I wasn't really sure to bring this up, but it's such a unique take, I think it's worth it.
This comes from an ongoing fan story. DO NOT read this story if you are going through this as blind as Omi. There are spoilers in the first chapter. There are spoilers in the
summary. With that said
, here is the link.
The party is heading west, and walk into North Corel. Things play out more or less the same, except they find out Barrett was literally scapegoated; the survivors took the names of everyone thought dead, pulled a name from a hat, and blamed them for Corel's demise. Barrett was the unlucky winner.
Next, they head to the Gold Saucer in hopes of finding a way across the river blocking travel further west. They split up in search of transport, encounter Cait Sith, and then stumble on the massacre, getting tossed down a hole. Notably, the party has already regrouped at this point, so everyone is tossed. Also worth pointing out, Barrett's best weapon at this point is the Atomic Scissors, so he doesn't even have a "gun arm". With player choice, you can't say that is a guarantee in-game, but it is interesting that they had two melee options in a row for Barrett; first the Cannon Ball that would line up with the ship voyage (explaining why he
didn't shoot Heidigger) and the Atomic Scissors, implicitly absolving him of the Gold Saucer Massacre.
In Corel Prison, more backstory unfolds as it did in the game…until Dyne shoots Barret, and nothing happens. That jumpstarts the amulet, the monologue, the cliff side jump. They find out, Corel Prison is actually a mental institute that Dio uses as an occasional drunk tank in exchange for funding. The Chocobo race to leave is literally a "are you sober enough yet?" test. The "second-in-command" is the head doctor, and many of the thugs are just orderlies looking tough.
Dyne is a patient, and playing as the "boss" of the Prison helped calm him down. His gun arm is filled with red paint mixed with tranquilizers since his fantasy would break if he "shot" someone that didn't know to play along. As for jumping off a cliff? Well, Dyne likes to make a dramatic declaration and jump off a cliff about once a week. Luckily, the only cliff in the area overlooks the local reservoir, so he just gets wet and the thugs/orderlies have to fish him out.
Now, is this nearly as dramatic as the original series of events? No. Does it explain who killed those Shinra guys in the first place? Also no, which is strange in hindsight because the author has done a pretty good job of paving over plotholes and providing
some sort of explanations for things up to this point. It
is, however, a unique take on this little arc, and one I thought I'd share with the class.
Okay, so, this gets back to my point about Beach Hojo:
If you've deliberately brought in the Ghosts What Force Things To Go How They Did Before so you can kill them, why are you proceeding to retain shit like "Okay, sure we're supposed to be on an important mission, but let's waste our time and money at this casino because Sephiroth was supposedly here for all of, what, two minutes?"
Well, at this point we have "Go West" as our best lead, and Sephiroth sightings breadcrumbs. If you try to just skip the Saucer and continue West, I believe you just hit an impassable river. So investigating Gold Saucer is the only option to proceed, no ghostly interference needed.
As an aside, I kinda want Sephiroth Impersonators ala Los Vegas Elvis in FF7 Rebirth's Gold Saucer.
