So @Omicron did you run into the SOLDIER 1st Classes on the climb to the Cannon? Because that's where they are. For whatever reason, the Elite of the Elite of Shinra's SOLDIER program are (apparently?) protecting Hojo. Which certainly could make sense if they're under Jenova/Sephiroth's control and they somehow "know" what Hojo is doing. Alternatively, they got stupid orders from Scarlett and Heidegger to worry more about Cloud and Co. than stopping Hojo and saving Midgar. Whatever suits your fancy, I suppose.
Ah! I wish they were anywhere that explicit about it. The version Omicron got (with Tifa being embarassed, presumably at the idea that somebody was peeping on her and Cloud) is the one higher affection gets you, nothing more than that is provided.
I was sure I saw a post talking about that scene along with a screenshot of it, but I couldn't find any scene like that with googling, so I think I either fell for a hoax or my memory was just been playing tricks on me.
I was sure a post talking about that scene along with a screenshot of it, but I couldn't find any scene like that with googling, so I think I either fell for a hoax or my memory was just been playing tricks on me.
...Man, this would be totally easy to abuse if FFVII were faster/had autobattle like the Pixel Remasters - just knock out everyone but Vincent, find an easy area with big encounter groups, and go to town for half an hour.
I can tell you exactly how I'd do it but as it requires a piece of kit Omi doesn't have yet I'll put it under a spoiler.
Kill the other two party members, have Vincent geared up with a Fury Ring for auto-berserk and a Slash All Materia, Speed+, Restore, and Pre-Emptive materia, then grind in the Mideel or Junon forests (I'd prefer Mideel for XP/AP/loot), which have high encounter densities and no debilitating status effects.
Vincent'll one-shot entire fields of enemies via Slash-All, Berserk means you don't need to push any buttons *and* will boost his attack to counter the Slash-All penalty, and Speed+ / Pre-emptive mean you have to deal with fewer enemy attacks before Vincent gets his shot in. Heal up out of battle via Restore, but you shouldn't need to do so often.
Run Enemy Lure materia to boost the encounter rate, as well.
EDIT:
Technically I suppose you don't actually need to kill the other two as long as you guarantee they won't do anything before Vincent autokills everybody, which would let you use them as donkeys for levelling materia while you were about this.
So @Omicron did you run into the SOLDIER 1st Classes on the climb to the Cannon? Because that's where they are. For whatever reason, the Elite of the Elite of Shinra's SOLDIER program are (apparently?) protecting Hojo. Which certainly could make sense if they're under Jenova/Sephiroth's control and they somehow "know" what Hojo is doing. Alternatively, they got stupid orders from Scarlett and Heidegger to worry more about Cloud and Co. than stopping Hojo and saving Midgar. Whatever suits your fancy, I suppose.
Oh my god I was just thinking "that was our last chance to meet SOLDIER 1st Class but there weren't any, is the game trying to imply a plot reason for the First Class not being around anymore?"
Turns out I just missed them because the encounter density is so low and the cannon ascent so short. Now I'm mad.
Please don't make opponents with relevance to the plot and world building into random encounters that exist in only one short sequence and can be missed forever, gamedevs
where they die for the sole reason that they look at their ultimate anti-Weapon mech, and instead of using it to take down the mad scientist who is right now trying to give Sephiroth one final power boost, they used it to fight us.
There's a similarity with FFXIV about how we had to fight Gaius in his Ultima Weapon for basically the same reason, despite Lahabrea using Ultima to destroy Gaius's base as part of an effort to give Zodiark a power boost.
I don't know how intentional this was, and I suspect it is purely coincidental. Power-mad dictator-types who get into giant mecha just seem to have the same sort of odd priorities, it seems.
Really, I just think the FFVII cast is generally better by dint of being a smaller group so more room for them all to get their own story beats, and having their own little character interjections as specific lines (note that's not me saying the worst of FFVII is better than the best of FFVI, most of FFVI's cast still blows Vincent out of the water bare minimum).
I'll grant Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Aerith. Yuffie probably. All that extra focus obviously counts for a lot. I don't think there's any argument for Cid, Red XIII, or Cait Sith - almost half the cast minus Vincent - stack up that well even against the middle ranks of VI's cast.
The Sister Ray Run could work soo much better if it required you to go through Shinra Tower to get on the Ray, and boss rushed the Executives as you revisit certain areas. For Example, Proud Clod would work phenomenally better if it was being piloted by Palmer. He, being the incompetent buffoon he is, jumps the gun and takes the Anti-Weapon mech without anyone else knowing to fight you... and is just the worse pilot, explaining why the mech does such shit damage. Past Palmer, reach the Tower. Somewhere in there, you fight Heidegger then Scarlet. Or vice versa. Heidegger would probably be a revised version of the General+3Soldiers fights from FF4: Heidegger hiding being 3 First Class SOLDIERS shouting Orders, can only be hurt when there are no SOLDIERS on the field. SOLDIERS reappear as Reinforcements periodically. Scarlet would probably involve either another Super Robot, or Monsters.
I'll grant Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Aerith. Yuffie probably. All that extra focus obviously counts for a lot. I don't think there's any argument for Cid, Red XIII, or Cait Sith - almost half the cast minus Vincent - stack up that well even against the middle ranks of VI's cast.
The middle ranks, not the primary characters? I don't think that's exactly fair to Red. I could try to make an argument for CS and Reeve being counted together too, but that seems a bit disingenuous when you need to do that for him to stack up. Nanaki, though, maybe isn't the best executed, but he both has quite a noticable personality and also gets a decent amount of screen time just off his connection to Cosmo Canyon and Bugenhagen. Most of VI's characters can't even match up to just what he shows in the trips to that one location, and he does have some other moments on top of that.
I could try to make an argument for CS and Reeve being counted together too, but that seems a bit disingenuous when you need to do that for him to stack up.
But Cait's entire character arc is that he's actually Reeve. I don't think any possible analysis of his character that doesn't include Reeve being counted with him is worthwhile.
I'll grant Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Aerith. Yuffie probably. All that extra focus obviously counts for a lot. I don't think there's any argument for Cid, Red XIII, or Cait Sith - almost half the cast minus Vincent - stack up that well even against the middle ranks of VI's cast.
I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree? I mean it depends on who you consider the "middle ranks" of FFVI, but I'd honestly say everyone but Vincent and maybe Cid is pretty competitive with the majority of FFVI's party in terms of getting characterization. VI has its standouts like Terra and Celes sure, but it also has characters like Sabin (I love the musclehead but he spends most of the game Just Being There) Gau, or Setzer and that's without again, diving into the deep pull bin of "secret characters with a recruitment line and a 10 second ending scene" of Umaro or Gogo. Plus, while part of it is how often she's been in Omi's party I'd say we've seen Yuffie easily be almost keeping up with that primary characters set of Cloud/Barret/Tifa/Aerith.
Like. I feel like there's a decent amount of unconscious racism in how both SE and fans tend to dismiss him—I will never forget how easily Cloud replaced him as leader—but how could Barret, part of the iconic Midgar gang, responsible for the iconic reactor attacks, and one of 7's best characters, score lower than Cid "I'm just here because you stole my plane lol" Highwind?
Like. I feel like there's a decent amount of unconscious racism in how both SE and fans tend to dismiss him—I will never forget how easily Cloud replaced him as leader—but how could Barret, part of the iconic Midgar gang, responsible for the iconic reactor attacks, and one of 7's best characters, score lower than Cid "I'm just here because you stole my plane lol" Highwind?
At least for Cid, I'd assume just pure "Cool Factor" lets him get away with a lot for many FFVII fans who aren't really here to examine the game with a more critical eye, the way this thread is kinda doing. I mean, he smokes (always cool!), swears constantly (waow so cool!), he's got cool spear moves (awesome dragoon stuff!) and is associated with airships (super cooooooool!). Throw in that he probably gets automatic bonus points for being... well, Cid, one of the most recognizable constantly returning elements of the Final Fantasy series, and I can see it.
I got absolutely fuckin' nothing or Cait Sith beating out Barret though lmao, though granted this is assuming it was an FFVII party popularity contest or something in the first place, not like... full series with a few representatives per game.
Like. I feel like there's a decent amount of unconscious racism in how both SE and fans tend to dismiss him—I will never forget how easily Cloud replaced him as leader—but how could Barret, part of the iconic Midgar gang, responsible for the iconic reactor attacks, and one of 7's best characters, score lower than Cid "I'm just here because you stole my plane lol" Highwind?
In some fairness, it was a Japanese poll and one thing this LP's taught me is that Barret in the original Japanese is frankly a lot less likeable...but I'm still big mad about him - out of every major FF series character - getting dead last. If nothing else it made me especially grateful that the Remake pinches heavily from translated Barret and doubled down on him being the best dude ever.
In some fairness, it was a Japanese poll and one thing this LP's taught me is that Barret in the original Japanese is frankly a lot less likeable...but I'm still big mad about him - out of every major FF series character - getting dead last. If nothing else it made me especially grateful that the Remake pinches heavily from translated Barret and doubled down on him being the best dude ever.
I'd say the list is more accurate if we're going by FF7R. Aerith is enjoying herself a bit too much at times, and definitely knows more then she's saying.
"What the hell is that!!?" and an enormous metal frame lumbers onto the screen.
......
Heidegger and Scarlet greet us from the cockpit of their new and greatest creation, the product of the Weapons and Peace Divisions working together to produce an anti-Weapon weapon: the… "Proud Clod."
CLOD GANG RISE UP
CLOD GANG RISE UP CLOD GANG RISE UP
is the Proud Clod woefully outmatched this late in the game? Yes.
Would it be better served doing literally anything else but trying to kill the people who are actually trying to save the world? Yes.
Are Heidegger and Scarlet deeply stupid people for ignoring the first two points? Yes.
Do I care about any of that? Lord no.
The Proud Clod is the coolest looking mecha in a game that's gone out of its' way to have cool looking mecha, and in this instance I'm happy to clap appreciatively at the spectacle and compliment H&S's good taste in robots before mercilessly grinding it into the dust. Remake already has a variant "Pride and Joy" statted and modeled, and a location in Intermission has what looks like the PC proper being assembled...so here's to hoping its' inevitable re-reveal down the line has a little more teeth....Besides the ones they already decided to give it.
I don't know why Barret specifically gets a mini dialogue bit about finding his ultimate weapon, or why he recognizes it, or what 'Missing Score' is supposed to allude to, but, well, there it is.
Cloud and Co. think Barret calls it "Missing Score" as some private reference to how vengeance is a moving target, and settling a score inevitably leaves you with something missing inside. Barret's too embarrassed to tell them that he just think it sounds cool.
On the one hand, it's… good… That this whole bit of the story isn't as missable as I had believed at first; most of what's found in Lucrecia's Cave is actually conveyed through dialogue after all! On the other hand it's frustrating that everyone is pretending that didn't happen because it's sealed in the Optional Content Dimension.
On the bright side, I don't think "oops, missed content means missed context" is ever as bad from here on out as it is in 6 + 7. Barring XIV's frustrating way of tying itself into knots to have side content that's highly relevant to MSQ content not actually matter...but that's just me being an aggrieved Cyella fanboy.
…wait, Pokémon Red and Green had come out in Japan by 1997. Not in the US and Europe, where they waited (as Red and Blue) until '98 and '99, but in Japan they came out as early as '96, a full year before FF7. So this actually could be a direct homage, Hojo tossing out capsules and monsters popping out of them?
This form is named 'Helletic Hojo,' which I am 99% sure is a misrendering of what is supposed to be 'Heretic Hojo,' for his crimes against the natural order.
The Midgar raid is absolutely the nadir of the translation effort; the part where the wheels don't just come off, but explode, sending the doomed and firey metaphor flying off into a mislabeled and grammatically perplexing abyss.
And this is a lovingly designed monster - you can see Hojo's features, his hair, the way his body has been stretched out horribly and deformed. It's great. And again, that Resident Evil aesthetic with the exposed ribs and tumorous flesh and exposed, oversized heart - good stuff.
.............
You know what Frieza Rules are. The bad guy starts off with a 'casual', normal form, then turns into a monstrous form that's either huge and buff or monstrous and hideous (Frieza has both in Form 2 and Form 3 respectively), and then just when you think his final form is going to turn even huger it turns out his final form is actually a simple, unassuming, humanoid shape.
TOTALLY NOT RELATED AT ALL I SWEAR AND I PROMISE I'LL STOP SAYING IT, but Omi, you should really, REALLY play Parasite Eve at some point. And Deep Fear if yo like Survival Horror games, but hate yourself.
It's a very human game. Sure, we're fighting to save the living, sentient planet from the threat of Space Satan destroying the world, but none of that means anything if at the end of the day that world doesn't have someone or something we care about in it.
......
…it's imperfect, of course.
Relevant to both character motivation and the imploding translation, but there's parts in the latter third of the game that straight up omit entire lines of dialogue from the English translation. This includes scenes where Cait is speaking to the party, then cutting out the next sentence directly after where Reeve having conversations with people offscreen. Maybe it fucked with the textbox character limits, but I personally think that without context, the already stressed translator probably just found it incomprehensible and binned the whole thing.
I mean, she's the only person on the planet willing to put up with his bullshit. It's either that, or he's living purely for building more machines, which frankly just makes him every other engineer I've known.
Vincent… Nope, I give up, Vincent's got nothing. He didn't even get any kind of 'You guys are the friends I made along the way who give me hope life is worth living again' arc; he found out what happened to Lucrecia, killed Hojo, avenged her, and hasn't found anything else in that time.
If you squint reeeaalllyyy hard and are willing to extrapolate from essentially nothing, you could make the case that Vincent would still feel duty bound to help for indirectly having a hand in creating Sephiroth. At the very least, if I were a supernatural shapeshifting gunslinger that just put a bullet through the head of my mortal enemy, I'd probably stick around to do the same thing to his dickhead kids, if only out of principle.
This is a leader speech, and he does it well. This, I think, rather than killing Sephiroth, is the climax of his character arc - killing Sephiroth will merely be the denouement. It's really good.
Absolutely agreed. I hate to beat the dead "rag on AC" horse again...but when you have an immaculate finish to a character arc like this, it just feels...regressive, I suppose to have some tacked on extra bit where Cloud is sad *again* and he needs to find a reason for living and gets support from his friends *again*, and fight some mysterious fey assholes *again* but this time uglier and written worse.
They fucked. I'm sorry to the people who might wish otherwise, but all those SFM and Blender videos are absolutely canon, even if SE is too cowardly to admit it. The only other option is something even more fucked up and depraved:
In the modern day, its a bizarre combination of waifu/husbandobating, for the people who will get viciously mad that they can no longer self-insert as their favorite character's ONE TRUE LOVE, an attempt to milk the WILL THEY OR WONT THEY factor even when the ansewr is 99% of the time that THEY WILL, and related to the first issue, shippers who will be viciously mad that their particular idea for a character's relationship didn't happen. You mention BLEACH, which is fitting because there's people to this day who curse Kubo* for not making Ichigo and and Rukia a couple (and instead making them one of the coolest platonic M/F duos in Shonen history (not that I'm BIASED or anything). Anyways, anyone looking for a a action shonen comic where the romance is very clearly an inevitable thing should read Dandadan. If anyone is wanting one where the M/F team is very clearly platonic and shown as so from the start should read Jigokuraku. They are both Excellent.
*
They should be on their hands and knees praising him for writing BLEACH Ch. 636 - 644, an amazing metaphor for the artistic process, and the health struggles Kubo faced while literally writing himself to death...again, not that I'm biased or anything....
The logistics of it are a bit… These characters are from literally across the entire planet. How did they coordinate meeting up and sneaking onto the airship in the middle of the night, like 'we go and pick them up one by one in the Highwind' was so obviously a more natural read, like - I'm thinking too hard about this, it doesn't matter.
Man, for a game that has so many characters who are introduced as being the coolest motherfuckers alive who don't give a shit about anything, it's genuinely a running theme that the game is making fun of these guys and knocking them down a peg every chance it gets. The game is very clear-eyed about people who try to use style and posture to make up for lacking genuine character or virtue or feelings and how it's ultimately either an empty affect or reflective of a dangerous personality, whether that's Cloud, Sephiroth, Vincent, or to a lesser extent even Reno and Rude.
Repeating myself, but It really was a genius move to make every single member of the party some kind of fucking oddball/wierdo/outcast. They do the same with FFIX, which is why I'd rate it as the only 3D FF with a party as good as VII's. That's a great observation about the continuing portrayal of affect as a shield/distraction against some inner darkness not just being present with Cloud, but with many of the antagonists as well. We're running out of room here on the subthemes board, but it's a good problem to have.
Then the ship alarms blare out as the ship once again receives the 'Cait Sith signal' that seems to interfere with its controls somehow, and the furry critter stirs to life and approaches the group.
No spoilers, but this will become relevant in a small way later when discussing some of the cut lines and the jankiness of how they patched over the intended Inspire bit.
I just always...assumed? that that's where Barret went while the party split up? As usual, the narrative focus remains fixed on Cloud for better or (absolutely this time) for worse. People don't want parent child bonding! They want lewd and degenerate hand holding!
I… don't think there was any hint of 'Aerith's soul is stuck and can't return to the Planet' before. This seems to be another mistranslation - as I alluded to before, I think the translator had the impression that Holy required someone's soul to reach the Planet, whereas in the original it's a much more abstract 'prayer' that must reach the Planet, and in this dialogue scene, it's the 'prayer' that is stuck.
It's a fortunate thing too. The idea of Aerith just stuck in the lifestream, like a pink-ribboned clog in a pipe isn't the most dignified mental image for your sacrificial heroine's final reward.
There's such a thing as overdoing these moments of surprise emotional reveals and this is it. The fuck is this airship, a hide-and-seek parlor? Was everyone in simultaneous separate hiding from one another? No, seriously! Barret and Cid were hiding from Cloud and Tifa, Yuffie was hiding from Barret and Cid, the airship crew was hiding from everyone as they came aboard, this is just getting silly.
I think that, even with all this newfangled visual fidelity and cinematic framing, FF7 is absolutely still operating on FFIV and FFVI Theatre Logic...where people boldly striding in from out of stage and boldly announcing "I'm HERE!" is just the way objective reality operates.
And there it is. Final Fantasy VII's ultimate monster, its most hateful antagonist, more loathsome than Sephiroth, Jenova, or Rufus Shinra could ever hope to be, has fallen.
Like any good mad scientist, he is survived by the consequences of his actions. First we kill the father; then, the son. Sephiroth exists as the wound this man dealt upon the world, the tragic aftermath of his evil.
I'm going to spoil Dirge of Cerberus now and none of you are going to stop me because no one alive could possibly care about Dirge of Cerberus spoilers - that game retcons specifically the Hojo boss fight, both by making it canon that Vincent participated in the fight and used his LB4 to transform into Chaos, and claiming that Hojo only injected himself with Jenova cells after seeing Vincent in this form. Because Chaos is actually the planet's Grim Reaper and psychopomp, whose job it is to reap the souls of all life on the planet to send it to the Lifestream when the Omega Weapon awakens, where it will fly off into space and find a new planet to seed with life.
This is important because Hojo survives the boss battle, despite his various Resident Evil transformations, and when Vincent and Yuffie are helping sweep Midgar for stragglers during the evacuation (they are canonically left out of confronting Sephiroth) Vincent is able to catch a glimpse of Hojo slumped over an active computer terminal before his body mysteriously vanishes. This is because Hojo uploaded himself to the Internet and into the brain of Weiss the Immaculate, the leader of the paramilitary prepper compound of superpowered psychopaths that live in the Shinra building's basement because SOLDIER is way easier to deal with in the day-to-day. Via Weiss, whose personality and goals are fully subsumed by him, Hojo uses Deepground and their elites the Tsviets to abduct people and physically throw them into the Lifestream to dissolve, because he wants to artificially awaken the Omega Weapon and enact total planetkill because idk science lol.
There's some shit about Vincent's father Grimoire Valentine in there I couldn't possibly be fucked to refresh myself on too but what's important is that Hojo chooses to cause problems on purpose not until to the very end of his life, but also past it, to the point that it becomes completely inexplicable why Weiss continues to oppose Vincent after his gay BDSM afficionado brother exorcises the greasy ghost by hugging him.
Cait Sith: "Shinra's… finished." Red: "Meteor's gonna fall in about… Seven more days. That's what Grandfather said." Cloud: "Red XIII… You want to see everyone in Cosmo Canyon again?" Red: "...Yes." Cloud: [Turning to Barret] "You want to see Marlene, right?" Barret: "Don't ask me that." Cloud: "We'll beat Sephiroth… Then, if we don't release the power of Holy in seven days… There won't be a Planet left to protect." Cloud: "If we can't beat Sephiroth… It's as good as death for us. We'll just go a few days sooner than the rest who'll die from Meteor." Barret: "Don't think you're gonna lose before ya even fight!" Cloud: "No! What I meant was… What are we all fighting for? I want us all to understand that. Save the Planet… for the future of the Planet… Sure, that's all fine. But really, is that how it is?" Cloud: "For me, this is a personal feud. I want to beat Sephiroth and settle my past. Saving the Planet just happens to be part of that." Cloud: "I've been thinking. I think we all are fighting for ourselves. For ourselves… And that someone… something… whatever it is, that's important to us. That's what we're fighting for. That's why we keep up this battle for the Planet." Barret: "You're right… It sounds cool sayin' it's to save the Planet. But I was the one who blew up that Mako reactor… Lookin' back on it now, I can see that wasn't the right way to do things. I made a lot of friends and innocent bystanders suffer…" Barret: …At first, it was revenge against Shinra. For attackin' my town. But now… Yeah. I'm fightin' for Marlene." Cloud: "For Marlene… For Marlene's future… Yeah… I guess I want to save the Planet for Marlene's sake…" Cloud: "Go and see her. Make sure you're right, and come back." [He turns to the others.] "All of you. Get off the ship and find your reasons for yourselves. I want you to make sure. Then I want you to come back." Cid: "Maybe ain't none of us'll come back. Meteor's gonna kill us all anyway. Let's just forget any of this useless struggling!" Cloud: "I know why I'm fighting. I'm fighting to save the Planet, and that's that. But besides that, there's something personal, too… A very personal memory that I have. What about you all? I want you all to find that something within yourselves. If you don't find it, then that's okay, too. You can't fight without a reason, right? So, I won't hold it against you if you don't come back."
Third: This is the moment where I truly bought that Cloud is the leader. Not just the guy thrusted into a position of authorship because he is very driven (by revenge), has a clear objective (kill Sephiroth), is stronger in a fight than anyone else, and also is kinda hot and everyone kind of has a crush on him. No, this Cloud here is the one who has finally got his shit together, he's come to terms with his trauma and grief, he's charismatic, he talks well, he understands people's hearts, he's gotten over his social anxiety. This is a leader speech, and he does it well. This, I think, rather than killing Sephiroth, is the climax of his character arc - killing Sephiroth will merely be the denouement. It's really good.
Yeah, this is the core problem with Advent Children - it puts in most of its legwork to reverse this just so it can get Cloud back into being the state of a brooding loner, and even if he's got Magic Cancer to explain it it's still kinda bothersome to go from this point where Cloud has overcome his inner demons and found an inner strength he always believed he'd been lacking, to "but........ i let you die........."
Like I get it from many standpoints but also from a fiction standpoint Advent Children relitigating Cloud's guilt over Aerith's death, lamenting his culpability in multiple ghostly visions of her, after FF7 itself pretty conclusively confronted his self-loathing and had him fully claiming his role as party leader is just taking the piss. Advent Children Complete even had to crank the dial with its added scenes by implying that Cloud's depression is primarily because Sephiroth's ghost won't stop fucking cyberbullying him via the aforementioned Magic Cancer.
Which again, on the one hand, from a certain point of view that makes perfect sense, but also Sephiroth malding for another two years about being defeated by Cloud as he effectively shoots off the post-Thessia Kai Leng email every day is ascendant comedy.
Red: "...Although she's not here, she left us a window of opportunity…" Cid: "We can't let it go on like this." Cloud: "...Aerith. She was smiling to the end. We can't just let it end with that smile, we have to do something. Let's all go together." Cloud: "Memories of Aerith… Although she should have returned to the Planet by now, something happened and now she's stuck… We've got to let go of Aerith's memory."
I… don't think there was any hint of 'Aerith's soul is stuck and can't return to the Planet' before. This seems to be another mistranslation - as I alluded to before, I think the translator had the impression that Holy required someone's soul to reach the Planet, whereas in the original it's a much more abstract 'prayer' that must reach the Planet, and in this dialogue scene, it's the 'prayer' that is stuck. It's a pretty significant divergence!
idk what the original intent was, but to me this more reads as Cloud just saying that the gang all have to make an effort to let go of their grief over Aerith's death so that she (really meaning all of them) can move on. Which is really just an extension of his development to the point where now he's the one giving salient emotional advice. The gang all left to say goodbye to their individual loved ones, now they collectively have to say goodbye to the one that's no longer here.
I know this is supposed to be a sample named Bad Rap or somesuch, but I like to imagine that Hojo can damage you by just playing some track from his absolutely dogshit soundcloud.
