Well, you can revisit the desert, as long as you have the buggy to get there; should something happen to the buggy, though...
Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Finished: Final Fantasy Tactics]
- Thread starter Omicron
- Start date
- Let's Play
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Something disastrous happening to an interim mode of transport? Couldn't possibly!
If you think about it, the best way to capture the thematic exploitation of the Golden Saucer is to let players buy GP points via real money currency purchases, and lock the best summons/loot behind gambling games that you use them on, a-la-lootboxes. In this essay I will...
Part of that might be that if he did threaten him into shutting down the reactors, the moment the President was not being immediately threatened (and/or was dead and Rufus in charge), they'd immediately go back on their word, while a confession to dropping the plate - with a modest amount of evidence - is dire in a direct, provable way that 'Mako is killing the planet' isn't, and can't just be easily retracted.
Getting Shinra to stop running the reactors through hostage situations isn't actually possible, while making the President confess will provide a lasting advantage in stopping them.
As to the translation thing... well, one can make a statement, even believe it, without it actually being true, and this seems like a situation where I can buy Barrett saying 'yeah this was pretty much just a revenge thing', even if that wasn't the whole of his motivation. Shrug.
Also on the subject of the Mixed Environmental Metaphor, the Rebirth trailer includes a line that seems to explicitly state that the Mako Reactors will eventually kill the planet, and with it, all life. This is implied in the original/add-ons, but I don't think ever really spelled out?
Though I suppose that could also be referring to Sephiroth's plan.
ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
- Pronouns
- They/them
None of that actually matters. The point is what Barret's first instinct was, and how he reacts when President Shinra calls him on that. It's clearly something he just didn't even think about, which is why it puts him off-balance enough for Pres to go for his gun. The idea of Barret consciously styling himself into the aesthetics of being a revolutionary isn't exactly one-and-done in Remake either, because his many impassioned speeches about the planet and Shinra have a rehearsed feeling to them that's very much absent in the way he conducts himself in more casual conversation. They even literally added sunglasses to his design to make him project a cooler and more closed-off air while he's on the job, sunglasses that hide his rather notoriously warm and friendly eyes (I have seen many people online gush over how pretty Barret looks without the shades), sunglasses that fly off when Sephiroth kills him seconds after the aforementioned President Shinra confrontation and are never used again.
- Pronouns
- They/Them/She/Her
Oh, that reminds me. I think this came up before in the spoiler thread, but now Omicron's gotten far enough to post it here:Thozmp said:
Possibly there's a connection between how empty the world outside Shinra's strongholds seems to be and Shinra's demonstrated habit of repeatedly causing, deliberately or otherwise, small settlements to be wiped out. And this is in peacetime; what was the war with Wutai like? Maybe, in other words, the world didn't used to be so empty...
I mean, one could also make the more standard assumption that there are plenty of other settlements around, the plot just doesn't touch on them, the same way one assume the settlements we do see are larger than we see. And I'd guess there's still some of that. But in this particular case, well, how many of those villages were on the map like that, and now look like Corel except for the lack of a casino arcology?
I don't remember which game, but one of the random NPC's basically says that each sector's slum used to be a separate town before Midgar overtook them. Between that and the condition of the land around Midgar, I'd imagine that the whole area was originally packed with small farming communities. Small to medium sized towns every 25 or so miles with a bunch of farms between them. Then Shinra starts building reactors in one, goes full industrial and starts expanding. Swallows up the little towns nearby, and the younger folk start moving to the city. Eventually the damage to the area kicks in, but slowly. Each year the harvests are a little bit worse. Eventually the farms start failing, forcing the farmers to move elsewhere to make ends meet. No farms mean the farming communities collapse. I'd bet there are a whole lot of little ghost towns in that barren area around Midgar.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yes, that's correct. Here's the exact quotes:
I think "no one remembers them" is a bit of a poetic exaggeration on Jessie's part; it seems unlikely that Midgar is old enough for the names of the old towns to have vanished entirely. But it gets at the core point that the individual identities of the various towns which existed within what is now Midgar were absorbed and subsumed into Shinra's megacity.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
My standard assumption is that Kalm is basically meant to stand in for all the rest of the towns you don't really see.
- Pronouns
- They/Them/She/Her
It could be, aye. But in FFVII, we do seem to have more examples, at least so far, of destroyed small towns than living ones.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The idea of the world of Final Fantasy VII being this weird kind of wasteland where Shinra just oopsie'd 90% of all settlements with a population under 10k and people have just shrugged and rolled with it because who cares it's not Midgar is just, incredible. Funniest possible worldbuilding interpretation.
"And in other news, all contact has been lost with the small settlement of Corel on the Western Continent. This marks the third settlement to have disappeared in the past year for unexplained reasons; when approached for information, Scarlet of Shinra answered, quote, 'I'm going to pay you 500 gil to fuck off.' And so the mystery remains..."
"And in other news, all contact has been lost with the small settlement of Corel on the Western Continent. This marks the third settlement to have disappeared in the past year for unexplained reasons; when approached for information, Scarlet of Shinra answered, quote, 'I'm going to pay you 500 gil to fuck off.' And so the mystery remains..."
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- They/Them/She/Her
Come to think of it, it might also explain why the former president thought dropping the plate was a Good Idea, if he'd gotten so used to no one (important, to him) caring when Shinra wiped out a settlement. So it's part of Midgar, so what? It's not the central tower, and they'll be building a new, even better Midgar soon anyway!
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
In fact, as we're about to find out with the events of the next update (coming tomorrow most likely), in a roundabout way doing so would help fix the issue of Midgar running out of Mako!
Terra Allias
World's only Magical Girl Spec Ops Asuka fan
- Location
- Cheverly
- Pronouns
- She/Her
As I'm reading through the FFV updates, I have been reading Ferris' lines with a stereotypical pirate voice, even after being outed because voice training
- Pronouns
- He/Him
That's true, but think about it; every other town you visit is plot relevant somehow, yeah? But what happens in Kalm that couldn't happen literally anywhere? It's really generic and I think that's the point: it's a typical small town, and you don't need to see any other ones because nothing happens in them. What, is Cloud going to narrate his flashback to the party a second time?
- Location
- The Great Beyond
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
I mean, not necessarily. Given the known goals of Shinra, certainly there's no reason it'd be surprising for them to pick a particularly population dense region to set up their central headquarters, if only to maximize customers and thus profits.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
And that's not even getting into the reasons an area might be more abundantly settled than others, such as having more resources, which would also be useful for company headquarters.
- Pronouns
- They/Them/She/Her
...Yes? I agree, but I thought what you're saying there had already been pretty clearly stated; thus, I'm wonder if I'm missing something. Or was it my agreement that wasn't clear? Anyway, sorry about the confusion.
Final Fantasy VII, Part 16: Gongaga & Cosmo Canyon
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Welcome back to Final Fantasy VII, the game where we finally find out what this whole 'Mako' thing is all about.
First things first, though: Now that we once again have access to the overworld, it's time to take Ramuh out for a spin.
Lightning strikes the ground, and a pillar of earth rises, atop which stands an old man who rains lightning down upon our enemies. Sick.
We now have four Summon Materias, including the Elemental Trio, and at that point it seems pretty clear these summons don't really have a diegetic role. We got one from a child, we found another one lying around in a locker room - I guess Summons in this setting are, for the most part, a particular form of codified spellcasting, and so Shiva, Ifrit and Ramuh aren't really self-willed entities being called upon but artificial constructs being generated with the summoning.
Also, to my great annoyance, the reason I'm trying Ramuh on the overworld right now is that it turns out unlike every vehicle in every game to date, the Buggy… doesn't avoid random encounters.
So that's a pain in my ass that's going to make stuff like "return to Fort Condor for the battles" a huge hassle that I don't want to deal with.
Anyway, let's go on a road trip!
…no sooner have we set foot in that forest that we spot the Turks a little distance away.
Reno and Rude are talking about…
…who they 'like'? And they're specifically talking about the people they're pursuing.
Reno: "Hey, Rude. Who do you like?"
Reno: "What are you getting so embarrassed about? Come on? Who do you like?"
Rude: "...Tifa."
Reno: "Hmm… That's a tough one."
Reno: "But, poor Elena. She… You…"
Rude: "No, she likes Tseng."
Reno: "I never knew that! But Tseng likes that Ancient…"
Cloud: [From hiding] "What are they talking about?"
[Elena appears behind him; she doesn't realize it's Cloud at first, startling him.]
Elena: "It's so stupid! They always talk about who they like and don't like. But Tseng is different."
Elena: [Finally realizing she's talking to Cloud] "Ah! Oh no! They're here! They're really here!"
Reno: "Hmm… Then it's time… Rude… Don't go easy on them, not even the girls."
Rude: "...Don't worry, I'll do my job."
Elena: "Then, we're counting on you. I'll report to Tseng!"
God. They're really just… Having some kind of water cooler chat about who's into whom and what are their chances, complete with Rude having a crush on Tifa he's embarrassed to admit. We have fully completed the Turks' transition into quirky comedy characters and you just kind of have to like… Accept that it's what the game is doing? Nowhere is this more obvious than in the exchange what follows, where Reno promises Cloud "payback for Sector 7," where we can answer "Sector 7?" like we have no idea what he means, at which point Reno is upset that we forgot about kicking his ass.
For the story, at this point, the connection of the Turks to the Sector 7 plate collapse is now firmly "Cloud kicked Reno's ass and Reno holds a grudge even though Cloud (pretends to) not even remember it happening," which is funny, as opposed to "the Turks murdered all of Barret and Tifa's friends." It is what it is, you just have to roll with it.
Unlike Reno, who fights with a baton/cattle prod, Rude is a bare-handed boxer (well, technically he's wearing black gloves). Ultimately though the fight is trivial; a couple of summons blast through Reno's HP, at which point he flees, and then Rude, though he still has HP, promptly follows.
Reno, the arrogant braggart with a one-sided rivalry to Cloud, runs away while shouting "we may be retreating, but... we're still victorious," which is just incredible levels of cope. Rude, the silent socially awkward guy, checks his watch, remembers he has somewhere else to be, and turns around and flees as well. This is peak comedy.
For our victory, we win the Fairy Tale, a new staff for Aerith (that I am about to completely forget to equip for the next half-hour), and then we have this, huh, interesting piece of dialogue.
Aerith: "...How could they know we were coming here."
Cloud: "They followed us… But there weren't any signs of it. Then, that means…"
Tifa: "A spy? No way."
Cloud: "I don't even want to think about there being a spy… I trust everyone."
…
Really, Cloud?
Really? Really really really really? You trust everyone?
You trust, say, THE TEENAGE NINJA THIEF who has no connection to Avalanche or investment in our cause and joined us for vague reasons and who TRIED TO ROB US MULTIPLE TIMES? You trust the walking fortune-telling machine that was probably designed by Shinra and forcibly inserted itself into our group under bizarre pretense while carrying around a mind control Materia and who has been with us for all of five minutes total? You trust everyone? These are your two best buddies in the world that you would trust not to betray us to Shinra? YUFFIE IS PICKING TIFA'S POCKET AS WE SPEAK-
Ahem.
"There's a mole in the party!!!" subplots are rarely my favorite because they're usually kind of forced, require characters to act like idiots, and the answer is either totally random or completely predictable. Here, for instance, I could just look up whether this boss fight still triggers if we failed to recruit Yuffie so far (she is, after all, an optional character); if it doesn't, she's the mole, if it does, it's Cait Sith. It's literally that simple.
Anyway, my money's on Cait Sith, but more importantly, having Cloud turn into the Nakama type who trusts his whole party implicitly is just baffling and completely at odds with his character, who has yet to really get over his trust and openness issues.
We continue making our way through the forest, acquiring on the way a Deathblow Materia which was just kind of lying there. Deathblow is a Command which makes an attack which is an automatic Critical Hit if it hits, but with ⅓ of its normal accuracy. I'm sure there are ways to break this wide open by making base accuracy so high it still hits anyway or something, but as it stands this is largely useless to us, as we don't have any such means and hitting one in three times with crits ends up less DPS than just landing normal hits.
Then we arrive in the village of Gongaga!
It's a cute place, with a unique aesthetic for its architecture and buildings. As might be obvious from the graveyard at the entrance of the village with people paying respects, it's a place that's recently faced tragedy - the nearby Mako Reactor exploded three years ago, killing much of the village's inhabitants. The tragedy hangs heavy over the place; everyone we talk to makes references to it, including the shopkeeps.
Can't help but notice Shinra didn't react by slaughtering the locals, though.
We can actually see the reactor in the background, the village overlooking it - it's that reactor, rather than the village, which served as our overworld indicator of a location to explore.
A wrecked ruin, its walls leaning outwards, like a blown up metal flower.
The local shops sell a number of immunity-granting accessories alongside two new Materia, Mystify and Time. Mystify inflicts mental status effects like Confusion and Berserk, which I've literally never had a use for in an FF game, so we'll skip it for now. Time is more obviously useful; it grants access to Haste, Slow and Stop, and Haste has always been great value.
Although…
…I forgot to mention that before heading on with the plot, I took a brief break to head to the beach and fight these weird mollusks. With the Manipulate Materia, I was able to force one of them to use its Big Guard ability on our party, which allowed us to learn it with the Enemy Skill Materia.
Big Guard, if you're unfamiliar with the game, is a spell which casts Haste, Barrier, and Shell on the whole party at the same time. If you've been reading this Let's Play throughout, you'll remember that Hastega, "cast Haste on the whole party," was a spell single-handedly powerful enough to make the entire Time Mage class endgame-viable (or, more truthfully, Time Magic worth an entire slot of its own on a Mimic). So… Yeah, I'm guessing this is going to be pretty good.
I'm going to promptly forget that I have it in the upcoming boss battle and not use it at all, though, so it's not going to break anything.
We visit the shops, I stock up on all those weapons I couldn't buy in Junon (that's a stupid idea, I should have known this was a stupid idea, I did it anyway, all of these are going to end up outclassed in the next town five minutes over and I'll have wasted all that money), and then we just head into various houses to talk to people. Surely only some casual environmental dialogue without plot importance, though!
Hm.
Man: "You a traveller? Hey wait, that glow in your eye… Are you in SOLDIER?"
Woman: "Oh, you're right! Don't you know anything about our son?"
Man: "His name is Zack."
Woman: "It's been close to 10 years since he left for the city, saying that he didn't want to live in the country…"
Man: "He left saying he's going to join SOLDIER. You ever hear of a Zack in SOLDIER?"
Cloud: "Hmmm… I don't know."
Aerith: "Zack…"
Man: "Young lady, you know him?"
Woman: "I remember he wrote us 6 or 7 years ago saying that he had a girlfriend. Could that have been you?"
Aerith: "That can't…"
[Aerith leaves the house.]
Tifa: "Zack…"
[Tifa also leaves.]
Cloud: "What happened to you two?"
Well.
That's certainly not anything to think too hard about.
Side note but it's crazy the prestige that SOLDIER has. Like, these guys are on a separate continent from Midgar, but the allure of Shinra's elite soldiers/war heroes was such that it reached a kid in Gongaga who dreamed of joining them and left his family behind for it, just as it had reached Cloud in Nibelheim (wherever that is). It's like a kid's dream of being some kind of like, action hero astronaut Navy SEAL.
If we head out, we find Aerith and Tifa both standing around on their own thinking about what they just heard.
Aerith is shocked, but unusually open about things when we talk to her: She explains to Cloud, as we might have guessed, that Zack was her 'first love', the boy she told us about all the way back during that discussion at the abandoned playground. Zack, SOLDIER First Class, "same as Cloud." Cloud says it's weird - there aren't many First Class, yet he's never heard of Zack.
Yeah Cloud, that is weird. Could it be SOMEHOW RELATED TO YOUR CRIPPLING MEMORY ISSUES?
Surely not. I must be overthinking things.
Aerith: "That's all right. It's all in the past now. I was just worried because I heard he's been missing."
Cloud: "Missing?"
Aerith: "It was five years ago. He went out on a job, and never came back."
Aerith: "He loved women, a real lady's man. He probably found someone else…"
Aerith: "Hey? What's wrong?"
Here there's a weird difference between the various translations. In the original English, Cloud has the opportunity to either say "Poor guy," or "(jealous… envious…)" The first one sounds like either Cloud is going "Damn, sucks that he disappeared" or making some kind of weird negging comment about Aerith clinging to him after five years? And the second one like Cloud is muttering under his breath because he's jealous of the cool dude who used to date Aerith. Both make sense in their own way, though the latter is less flattering to our protagonist (though if we do pick it, Aerith is actually pleased to see Cloud getting kinda jealous over her ex-boyfriend and teases him about it). In the Retranslated version, these two options are instead "I'd be worried too, I guess…" and "(what a slimy…)"; the first one is like, agreeing with Aerith's concern but in a kind of off-handed, detached way, and the second one is more 'being mad about someone hurting Aerith's feelings." I kind of prefer the like, teenage emotional immaturity of the original translation with Cloud grinding his teeth? He's in his early twenties, sure, but he's just not very socially and emotionally mature, and it makes sense for him.
Now let's go talk to Tifa!
Tifa: "Zack…"
Cloud: "Do you know him?"
Tifa: "N, no, I don't know him!"
Cloud: "Your face tells me differently."
Tifa: "I told you, I don't!"
Cloud: "All right."
Tifa: "..."
Tifa: "That sounds just like you, leaving town, and saying 'I'm joining SOLDIER!'"
Cloud: "There were a lot of guys like that back then."
Tifa: "You must really be something making it in SOLDIER out of a group like that."
Tifa: "I really respect you…"
And here we can say "I just got lucky" or "I worked hard for it." If we say "I just got lucky," she chides Cloud to not be so humble, then thanks him for caring.
…
WHY YOU LYIN' THOUGH
Okay, Tifa and Aerith both knowing whoever the hell 'Zack' is seems like… kind of a streeetch… Especially as Zack comes from this village we've never heard of before? But it's very clear Tifa here is the one hiding something - in uncharacteristic contrast with her typically earnest affect.
Well. We'll find out eventually. For now, let's head to the ruined Reactor. As soon as we enter the ruins, the noise of a helicopter can be heard overhead, and Cloud takes cover behind some debris.
Enter Scarlet, accompanied by Tseng. We finally have actual confirmation of her role on the executive board - Scarlet is head of Weapon Development. Previously, I had her pegged as head of the Scientific Research Division, with Hojo working under her, because the Shinra Building Library was neatly divided between "Scientific Research," "Urban Development," "Peace/Weapon Development," and "Space Development," with Reeves corresponding to Urban Dev, Heidegger to Peace/Weapon Dev, and Whatshisface to Space Dev, and Hojo not looking like an executive at all. I was wrong, it seems; Hojo was probably head of Scientific Research and "Peace" and "Weapon Development" were two separate divisions, helmed by Heidegger and Scarlet respectively.
…
If Scarlet is Head of Weapon Dev, and she was the one who sold the Corel townsfolk on a Mako Reactor near their home, and she was the one who personally oversaw the Corel Massacre by being physically there and taking up arms themselves, then it's quite possible the Corel Reactor was built as part of advanced weapons research, and the reason the townsfolk had to die was to clear the area of any potential witnesses to highly sensitive superweapon research.
Which, eeeh. It like, makes more sense, in that there's a clearer "extremely sensitive information -> mass murder to cover it up" causality link, but I prefer the utter venality of murdering a village's worth of people to clear space for a casino, so for now I'm sticking to that theory - maybe Scarlet just wasn't yet in charge of Weapon Dev at that point in time.
Scarlet: "Hmph! This isn't any good either. You only get junky Materia from junky reactors.
Scarlet: "This reactor's a failure. What I'm looking for is a big, large, Huge Materia. You seen any?"
Tseng: "...No I haven't seen it. I'll get on it right away."
Scarlet: "Please. We could make the ultimate weapon if we only had some."
Tseng: "I just can't wait."
Scarlet: "With Hojo gone, Weapon Development's been getting a bigger budget."
Tseng: "I envy them."
Scarlet: "But, even if we make the perfect weapon, could that stupid Heidegger even use it?"
Tseng: "..."
Scarlet: "Oh… Sorry! I forgot Heidegger was your boss! Kya ha ha!"
Tseng: "..."
Scarlet: "Let's go."
Cloud: [From hiding] "...Big, large, Huge Materia? An ultimate weapon? The perfect weapon? Just what are the Shinra up to?"
Intriguing! The capitalization on 'Huge' makes it clear that this is a name, 'Huge Materia', although I do wonder what a Huge Materia would, like… Do. Could you even use it, if you can't slot it in human gear? Maybe as the core to power a weapon.
Also the ruined reactor has one of the funniest monster encounters of all time.
Is that a… triceratops on treads? With arms? And car cylinders?
There's someone at Shinra's Weapon Development Division whose lifelong crusade is to make the funniest looking robot cars, and I respect them for that. That thing has 1,400 HP, making it pretty much a miniboss, but we have Beta so whatever (I don't use it often, but some random encounters are a slog).
Well, we've more or less covered Gongaga and the reactor, I think, and no trace of Sephiroth, despite Dio's indications. So let's grab the buggy again and head out.
As we move West, the sun sets, and the sky takes on beautiful purple-and orange colors. The game doesn't have a day-night cycle, so I think this shift is location-based, which is an interesting way to approach it. We find a way into the mountains, and ride around until we find a new settlement.
Cosmo Canyon.
Man, what a gorgeous background. And - I know I don't talk about the music as much as you guys would like, but I really, really dig Cosmo Canyon's theme:
Final Fantasy VII OST - Cosmo Canyon
It's just a really cool, fun tune. As soon as we approach, we get a surprise:
This is Red XIII's home! And not just that - we finally have his actual name, Nanaki. The man at the gate immediately recognizes him, calls him by name, thankful that he is safe, and enjoins him to come in and "say hello to Bugenhagen."
So, it's neat that we finally have a proper name for Red. But also…
I went back to check the scene where we meet Red, and the exchange between him and Cloud goes:
"What's your name?"
"Hojo has named me, Red XIII. A name with no meaning whatsoever to me. Call me whatever you wish."
I had assumed that there was some kind of reason for this weird exchange - that Red didn't know his birth name, or that it was secret for some plot relevant reason, but no. Dude's called Nanaki, knew he was called Nanaki, had no particular reason to keep his name hidden, and just… Didn't tell us for whatever reason, so we've been calling him by his experiment serial number this whole time. And now his name is recorded as Red XIII in the menu, so I guess we'll just… Keep calling him that. It's so weird.
I have a theory, though. You'll see in a moment.
The gatekeeper tells us that this is Cosmo Canyon, a place where "people from all over the world gather to seek the Study of Planet Life." Barret immediately shouts with enthusiasm that he always wanted to come here; the gatekeeper at first says he can't let us enter because the place "is full," which is a weird reason that I'm pretty sure is a polite lie to turn away outsiders, but Nanaki tells him to let us in because we helped him.
There's a fire in the center of town called the Cosmo Candle, which is a holy flame protecting the canyon that has only gone out once in its existence; "something horrifying occurred" when it did, but little else is known. So kind of a sacred fire of Vesta sort of thing, I dig it.
Everyone in town knows Nanaki, and no one finds it weird that he's a talking catdog; we meet him on the stairs leading to that observatory with the giant telescope, where he tells us more about himself.
Red XIII: "Here is where I was… I mean, this is my hometown."
Red XIII: "My tribe were protectors of those who appreciate this beautiful canyon and planet."
Red XIII: "My brave mother fought and died here, but my cowardly father left her… I am the last of my race."
Cloud: "Cowardly father?"
Red XIII: "Yes. My father was a wastrel. And so the mission I inherited from my ancestors is to protect this place. My journey ends here."
Voice: "Hey, Nanaki–! You're home!"
Red XIII: Coming, grandpa!"
Barret: "Good timin'. Let's take a breather. I got stuff I want to find out, too."
Hmmm. There's definitely more to this "cowardly father" thing that we don't know yet, but if Nanaki feels he has some kind of responsibility to live up to after his father failed, it'd help explain his stilted, highly formal demeanor. Also, he calls himself the 'last of his race' but has a living grandfather? Interesting.
The local weapon seller has a really interesting line where she tells us that the people of Cosmo Canyon "hate to compete" (she means they dislike conflict/violence, not that they don't play sports), so most of the weapons she sells are just decorative replicas, but she does have some functional weapons to sell us. So, a community of pacifist scholars who study the Planet - seems like Cosmo Canyon is the stand-in for the Village of the Ancients/Mysidia of previous games.
Also the weapon shop has the next tier of weapons with higher damage, and I am fresh out of funds so I can't buy any of them. There is a brief moment of intense frustration as a result, but we soldier on.
We can find Barret in a storage room, next to one of the Village Elders, and he has something for us - at last, the story of Avalanche!
Barret: "There was this guy who studied 'Planetary Life' here. He couldn't take things the way they were, so he went to Midgar to form AVALANCHE. Wanna hear more?"
Cloud: "Go on."
Barret: "Guess you could say this is where AVALANCHE was born. I always wanted to come here… And finally… I made it. A lot's happened…"
Cloud: "And then?"
Barret: "And then…? I don't know what's going to happen, now that there is no AVALANCHE…"
Hrm.
So that's interesting but also recontextualizes a few things. Due to a combination of early game dialogue and the Remake's presentation, I'd initially assumed that Avalanche was a larger organization of which Barret's group was but one cell, though one detached from the main organization, a 'black sheep' kind of deal. That started being weird and kind of inconsistent over time, and I think this all but confirms that Avalanche was always meant to just be Barret, Tiffa, Biggs, Wedge and Jessie, plus that unnamed Cosmo Canyon scholar who formed the group in the first place and, I guess, died at some point.
Either that, or Avalanche used to be a larger group, and Barret's cell were the last survivors after it was whittled down over time in Shinra counter-terrorist actions, but it seems like that'd come up more if it were the case?
The Remake makes it very explicit that there is a larger organization called Avalanche which recently attempted to assassinate President Shinra, which Wedge contacts during the third act and which sends a helicopter to help out Barret's group. I wonder what changed there and why.
Okay.
So, first off: Bugenhagen being, seemingly, human, while being Nanaki's "grandfather" explains the "last of his race" line, this must be some kind of adoption situation.
OR IS IT?
It might not be clear from a screenshot alone, but Bugenhagen is… weird. More specifically, he doesn't have legs, at least not visible ones; instead, his body terminates in what looks like the bottom of a green sphere, which is hovering a few feet above the ground; when he moves, it's by floating. So it's possible he only appears outwardly human, but is in fact a stranger creature. The other alternative being…
…he's like Fortuneteller Baba, sitting on a big crystal ball that floats around the place. Which would be weird in and of itself, to be sure!
My theory here is that… These are Espers. Well, not literally; but, like the Espers of FFVI, Nanaki belongs to a species of strange beings with a link to the planet, whose appearance doesn't have to obey firm rules, with a human-like Esper and a beast-like Esper having no issue being related.
Nanaki introduces us to his grandfather, who proceeds to immediately shatter his carefully-presented affect by revealing that Nanaki is, in fact, a child - oh, he's 48 years old, but his "tribe" have incredible longevity and so 48 is their equivalent of 15 or 16 in human years.
Is this a joke about "age in dog years"? It feels like it is. Cloud is shocked by this twist, and Bugenhagen tells us that we were probably fooled into believing he was an adult because he's "quiet and very deep."
Okay.
I have it now.
I know why the game is being weird with Nanaki/Red XIII's name.
Nanaki is a teenager with a very formal affect who doesn't talk much and brings up "logic" and stuff. One thing we can say for sure is, he's a Redditor. And when he was captured by Hojo, however that happened, and assigned an experiment name, his reaction to hearing himself called "RED THIRTEEN" was "holy shit, this is the coolest shit ever," like he was named like some kind of fucked up mad science experiment or superweapon, so when Cloud asked for his name, he did not miss his shot at having everyone call him by his super-cool mad science nickname instead of his boring normal name. Because he's a teenager who really wants to look cool.
Rock on, Red.
Nanaki/Red tells his grandfather that he wants to become an adult and protect the village, but Bugenhagen tells him he's too young to 'stand on his own' and it would destroy him eventually.
He has this really interesting metaphor where he compares that to Midgar itself: The great city reaching up into the heavens and threatening to snatch the very stars from the sky - a bad example which must not be followed; to look up to the sky is to lose perspective.
Bugenhagen: "When it's time for the Planet to die, you'll understand that you know absolutely nothing."
Cloud: "...when the Planet dies?"
Bugenhagen: "Ho h hooo. It may be tomorrow, or 100 years from now… But it's not long off."
Cloud: "How do you know this?"
Bugenhagen: "I hear the cries of the Planet."
Well, that's ominous.
There's a bit where a strange sound is supposed to be playing, and for Cloud to be shocked, before it's revealed that Bugenhagen's observatory captures the sound of stars dying and being born, then another, even more eerie sound, which he says is a scream from our Planet voicing her suffering.
Unfortunately that sound doesn't exist in the version I'm playing. The Steam version's soundtrack is busted as fuck, and the game decided to just fall silent for that entire bit, creating only confusion. I'll need to remember to maybe pick up an audio mod before my next play session but, like, take this as a warning: The Steam version of FF7 straight up shouldn't be on sale. It's literally broken. Fucking hell.
Red tells his grandfather that we have come on a long journey to save the Planet, and asks if he will show us his "apparatus;" Gubenhagen agrees and asks us to go fetch two more of our friends. I grab Barret and Aerith, and he takes us into a holographic orrery for some impromptu worldbuilding exposition.
It's nice that Bugenhagen is actually using advanced technology - for all its environmental message, the game isn't ostensibly anti-technology, even the wise old scholar is using cool holographic tech for his lessons.
Sssso.
The solar system.
A shooting star moves across the display, which is the game's excuse to go into a sick FMV as the camera zooms around the planets, and follows meteorites as they fly around over Aerith's head…
Actually, though.
Before anything else, I want to draw attention to two details about this solar system display. First off, it's a little difficult to tell the planets because we have this three-quarter view from an angle and outside instead of a clear top down view, but:
That's the solar system. As in, ours. There's a tiny planet very close to the sun, a second one, the third one is the blue Planet, the fourth one is red, then it is followed by a red gas giant and a ringed gas giant, then two smaller planets that are slightly more ambiguous, and then the weird, slightly offset angle of Pluto, where it's sometimes inside Neptune's orbit and sometimes outside - in 1997 still officially recognized as a planet…
This is literally just the solar system down to the planets. What the fuck. They didn't fantasify it even a little. Except for, wait, one small detail…
The black hole at the edge of the system into which these meteorites are being sucked in. Black hole… OR WORMHOLE PORTAL?!
Dammit, that wormhole portal would have been the perfect addition to my "interstellar earth colony" theory - right there we have the point of entry, the way in which the humans entered this new solar system to colonize it! Except if this is earth… Then humans were never space travelers in the first place, they have always lived on this planet… Which would make the cataclysm that wiped out the Ancients the cataclysm which ended our civilization, and this Planet the far-future of Earth 🤔
More data is needed. We shall see.
Anyway, it's time for Bugenhagen to drop some major lore.
Bugenhagen: "Eventually… All humans die. What happens to them after they die? The body decomposes, and returns to the Planet. That much everyone knows. What about their consciousness, their hearts and their souls?"
Bugenhagen: "The soul too returns to the Planet. And not only those of humans, but everything on this Planet. In fact, all living things in the universe, are the same."
Bugenhagen: "The spirits that return to the Planet, merge with one another and roam the Planet. They roam, converge, and divide, becoming a swell, called the 'Lifestream.'"
Bugenhagen: "Lifestream… In other words, a path of energy of the souls roaming the Planet."
Bugenhagen: "'Spirit energy' is a word that you should never forget. A new life… children are blessed with Spirit Energy and brought into the world. Then, the time comes when they die and once again return to the Planet…"
Bugenhagen: "Of course there are exceptions, but this is the way of the world."
Bugenhagen: "I've digressed, but you'll understand better if you watch this."
Then, Bugenhagen plays out an animation in which a human being on the Planet scatters into motes of light, which come together to reform a different human, then multiple flows of colored energy; Bugen holds out his hand and the energy is 'drained' from the Planet… Which blackens and shatters.
Bugenhagen: "...These are the basics of the Study of Planet Life."
Cloud: "If spirit energy disappears, our Planet will die."
Bugenhagen: "Ho ho hooo. Spirit Energy is efficient BECAUSE it exists within nature. When Spirit Energy is forcefully extracted, and manufactured, it can't accomplish its true purpose."
Cloud: "You're talking about Mako energy, right?"
Bugenhagen: "Everyday Mako Reactors suck up Spirit Energy, diminishing it. Spirit Energy is compressed in reactors and processed into Mako energy. All living things are being used up and thrown away."
Bugenhagen: "In other words, Mako energy will only destroy the Planet…"
…
So, there it is.
Soylent Mako is people.
I don't know how much of a surprise this is to anyone; I feel like this is one of the better-known plot twists in this game, to the point that it didn't feel so much like a 'twist' as confirmation of something I was expecting. Even without that out-of-game knowledge, the repeated mentions of "returning to the Planet" for the dead strongly hinted that way, I think; but that is a twist nonetheless, at least as initially intended. And… damn.
Like, Shinra is basically mining the souls of the dead out of the Underworld, here. It's kind of incredible, as a concept; the planet has a cycle of life and rebirth, where souls become spirit energy which goes on to be new souls, a perfect equilibrium, and Shinra hijacked it for electric power. Like… The sheer mundanity of it, even if it is what enables worldwide advanced technology, of using the very souls of mankind to turn on a fucking lightbulb.
And, of course, the world will eventually run out of spirit energy, of souls, and will perish. It won't even be sacrificing the world for the benefit of humanity, because without spirit energy, they can't be any more humans.
And in turn, in a perverse way, this means that every massacre Shinra causes pushes the viability of Mako energy a little longer. With every mass death event, souls return to the Planet, replenishing its spiritual energy for later extraction. Shinra is literally making more Mako by killing people.
So, yeah. This didn't "raise the stakes," exactly, but it did bring them a new clarity.
Bugenhagen turns off the holographic display, and tells us that to know more, we should seek out the Elders of Cosmo Canyon and ask them about the story of the Planet.
Before doing that, though, we can find the rest of the party hanging around the Cosmo Candle as if it were a campfire. The whole scene has a nice, cozy vibe, of friends hanging out together, probably roasting marshmallows, that I kinda love.
Never change, Yuffie.
Each party member has some dialogue, some more extensive than others.
Cait Sith: "I wonder how many years it's been… Gosh, it brings back memories."
So Cait Sith has been to Cosmo Canyon before. That's interesting, because nobody seems to recognize them, even though they are a talking cat riding a giant moogle plushie. You'd think that'd stick in people's minds!
Aerith: "I've learned a lot. The elders taught me many things. About the Cetra… And the Promised Land… I'm… alone… I'm all alone now…"
Cloud: "But I'm… we're here for you, right?"
Aerith: "I know. I know, but… I am the only… Cetra."
Cloud: "Does that mean we can't help?"
[No answer.]
Aerith is continuing to have an existential crisis. Poor girl. Also, Cloud almost slipping with the "I'm… We're here for you," cute.
Barret: "Cosmo Canyon… This's where AVALANCHE was born… I promised my guys someday… when we saved the Planet from the Shinra, that we'd all go to Cosmo Canyon and celebrate… Biggs… Wedge… Jessie… Now they're all gone… Died for the Planet."
Barret: "...Really? To save the Planet?"
Barret: "We all… We all hate the Shinra… But is it right to go on? Will they… Will they ever forgive me?"
Barret: "Right now, I really don't know. But I do know one thing. If there's anything I can do, to save the Planet… Or the people livin' on it… Then I'm gonna do it!"
Barret: "I don't care if it's for justice or revenge, or whatever. I don't care…"
[He stands up, shaking his fists.]
Barret: "Urrrgh! I'm gonna do it! Again… Again… AVALANCHE's born again!"
And here we have basically the conclusion of Barret's character arc, at least the part of it we've seen so far - the events in Corel and around Dyne have forced him to confront the question of whether or not Avalanche stood for saving the planet or for revenge against Shinra, and if the latter, was he lying to Biggs, Wedge and Jessie? Did they die for nothing? And now, he's reaffirming his resolve. Whether or not Barret was fighting for the planet or only for vengeance is in the past, and doesn't matter: From now on, he'll be fighting for the Planet and everyone living on it. That's what matters.
…and again, the English translation here affects the meaning of this dialogue. In the Retranslated version, Barret is much more explicitly saying that his friends didn't die for the Planet but that it was all for his hate, and asking if he has any right to continue on his crusade when his motives were so flawed, before deciding that he doesn't know the answer, but he'll keep fighting for the Planet, and let others decide whether it was for justice or revenge for themselves.
It's subtle, but it's not quite the same characterization, right? Either way, it ends in Barret reaffirming his resolve and committing to the path of saving the Planet.
Tifa: "Cloud… Bonfires are funny, aren't they? They make you remember all sorts of things."
Tifa: "You know, Cloud. Five years ago…"
Tifa: "...It's nothing."
Tifa: "No, forget it. I'm afraid to ask…"
Cloud: "What is it?"
Tifa: "It feels like… It feels like you're going far away…"
Tifa: "You really, really are… you… right?"
What an incredibly normal thing to ask someone. I, too, regularly go to my friends and ask "hey btw, are you you?" You just gotta have to keep an eye out for the body-snatchers and p-zombies, you know?
Also Tifa just looking at a bonfire and going "This reminds me of that time Sephiroth burned down my entire town and killed my father, how nostalgic" is just. You're so Normal, girl. So incredibly Normal.
Anyway, I love this whole scene with its understated vibe with everyone having profound personal questions and identity crises around a bonfire. FF7 is just, outstanding in terms of character work compared to all the previous games.
Alright, Red isn't talking for now, so let's see what those Elders have to tell us.
Elder Bughe: "You can't talk of the Ancients, without mentioning Professor Gast. He used to come here sometimes. He was a Shinra scholar who spent his life studying the Ancients. He was a serious person, you never would have thought he'd be in Shinra."
Elder Bughe: "Must've been about 30 years ago, when he found the corpse of an Ancient. He was elated! If I recall… He named it 'Jenova' and was doing a lot of research…"
Elder Bughe: "One day, he showed up here, looking very distressed. He was mumbling something about Jenova not being an Ancient and that he'd done a terrible thing… He's been missing ever since then. I heard that he never went back to Shinra."
Elder Bughe: "So, if you ever see Professor Ghast, I want you to tell him… That the old man that likes to drink in Cosmo Canyon, wants to hear about the Ancients."
Okay. This is a lot.
It looks like Professor Gast was a man with a sense of ethics, not at all like Hojo. He was someone the scholars of Cosmo Canyon were willing to talk to and cooperate with, even though he was Shinra, which is really interesting - and might have been for the worst in the end. More importantly, it looks like Gast's identification of Jenova as one of the Ancients was wrong. I already suspected that, what with her looking like a Resident Evil final boss instead of a normal person like Aerith, but importantly, the information in the Shinra Mansion was not up to date with that fact. Which means Sephiroth is operating on completely false premises! Jenova was never one of the 'rightful heirs' to the Planet, one of the Ancients!
Well, I'm sure once we encounter him and confront him with that fact he'll just see reason and totally change his ways. Can't see any problem with that.
Elder Hargo, meanwhile, is the guy Barret was talking to in the storage room. He is compiling a book about everything that is known about the history of the Planet and its legends to leave behind, so that when he returns to the Planet, his children will still be able to learn all that he knew. In a sense, isn't that what the Ancients did with the Materia?
Elder Hargo: "...The Promised Land. So what do you want to know?"
Elder Hargo: "There is no one place called the Promised Land. That's what I believe."
Elder Hargo: "No, no, it does exist… Hmmm… You can say that. In other words, it doesn't exist for us, but it did for the Ancients."
Elder Hargo: "The Promised Land is the resting place of the Ancients. The life of the Ancients is one continuous journey. A journey to grow trees and plants, raise animals, and make Mako energy."
Elder Hargo: "Their harsh journey continued throughout their lives… The place they returned to after their long journey… Their burial land is the Promised Land."
Elder Hargo: "Huh? Supreme happiness? I believe that, for the Ancients, it was the moment they were able to return to the Planet. The moment when they were released from their fate, and gained their supreme happiness…"
Elder Hargo: "At least that's what I believe. I really don't know whether or not it's true."
Well!
That's, huh, interesting.
I don't really know what to make of it, though, so I'll just leave it there.
Also, there's a Materia shop that it is completely possible to miss because the employee is having a nap. You need to talk to him twice in a row without leaving the room for him to wake up and show you the goods, which I almost miss entirely. And what goods they are!
…okay.
The Mystify/Transform Materia I don't care about, but man. MP Plus and HP Plus? These are the kind of like, baseline performance enhancers that I would put on everyone if I could, immediately, and then never take off. I would 100% sacrifice a couple of spellcasting Materias or a Summon or an All for everyone to always have MP/HP enhancers growing throughout the game.
Buuut I can't. A single one of those Materia would almost entirely deplete my 10k gil. Having a full set of both (ie three of each, for a full party) would cost me 48k gil. That is completely unfeasible.
Urgh. Well, something to keep in mind for later, I suppose.
And now it's time to talk to Red again! He laments that, when he thinks about his mother, he is full of pride and joy, but when he thinks about his father, his heart is full of anger. Bugenhagen, who was listening in, approaches and asks if Red truly can't forgive his father, and Red says that of course - after all, his father abandoned his mother to die. When the "Gi tribe" attacked, he ran away, leaving the Canyon to fend for itself.
Bugenhagen is thoughtful, and says there is something he needs to show Nanaki, and invites us and one other party member to follow.
What are the odds that this could be a STUNNING REVEAL that Nanaki's father wasn't actually a coward? What are the odds?
Ahem.
Bugenhagen leads us to this mechanical door that seals a tunnel within Cosmo Canyon and opens it, telling us to go in. Red asks him to lead the way, and Bugenhagen says no way, it's dangerous, he's just an old man! We have to go first. It's a funny exchange.
Alright. Dungeon time.
That blue Materia you can see in the corner will require a little bit of navigation to get through, and turns out to be the Added Effect Materia, which is to status effects what the Elemental Materia is to elemental typing; that is to say, if we pair the Materia with the Poison Materia on a weapon, the weapon will have a 20% chance to inflict Poison with any normal attack, whereas if we equip it on a piece of armor, it will grant the character immunity to the Poison status effect. Which sounds potentially pretty neat! It's going to run into boss immunities as usual, but at least it's a versatile offense/defense option so it won't be entirely useless.
The Cave of Gi is… Tiresome. It's inhabited by a variety of monsters which include these floating warrior dudes, who are the ghosts of the Gi Tribe, trapped within these caves after failing to reach Cosmo Canyon. The enemies here are generally tough, come in large numbers, and the Cave is long. The first room has a puzzle whose nature eludes me, where we enter small holes in the rock and find weird rock that we can crack open, which sometimes reveals a hostile monster and sometimes nothing at all; I break them all just to be sure and in the end I'm not sure what I got out of it. At the exit, Bugenhagen halts the group for a little history lesson.
Bugenhagen: "Everyone here's a ghost of the Gi Tribe, killed in a certain battle."
Red XIII: "A certain battle?"
Bugenhagen: "The vengeful spirits of the Gi didn't disappear, and couldn't return to the Lifestream… We still have far to go. Ho ho hooooo."
At some point, I'd like to read about whatever Japanese construct is rendered into English as "a certain [something]," because it's really noticeable whenever it's translated literally; the English translation is grammatically correct, but is never natural. You wouldn't say "Wellington defeated Napoleon in a certain battle." But it's so common that I'd like to know what's the, like, intended connotation in Japanese and why it gets translated literally into English.
Then it's time for THE LAKE OF BLOOD.
Sick.
Oh, also, that weird oily surface at the left of the screen? It is, in fact, oil, and attempting to cross it causes Cloud to slip and slide across, over, and over again, leaving me unable to go in the direction I want. I have no idea how to correctly cross it until I look it up; the answer, it turns out, is that you are supposed to walk, not run, across the oil.
I hate running in old games. Like. Why did we think, for decades, that it would be okay for games to have two speed, "walk at a snail's pace which is useless for getting anything done" and "move at a functional pace," except the difference between the two is that for the functional speed you need to be constantly holding down the B button? How did we, as a civilization, accept this? Walk/run should be a toggle.
Bugenhagen tells us that this cave leads to the back of the Cosmo Canyon, and that though the Gi outnumbered the canyoneers, they could not attack through the tunnel because it was too narrow. Weirdly enough, that seems to be another mistranslation; the Retranslated mod instead has him saying that if the Gi had attacked through these caves, they would have faced little resistance. Red just stays silent.
Hmm, I'm sure this isn't foreshadowing any stunning revelation about Red's family!
The next floor has this series of tunnels that don't lead where we would expect them to and which take us through spiders' webs, whereupon we are attacked by this giant spider. The giant spider is mostly dangerous for its large HP count (2,200), the fact that it can attack two characters at once, and its Sting Bomb move, which is a percentage-based attack that cuts HP in half.
At that point I'm tired of these monsters so I start using Beta on everything, which is very satisfying, even if a bad decision in the long run - between Ramuh and Beta, I am going through my MP stores at incredible speed and end up burning through my full supply of Ether by the end of the dungeon, which isn't ideal.
In another Storytime With Bugenhagen, he tells us that one warrior went through the cave alone, fighting one attacker after another. At this point Red is starting to suspect what Bugen is getting at, but instead of confirming it, the old man leads us to the last room.
It turns out that the giant demonic face embedded in the wall at the end of the cave was not something Bugenhagen had anticipated. He starts saying something about the ghosts of the Gi acting like 'stagnant air,' but before he can finish, we are under attack!
So, I guess this is another Wrexsoul type of deal, an enemy formed of the ghosts of the dead. Cool.
The 'Gi Nattak' the toughest boss in the game so far, by a wide margin (with a caveat we'll get to in a moment). Not only does he have 5,500 HP, he also isn't fighting alone - these two Soul Fires next to him are also treated as enemies, who only have one move; they cast Fira, either on the party or on themselves, which, being fire elementals, they absorb, regaining HP. This means they are very 'sticky' opponents, needing concentrated effort to take out before they heal themselves and we can focus on the Gi Nattak. The Gi Nattak is not resistant to fire, but we need the Soul Fires out of the way if we want to use Ifrit without healing them, or indeed, without using my Fira spells tied to All Materia, because the way the All Materia works means we cannot choose to only target one enemy if we still have All castings remaining. Which honestly feels like a straight downgrade in functionality compared to previous games.
Also, the Fire Souls respawn after a few turns even when you do kill them, so you better get those licks in while they're done!
Additionally, I didn't heal everyone before the start of the fight, so we start low on HP and MP, which forces me to spend precious items to get everyone back in fighting form while taking heavy hits from the three opponents. My one saving grace is that I recently unlocked new Limit Breaks; Cloud has unlocked Climhazzard, which is a sick move where Cloud plants his sword into the enemy then does a high jump cutting through them to pull out the sword. It looks rad, it does heavy damage, que demande le peuple. Red XIII, meanwhile, has acquired Lunatic High, an incredibly named LB which grants the whole party Haste and "increases Defense% for all allies."
Which is a lie, of course. Or, not a lie as such, but once again absolutely terrible and misleading wording. First of all, "Defense%" is the incredibly poorly named Dodge and Accuracy stat of this game, not Defense at all - it reduces the odds of being hit and increases the odds of hitting, it does not affect damage. Additionally, Lunatic High grants Haste to the whole party but increases Defense% only for Red XIII, based on the number of allies who are not KO. That's what "for all allies" means; it increases Red's defense, for each ally that's alive.
This game seriously needs a full translation rework, Jesus.
You may notice that this is essentially redundant with Big Guard. Unfortunately, I've been in the Cave of Gi for an hour at this point, fighting endless tides of enemies and burning through my Ethers, the last Save Point was before the start of this dungeon, I just want to be done with this and my head is not in the game, so I've completely forgotten Big Guard is even a thing. And I'm not using Beta because I am trying to engage with boss fights on their own term (also because it would heal the Soul Fires), but man it's rough.
By the end of the fight, I've fully run out of Ether, I've spent a very precious Turbo-Ether (which I shouldn't have, the fight ended almost immediately after, it was a wasted item), everyone is in critical range, and I'm starting to burn through Phoenix Downs but still end up just juggling which party member is KO as I raise one, another is killed, I raised them, another is killed, until finally, mercifully, it ends.
…
I would really like another shot at this boss, doing it properly with my head more firmly on my shoulders. Too bad there's no quicksave and in order to do that I would need to do the entirety of the cave sequence again.
But you know what?
I still might do it. Just because what I learned after all this suffering is that BECAUSE GI NATTAK IS UNDEAD, HE DIES INSTANTLY IF YOU USE AN ELIXIR ON HIM, SIDE-STEPPING THE ENTIRE BOSS FIGHT.
God I'm so mad.
It's done, though. We are done. The ghosts have been defeated, and the demonic face has disappeared, revealing the tunnel it was hiding. Bugenhagen thanks Cloud for saving us, and compliments Nanaki on having grown strong, before leading us through the passage, to where he had meant to take us to begin with. (Also the ghosts dropped the Gravity Materia, which is nice.)
Red XIII: "This is…"
Bugenhagen: "...The warrior who fought against the Gi. He kept them from taking even one step into Cosmo Canyon.But he was never able to return to town…"
Bugenhagen: "Look, Nanaki. Look at your father, at the warrior, Seto."
There, at the top of a stony rise, stands a statue of a lion-dog-cat reminiscent of Nanaki himself, but larger, fiercer. His father, whose petrified body is stuck through with spears or arrows.
Bugenhagen explains that he fought a valiant last stand, alone against the Gi tribe, even as the Gi's poisoned arrows turned his body to stone, until eventually they broke and ran; and afterwards, there he remained, a silent, eternal protector of Cosmo Canyon.
Baffled, Red asks if his mother knew, and Bugenhagen tells him she did indeed - the two of them made him promised to seal the cavern, and never tell a soul what happened there, that the cave be forgotten about by all.
…
Why, though.
Like. This is clearly meant to be a powerful moment for Nanaki. A kind of emotional reveal that is going to shape his character arc going forward. Part of him growing more mature.
It completely fails to land for me because why the fuck is this even happening.
Like, I've seen the plot beat "character who grew up thinking [parental figure] was a loser/coward/traitor later discovers that they were actually a hero who sacrificed themselves but knowledge of that fact was obscured" several times before, and it can work just fine when there's an element of tragedy or enemy action to their memory being sullied, but there is a specific sub-variant which is "parent who heroically sacrifices themselves deliberately ensures that knowledge will be hidden and their child predictably grows up bitter and resentful and with something to prove despite the parental figure's intent having been to protect them somehow," and it requires the supposedly heroic parent to act like an idiot who makes inexplicable decisions that predictably backfire and it never works?
And it doesn't work here. What possible reason could there be for Nanaki's parents to hide the tunnel that leads straight into the heart of Cosmo Canyon and would allow a small enemy force to easily take over the entire town from within? What possible reason could they have to let their kid grow up thinking his dad was a coward who betrayed the village? Who benefits from this? Certainly not Nanaki, who grew up stewing in resentment over his dad's imagined faults! And Bugenhagen just spent, what, thirty years? Forty years? Watching over him as he grew up and letting him imagine this whole fucked-up story about his dad leaving his mom and all of Cosmo Canyon to die and developing a complex about it?
There is no reason, for anyone, to do this. Just Say No to making up a story about how your kid's cool dad who sacrificed himself to save everyone in your village was actually a cowardly asshole who ran away to leave you to die.
It doesn't make any more sense in Japanese, either. There are minor script differences regarding whether or not it was both parents' decision to hide the truth or just the mom's, but ultimately the events are still the same and still don't make sense.
Anyway!
Bugenhagen asks Cloud and [party member] to give them some time to talk one on one, then tells Red he wants him to continue his journey with Cloud to save the Planet. Interestingly, Bugenhagen admits that he doesn't think this is possible, that even stopping the Mako reactors would only "delay the inevitable," which is a bit of a pessimistic edge I wasn't expecting from the wise old exposition man; he also says "even if they stop Sephiroth, everything will perish," which is also interesting because no one has mentioned Sephiroth to him at all. Am I meant to assume that it just happened off-screen while the party was telling him about their adventure, which would make sense, or is this supposed to indicate Bugen knows things he's not telling us about Sephiroth's role in the story? Impossible to tell at this stage. But either way, even if it's pointless, even if he is 'wishing against fate,' he's decided that we have to try and save the Planet.
And then…
Bugenhagen: "I am too old to do anything about it… This year, I'll be 130. Ho ho hoooo. That is why, Nanaki, you must go with them! For my sake."
Red XIII: "Grandpa…"
Bugenhagen: "I wanted to show you your real father before you left… I'm so glad you came back while I was still alive to show you."
Red XIII: "Grandpa… don't talk like that. I don't want to think of life… without you…"
Bugenhagen: "Ho ho hooo. Well, I've had a long life."
Red XIII: "Grandpa! You must live! I'll see to it. I'll see what's happening to the Planet. And I'll come back to tell you."
Bugenhagen: "Nanaki…"
Red XIII: "I am Nanaki of Cosmo Canyon! The son of the warrior, Seto! I'll come back a warrior true to that noble name! So please, Grandpa…"
This, here, works so much better for me than the bit about Seto. Maybe it's because it's more real. I don't have a dad who heroically sacrificed himself to stop an enemy invasion but inexplicably hid that fact from me until I was an adult. But I do have grandparents who are getting old, and I do struggle with the conflict between the inevitability of the fact that they will die and my wanting to simply ignore that fact and pretend it's not real, which is highlighted every time they talk about things like their inheritance.
Anyway, then Seto's petrified statue starts crying tears of Materia at the sight of how much his son has grown.
It's a little surreal but frankly my main emotional reaction is that I am mentally yelling at Red for not going over and picking up all those precious magical tears. Ah, well.
In the morning,* the group, who were not privy to this conversation and still think Red intends to stay in Cosmo Canyon to take up his duty as protector, exchange a few words around the campfire, saying goodbye to Red XIII (without him, like, being there; they decided not to wait to say goodbye in person for whatever reason), then they get up and leave.
*The transition makes me think it's morning because it makes the most sense plot-wise, but it could just as well be 'an hour later, in the middle of the night'.
But, just as they are about to leave the village…
Cloud asks what happened to make him change his mind, and Nanaki's answer is, "I think I grew up a little. That's what happened!" It's a sweet beat; this whole time Red has been hiding the fact that he's 'actually' a teenager (let's just not interrogate the whole 'elf maturity' thing and how you can still be a child while having 48 years of life experience, nothing good lays that way) by projecting a very reserved, thoughtful, mature affect, and was embarrassed when the truth was revealed - but part of his process of growth into an adult is accepting what is child-like about him; by saying he grew up 'a little,' he is implicitly acknowledging that he had (and still has) growing up to do. In Japanese, this is made more explicit through Red's use of different pronouns at different times, including switching from a formal, 'adult' pronoun to a more child-like pronoun in this sentence, as an admission of his youth coded into his very language, but I think the English translation does a decent enough job of translating this here.
And with this, we're on the road.
…
All in all, a pretty good sequence. I mean, I just wrote 10,000 words about it, clearly I had stuff to say (I seriously need to compress things, though). Some of it was a little hit and miss, but Red XIII/Nanaki really came into his own in this part as a character with depth, a real background, and personal motivation. The truth about Mako casts the plot into more light, the Gongaga beat further builds up the weirdness relating to Cloud/Tifa/Aerith's interconnected past, it worked mostly except for the baffling conclusion around Red's father and the fact that the dungeon kind of sucked ass, but they can't all be bangers.
…we've kind of lost the plot on the Sephiroth hunt, though. Last we heard he was supposed to be heading for Gongaga, but we found no trace of him there, we landed in Cosmo Canyon more or less by wandering at random, and I have no idea where to go from here.
I guess I'll head back to Costa del Sol to cross the ocean and check out the Fort Condor subplot and then figure out where I'm supposed to head next.
Next Time: Whatever's next!
First things first, though: Now that we once again have access to the overworld, it's time to take Ramuh out for a spin.
Lightning strikes the ground, and a pillar of earth rises, atop which stands an old man who rains lightning down upon our enemies. Sick.
We now have four Summon Materias, including the Elemental Trio, and at that point it seems pretty clear these summons don't really have a diegetic role. We got one from a child, we found another one lying around in a locker room - I guess Summons in this setting are, for the most part, a particular form of codified spellcasting, and so Shiva, Ifrit and Ramuh aren't really self-willed entities being called upon but artificial constructs being generated with the summoning.
Also, to my great annoyance, the reason I'm trying Ramuh on the overworld right now is that it turns out unlike every vehicle in every game to date, the Buggy… doesn't avoid random encounters.
So that's a pain in my ass that's going to make stuff like "return to Fort Condor for the battles" a huge hassle that I don't want to deal with.
Anyway, let's go on a road trip!
There's a little house on the prairie that appears to be full of swords, but we can't enter it yet. Probably it'll have some kind of relevance to getting a weapon later on. What we want is near that house, though; it's this strange, ominous construct standing out in the middle of a forest.
…no sooner have we set foot in that forest that we spot the Turks a little distance away.
Reno and Rude are talking about…
…who they 'like'? And they're specifically talking about the people they're pursuing.
Reno: "Hey, Rude. Who do you like?"
Reno: "What are you getting so embarrassed about? Come on? Who do you like?"
Rude: "...Tifa."
Reno: "Hmm… That's a tough one."
Reno: "But, poor Elena. She… You…"
Rude: "No, she likes Tseng."
Reno: "I never knew that! But Tseng likes that Ancient…"
Cloud: [From hiding] "What are they talking about?"
[Elena appears behind him; she doesn't realize it's Cloud at first, startling him.]
Elena: "It's so stupid! They always talk about who they like and don't like. But Tseng is different."
Elena: [Finally realizing she's talking to Cloud] "Ah! Oh no! They're here! They're really here!"
Reno: "Hmm… Then it's time… Rude… Don't go easy on them, not even the girls."
Rude: "...Don't worry, I'll do my job."
Elena: "Then, we're counting on you. I'll report to Tseng!"
God. They're really just… Having some kind of water cooler chat about who's into whom and what are their chances, complete with Rude having a crush on Tifa he's embarrassed to admit. We have fully completed the Turks' transition into quirky comedy characters and you just kind of have to like… Accept that it's what the game is doing? Nowhere is this more obvious than in the exchange what follows, where Reno promises Cloud "payback for Sector 7," where we can answer "Sector 7?" like we have no idea what he means, at which point Reno is upset that we forgot about kicking his ass.
For the story, at this point, the connection of the Turks to the Sector 7 plate collapse is now firmly "Cloud kicked Reno's ass and Reno holds a grudge even though Cloud (pretends to) not even remember it happening," which is funny, as opposed to "the Turks murdered all of Barret and Tifa's friends." It is what it is, you just have to roll with it.
Unlike Reno, who fights with a baton/cattle prod, Rude is a bare-handed boxer (well, technically he's wearing black gloves). Ultimately though the fight is trivial; a couple of summons blast through Reno's HP, at which point he flees, and then Rude, though he still has HP, promptly follows.
Reno, the arrogant braggart with a one-sided rivalry to Cloud, runs away while shouting "we may be retreating, but... we're still victorious," which is just incredible levels of cope. Rude, the silent socially awkward guy, checks his watch, remembers he has somewhere else to be, and turns around and flees as well. This is peak comedy.
For our victory, we win the Fairy Tale, a new staff for Aerith (that I am about to completely forget to equip for the next half-hour), and then we have this, huh, interesting piece of dialogue.
Aerith: "...How could they know we were coming here."
Cloud: "They followed us… But there weren't any signs of it. Then, that means…"
Tifa: "A spy? No way."
Cloud: "I don't even want to think about there being a spy… I trust everyone."
…
Really, Cloud?
Really? Really really really really? You trust everyone?
You trust, say, THE TEENAGE NINJA THIEF who has no connection to Avalanche or investment in our cause and joined us for vague reasons and who TRIED TO ROB US MULTIPLE TIMES? You trust the walking fortune-telling machine that was probably designed by Shinra and forcibly inserted itself into our group under bizarre pretense while carrying around a mind control Materia and who has been with us for all of five minutes total? You trust everyone? These are your two best buddies in the world that you would trust not to betray us to Shinra? YUFFIE IS PICKING TIFA'S POCKET AS WE SPEAK-
Ahem.
"There's a mole in the party!!!" subplots are rarely my favorite because they're usually kind of forced, require characters to act like idiots, and the answer is either totally random or completely predictable. Here, for instance, I could just look up whether this boss fight still triggers if we failed to recruit Yuffie so far (she is, after all, an optional character); if it doesn't, she's the mole, if it does, it's Cait Sith. It's literally that simple.
Anyway, my money's on Cait Sith, but more importantly, having Cloud turn into the Nakama type who trusts his whole party implicitly is just baffling and completely at odds with his character, who has yet to really get over his trust and openness issues.
We continue making our way through the forest, acquiring on the way a Deathblow Materia which was just kind of lying there. Deathblow is a Command which makes an attack which is an automatic Critical Hit if it hits, but with ⅓ of its normal accuracy. I'm sure there are ways to break this wide open by making base accuracy so high it still hits anyway or something, but as it stands this is largely useless to us, as we don't have any such means and hitting one in three times with crits ends up less DPS than just landing normal hits.
Then we arrive in the village of Gongaga!
It's a cute place, with a unique aesthetic for its architecture and buildings. As might be obvious from the graveyard at the entrance of the village with people paying respects, it's a place that's recently faced tragedy - the nearby Mako Reactor exploded three years ago, killing much of the village's inhabitants. The tragedy hangs heavy over the place; everyone we talk to makes references to it, including the shopkeeps.
Can't help but notice Shinra didn't react by slaughtering the locals, though.
We can actually see the reactor in the background, the village overlooking it - it's that reactor, rather than the village, which served as our overworld indicator of a location to explore.
A wrecked ruin, its walls leaning outwards, like a blown up metal flower.
The local shops sell a number of immunity-granting accessories alongside two new Materia, Mystify and Time. Mystify inflicts mental status effects like Confusion and Berserk, which I've literally never had a use for in an FF game, so we'll skip it for now. Time is more obviously useful; it grants access to Haste, Slow and Stop, and Haste has always been great value.
Although…
…I forgot to mention that before heading on with the plot, I took a brief break to head to the beach and fight these weird mollusks. With the Manipulate Materia, I was able to force one of them to use its Big Guard ability on our party, which allowed us to learn it with the Enemy Skill Materia.
Big Guard, if you're unfamiliar with the game, is a spell which casts Haste, Barrier, and Shell on the whole party at the same time. If you've been reading this Let's Play throughout, you'll remember that Hastega, "cast Haste on the whole party," was a spell single-handedly powerful enough to make the entire Time Mage class endgame-viable (or, more truthfully, Time Magic worth an entire slot of its own on a Mimic). So… Yeah, I'm guessing this is going to be pretty good.
I'm going to promptly forget that I have it in the upcoming boss battle and not use it at all, though, so it's not going to break anything.
We visit the shops, I stock up on all those weapons I couldn't buy in Junon (that's a stupid idea, I should have known this was a stupid idea, I did it anyway, all of these are going to end up outclassed in the next town five minutes over and I'll have wasted all that money), and then we just head into various houses to talk to people. Surely only some casual environmental dialogue without plot importance, though!
Hm.
Man: "You a traveller? Hey wait, that glow in your eye… Are you in SOLDIER?"
Woman: "Oh, you're right! Don't you know anything about our son?"
Man: "His name is Zack."
Woman: "It's been close to 10 years since he left for the city, saying that he didn't want to live in the country…"
Man: "He left saying he's going to join SOLDIER. You ever hear of a Zack in SOLDIER?"
Cloud: "Hmmm… I don't know."
Aerith: "Zack…"
Man: "Young lady, you know him?"
Woman: "I remember he wrote us 6 or 7 years ago saying that he had a girlfriend. Could that have been you?"
Aerith: "That can't…"
[Aerith leaves the house.]
Tifa: "Zack…"
[Tifa also leaves.]
Cloud: "What happened to you two?"
Well.
That's certainly not anything to think too hard about.
Side note but it's crazy the prestige that SOLDIER has. Like, these guys are on a separate continent from Midgar, but the allure of Shinra's elite soldiers/war heroes was such that it reached a kid in Gongaga who dreamed of joining them and left his family behind for it, just as it had reached Cloud in Nibelheim (wherever that is). It's like a kid's dream of being some kind of like, action hero astronaut Navy SEAL.
If we head out, we find Aerith and Tifa both standing around on their own thinking about what they just heard.
Aerith is shocked, but unusually open about things when we talk to her: She explains to Cloud, as we might have guessed, that Zack was her 'first love', the boy she told us about all the way back during that discussion at the abandoned playground. Zack, SOLDIER First Class, "same as Cloud." Cloud says it's weird - there aren't many First Class, yet he's never heard of Zack.
Yeah Cloud, that is weird. Could it be SOMEHOW RELATED TO YOUR CRIPPLING MEMORY ISSUES?
Surely not. I must be overthinking things.
Aerith: "That's all right. It's all in the past now. I was just worried because I heard he's been missing."
Cloud: "Missing?"
Aerith: "It was five years ago. He went out on a job, and never came back."
Aerith: "He loved women, a real lady's man. He probably found someone else…"
Aerith: "Hey? What's wrong?"
Here there's a weird difference between the various translations. In the original English, Cloud has the opportunity to either say "Poor guy," or "(jealous… envious…)" The first one sounds like either Cloud is going "Damn, sucks that he disappeared" or making some kind of weird negging comment about Aerith clinging to him after five years? And the second one like Cloud is muttering under his breath because he's jealous of the cool dude who used to date Aerith. Both make sense in their own way, though the latter is less flattering to our protagonist (though if we do pick it, Aerith is actually pleased to see Cloud getting kinda jealous over her ex-boyfriend and teases him about it). In the Retranslated version, these two options are instead "I'd be worried too, I guess…" and "(what a slimy…)"; the first one is like, agreeing with Aerith's concern but in a kind of off-handed, detached way, and the second one is more 'being mad about someone hurting Aerith's feelings." I kind of prefer the like, teenage emotional immaturity of the original translation with Cloud grinding his teeth? He's in his early twenties, sure, but he's just not very socially and emotionally mature, and it makes sense for him.
Now let's go talk to Tifa!
Tifa: "Zack…"
Cloud: "Do you know him?"
Tifa: "N, no, I don't know him!"
Cloud: "Your face tells me differently."
Tifa: "I told you, I don't!"
Cloud: "All right."
Tifa: "..."
Tifa: "That sounds just like you, leaving town, and saying 'I'm joining SOLDIER!'"
Cloud: "There were a lot of guys like that back then."
Tifa: "You must really be something making it in SOLDIER out of a group like that."
Tifa: "I really respect you…"
And here we can say "I just got lucky" or "I worked hard for it." If we say "I just got lucky," she chides Cloud to not be so humble, then thanks him for caring.
…
WHY YOU LYIN' THOUGH
Okay, Tifa and Aerith both knowing whoever the hell 'Zack' is seems like… kind of a streeetch… Especially as Zack comes from this village we've never heard of before? But it's very clear Tifa here is the one hiding something - in uncharacteristic contrast with her typically earnest affect.
Well. We'll find out eventually. For now, let's head to the ruined Reactor. As soon as we enter the ruins, the noise of a helicopter can be heard overhead, and Cloud takes cover behind some debris.
Enter Scarlet, accompanied by Tseng. We finally have actual confirmation of her role on the executive board - Scarlet is head of Weapon Development. Previously, I had her pegged as head of the Scientific Research Division, with Hojo working under her, because the Shinra Building Library was neatly divided between "Scientific Research," "Urban Development," "Peace/Weapon Development," and "Space Development," with Reeves corresponding to Urban Dev, Heidegger to Peace/Weapon Dev, and Whatshisface to Space Dev, and Hojo not looking like an executive at all. I was wrong, it seems; Hojo was probably head of Scientific Research and "Peace" and "Weapon Development" were two separate divisions, helmed by Heidegger and Scarlet respectively.
…
If Scarlet is Head of Weapon Dev, and she was the one who sold the Corel townsfolk on a Mako Reactor near their home, and she was the one who personally oversaw the Corel Massacre by being physically there and taking up arms themselves, then it's quite possible the Corel Reactor was built as part of advanced weapons research, and the reason the townsfolk had to die was to clear the area of any potential witnesses to highly sensitive superweapon research.
Which, eeeh. It like, makes more sense, in that there's a clearer "extremely sensitive information -> mass murder to cover it up" causality link, but I prefer the utter venality of murdering a village's worth of people to clear space for a casino, so for now I'm sticking to that theory - maybe Scarlet just wasn't yet in charge of Weapon Dev at that point in time.
Scarlet: "Hmph! This isn't any good either. You only get junky Materia from junky reactors.
Scarlet: "This reactor's a failure. What I'm looking for is a big, large, Huge Materia. You seen any?"
Tseng: "...No I haven't seen it. I'll get on it right away."
Scarlet: "Please. We could make the ultimate weapon if we only had some."
Tseng: "I just can't wait."
Scarlet: "With Hojo gone, Weapon Development's been getting a bigger budget."
Tseng: "I envy them."
Scarlet: "But, even if we make the perfect weapon, could that stupid Heidegger even use it?"
Tseng: "..."
Scarlet: "Oh… Sorry! I forgot Heidegger was your boss! Kya ha ha!"
Tseng: "..."
Scarlet: "Let's go."
Cloud: [From hiding] "...Big, large, Huge Materia? An ultimate weapon? The perfect weapon? Just what are the Shinra up to?"
Intriguing! The capitalization on 'Huge' makes it clear that this is a name, 'Huge Materia', although I do wonder what a Huge Materia would, like… Do. Could you even use it, if you can't slot it in human gear? Maybe as the core to power a weapon.
Also the ruined reactor has one of the funniest monster encounters of all time.
Is that a… triceratops on treads? With arms? And car cylinders?
There's someone at Shinra's Weapon Development Division whose lifelong crusade is to make the funniest looking robot cars, and I respect them for that. That thing has 1,400 HP, making it pretty much a miniboss, but we have Beta so whatever (I don't use it often, but some random encounters are a slog).
Well, we've more or less covered Gongaga and the reactor, I think, and no trace of Sephiroth, despite Dio's indications. So let's grab the buggy again and head out.
As we move West, the sun sets, and the sky takes on beautiful purple-and orange colors. The game doesn't have a day-night cycle, so I think this shift is location-based, which is an interesting way to approach it. We find a way into the mountains, and ride around until we find a new settlement.
Cosmo Canyon.
Man, what a gorgeous background. And - I know I don't talk about the music as much as you guys would like, but I really, really dig Cosmo Canyon's theme:
Final Fantasy VII OST - Cosmo Canyon
It's just a really cool, fun tune. As soon as we approach, we get a surprise:
This is Red XIII's home! And not just that - we finally have his actual name, Nanaki. The man at the gate immediately recognizes him, calls him by name, thankful that he is safe, and enjoins him to come in and "say hello to Bugenhagen."
So, it's neat that we finally have a proper name for Red. But also…
I went back to check the scene where we meet Red, and the exchange between him and Cloud goes:
"What's your name?"
"Hojo has named me, Red XIII. A name with no meaning whatsoever to me. Call me whatever you wish."
I had assumed that there was some kind of reason for this weird exchange - that Red didn't know his birth name, or that it was secret for some plot relevant reason, but no. Dude's called Nanaki, knew he was called Nanaki, had no particular reason to keep his name hidden, and just… Didn't tell us for whatever reason, so we've been calling him by his experiment serial number this whole time. And now his name is recorded as Red XIII in the menu, so I guess we'll just… Keep calling him that. It's so weird.
I have a theory, though. You'll see in a moment.
The gatekeeper tells us that this is Cosmo Canyon, a place where "people from all over the world gather to seek the Study of Planet Life." Barret immediately shouts with enthusiasm that he always wanted to come here; the gatekeeper at first says he can't let us enter because the place "is full," which is a weird reason that I'm pretty sure is a polite lie to turn away outsiders, but Nanaki tells him to let us in because we helped him.
There's a fire in the center of town called the Cosmo Candle, which is a holy flame protecting the canyon that has only gone out once in its existence; "something horrifying occurred" when it did, but little else is known. So kind of a sacred fire of Vesta sort of thing, I dig it.
Everyone in town knows Nanaki, and no one finds it weird that he's a talking catdog; we meet him on the stairs leading to that observatory with the giant telescope, where he tells us more about himself.
Red XIII: "Here is where I was… I mean, this is my hometown."
Red XIII: "My tribe were protectors of those who appreciate this beautiful canyon and planet."
Red XIII: "My brave mother fought and died here, but my cowardly father left her… I am the last of my race."
Cloud: "Cowardly father?"
Red XIII: "Yes. My father was a wastrel. And so the mission I inherited from my ancestors is to protect this place. My journey ends here."
Voice: "Hey, Nanaki–! You're home!"
Red XIII: Coming, grandpa!"
Barret: "Good timin'. Let's take a breather. I got stuff I want to find out, too."
Hmmm. There's definitely more to this "cowardly father" thing that we don't know yet, but if Nanaki feels he has some kind of responsibility to live up to after his father failed, it'd help explain his stilted, highly formal demeanor. Also, he calls himself the 'last of his race' but has a living grandfather? Interesting.
The local weapon seller has a really interesting line where she tells us that the people of Cosmo Canyon "hate to compete" (she means they dislike conflict/violence, not that they don't play sports), so most of the weapons she sells are just decorative replicas, but she does have some functional weapons to sell us. So, a community of pacifist scholars who study the Planet - seems like Cosmo Canyon is the stand-in for the Village of the Ancients/Mysidia of previous games.
Also the weapon shop has the next tier of weapons with higher damage, and I am fresh out of funds so I can't buy any of them. There is a brief moment of intense frustration as a result, but we soldier on.
We can find Barret in a storage room, next to one of the Village Elders, and he has something for us - at last, the story of Avalanche!
Barret: "There was this guy who studied 'Planetary Life' here. He couldn't take things the way they were, so he went to Midgar to form AVALANCHE. Wanna hear more?"
Cloud: "Go on."
Barret: "Guess you could say this is where AVALANCHE was born. I always wanted to come here… And finally… I made it. A lot's happened…"
Cloud: "And then?"
Barret: "And then…? I don't know what's going to happen, now that there is no AVALANCHE…"
Hrm.
So that's interesting but also recontextualizes a few things. Due to a combination of early game dialogue and the Remake's presentation, I'd initially assumed that Avalanche was a larger organization of which Barret's group was but one cell, though one detached from the main organization, a 'black sheep' kind of deal. That started being weird and kind of inconsistent over time, and I think this all but confirms that Avalanche was always meant to just be Barret, Tiffa, Biggs, Wedge and Jessie, plus that unnamed Cosmo Canyon scholar who formed the group in the first place and, I guess, died at some point.
Either that, or Avalanche used to be a larger group, and Barret's cell were the last survivors after it was whittled down over time in Shinra counter-terrorist actions, but it seems like that'd come up more if it were the case?
The Remake makes it very explicit that there is a larger organization called Avalanche which recently attempted to assassinate President Shinra, which Wedge contacts during the third act and which sends a helicopter to help out Barret's group. I wonder what changed there and why.
Okay.
So, first off: Bugenhagen being, seemingly, human, while being Nanaki's "grandfather" explains the "last of his race" line, this must be some kind of adoption situation.
OR IS IT?
It might not be clear from a screenshot alone, but Bugenhagen is… weird. More specifically, he doesn't have legs, at least not visible ones; instead, his body terminates in what looks like the bottom of a green sphere, which is hovering a few feet above the ground; when he moves, it's by floating. So it's possible he only appears outwardly human, but is in fact a stranger creature. The other alternative being…
…he's like Fortuneteller Baba, sitting on a big crystal ball that floats around the place. Which would be weird in and of itself, to be sure!
My theory here is that… These are Espers. Well, not literally; but, like the Espers of FFVI, Nanaki belongs to a species of strange beings with a link to the planet, whose appearance doesn't have to obey firm rules, with a human-like Esper and a beast-like Esper having no issue being related.
Nanaki introduces us to his grandfather, who proceeds to immediately shatter his carefully-presented affect by revealing that Nanaki is, in fact, a child - oh, he's 48 years old, but his "tribe" have incredible longevity and so 48 is their equivalent of 15 or 16 in human years.
Is this a joke about "age in dog years"? It feels like it is. Cloud is shocked by this twist, and Bugenhagen tells us that we were probably fooled into believing he was an adult because he's "quiet and very deep."
Okay.
I have it now.
I know why the game is being weird with Nanaki/Red XIII's name.
Nanaki is a teenager with a very formal affect who doesn't talk much and brings up "logic" and stuff. One thing we can say for sure is, he's a Redditor. And when he was captured by Hojo, however that happened, and assigned an experiment name, his reaction to hearing himself called "RED THIRTEEN" was "holy shit, this is the coolest shit ever," like he was named like some kind of fucked up mad science experiment or superweapon, so when Cloud asked for his name, he did not miss his shot at having everyone call him by his super-cool mad science nickname instead of his boring normal name. Because he's a teenager who really wants to look cool.
Rock on, Red.
Nanaki/Red tells his grandfather that he wants to become an adult and protect the village, but Bugenhagen tells him he's too young to 'stand on his own' and it would destroy him eventually.
He has this really interesting metaphor where he compares that to Midgar itself: The great city reaching up into the heavens and threatening to snatch the very stars from the sky - a bad example which must not be followed; to look up to the sky is to lose perspective.
Bugenhagen: "When it's time for the Planet to die, you'll understand that you know absolutely nothing."
Cloud: "...when the Planet dies?"
Bugenhagen: "Ho h hooo. It may be tomorrow, or 100 years from now… But it's not long off."
Cloud: "How do you know this?"
Bugenhagen: "I hear the cries of the Planet."
Well, that's ominous.
There's a bit where a strange sound is supposed to be playing, and for Cloud to be shocked, before it's revealed that Bugenhagen's observatory captures the sound of stars dying and being born, then another, even more eerie sound, which he says is a scream from our Planet voicing her suffering.
Unfortunately that sound doesn't exist in the version I'm playing. The Steam version's soundtrack is busted as fuck, and the game decided to just fall silent for that entire bit, creating only confusion. I'll need to remember to maybe pick up an audio mod before my next play session but, like, take this as a warning: The Steam version of FF7 straight up shouldn't be on sale. It's literally broken. Fucking hell.
Red tells his grandfather that we have come on a long journey to save the Planet, and asks if he will show us his "apparatus;" Gubenhagen agrees and asks us to go fetch two more of our friends. I grab Barret and Aerith, and he takes us into a holographic orrery for some impromptu worldbuilding exposition.
It's nice that Bugenhagen is actually using advanced technology - for all its environmental message, the game isn't ostensibly anti-technology, even the wise old scholar is using cool holographic tech for his lessons.
Sssso.
The solar system.
A shooting star moves across the display, which is the game's excuse to go into a sick FMV as the camera zooms around the planets, and follows meteorites as they fly around over Aerith's head…
Actually, though.
Before anything else, I want to draw attention to two details about this solar system display. First off, it's a little difficult to tell the planets because we have this three-quarter view from an angle and outside instead of a clear top down view, but:
That's the solar system. As in, ours. There's a tiny planet very close to the sun, a second one, the third one is the blue Planet, the fourth one is red, then it is followed by a red gas giant and a ringed gas giant, then two smaller planets that are slightly more ambiguous, and then the weird, slightly offset angle of Pluto, where it's sometimes inside Neptune's orbit and sometimes outside - in 1997 still officially recognized as a planet…
This is literally just the solar system down to the planets. What the fuck. They didn't fantasify it even a little. Except for, wait, one small detail…
The black hole at the edge of the system into which these meteorites are being sucked in. Black hole… OR WORMHOLE PORTAL?!
Dammit, that wormhole portal would have been the perfect addition to my "interstellar earth colony" theory - right there we have the point of entry, the way in which the humans entered this new solar system to colonize it! Except if this is earth… Then humans were never space travelers in the first place, they have always lived on this planet… Which would make the cataclysm that wiped out the Ancients the cataclysm which ended our civilization, and this Planet the far-future of Earth 🤔
More data is needed. We shall see.
Anyway, it's time for Bugenhagen to drop some major lore.
Bugenhagen: "Eventually… All humans die. What happens to them after they die? The body decomposes, and returns to the Planet. That much everyone knows. What about their consciousness, their hearts and their souls?"
Bugenhagen: "The soul too returns to the Planet. And not only those of humans, but everything on this Planet. In fact, all living things in the universe, are the same."
Bugenhagen: "The spirits that return to the Planet, merge with one another and roam the Planet. They roam, converge, and divide, becoming a swell, called the 'Lifestream.'"
Bugenhagen: "Lifestream… In other words, a path of energy of the souls roaming the Planet."
Bugenhagen: "'Spirit energy' is a word that you should never forget. A new life… children are blessed with Spirit Energy and brought into the world. Then, the time comes when they die and once again return to the Planet…"
Bugenhagen: "Of course there are exceptions, but this is the way of the world."
Bugenhagen: "I've digressed, but you'll understand better if you watch this."
Then, Bugenhagen plays out an animation in which a human being on the Planet scatters into motes of light, which come together to reform a different human, then multiple flows of colored energy; Bugen holds out his hand and the energy is 'drained' from the Planet… Which blackens and shatters.
Bugenhagen: "...These are the basics of the Study of Planet Life."
Cloud: "If spirit energy disappears, our Planet will die."
Bugenhagen: "Ho ho hooo. Spirit Energy is efficient BECAUSE it exists within nature. When Spirit Energy is forcefully extracted, and manufactured, it can't accomplish its true purpose."
Cloud: "You're talking about Mako energy, right?"
Bugenhagen: "Everyday Mako Reactors suck up Spirit Energy, diminishing it. Spirit Energy is compressed in reactors and processed into Mako energy. All living things are being used up and thrown away."
Bugenhagen: "In other words, Mako energy will only destroy the Planet…"
…
So, there it is.
Soylent Mako is people.
I don't know how much of a surprise this is to anyone; I feel like this is one of the better-known plot twists in this game, to the point that it didn't feel so much like a 'twist' as confirmation of something I was expecting. Even without that out-of-game knowledge, the repeated mentions of "returning to the Planet" for the dead strongly hinted that way, I think; but that is a twist nonetheless, at least as initially intended. And… damn.
Like, Shinra is basically mining the souls of the dead out of the Underworld, here. It's kind of incredible, as a concept; the planet has a cycle of life and rebirth, where souls become spirit energy which goes on to be new souls, a perfect equilibrium, and Shinra hijacked it for electric power. Like… The sheer mundanity of it, even if it is what enables worldwide advanced technology, of using the very souls of mankind to turn on a fucking lightbulb.
And, of course, the world will eventually run out of spirit energy, of souls, and will perish. It won't even be sacrificing the world for the benefit of humanity, because without spirit energy, they can't be any more humans.
And in turn, in a perverse way, this means that every massacre Shinra causes pushes the viability of Mako energy a little longer. With every mass death event, souls return to the Planet, replenishing its spiritual energy for later extraction. Shinra is literally making more Mako by killing people.
So, yeah. This didn't "raise the stakes," exactly, but it did bring them a new clarity.
Bugenhagen turns off the holographic display, and tells us that to know more, we should seek out the Elders of Cosmo Canyon and ask them about the story of the Planet.
Before doing that, though, we can find the rest of the party hanging around the Cosmo Candle as if it were a campfire. The whole scene has a nice, cozy vibe, of friends hanging out together, probably roasting marshmallows, that I kinda love.
Never change, Yuffie.
Each party member has some dialogue, some more extensive than others.
Cait Sith: "I wonder how many years it's been… Gosh, it brings back memories."
So Cait Sith has been to Cosmo Canyon before. That's interesting, because nobody seems to recognize them, even though they are a talking cat riding a giant moogle plushie. You'd think that'd stick in people's minds!
Aerith: "I've learned a lot. The elders taught me many things. About the Cetra… And the Promised Land… I'm… alone… I'm all alone now…"
Cloud: "But I'm… we're here for you, right?"
Aerith: "I know. I know, but… I am the only… Cetra."
Cloud: "Does that mean we can't help?"
[No answer.]
Aerith is continuing to have an existential crisis. Poor girl. Also, Cloud almost slipping with the "I'm… We're here for you," cute.
Barret: "Cosmo Canyon… This's where AVALANCHE was born… I promised my guys someday… when we saved the Planet from the Shinra, that we'd all go to Cosmo Canyon and celebrate… Biggs… Wedge… Jessie… Now they're all gone… Died for the Planet."
Barret: "...Really? To save the Planet?"
Barret: "We all… We all hate the Shinra… But is it right to go on? Will they… Will they ever forgive me?"
Barret: "Right now, I really don't know. But I do know one thing. If there's anything I can do, to save the Planet… Or the people livin' on it… Then I'm gonna do it!"
Barret: "I don't care if it's for justice or revenge, or whatever. I don't care…"
[He stands up, shaking his fists.]
Barret: "Urrrgh! I'm gonna do it! Again… Again… AVALANCHE's born again!"
And here we have basically the conclusion of Barret's character arc, at least the part of it we've seen so far - the events in Corel and around Dyne have forced him to confront the question of whether or not Avalanche stood for saving the planet or for revenge against Shinra, and if the latter, was he lying to Biggs, Wedge and Jessie? Did they die for nothing? And now, he's reaffirming his resolve. Whether or not Barret was fighting for the planet or only for vengeance is in the past, and doesn't matter: From now on, he'll be fighting for the Planet and everyone living on it. That's what matters.
…and again, the English translation here affects the meaning of this dialogue. In the Retranslated version, Barret is much more explicitly saying that his friends didn't die for the Planet but that it was all for his hate, and asking if he has any right to continue on his crusade when his motives were so flawed, before deciding that he doesn't know the answer, but he'll keep fighting for the Planet, and let others decide whether it was for justice or revenge for themselves.
It's subtle, but it's not quite the same characterization, right? Either way, it ends in Barret reaffirming his resolve and committing to the path of saving the Planet.
Tifa: "Cloud… Bonfires are funny, aren't they? They make you remember all sorts of things."
Tifa: "You know, Cloud. Five years ago…"
Tifa: "...It's nothing."
Tifa: "No, forget it. I'm afraid to ask…"
Cloud: "What is it?"
Tifa: "It feels like… It feels like you're going far away…"
Tifa: "You really, really are… you… right?"
What an incredibly normal thing to ask someone. I, too, regularly go to my friends and ask "hey btw, are you you?" You just gotta have to keep an eye out for the body-snatchers and p-zombies, you know?
Also Tifa just looking at a bonfire and going "This reminds me of that time Sephiroth burned down my entire town and killed my father, how nostalgic" is just. You're so Normal, girl. So incredibly Normal.
Anyway, I love this whole scene with its understated vibe with everyone having profound personal questions and identity crises around a bonfire. FF7 is just, outstanding in terms of character work compared to all the previous games.
Alright, Red isn't talking for now, so let's see what those Elders have to tell us.
Elder Bughe: "You can't talk of the Ancients, without mentioning Professor Gast. He used to come here sometimes. He was a Shinra scholar who spent his life studying the Ancients. He was a serious person, you never would have thought he'd be in Shinra."
Elder Bughe: "Must've been about 30 years ago, when he found the corpse of an Ancient. He was elated! If I recall… He named it 'Jenova' and was doing a lot of research…"
Elder Bughe: "One day, he showed up here, looking very distressed. He was mumbling something about Jenova not being an Ancient and that he'd done a terrible thing… He's been missing ever since then. I heard that he never went back to Shinra."
Elder Bughe: "So, if you ever see Professor Ghast, I want you to tell him… That the old man that likes to drink in Cosmo Canyon, wants to hear about the Ancients."
Okay. This is a lot.
It looks like Professor Gast was a man with a sense of ethics, not at all like Hojo. He was someone the scholars of Cosmo Canyon were willing to talk to and cooperate with, even though he was Shinra, which is really interesting - and might have been for the worst in the end. More importantly, it looks like Gast's identification of Jenova as one of the Ancients was wrong. I already suspected that, what with her looking like a Resident Evil final boss instead of a normal person like Aerith, but importantly, the information in the Shinra Mansion was not up to date with that fact. Which means Sephiroth is operating on completely false premises! Jenova was never one of the 'rightful heirs' to the Planet, one of the Ancients!
Well, I'm sure once we encounter him and confront him with that fact he'll just see reason and totally change his ways. Can't see any problem with that.
Elder Hargo, meanwhile, is the guy Barret was talking to in the storage room. He is compiling a book about everything that is known about the history of the Planet and its legends to leave behind, so that when he returns to the Planet, his children will still be able to learn all that he knew. In a sense, isn't that what the Ancients did with the Materia?
Elder Hargo: "...The Promised Land. So what do you want to know?"
Elder Hargo: "There is no one place called the Promised Land. That's what I believe."
Elder Hargo: "No, no, it does exist… Hmmm… You can say that. In other words, it doesn't exist for us, but it did for the Ancients."
Elder Hargo: "The Promised Land is the resting place of the Ancients. The life of the Ancients is one continuous journey. A journey to grow trees and plants, raise animals, and make Mako energy."
Elder Hargo: "Their harsh journey continued throughout their lives… The place they returned to after their long journey… Their burial land is the Promised Land."
Elder Hargo: "Huh? Supreme happiness? I believe that, for the Ancients, it was the moment they were able to return to the Planet. The moment when they were released from their fate, and gained their supreme happiness…"
Elder Hargo: "At least that's what I believe. I really don't know whether or not it's true."
Well!
That's, huh, interesting.
I don't really know what to make of it, though, so I'll just leave it there.
Also, there's a Materia shop that it is completely possible to miss because the employee is having a nap. You need to talk to him twice in a row without leaving the room for him to wake up and show you the goods, which I almost miss entirely. And what goods they are!
…okay.
The Mystify/Transform Materia I don't care about, but man. MP Plus and HP Plus? These are the kind of like, baseline performance enhancers that I would put on everyone if I could, immediately, and then never take off. I would 100% sacrifice a couple of spellcasting Materias or a Summon or an All for everyone to always have MP/HP enhancers growing throughout the game.
Buuut I can't. A single one of those Materia would almost entirely deplete my 10k gil. Having a full set of both (ie three of each, for a full party) would cost me 48k gil. That is completely unfeasible.
Urgh. Well, something to keep in mind for later, I suppose.
And now it's time to talk to Red again! He laments that, when he thinks about his mother, he is full of pride and joy, but when he thinks about his father, his heart is full of anger. Bugenhagen, who was listening in, approaches and asks if Red truly can't forgive his father, and Red says that of course - after all, his father abandoned his mother to die. When the "Gi tribe" attacked, he ran away, leaving the Canyon to fend for itself.
Bugenhagen is thoughtful, and says there is something he needs to show Nanaki, and invites us and one other party member to follow.
What are the odds that this could be a STUNNING REVEAL that Nanaki's father wasn't actually a coward? What are the odds?
Ahem.
Bugenhagen leads us to this mechanical door that seals a tunnel within Cosmo Canyon and opens it, telling us to go in. Red asks him to lead the way, and Bugenhagen says no way, it's dangerous, he's just an old man! We have to go first. It's a funny exchange.
Alright. Dungeon time.
That blue Materia you can see in the corner will require a little bit of navigation to get through, and turns out to be the Added Effect Materia, which is to status effects what the Elemental Materia is to elemental typing; that is to say, if we pair the Materia with the Poison Materia on a weapon, the weapon will have a 20% chance to inflict Poison with any normal attack, whereas if we equip it on a piece of armor, it will grant the character immunity to the Poison status effect. Which sounds potentially pretty neat! It's going to run into boss immunities as usual, but at least it's a versatile offense/defense option so it won't be entirely useless.
Bugenhagen: "Everyone here's a ghost of the Gi Tribe, killed in a certain battle."
Red XIII: "A certain battle?"
Bugenhagen: "The vengeful spirits of the Gi didn't disappear, and couldn't return to the Lifestream… We still have far to go. Ho ho hooooo."
At some point, I'd like to read about whatever Japanese construct is rendered into English as "a certain [something]," because it's really noticeable whenever it's translated literally; the English translation is grammatically correct, but is never natural. You wouldn't say "Wellington defeated Napoleon in a certain battle." But it's so common that I'd like to know what's the, like, intended connotation in Japanese and why it gets translated literally into English.
Then it's time for THE LAKE OF BLOOD.
Sick.
Oh, also, that weird oily surface at the left of the screen? It is, in fact, oil, and attempting to cross it causes Cloud to slip and slide across, over, and over again, leaving me unable to go in the direction I want. I have no idea how to correctly cross it until I look it up; the answer, it turns out, is that you are supposed to walk, not run, across the oil.
I hate running in old games. Like. Why did we think, for decades, that it would be okay for games to have two speed, "walk at a snail's pace which is useless for getting anything done" and "move at a functional pace," except the difference between the two is that for the functional speed you need to be constantly holding down the B button? How did we, as a civilization, accept this? Walk/run should be a toggle.
Bugenhagen tells us that this cave leads to the back of the Cosmo Canyon, and that though the Gi outnumbered the canyoneers, they could not attack through the tunnel because it was too narrow. Weirdly enough, that seems to be another mistranslation; the Retranslated mod instead has him saying that if the Gi had attacked through these caves, they would have faced little resistance. Red just stays silent.
Hmm, I'm sure this isn't foreshadowing any stunning revelation about Red's family!
The next floor has this series of tunnels that don't lead where we would expect them to and which take us through spiders' webs, whereupon we are attacked by this giant spider. The giant spider is mostly dangerous for its large HP count (2,200), the fact that it can attack two characters at once, and its Sting Bomb move, which is a percentage-based attack that cuts HP in half.
At that point I'm tired of these monsters so I start using Beta on everything, which is very satisfying, even if a bad decision in the long run - between Ramuh and Beta, I am going through my MP stores at incredible speed and end up burning through my full supply of Ether by the end of the dungeon, which isn't ideal.
In another Storytime With Bugenhagen, he tells us that one warrior went through the cave alone, fighting one attacker after another. At this point Red is starting to suspect what Bugen is getting at, but instead of confirming it, the old man leads us to the last room.
It turns out that the giant demonic face embedded in the wall at the end of the cave was not something Bugenhagen had anticipated. He starts saying something about the ghosts of the Gi acting like 'stagnant air,' but before he can finish, we are under attack!
So, I guess this is another Wrexsoul type of deal, an enemy formed of the ghosts of the dead. Cool.
The 'Gi Nattak' the toughest boss in the game so far, by a wide margin (with a caveat we'll get to in a moment). Not only does he have 5,500 HP, he also isn't fighting alone - these two Soul Fires next to him are also treated as enemies, who only have one move; they cast Fira, either on the party or on themselves, which, being fire elementals, they absorb, regaining HP. This means they are very 'sticky' opponents, needing concentrated effort to take out before they heal themselves and we can focus on the Gi Nattak. The Gi Nattak is not resistant to fire, but we need the Soul Fires out of the way if we want to use Ifrit without healing them, or indeed, without using my Fira spells tied to All Materia, because the way the All Materia works means we cannot choose to only target one enemy if we still have All castings remaining. Which honestly feels like a straight downgrade in functionality compared to previous games.
Also, the Fire Souls respawn after a few turns even when you do kill them, so you better get those licks in while they're done!
Additionally, I didn't heal everyone before the start of the fight, so we start low on HP and MP, which forces me to spend precious items to get everyone back in fighting form while taking heavy hits from the three opponents. My one saving grace is that I recently unlocked new Limit Breaks; Cloud has unlocked Climhazzard, which is a sick move where Cloud plants his sword into the enemy then does a high jump cutting through them to pull out the sword. It looks rad, it does heavy damage, que demande le peuple. Red XIII, meanwhile, has acquired Lunatic High, an incredibly named LB which grants the whole party Haste and "increases Defense% for all allies."
Which is a lie, of course. Or, not a lie as such, but once again absolutely terrible and misleading wording. First of all, "Defense%" is the incredibly poorly named Dodge and Accuracy stat of this game, not Defense at all - it reduces the odds of being hit and increases the odds of hitting, it does not affect damage. Additionally, Lunatic High grants Haste to the whole party but increases Defense% only for Red XIII, based on the number of allies who are not KO. That's what "for all allies" means; it increases Red's defense, for each ally that's alive.
This game seriously needs a full translation rework, Jesus.
You may notice that this is essentially redundant with Big Guard. Unfortunately, I've been in the Cave of Gi for an hour at this point, fighting endless tides of enemies and burning through my Ethers, the last Save Point was before the start of this dungeon, I just want to be done with this and my head is not in the game, so I've completely forgotten Big Guard is even a thing. And I'm not using Beta because I am trying to engage with boss fights on their own term (also because it would heal the Soul Fires), but man it's rough.
By the end of the fight, I've fully run out of Ether, I've spent a very precious Turbo-Ether (which I shouldn't have, the fight ended almost immediately after, it was a wasted item), everyone is in critical range, and I'm starting to burn through Phoenix Downs but still end up just juggling which party member is KO as I raise one, another is killed, I raised them, another is killed, until finally, mercifully, it ends.
…
I would really like another shot at this boss, doing it properly with my head more firmly on my shoulders. Too bad there's no quicksave and in order to do that I would need to do the entirety of the cave sequence again.
But you know what?
I still might do it. Just because what I learned after all this suffering is that BECAUSE GI NATTAK IS UNDEAD, HE DIES INSTANTLY IF YOU USE AN ELIXIR ON HIM, SIDE-STEPPING THE ENTIRE BOSS FIGHT.
God I'm so mad.
It's done, though. We are done. The ghosts have been defeated, and the demonic face has disappeared, revealing the tunnel it was hiding. Bugenhagen thanks Cloud for saving us, and compliments Nanaki on having grown strong, before leading us through the passage, to where he had meant to take us to begin with. (Also the ghosts dropped the Gravity Materia, which is nice.)
Red XIII: "This is…"
Bugenhagen: "...The warrior who fought against the Gi. He kept them from taking even one step into Cosmo Canyon.But he was never able to return to town…"
Bugenhagen: "Look, Nanaki. Look at your father, at the warrior, Seto."
There, at the top of a stony rise, stands a statue of a lion-dog-cat reminiscent of Nanaki himself, but larger, fiercer. His father, whose petrified body is stuck through with spears or arrows.
Bugenhagen explains that he fought a valiant last stand, alone against the Gi tribe, even as the Gi's poisoned arrows turned his body to stone, until eventually they broke and ran; and afterwards, there he remained, a silent, eternal protector of Cosmo Canyon.
Baffled, Red asks if his mother knew, and Bugenhagen tells him she did indeed - the two of them made him promised to seal the cavern, and never tell a soul what happened there, that the cave be forgotten about by all.
…
Why, though.
Like. This is clearly meant to be a powerful moment for Nanaki. A kind of emotional reveal that is going to shape his character arc going forward. Part of him growing more mature.
It completely fails to land for me because why the fuck is this even happening.
Like, I've seen the plot beat "character who grew up thinking [parental figure] was a loser/coward/traitor later discovers that they were actually a hero who sacrificed themselves but knowledge of that fact was obscured" several times before, and it can work just fine when there's an element of tragedy or enemy action to their memory being sullied, but there is a specific sub-variant which is "parent who heroically sacrifices themselves deliberately ensures that knowledge will be hidden and their child predictably grows up bitter and resentful and with something to prove despite the parental figure's intent having been to protect them somehow," and it requires the supposedly heroic parent to act like an idiot who makes inexplicable decisions that predictably backfire and it never works?
And it doesn't work here. What possible reason could there be for Nanaki's parents to hide the tunnel that leads straight into the heart of Cosmo Canyon and would allow a small enemy force to easily take over the entire town from within? What possible reason could they have to let their kid grow up thinking his dad was a coward who betrayed the village? Who benefits from this? Certainly not Nanaki, who grew up stewing in resentment over his dad's imagined faults! And Bugenhagen just spent, what, thirty years? Forty years? Watching over him as he grew up and letting him imagine this whole fucked-up story about his dad leaving his mom and all of Cosmo Canyon to die and developing a complex about it?
There is no reason, for anyone, to do this. Just Say No to making up a story about how your kid's cool dad who sacrificed himself to save everyone in your village was actually a cowardly asshole who ran away to leave you to die.
It doesn't make any more sense in Japanese, either. There are minor script differences regarding whether or not it was both parents' decision to hide the truth or just the mom's, but ultimately the events are still the same and still don't make sense.
Anyway!
Bugenhagen asks Cloud and [party member] to give them some time to talk one on one, then tells Red he wants him to continue his journey with Cloud to save the Planet. Interestingly, Bugenhagen admits that he doesn't think this is possible, that even stopping the Mako reactors would only "delay the inevitable," which is a bit of a pessimistic edge I wasn't expecting from the wise old exposition man; he also says "even if they stop Sephiroth, everything will perish," which is also interesting because no one has mentioned Sephiroth to him at all. Am I meant to assume that it just happened off-screen while the party was telling him about their adventure, which would make sense, or is this supposed to indicate Bugen knows things he's not telling us about Sephiroth's role in the story? Impossible to tell at this stage. But either way, even if it's pointless, even if he is 'wishing against fate,' he's decided that we have to try and save the Planet.
And then…
Bugenhagen: "I am too old to do anything about it… This year, I'll be 130. Ho ho hoooo. That is why, Nanaki, you must go with them! For my sake."
Red XIII: "Grandpa…"
Bugenhagen: "I wanted to show you your real father before you left… I'm so glad you came back while I was still alive to show you."
Red XIII: "Grandpa… don't talk like that. I don't want to think of life… without you…"
Bugenhagen: "Ho ho hooo. Well, I've had a long life."
Red XIII: "Grandpa! You must live! I'll see to it. I'll see what's happening to the Planet. And I'll come back to tell you."
Bugenhagen: "Nanaki…"
Red XIII: "I am Nanaki of Cosmo Canyon! The son of the warrior, Seto! I'll come back a warrior true to that noble name! So please, Grandpa…"
This, here, works so much better for me than the bit about Seto. Maybe it's because it's more real. I don't have a dad who heroically sacrificed himself to stop an enemy invasion but inexplicably hid that fact from me until I was an adult. But I do have grandparents who are getting old, and I do struggle with the conflict between the inevitability of the fact that they will die and my wanting to simply ignore that fact and pretend it's not real, which is highlighted every time they talk about things like their inheritance.
Anyway, then Seto's petrified statue starts crying tears of Materia at the sight of how much his son has grown.
It's a little surreal but frankly my main emotional reaction is that I am mentally yelling at Red for not going over and picking up all those precious magical tears. Ah, well.
In the morning,* the group, who were not privy to this conversation and still think Red intends to stay in Cosmo Canyon to take up his duty as protector, exchange a few words around the campfire, saying goodbye to Red XIII (without him, like, being there; they decided not to wait to say goodbye in person for whatever reason), then they get up and leave.
*The transition makes me think it's morning because it makes the most sense plot-wise, but it could just as well be 'an hour later, in the middle of the night'.
But, just as they are about to leave the village…
Cloud asks what happened to make him change his mind, and Nanaki's answer is, "I think I grew up a little. That's what happened!" It's a sweet beat; this whole time Red has been hiding the fact that he's 'actually' a teenager (let's just not interrogate the whole 'elf maturity' thing and how you can still be a child while having 48 years of life experience, nothing good lays that way) by projecting a very reserved, thoughtful, mature affect, and was embarrassed when the truth was revealed - but part of his process of growth into an adult is accepting what is child-like about him; by saying he grew up 'a little,' he is implicitly acknowledging that he had (and still has) growing up to do. In Japanese, this is made more explicit through Red's use of different pronouns at different times, including switching from a formal, 'adult' pronoun to a more child-like pronoun in this sentence, as an admission of his youth coded into his very language, but I think the English translation does a decent enough job of translating this here.
And with this, we're on the road.
…
All in all, a pretty good sequence. I mean, I just wrote 10,000 words about it, clearly I had stuff to say (I seriously need to compress things, though). Some of it was a little hit and miss, but Red XIII/Nanaki really came into his own in this part as a character with depth, a real background, and personal motivation. The truth about Mako casts the plot into more light, the Gongaga beat further builds up the weirdness relating to Cloud/Tifa/Aerith's interconnected past, it worked mostly except for the baffling conclusion around Red's father and the fact that the dungeon kind of sucked ass, but they can't all be bangers.
…we've kind of lost the plot on the Sephiroth hunt, though. Last we heard he was supposed to be heading for Gongaga, but we found no trace of him there, we landed in Cosmo Canyon more or less by wandering at random, and I have no idea where to go from here.
I guess I'll head back to Costa del Sol to cross the ocean and check out the Fort Condor subplot and then figure out where I'm supposed to head next.
Next Time: Whatever's next!
Last edited:
Khona Moshr
Pink Flamingo Cabal Healer(they/them)
- Location
- Alabama
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Probably my favorite non fight track in FFVII, and definitely in my top 10 for all of Final Fantasy.
ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
- Pronouns
- They/them
I believe this is a change sourced from the Before Crisis phone game which follows the Turks fucking around before the start of FF7 proper. Like a lot of things from the Compilation, Remake decided to rewrite things in such a way that it could be unobtrusively folded into the narrative from the start.
Fuckin lol. Got 'im again.
21stCentury
Let's get down to bismuth
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Omicron, i believe you can turn "All" on and off with either R1 or L1… one of the shoulder buttons.