Mt. Nibel
-Checked back quickly in the reactor to see if anything new, but no luck.
-Cloud and Tifa are just kind of standing there. Hopefully they’ll follow me if I keep going… yeah, they do.
-The kids are still chilling on the mountain, unfazed by the onslaught of Genesis clones.
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Nibelheim
-I hope Sephiroth will give me a key now for the Mansion! No sign of him, but Tifa will ask around.
-Cloud begins to recover, and Zack warns him about the dangers of SOLDIER. You will know soon, Cloud!
-So much loaded stuff in this Zack-Cloud conversation.
-ZACK: “I’m in SOLDIER. Fighting’s all I do. Sorting things out? That’s someone else’s job. What’s going on, who’s the enemy? It makes no difference to me!” He says this with massive anger and frustration, and I can’t blame him. This whole thing is confusing to me, and must be RIDICULOUSLY confusing and frustrating to him.
-Cloud mentions that he never sees Zack use the Buster Sword, triggering a barrage of Angeal memories.
Wait, never mind! About the sad face emoticon I mean. These memories actually re-energize Zack, and refocus him. Hurray! They sleep.
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Nibelheim – The Next Day
-A letter from Tifa asks after “that guy” (who she doesn’t know is Cloud) and says she wants to ask Zack something (my guess being, where’s Cloud).
-Awww! Cloud wants to invite his friend home for dinner.
-Tifa tells Zack that Sephiroth is at Shinra Manor.
-Aerith calls, just checking in. Zack’s gotta go deal with Sephiroth’s shenanigans, but Aerith sounds pretty bummed. I can’t really blame her – she just stays in her zone all day and Zack’s always out and about. Almost like a long-distance thing.
-Kunsel emailed Zack to let him know that the tire came off Aerith’s flower cart. I think I have a spare in my inventory at least.
-WOOO!HUIOFH!IOUH!UIOFH!UIO YESSSS!! Letter from Tifa. Apparently she didn’t know how to fight before, but the business just now on Mt. Nibel spurred her to learn. Also Cloud’s lack spurred this, since she doesn’t just want to wait around for her “blond knight in shining armor.” This is awesome.
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Shinra Manor
-More of this awesome music. Puts me in a mood. Going to pop on Chopin’s nocturnes after this session.
-So many emails this session. Luxiere, one of Zack’s subordinates in SOLDIER, lets Zack know that he sees him as a leader, someone moving up the ladder, especially given that Sephiroth doesn’t seem to show much interest in his subordinates usually.
-The barrage of emails continues, this time a short one from Tifa: “I almost forgot. Please don’t tell anyone in SOLDIER that I asked about the blond guy. Okay?” AWWW This game makes me feel way better about my ship from FFVII, of Cloud/Tifa. I didn’t feel bad about it before or anything, but still.
-Sephiroth unlocked the door and went into the basement. I can progress on the story and investigate the Fifth Wonder at the same time.
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Shinra Manor – Underground Cave
-In a super creepy touch, the first monster I kill down here (a Sahagin) dropped “Coffin Keys.”
-In a WONDERFUL touch, the music doesn’t change in combat. Just that haunting piano continuing rather than “ARE YOU READY TO ROCK??” The normal combat music is often fine, but ends up taking me out of the dungeon’s mood and into a generic “Fight!” mentality. I want the mood to linger, and hope they continue to do this in future dungeons as well.
-Side rooms here have coffins. Most of these that I’ve opened with Coffin Keys just have bugs.
-Not this one though.
-NOOOO!!! Zack opens it, looks into the coffin, and says to himself, “Maybe… I should leave him alone.” We don’t even see his face. Grrrrrrrr! Oh well – it probably makes sense in terms of the game’s lore. I was just looking forward to meeting Vincent for the first time in game. (I didn’t discover him in FFVII.)
-lolol
This new Aerith limit break cutscene shows her making fun of Zack’s hair. XD
-We get to the basement laboratory/facility, where Sephiroth is researching.
-AHJFKLDAHSFJKLDSHDLS FUCK. I HATE THAT. STOP DOING THAT, GAME.
I got to the point where I was about to talk to Sephiroth, but wanted to explore the facility a bit more. Went into the other room, the one that’s more laboratory than library, to explore and then all of a sudden they ended the segment. “Sephiroth locked himself in there for days!” etc.
Dammit. One of my LEAST favorite parts of any game, when they don’t give warn you about a phase transition. When I approached the door they should’ve said, “Are you ready to leave yet? Yes – No.” Not just assumed I was done exploring. GAH.
-Whatever. We get a montage of Sephiroth in the library, and then a “seven days later” that leads us to Nibelheim on fire.
-I better get the chance to finish the Wonders quest. If not, if they just randomly ended my time in Nibelheim without warning me or giving me a chance to finish up, and that’s the end of it, I’ll be fucking pissed.
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Next time: village on fire.
