, being “protected” by Zack and Sephiroth from random birds and crap.




Look. I get that Tifa isn’t a fully trained fighter at this point. But she surely could handle her own at least SLIGHTLY at this point, right? She’s the guide! This is HER mountain! Whole thing just rubs me the wrong way.

---

Mt. Nibel Reactor

-Top secret facility, so just Zack and Sephiroth go inside.


YUKKY GIRLZ (and non-SOLDIER) KEEP OUT!!

-They draw near the Jenova door. Here we go.

-Zack finally puts two and two together, since earlier Sephiroth mentioned that Jenova was his mom.

-One of the pod things has a broken seal, which caused the malfunction they came to investigate. Sephiroth is suspicious about why it broke.

-They peek inside a pod to see the smiling monster man that scared the shit out of me back in FFVII.



-Just hit Sephiroth that he isn’t like Zack, that he was created like these pod monsters – overwhelmed with mako energy. He seems to be getting flashbacks to it, as if his memory was lost. He has more in common with Cloud than I thought.

-SO MANY SEPHIROTH FEELS. You go through life thinking you’re special, and then you find out you are… but like this?

SEPHIROTH: “Am I… a human being?”
GENESIS (????): “No such luck. You are a monster.”

FFVII Crisis Core – Part 52: Unstable Reaction (continued)

-GENESIS WAS HERE EVEN BACK IN FFVII HOLY FUCKING SHIT

-Genesis expounds a bit on how Sephiroth was a product of the Jenova Project, among others. Genesis is looking kind of washed out, faded. The degradation.

-FUCK OFF GENESIS. Sephiroth only knew his mother was named Jenova, and now Genesis seems to take pleasure in ripping off the veil.

-Ok. This makes some sense. Jenova Project G gave birth to Angeal and Genesis and others, which was partially successful. But Jenova Project S used the remains of so many monstrous failures to give birth to a more perfect monster: Sephiroth.



…ahem, sorry. “SE-PHI-ROTH!”

-We almost got through a full Genesis scene without him quoting LOVELESS. So close, yet so far. He believes Sephiroth can be the “bringer of life, gift of the goddess.” If Sephiroth shares his cells with Genesis, and presumably with Angeal, he can stop their degradation.

-And presumably they have some form of the Adam-Eve-apple myth in this world. The ever-poetic Genesis isn’t missing this opportunity.



-OH SHIT HAHAHAH GO SEPHIROTH!! SMACK GENESIS RIGHT DOWN! To my everlasting sadness I didn’t transcribe it, but Sephiroth basically says, “Whether these are lies to deceive me or the truth I sought my whole life, it doesn’t matter. You will rot.” AND SMACKED THE APPLE OUT OF GENESIS’S HAND. GET REKT.

-Genesis responds as any proper angry English major will: by melodramatically quoting poetry. (What? I’m an English major. I’ve totally done that.)



Quoting LOVELESS lines about the return of the goddess. Very… rapture.

-Genesis walks outside. Zack follows.

---

Outside the Reactor

-AND IMMEDIATELY WATCHED A GENESIS CLONE SHOOT CLOUD WTF IS THIS SESSION

-Somewhat tough fight against a “G Deleter,” a big scythe-wielding Genesis clone. To my frustration, Tifa just kind of stands shocked in the background rather than using those wondrous fists of hers. The downsides of a single-party member game.



-Tifa helps a woozy and wounded Cloud to his feet, and the party starts to head back down the mountain.

---

Next time: not sure, but probably a bit of a changed Sephiroth.