WRO Labs
-In yet another plot thread, we move over to a lab. Shelke emerges from a containment tank where she was healing up, and Shalua Rui is asleep at a desk.
-Elsewhere, we see Azul lying on a table. He opens his eyes.
Zombie Azul.
Shit. I really thought he was dead.
-…What? It’s not THAT foolhardy. I’m still having trouble adjusting to a post-FFVI world. In FFVI and before, you knew someone was really dead when their sprite blinked out. It’s harder to tell in the FFVII world.
-Back in Shalua’s lab, Shelke picks up her lightsabers from the desk and threatens Shalua.
Shalua seems confident that she won’t go through with it, and I’m not sure why.
-Oh. She just thinks she can take Shelke in a straight-up fight. Um… look, Shalua. I get that you have some fighting skills as we saw in the attack on WRO headquarters, but Shelke is a super soldier with a decade of hard training and two lightsabers to boot. You’ll probably win the fight cause the narrative dictates it, but it seems unlikely that you’d win anyway.
-Elsewhere. Azul breaks down a door, stomping two WRO guards in the process.
-Elsewhere. Deepground snipers have infiltrated the lab and start shooting WRO guards. Poor redshirts.
Attacking again.
-Wait. This is the same headquarters we defended before. I hope we don’t have to fight through here again to clear a Deepground attack. I doubt we will.
-Reeve learns of the attack, just as a Deepground soldier fires a frigging rocket launcher at him.
-Back with Shalua, Shelke’s standing down. Maybe she doesn’t REALLY want to return to Deepground, and just said that out of momentum or habit or something.
-Shelke says that Deepground was waiting for Azul’s death. (SO HE DID DIE!) She calls the death “prologue to the true terror.”
---
Yuffie and Vincent’s Truck
-I assumed Yuffie and Vincent were already at WRO headquarters, but it turns out they were just in a truck on the way there. The truck gets attacked, and Yuffie is knocked unconscious as the truck flips.
-Next stage: “Deepground Strikes Back.”
-Vincent leaves the truck on foot.
-Some mechs attack me. They use slow but hard-hitting missiles, and for the first time this game I feel effective in my defense. When I see the missiles coming towards me, I sidestep with my dodge button out of the way.
-Pretty fun segment here! First up is a wilderness area with bugs and dogs, and then a Deepground camp that I get to attack. I pick off what enemies I can from behind cover, then take on a swarm of bugs in melee.
-Trying to melee when possible to save bullets.
-New stage mission to save the WRO members.
-Trying to take down helicopters, but I don’t get it. If I sit still in the gun turret, their missiles obliterate me. If I try to run and shoot with a rifle, it’s slow as fuck.
Whatever. It’s both optional and boring, so I move on.
-This part is pretty tough. Have to keep moving forward, gradually retaking the WRO base. Enemies all over, including up high. I have to pop out, see where people shoot me from, hop back into cover, and pick them off.
-As he’s about to go into the building proper, Vincent hears voices around him. “This is HQ! We need backup!” “What is that thing?” Also some beast roaring.
-Dang. Almost made it into the building, and looks like a boss fight. A spider mech and a bunch of soldiers. And I’m low health and low potions.
-The boss is literally called “Black Widow II.”
-Luckily, it’s not nearly as nasty as its predecessor. I retreat into the massive amount of cover and draw the soldier adds to me, killing them at close range. The BW II’s main tactic is to fire a slow missile at me, so I sit near cover, shoot at it with a rifle, and when the missile is on its way duck back behind the pillar.
Rinse and repeat.
-That can’t be the main boss of this area though. Zombie!Azul is on the loose, along with whatever beast was roaring. They could be the same thing too if Zombie!Azul is really feral.
Moving on.
---
Next time: back in WRO headquarters proper.
