Shinra Manor - Basement
-This place continues to impress with spooky atmosphere and enemies hidden around all kinds of corners. There’s a disused sense about it.
-For some reason, the tight corners don’t annoy me. I think it’s because the enemies that jump out at me are tension-inducing without feeling like cheap jump scares. There’s also enough room to maneuver the camera and see what’s going on, even when things are happening at close quarters.
-AAAARGH
The old apartment.
-Legit chills. I came across the coffin room where Vincent spent so much time.
-New stage mission: “Deactivate the mines.” I have three minutes. Shit shit shit.
-I keep finding mines, but don’t know how to deactivate them! I tried jumping, pressing my action, buttons nothing. Maybe I’m just supposed to leave them alone once I discover them?
-No idea. Backing off didn’t work. Just gave up and stepped in the mines. Eventually got a cardkey to leave this section. Whatever.
-Came across a mech bridge thingy. I tried walking across the metal beam and fell through to the pit below. Gotta jump for it.
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Shinra Manor – Main Floors
-Made it up the spiral staircase and into the manor proper.
-Gah! I ALWAYS forget to use magic. ALWAYS. Going to make a point to try using it more.
-It feels really good to wander around the manor. It’s in bad shape, with cobwebs and broken furniture and crates all over, but I have good memories here from both FFVII’s base game and Crisis Core. Weird how I can already feel nostalgic to revisit something I only learned about over the past 5-6 months.
Revisiting the foyer.
It’s fun to walk around and think, “Oh, here’s where Zack and Cloud recuperated.” “Here’s where Secret Number [I can’t remember her real name] popped out of the safe.” “This is the room with the disappearing Dorky Faces.” Etc.
-Got ambushed in the old piano room on the first floor by about a billion soldiers (by which I mean 6-7) and only was saved by a Phoenix Down. Too slow on the potion.
-Cool! Just looked up in the lobby/foyer and noticed that the ceiling was ripped open.
-Huh. This is… new.
A part of the manor I’ve never seen before. Metal floors, ceilings, walls. Like a corporate lab rather than a mansion. Behind the scenes.
-Heard a pop sound and a flash of light, and Vincent is on his knees. Could just be a memory triggering.
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Flashback
-Yup. Memory. Flashback starts out from the point of view within a mako tank. A female scientist is on the outside, though I can’t see who she is exactly yet.
-It’s Lucrecia.
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Shinra Manor - Present
-It wasn’t just a memory that stopped Vincent, it was a specific kind of pain that triggered it.
-HI!! Rosso is in the room, and in fine bantering form. Her voice actress is fun.
-Now this is interesting. Rosso claims that she doesn’t care about the whole Omega-Deepground shenanigans and just is doing what Weiss wants.
ROSSO: “If [Weiss] desires the awakening of Omega, then that is what all of Deepground desires. We could care less what happens to the planet.”
Sounds like a real cult of personality. How did Weiss get to be in charge of the ruins of Shinra?
p.s. YOU KNOW YOU LIVE ON THE PLANET AND IF IT DIES SO DO YOU, RIGHT ROSSO? Every “let’s destroy the world” villain in history seems to forget this – though to be fair, some are nihilistic enough not to care.
-She says that the Deepground soldiers were bred to kill, born into servitude. Wait. Were these soldiers Jenova clones initially? I wonder.
-They gained their freedom three years ago, when Shinra went down. And they did what they knew once free: killed.
ROSSO: “I bathed in the blood of a thousand soldiers. And I enjoyed it. I reveled in it. And when I finally stepped out of the abyss, I craved for [sic] more.”
The ecstasy of inflicting agony.
you
She tries to give the “we’re the same” thing to Vincent, but he’s not buying.
-Rosso sprints away. Well… not “sprints” exactly so much as “dashes backwards through the air effortlessly.”
-And a mech attacks. Fuck. Boss time.
-OH MAN THE MUSIC IS SUPER INTENSE
-“Black Widow” is the boss. Killed me. My rifle did jack against it, but machine gun worked better. Don’t know how to dodge effectively, so I just kind of run around while it scurries along the walls and attacks me.
The elusive Black Widow.
-Second attempt goes MUCH better. I tried thinking of it like a raid boss in WoW, which helped. There are very specific phases, specific ways to avoid each attack. It does a melee charge three times which I have to sidestep, then a homing laser to run from, then it runs up the walls and I have to keep moving for when it fires.
VICTORY!!!! Really tough fight. Used a couple of Phoenix Downs.
-HOLY SHIT THAT WAS A SHORT LIVED VICTORY.
The way to a man’s heart is straight through his chest.
ROSSO JUST RAN UP BEHIND VINCENT AND IT LOOKS LIKE SHE RIPPED HER ARM STRAIGHT THROUGH HIS CHEST.
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Next time: ?!?!?!
