FFVII Dirge of Cerberus – Part 32: The Gang’s All Here

Summary: Lucrecia’s story wraps up. Vincent goes into a controlled Chaos form and moves in for Omega, with an assist on the ground from friends old and new. I include a huge amount of images here because this session was visually delightful.

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Flashback – Deepground Labs

-While that last flashback was Shelke seeing Lucrecia’s memories, this one is pure Shelke. It’s Shelke talking to Nero, first learning of her role within Deepground.

-Black screen. Shelke says: “Connect with her, Vincent. Connect with her heart.”

-I’m trying to figure out how to interpret this. Best I can come up with is that all that we just saw Shelke funneling Lucrecia’s memories into Vincent, and that Shelke’s trying to get Vincent to see the right ones. Maybe the answer to Omega is somewhere inside those memories.

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Crystal Grotto

-This is the place where Grimoire came with Lucrecia that got her so excited. The place where Vincent keeps seeing Lucrecia encased in the crystalline shell.

-Vincent is sitting as he was in other moments, but now Lucrecia is free! She floats away from the shell towards Vincent.

-Lucrecia explains that she’s not really herself, just an image created with her data. “The real me crumbled away long ago.”

-Lucrecia guides the two of them into a flashback, a memory of the day out the two of them had under the tree. Interesting – it’s not a total flashback. Vincent is not Turk!Vincent in this image. He’s current!Vincent, red flowy cape and everything.

-She gets a bit philosophical. Things fade, but there are some things they can’t let disappear.

-This whole time – from the beginning of the bit in the crystal grotto – Vincent has been unresponsive. Just sitting, looking down at his lap. He could be not seeing her, or seeing her and trying to ignore her because she’s not real.

-Lucrecia seems to feel more settled in her feelings, but still remorseful of how she treated Vincent.

-Quick note: this feels like a standard story that’s been gender swapped, and I like it. I often see stories about a male scientist who gets too caught up in their work and make mistakes that victimizes his girlfriend/wife. This is at least a bit of a reverse. Cool.

-Something about this all now snaps Vincent awake. He gets up from his sitting position, screams “Lucrecia!” Fade out.

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Midgar

-Chaos!Vincent is now holding Shelke in his arms. He flies to the ground, depositing her safely there.

-We briefly see an image of Lucrecia overlapping Shelke, exactly like we saw Hojo’s transparent image overlapping Weiss’s before.

Not that Lucrecia is possessing Shelke… but not that far from it in some ways.

-Chaos!Vincent generates a weapon in his hand. “I have a story to end.” HERE WE GO IT’S ON LIKE DONKEY KONG

-NO WAY – AM I GOING TO FIGHT OMEGA AS CHAOS???

-Vincent takes to the sky.

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Above Midgar

-New stage. Perhaps the final one. “Chaos and Omega.”

-Vincent is in Chaos form. He has a new gun, called “Death Penalty.”

Can’t customize it, but it’s ridiculously powerful.

-Walking along a catwalk of rubble leading to Omega. Occasionally these buoy thing come and shoot at me, but the Death Penalty one shots them.

-Walking is perhaps not the right word. Vincent’s GLIDING. It’s awesome.

-I’m legit nervous right now. When I was a kid, I used to have nightmares about being on a platform of ice in the ocean. The platform was tilting me down, making me slip down towards the water, where a great white shark awaited. I couldn’t stop myself from sliding down.

This feels like that.

-Cutscene. Vincent reaches the end of the catwalk and soars at Omega. The buoy things are floating all around Omega, shooting purple-black lasers at Vincent, but he dodges them all.

-Shot down the last of the buoys. Reached Omega.

Now THIS feels like final battle time.

-Cinematic. Omega finishes charging up, drawing enough lifestream power from the reactors to destroy them.

The moment before the reactors explode.

He must’ve overloaded them and is ready to leave.

-OH SHIT THE GANG’S ALL HERE!!!! CLOUD! TIFA! BARRET!

-I misunderstood. Omega didn’t draw so much power that it overloaded the reactors; the rest of the gang finally blew up the reactors to STOP him from drawing power. WOOHOO!!

Oh, and Cid.

I guess you’ve been okay in this game… nah. I can go further. You’ve been pretty awesome this game. Hi Cid!

-Reeve. Yuffie!!

SHELKE!!!!

BEST CHARACTER Y/Y?

-All of them cheer him on from below as Vincent divebombs at Omega.

It’s cheesy as fuck and I couldn’t possibly care less how cheesy it is. I love it, and it totally gets me.

-Vincent pushes through Omega’s shield, a streaking comet of purple light. How the hell does he fight something this massive though? One phase will be his arm, one phase his elbow, etc.?

-lol nope. He actually dives INSIDE OMEGA. Let’s make like a virus.

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Next time: within Omega.