If it were me, I would not expose myself to Compilation of Final Fantasy 7 material. Simply would not do it.
Crisis Core is decent, even if it is an action game with the soul of a Tokusatsu Drama. Wander outside of that game, and you end up where stupid things happen because FF7 was a (mostly) completed product that didn't need two sequels, two prequels, and a battle royale to make sense of.
ID was generally shockingly progressive for the website and time, especially given his general style with lps, and actually improved with time on a lot of fronts as he got older and had kids and what not.
Haven't read the dirge play in a looooooooong time tho, so can't say how it in particular holds up.
As has been said plentifully already, everything being on Hojo's head does seem to fit narratively as things are, and the facial structure stuff seems to point at this being the intended read even if that's light enough to be fairly easily dismissed if one wants.
On the other hand, Vincent being all lined up to realize he's going to have a kid with his sweetheart, probably prompting a rushed wedding given the time period this was made in and trying to make a decent family as best they can, only for Hojo to swoop in at the last moment and take the girl, take the kid, and proceed to probably contribute to whatever happened to the girl and definitely contribute to screwing up the kid so bad that said kid decided to call an omnimaniacal alien organism "mom" and work to blow up the planet, also seems to fit Hojo's character. Including pounding yet harder on his NTR fetish button
Welcome back to Final Fantasy VII, the game where we do our best to put the HORRIBLE REVELATIONS of last update behind us.
We have completed the chocobo breeding sidequest, acquired an arsenal of endgame weapon and Materia, and are now ready to proceed with the plot!
Oh, one thing first -
Remember this guy? The Ghost Ship guy? This was a little ways back when I was leveling Tifa, but I've been told this is one of those specific enemies I should use Morph against. This proved out tricky - in order for Morph to work, it needs to kill the enemy with an attack at ⅛ of normal attack power, so getting within the right range without overshooting it is tricky, especially because Ghost Ship has a one-hit kill that bypasses immunity to instant death by simply removing a character from battle instead of 'killing' them, resulting in a game over.
"But Omi, couldn't you solve that problem by just not having Tifa be the only character alive for the fight?"
What am I, a coward? I'll do it the hard way or not at all.
Anyway, we eventually succeed in Morphing the Ghost Ship into the… "Guide Book"? This item has no obvious use, but I dimly recall… Yes, there was this old guy in Kalm who wanted a set of three items in order to go on a journey to pray for his departed friends.
I proceed to stash the Guide Book in my backpack and forget it for the next five hours because I had assumed that I needed all three items before visiting the Old Guy again, before learning that no, Omi, you idiot, each item gets an individual reward. Fair enough!
And our reward for this is… The Underwater Materia.
Huh.
Don't we have a submarine already?
Oh. Oh waaaiiiit. The Underwater Materia allows us to 'breathe underwater,' which means it will remove the time limit on the Emerald Weapon boss fight. Because that time limit represented our characters being able to engage in battle while holding their breath for twenty minutes, which is hilarious.
Okay, well, we're not strong enough for that fight regardless, but this should make it easier when we do feel ready for it, if ever.
Oh, and also let me quickly grab Omnislash while I'm at it.
You've heard me ramble about Battle Square enough by now so I'll keep this short: With Ribbon, Big Guard, and high-level Summons, plus the ability to control the slots, it's actually really easy to reach the final battle of a given round. The problem is that one of the final bosses we can roll is Ghost Ship, which as I just mentioned, has the ability to knock a character out of battle, which has no possible counter. So my tactic becomes "ensure I have Cloud's Limit Break filled up in the first round, then blast through the next ranks with Summons and Elixirs and immediately LB3 the moment the final fight starts." There are a couple false starts, but eventually it pays off, except for one exhausting battle with that Serpent above which survives my LB3 and then spends the next ten or fifteen minutes spamming a Water-type attack to which Cloud is immune while Cloud is reduced to using the Attack command (all his Materia are broken as well as his weapon) until, finally, blessedly, the Serpent dies. It takes ages, but we finally have our fourth win, enough BP to get Omnislash and teach it to Cloud, and then we're off. (Also we have a new fan at the entrance to Battle Square who gives us Sprint Shoes as rewards for winning 8 matches.)
We're not done with Battle Square - there is a 'W-Summon' Materia as a reward, but it costs even more BP than Omnislash and I'm all worn out for today, so we'll go back and grab it later. For now, plot!
And we're back at the Forgotten Capital!
…
I felt so sure. SO SURE. I was absolutely certain that one of the big twists was going to be that, after having been submerged in the Lifestream, Cloud would now be able to understand the voices of the Ancients just as Aerith once had. See, this is why I don't tell you all of my massive brain moves! Because then I turn out to be wrong and look like a fool.
Lame. Next!
My immediate instinct, here, is of course to return to the location of Aerith's death. After all, we saw the Materia fall from her body into the water below. The characters might not realize its importance, but it is obvious to us, the players.
Unfortunately we can't actually do that. The entrance is sealed by a holographic display of a fish swimming in alga. Which has interesting implications about the Cetra's tastes in home decoration and entertainment, but unfortunately means we have to find somewhere else.
It turns out the right location was the left wing of the city, the one with a very conspicuous amphitheatre and altar that had no visible purpose last time; in fact we find Bugenhagen there.
Bugenhagen: "The knowledge of the Ancients swirling around here is telling me one thing. The Planet's in crisis… A crisis beyond human power or endless time. It says, when the time comes, we must search for 'Holy'." Cloud: "Holy?" Bugenhagen: "Holy… The ultimate White Magic. Magic that might stand against Meteor. Perhaps our last hope to save the Planet from Meteor. If a soul seeking Holy reaches the Planet, it will appear. Ho Ho Hooo. Meteor, Weapon, everything will disappear. Perhaps, even ourselves." Cloud: "Even us!?" Bugenhagen: "It is up to the Planet to decide. What is best for the Planet. What is bad for the Planet. All that is bad will disappear. That is all. Ho Ho Hooo. I wonder which humans are?"
…
I find what the game is doing with Meteor and Holy really interesting. By now, seven games into the line, Final Fantasy's recurring tropes and themes and names are pretty firmly established to the point that the game feels free to shake it up and play with it. And what it did here is take two of the most iconic spells in the previous games, of which only Meteor had really plot importance in one game (IV) while for the most part both were just very powerful and really cool combat tools, and it made them major components of its plot and setting - existential spells of apocalyptic important, which can bring salvation or doom onto mankind.
It's really neat! It's fanservice in the broad meaning of the word - something that won't feel weird or out of place to new players, but which long time fans will see and go "oooh I see what this is doing." It's taking the two really cool spells you've been using since the earliest games in the series and making them major cornerstones of the plot.
It's cool, and it's also tricky. Because that kind of fanservice, taken too far, is where long-running franchises risk getting all the way up their own ass and become completely self-referential and utterly obtuse to all outsiders. Does that fate await the Final Fantasy series in the future? I suppose we'll see eventually.
Relatedly, while I get the whole thing with "humans (Shinra) have been killing the Planet with Mako exploitation and must now face judgment," I don't vibe with the whole 'divine authority passes judgment on whether everyone alive deserves to be obliterated for their collective guilt in 'being human,'" lmao. But saying it fits Bugenhagen, who's been low-key existentially depressed this entire time - he's jolly and cheerful in demeanor, but when you listen to the content of his speeches, he's always talking about the inevitably of the Planet's death and his own impending demise to old age.
Cloud asks how we're supposed to obtain Holy, and Bugenhagen tells us that there exists a "White Materia," and that we must speak to the Planet and, if our wish 'reaches the Planet,' the White Materia will turn 'pale green'. Then Cloud has this… weird line:
Cloud: "But when she died, it fell off the altar."
Cloud, how do you know that?
Like, obviously we, as players, know that Aerith's "useless Materia" was the unique Materia that can save the Planet, but that's because we have narrative pattern recognition. That information doesn't actually exist in the game. As far as Cloud knows, Aerith had a 'useless Materia' that she brought up once as a memento from her biological mother, and that Materia happened to fall into the water when she died. Nor was Aerith in any way using or even holding the Materia while praying at the altar; she was using it as jewelry, as a clasp on her hair ribbon, which flew off when she was stabbed in the back. Cloud has no reason to know that it's the White Materia, and even if it was, we could just go looking for it. We have a submarine! We can breathe underwater, even!
This small but annoying issue aside, Bugenhagen laughs and directs the party's attention to the floor of the altar and its Ancient writing. Cloud asks if Bugenhagen can read it and, somewhat to my surprise, Bugenhagen says he can't. I had assumed Cetra writing was at least partially translated, given all the information found so far, and it seems like the kind of thing Bugen would have studied.
Well, I tell a lie. He doesn't say he "can't read it." He says…
…
What do you mean, 'Greek'?? What is Greece to you??? TELL ME THE TRUTH ABOUT THE NATO CETRA COLONIZATION PROJECT, YOU FLOATING PIECE OF SHIT
Everyone tells him to stop joking around, and he immediately responds with another joke ("I may be old, but I'm not an Ancient"). I know this is meant to be Bugenhagen being a quirky mentor figure who is chill enough to joke about things even when things are dire because he has wisdom and the long view, but it only feeds into my conviction that our man here is in a state of existential depression and his humour is a coping mechanism.
Anyway, he points to a spot on the floor where someone wrote something in… English? Japanese? Midgardian? The Common Tongue? It's just a few scribbles reading "key" and "in the music box." Bugenhagen informs us that… Hm.
Bugenhagen: "It was probably written by a scientist who had been here. He must have used all his energy just to interpret these words."
I… sorry? I thought that place was undiscovered? Don't you need a magical harp just to get through the forest? Like, there is a whole ass archeological expedition sitting right outside the forest digging up much less interesting stuff than this fully intact city of the Ancients. If people can come here, why don't they? Also, what the hell, used all his energy? Does translating Ancient script consume your life force? If the implication that one singular scientist managed to make his way to this place starving and injured and died translating these words?
Weirdness aside, at least this is a simple guidance: There is a music box (which Bugenhagen identifies as a contraption across the room), and we need a key for it.
Then he tells us he'll use the key, takes it, and floats over to the other side of the room.
…sorry, I totally forgot about this this whole time.
While I was exploring the oceans with the submarine, I stumbled upon this:
The onboard computer analyses this item and estimates it to be several thousand years old, and it's stored among our Key Items as the "Key to Ancients." I am guessing that we were 'meant' to arrive at the Forgotten Capital, see that we were missing the key to the music box, and then sent out to find it in the submarine. Only because we already have the key, the game is skipping that part, which makes the dialogue a little janky as a result.
Bugenhagen introduces the key into the music box, and it triggers, of all things, a waterfall around the altar.
In a neat bit of 'Ancient technology is weird, clever, and typically water-related,' it turns out that the purpose of the water is to act as a screen to project images onto from the glowing central device! How the device is meant to know what image it's meant to project, how this ended up being the only sentence translated by a scientist who appeared there and disappeared at some point in the past, why all this is connected to Aerith and the White Materia somehow, I have no idea. This whole bit of the plot is full of weird contrivances. But know it does, and it starts projecting Aerith's death onto the water screen.
The game plays out the close shot of Aerith's head as the White Materia in her hair falls, follows it along as it drops into the water, but with one crucial difference - it lingers a little longer as the Materia sinks, allowing us to see…
The White Materia glowing a "pale green." Aerith's plea to the Planet succeeded; she unlocked Holy.
…whatever that means. Don't we still need the Materia itself to be able to use Holy? Or does it just serve as a safety light warning us that the Planet has been successfully contacted and that Holy is now 'on' and is going to trigger itself?
Cloud: "...Aerith. Aerith has already prayed for Holy." Cloud: "...After I gave up the Black Materia to Sephiroth… Aerith's words came to me in my dreams… She said, she was the only one who could stop Sephiroth… And to do that, there was a secret here…" Cloud: "That was Holy… That's why, she had the White Materia. Aerith knew about here… And what she had to do. Aerith has left us great hope. But, it cost her life… Her future…" Cloud: "I'm sorry… Aerith. I should have figured this out sooner. You left without saying a word… It was all so sudden, I couldn't think… That's why it took me so long to find out… But, Aerith… I understand now. Aerith… I'll do the rest." Yuffie: "Not I, dorkus! WE!" Tifa: "What Aerith left us… We shouldn't waste." Cloud: "Thank you… Aerith."
Yuffie is a treasure as always.
But, hm. It was said earlier that Holy will appear if "a soul seeking Holy reaches the Planet." We know what "returning to the Planet" means - it's both a metaphorical and literal description of what happens to the souls of the dead. Does that mean that the only way to trigger Holy is for the individual seeking it to die?
It would be in line with how the Black Materia worked and the person wanting it had to die for it, the way such 'emergency magic' is locked behind the presumably heavy cost of sacrificing one's life, but…
Well it would mean Sephiroth essentially didn't do anything. Aerith had to die anyway. And her death was a conscious sacrifice achieving a purpose.
I don't like that so I'll just chalk it up to phrasing issues.
Anyway, Cloud clarifies an earlier question by asking why Holy 'isn't moving' (weird phrasing, is Holy meant to be a physical object?) - so yes, the White Materia is merely an activation key/communicator that lights up when the Planet is ready and willing to use Holy, and we don't need to go and find it at the bottom of wherever. Good to know. As for the answer, it is, of course: Sephiroth. Sephiroth is somehow blocking Holy from wherever he went after the Northern Crater collapse.
Which nicely ties things up so that there is an actual explanation for why "killing Sephiroth" will resolve "Meteor is coming" - kill Sephiroth, release Holy, which destroys Meteor. And, huh, passes judgment on all mankind, I guess. So now all we need to do is reach Sephiroth. As the group discusses the issue while stepping away from the water screen, the phone rings - as usual, it's Cait Sith.
I… Yes, obviously he moved it. What else could have happened? Was this not obvious?
Well, in any case, it turns out Cait Sith has found the answer of where the Junon Cannon has been relocated. Apparently, the cannon operates on Huge Materia, and since Shinra no longer has any, they decided to move it to a new, even more powerful source of energy…
…Midgar.
They are going to use all the Mako energy in Midgar to power the cannon for a transcontinental shot to take out Sephiroth at the Northern Crater.
This is literally the plot of an Evangelion episode, by the way.
Transition to the Shinra executive room, where Rufus is tasking Reeve with adjusting the cannon's power and Scarlet tells him there's no need, just go full throttle. Heidegger follows it up with a line inexplicably translated to mean the opposite of what he was originally saying, saying that Meteor won't disappear if we kill Sephiroth. Scarlet then reminds Rufus that firing 'Mako powered shells' was her idea and asks that the Mako cannon be renamed into… The Sister Ray.
Sssssure, why not. Yas queen slay, can't stop a girlboss winning, etc. I don't think it sounds as cool in English as you think but you go, Scarlet.
Back to the Forgotten Capital, we have no further directions, so we might as well head for Midgar and see how Shinra's plan is going to go horribly wrong and make things worse for everyone this time.
…
This turns out to be completely wrong. There is actually nothing to do in Midgar. While the city does have a new model reflecting the giant fuck-off cannon installed on top of the plate, interacting with it only dumps at the entrance to Sector 5, where we are free to go through the whole sector again before realizing that this just doesn't do anything. And there are no extra entrances either. We're not supposed to go to Midgar.
This is because the game didn't account for us having a chocobo at this stage, and instead tied the next plot event to the trigger that came naturally to mind as the next step after leaving the Forgotten Capital (since otherwise we'd be stuck on the Northern Continent, assuming no chocobo): Entering the Highwind. So we trek back to Junon where we left it a few hours ago (it wasn't even close to the Forgotten Capital), whereupon…
…
Okay so we are literally just doing Evangelion mashup plots, alright.
A new Weapon has appeared in the ocean west of Midgar, and is now crossing the sea one step at a time.
On the Highwind, the lights go red and alarms blare, causing a slightly confusing sequence where Cid asks what is happening and the pilots say that a 'strange signal' is emitting from Cait Sith, who proceeds to move around erratically before saying that his controls went crazy. So I guess something happened in Midgar which disrupted Cait Sith's pilot's connection to his body, which also somehow caused Cait Sith to emit that signal and disrupt the Highwind? It's confusing, and not elaborated upon: the new Weapon is a more immediate concern. Cloud asks Cait Sith if the new cannon can stop it from reaching Midgar, and the cat isn't sure.
Barret: "Hey! What's gonna happen to Marlene?" Cait Sith: "Doncha worry none, Marlene's in a safe place. She's with Aerith's mama."
[Barret scratches his head, then turns around.] Cait Sith: "Barret! What was that scratching just now? As long as Marlene is safe, who cares what else happens, right?"
[No response.] Cait Sith: "I've been itchin' to say this to you for a while now! When you blew up the Sec. 1 reactor how many do you think died?" Barret: "...That was for the life of the Planet. Ya gotta expect a few casualties." Cait Sith: "A few? Whaddaya mean 'a few'? What may be a few to you is everything to those who died… Protect the Planet. Hah! That sure sounds good! And no one will go against you. So you think you can do whatever you want, right?" Barret: "I don't wanna hear that from no one in Shinra…"
[Cait Sith turns around and slumps, crestfallen.] Cait Sith: "Can't do anything about that… Cloud: "Stop it!" Tifa: "Cait Sith… Barret, he knows what he did. What we did in Midgar can't be forgotten no matter the reason." [She approaches Barret.] "Right? We haven't forgotten, right?" [She looks at Cait Sith.] "I know you. You can't quit the company because you're worried about the people in Midgar, right?"
[There's no response.]
I'm torn about that scene.
On the one hand, confronting the human cost of Avalanche's action and the inherent contradiction between Barret being willing to treat civilian casualties as inevitable collateral while having his daughter's safety as his overriding goal is… good? On the other hand it's forty minutes to late, and twenty hours after we already confronted the inherent contradictions of Barret's goals and desires in Corel Prison and Cosmo Canyon. Barret literally already had the whole 'was I truly doing this for the Planet or for revenge' goal so it's weird here that he's dismissive of the casualties in the name of 'the life of the Planet' when he already had this whole thing. Also, for the human cost of Avalanche's actions to matter we have to see that human cost; as far as the game has shown us it seems like blowing up Reactors in the middle of a hyperdense metropolis is Mostly Fine, actually.
So I respect what it's trying to do but it's poorly placed and set up and interacts weirdly with past events. That said, Barret calling out Cait Sith on working for Shinra, Cait Sith getting depressed, and Tifa saying that he hasn't left because the people of Midgar specifically are those he wants to protect is good! More Cait Sith characterization, it works.
With the uncertainty of whether the Sister Ray will work and all of Midgar at risk, the party decides to confront and defeat the Weapon themselves, although they don't value their odds very high.
Also, as a side note: It's taken me some time to catch up to what it was doing, but this, here, the Highwind, is the first time the games are truly doing the modern style of 'hub where all your characters hang out and you can talk to them and their dialogue updates based on which plot beat you hit recently." FFVI nodded in that direction, but as I think I commented on it at the time, it doesn't really do it to a meaningful extent, most of the characters were stuck with one or two lines for the whole game. Here, dialogue updates frequently, like now. I won't transcribe it all, but it's a nice touch - although the fact that this feature appears with the Highwind, essentially in the third act of the game, and not earlier, kinda points to how novel that was at the time - a modern game would place it much earlier; you unlock the Normandy a couple of hours into Mass Effect 1, for instance. Baldur's Gate 1 came out in 1998 and didn't, as far as I know, have that system fully formed in it, KOTOR 1 was 2003, so… I think FF7 might actually have been the game to originate this approach to party dialogue and introduce it to Western devs, while I had always thought it was the opposite.
That's neat!
Anyway, it's time.
We are finally getting to fight a Weapon for keeps.
Attempting to run into it with the airship just gets mad at us, lmao. The Weapon is actually moving on the worldmap, so we are supposed to set the ship down near Midgar and wait for it to reach us. With its enormous size towering over the horizon and its approaching with slow, thunderous steps, it actually makes for some pretty effective build-up.
This is the Diamond Weapon - the most overtly mech-like Weapon we've seen so far; while [Sapphire] and Ultima looked like biomechanical monstrosities, this is straight up a giant robot - its head reminds me of Voltron, having a human face set inside of an animal maw, although I'm sure that design dates back to older anime or tokusatsu designs:
To be frank, I'm not hugely into that design. It's too goofy. The pauldrons are just too large, for starters (there is a reason for that but it still ruins the silhouette). The weird 'cape' is kind of inexplicable on a giant biorobot of that size, and the legs are far, far too wide. I'm sorry, it needs to be slimmed down.
So. Let's fight a Weapon.
…
Diamond Weapon has a laser ray that deals damage in the high hundreds and a foot stomp that deals around a thousand, both to a single target. My characters currently have HP in the 3k-4k range. You do the math: It basically can't hurt us enough to be a threat. Instead it has a 'cheat' mechanic - all physical damage is set to 0, so it can only be hurt by magic and summons. This is actually only meant to last until you spam enough spells to 'break its armor,' but, well, I never find out about that since there's no clear sign of it happening or at least none I've seen, so after seeing my first attacks do 0 damage I just spam spells until it dies.
In an attempt at fair play I choose not to use the Knights of the Round, but ultimately it doesn't matter. The Diamond Weapon only has 30,000 HP. It has a super attack called Diamond Flash that takes several turns to charge up but we never see it, blowing through its health bar with tremendous speed. We are rewarded with a massive 3,500 AP, instantly leveling and mastering several of our Materia, so this was a pretty hefty reward, but the fight was a letdown.
Which is partly narratively true as well, though. The Diamond Weapon doesn't turn red and vanish like other enemy models do when defeated because, within the story, the fight never reaches its conclusion - the Diamond Weapon's HP is more of a timer. When it runs out, Shinra's Sister Ray is finally ready to fire.
How the hell were we fighting that thing. Like, physically. It's too big to stab.
Somehow sensing the hostile intent from Midgar, the Weapon turns away to face the city. In Midgar, a sick cinematic plays out as every Reactor still active fires up, Mako flaring into the sky. This, huh, includes the ones we destroyed. I don't know if that's a developer oversight or "Shinra rebuilt them in the meantime" but, c'mon, give Avalanche some achievements lmao.
As the entirety of the Mako powering Midgar is redirected towards the cannon, all the lights in Midgar go out. Again: Evangelion. Then a new light is born, as the rifle powers up… And fires, devastatingly.
The Diamond Weapon reacts by opening its shoulder mounts, revealing that these weird oversized pauldrons are that way because they are, in fact, missile bays, and proceed to unleash a salvo of missiles towards the coming shot.
However, this is no beam duel. On the one side is a single all-powerful shot, on the other dozens of scattered bolts. The two attacks pass through each other, neither stopping the other in any way - a full frontal hit on both sides.
The Diamond Weapon is destroyed, the shot going through its chest without any obstruction, toppling the giant… And it doesn't stop. Somehow, the Weapon had perfectly aligned itself between the Cannon and the North Pole, so the shot serves dual purpose, launching all the way to the North Crater and impacting Sephiroth's barrier, destroying it.
…
I swear to god if the game keeps putting me in front of giant kaiju-mechs and then SNATCHING THEM AWAY BEFORE I CAN GET A COOL FIGHT OUT OF IT I AM GOING TO GO FERAL
Ahem.
I'm sure we'll be in a shape to tackle Emerald soon and then it'll all be worth it o_o
In Midgar, Rufus stands in his office, listening to the Sister Ray's operator first triumphantly saying that Weapon has been defeated and the barrier destroyed, then suddenly warning Rufus that 'a mass of high density energy' is approaching Midgar. Unfortunately, that warning comes too late.
Rufus stares out his window stoically, perhaps even defiantly, as the onslaught of energy bolts rains down onto the top of the Shinra Building, destroying it in a fiery blaze.
Exit Rufus.
That was sudden, although fitting. Assuming Rufus Shinra did in fact die here,* him blowing up in a conflagration of Shinra's triumph (successfully destroying the Weapon and the North Crater barrier is no mean feat!) inevitably backfiring and hurting Shinra itself, just as it always has. Even in victory they're shooting themselves in the foot. Still; I did kinda hope for a real final confrontation with Rufus, a chance to lay things out, explore his motivations and beliefs and confront his actions. But I suppose FFVII's ethos of 'death is sudden, brutal, and leaves you without closure' hits everyone, not just the protagonists.
*Or "die," as he turns out to be alive in Advent Children; I remember his presence in the movie being a surprise to other characters who thought he'd died, so I assume this is where he 'dies' in the original game.
Rufus Shinra. In the end, his inaugural speech about ruling through fear and caring about money over all else never materialized. Far from the iron-fisted rule of a bloody tyrant, we never really saw what life was like under his reign. Instead, he spent the game wandering the world with us as a secondary antagonist, very reminiscent of classic anime evil overlords who introduce a new threat to deal with each episode without appearing as a personal antagonist to fight. A symptom of Shinra's turn from overwhelming main antagonist ruling the world to wacky minibosses perpetually overshadowed by the existential threat from the stars.
Perhaps it is fitting that his death is also literally what unlocks the path to the actual final antagonist of the game. Symbolic of the way Sephiroth/Jenova overtook Shinra in the plot.
The path to the North Pole is now open. So, I suppose, the natural next step is to head there and see the endgame! Or more probably whatever happens that distract us from the endgame because there is unsettled business in Midgar.
Thank you for reading!
…
UNLESS?
WHAT'S THIS?
BWAHAHAHAHA! YES! AT LAST!
Next Time: FROM THE DEEPEST PIT OF THE SEVEN HELLS TO THE VERY PINNACLE OF THE HEAVENS, THE WORLD SHALL TREMBLE! UNLEASH ULTIMA!
It might be too big to stab but it's not too big to GRAB OH MY GAWD WHAT IS HAPPENING IT'S TIFA LOCKHART WITH THE BODY SLAM BAH LIFESTREEM AS MAH WITNESS THAT MECHA IS BROKEN IN HALF HE HAD A FAMILY
Yes. Exit Rufus. Because he's dead. He's dead. He's fucking dead. He was standing on the top floor of a skyscraper that got hit with a barrage of fucking javelins in a climactic battle with a giant mecha kaiju. He's dead. Dead.
...yeah Advent Children's undoing of this moment was one of the things I found most irritating about that movie, and if you've seen AC you know that was a race to the bottom.
If it were me, I would not expose myself to Compilation of Final Fantasy 7 material. Simply would not do it.
Crisis Core is decent, even if it is an action game with the soul of a Tokusatsu Drama. Wander outside of that game, and you end up where stupid things happen because FF7 was a (mostly) completed product that didn't need two sequels, two prequels, and a battle royale to make sense of.
Relevant to the Compilation discussion, and even more so when we get to FFX (and theoretically X-2), but so much of the "spinoff mania" of mid 2000's FF was apparently the result of Yoichi Wada installing himself as company head after the tumultuous failure of The Spirits Within merger with Enix and immediately making the very pragmatic, yet artistically dubious choice to focus less on making new individual games with bespoke settings and characters, and just reuse assets and already built IP to flood the market with AA games based on their top properties, ie 7 and 10.
But unfortunately I'm not in the position rn to find a bunch of primary and secondary sources to cite, even though I swear to God I read an article or saw it on a wiki or SOMETHING. So for now, just have this semi-relevant, but really funny forum post I found while searching:
I swear to god if the game keeps putting me in front of giant kaiju-mechs and then SNATCHING THEM AWAY BEFORE I CAN GET A COOL FIGHT OUT OF IT I AM GOING TO GO FERAL
So fun fact, in addition to the already mentioned fact that the Emerald Weapon superboss wasn't in the original japanese release... the player getting to fight Diamond Weapon here also wasn't in the original release (which also meant that the weapon that can be stolen from it wasn't either). Ultimate is the only Weapon that was available to fight in the first released version of the game.
But unfortunately I'm not in the position rn to find a bunch of primary and secondary sources to cite, even though I swear to God I read an article or saw it on a wiki or SOMETHING. So for now, just have this semi-relevant, but really funny forum post I found while searching:
The hilarious thing is that on first glance, this seems like a bad take in hindsight since FF14 is now a massive success. But in reality, this dude was dead-on. They did end up shutting down the servers of 1.0 and making a new MMO, and when the idea of salvaging that trash fire was brought up to Yoshi P his response as the famous "NIGHTMARE." Only thing they were wrong about was how 2.0 wasn't gonna work out.
Remember this guy? The Ghost Ship guy? This was a little ways back when I was leveling Tifa, but I've been told this is one of those specific enemies I should use Morph against. This proved out tricky - in order for Morph to work, it needs to kill the enemy with an attack at ⅛ of normal attack power, so getting within the right range without overshooting it is tricky, especially because Ghost Ship has a one-hit kill that bypasses immunity to instant death by simply removing a character from battle instead of 'killing' them, resulting in a game over.
...Wait, didn't getting chucked out of the fight not result in a game over way back when against the Midgar Zolom? Like it specifically let you survive the fight because while two party members were dead, the last one was knocked over the horizon and thus "still alive"?
And our reward for this is… The Underwater Materia.
Huh.
Don't we have a submarine already?
Oh. Oh waaaiiiit. The Underwater Materia allows us to 'breathe underwater,' which means it will remove the time limit on the Emerald Weapon boss fight. Because that time limit represented our characters being able to engage in battle while holding their breath for twenty minutes, which is hilarious.
Okay, well, we're not strong enough for that fight regardless, but this should make it easier when we do feel ready for it, if ever.
Well, it certainly helps since it only costs one materia slot to get rid of the timer limitation entirely. Especially since depending on your strat, fighting Emerald Weapon might be 20+ minutes of summoning cutscenes.
Side note, I do love when games have characters like this. Yeah, I know the Adoring Fan is an obnoxious meme of a character in Oblivion, but it's always neat to me to have your side accomplishments actually get noticed by people and gather fans or something like that.
My immediate instinct, here, is of course to return to the location of Aerith's death. After all, we saw the Materia fall from her body into the water below. The characters might not realize its importance, but it is obvious to us, the players.
Unfortunately we can't actually do that. The entrance is sealed by a holographic display of a fish swimming in alga. Which has interesting implications about the Cetra's tastes in home decoration and entertainment, but unfortunately means we have to find somewhere else.
This turns out to be completely wrong. There is actually nothing to do in Midgar. While the city does have a new model reflecting the giant fuck-off cannon installed on top of the plate, interacting with it only dumps at the entrance to Sector 5, where we are free to go through the whole sector again before realizing that this just doesn't do anything. And there are no extra entrances either. We're not supposed to go to Midgar.
Now picturing Cait Sith carefully shooing the party back out of Midgar after they showed up, all strapped and loaded and ready to take out Shinra and busting down the front gate, going "no no no guys PLEASE this isn't the right story trigger you gotta go get THE AIRSHIP"
Also, as a side note: It's taken me some time to catch up to what it was doing, but this, here, the Highwind, is the first time the games are truly doing the modern style of 'hub where all your characters hang out and you can talk to them and their dialogue updates based on which plot beat you hit recently." FFVI nodded in that direction, but as I think I commented on it at the time, it doesn't really do it to a meaningful extent, most of the characters were stuck with one or two lines for the whole game.
I was actually surprised replaying FFVI alongside the thread because I could have sworn that when you get to the point of party swaps on the airship everyone keeps up somewhat with recent events... but nope, every character just has a generic line that depends on if you're in the WoB or WoR. Granted, with how open-ended the latter half of the game is once you have the airship, I guess it would have been a lot more work to have party members commenting on current events since they could be anything from "did Gau's sidequest with his dad" to "raided Kefka's Tower for dope loot then bailed".
Somehow sensing the hostile intent from Midgar, the Weapon turns away to face the city. In Midgar, a sick cinematic plays out as every Reactor still active fires up, Mako flaring into the sky. This, huh, includes the ones we destroyed. I don't know if that's a developer oversight or "Shinra rebuilt them in the meantime" but, c'mon, give Avalanche some achievements lmao.
FFVII just remembering to apply classic Cyberpunk Dystopia themes for this one scene, IE "nothing you plucky rebels ever did actually mattered big company just fix all problems overnight".
I swear to god if the game keeps putting me in front of giant kaiju-mechs and then SNATCHING THEM AWAY BEFORE I CAN GET A COOL FIGHT OUT OF IT I AM GOING TO GO FERAL
Ahem.
I'm sure we'll be in a shape to tackle Emerald soon and then it'll all be worth it o_o
Hey, cheer up Omi, Ultima Weapon's also still out there somewhere isn't it? It did just kind of dunk on the party and then fly off after blowing up a town, and all that.
Rufus stares out his window stoically, perhaps even defiantly, as the onslaught of energy bolts rains down onto the top of the Shinra Building, destroying it in a fiery blaze.
Yes, of course, Exit Rufus, who is now absolutely dead in a massive missile barrage to the face and will never ever be seen again in the history of Final Fantasy Seven projects forever
Rufus Shinra. In the end, his inaugural speech about ruling through fear and caring about money over all else never materialized. Far from the iron-fisted rule of a bloody tyrant, we never really saw what life was like under his reign. Instead, he spent the game wandering the world with us as a secondary antagonist, very reminiscent of classic anime evil overlords who introduce a new threat to deal with each episode without appearing as a personal antagonist to fight. A symptom of Shinra's turn from overwhelming main antagonist ruling the world to wacky minibosses perpetually overshadowed by the existential threat from the stars.
Yeah, Rufus always just felt kind of lackluster as a villain to me. He gets a neat intro, a fight that sets him up as some kind of rival to Cloud and Avalanche... then proceeds to just kind of be there for the rest of the game. No more Rufus fights or real confrontations other than occasionally dunking on the Turks, who also went from "murderous assassin arm of Shinra that was willing to kill an eighth of the city on orders" to "quirky punchclock miniboss squad".
As Emy pointed out, it's also the name of a Velvet Underground song, notorious for being seventeen minutes long and featuring the refrain "Too busy suckin' on my ding-dong."
And we're finally up to episode 30 of the abridged series spoiler free now. And I have to say the translation really seems to be breaking down faster the further in this gets. The question now is, is it going to get worse from here or will it start to pick up twords the end?
I'll be honest, VI might not have been as narratively, emotionally punchy in a long running cohesively way. But I'm really not sure I vibe with the metric ton of plot hole ass contrivance handwavering that VII does, even when it wouldn't cost it much to give a small but perfectly serviceable explanation.
Unfortunately we can't actually do that. The entrance is sealed by a holographic display of a fish swimming in alga. Which has interesting implications about the Cetra's tastes in home decoration and entertainment, but unfortunately means we have to find somewhere else.
I like to think that they just happened to hand the planning of this site to the one Cetra with a really poor grasp of metaphor and poetic license. So when whoever was in charge of the project asked for a temple to "honor the Lifestream, the Ocean of Souls from which all things swim", he just thought "Stream? Ocean? Swim? So uh....like fishes and shells and stuff, right? Nailed it!"
Relatedly, while I get the whole thing with "humans (Shinra) have been killing the Planet with Mako exploitation and must now face judgment," I don't vibe with the whole 'divine authority passes judgment on whether everyone alive deserves to be obliterated for their collective guilt in 'being human,'" lmao. But saying it fits Bugenhagen, who's been low-key existentially depressed this entire time - he's jolly and cheerful in demeanor, but when you listen to the content of his speeches, he's always talking about the inevitably of the Planet's death and his own impending demise to old age.
......................
I know this is meant to be Bugenhagen being a quirky mentor figure who is chill enough to joke about things even when things are dire because he has wisdom and the long view, but it only feeds into my conviction that our man here is in a state of existential depression and his humour is a coping mechanism.
Bugenhagen liking/reblogging all kinds of really weird and depressing posts on his Kwehtter. Nanaki's kinda concerned, because he can't tell if it's Grandpa just being quirky and ironic as usual, or if he's actually been Black (Materia) Pilled. He'd log on more to check, but it's hard to operate the PHS with paws. Jokes aside, I really like this sort of morbid philosophizing in the later half of the game. I think it synthesizes very well with some of the stuff covered later.
Well it would mean Sephiroth essentially didn't do anything. Aerith had to die anyway. And her death was a conscious sacrifice achieving a purpose.
I don't like that so I'll just chalk it up to phrasing issues.
I can't imagine they'd consciously go back on that plot point after having an entire sequence where Tifa and Cloud look the player straight in the eye and explain that what happened to Aertith was a not a noble sacrifice, but a pure cold blooded murder. But dumber things have certainly happened.
Cait Sith: "I've been itchin' to say this to you for a while now! When you blew up the Sec. 1 reactor how many do you think died?" Barret: "...That was for the life of the Planet. Ya gotta expect a few casualties." Cait Sith: "A few? Whaddaya mean 'a few'? What may be a few to you is everything to those who died… Protect the Planet. Hah! That sure sounds good! And no one will go against you. So you think you can do whatever you want, right?" Barret: "I don't wanna hear that from no one in Shinra…"
Oh, yay. This is actually, sincerely one of my favorite little bits of dialogue in the entire game, and not just because "What may be a few to you is everything to those who died…" is a lovely turn of phrase, even when spoken by a wacky toy cat. You're absolutely right in that the placement of this scene is odd. You'd only have to rewrite it slightly to place it around the time of Cait's initial betrayal, where I think it'd probably work better to have this seemingly underhanded and manipulative character have such a sudden outburst of moral indignation over the deaths of some seemingly unimportant civilians when confronted over the safety of one child. I'm also not going to say that having like 90% of Cait's character arc seemingly happen offscreen is perfect writing. But like, the fact that it happens at all, and especially that it happens in a fairly believable way extended over the course of the entire game is is nice? Also, it's very interesting to have someone, this Shinra Triple-agent, now effectively acting as the mouthpiece for the more human element of the Technology/Nature subtheme that's been working through the game. Not like Cid who was just like "YEAH, PLANES AND ROCKETS ARE PRETTY COOL," but the concept of civilization itself. It's someone actually vouching for the fact that stopping Sephiroth is more than just a personal vendetta, or a vague ancient conflict between dead civilizations, or some high concept spiritual duty to a nebulous planetary force, but something that's a literal life and death for living human people just trying to go through their day-to-day lives and not getting squashed, sometimes literally by giant plates or meteors, by these vast forces beyond their ken or control.
At the very least It's not Cid suddenly coming out of nowhere to be the main character for three hours, or Vincent expositing from the cuck zone.
To be frank, I'm not hugely into that design. It's too goofy. The pauldrons are just too large, for starters (there is a reason for that but it still ruins the silhouette). The weird 'cape' is kind of inexplicable on a giant biorobot of that size, and the legs are far, far too wide. I'm sorry, it needs to be slimmed down.
Listen. I know that you don't know that Diamond is based off of one of the most GOATed MS designs of the UC Era...so I'll let you off the hook. *indignant sniff*
*Or "die," as he turns out to be alive in Advent Children; I remember his presence in the movie being a surprise to other characters who thought he'd died, so I assume this is where he 'dies' in the original game.
BEAT, THE HEART OF SABIK, THE HEART OF SABIK, THE HEART OF SABIK
BEAT, THE HEART OF SABIK, THE HEART OF SABIK, THE HEART OF SABIK
DESTRUCTION! SALVATION! ULTIMA!
The arranged symphony version isn't as good; it doesn't have the sick bongo backing section.
Transition to the Shinra executive room, where Rufus is tasking Reeve with adjusting the cannon's power and Scarlet tells him there's no need, just go full throttle. Heidegger follows it up with a line inexplicably translated to mean the opposite of what he was originally saying, saying that Meteor won't disappear if we kill Sephiroth. Scarlet then reminds Rufus that firing 'Mako powered shells' was her idea and asks that the Mako cannon be renamed into… The Sister Ray.
Sssssure, why not. Yas queen slay, can't stop a girlboss winning, etc. I don't think it sounds as cool in English as you think but you go, Scarlet.
Something Awful forums, the really, really old website that is apparently the first ever place to do Let's Plays. Which are also apparently stereotypically filled with swearing and racism.
In an age of no-talent AVGN ripoffs raging over 240p Unregistered Hypercam 2 footage and Tales of Symphonia LP's abandoned by post two, Research Indicates, a sometime Something Awful poster and erudite gentleman of letters shot and edited an LP of fascinating cult oddity Jurassic Park Trespasser. It was, and still is considered a high-water mark for anyone attempting a more informative Let's Play.
Something Awful forums, the really, really old website that is apparently the first ever place to do Let's Plays. Which are also apparently stereotypically filled with swearing and racism.
They were filled with swearing and racism. 4chan was originally an offshoot of the board, after all, but that was back when basically everyone on the internet was an edgy little shit. It's been literal decades since then and the board culture has shifted a lot - nowadays they're mostly pretty progressive, partly because making an account costs $10 and the kinds of people who can't keep racism to themselves are also the kind who tend to get permanently banned, and once your account is permabanned you're not getting back into the board without paying up.
But that does mean that dealing with something from 2008 like TheDarkId's Dirge of Cerberus LP is going to inherently be...a bit of a mixed bag, by today's standards. It was a different time, and people were a lot less reluctant to throw around words that have since become less welcome in modern culture. It took until the 2010s for the r-slur to be widely considered as the slur that it is, for example.
When you do revisit Midgar for real -- and you'll know it when you do it -- make certain to take Barret along. You'll miss out on his ultimate weapon otherwise. Vincent will also have some unique dialogue if you bring him.
