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T \ * ~~BTB's Final Fantasy VII FAQ~~ * \ T
B /\ | | \/ B
T \ * ~Version 1.0~ * \ T
B /\ | | \/ B
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To get where you're going in a hurry, try Quick-Navigate! Just follow these
five easy steps:
1. Highlight the name of the section or subsection that you want to go to in
the table of contents (listed below).
2. Press ctrl + C.
3. Press ctrl + F.
4. Press ctrl + V.
5. Press Enter.
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--------------------
I. Basic Information
--------------------
A. Author's Note (Read This!)
B. Quick Info
C. Statistics & Probabilities
D. About Limit Breaks
E. The Materia System
F. "Lost-Forevers" (Definitely Read This!)
--------------
II. Characters
--------------
A. Cloud Strife
B. Barret Wallace
C. Tifa Lockhart
D. Aeris Gainsborough
E. Red XIII
F. Cait Sith
G. Cid Highwind
H. Yuffie Kisaragi
I. Vincent Valentine
----------------
III. Walkthrough
----------------
A. The Rebels of Midgar
B. Shinra Co.
C. The Eastern Continent
D. The Western Continent
E. Call of the Ancients
F. Adventures in the Frozen North
G. A World in Despair
H. Reunion & The Final Battles
---------------
IV. Side Quests
---------------
A. Shinra Mansion's Safe
B. Wutai
C. The Ancient Forest
D. The Gelnika
E. WEAPON Battles
-----------------
V. Little Secrets
-----------------
A. Turtle's Paradise Challenge
B. Shinra H.Q., Floor 63
C. The Sleeping Man
D. Enlisting Yuffie
E. Enlisting Vincent
F. Tifa's Piano
G. The Back Room
H. The Costa Del Sol Weapons Dealer
I. Mideel's White Chocobo
J. The Key to Sector Five
K. Lucrecia's Cave
L. Da-Chao Fire Cave
M. Benefits of the Huge Materia
N. Return to Shinra H.Q.
O. Cosmo Canyon Revisited (Again)
------------------
VI. Level-Up Spots
------------------
A. Mideel
B. The Final Cave (Marshy Section)
C. The Gelnika
---------------
VII. Date Night
---------------
A. The Factors
B. The Dates
---------------------
VIII. The Gold Saucer
---------------------
A. Cheap Arcade Games (in the Wonder Square)
B. Motorcycle Chase (in the Wonder Square)
C. Snowboard Game (in the Wonder Square)
D. Torpedo Attack (in the Wonder Square)
E. The Speed Square
F. The Chocobo Square
G. The Battle Square
H. Odds & Ends of the Gold Saucer
-------------------
IX. Chocobo Farmin'
-------------------
A. Catchin' 'Em
B. Feedin' 'Em
C. Trainin' 'Em
D. Breedin' 'Em
--------------------------
X. The Fort Condor Battles
--------------------------
A. The Basics
B. Your Troops
C. Strategy Session
D. The Battles of Fort Condor
--------------------
XI. Limit Break List
--------------------
------------------
XII. Materia Lists
------------------
A. Magic (Green) Materia
B. Support (Blue) Materia
C. Command (Yellow) Materia
D. Independent (Purple) Materia
E. Summon (Red) Materia
---------------------
XIII. Equipment Lists
---------------------
A. Weapons
B. Armor
C. Accessories
--------------
XIV. Item List
--------------
--------------
XV. Spell List
--------------
-----------------
XVI. Summons List
-----------------
----------------------
XVII. Enemy Skill List
----------------------
------------------
XVIII. Other Stuff
------------------
A. Bonus Cinema
B. Tropical Getaway
-------------------
XIX. Hints & Tricks
-------------------
A. All Lucky Sevens
B. Unlimited Rare Items
C. Multiple Support Materia Trick
D. Item Duplication
E. The 3rd Mystile
---------------------------
XX. Unconfirmed Info/Rumors
---------------------------
--------------------------------------------
Version Info, Credits, & Contact Information
--------------------------------------------
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\ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section I: Basic Information|/ /\ \
_\ /_ | ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ/ \Ż
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Thank you for choosing a BTB FAQ. From the name of the section, "Stuff You
Definitely Should Know Before Playing", a few things should be apparent. Here,
I shall convey useful information about the game itself which is not readily
apparent to the player. This is information that would greatly behoove the
player to know and does not reveal anything, either story-wise or anything that
may give you an unfair advantage while playing (for those of you who hate that
sort of thing). In short, it is highly recommended that you look this section
over before you begin playing.
The walkthrough is the "meat" of the guide, containing in-depth strategies,
directions, and so on. The appendices, or in other words all the parts
of the walkthrough that are not the walkthrough, contain supplemental
information that may be often referenced in the walkthrough. However, take
note that during the walkthrough, I generally assume that my reader possesses
a basic knowledge of the information found within the appendices, so please
keep that in mind when using the walkthrough.
Lastly, I must stress that in addition to providing help and information with
the game itself in the walkthrough, I also keep a very good running tab on
whatever plot may exist, often adding insight and commentary. This is meant to
assist you, the reader's understanding of not only the technical aspects of the
game, but also the finer details (namely the plot). Many people often say that
my various commentary makes the game more enjoyable for them, which is indeed my
intent. If you do not wish to partake of my commentary, I most certainly
understand, and hope you at least find the answers to your question in the
various non-plot-related parts of my FAQ. If, however, your distaste for my
writing style leads you to bitch about my "filler-laden" FAQ, then my advice to
you is quite simply to go fuck yourself and find something better to do with
your time.
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\ \/ / | O / /\ \
_\ /_ | B. Quick Info | Ż/ \Ż
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The following list is a quick run-off of general things to bear in mind about
this game:
---
Final Fantasy VII takes place in a 3D world. Sometimes, especially on the
more cluttered screens, it may be difficult to see where everything is. If
you press the select button, a few things will pop up to aid you, however.
A finger will hover above your head to show where you are (useful for
keeping track of yourself when your sight is obstructed by something).
Green arrows will indicate things that can take you across the screen you
are on. For instance, they may point to a vine that you can grab hold of,
or a ladder. Red arrows indicate passageways that will take you to another
screen.
---
While the All materia grants benefits in battle (see section I.E. for more
on materia), there may be times when you wish to forgo them. The R or L
buttons will toggle your "All" spells between affecting one or all
allies/enemies. Also note that All's benefits can also be applied outside
of battle, as well. For instance, with a Restore materia linked to an All
materia, access the Cure spell from the menu screen. As in battle, L or R
will toggle between the spell targeting one or all of your party.
---
As far as managing your materia is concerned, equipping and unequipping
them via the menu screen is usually adequate. However, there are easier
ways to manage large quantities of materia, which is via the "exchange"
option (visible on the materia screens). Here, you can exchange materia via
any character considered to be a part of your party at the time (note that
any character that has been removed from the group will have left his/her
materia behind in your inventory). You can exchange materia one-by-one, or
you may exchange the entire weapon's/armor's materia from one to another, by
clicking on the name of said weapons/armors (the source and destination).
They will be placed in exactly the order they came, with any overrun staying
with the original character. Finally, an entire character's materia
collection may be transferred from one to another, by clicking on the
character's names (again, any overrun will stay with the original wearer).
---
On the battlefield, your characters may battle from either the front or
back row. Characters in the back row do less damage with their physical
attacks, but take less damage from physical attacks in return. Note that
enemies also have a back row, but it may sometimes be difficult to tell. If
you are unsure, press select when over an enemy, and if said enemy is in the
back row, it will be noted next to the enemy's name on your information bar.
When no more enemies in the "front row" are left standing, the enemies in
the back row are moved up to the front (note that this rule does not apply
to your party). There is no additional penalty for when a back-row fighter
attacks another back-row fighter, and long-range weapons and attacks will do
equal damage from any distance.
---
All status enhancements and status ailments except for death (and two
others mentioned below) shall only last for the duration of the battle
(though some status enhancements will wear off during the course of longer
battles). These effects will also wear off if a character dies. Also note
that any row changes made in battle will also revert at the end of the
battle. Lastly, in addition to the "universally recognized" status
afflictions (poison, paralyzed, sleep, confusion, berserk, darkness, toad,
mini, stop, slow, haste, petrified, and death sentence), are two new status
ailments, both of which are exceptions to this rule and shall last until
whenever you happen to dispel them, or if the character afflicted with them
dies. Sadness is a condition that halves the progress of a character's
limit bar (see section I.D. for more on limit bars). Fury, conversely,
doubles the progress of the limit bar, but also handicaps one's Attack
Percentage. Still fury can be a beneficial condition if you're more
concerned with building up your limit bar than in connecting with physical
attacks. Aeris, for example can benefit greatly from becoming enraged,
especially at limit level four.
---
Getting hit in the back really hurts. Whenever the enemy gets the drop on
you and attacks from behind or catches you in a deadly pincer attack, watch
out, as their attacks are going to be more powerful. On the other hand,
this can also work to your advantage when you surround an enemy or happen to
catch them from behind. Note that when you are caught from behind, your
characters will not turn around until their either attack, or you tap the R
& L (run buttons) to turn them around to face their enemies.
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_\ /_ | ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ/ \Ż
\ \/ / | O / /\ \
_\ /_ | C. Statistics & Probabilities | Ż/ \Ż
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This is a subject that is mostly limited to RPG's, and deals with the random
probabilities of things happening in the game and the statistics that they are
based upon. Statistics are important in every RPG, and some other games as
well. Unfortunately for us, statistics are a far different thing in every game
we have ever played, and they can often be confusing. Below is listed every
statistic in the game, how we get it (and/or make it bigger), and what it does
(simple enough for ya?):
---
HP & MP are self-explanatory stats. They increase at each level up, and
are among the two most common stats that are affected by materia (mentioned
later in section I.E. of the FAQ). For this reason, even a character with a
low MP total can be brought up significantly (albeit usually at the expense
of stats like Strength and HP). HP, on the other hand, is one of the stats
that usually gets shafted through heavy materia usage, though the prevalence
of the HP Plus materia goes far in helping you to alleviate this problem,
and will later on help you to give serious HP boosts to your characters.
---
Strength refers to a character's natural strength, and is a factor in a
character's Attack, which in turn affects damage done by physical attacks.
Strength goes up with each level up, and may also be raised via the Power
Source item. Strength is one of those stats that is more written in stone
than the others are because there is not much you can do to raise it (though
a few scattered accessories will raise it a bit). Furthermore, materia will
do nothing for this stat except lower it.
---
Vitality is a character's natural resilience to physical attack, and is a
factor in his or her Defense rating. It goes up as a character levels up,
and can also be raised with the Guard Source item. Like Strength, there is
not much you can do to raise this stat (except locate an accessory or two,
one of which will actually pose a significant boost, but is regrettably rare
and will not surface until late in the game). Also like Strength, you'll
find that materia generally has a negative effect on your Vitality.
Luckily, the effects aren't nearly as bad as they are with Strength, and are
only present in the more potent magic materia.
---
Dexterity is a character's speed or agility. Faster characters attack
first in combat, and can get more attacks in over time. Dexterity goes up
with each level up, and it may also be raised with the Speed Source item.
Other than that, however, not much can be done to alter this stat, in one
direction or another. One accessory out there can give you a boost to your
Dexterity, and the Speed Plus materia and grant you large bonuses later on,
but that's about it.
---
Magic refers to a character's ability with magic, and has a direct affect
on a character's Magic Attack. Magic goes up with each level up, and it may
also be raised with the Magic Source item. Magic is like MP: there are a
gazillion ways you can go about jacking this stat up to ungodly high levels.
While there is an accessory that will give you a boost in this department,
the usual method for raising one's Magic stat is just to put on some
materia, almost all of which you'll find will raise this stat (usually at
the expense of HP and Strength, mind you). However, even though you have the
capability to take your worst magician and go far in increasing their
magical prowess... why would you want to?
---
Spirit means a character's resistance to magical attacks, and thus has an
impact on Magic Defense. This goes up at level-ups, and can be permanently
raised with the Mind Source item. Spirit, unlike Vitality, is a stat which
is damn near impossible to alter. There is one accessory which will give
you a boost in the Spirit department, and another which will grant you a
heavy bonus on it, though the latter is very rare and does not surface until
late in the game.
---
Luck is a quite common stat in RPG's. It goes up occasionally at level-
up, and can also be raised with the Luck Source item. For starters, you
should notice that the Luck stat should be pretty even straight across the
board with all of your characters. Secondly, it's pretty much going to stay
that way. Aside from one accessory which will give you a bonus to your
Luck, the only other way to alter it is with the Luck Plus materia, though
the Luck Plus materia can eventually be refined to offer a rather big bonus
to one's Luck. The exact role of the Luck stat is an enigma, but it is
known to have an effect on the frequency of critical attacks. Physical
attacks which strike critically do twice the normal amount of damage.
---
Attack plays a direct role in how much damage your character deals with a
physical attack. The factors that make up a character's Attack stat are
their Strength stat and also the equipped weapon.
---
Attack Percentage (also known as Hit Rate) is an indicator of how often
you can expect a character's physical attacks to hit their intended targets.
Usually, this statistic is very close to and often above 100% (to help
compensate for the target's Defense Percentage, mentioned below). Unlike
Attack, Attack Percentage is a direct result of your equipped weapon
---
Defense indicates how much damage one can expect a character to receive
from incoming physical attacks. Defense is a result of a character's
Vitality and equipped armor.
---
Defense Percentage (or Evade, as it is more commonly known) measures how
often a character is able to dodge incoming physical attack completely.
This is usually quite low, and is a result of whatever armor said character
has equipped.
---
Magic Attack indicates the level of potency a character will use magic,
either direct attack magic or curative magic, so the name is a bit
misleading. This statistic is derived from a character's Magic stat.
---
Magic Defense is a measure of how much damage taken from magical attacks
will be reduced by. This is a result of your Spirit stat and your equipped
armor, and can also further benefit from some of the game's more potent
materia.
---
Magic Defense Percentage (or Magic Evade) indicates how often your
character will be able to completely avoid a magical attack altogether.
This stat is usually extremely low, and is a result of the armor your
character is wearing.
---
Each character, as well as a breakdown of their particular statistics are
listed in section II. Of the FAQ. Each statistic will be listed as: Very
High/Good, High/Good, Average, Low/Poor, or Very Low/Very Poor.
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_\ /_ | ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ/ \Ż
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Limit breaks are a new feature incorporated in Final Fantasy VII (one that
actually was introduced somewhat in Final Fantasy VI). Basically, each
character in the game has their own unique, powerful "limit breaks", which may
(nay, must) be used in lieu of a normal attack when their "limit bar" fills up.
Every time your character takes damage from an enemy, the limit bar goes up a
little bit (meaning you can't kick your own ass and expect the bar to go up).
The more damage taken, the more the limit bar will fill up. The bar fills
rather slowly, but it carries over from battle to battle, meaning you can save
that kick-ass limit break for the next battle when you'll really need it. Do
watch your characters' damage intake, however, as when they die, their limit
bars will be depleted. On a separate note, when a character's limit bar fills
up, their "time bar" (which determines when their turn will take place) will
fill up immediately. However, you only get this effect once, meaning that you
can't use their turn to do something else and expect the time bar to shoot right
back up.
Each character, excepting Cait Sith and Vincent (and I'll mention them a bit
later) has four limit break "levels", with each "level" having two different
limit breaks, excepting the fourth and final level which will contain only that
character's ultimate level break. Each consecutive level has more powerful
limit breaks, but each level also will result in a vast increase in the amount
of damage that must be taken to bring the limit bar up. For instance, a
character set at limit level one will see their limit bar fill up much more
quickly than a character whose limit level is set at two. You can set your
character's limit level on the menu screen to whichever level you desire,
assuming you know at least one limit break in that level. When your character's
limit bar fills up, and your character happens to know both limit breaks for the
level he or she is on, you may choose between them The exception to this rule
is Tifa, another special case I'll mention later on.
Characters start the game with only one limit break to their name (the first
limit break on the first level, obviously). The rest must be somehow earned
throughout the game. The system is a fairly simple one, however. First of all,
to earn the second limit break on each level, you must use the first limit break
on that level approximately 8 times. After earning your second limit break for
each level, you may learn the first limit break for the next level up when the
character in question deals the killing blow to approximately 80 enemies.
Lastly, the fourth level limit breaks, or the "ultimate" limit breaks for each
character may not be learned through conventional means. You must hunt down the
item of the same name as their ultimate limit break, and then use it on them
(and this may only be done when the character in question has already learned
all of his or her other limit breaks). For more information on limit breaks in
general, each character's ultimate limit breaks, and references to other points
in the FAQ as to the locations of the ultimate limit breaks, refer to section
XI. of the FAQ.
Limit breaks have a lot going for them. They are generally some of the most
powerful attacks in the game, and this effect is magnified by the fact that they
generally have a very high critical hit rate (the excepting the special cases
Tifa, Vincent, and Cait Sith, for various reasons). Critical hits, as you
should know, do twice the normal amount of damage, and when you double an
already greatly magnified attack, expect to see some results. Unless otherwise
noted, all limit breaks deal physical damage rather than magical. Limit breaks
also all have the advantage of being long-range attacks.
Lastly, I must mention the special cases. Vincent, to begin with, has only
one limit break for each level. In his case, the requirement to use each limit
break 8 times to earn the next limit break is dropped, and his requirements are
solely to kill 80 enemies to attain the next level's limit break. The way his
limit breaks work are also a lot different. Rather than presenting themselves
as a single attack, Vincent's limit breaks instead transform him into a
powerful, uncontrollable creature, who will attack the opposition with a
specific set of given attacks. As an added bonus, when and if he is defeated in
these forms, he will simply revert back to normal rather than dying outright.
Refer to section XI. of the FAQ for more information on Vincent's individual
limit breaks. Next, Cait Sith. Cait Sith, like Vincent, has only one limit
break per level, but unlike the other characters, Cait Sith only has two limit
break levels. What this means is that all Cait Sith must do to attain his
second and final limit break is kill 80 enemies. Cait Sith is also the only
character that has no ultimate limit break. Lastly, Tifa has all of the normal
levels and amounts of limit breaks, but she does not use them separately.
Rather, she uses them all together as one big attack that gets bigger and bigger
with each consecutive limit break learned (though the number of attacks she will
utilize are still limited to the current limit break level she is set to). The
disadvantage to Tifa's attacks are that when you go to use them, the slots will
start spinning. There will be one slot for each limit break she has, and you
can stop each slot on either "hit", "miss", or "yeah". Yeah attacks do about
twice the damage of a hit, while missed attacks will not connect at all. For
more information on Tifa's individual limit breaks, refer to section XI. of the
FAQ. I must mention, however, that even though she uses all of the attacks at
once, she must still be set to the proper level to earn credit towards her
second limit break for that level (for instance, she must use her level two
limit break 8 times to earn the second limit break for that level as opposed to
using the level three limit break 8 times, even though the level two limit break
would be used in conjunction with it).
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\ \/ / | O / /\ \
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Materia is another system new to Final Fantasy VII. Materia, for all
practical purposes, is the heart of the game's battle system. Without materia,
your battle commands are pretty much limited to fight, item, and limit breaks.
Materia is equipped, just as weapons and armor are. However, materia is
"equipped" to "slots" in your characters' weapons and armor. Each weapon and
piece of armor in the game has a certain number of slots that materia may be
equipped to. In addition to this, the slots may either be "linked" or
"unlinked", and each weapon and piece of armor also has a different "growth
rate" for materia. These will both be explained momentarily, but first, on to
the basics of materia.
You see, materia, much like your characters, gain a type of experience,
called "ability points". Each materia retains its own ability points,
regardless of which character earns them, and may be transferred freely.
Ability points are never lost, but remain only with that materia, just as with
experience for your character. The character equipped with the materia must
also survive the battle for the ability points to be earned. In addition, the
piece of weaponry or armor also has an effect on ability points that are applied
to the materia in question. Specifically, this refers to the equipment's
"growth rate", as mentioned above. Some weapons and armor, for instance, have a
growth rate of two, meaning that the materia equipped to it will receive twice
the amount of ability points as you earn in battle. Some extremely rare pieces
even have a growth rate of three, which triples the ability points for equipped
materia. Conversely, some equipment has a growth rate of zero, meaning that
equipped materia will receive no ability points. However, the majority of the
game's equipment has a growth rate of one.
Anyways, when certain levels of mastery (in the form of ability points) are
earned, the materia "gains a level". These levels are represented by stars on
the materia's information screen. Each materia has a certain number of "levels"
that is can reach, and has a star for each level. As materia levels up, it will
generally convey greater benefits to the user. Furthermore, when a materia
reaches its final level and is considered "mastered", and a brand new materia of
the same type is "born" and placed in your inventory. "Born" materia are brand
new and have no ability points; mastered materia, having reached their ultimate
level of achievement, no longer gain ability points. As for the advantages
conveyed by the materia at higher levels, as well as the potential number of
levels for said materia, both are generally dependent on the type of materia you
are using.
And keep an eye out for them as you travel! The better half of your magic
materia and a few of your independent materia are purchased in shops (some
command materia is sold, as well, but if you play your cards right, you should
never have to buy any). Other than that, however, all of the game's materia are
found just lying around, and the vast majority are not in chests (they just lie
around in the open). As the game further progresses, they are hidden in less
and less conspicuous spots, so keep your eyes peeled. It is especially
important that you keep a vigilant watch out for materia because, as discussed
in section I.F. of the FAQ, a number of rare materia are also lost-forevers.
There are five types of materia, and each has different uses and
applications:
---
Magic materia is the first and generally most prevalent form of materia.
Magic materia is green, and will grant magic spells to the character who
equips it. At higher levels of mastery, more potent spells may be unlocked
from the materia. For instance, the Ice materia will grant the Ice spell to
the user at it's initial first level. When the materia levels up, however,
it will also grant the Ice 2 spell to that character (in addition to the Ice
spell). Magic materia will lower a character's Strength and HP when
equipped while it raises their MP and Magic stats. More potent magic
materia will also raise a character's Magic Defense stat at the expense of
Vitality. Magic materia will generally have three or four levels of
mastery, though some have five. Note that among those magic materia with
only three levels of mastery are single-spell materia that will not yield
their lone spell to the user until the second level of mastery has been
reached. Another note is that mastered magic materia will never convey any
further benefits than an identical magic materia that has reached the next
highest level before mastery. Magic materia are discussed in further detail
in section XII.A. of the FAQ. The spells they grant you, however, are
discussed in section XV. of the FAQ. Note that all magic materia, unless
otherwise noted, is compatible with the support materia, All.
---
Support materia is also a common form of materia, mainly because a certain
materia in the group (called All) is pretty much the single most prevalent
materia in the entire game. Support materia is blue in color, and does not
function on its own. Rather, it conveys its benefits to other materia via
"linked" slots in your weapons or armor. "Linked" slots are two materia
slots that are joined together, and are present in most weapons and armor.
"Unlinked" slots have nothing joining them together. For a support materia
to function, it must be placed in one of the linked slots next to another
materia. Linked slots have no effect on two joined materia if neither is a
support materia. Also, for obvious reasons, two support materia linked
together or support materia placed in unlinked materia slots will prove
quite worthless in battle. In addition, support materia has no effect on
independent materia (mentioned later). Anyways, using support materia is a
rather simple process. Simply "link" it to whichever materia you desire.
For instance, the All materia allows the spells of the magic materia it is
linked to to affect all enemies or all allies on screen rather than a lone
target. When you link an All materia to an Ice materia (which grants you
the Ice spell), for instance, you will now have the ability to cast Ice on
all of your enemies. Conversely, the Restore materia grants you the Cure
spell, and linking it to an All materia will give you a Cure spell that
affects all of your allies. On the negative side of things, support materia
is usually severely restricted in its uses. And oftentimes, when you find
yourself thinking "hey, that would kick so much ass if I linked this to
this!", it usually won't work. For more information on the limitations of
specific support materia, refer to section XII.B. of the FAQ. Anyhoo,
support materia will either have two or five levels of mastery. The lone
exception to this rule (isn't there always an exception?) is the Elemental
materia, which has four levels of mastery. For more information as to the
bonuses granted by specific support materia, refer to section XII.B. of the
FAQ. On a final note, support materia has no effect on a character's
statistics.
---
Command materia isn't as common as magic or support materia, but there are
still a number of them to be obtained. Command materia is yellow, and each
will grant a different command to your character in battle, such as "Steal"
or "Manipulate". At higher levels of mastery, the command will sometimes
"evolve" into a better command (command materia will only have two or three
levels, and only those with three levels will "evolve"). Steal, for
instance, will become Mug at level two. So, in the end, each command
materia will grant you only one command (the lone exception to this rule is
the Throw materia). Then there's the E. Skill materia, which is a very
special case in many ways. Anyways, command materia shares a
characteristic with magic materia in that mastered command materia will
never convey any further benefits than an identical command materia that has
reached the next highest level before mastery, so command materia that do
not "evolve" into a better attack, such as Manipulate or Sense, will garner
no benefits from advancing in level (likewise, "evolved" attacks will never
get any better than they already are). Command materia oftentimes will give
a small boost to a certain stat, but the gains are extremely minimal and are
more of a nice little bonus than anything. Specific command materia are
covered in detail in section XII.C. of the FAQ.
---
Independent materia are more common later in the game than in the earlier
parts. Independent materia are purple, and function a bit differently than
other materia. They will not give you attacks, commands, spells, et cetera.
Rather, independent materia will offer large statistical boosts or other
useful abilities to the user. For instance, the Long Range materia allows a
character wielding a short-range weapon to attack as if it were a long-range
one. Another example, the HP Plus materia offers an HP boost to the user.
Independent materia varies widely in the levels of mastery available,
ranging from two to five (though one special materia has only one). Any
independent materia with only two levels of mastery will see no benefits
gained at level-up, but all others will convey increased bonuses clear up
until mastery. For more information concerning the benefits conveyed by
specific independent materia, refer to section XII.D. of the FAQ. Lastly,
as mentioned above, independent materia is for obvious reasons non-
compatible with support materia.
---
Summon materia, like independent materia, is hard to come by earlier in
the game, and is generally much more prevalent later on. Summon materia is
like magic materia in a way, except that it offers your character a "summon"
attack that will call the materia's namesake to battle. The Shiva materia,
for instance, allows you to summon Shiva. Summons are generally extremely
powerful attacks that target all enemies, but take their tolls in high MP
costs, for the most part. They are ideal attack to use against large groups
of enemies, because they are not only powerful, but also will not lose any
damage to an All materia, as would be the case with most magical attacks.
But whipping out a summon on just one or two enemies is usually more or less
a flagrant waste of your MP. Also, all summon materia have five levels of
mastery. And, for each level, you can use said summon command an additional
time in a given battle (though you should find it quite rare that a single
summon attack will not quickly bring most normal battles to an end). Summon
materia also shares the statistical applications of magic materia (that is,
it will raise MP, Magic, and possibly Magic Defense at the expense of HP),
with the exception that they will not affect your Strength or Vitality
stats, thank God. Summon materia themselves are discussed in section XII.E.
of the FAQ, while the summon attacks are detailed in section XVI. of the
FAQ.
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_\ /_ | F. "Lost-Forevers" (Definitely Read This!) | Ż/ \Ż
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In most games, normally RPG's, there are an abundance of things to collect,
acquire, do, find, and see. While most of these can usually be done at your
leisure, this section is dedicated to helping you find certain things that can
no longer be done after a certain point within a game:
* The entirety of the events described in section VII. of the FAQ fall into
the category of lost-forevers. While not being actual tangible objects that
you can acquire, you still only get one shot at one of four possible
outcomes. This is determined through a series of events scattered
throughout the early game that are mostly one-shot deals in themselves.
* The Iron Bangles sold at various shops in Midgar are lost-forevers in a
sense, as after reaching section III.C. of the walkthrough, you will no
longer be able to purchase them.
* The All materia in the Sector Seven Slums is a lost-forever. You must
collect it before leaving the Sector Seven Slums.
* One of the flyers you need to find to win the Turtle's Paradise contest
(refer to section V.A. of the FAQ for more details) is a lost-forever. You
must find flyer #2 while at Shinra H.Q. If you miss it the first time
around, you've got one more chance to find it. Refer to section V.N. of the
FAQ for more on that.
* The Elemental materia that you receive from Mayor Domino (on the 62nd
floor of Shinra H.Q.) is a lost-forever. Basically, you have one chance to
get it, as mentioned in the walkthrough. Failing that, you will not receive
the materia.
* The All materia on the 63rd floor Shinra H.Q. is a lost-forever. The Star
Pendant and Four Slots armor found here are also lost-forevers, but may be
found elsewhere. At any rate, not only must you collect these during your
first trip to Shinra H.Q., you're also barred from making further attempts
to go for other items once you've collected, so you must grab the coupons
for the items you want on one trip. For more information, refer to section
V.B. of the FAQ.
* The E. Skill materia located on the 68th floor of Shinra H.Q. is another
lost-forever. You've gotta grab it before leaving.
* Though not neccissarily a lost-forever, there are only two Chocobo Lure
materia, and they do, in fact, come in handy later in the game. So, for the
love of God, don't sell the Goddamn thing. And if for some reason you sell
the first, don't sell the second one. Or ingore my advice, I don't care.
* The battles at Fort Condor are laden with lost-forevers. For more
information, refer to section X. of the FAQ, but of worthy mention are the
items of note that may be lost forever at Fort Condor: the Magic Comb, Peace
Ring, Megalixir, Vagyrisk Claw, Imperial Guard, Phoenix materia, and finally
one of the four Huge Materia. Some of these, namely the Magic Comb and
Super Ball, actually may be purchased later on, but so late that it's almost
pointless to buy them.
* The Shinra Beta armor is a lost-forever. You can steal as many as you
want from the Marines on the Shinra Boat, but only while you're still
aboard.
* The All materia and Wind Slash, both found on the Shinra Boat, are lost-
forevers. Note that if Yuffie has joined you, you will be unable to collect
the All materia until the party regroups. Also note that the Wind Slash
cannot be found until the party regroups, so don't go nuts looking for it
before then. Note that you may buy the Wind Slash later on in the game, but
far too late to be useful to you at that point. Anyways, you must collect
both before leaving the boat.
* The Ifrit materia is a lost-forever. You must collect it before leaving
the room where you battled Jenova-BIRTH.
* The Four Slots sold at Costa Del Sol are lost-forevers, as they will cease
being sold later in the game.
* The Wizard Staff at Mt. Corel is a lost-forever. You must get it during
one of your three possible falls off of the tracks. Note that the Star
Pendant, also found down here, is also a lost-forever, but can be located
elsewhere.
* The Parasol is a lost-forever that must be won from the Speed Square at
the Gold Saucer before going to the Temple of the Ancients (later in the
game).
* The Ramuh materia is a lost-forever. You must collect it before leaving
the jockey's lounge at the Gold Saucer.
* The Aqualung enemy skill is a lost-forever, as you may only collect it
during the first disc when you have access to the enemy who teaches it to
you. Also, it may be learned from a boss battle with Jenova LIFE, but that
too, is a one-time-only shot.
* Everything at the Gi Cave is a lost-forever. This includes the Added
Effect materia and the Black M-Phone. Get them before you leave. Although
the Black M-Phone may be purchased later on, it will be far too late for it
to be of any use.
* Tifa's Platinum Fist weapon is not a lost-forever, but will surface again
far too late in the game to be of any use. Get it from one of the
creepazoids at Nibelheim before leaving.
* The enemy skill Trine is a lost-forever which your have three chances to
learn. First, from the Materia Keeper at Mt. Nibel, secondly, from the
Pagoda of the Five Mighty Gods at Wutai, and lastly, from the Stilve at
Gaea's Cliff.
* The Yoshiyuki is a lost-forever. You must collect it from Rocket Town
before a certain trigger point in the game far later on (during Disc 2).
* The Shotguns sold at rocket Town are lost-forvers, as they will stop being
sold later in the game.
* The Wutai side quest is a lost-forever in itself. It is impossible to
complete past a certain point in the game, however, after examining masses
of reader feedback, it is my conclusion that this point is different in
different versions of the game. So, to be safe, I'd advise you to complete
the side quest as soon as it becomes available (this is when the game
programmers intended for you to do it, anyways, so it all should work out).
Granted, you may still travel to Wutai, three items received as a result of
it (the HP Absorb, MP absorb, and Leviathan materia) remain lost-forever.
* Everything at the Temple of the Ancients is a lost-forever. This list
includes: the Luck Plus materia, the Morph materia, the Bahamut materia, the
Princess Guard, Trident, and the Ribbon. Grab it all before you leave or
you can never get it! Also note that certain unique equipment that is
equipped can also be lost forever at the Temple of the Ancients. Refer to
section III.E. of the walkthrough for more specific information. On a final
note, though some of the things mentioned above can be bought later, again,
the opportunity will arise far too late to be worth your time.
* The Gigas Armlet, in a way, is a lost-forever. The game automatically
grants you one copy, but further copies may be stolen from the Gigas
creature at the Crater. However, you must steal all you want before you
leave.
* Everything at Gaea's Cliff is a lost-forever, including the Megalixir,
Fire Armlet, and the Javelin. The Enahance Sword is here, too, but you can
buy more later.
* The MP Turbo and Neo-Bahamut materia are both lost-forevers that you must
collect before leaving the Crater, as are the Kaiser Knuckle and the Poison
Ring.
* The Elemental materia at Nibelheim is a lost-forever. You must collect it
during section III.G. of the walkthrough before traveling to Mideel. For
more on this, refer to section V.F. of the FAQ.
* All four Huge Materia you will encounter during your main-line quest are
lost-forevers. Basically, for each Huge Materia, you'll get a chance to
save it. Failing your mission, you lose the Huge Materia. An interesting
collilquary to this rule is that you will always receive the Huge Materia in
the same order, regardless of which missions (if any) you fail to save a
particular huge materia. That order is: green, yellow, red, blue. In
short, if you miss one huge materia, you miss out on the blue one. If you
miss two, it's blue and red, etc. For more on the benefits conveyed by the
Huge Materia, refer to section V.M. of the FAQ.
* The Warrior Bangle is a lost-forever that must be stolen from the Eagle
Gun during your fight with it.
* The Shinra Alpha, Battle Trumpet, Scimitar, and Leviathan Scales are all
lost-forevers that must be collected before leaving the Underwater Reactor
at Junon. Furthermore, the Leviathan Scales must be collected in order to
obtain two other items, both of which are lost-forevers in this respect.
Also note that the Shinra Alpha is not actually found, but rather stolen
from the Underwater MP enemy hanging around the Underwater Reactor.
* Both of the items inside Da-Chao Fire Cave, the Steal as Well materia and
the Oritsuru, are both lost-forevers that can only be reached if you managed
to collect the previously-mentioned Leviathan Scales.
* The Zeidrich is a lost-forever that can be stolen from Rude during your
battle with him at Rocket Town.
* The Zeidrich and the Touph Ring are both lost-forevers that can be stolen
from Rude and Reno during an optional battle at the Gelnika (the side quest
detailed in section IV.C. of the FAQ). While the side quest itself is not a
lost-forever, the battle with the Turks there is. Reno and Rude will not
appear here if you challenged them and Elena to another optional battle (at
Midgar). Seeing as that optional battle is a lost-forever of and within
itself, and also contains stealable lost-forevers, it is probably in your
best interests to complete the Gelnika side quest as soon as it becomes
available to you.
* The Zeidrich, Minerva Band, and Touph Ring are all lost-forevers that can
only be stolen from Rude, Elena, and Reno (respectively) during an optional
battle in Midgar (later in the game). See also the optional fight with the
Turks (above), in which the Minerva Band, Zeidrich, and Touph Ring may be
stolen.
* The Bahamut ZERO materia is a lost-forever that hinges on your ability to
collect the three prerequisite items to obtain it (all three of which are
lost-forevers in their own respect). Those three items are the Bahamut
materia, the Neo Bahamut materia, and one of the four Huge Materia.
* The Aegis Bracelet, Mystile, Starlight Phone, and Max Ray are all lost-
forevers that you must grab while in Midgar later on in the game. You must
grab them all before leaving.
* The Pile Banger, Master Fist, Glow Lance, and HP Shout are all lost-
forevers that you can only grab during your optional return trip to Shinra
H.Q. For more on this, refer to section V.N. of the FAQ.
* The Missing Score, Barret's ultimate weapon, is a lost-forever you'll find
while climbing a tower at Midgar (later in the game). You must collect it
before leaving Midgar, and while it is easy to notice, it won't appear
unless Barret is with you.
* While the game grants you one copy of the Reflect Ring, future copies may
be stolen from Ultimate WEAPON for as long as it is alive. Once it dies,
you lose that chance.
* The legendary 3rd Mystile is a lost-forever which can be obtained only by
exploiting a glitch in the game detailed in section XIX.E. of the FAQ. But,
you only have one shot at it, and you must take that shot when the party
splits up at the Final Cave.
* Depending on your outlook, the Master Magic, Master Command, and Master
Summon materia are all lost-forevers. While the game can almost assure you
one copy of each, subsequent copies are completely reliant on the fact that
you have managed to not only hunt down copies of all of the other materia
corresponding to their color (many of which are lost-forevers in their own
respect), but also have retained the huge materia in question, to boot (also
lost-forevers).
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B /\ | II. Characters | \/ B
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_\ /_ | A. Cloud Strife | Ż/ \Ż
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* HP----------Average
* Strength----Very High
* Vitality----High
* Dexterity---Average
* MP----------High
* Magic-------High
* Spirit------Average
* Luck--------Average
Our spikey-headed hero is looked upon by the others as the unofficial team
captain for a reason. And it sure as hell isn't for his leadership skills,
charming personality, or sanity (all of which he completely lacks). It's
because he kicks ass. And that's a good thing, given that you are never allowed
to get him out of the traveling party. For starters, Cloud is the strongest
member of the group, and his magical skills are second only to those of Aeris
and Cait Sith, which is a winning combination already. Add to that the HP and
Vitality to hold his own in a battle, and top it off with some of the game's
most damaging limit breaks (including, of course, the infamous Omnislash), and
you have pretty much the best character in the game on your hands. As an added
bonus, realize that all of these statistics are going to be amplified by the
fact that since Cloud is never allowed to leave the group, he is usually going
to be a few levels ahead of everybody else. And for God's sakes, look at the
size of that Goddamn sword! You think he's compensating for something?
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_\ /_ | B. Barret Wallace | Ż/ \Ż
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* HP----------Very High
* Strength----High
* Vitality----Very High
* Dexterity---Very Low
* MP----------Very Low
* Magic-------Very Low
* Spirit------Low
* Luck--------Average
Barret is the founder of the rebel group known as AVALANCHE, which opposes
the Shinra Corporation at all costs. He is a big, angry black man with an arm
that has been surgically replaced with a gun and a personality that is conducive
to him often firing that gun at things, usually at whatever makes the mistake of
being anywhere near him when he feels like killing something. His stats tend to
skew in a very extreme direction, making him an ideal fighter, but not so much
of a non-fighter. His Strength is solid, and his extremely high HP and Vitality
ratings make him a walking tank, a fact which is amplified by the wide selection
of long-range weapons for him, meaning you can significantly increase his
durability by sticking him in the back row. On the negative side of things,
Barret isn't too fond of things that don't involve shooting someone, and this is
reflected by his Magic and MP ratings, both of which are notably the lowest in
the game. You also can't expect too much maneuverability from a guy whose limbs
are bigger than most other people's bodies, so don't be surprised at the rock-
bottom Dexterity score, either. And lastly, his limit breaks in the early game
are passable, but are trumped by those of the other characters. They do get
better later in the game, however, with limits like Satellite Beam, Anger Max,
and the doomsday blast known as Catastrophe.
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_\ /_ | C. Tifa Lockhart | Ż/ \Ż
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* HP----------Low
* Strength----High
* Vitality----Low
* Dexterity---High
* MP----------Average
* Magic-------Low
* Spirit------Average
* Luck--------Average
Cloud's childhood friend and every teenage boy's wet dream, Tifa is just the
hottest thing on two very long, voluptuous legs. She's a sweet person, but the
makers of the game spent far more time making her breasts big than they did in
trying to create a personality for her. She kicks a lot more ass than you'd
expect from a girl in a skirt shorter than a quick sneeze, and after maybe half
an hour or so of staring at her, you will eventually find that she does, in
fact, have fists, and is rather fond of hitting things with them. She's got the
Strength to match Barret's, and is one of the game's speedier characters to boot
(insert your own dirty joke here). However, unlike Barret, she suffers in the
HP and Vitality departments, and things are just made worse by the fact that
Tifa is ideally a fighter and therefore should be placed on the front lines.
Her limit breaks are a bit of a wildcard, as well (see section I.D. for more
information on Tifa's limit breaks). But bearing in mind that the full damage
potential for Tifa's ultimate combo at any given point in the game is as high if
not higher than the other limit breaks of the day, a skilled player should be
able to utilize Tifa's ultimate combo with excellent results. The only downside
is that each successive limit break becomes increasingly difficult to use to its
fullest extent.
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\ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section II: Characters|/ /\ \
_\ /_ | ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ/ \Ż
\ \/ / | O / /\ \
_\ /_ | D. Aeris Gainsborough | Ż/ \Ż
\ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \
_\ /_________________________ | Ż/ \Ż
\ \/ /|Section II: Characters|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \
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* HP----------Very Low
* Strength----Very Low
* Vitality----Low
* Dexterity---Low
* MP----------Very High
* Magic-------Very High
* Spirit------High
* Luck--------Average
The sweet, innocent, helpless flower girl from the slums with a very special
characteristic, which you will discover not too long after meeting her. She's
just the sweetest, nicest, cutest thing you'll ever meet, which naturally means
that bad guys and villains really hate her. Her stats, like Barret's, tend to
fall into an extreme category. She is probably the best character you can hand
your materia to and see amazing results, as she boasts the highest MP and Magic
stats around. On that same token, don't be expecting her to do much damage with
that bonk branch of hers, and you'll find that it's also not too difficult for
her to get her frail little ass beaten in battle, especially given that you've
likely gone and piled her up with materia, effectively worsening these stats.
At the very least you can stick her in the back row and hope she doesn't get
wailed on too badly. Another good point is her strong Spirit, notably the best
in the game, which at least cuts down damage intake in the magical department.
Plus, there's also Aeris's limit breaks... They all are defensive-type limit
breaks, which can be very beneficial to the party but are desperately lacking in
the field of direct damage. Her more advanced limit breaks kick an ungodly
amount of ass, but on that same note are severely constrained by Aeris's single
most detrimental attribute, which will rear its ugly head about halfway through
the game. Read all about it in section III.E. of the FAQ, and don't say you
weren't warned.
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\ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section II: Characters|/ /\ \
_\ /_ | ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ/ \Ż
\ \/ / | O / /\ \
_\ /_ | E. Red XIII | Ż/ \Ż
\ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \
_\ /_________________________ | Ż/ \Ż
\ \/ /|Section II: Characters|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \
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* HP----------High
* Strength----High
* Vitality----Average
* Dexterity---Very High
* MP----------Average
* Magic-------High
* Spirit------Low
* Luck--------Average
It walks, it talks, it makes various wise and scholarly comments. Calm,
quiet, peaceful, and reserved, and is also what appears to be some kind of a
dog, which makes the previous statements stand out a bit more, I suppose.
Granted, you eventually discover Red XIII's real name, but you prefer to instead
still call him by the repulsive name granted to him by the asswipe that
kidnapped him and performed various scientific experiments on him.
Statistically speaking, Red XIII has a lot going for him. He's a solid fighter
with notably good magical abilities, to boot. In addition to that, he's got a
good HP base, giving him the resources to function effectively as either a
fighter or a magician, though preferably some sort of happy medium between them.
And as a final bonus, Red XIII is the speediest bastard in the whole game. The
only possible flaw Red XIII possesses is his limit breaks. Early in the game,
Red XIII's limit breaks are about as good as those of the other characters.
However, later in the game, they really begin to lose something to the more
powerful limit breaks that begin to surface around him, culminating with his
lackluster ultimate limit break, Cosmo Memory.
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\ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section II: Characters|/ /\ \
_\ /_ | ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ/ \Ż
\ \/ / | O / /\ \
_\ /_ | F. Cait Sith | Ż/ \Ż
\ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \
_\ /_________________________ | Ż/ \Ż
\ \/ /|Section II: Characters|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \
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* HP----------Very High
* Strength----Low
* Vitality----Very Low
* Dexterity---Low
* MP----------Average
* Magic-------Very High
* Spirit------Average
* Luck--------Average
No, you're not hallucinating. It's a cat riding a giant stuffed animal. And
nobody else on the team apparently sees anything even remotely strange or
unusual about this. Cait Sith claims to be a fortune-telling device, but you
can only expect so much psychic ability from someone that's 90% stuffing. And
he doesn't make up for it with a good personality, either. Even for a house
pet, Cait Sith is Goddamn stupid. He is, however, the best magic user you've
got besides Aeris, clocking in with an extremely high Magic rating. To make
things interesting, he also has a lot of HP to back that magic prowess up with.
Granted on the negative side of things, he doesn't have very much Vitality to go
will all that HP. He's not much of a fighter, but that shouldn't really matter,
as you'll probably want to put him in the back and load him up with materia,
anyways. But then, there's Cait Sith's limit breaks. He's only got two of
them, and both are very high-risk attacks. If you know what you're doing, they
can prove useful even late into the game, and then even have the advantage of
being low-level limit breaks (thus they become available for use far more often
than the higher-level limit breaks). But damage-wise, Cait Sith's limit breaks
really can't hold a candle to any of the more powerful level three or four limit
breaks, let alone doomsday attacks like Omnislash, Catastrophe, and Highwind.
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\ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section II: Characters|/ /\ \
_\ /_ | ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ/ \Ż
\ \/ / | O / /\ \
_\ /_ | G. Cid Highwind | Ż/ \Ż
\ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \
_\ /_________________________ | Ż/ \Ż
\ \/ /|Section II: Characters|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \
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* HP----------High
* Strength----Average
* Vitality----High
* Dexterity---Very Low
* MP----------Low
* Magic-------Average
* Spirit------Average
* Luck--------Average
A grizzled, hardened pilot with a bad attitude and a mouth that makes even
Barret blush, Cid (referred to by everyone else as "Captain") was slated to be
the first man in space, but an accident prevented his dream from coming true,
and the Shinra has been denying him the chance ever since. And he's pissed,
Goddammit. He's a decent fighter and has some magical skills, making him an
effective character in either role. He's also got a healthy supply of HP and
Vitality to see him through the trials ahead. Aside from that, Cid's more or
less a pretty average character, with no real weaknesses except that he has
grown very slow with age (and I guess the 100+ cigarettes he consumes on average
every day aren't helping too much, either). His limit breaks also stand out as
some of the most damaging ones available throughout the entire game, clear until
the end when he picks up the Armageddon blast called Highwind.
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\ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section II: Characters|/ /\ \
_\ /_ | ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ/ \Ż
\ \/ / | O / /\ \
_\ /_ | H. Yuffie Kisaragi | Ż/ \Ż
\ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \
_\ /_________________________ | Ż/ \Ż
\ \/ /|Section II: Characters|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \
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* HP----------Low
* Strength----Average
* Vitality----Low
* Dexterity---High
* MP----------Low
* Magic-------Average
* Spirit------Low
* Luck--------Average
A perky, though somewhat brash teenage girl, Yuffie also happens to be a
member of a distant clan of ninja. Of course, the only ninja-related skill she
appears to have really mastered is the art of theft. Silent and shadowy she
ain't, instead preferring to shoot off her mouth at any given opportunity. Like
Cid, she has decent skills in both the fields of Strength and Magic, making her
generally effective as both a warrior and a magician. She's also really fast,
which fits well with the fact that she is a ninja. On the downside of things,
she is one of the more fragile members of the party, with low HP and Vitality
ratings, but this problem can be somewhat lessened by the fact that you can keep
her in the back row (all of Yuffie's weapons are long-range). She's got solid
limit breaks throughout the early and late game, but it sort of saddens me to
see it all fall apart with her ultimate limit break, All Creation, which proves
to be one of the weakest ultimate limit breaks in the game (right up there with
Red XIII's Cosmo Memory). By the way, Yuffie is one of the game's hidden
characters, and will not join up with you one her own. For more information on
how to get Yuffie to join you, refer to section V.D. of the FAQ.
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\ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section II: Characters|/ /\ \
_\ /_ | ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ/ \Ż
\ \/ / | O / /\ \
_\ /_ | I. Vincent Valentine | Ż/ \Ż
\ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \
_\ /_________________________ | Ż/ \Ż
\ \/ /|Section II: Characters|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \
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* HP----------Low
* Strength----Low
* Vitality----Low
* Dexterity---Low
* MP----------High
* Magic-------Average
* Spirit------Average
* Luck--------Average
A mysterious man with an even more mysterious past, the only apparent thing
about Vincent is that he is one of the creepiest people you've ever met.
Despite his looks, he is actually rather intelligent, and has learned and
experienced much through his past. At times, it seems that he and Red XIII are
the only two on the team with any common sense at all, which is rather sad given
that both of them are biological test subjects. Vincent's stats are actually
rather unimpressive. He is a poor fighter with low HP and Vitality ratings and
really nothing to redeem himself except for a mediocre Magic rating and a vast
array of surprisingly accurate long-range weapons (which, used in conjunction
with the Deathblow materia can make up for his poor fighting ability). Given
his poor fighting ability and long-range weapons, Vincent is first and foremost
a prime candidate for the back row. Secondly, his true strength lies in his
limit breaks. Granted, Vincent's limit breaks are a bit unpredictable (as are
just about any transformation brought about as a result of scientific
experimentation), but they generally result in a massive increase to Vincent's
overall offensive and defensive capabilities. The downside is that you lose
control over him when he transforms. For more information on Vincent's limit
breaks, refer to section I.D. of the FAQ, and to learn how to make Vincent a
part of your team, check out section V.E. of the FAQ.
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B /\ | ~III~ ~III~ | \/ B
T \ * * \ T
B /\ | III. Walkthrough | \/ B
T \ * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * \ T
B /\ | ~III~ ~III~ | \/ B
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\ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section III: Walkthrough|/ /\ \
_\ /_ | ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ/ \Ż
\ \/ / | O / /\ \
_\ /_ | A. The Rebels of Midgar | Ż/ \Ż
\ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \
_\ /___________________________ | Ż/ \Ż
\ \/ /|Section III: Walkthrough|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Mako Reactor #1
The game begins with a lovely CG movie sequence. A flower girl walks out of
a dark alley into a busy street. The camera zooms out, further and further, to
reveal the large megalopolis surrounding her. This is the city of Midgar.
"Final Fantasy VII" flashes on the screen, and then the camera begins to zoom in
again, this time on a rapidly approaching train. It reaches its destination and
slows to a stop. Several people jump off the train and disable the guards
standing around. One of the people, a big black man with a gun for an arm,
motions for the spikey-haired fellow in the back to follow him. Then, the rest
of the group takes off into the distance while you take control of the spikey-
haired one. You don't get a name for now; he is described simply as Ex-SOLDIER.
When you try to move, a fight will begin with two of the guards there.
This fight is ridiculously easy, and serves mainly to get you acclimated to
the game's battle system. Expect all fights on this mission to reflect the ease
of this fight. Your character has the Bolt and Ice spells, but for the moment
they serve as little more than more spectacular ways to kill your enemies in a
single hit. Actually, I take that back. One enemy here that you can't kill in
a single hit is the Sweeper, which you'll meet a little later. Of course, your
magic will make short work of them.
After the fight, you might want to examine all three of the fallen soldiers
(the ones that your comrades knocked out earlier). Each is carrying a Potion
and, from the looks of things, they won't be needing them. Head around the bend
ahead of you and meet up with the rest of the group. The group is a small bunch
of rebels calling themselves AVALANCHE. You are ex-member of an elite group
known as SOLDIER. You introduce yourself as Cloud. When everyone else beings
to introduce themselves, you coldly stop them, saying that you don't care.
You're here for the mission and then you're gone. So you're a mercenary now.
Then, the big black guy shows back up (he's their leader). He voices his
distrust in Cloud (the ex-SOLDIER), and then takes off into the building.
Follow the group into the building (heading right at the fork, then going up and
finally heading left to the exit).
You enter a catwalk suspended high above a deep abyss below. Head out onto
the catwalk until it forks. Ahead of you, you'll see the fat guy in the group
(named Wedge) standing guard at the exit. He would continue on with the rest of
you guys, but he has a stick of butter that he needs to eat, so the rest of the
group heads up along the catwalk and into what appears to be a gigantic reactor
of sorts. Head on inside and talk with the rest of the group. The big black
man begins his tantrum. He whines about how the evil Shinra corporation is
sucking the life out of the Earth (called "mako") with these reactors. Your
emotionally detached response displeases him for some reason, and he joins you.
Meet Barret.
When he joins you, by the way, you would be advised to enter the menu screen
and move Barret to the back row to take advantage of his long-range weapon.
Barret is almost as strong as Cloud, but not quite. In addition to the
Sweepers, it will also take Barret more than one hit to dispatch the enemy
known as Grunts. On the positive side of things, he can hit all the stuff in
the back row for maximum damage, so use this knowledge to your benefit.
Anyways, talk to the other two members, Biggs and Jesse. They'll open up the
doors ahead of you and lead you to a large room. If you head all the way to the
bottom-right corner, you'll discover a chest with some Phoenix Down in it. The
door to the elevator is just ahead of you. You'll step inside the elevator and
descend into the reactor, Barret whining at you non-stop the whole way down
(this guy really needs to learn how to shut up once in a while, don't you
think?) You exit in this gigantic room atop a huge structure. A set of stairs
spirals around the structure, and will take you to the bottom. The door to the
next room is directly in front of those stairs. You'll continue along a very
straightforward path from there until you reach a save point. If you've ever
played a Final Fantasy game before, you should be familiar with these things.
You shouldn't have to rest up, but you may want to go ahead and save. That
being done, continue along the path towards the reactor's core.
As you step along, you should notice a Restore materia along the path. It's
big, shiny, and obvious, but you'll still have to stop and pick it up or else
pass it by. Nab it, but realize that all of the other materia in this game
isn't quite this obvious. Then again, this couldn't be more obvious if it had a
giant flashing neon sign that said "free materia" pointed at it. Anyways, step
up to the core and Barret will ask you to plant the bomb. Cloud has some sort
of weird memory lapse, but then continues to set the bomb as if nothing out of
the ordinary had just happened. Then the timer starts. But, don't worry- you
get more than enough time. But, it does count down during battles, so don't
dawdle.
The Guard Scorpion arrives. If you've ever battled Mist (Final Fantasy
II/IV) or Whelk (Final Fantasy III/VI), you should know exactly what you're up
against. Basically, it's a stronger enemy that you are free to battle for
awhile. However, at certain times during the fight, the Guard Scorpion will
raise its tail into the air. Do not attack it at this time unless you would
like to receive a big can of Whup-Ass. Other than it's retaliation in that
mode, Tail Laser, which'll do big damage to both of your characters, the Guard
Scorpion basically just has a couple of moderately powerful single-person
attacks. Just keep your HP up (with all those Potions in your inventory) and
you'll be fine. And since you have nothing better to do but wait when it's tail
is up, that makes an excellent time to use your Potions. Anyways, Barret can't
do much else besides attack, but Cloud's Bolt spell will take a nice chunk out
of the Guard Scorpion. Your limit breaks also make excellent attacks when
applicable. Win the fight, and you get the Assault Gun for Barret, which should
be immediately equipped. Now get the hell out of here.
As you crawl back up the stairs, stop to help Jesse, who's foot has been
caught in the grating. Whether or not you want to help her is moot, because
she's the only person that can get you past the security doors on the level
above. Continue out of the reactor the same way you came back to where Wedge
was standing (you know, the fatass?) Then exit through that door. Outside the
reactor, Barret commands the team to split up, and that you'll all meet at the
train station. You should exit the screen via the only exit (press Select if
you can't see it).
You emerge on the city streets. The flower girl (you know, the one you saw
in the opening sequence), approaches you and asks you what's going on. This
seemingly meaningless conversation actually will have some degree of effect on
the game later, however (refer to section VII.A. of the FAQ for more
information.) You've been warned. Following that conversation, head south
through the city streets. If you've got good eyes, you'll spot a Potion lying
on the ground on the screen below this one. Yup. As advanced as the Final
Fantasy series is, your characters have still yet to adapt the "Don't Drink
Things you Find Lying in the Middle of the Street" trait yet. For God's sakes,
I know hobos with more common sense than that. On the next screen down, you're
approached by a couple of soldiers. You can either fight or run, it doesn't
matter really, because more lemmings, I mean, soldiers will just come in to
replace the ones you kill. You eventually find yourself surrounded by things
you could easily kill with one swipe of your huge-ass blade. Nope. You opt for
the daring escape, instead. In another dramatic movie sequence (not a full CG
movie sequence this time, but one of those cutscenes where your characters still
look like claymation action figures), Cloud hops off of the bridge onto the
moving train below, and the disappears with it into the tunnel.
The scene cuts to the inside of the train, where Barret and the rest of the
team wonder what could have happened to you. That's when Cloud busts in through
the door from atop the train. Barret gets pissed off at you (you'll soon learn
that it doesn't take too much to piss Barret off). And then the team heads
towards the front of the train (with Jesse stopping to wipe your face clean
before she leaves). In the front of the train, Barret talks to you some more.
This time, they discuss Midgar. Midgar is a gigantic, round city that is
divided into eight sectors that closely resemble slices of a pizza (the word
"pizza" is actually used in reference to Midgar several times throughout the
game. Mmm... pizza...). Furthermore, the majority of the city is built on a
humongous plate that sits high above the ground (this would be the "pizza" the
game references). The plate, like the city, is divided into eight sections. I
know the idea of a floating city sounds really cool (actually, it doesn't
necessarily "float", as you'll find out here in a minute), but you really never
get to visit it. Nope. Because you spend all your time at Midgar underneath
the plate, where there's somewhat of a separate, scummier city that makes Harlem
seem like Beverly Hills. I mean, really. What can you expect the land value to
be for a polluted hellhole built underneath a Goddamn floating city? This is
one of the things Barret takes offense to, actually. For once, you can kind of
understand why he's angry. Because he has to live in said hellhole. Cloud asks
why everyone doesn't move onto the plate, but that's sorta like saying "why
doesn't everyone have a million dollars?", no matter what kind of misguided
response Barret gives you.
Anyways, you can talk to the rest of the team now (and the greasy hobo who
lives in the back of the car), but the person you have to talk to to advance in
the game is Jesse, who's standing at the front of the car. As you might have
guessed, until you talk to her, this train is never going to get to where it's
going for some odd reason. Anyways, Jesse shows you the computer screen that
she's looking at, which shows you a cool little diagram of Midgar. It then
shows you the course that the train is on. You were on the plate a minute ago,
and now the train is taking you down below to the slums. The track spirals
around a gigantic pillar, one of the eight total pillars that hold the plate up
in the air (I told you it didn't float). And when I say gigantic, I mean it.
The pillar is a tower unto itself. Anyways, at about this point in the
conversation, you pass through a security checkpoint. Since this is the future,
the lights just flash red for a few seconds, some mysterious force scans the
ID's of everyone in the train, and then everything goes back to normal. Jesse
tells you that you guys are all, obviously, using fake ID's. She then asks you
a question, and your response is another seemingly harmless one that will have
some sort of impact on the game later (again, see section VII.A. of the FAQ for
more details).
Anyways, the train comes to a stop at a train station in Sector Seven.
Welcome to the Sector Seven Slums.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: The Sector Seven Slums
The team departs the train and everyone heads off to the left (towards the
slums). You'll want to follow them. On the next screen to the left, there is a
save point at the top of the screen that you may wish to use. There's also a
guy standing next to it, and if you talk to him, he'll point at the gigantically
obvious structure in front of you. The camera will zoom out, and give you a
pretty good idea of just how big the pillar is (that is, the pillar that holds
the plate up). At the bottom of the screen is the path to Sector Six, but it's
blocked by a couple of soldiers. You know, the ones you can kill really easily
if they try and attack you? Well, these ones just prefer making snide remarks,
so there's really not much you can do with them at the moment. Exit the screen
to the left and enter the slums.
Now, when I say slums, I mean it. Look at this place. It's horrible. I
know hobos with a higher standard of living than this. Houses are constructed
out of spare machinery parts and topped with sheet metal, for God's sakes (OK,
maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but it gets worse later on). And as if that
wasn't scummy enough, there's a bar you'll be wanting to go to. It's at the
bottom of the screen and shouldn't be too hard to spot, because you'll see
Barret running inside and throwing everybody out (I guess nobody's going to
argue with a man who's hand is a gigantic gun). Barret then calmly waits
outside for you to show up.
The bar is called "Tifa's Seventh Heaven", and is about as run-down as
everything else around here. Take note of the sign in the corner that says
"Texas", a state which obviously does not exist in this game (something I've
always found amusing, anyways). At any rate, walk inside the bar, and you are
greeted by the bar's owner, Tifa, who congratulates you on a job well-done. If
you bought a flower from the flower girl earlier, you've now got the option to
give it away. This is another of those decisions that has an effect on the game
later, as mentioned in section VII.A. of the FAQ. After a brief chitchat, Cloud
says that he just wants to get his money so that he can leave. Try to exit the
bar, and Barret comes barging in. He yells that the "meeting" is about to
start, and then walks over to the pinball machine. The pinball machine is
actually an elevator which descends into the basement, which is kinda neat. The
rest of the team hops into the hole after him, leaving you and Tifa alone. Once
again, what you do now will have some sort of impact on the game later as
referenced in section VII.A. of the FAQ. When you're done, hop down into the
basement and chat with Barret and the gang.
Barret asks Cloud if anyone from SOLDIER was there during the mission. Cloud
replies that if anyone from SOLDIER was there, Barret wouldn't be standing here
right now. Barret gets pissed off. But as I've said before: walls, table
lamps, and cereal bowls piss Barret off. Anyhoo, instead of taking out his
aggression on Cloud, Barret kicks Biggs's ass for no good reason (well, he
shouldn't have been standing there!) Tifa comes down and calms Barret down
before he destroys the whole damn place, however. Then you go back upstairs to
discuss your money. As you head for the door, Tifa comes back upstairs and asks
you to please join AVALANCHE. When you refuse, Tifa yells at you and accuses
you of walking out on your childhood friend. This is another response that
affects the game later (see section VII.A. of the FAQ).
Either way, the scene flashes back to the promise Cloud made to Tifa as a
child. Cloud and Tifa were sitting atop the village well when Cloud said that
he was leaving for Midgar to join SOLDIER. Tifa had asked him that if Cloud
joined SOLDIER and became famous and if she was ever in a bind, that Cloud would
come to rescue her. Of course, Cloud is currently neither famous nor in
SOLDIER, but when Barret comes to pay him, Cloud has an apparent change of heart
and offers to go along for the next mission.
You wake up the next morning in the basement. Head back upstairs to the bar
and Tifa asks you how you slept. Again, your response affects the game later
(again, see section VII.A. of the FAQ for more info). You also discover that
Tifa is coming with your group for the next mission. Barret comes on inside and
asks you about the materia you found the other day. Accept his tutorial if you
need to know more (your decision here, despite what you might think, has no
effect on the game later on, as mentioned in section VII.A. of the FAQ), but
what this really means is that you can now manage your materia through the menu.
You also gain control of the party, and Tifa mentions to you that the owner of
the weapon shop wanted to talk to you before you leave.
Anyways, before you leave there are a few things you can/should do. A little
shopping never hurt anyone, but remember that you only have so much money right
now. Still, some new armor might be in order, and the item shop also sells
(besides items, which you may buy a few of) materia. Buy whatever you want, but
you probably won't have enough money for more than two pieces of materia, so
choose wisely. Also, above the weapon shop (take the stairs inside), there's
another room. This is a "training room", meant to get you acclimated to the
various aspects of the game. It's worth visiting no matter how well you know
the game, however, because there's an All materia and an Ether to be found
here. Both, namely the All materia, are lost-forevers, as mentioned in section
I.F. of the FAQ.
As for the All materia, you've got two options here. You can link it to a
Restore materia for a Cure-all spell, or link it to one of the other materia for
an attack-all spell. If you do this, you should probably know that many of the
enemies that you are about to face are weak against lightning magic, so the
Lightning materia is a good candidate for this. And even though Barret has the
linked slots in his weapon, Cloud is far better with magic than Barret is, and
would wield an attack spell with far better results. Anyways, one you've got
your gear in order and your head on straight, head for the train station (and
you might want to save your game at the save point before leaving, as well).
Hop on the train, and Barret will make yet another show of just how much of
A jerk he can be. He harasses the hapless employee for no apparent reason.
The employee cowers, saying that he's scared enough because AVALANCHE had
proclaimed that there will be more bombings and that only the most dedicated
employees would go to work today. This pisses Barret off. Go figure. Anyhoo,
the train ride begins, and Tifa heads to go look at the computer screen (the one
Jesse showed you the other day). Well, just as she begins to say something that
sounds somewhat sexually suggestive, you pass through the security checkpoint.
Oh, and guess what? You're fake ID's don't work this time around. The train
enters security lockdown mode.
Well, the security check starts with the back car and moves forward, so
you've just got to run to the front car. But it isn't as easy as you think,
however. You see, the timer is running, and you've only got so long to get to
the next car. If you don't make it, then that's where you get off, my friend.
And the further you make it, the less you have to walk. Also, how far you make
it in the car has an affect on the game later on, as mentioned in section VII.A.
of the FAQ. Along the way, a few things can happen, by the way. On the first
car (the one you start on), if you speak with the bum in the back, he hands you
a Phoenix Down. In the second car, if you speak with guy near the front of the
car, he gives you a Hi-Potion. In the third car, a guy may run by and steal
something from you. If you want the item back, you have to go after him and
threaten him, but it may take too much time to be worth doing.
Anyways, when and if you make it to the front car, that's where you hop off
the train in daring fashion and land in a tunnel below. From here on out,
you're on foot, my friend.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Mako Reactor #5
Well, technically, you're still in the connecting tunnels adjacent to the
reactor, but close enough, eh'? Here're the enemies you can expect to battle
down here... First, there's the Blugu. It's a little pain-in-the-ass creature
that can put your characters to sleep with it's Hell Bubbles attack. They fall
prey to lightning magic very easily, however. Then there's a creature called
the Rocket Launcher, which, as you might expect, has some pretty powerful
physical attacks. Again, lightning magic makes very short work of them. Once
you reach the reactor, you'll meet a few more generic enemies (SP. Combatant,
Blood Taste), who are quite weak and can be taken care of extremely easily. Be
warned that the Smogger, another more or less generic enemy, can poison your
characters, however. The Smogger may also occasionally drop the Deadly Waste
item after battle, which produces an attack far stronger than anything you can
get at this point in the game, so you may want to fight around a bit and collect
a few of those. Lastly, there's the Proto Machinegun. Their attacks aren't
that strong, but they can take a bit of punishment. Still, lightning magic will
shut them down very quickly.
Anyways, you're in the tunnel now. The direction you're headed is up, and
the earlier you got tossed off the train, the further you have to walk. On the
tunnel's southern end (this is where you'll land if you got thrown off in the
first car), there's a station with an infinite supply of Sp. Combatants. Of
course, they are extremely nice and won't attack you unless you attack them
first. You can kill as many of them as you'd like without causing a panic,
interestingly enough. It's just that for every one you kill, another will be
sent to take their place. It seems like you could decimate the entire Shinra
army base through this manner, but the steady stream of replacements is
seemingly endless. It's like the Shinra has more people than the Chinese do...
Oh, and don't worry: the soldiers will not do anything smart like alert the army
to your presence, or even try to attack you unless you talk to them first.
Anyways, once you've had your fun, head to the tunnel's north end.
Well, it seems that the tunnel is blocked off by giant, painfully obvious,
flashing, neon security beams, so you've got to crawl through that clearly-
marked "intruder's entrance" hatch to your left. It's a tight fit, but I
wouldn't expect the Shinra to be too accommodating to people trying to break
into their reactors. Just be glad that it's big enough for Barret to fit into.
Follow the path (and be sure to grab the Ether lying on the ground along the
way) to a ledge above the rest of the reactor (there's a ladder leading down
here, but it's kind of hard to see without pressing Select). Climbing down that
ladder, you'll end up downstairs on a sprawling catwalk. There are two ladders
down here, but both will take you to the same room leading to the reactor.
You'll also meet up with Biggs and Wedge down here. In the next room, you'll
meet up with Jesse, who whines about her fake ID's botching the whole mission
up. Ignore her whining, grab the Potion lying on the ground, and crawl down
the ladder in the lower-left corner of the room. This takes you to another
catwalk, where you'll find an Ether and a save point, as well as a ladder
leading into the reactor itself.
You emerge in a very large room that should look extremely familiar. The
only difference is that you took a different way in. Head to the door at the
foot of the stairs and descend into the reactor. You'll end up at the reactor's
core, and Cloud will be asked to set up the bomb. But first, however, you are
treated to another of Cloud's memory spasms. This time, Cloud flashes back to a
scene in another mako reactor. You see a younger version of Tifa kneeling next
to her injured father, swearing vengeance on the Shinra. I guess this would
explain why Tifa supports Barret's cause, though exactly what happened remains a
mystery...
Anyways, Cloud snaps out of it, again seeing nothing unusual about what just
happened, and nonchalantly sets up the bomb. Now, it's time to get the hell out
of here. Head back upstairs to the giant room. You can't go out the way you
came, you're going to have to leave the reactor as you did the first one you
were in. Head up the stairs and you'll eventually end up in a room similar to
the one where Biggs and Jesse had to open the doors for you. Well, this time
you get to do it yourself. Cloud, Barret, and Tifa must all hit their
respective buttons simultaneously to open the door. The computer takes control
of Barret and Tifa, and you've got to hit the button when they do. No matter
how many times you screw up, though, you can still do it. It's actually
relatively easy if you just count to three or something, but I think it's kinda
neat how Tifa and Barret move at the same consistent pace. After watching them
for a few minutes, you'll start to think that they missed their calling as
synchronized swimmers.
By the way, you're almost at a boss fight, so a little preparation is in
order. You'll have no need for an attack-all spell, but a Cure-all spell might
come in sort of handy during the upcoming battle. Also, Cloud's attacks will do
a nice amount of damage, but the same cannot be said for Barret or Tifa, for
some strange reason. Both of them will do more damage with magic (and the boss
in question is especially weak against Bolt). For this reason, you may also
want to move Tifa to the back row for the upcoming fight. Oh, and you might
want to heal yourself up, if at all possible. You'll want to enter this fight
with the fullest possible advantage. Once you're happy with the way you have
the team set up, head on out.
Make your way towards the exit, where you'll be greeted by an entrouge of
Shinra soldiers. Then, a helicopter approaches... It's none other than
President Shinra. Cloud seems surprisingly nonchalant about it, but something
tells me that the world coming to an end wouldn't startle him too much.
President Shinra recognizes Cloud as an ex-SOLDIER because of the result that
mako exposure had had on his eyes. He doesn't recognize Cloud, though, saying
that he'd have to have been another Sephiroth to earn his recognition.
Sephiroth, of course, being the greatest SOLDIER to have ever existed. Anyways,
Barret gets a little pissed watching Cloud and President Shinra chit-chat, and
angrily yells at the President. In his evil manner, President Shinra just
shrugs Barret off and hops back onto his helicopter. Instead of ordering his
endless legions of troops down your throat, however, he just leaves you with a
little "playmate" and just assumes that it will take care of the job for him.
To quote Dr. Evil, "I'll just place them in an easily escapable situation
involving an overly elaborate and exotic death." And there's little else more
elaborate and exotic than getting you ass kicked by a gigantic robot, no? It's
time to fight Air Buster.
First of all, you have Air Buster surrounded. This is actually more of a
blessing than a curse (though it does prevent you from using a Cure-all spell
too effectively). As you should probably know, it will really hurt this thing
when you hit it in the back. Even though Tifa and Barret will still do more
damage to the Air Buster with magic (see above), Cloud can really damage this
thing if he slices it from behind. Also, you may want to save your characters'
limit breaks until you have the opportunity to hit Air Buster in the back with
them, as any limit break striking Air Buster in the back (especially Braver) is
going to kick its ass very badly. However, you've still got to watch yourself.
Air Buster has a couple of powerful attacks. One will do a considerable amount
of damage to everyone he's facing (so he'll only nail Tifa and Barret with it on
occasion). It's also got an attack that does big damage to a lone target, so he
will be able to wipe out one of your characters if you don't keep a vigilant
watch over your HP. Anyways, when you kick Air Buster's ass, you win a Titan
Bangle.
Air Buster, well, explodes. And it takes a good chunk of the catwalk with
it. This wouldn't be so bad except that it damages the part of the catwalk that
Cloud was standing on, leaving him dangling from the edge of the destroyed
catwalk. Barret calls out to you, and you can respond any way you'd like
(another response that affects the game later as mentioned in section VII.A. of
the FAQ), but your only real option is to dangle helplessly. I suppose Barret
and Tifa would do something to help you out, but if you'll recall, you did plant
a bomb in the reactor several minutes ago. And it goes off right about... now.
Tifa reaches out for Cloud, but Barret grabs her and flees. Cloud, meanwhile,
plummets. Gee, wasn't that fun?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Sector Five
When we last left our hapless hero, he had plummeted several stories into
God-knows-what below. We now join him as he is having a vague and, to be
perfectly honest, rather disturbing conversation with the voices in his head.
And yes, this weird behavior continues throughout the majority of the game. The
voices tell him that he used to be able to get by with scraped knees. It makes
really no sense, but when you plunge a gazillion stories into nothingness, I
guess I wouldn't be that coherent, either. However, a third voice begins to
break into the conversation. Cloud's eyes slowly open and he finds himself in a
church. Standing next to him, trying to wake him up is the flower girl that you
met earlier. She says that she was just standing there when you came crashing
through the roof. Furthermore, you appear to have landed on a bed of flowers
that she was growing in here. A giant bed of flowers... in the middle of the
church? Okay... Anyways, Cloud is still kind of groggy, what with the
plummeting hundreds of stories and all, but hops back to his feet and brushes
himself off as if he had just bumped his knee on a table or something.
You talk for a bit with the flower girl. Have fun with the conversation-
nothing you say has any impact on the game later on. Anyways, she introduces
herself as Aeris. You banter about materia for a minute. She claims to have a
materia that doesn't do anything. Her mother gave it to her, she says, and she
keeps it with her wherever she goes. Keep talking to her, and as you do, a very
creepy man will walk into the church and just stand there. You can attempt to
talk to him, but he just says not to mind him. Rather, if you talk to Aeris
again, she asks you if you'd be interested in being her bodyguard. I know a lot
of people would reply with some snide remark like "I'd guard her body...", but
if you haven't figured it out by this point, Cloud has the emotional responses
of a brick. He agrees to do it, and Aeris offers to pay him with a date.
Again, Cloud does not react to this in any way. However, it becomes quickly
apparent that the creepy guy in the church has something to do with this when
Aeris quickly whisks you away and asks you to get her home safely. You'll see
the creepy man walk towards the back of the church, accompanied by several
Shinra soldiers. The creepy man is Reno. He's an asshole, but we really don't
know much more than that about him this point. The soldiers are expendable and
meaningless.
Anyways, the scene shifts back to Cloud and Aeris as they make their way
through the back of the church. You might as well go ahead and take time to
equip Aeris right now. Especially considering that unless you know what you're
doing, Aeris is going to be doing some fighting in a minute. Hand her some
materia (Barret and Tifa apparently gave their materia to Cloud before he fell),
and you may also choose to give her the Titan Bangle you won from Air Buster,
given both her horrible survivalability and her proficiency with magic. It
doesn't really matter what you give her, so long as you hand her something that
she can do some damage with (in case you haven't noticed, that stick she's
carrying isn't the most effective weapon in the world).
Head along upstairs until you reach a gap in the floor. Cloud jumps it with
no problem, but as Aeris is jumping, the Shinra soldiers arrive and, with a
hearty cry of, "stop the Ancient!" shoot at her... She misses the jump and
falls to the floor below. I'm sorry, but when your job involves you shooting
flower girls in churches, you might as well slaughter a bunch of nuns and
kittens while you're at it, because your job as inhumanly evil as possible.
You've now got an interesting notion, here. Instead of going downstairs and
slaughtering the soldiers below, Cloud decides that he's going to have a little
fun with them by dropping things from the rafters on them.
A few things to keep in mind: first and foremost, your performance here does
have an affect on the game later, as mentioned in section VII.A. of the FAQ.
Secondly, if you want to do it right, you're going to have to work fast. Not
only do you have a limited amount of time to make it to the appropriate barrel
and push (I'm not even mentioning how long it takes to think about which barrel
is the right one to push), but you also get into battles up here, as well.
You'll fight things that are laughably easy to kill, but they still slow you
down. The easy way out is just to keep telling Aeris to run. She'll only have
to fight one soldier, and will be able to easily blow him away with any form of
attack magic materia that you've handed her. But still, there's something to be
said for doing things right. Here's what you've got to do: first, tell Aeris to
"wait". Then, run upstairs and push the barrel on the left. Next, push the one
in the far back. Finally, push the one on the right. This will see you both
through the threat.
Anyways, Cloud and Aeris end up atop the church, and you traverse the city by
jumping between huge piles of junk. Honestly, you're running along gigantic
piles of spare machinery and garbage. And who says that this isn't the slums?
Anyways, Cloud hops along the piles with ease, leaving Aeris in the dust. He
then teases her as she tries to catch back up. Take note of this- it's the
first sign Cloud has shown this far of any spark of humanity. He mentions that
the guy (Reno) who was after Aeris was a member of the Turks. They work for the
Shinra, but aren't necessarily a military unit. They're more of a slimeball
unit. No task too sleazy for them, according to Cloud. For a real-life
comparison, think of the Turks as an evil (well, eviler) version of the CIA.
Anyways, it seems that the Turks have been after her for quite some time, for
some-odd reason. What business they have with her, I can't say. Maybe it's
just part of their "evil" quota, I don't know. But, anyways, you end up outside
the church along the path to Sector Five. If you head south from here, you'll
end up back at the church (and further south, actually, to get a lovely outside
view of Midgar). However, the direction you're headed in is up.
There's enemies along the road, by the way. First, there's the Hedgehog
Pie. This is the thing that you met back at the church. They're easy to kill,
but are capable of casting the Fire spell (thankfully not with very good
results). The Whole Eater is harder to kill than the Hedgehog Pie, but is
mentionless otherwise. Watch out for the guy called Vice, however. These guys
are exactly what they look like- thieves, and they can make off with one of your
items if you let them (note that if you kill them shortly after they've stolen
from you, you'll still get the item back).
Anyways, it's a relatively short walk to civilization. Head north along the
road, and make a right (going left leads to the road to Sector Six). You'll
enter the slums of Sector Five. And, as you can clearly see, the standard of
living here isn't much better than it was back in Sector Seven. As a matter of
fact, there's one guy here living in a pipe. Yes, he's living in a Goddamn
pipe! Go visit him, actually, and Aeris will blurt out one of the game's most
hilarious typos: "this guy are sick!" Anyways, the guy are a real head case,
who just sits there and spews out gibberish and nonsense. You do notice that he
has the number two tattooed on his hand, which is not at all interesting, to say
the least. Anyways, feel free to look around the slums. You may choose to do a
bit of shopping here, you may not. It's up to you. Also, one of the flyers
mentioned in section V.A. of the FAQ is here in Sector Five, so you may want to
check that out, as well. Also, if you decide to further explore people's
houses, you may talk to a kid in his sleep and hear him mutter abut his hidden
drawer. In it, you'll find 5 gil. You can either rob him now, or come back
later in the game and he'll give you a Turbo Either that he bought with the
money. Of course, if you rob him, he won't buy the Turbo Ether. Anyways, when
you're done looking around, head to the northeastern corner of town to Aeris's
house.
Now, let me take a minute to explain something here. One of the things that
flowers generally require to grow is light. Another would be a relatively
pollution-free environment, but we'll let that one slide for a minute. I can
understand how the flowers might grow inside the church, what with the light
shining in from outside Midgar and all, but Aeris's home garden is a different
story altogether. She has somehow managed to grow a thriving garden in this
God-forsaken barren wasteland. It's as if she missed her calling as a
horticulturist. Wait a minute, no she didn't... Anyways, scope out the garden-
there's an Ether here, as well as the Cover materia. Then go inside her
house.
Aeris's mother, Elmyra, greets you. The disturbing thing is that she doesn't
seem to be in the least bit surprised that the Shinra is hunting her daughter
down. She thanks you properly, and you mention that you'd like to head back to
Sector Seven to see Tifa. Aeris asks you who Tifa is, and your response will
obviously have a bit of an impact on the game later on (see section VII.A. of
the FAQ). Anyways, Aeris offers to take you to Sector Seven (via Sector Six),
and really doesn't seem to want to take "no" for an answer. Cloud seems awfully
chauvinistic about it, but somehow I'd imagine that he'd react pretty much in
the same way if it was Barret offering to take him back. Anyways, Elmyra asks
you to stay the night and leave in the morning. Not approving of her daughter
running off, she discreetly asks you to leave without Aeris. Cloud is only too
happy to oblige (but don't worry, he doesn't succeed).
Cloud drifts off to sleep and has another lovely conversation with the voices
in his head. If by this point in the game you haven't started to think that
Cloud is a complete nut job, I can't even begin to understand why. This time,
Cloud flashes back to the last time he slept in a bed. It was when he was
visiting his home in Nibelheim. In his flashback, he lays on the bed while his
mother yells at him about not having a girlfriend. Sad. You'll wake up in a
room next to Aeris's. First, grab the care package on the floor (it's got a
few curative items inside), and then exit the room. Now, you need to get out of
here without alerting Aeris, so walk, don't run, to the stairs. Go downstairs,
exit, and head to the outskirts of town. Remember where you turned right to
enter the Sector Five Slums? The left path was the road to Sector Seven (that
goes through Sector Six). Interestingly enough, however, Aeris seems to have
magically teleported out here (don't ask me how). Again, she ain't taking "no"
for an answer. Head to Sector Six.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Sector Six
You'll make it to a road leading through Sector Six. And I use the term
"road" very loosely, because it's not so much a road as it is a huge pile of
crap that used to be a road that you need to crawl past to make it to Sector
Seven. And expect your journey to be monster-packed. You'll see the same
enemies from Sector Five, plus a new creature called the Hell House. It's...
um... a house... that attacks you... um... yeah... And we all thought that
Earthbound was strange. Anyways, the Hell House has a strong physical attack,
and also has an attack called Hell Bomber that nails your entire party at once.
In addition, the Hell House takes a lot of punishment (heavy doses of any kind
of magic is recommended). The Hell House is easily the most dangerous opponent
in Sector Six, but all in all isn't too much of a threat. Just watch your HP,
and you'll live.
Making it through the pile of junk is a different story, however. It can be
awfully difficult to tell what you can and can't crawl on without the aid of
select. Here's the path you need to take: crawl up the remains of a wooden
bridge to a high section of the road, then, to your right, walk along the long,
thin sheet of metal something or rather (that has a lot of holes in it) to
another high section of road, go up and around to the right a bit and crawl down
what looks like it was once a tower or something to a lower section of road,
then go up and around to the left and crawl up a long... log, it looks like, to
a higher section of road, and finally, head up and crawl down another wooden
bridge to your right, landing you at the other side of the road.
Head up to the next screen and you find... a playground? You've now got the
option of continuing to Sector Seven, or taking Aeris home. Your decision does
affect the game later on, as mentioned in section VII.A. of the FAQ, but neither
response will result in you actually having to take Aeris anywhere. Anyways,
Aeris rushes up to the playground, saying that she can't believe that this place
is still standing. She hops atop the slide and asks Cloud to join her. Cloud
and Aeris start to chat for a bit again. She asks Cloud what rank he was in
SOLDIER. Cloud has one of his memory lapses, and then responds. Apparently,
Cloud held the same rank as Aeris's first boyfriend... how nice.
At about this time, you see the gates to Sector Seven open, and a chocobo-
driven cart passes through it headed towards the Sector Six Slums, otherwise
known as Wall Market. Cloud leaps up and notices one of the passengers on the
cart... it's Tifa! Aeris runs after the cart, and Cloud runs after her. A few
feet away (was the cart really necessary to make it all the way here?), you'll
find yourself in Wall Market...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Wall Market (Sector Six Slums)
Let me begin by saying that you are about to enter one of the most disturbing
points in the entire game. Believe me when I say that you will question your
own sanity at least once before this whole ordeal is over. This place is loaded
with strange sexual references and things that will scar you for many years to
come, so you have been duly warned.
Anyways, first things first. You might want to do a bit of shopping here at
the local weapon shop. Remember that Tifa will be joining you shortly, so take
her into consideration when you shop. Then, it's off to find out what happened
to Tifa.
Well, ask around town and see what's going on. There's a place called the
Honey Bee Inn in the southeastern section of town. A guy hanging around just
outside says that Tifa is one of the "new girls". And, as per custom around
here, she was taken to see "The Don". "The Don" would be Don Corneo, a guy who
makes President Shinra seem straight. He lives in that big-ass house on the
northern end of town, so why not pay it a visit? By the way, you must talk to
the guy at the Honey Bee Inn first to trigger the appropriate response at the
Don's place. The guy at the Don's is, well, not very receptive to Cloud, Cloud
being a guy and all. Aeris has a little better luck. But, Cloud's not about to
let her go in by herself. That's when the plan is hatched... Why not dress
Cloud up like a woman? Yes, you heard me right. Cloud gets to have a little
adventure in cross-dressing! Aeris tells the guy that she'll be right back with
a cute friend of hers. Now, you're off to dress pretty.
Let me begin by saying that the eventual outcome of all of this will have
some sort of impact later in the game, as mentioned in section VII.A. of the
FAQ. That being said, you now get to go dress yourself up to the best of your
ability. Basically, there's three types of each item you can get. Also, you've
only got one shot at getting each item, so might I recommended saving your game
beforehand in case you screw it up? Anyways, depending on how lady-like Cloud
looks when he shows up, one of three different things can happen. Of course,
likely the most amusing outcome is when Cloud is fully dressed up. But, hey,
that's just my opinion, and I have been known to occasionally confuse "amusing"
with "oh my God, somebody stab my eyes out, this is horrible". Let's get
started.
Your first stop should be the local dress shop. It's at the top part of the
lower section of town. Well, the girl there says that her father stopped making
dresses and is currently getting plastered at the bar. Aeris and Cloud agree to
help out, mainly because they need a dress. Head to the bar (it's on the left
side of the upper portion of town), but again, you're not going to get the
response you need until you've talked to the girl at the dress shop first.
Cloud will approach the guy at the bar rather bluntly, and again isn't going to
get very far with him. Cloud doesn't necessarily have the best people skills,
y'know. I've seen rocks more personable than he is. But again, Aeris takes the
guy aside and wins him over, talking about how Cloud wants to dress up all
pretty and whatnot. She hits some sort of weird/perverted note in the guy's
mind, and he agrees to make the dress. He asks you what kind of dress you want
him to make. This is the first step in determining how well you've done. Get
the best dress (the Satin Dress) by saying that you want something "soft" that
"shimmers". The next-best dress (Silk Dress) is "soft" and "is shiny". The
worst dress (Cotton Dress) is what you get when you ask for something that
feels "clean". Anyways, the guy sits back and starts to think for a bit.
Hey, you want to see something amazing? Head back to the dress shop. He's
already done with the dress! Holy crap, that was fast! But, you're still not
done. Cloud's spiky hair is still a bit of an issue, seeing as the 80's is long
since passed. You'll be needing a wig. Well, your dress-maker friend is there
to help. He says that in addition to making the dress in the three seconds it
took you to walk down here, he also spoke with a cross-dressing friend of his
down at the gym. At about this point, Cloud begins to feel really insulted and
asks Aeris just what exactly she had said to the dress-maker.
It's off to the gym with ya! It's the first building you see when you enter
the upper section of town. A guy there looks at you and asks if you're the guy
that wants to look pretty. Sure. It's not like you've got any self-esteem left
in you at this point, so now you've got to challenge Big Bro for a wig. In yet
another sexually-slanted joke, you challenge Big Bro to a squatting contest to
win a wig from him. Luckily for you, the game lets you practice a bit
beforehand. It's quite easy, and if you've got the rhythm, you should have no
problem beating him. Anyways, if you win the contest, you get the Blonde Wig
(the best). Tie him and you get a Wig. Lose... Lose, and you get the Dyed
Wig. And let's not even discuss where he's been keeping it.
Awright, now you've got the dress and the wig. These are the only two items
that you really need to head to the Don's. And if you're really not trying to
dress Cloud all the way up, I suggest that you quit now and head to the Don's
with what you've got now (remember that first you need to head to the dress shop
and get dressed). On the other hand, if you're up to it, there are a few other
items that you may be wanting. Let's start with some cologne. It's kind of a
roundabout way to going to get it, and you have to start at the local eatery
(not the bar). It's located in the lower section of town. Head there and order
something to eat. After eating it, say something complimentary (note that "I've
had better dog food," is generally not accepted as a compliment), and you win
free Pharmacy Coupons, which really makes you question the food you just ate.
Head south a bit to the pharmacy. The pharmacy and the local item shop,
actually, are one and the same, and it is just south a little bit from the
eatery. Go there and exchange your coupons for one of three items. The
Digestive ultimately gets you the best cologne, the Deodorant gets you the
second-best cologne, and the Disinfectant gets you the worst. Take your item
and head to the bar this time, and head towards the bathroom, where there's
someone that's been in there for quite some time. Give him whatever item you
got from the pharmacy, and you get the cologne in return (from best to worst,
the: Sexy Cologne, Flower Cologne, or Cologne). Strange, I know, but at
least you got what you wanted.
Next, the tiara. There's a shop around here (in the eastern part of the
lower section of town) that really doesn't sell anything. That's because the
owner is casually lounging on the counter, not really trying to do anything like
run a business or any other thing else of the bothersome sort. He asks Cloud to
do him a favor. Apparently, the guy at the inn has a vending machine, and he
wants to know what's in it. He can't go back to the inn because there was
some... unpleasantness. Anyways, before you head to the inn, make sure that
you've got some money. The best item (that gets you the best tiara) is 200 gil,
plus you'll also need 10 gil to stay the night at the inn (because you
apparently can't use the machine unless you spend the night). The inn's really
easy to spot- it's the first place you see when you enter town. Then, return to
the guy with the item. The 200 gil item gets you the Diamond Tiara (the best),
the 100 gil item gets you the Ruby Tiara (the second best), and the 50 gil item
gets you the Glass Tiara (the worst).
Ok... Now for the creepy part. You'll also be wanting some... um...
underwear. There's a guy walking around the southeastern section of town (not
by the Honey Bee Inn, but close to the path to it). If you talked to him
earlier, you'd have discovered that he was in a frenzy of indecisiveness. Well,
talk to him now and he just gives you his Membership Card to the Honey Bee Inn
because he can't make up his mind. Now, head to the Honey Bee Inn. Cloud will
step inside, while Aeris waits for him outside. First off, what you're probably
expect to happen here, won't. In fact, it'll be much, much worse. A girl in a
bee suit greets you and asks you to pick a room. There are five rooms. The two
on the right are both occupied, but you can spy on the occupants through the
oversized novelty keyhole. Your reactions to the goings on in these rooms
should range from slightly amused to downright disturbed. The room on the top
is the dressing room, and therefore isn't available. This narrows down your
choice to two different rooms. The Group Room and the @#$! room. Choose your
poison. Both are horribly painful experiences, but the Group Room does leave
you with the better set of undergarments (the Bikini Briefs). The @#$! room,
on the other hand, leaves you with the Lingerie.
Um... I really can't even describe what goes on in the @#$! room, but you do
wake up with a man in a speedo sitting on top of you and slapping you in the
face. And if you thought that that was bad, try the Group Room. It's exactly
what it sounds like. You get to take a bath with about eight or nine other
oily, muscle-bound men, and their leader, Mukki (this is actually the guy that
will slap you in the face if you go to the @#$! room, so Mukki is sadly
unavoidable). The game programmers went out of their way to make this scene as
disturbing as humanly possible, and Cloud really doesn't sound like he's having
a good time, either. You do walk away from the whole experience with the Bikini
Briefs and scarred for life, however. God, somebody help me! Mukki is after
me! I don't want to become Mukki's girlfriend!
Anyways, before you leave the Honey Bee Inn (if you haven't already run
screaming from the place, that is), stop by the dressing room and ask one of the
girls to apply some Make-up to you. This helps Cloud look as pretty as he can.
Now that you've got all the times that you'll be needing, head back to the
dress shop. Cloud will gussie himself up the best he can, and he emerges...
as... um, Cloudette? I dunno. Aeris grabs herself a dress, and the two of you
head for Corneo's. At Corneo's, there's a guy who tells you to stay where you
are and wait for him in the lobby. Blatantly disregarding him, head upstairs
and go all the way to the left to a door leading down to the basement. Down in
the basement, you'll meet up with Tifa. What follows is a rather amusing
scene... Cloud doesn't talk to Tifa, but rather Aeris does. Only after a
minute or so does Tifa realize that the other "girl" is Cloud. Anyways, it's
time for the question of the hour: why is Tifa here? Well, when she and Barret
returned from the reactor, Barret decided that he'd beat the crap out of
somebody to see if he could find any information. The guy in question fingered
the Don as somebody who might know somebody. And, against Barret's advice, Tifa
decided that she'd come and hear the story straight from Don Corneo himself. At
about this time, a guy walks into the basement and yells at you to get your
asses to the Don. "Women..." he mutters to himself as he walks away. Resist
the burning desire to bury your sword in his back- it just wouldn't be ladylike.
Now, the three of you head to see the Don. The Don picks his date for the
night and throws the other two to the wolves (his henchmen, that is). Whom he
picks is based on how well you've dressed Cloud up. He must be delusioned,
because I wouldn't pick Cloud over Tifa or Aeris no matter how cute he looked as
a lady (then again, maybe he knows that Cloud isn't really a lady...) If Tifa
or Aeris is picked, you've first got to kill, spindle, and mutilate the henchmen
that are trying to have sex with you, go rescue the other one that didn't get
chosen, and the head to see the Don. If Cloud gets picked, then it's going to
be Don Corneo who's going to be trying to have his way with your ass. No matter
who gets picked, however, you'll be facing a choice that affects the game later
on, as mentioned in section VII.A. of the FAQ. Ok, ready, and... Go!
The scene ultimately ends up with Aeris, Tifa, and Cloud all standing over a
half-naked Don Corneo threatening his life and his genitals. It's as if they
missed their calling as torture experts... Anyways, Corneo divulges that
someone to find "the man with the gun-arm". After some more... threatening, he
says that that someone was Heidegger. Besides being an asshole, Heidegger is
also the head of the Public Safety Department of Shinra. And, in case you
haven't figured it out, "head of public safety" is just a nice way of saying
"war minister". Anyways, after Tifa threatens to smash (!!!!) Corneo's little
guys, he reveals the rest of the plot. Apparently, Shinra is going to destroy
the pillar at Sector Seven. Now, for those of you that know you're physics,
what happens when the only thing that is holding something up is destroyed?
Yup. Shinra wants to crush Sector Seven... What's the matter, did they run out
of orphanages to bomb?
Anyways, you've got to act fast, seeing as Shinra is already on the move (oh,
and before you leave, you might want to check behind Corneo's bed where you'll
find a Hyper, which goes pretty far in explaining why he's acting like this).
But, Corneo isn't done with you yet... As you're leaving, he asks you a
seemingly harmless riddle. Regardless of your response, he springs a trap door
underneath you and you plummet to the sewers below. A trap door, for God's
sakes... Could he be any more generic?
The scene shifts to Shinra Co. President Shinra is in a meeting with
Heidegger and Reeve. Reeve, the head of the Urban Development Department, is
the one here who has at least a shred of decency in him, and as such is regarded
by the rest of the Shinra as a pussy. Anyways, Heidegger laughs and says that
he's assigned the Turks to deal with Sector Seven. Reeve steps in and voices
his opposal to the idea, and also that of the mayor. Of course, much like the
real world, the mayor (Domino is his name) is a figurehead with no real power to
speak of. Heidegger and President Shinra cackle and laugh over their evil
plans. President Shinra plans to blame the whole incident on AVALANCHE, and
then save the day by sending federal aid to the survivors. That evil... And
it's up to you to stop him! (Dramatic music as scene fades out)...
wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
\ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section III: Walkthrough|/ /\ \
_\ /_ | ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ/ \Ż
\ \/ / | O / /\ \
_\ /_ | B. Shinra Co. | Ż/ \Ż
\ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \
_\ /___________________________ | Ż/ \Ż
\ \/ /|Section III: Walkthrough|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: The Sector Six Sewers
The party comes to in the sewers below Sector Six. Well, Cloud comes to, at
any rate. Tifa and Aeris are still lying around here somewhere. A few things
to keep in mind before you do anything: first, whomever you help first does have
a slight effect on the game at a later point (refer to section VII.A. of the FAQ
for more details). Secondly, you're not going to enter any battles until you
help both of them up, so go ahead and take this time to hop onto that ledge to
your left and grab the Potion sitting up there. Three, once you get Aeris and
Tifa up, you're going to go straight to a boss fight, so also take this time to
equip your characters. The boss in question is weak versus fire, so keep that
in mind. Also note that attacking with magic is going to be generally more
effective than any physical attack against it. Lastly, you may want to set up a
Cure-all spell, because said boss had a pretty powerful attack that nails your
whole party at once. When everything's all a go, wake up Aeris and Tifa, and
the fight begins.
APS is the unfortunate result of water pollution here at Midgar. I'm not
quite sure what it is, but whatever the hell it is, it's going to kick your ass
if you don't watch yourself. It's normal attacks are nothing special, but it's
Tidal Wave hurts like a motha. The good news is that it'll hurt APS, too. Note
that the direction of the wave plays a big role in how much damage it will do.
When it hits him in the back it's going to really mess him up. Likewise, when
it hits you in the back, you'd better be prepared to heal up. The wave will
alternate in its direction, so you will always know what to expect. As for
attacking? As I've already mentioned, any sort of magic is going to do more
damage than a physical attack, and APS has a weakness to fire. Oh, and expect
the Tidal Wave to push you to a couple of limit breaks, while you're at it.
The fight won, you've now got to hurry up and make it back to Sector Seven
before squishy time. You may want to stop and heal up/rearrange your materia
before moving on out, however. You'll run into two different enemies down here.
The Sahagin is moderately powerful and is the more durable of the two, but not
by much. However, it will probably be the one that takes longer to kill, as not
only does it have no weaknesses, but they also have a very annoying tendency to
use their shells to prevent any and all damage done by physical attacks.
Granted, they won't think to do this until after you've popped them in the ass a
few times, but you're still probably going to have to resort to magical means to
finish them off. The other enemy is called Caesar, and ice magic will rip it
up in no time.
Anyways, you should see a ladder that will led you hop up onto the ledge on
your right. Follow the ledge around to the other end and crawl down the ladder
there back into the sewage. Head towards the bottom of the screen and crawl up
the ladder you find there to get onto the opposite ledge, and then head back
towards the right. Oh, and you should pick up the Steal materia along the way
for many reasons. First, it'll let you nab some kick-ass equipment from certain
enemies that you cannot come back to steal from, so you'd behoove to have the
Steal materia handy now. Secondly, I really don't think you feel like shelling
out 1,000 gil for one later on. Head on downstairs. Down below, it's a very
straightforward path to a set of steps leading back to the surface. Hurry
along, now.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: The Train Graveyard
You'll emerge in a Train Graveyard adjacent to Sector Seven. You're almost
there but you need to get past all this wreckage, which has been inconveniently
placed in your way first. Again, you might want to rearrange your materia
before moving out, because there're new enemies out here. The Ghost is a
little pain in the ass that can drain large amounts of HP from you with its
Drain attack. Furthermore, it disappears whenever you hit it, meaning that your
next attack will miss (and then it will re-appear). The good news is that fire
magic will toast them with little trouble. And not only that, but the Ghost is
also weak versus holy-based attacks, meaning that the curative magic may also be
used as an offensive attack against them if need be. The Cripshay is of little
mention, and is probably the easiest thing here to kill. Its attacks are still
fairly powerful, though, and it can cast Fire. Also, there's the Deenglow. It
has a high resilience to magic, and absorbs ice magic, but is a pushover with
physical attacks. Still, if you're up against several, a Fire-all or Bolt-all
spell is still the most efficient attack (especially if you're Aeris). In
addition, it knows the Ice and Demi spells. Lastly, there's Eligor (a creature
you'll probably only meet in the second portion of the Train Graveyard).
Eligor is a rare creature with moderately powerful attacks and can also put you
to sleep. In addition, he can take an awful lot of punishment. Luckily, Eligor
has no weaknesses, so blast away with everything that you've got. Also, feel
free to utilize your Steal materia versus Eligor, and snatch the Striking
Staff, an excellent weapon for Aeris.
Anyways, from where you begin, you'll see a car in front of you that you can
hop on. Do so, and make your way along it, picking up a Hi-Potion along the
way. At the end of this car, you can jump off to the left real quick to nab
another Hi-Potion, or continue along until you reach a big-ass steel girder
(which you can hop on). If you go left, it'll take you to a small corner where
you can grab an Echo Screen. Furthermore, from there, you'll be able to go
back down a bit, make a right, and head down until you see a part of the car
that you can enter to grab a Potion. Go right on the girder, on the other
hand, and it takes you to an adjacent car. Head south on this one until you
reach a point where you can jump off to the right. Use a nearby ladder to crawl
onto the car to your right, run up to the next ladder, and then crawl back down.
Head up some more until you see a section where you can enter the car to your
right. Enter it, go up to the top of the screen, and then exit. From here, you
can head up to the next screen.
On the next screen, hurry up to the rest of the wreckage. From here, you can
head to the left parts of the screen for a Potion and an Ether if you'd like,
but you've still got to get past these train cars. Hop in the car blocking your
way to move it forward a bit (it will ram another car out of its way). Then,
hop back in to move it back. This creates a path for you to make your way
towards a second car (oh, and there's also a Hi-Potion sitting atop of another
car to the right). Hop in the second car to move it forward a bit. This
creates a bridge, of sorts. Hop on top of the second car and run across it.
When you get off, keep heading towards the left. You'll end up back at the
train station at Sector Seven. You made it!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: The Pillar
Waste little time in getting to the pillar, where you'll discover a battle
going on. Just what the hell is happening here? The sounds of gunfire are
coming from the pillar, and before you can react, a body flies off the top and
lands on the ground in front of you. It's Wedge... I would make fun of him,
but... I feel sorry for the poor guy. Basically, what's going on is that
AVALANCHE is duking it out against the Shinra, who've come to bomb the pillar.
Wedge tells you that Barret is at the top, and to go after him. Before you take
off, Tifa remembers that Marlene is still at the bar. She asks Aeris to go get
her and take her someplace safe. Tifa and Cloud continue along to the top of
the pillar.
First of all, you may wish to save. Don't worry about your health- you just
got a free HP/MP refill. Organize your materia and get moving. The one and
only enemy you'll meet on the pillar is called Propeller. It's not a very
strong creature, but they can take quite a bit of damage. The good news is that
once you do a sufficient amount of damage to them, their propeller is destroyed
and they become grounded. This decimates their defenses and makes them
extremely easy to kill following that. Anyways, hurry along. Near the base of
the tower, you'll meet up with Biggs, who is severely wounded. About halfway
up, you'll see Jesse, who isn't in that great a shape herself. Hurry along to
the top, where you'll see Barret valiantly staving off the Shinra encroachment.
Actually, he's just shooting at anything that gets near him. He is pretty happy
to see you, however. Take a minute to equip Barret, because you've got a boss
battle coming up.
Anyways, the helicopter approaches the pillar and Reno steps off of it. You
remember Reno, right? The asshole? Anyways, Reno walks right onto the pillar.
Barret, for some reason, doesn't shoot him, instead letting him walk up to the
pillar's main support structure and set a bomb. Well, that was just lovely.
Furthermore, Reno deems your party a threat to his evilness, so he decides he's
just going to have to kill you, as well.
The Reno fight isn't too difficult if you know what you're doing. Fire and
Ice both work quite well, but you'll find that a physical attack will deal about
as much damage as Bolt will, so it's really not worth it. Reno attacks you with
what appears to be a huge tazer, but it isn't horribly powerful. His really
annoying attack is the Pyramid, which traps the affected character inside a
giant pyramid. That character can't move until the pyramid is destroyed. To
destroy the pyramid, just attack the afflicted character (don't worry, it wont
hurt them). And then, continue to wail on Reno's ass. Keep fighting and the
fight should be over before you know it. Instead of doing the noble thing and
fighting you to the death, Reno instead does the sleazy, degenerate thing (to
fit in with his lifestyle), and flees when he's about dead.
With Reno gone, your team attempts to disarm the bomb. Of course, you can't.
As is that weren't bad enough, a helicopter approaches. Inside is Tseng,
another member of the Turks. Barret sees nothing wrong with firing at him, but
he stops when Tseng starts using Aeris as a human shield. Yes, Tseng has gone
and captured Aeris. The most amusing thing is that she avoided the Turks for
all these years on her own with nothing more than a twig to defend herself with,
but once she finally gets an ass-kicking bodyguard, she's captured within a day.
How sad is that? Anyways, Tseng reveals that the Shinra wants Aeris because she
is the last surviving person of her race, the "Ancients". Aeris calls out to
Tifa, "don't worry, she's all right!" Tseng then slaps her. I'm sorry, but if
anything should piss Barret off enough to make him start blindly firing, it
should be that. It doesn't, though, and the helicopter vanishes into the air.
By the way, did you realize that you're standing atop a huge tower that's about
to blow up? Might I suggest you leave?
The team frantically looks around for a way to escape. Barret finds a
gigantic wire conveniently hanging near the edge of the tower. It's long enough
that it should be able to swing you guys to safety. The entire team grabs a
hold of the wire, and makes a daring escape, complete with a lovely rendered
movie sequence. Enjoy. Actually, seeing as Sector Seven is being completely
destroyed and crushed before your eyes, maybe "enjoy" isn't exactly the word I
should be using....
You'll land back at the playground at Sector Six. Behind you, Sector Seven
lies in ruin. Barret... Well, to say the least, he's quite pissed. He runs up
to the wreckage and starts yelling for the rest of his team. He then starts
angrily firing off his gun, and finally just breaks down in a mess of rage and
despair. Tifa cheers him up a bit by mentioning that Aeris probably got Marlene
to safety. Barret, obviously, wants to go see her. Cloud, on the other hand,
is increasingly curious about the Ancients. By the way, the voices in his head
start talking to him again. It mentions weird things, like about how it is an
Ancient and is the rightful heir to this planet. Cloud's response to this is,
"Sephiroth?" Cloud ain't the sharpest pencil in the box, as you can see.
Anyways, Cloud takes off for Sector Five, Tifa and Barret behind him.
First things first, you probably saw the materia lying around back at the
playground. You can't go back for it just yet. Start to walk towards Sector
Five until Tifa and Barret come running up behind you. Now you may return to
the playground and nab the Sense materia. That done, you should head back
towards Aeris's house at Sector Five. See ya there!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Sector Five (Again)
Back at Aeris's place, speak with Elmyra. She gets right to the point.
Basically, Aeris is the last surviving Ancient. And, obviously, Elmyra isn't
Aeris's real mother. Then, she begins to tell you much more of the story than
you'd care to know. You see, back in the day, Elmyra's husband went off to war.
She got a notice one day saying that he was going to be returning home on leave.
She went to the train station every day, but he never showed. But one day, she
happened upon a dying woman and her child. The woman's last words were to
Elmyra, asking her to take care of Aeris. In Elmyra's own words, "I was
probably lonely, so I decided to take her home with me." I can only pray that
this was a mistake in the translation processes, because just the idea of
someone imagining that they were "probably lonely" at one point is enough to
make my head explode. I also find it amusing that her motives for doing this
were purely because she had no one to keep her company.
Moving on, Elmyra details Aeris's childhood. She was a weird kid, to say the
least. Not like that kid in class that eats paste, but still weird. She told
Elmyra that she and her mother had escaped from a lab somewhere and that her
mother had "returned to the planet". Of course, the clincher was when Aeris one
day went up to Elmyra and told her that someone she knew had just died. Sure
enough, Elmyra got word a few days later that her husband had, in fact, died. I
tell ya, if my kid ever did something like that, I'd be freaked. I mean, "call
the priest and get some holy water" freaked. Either that, or I'd think that we
had another messiah on our hands, at least. Elmyra took it all in stride,
however. Apparently, when you live in a city powered by crap you're sucking out
of the planet with giant reactors in a floating city above you, you become
somewhat desensitized to things out of the ordinary.
Of course, it wasn't long before the Turks became interested. You see Tseng
talking to Elmyra about Aeris. He says things like "the Ancients will lead us
to a land of happiness", and blah, blah, blah... Like we really believe him.
Aeris stoutly denied being special in any way, and Elmyra just pretended not to
notice anything unusual. And I'm sorry, when you've got a kid that talks to the
planet, you're going to have to try awful hard to act like you don't notice.
Anyways, here's what went down: Tseng caught Aeris on her way back here. She
agreed to go along with him in exchange for Marlene's safety. So Marlene is
here and safe. Barret thanks Elmyra profusely, and Elmyra conversely yells at
Barret about leaving the girl alone. This... doesn't piss Barret off. Barret,
you'll realize, has a soft side (which, as you should know by now, is tied
entirely to Marlene). Anyways, he rushes upstairs to see Marlene. Follow him.
Head into the room and talk to Barret, and then try to leave. Marlene asks you
a question now that has an impact on the game later on (see section VII.A. of
the FAQ). Barret, on the other hand, is really mad that Aeris got captured
because of Marlene. He offers to come along and help you. Go downstairs.
Downstairs, the plan is discussed. Cloud, wanting to know more about what is
going on, really sees no other option than to head to Shinra H.Q. and free Aeris
himself (or maybe it's just because he feels like the world's worst bodyguard
right about now). As I've already mentioned, Barret is coming along because he
feels guilty that Aeris got caught because of Marlene. Tifa comes along, as
well, saying that she has to "push herself to the limit" right now and that
she's going to go crazy if she just sits around and does nothing. Well, that
and her bar got crushed and she really has nowhere left to go. Barret asks
Elmyra to take care or Marlene for awhile, and also advises her to get out of
the city. Elmyra agrees, but makes Barret promise that he'll come back alive.
Anyways, leave Aeris's house. You're now about to storm Shinra H.Q., to
which I say "it's about Goddamn time!" Believe me when I say that this will be
no easy task, and you should be duly prepared beforehand. The question also
still remains, "how are you going to get there?" Ain't no train running there
anymore. Tifa suggests that the team head for Wall Market, and maybe you can
find something out there. In video game terms, this means that you will find
something out there. See ya at Wall Market!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Wall Market (Again) & The Road of Junk
Well, first things first, then. You may wish to avoid doing any last-minute
shopping, because as we've already discussed, you're going to have the
opportunity to steal infinite amounts of the powerful Carbon Bangle when you
arrive at Shinra H.Q.. That being said, buy what you need. Also, talk with the
man at the weapon shop. He scavenged the wreckage of Sector Seven, found a few
old Batteries, and fixed them up. He seems to sense through some unknown means
that you're headed for Shinra H.Q., and implies that you'll be needing the
Batteries. Cloud is a bit wary of buying garbage that some guy found and fixed
up, but I for one would not argue with someone whose psychic abilities far
outweigh my own. And indeed, you will be needing the Batteries, so purchase
them and move on out.
Head up to the north end of town, and you'll see a bunch of kids running
towards the northeast section. Follow them. You'll end up next to the gigantic
wall that used to separate Sector Six from Sector Seven. It now separates
Sector Six from a garbage heap. Anyways, amongst the wreckage that came
crashing down is a long wire that drapes over the wall, conveniently allowing
someone to climb up it. Barret is more than ecstatic, and proclaims it to be a
"golden, shiny wire of hope". Climb up the golden, shiny wire of hope to the
top of the wall. Also note the graffiti on the wall, and how disturbingly high
in the air some of it is. Apparently, Wall Market's scumbags and hoodlums
either have jetpacks or can fly.
You reach the top, where you'll see a couple of kids sitting on the wall and
surveying the wreckage in the distance. Pretty heavy stuff, man... However,
there's a great deal of wreckage hanging above you, and what you need to do now
is crawl along said pile of rubbish to the top of the city. Or, as I like to
call it, "The Road of Junk". Hurry along, then.
The Road of Junk is fairly straightforward and enemy-free. Early on , you'll
have to place one of the Batteries to make a propeller move. The Battery dies
very quickly, but the propeller will stop in such a position that you can crawl
on it to the next pile of junk. That is one magic battery! The next Battery
you must place moves an "arm" into a position that you can crawl along. You'll
end up at a swinging bar that you've got to jump onto to make it to the next
screen. All in all, it's fairly easy to do, but it does require good timing.
Miss, and you've got to crawl back up and try again. Make it, and you can make
your way to the next screen.
On the next screen, you'll have the option of hopping down to the pile of
junk below. Your reward is a chest containing an Ether (you'll need to use
your third and final Battery to open the chest). The downside is that you've
got to crawl down to the screen below and make the "bar jump" again. Anyways,
from this screen, it's a fairly short trek to the top...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Shinra H.Q. (Part One)
You emerge at the foot of the hugest building you've ever seen... This is
Shinra H.Q., the heart of the beast. It's 70 stories tall, but every floor over
the 60th is special and difficult to get to, even for employees. Oh, guess
where you get to go? You've got two options, now. One is to bust in with guns
blazing. The other is to sneak in quietly. This decision actually won't have
as big an impact on your mission as you might believe. You are asked to make a
decision now, but you won't be forced to stick with it. Rather, say what you'd
like, and then take advantage of that save point over there. Your game saved
and your head clear, decide what you'd like to do. Busting in (just walk in
through the front door) obviously treats you to a nice wave of battles.
Sneaking in (go around the building to a loooooong set of stairs), conversely,
results in no battles. Note, however, that if you decide to bust in, you still
may want to save first and try sneaking in, if not just to hear the amusing
comments your team makes on the way up.
Anyways, there're a lot of new enemies here for you to play with. Enemies
that you become very quickly acquainted with if you decide to break in. The
Grenade Combatant, just like the SP Combatant, is really nothing to speak of.
They lob grenades at you, which really don't hurt as badly as you'd think, and
that's about it. The Mighty Grunt is a very durable enemy, and kind of like
the Propellers, will have their armor destroyed once you do enough damage to
them. From there, it's easy pickin's. And all in all, all this really means is
that you'll spend twice as long trying to kill them. The Hammer Blaster is
another durable creature. In addition to that, it can burrow underground for a
short while (meaning that your attacks cannot hit it), and it also has attacks
that can confuse your party members. The good news is that lightning magic rips
it up in no time. Also note that battles with the Hammer Blaster will sometimes
reap the Loco Weed, which is a joke opportunity even I'm not going to touch.
It's a useful item, though, especially since you don't have the Mystify materia
yet. Also, there's the Sword Dance. It's another generic enemy and an easy
kill, but watch out for an attack which can infuriate (e.g., inflict fury upon)
your characters.
Later on at Shinra H.Q., you'll meet three more enemies. The Warning
Board... um... I dunno. It really doesn't do anything except sit there and let
you kick its ass, which kind of worries me, but at least it's a free kill. The
Moth Slasher is something you'll want to watch out for, as you can steal the
very kick-ass Carbon Bangle from them. In addition, they're pretty tough to
kill, but lightning rips them up very quickly. The SOLDIER 3rd, conversely,
carries the Hardedge, a kickass weapon that you can steal and give to Cloud.
Like the Moth Slasher, they can be difficult to kill, but do possess a weakness
to fire.
Now, for a couple of things to watch out for. If you're busting in, take a
minute to look around the first floor for a minute. Behind the stairs on the
1st floor, posted on one of the bulletin boards, is one of the flyers mentioned
in section V.A. of the FAQ. In addition, this flyer is one of the lost-forevers
mentioned in section I.F. of the FAQ. In addition, on the 2nd floor (just take
the stairs in the lobby), there is an item shop. Seeing as you've just busted
in and shot everybody, the shopkeeper is understandably scared of you. Barret
calms the guy down, and he agrees to sell you items (that you may or may not
want/need). There are two treasure boxes here, as well. If you try to open
them, however, the shopkeeper's spine grows three sizes and he tells you that
you can't open them. And, I'm sorry, but you can't have what's in them right
now. Refer to section V.N. of the FAQ for more on these treasure chests, and
also note that they, too, are lost-forevers, as mentioned in section I.F. of the
FAQ. Oh, and if you're so inclined, check out the monitor to see a small FMV
sequence that has absolutely no relevance whatsoever to the plot.
On the other hand, the only thing you should watch out for while sneaking in
is an Elixir about halfway up the stairs.
At the 59th floor, you'll battle a group of guards and steal the Keycard 60
from them, a key item that will grant you access to any floor up to and
including the 60th. Now, you can use the elevator to return to any floor you'd
wish, including the 1st. If you sneaked in via the stairs, you may wish to head
down there now for all the reasons previously mentioned. However, if you chose
to bust in, you may probably deem it "not worth it" to down all those stairs
(located at the top of the 60th floor) just to find the Ether there. When
you're ready and set, take the elevator up to the 60th floor.
Now, here's the cool thing: no matter how big of a stir you created on the
bottom 59 floors (remember, even if you sneaked in, you still ended up kicking a
couple of guards' asses and stealing their Keycard), no one up here really
realizes that Shinra H.Q. has been infiltrated. Really. The communications
around here are that horrible. Even more hilarious is the fact that no one
(well, almost no one) will seem to catch on to the fact that you are the people
who broke into the building. Think about it for a minute. Your team consists
of a huge man with a gun for an arm and a guy holding a sword that's bigger than
he is (which is likely drenched in blood from mercilessly stabbing someone to
death), and it doesn't dawn on anybody here that maybe you're up to something.
Christ, how low is the bar when you're trying to get a job here? And these are
the higher-ups of Shinra, no less! Good lord...
Anyways, on the 60th floor, watch as your team sneaks past the "security
guard" and into the sixtieth floor. Ahead of you and to the left is a small
room. There is a path leading from this room to a room on the right side of the
screen, which is where you need to go. But, there are guards patrolling
outside. Now, I did mention before the people up here generally will not
realize that you are trying to break in, but that notion excludes monsters and
guards (yes, there's monsters roaming around on some of these floors for some
unknown reason). As for the set of guards that currently hinder your progress
(you'll see them patrolling along the top of the screen)? You must make Cloud
move along the screen when they're not looking, (he can hide behind the posts).
Every time you press the confirmation button, whatever it may be, he will move
to the next post. When he gets halfway through, he will stop to motion when
it's safe for Barret, and then Tifa to cross. And then you repeat this for the
second half of the room. First let me say that I feel awful sorry for those
guards. Their seemingly eternal patrol routine must really suck. Secondly, if
you screw up and are seen, the guards will attack, and then politely let you try
again. However, you can only screw up so many times, before the game just hands
it to you and you get to continue nonetheless. In the small room on the other
side of the screen is a set of stairs to the next floor.
You emerge on the 61st floor. You may continue up the stairs, but will be
unable to exit the stairwell unless you have the necessary card. Luckily for
you, the door to the 61st floor is standing wide open, so waltz on inside.
Basically, the 61st floor is just a big lobby for important bigwigs. Walk
around and talk to a few folks (again, it's not like anyone is going to catch on
that you broke in here). One guy actually gives you the Keycard 62, thinking
that you're the repair men. Yeah, moron, that's what we do with these deadly
weapons: fix things. Friggin' moron...
Anyways, head on up to the 62nd floor (you can use the stairs or the
elevator). This is actually where Mayor Domino resides (look in the room on the
left side of the screen). Don't worry, though. He's about as fond of the
Shinra as you are. He'll help you, but not without a catch. You've got to
guess his password, first. He even says that if you guess it right the first
time, you'll get a bonus prize. This "bonus" is the Elemental materia, and is
one of the game's lost-forevers, as mentioned in section I.F. of the FAQ. This
generally means that you'll probably want to try your best to get it right the
first time. But, you see, the password is different every time, so I can't give
you a straight answer. The guard outside the mayor's office offers to help
you... for a price. But, since I'm helping you for free, punch him in the
stomach and head to the library. Here's how it works... You've probably noticed
that there are four very large libraries on this floor. The four libraries
correspond to the four divisions of the Shinra: Space, Science, Urban
Development, and Public Safety (War). In each library, you will find books
relating to their branches But, each library has one misplaced book. That is,
one book has been placed in there that doesn't belong. You need to find all
four of those books. Then, take note of the numbers at the beginning of each
book. They tell you which letter to look at. That is, if the number was 9,
then you would look at the 9th letter in the title of the book. From this
research, you should gleam four letters. From there, it's a simple unscrambling
process to find out the password. Return to Mayor Domino with the password to
get your Elemental materia and his Keycard 65. Yup, you can go to the 65th
floor now! Let's get moving, now shall we?
The 63rd floor is optional, but you can get some kick-ass stuff for your
trouble. Check out section V.B. of the FAQ for more information.
The 64th floor is again optional. But it's a bit different than the 63rd
floor. The 64th floor is a lounge for the Shinra employees. There's a sauna
here, a gym, and a rest area (and such nice accommodations the Shinra provides
for its employees, no?). So, let's forget for a second that you're stopping in
the middle of breaking into a building to take a nap, because that's just not
ridiculous-sounding enough... No, what's really incredulous is that you can
approach the building's head of security as he jogs away on a treadmill and have
a nice chat with him about how well he's protecting the building. And what
really disturbs me is that by this point, the Shinra obviously has to know that
you're in the building somewhere; they just apparently don't seem to care.
Ugh... Anyways, after your refreshing nap and a save, head on up to the next
floor.
Enemies patrol the 65th floor, so be warned. That said, the 65th floor had a
gigantic room in the center with a big model of Midgar sitting inside it.
However, several parts of the model are missing. What you need to do is
retrieve the model parts (called Midgar Parts) from a nearby chest, and place
them here where they belong. This will unlock another chest with more Midgar
Parts in it that you can place here to unlock another chest and... you get the
idea. The last chest will have the Keycard 66 in it. Got it? Good. Now,
there are two small rooms to the left with a total of four chests in them.
Initially, the only one that will be unlocked is the one on the left side of the
top room. Take the Midgar Parts and place them in the empty spot of the model
closest to the door. This unlocks the chest on the left side of the bottom
room. Take the Midgar parts there and place them one spot counter-clockwise
from the last spot you placed them. This unlocks the chest on the right side of
the top room, which again contain Midgar Parts. Place those parts another spot
counter-clockwise. The next chest opened is on the right side of the bottom
room. You guessed it, there are some Midgar Parts inside. Placing them yet
another spot counter-clockwise opens up a chest in a room in the top-right
corner of this floor. In there, you will find the last set of Midgar Parts.
Placing them in their proper place opens up the chest in the stairwell, which
contains the Keycard 66. Moving right along, then...
There's no enemies on the 66th floor, and you're going to be in for a little
recon work when you get here. Because, you see, the 66th floor is where the
Shinra's big, evil meeting room is. And guess what? A big, evil meeting is
about to start. If you talk around a bit, you'll hear two pieces of information
that you should immediately tie together. First, it smells really bad in the
meeting room. Secondly, you can hear distant voices in the bathroom. In case
you haven't figured it out, the air ducts connect to both the bathroom and to
the meeting room. And, like in the movies, the air ducts were specifically
built to be large enough for a human being to crawl through with little
difficulty. Head to the bathroom and crawl into the duct. Head on over to the
hole that will let you spy on the meeting, which you will conveniently arrive
just in time for. That is, whenever you decide to show up. The Shinra may be
evil bastards, but at least they're polite enough to delay the start of a
meeting until you can make it there to spy on them. How nice!
So here's what's going down. Present at the meeting, we have President
Shinra, Heidegger, and Reeve. Also present is a woman named Scarlet, who has no
real apparent job here at Shinra besides "evil bitch". Also, you're introduced
to a tub of butter called Palmer, the head of Shinra's Space program. Sheesh,
another fatso. Hell, even the game stoops to making fun of him, later on.
Anyways, Reeve begins the meeting by whining to President Shinra about the
damages in Sector Seven, and repots an astronomically high amount of gil to
repair it. President Shinra just laughs and says that they are not going to be
doing any rebuilding. Rather, they are going with the Neo-Midgar plan.
Apparently, Aeris is supposed to lead them to the "Promised Land" or something-
rather... Until then, so sayeth President Shinra, they will just increase mako
production in the seven other reactors. Following this is some very typical
evil villain pratter. President Shinra gloats about being the man who saved
Midgar from AVALANCHE... Barret gets pissed (understandably). However, that's
when Dr. Hojo arrives. Hojo is the head of the fourth and final branch of
Shinra: Science. The first thing you'll notice about Hojo is that the guy is
obviously off his rocker. He shakes uncontrollably whenever he moves or speaks,
and that's not even taking into account half the fucked up things he says. Hojo
reports that he is still is comparing Aeris to her mother, Ifalma (to whom Aeris
is inferior, he claims). He also reports that his research will be nearly
impossible to complete in his own lifespan, or Aeris's, for that matter, so he
is considering breeding her... And as if that whole speech wasn't creepy
enough, he goes into another one of his uncontrollably shaking spasms. The
meeting ends shortly thereafter. Hurry along out of the bathroom and head
back to the lobby. You'll see Dr. Hojo walking upstairs. Follow him.
Up on the 67th floor, Barret stops to ask Cloud about Dr. Hojo. Despite
having been in SOLDIER, Cloud never met Hojo, however. Walk along the screen,
headed towards the left side of the 67th floor. There, you'll watch as Hojo
examines some kind of dog in a giant glass container. He sits there and cackles
over his "specimen", and asks it to be sent upstairs. The platform that the...
thing is on rises up to the next floor, and Hojo heads up the stairs in the back
of the room. When he leaves, the party emerges from their hiding place and
thinks aloud. What is Hojo up to? However, while Tifa and Barret are thinking,
Cloud has found his way over to another container. As he spots what is inside,
he freaks. I mean, he just freakin' flips out. Apparently, Jenova is being
kept in that container. While you're not quite sure who or what Jenova is or
why Cloud is so freaked out by it, Barret glances at it in disgust, saying
something to the effect of "where's its Goddamn head!?" Leave the headless
marvel behind for the moment and head towards the stairs. Be sure to nab the
Poison materia out of the chest before you go, however (it's one of the only
times you'll ever find materia in a chest, by the way). You also might want to
save your progress, as you have a boss battle coming up.
Speaking of the boss battle... First of all, the boss in question absorbs
poison magic, but all else will affect it. Your Poison materia will still do
you a world of good, however, in conjunction with the Elemental materia and
placed in somebody's armor (as the boss in question has poison-based attacks).
The Star Pendant you may have picked up on the 63rd floor is also a good idea
(but is redundant if the wearer already has the Poison/Elemental combo in their
armor). Aside from the boss possessing poison-based attacks and the fact that
he also has three henchmen, their attacks are of little mention (but you do have
four things attacking you, on the other hand). The worst part about the lackeys
is that he will continually respawn them, so killing them is worthless. First
of all, this means that attack-all spells really serve no purpose, but a couple
of Cure-all spells will definitely help out. This also means that he will be in
the back row for most of the fight, so single target magic attacks are really
the way to go (kill the boss, and the lackeys go with it). Lastly, of Tifa and
Barret, only one of them will be going into the fight with you while the other
sits out. You can choose which one you want to take, however. Keep this in
mind when equipping your materia, but also realize that who you decide to take
with you does have an impact on the game later on, as mentioned in section
VII.A. of the FAQ.
Up on the 68th floor, things go down. You'll see Hojo up here with his glass
tube. Inside the tube you'll see Aeris and that dog thing. The party
approaches Hojo and he explains that inside the tube are two species on the
verge of extinction (I didn't know that dogs were going extinct). He had
mentioned breeding Aeris, but...? No... That's just nasty... Your party seems
to agree with you, and Barret puts his gun-arm to good use by blasting open the
tube. The dog leaps from the machine and begins to rip Hojo's throat out (or
something else horribly violent). Then, the dog stops to... talk to you? Um...
It talks? "Lady, I'll talk all you want later," it responds. He tells you that
they called him Red XIII here at the lab, and that you can call him anything you
want. In order to continue the insult, you all just call him Red XIII. And,
judging from the way he talks, Red XIII is what Yoda would be if he were a
talking dog instead of a little green puppet. Hojo, understandably angry from
having been brutally attacked, transmogrifies into some horrible, disgusting
creature (though not as horrible and disgusting as Pauly Shore). Before
fighting him, however, you've got to choose someone, either Tifa or Barret, to
get Aeris out of here (remember, this decision affects the game later, as
mentioned in section VII.A. of the FAQ). That done, the fight with HO512
begins, and goes down pretty much as explained in the above paragraph. When you
win the fight, you'll get a Talisman.
The fight over, you'll find that Aeris and whomever you told to get her out
of here made it a good three or four feet while you were fighting. Anyways,
since you've accomplished pretty much what you came here for, the party now
agrees to get the hell out of here. You should know that RPG's ban characters
from traveling in large groups, so you decide to split up into two groups and
head downstairs. Keep in mind that the group you choose affects the game later
on (see section VII.A. of the FAQ). Once you've got your group chosen, move
along now. First, you might wanna grab the E. Skill materia inside the glass
tube, and then harass Hojo's lab assistant for his Keycard 68. That done,
leave quickly.
Be warned, however, that on your trip downstairs, you will be attacked by
Warning Boards, Moth Slashers and SOLDIER 3rd's, as described earlier in this
section. You may very well wish to take the time right now to steal some Carbon
Bangles from the Moth Slashers, as well as a Hardedge from a SOLDIER 3rd,
because not only are they both very kick-ass pieces of equipment, this is the
only chance you will have to steal them (in short, once you make it back to the
elevator, you will lose this wonderful opportunity). And remember, you're
headed for the elevator on the 66th floor, because the elevator does not go to
the 67th or 68th floors.
Your party steps into the big, glass elevator with a sense of pride and
accomplishment. You just took on the Shinra- and won! Nothing, I repeat,
nothing can go wrong now! Well, except for maybe the Turks capturing your party
as soon as you enter the elevator. Damn.
The entire party, save Aeris, is taken to President Shinra's office on the
70th floor. President Shinra explains that Aeris as an Ancient, or, as they
called themselves, the Cetra. Aeris, he says, will show him the way to the
promised land. Red XIII says that the Promised Land was only a legend. Legend
or no, says President Shinra, the Promised Land is too valuable to pass up. You
see, the Promised Land is supposedly very fertile. Fertile land has lots of...
mako! Mako, my friend! That would be the answer! And the Neo-Midgar plan
would be the one that involves sucking all of that precious mako out of the
Promised Land. Why, that evil... He follows this with a hard-hitting quote:
"these days, all it takes for your dreams to come true is money and power".
Then, he has the Turks haul your party off to jail. So much for challenging the
Shinra and winning...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Shinra H.Q. (Part Two)
You'll wake up a bit later in one of the Shinra's detainment cells. You may
or may not have seen these on the 67th floor as you passed by. Cloud and Tifa
occupy the cell in the middle, and are flanked by cells containing Aeris (on the
left), Barret and Red XIII (both on the right). First off, your following
actions will have a significant impact on the game later on. See section VII.A.
of the FAQ for more details. That being said, I know it is standard for all
heroes who are captured by villains and thrown in jail to make a daring escape,
especially considering that the Shinra left you with your weapons and materia...
However, despite what you may think, your only real option is to sit here and
stew for a bit. You can talk to Tifa, and also see what's happening with Aeris,
Barret, and Red XIII (by the way, these would be the decisions mentioned in
section VII.A. of the FAQ that have an impact on the game later on).
Aeris and Cloud begin to talk through the wall. Aeris mentions the date that
they had agreed to, which noticeably pisses Tifa off. Tifa asks Aeris about the
Promised Land, but there's truly little that Aeris really knows. People go to
the planet when they die, she says, and she does "talk" to the planet in a way,
but she really can't understand what it's saying. It's kind of like when
someone comes up to talk to you, but doesn't speak any English. Despite all the
stuff they prattle off that you can't understand, you can still make some form
of communication through exaggerated gestures, facial expressions, and lots of
pointing. Aeris's conversations with the planet are kind of like that, only
completely different. I dunno, I can't explain it very well because I'm not a
Cetra and I've never spoken with the planet before. Well, unless you count the
time I asked a tree stump for directions. It didn't respond, but at least it
was more helpful than some of the locals. But, I digress... Despite the
Promised Land being a legend, Aeris's mother promised her that one day she would
find it, so we're going to have to be content with that for now. After a bit of
conversation, you fall asleep.
That when the creepy crap happens. You wake up to chilling music, which
should be more than enough to alert you that something is wrong. Also note that
the door of your cell is wide open and the guard is lying on the ground having
been brutally murdered a few feet away. Hurry back to your cell, get Tifa, and
let out the rest of the team... Red XIII goes on ahead to see what's wrong.
Not necessarily the smartest thing to do, considering that whatever did this was
obviously superhuman, but, whatever. Barret, on the other hand, says that he's
going to stay back here and clean up. Again, not necessarily the smartest thing
to do, given the large-scale spook factor of the current situation, but let him
do what he wants. I learned a long time ago not to argue with people who's arms
have been surgically replaced with guns. This leaves Aeris and Tifa to
accompany Cloud. Equip them properly, based on the new wave of creature
features that you'll find roaming around the place (as mentioned below).
First off, the Elemental/Poison combo in someone's armor is still helpful, as
two of the three new enemies you'll meet are level-three bio-hazards. The
Brain Pod is an enemy that has a strong attack that will poison your character
(hence my suggestion of the Elemental/Poison combo). In addition, it can also
put your characters to sleep. It absorbs poison magic, obviously, but all other
magic works quite well against it. For the Zenene, take everything I said
about the Brain Pod and stick it here, with a few differences. One, it cannot
put your characters to sleep. Two, it's physical attacks are considerably more
powerful. Three, they are weak to the effects of holy magic, meaning that the
Cure spell can be used in a pinch as a decent offensive attack. Lastly, we have
the Vagrid Police. You'll probably do more laughing than fighting when you
battle them, seeing as their attacks almost never hit you. And when they do,
they'll take out all of one damage point. There's a catch, though. They turn
somewhat suicidal when their HP is low, and explode themselves in your face for
a considerable amount of damage. Of course, if you kill them quickly, you need
not worry about that. Physical attacks and magic do good damage, but the best
way to rid yourself of these things is with the Bio spell, which should do
considerably more damage than anything else that you can scrounge up at the
time.
Anyways, with your party outfitted, move along. There will be a trail of
blood on the floor which you should follow, because your party obviously has a
death-wish to meet up with whatever evil incarnation mercilessly slaughtered
everyone in the damn building. The trail will lead to the left side of the 67th
floor (where you saw Hojo earlier). Take note that the machine that had Jenova
in it has been destroyed and Jenova is now missing. Hmm... Interesting.
Anyways, follow the trail back up to the 68th floor, though you may wish to stop
and save first. Anyways, head on up to the 68th floor and keep following the
ominous trail of fresh blood. You'll head up past the uneventful 69th floor to
the 70th floor of Shinra H.Q., where you discover President Shinra... dead.
Stabbed in the back and slumped over his desk, the evil President Shinra is no
more. Barret and Red XIII both arrive, and Barret, for one, couldn't be
happier.
As the party speculates, Cloud spots something out of the corner of his eye.
It's fat man Palmer! Still alive, at that! Palmer rushes from his hiding spot
at a speedy quarter of a mile an hour, and Cloud, easily enough, apprehends him.
The team grills him for answers. Palmer frightenedly replies that the massacre
was at the hands of Sephiroth. He claims that Sephiroth arrived and said that
he wasn't about to let the Shinra have the Promised Land, so he slaughtered the
whole lot of 'em. Again, Barret is quite pleased, but Cloud stops him.
Sephiroth may have wasted the Shinra, but he isn't necessarily a good guy
because of it, Cloud says. Having pumped him for all the information he knows,
Palmer wrestles away from you and hurriedly leaves in search of butter.
Anyways, just as Barret is about to pour some champagne and have a party, the
team hears the sound of a helicopter outside. It's Rufus, the son of President
Shinra! The party rushes outside to deal with him. On the rooftop, Rufus turns
around to see the party headed towards him, and greets you in his villainous
manner. Your characters introduce yourselves to them, attempting to sound cool,
but that trails off by about the time it reaches Aeris. The interesting note
here is that it is at about this time that your characters really begin to view
themselves as a "team". Pretty neat, huh? At any rate, Rufus begins making a
long-winded and evil speech about how he aspires to be even eviler than his
father was... It's kind of like an Austin Powers sketch gone horribly wrong.
Cloud puts an end to the bullcrap for the moment and commands the rest of the
team to get the hell out of here. Barret being to stop him, but Cloud again
commands him to go, amending this with, "this is the real crisis for the
planet!" That's all it takes for Barret to herd the rest of the group back
downstairs.
They make it to the 69th floor when they begin to worry about Cloud. Tifa
stays behind to wait, and you are left with a team of Aeris, Barret, and Red
XIII. Equip them properly for the upcoming boss fight. As soon as your party
steps into the main elevator (it didn't go to the 67th or 68th floor, but it
does reach up here to the 69th floor, so it's a very short walk), a battle will
ensue with the Hundred Gunner, which attacks you from the elevator opposite you
as you ride down. This will be a long-range fight, so take heed. Barret is the
only character who will be able to attack physically (though he will still be
able to do more damage with magic, if he has any). Red XIII and Aeris will be
able to attack only with magic, limit breaks, or items. Hundred Gunner is
especially weak against lightning, and the Bolt spell with do lovely damage to
it. Conversely, poison magic has no effect on it (but, as always, the
Poison/Elemental combo in someone's armor couldn't hurt, as mentioned below).
Lastly, the Hundred Gunner, despite the "Hundred" part of its name, is a lone
attacker. Point in case, All paired with attack magic is worthless. On the
other hand, Cure-all spells should be a great asset to you during this fight,
because you can't rely entirely on Healing Wind. Keep all this in mind when
outfitting your party. Now, the Hundred Gunner's attacks are weak and of very
little mention, but when you kick it's ass, the real enemy arrives.
The Heli Gunner's attacks are considerably stronger than those of the
Hundred Gunner. It has an attack that does big damage to a single target, and
it can poison your teammates with wanton disregard. This is the reason I
suggested the Poison/Elemental combo in your armor earlier. Lastly, the Heli
Gunner had a powerful attack that will do big damage to your team, but it takes
a turn to charge its gun up, thus giving you ample opportunity to heal yourself
prior to taking the blow. Anyways, when you win the fight, you'll win an
antiquated Mythril Armlet, and the scene will switch back to Cloud.
Calling upon all of his abilities to manipulate this continuum that we call
time and space, Cloud can mysteriously take any of the materia that you've given
to Barret, Aeris, and/or Red XIII, so go nuts. He'll be preparing himself for a
quick fight with Rufus and his hound, Dark Nation. This will follow a brief
speech by Rufus, in which he informs you that Sephiroth is also an Ancient, so
he obviously is laying claim to the Promised Land. But for now, let's prepare
for the fight.
Obviously, a Restore materia would be a pretty good thing to have handy.
Secondly, Dark Nation, despite being a canine, has a powerful Bolt spell that
may make you consider putting the Lightning/Elemental combo in Cloud's armor.
However, Dark Nation is probably going to be the first of the two that you'll
want to take out for two reasons. One, Dark Nation can cast Barrier, seriously
hampering your progress. Two, if you give Cloud the Poison materia, Bio will
take him out in one fell swoop (at higher levels, other magic materia or even a
physical attack may produce the same effect, but I mention Bio simply because it
is the strongest attack of the lot). So, in this respect, you may not
necessarily need the Elemental/Lightning combo in his armor. But, if you've got
the space, you might as well put something there to take advantage of the AP
you'll earn from this fight. As for Rufus, once you take care of Dark Nation,
the fight will degenerate pretty much into Cloud and Rufus trading blows. His
pathetic little shotgun does far less damage than you'd expect a shotgun to do
at point-blank range. On the other hand, the Bio spell that you used to kick
Dark Nation's ass in one hit will also do a very nice job on Rufus himself.
Failing that, other attack magic or even just wildly slashing at him will get
the job done fairly quickly. When Rufus is damaged enough, he escapes on his
helicopter. Cloud for some reason refrains from frying him with a Bolt spell or
something like that and hurries off, taking with him the spoils of the battle (a
Protect Vest and a Guard Source). Cloud heads down to the 69th floor and meets
up with Tifa, and the scene switches back to the others.
Barret, Aeris, and Red XIII head for the front door. Now, seeing as a
massive slaughter has taken place here at Shinra H.Q., you are correct in
assuming that a swarm of Shinra soldiers have arrived and await outside. Barret
rushes to the door and tries to clear them out, but it's really no use. If he
were alone it wouldn't be a big deal, he says, but he has to keep Aeris safe, as
well. Tifa arrives downstairs without Cloud, which obviously confuses the rest
of the team. She says not to worry and herds the team outside. You are treated
to a very lovely CG movie sequence, where you'll see Tifa and the others headed
towards a truck and hopping on. Meanwhile, Cloud comes roaring downstairs on a
bitchin' hog. He then speeds out of Shinra H.Q., flies into the air, and lands
on the highway just behind the truck. I'm sorry, but Cloud does not at any
point in the game kick more ass than he does in this scene. By the way, you're
not out of the woods yet. It's time for the chase scene...
First and foremost, you'll need to form a party. Do so, and realize that
you've got yet another boss fight, so prepare yourselves adequately. The boss
in question is weak against lightning, unaffected by poison, and resistant to
fire. It also attack with powerful fire-based attacks, so the Elemental/Fire
combo in someone's armor is recommended. Lastly, it is a lone attacker, so your
All materia will be best used to create a couple of Cure-all spells. When you
have your party created, take a moment to learn exactly what you will be doing.
Basically, you will ride down the highway along side the truck and fend off the
attacking Shinra troops with your big-ass sword. The motorcycle troops will
attempt to ram the truck, which causes damage to your teammates. And since it
is in your best interests to keep them healthy for the upcoming boss fight,
you'll want to vigilantly defend them. This game is identical to a game you'll
play later at the Gold Saucer, so for more in-depth strategy on this game, refer
to section VIII.B. of the FAQ. And then, the chase will begin...
The mini game will end when the highway abruptly ends. You are then
approached by a bad-ass boss called Motor Ball, and the team that you selected
will fight it, whilst the remaining two sit on the sidelines and talk quietly
amongst themselves (hey, get off your sorry asses and help us!) Motor Ball has
a fairly decent physical attack, but the two attacks that you really need to
watch out for are Rolling Fire and Twin Burner. First off, both are fire-based,
so the Elemental/Fire combo in your armor really helps in this respect. Rolling
Fire is a common attack that does a considerable amount of damage to the entire
party. Twin Burner does huge damage to the entire party, so you really need to
keep yourself healed. Luckily, Motor Ball doesn't use Twin Burner that often,
and will do so only when in an upright position. The only magic that proves
useful is ice and lightning magic (as always, lightning magic will rip up on our
metallic friend, here). Failing that, physical attacks also work quite well.
Anyways, win the fight, and you'll earn a Star Pendant.
Your team stands on the edge of the highway victorious. Cloud boldly
proclaims that he is going after Sephiroth. He has to settle the score, he
says... Since he had also mentioned that this was the real crisis for the
planet, Barret decides to come along with him. The team makes their way to the
outskirts of Midgar (which you should recognize if you came this way during your
stay in Sector Five). You can now walk around and talk to the party as you
wish. Barret will obviously be coming along to help save the planet. Tifa, as
you should realize, really has nowhere left to go and will be accompanying you,
as well. Aeris wants to learn more about the Ancients, so she comes along, as
well. Red XIII, lastly, says that he will go with you as far as home (the
location of which, by the way, he never really reveals). Well, this is it.
You're leaving Midgar, and you can't return until much, much later in the game.
Say your goodbyes and shed a tear to the heartfelt music score. Also, you need
to form a team before leaving. This is another seemingly minor detail that will
have a big impact on the game later, as detailed in section VII.A. of the FAQ.
Once you've got your team assembled and your wits about you, move on out into
the huge world that awaits you...
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--- Welcome to: The World Map & Kalm
You emerge for the first time into the game's overworld map. It's a
beautiful place with awesome theme music, so walk around a bit and get the feel
of the land. You can also laugh at how Godzilla-like you look standing next to
the highly disproportionate Midgar. Also watch out for a brand-new set of
creature features. First, there's the Custom Sweeper. The Custom Sweeper is
probably the toughest creature around here to kill, but at least its weakness to
lightning will prevent the battles from dragging on for too long (and in
addition, it being a machine and all, poison attacks will have no effect on it).
Two things about the Custom Sweeper are of mention, however. The first is that
you can steal from them a pair of Atomic Scissors, a kick-ass weapon for Barret.
The second is that they possess an attack called Matra Magic, which you can
learn with your E. Skill materia. It's a powerful attack, especially this early
in the game, that can be a big asset if you pick it up now. However, as
powerful of an attack as Matra Magic is when you use it, it's just as powerful
when it's being used against you, so watch yourself. Next up on our monster
list is the Prowler. In addition to being a very kick-ass Iron Maiden song,
the Prowler is also a guy who hangs around Midgar and steals things from people
who enter into battles with it. Luckily, they are very easy to kill, and
killing them should generally be a priority if you don't want them to make off
with all of your stuff (note that if they steal stuff, you can still get it back
if you quickly kill them). Also, we have the Devil Ride, a very weird creature
riding a very kick-ass hog. They're moderately difficult to kill, though not so
much as the Custom Sweeper. On the other hand, however, they have no
weaknesses, so expect longer fights. Lastly, there's the Kalm Fang, an enemy
which, as you might expect, generally won't appear until you begin to near Kalm.
They're among the easy-to-kill breed of monster, luckily enough. They possess
no weaknesses, but Bio, Quake, or Matra Magic will pretty much off them in a
single hit.
Anyways, I spoke earlier of a town called Kalm. It's a small village to the
east of Midgar, and it's where you should be headed to sooner or later. First
off, you'll probably want to save before entering town, because once you enter,
there's going to be a long sequence that will not let you save for quite some
time. Anyways, when you arrive in town, your party heads straight to the inn
only to discover that the other two team members have beaten you here. You
teammates both head to the inn, and you are free to wander about the town if you
so please. You may wish to head to the northern part of town and do a bit of
shopping (the Heal and Earth materia may both be of interest to you). You may
also choose to raid a local home and steal the gun out of their treasure chest
(the Peacemaker). You cannot use this now, but do hold onto it, as you may
find a use for it later. By the way, you may opt not to speak to a few of the
townspeople not just yet, and instead wait until your party is back with you
(for reasons why, refer to section VII.A. of the FAQ). However, all the
information you can gleam from this town will be listed at the end of the next
subsection of the walkthrough (--- Welcome to: The Flashback). Anyways, on that
note, why not head to the inn and get things started?
You'll find the party waiting for you at the only room at the inn (gee, I
hope that nobody else wanted to stay here tonight). There, the questions begin
to arise... Thus begins the flashback.
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--- Welcome to: The Flashback
Cloud explains his relationship with Sephiroth in a rather long flashback
sequence that begins now. He explains that after Cloud joined SOLDIER and
worked a few missions with Sephiroth, they became friends. And then, one day,
they went off on another mission... The scene switches to a couple of soldiers
sitting in the back of a van. One of them is Sephiroth, who sits calmly on a
box. Another is a very young Cloud, who excitedly runs around the van talking
to all of the soldiers. Sephiroth finally breaks in and tells Cloud to calm
down and shut up. Cloud goes on about how he joined SOLDIER so that he could be
just like Sephiroth, but that the war was over by the time he made first class.
Anyways, Sephiroth lays the mission down to Cloud. There is a mako reactor
that has been spitting out monsters as of late. Their first mission is to find
these... monsters... and kill them. Next, they have to find the source of these
monsters and neutralize it. The reactor in question, in case you were curious,
is located in Nibelheim: Cloud and Tifa's hometown. At about this time, the
monster in question arrives and attacks the truck. Cloud and Sephiroth leap out
to fight it. Now... This fight... Let us first point and laugh at how
absolutely pathetic, weak, and infantile Cloud is in this fight. Suffice it to
say that he's come a long way in the five years since all this happened. If it
was only Cloud in this fight, you might as well go ahead and throw out the
controller now, but there's also Sephiroth. He's controlled by the computer, so
you really have no say in what he does. However, he does end the fight fairly
quickly by expeditiously kicking the monster's ass into last year. Even Cloud
comments on how insanely strong Sephiroth is.
Anyways, the team arrives at Nibelheim. Sephiroth asks Cloud what it's like
to be home. He wouldn't know, he says, because he has no parents or hometown.
His mother was Jenova, and died in childbirth, and his father... He explains
everything with a stern look on that one, pretty much. After this, the game
relinquishes control of Cloud to you. As you head on into town, Barret astutely
points out that Jenova was that "damn headless spook" living in the Shinra
building. That is, it was before it mysteriously disappeared.
Cloud says that the town was quiet. Everyone was inside their homes,
possibly scared of the monsters. "Or maybe they were just scared of us..."
Cloud surmises. No, Cloud, they're scared of Sephiroth. You have the
intimidation powers of a stapler, and nobody is scared of your weak, pathetic,
little pansy ass except possibly other staplers. Anyways, Sephiroth heads
towards the inn, leaving Cloud free to wander about the town.
There are two places to head. They are clearly obvious, because they are the
only other two houses in town, just about. The first house would be Cloud's
(it's the one on the right). When you enter, you have the option of telling the
story to the team, or quickly exiting without a word. If you are displeased
with the text-heavy, non-smashie-smashie flashback and wish for it to quickly
end, choose the latter and move on to the next paragraph. However, if you
decide to delve into the story, Cloud begins by talking about his mother. She
lived alone for most of her life, and inexplicably died a few days after Cloud
visited. But, when Cloud saw her that day, she looked fine... You'll then see
the scene where Cloud returns home and talks to his mother. Of course, the
entire memory is completely glitched, and Cloud doesn't really appear to
remember a damn thing. The scene does segue into the scene you saw earlier,
though, where he's lying in bed and his mother yells at him about not having a
girlfriend. Maybe, Cloud, just maybe, your dear, sweet mother died of... a
broken heart? Meh. The scene ends, and Cloud exits again to the streets of
Nibelheim.
Head along now to the house next door (to the left), which happens to be
Tifa's house. Like Cloud's house, you've got the option of just not telling the
story and leaving, or continuing inside. The difference is that inside, nothing
really happens. You can continue upstairs and into Tifa's room. In her room,
there's lots of fun things that you can do. You can play her piano, steal her
underwear, and read a letter on her desk (and despite what you may think, none
of your responses will affect the way Tifa feels about you). The letter is from
the son of the clerk at the item shop, and it details his trip to Midgar and
other uninteresting details. Apparently, everyone from Nibelheim (except Cloud)
was there to meet him. He goes on to comment about how Cloud wasn't close to
them, anyways, and probably wouldn't have come even if they found him. It's
kind of sad, really, and gives you kind of a bit of insight into Cloud's past.
You can stop or continue reading the letter, but the rest is mostly boring
drivel. By the way, none of your actions here really effect the game later on
(as mentioned in section VII.A. of the FAQ), so go nuts.
Anyways, head back to the inn. There's a guy there looking for Sephiroth so
he can take a picture of him. Cloud offers to let the guy take a picture of
him, instead. The guy replies that he doesn't want a picture of a nobody.
Comments like that I suppose would explain Cloud's self-esteem problem, at any
rate. You'll also meet Tifa's martial arts teacher, named Zangan. Anyways,
upstairs, you'll discover that the bedroom is one bed short for your team. Go
talk to Sephiroth (he's standing by the window). He'll first comment on the
scenery, but when you talk to him again, you're given the option to go to sleep
for the night. And you do, though you never do find out how the bed situation
worked out. Then again, if they fought for the beds, something tells me that it
was Cloud who slept on the floor that night...
The next morning, your team stands ready on the north side of Nibelheim.
Talk to Sephiroth, who says that you're leaving as soon as your guide gets here.
The guide, by the way, is Tifa. Cloud is a bit shocked, not wanting to drag her
into this. Sephiroth just tells Cloud to protect her, and she'll be fine.
Though, given about how powerful Cloud was at the time, I'd say that Tifa would
have been better off if he had just handed her a butter knife for protection.
Before you leave, Tifa's father gets a snapshot of Tifa, Cloud, and Sephiroth.
There's a memento for the ages, if I do say so myself. Anyways, the team heads
towards Mt. Nibel, which would be the gigantic mountain resting behind Nibelheim
where the reactor is located.
Well, upon entering Mt. Nibel, the team heads directly onto the rickety rope
bridge of death. How cliché... After the inevitable and predictable breaking
of said bridge, the party wakes up on a ledge below, sans one expendable
soldier. Since he really wasn't that important to the plot, and nobody had even
bothered to ask the guy's name anyways, the team continues along nonchalantly.
As you walk along the very linear path, you may enter into a battle or two.
However, while Cloud may get in a pathetic slash at anything that happens by
(doing little to no damage to it in the process), Sephiroth will effortlessly
toast anything that dares cross his path. At the end of the path, you'll enter
a cave.
Inside the cave, stick to the right and walk along that path until you reach
the very back of it. There, you'll discover a mako fountain, spewing out pure,
unspoiled mako. In the middle of it, you'll find a chunk of materia in it's raw
form. Materia, you see, is little more than condensed mako. See, you learn
something new every day! Sephiroth goes on to explain how materia contains the
knowledge of the ancients and with it you are able to use the powers of the land
with it. Or, in other words, magic. Cloud mentions the phrase "mysterious
power", which makes Sephiroth laugh. He says that a man once told him never to
use such an unscientific term, and that that man was Dr. Hojo. You see, five
years ago, Dr. Hojo wasn't the respected lunatic that he is today. He was just
an inexperienced young lunatic assigned to take over the work of another
scientist, Dr. Gast (who's file you may have seen back at Shinra H.Q.). The
party continues on after this.
You arrive at the reactor with little trouble. Cloud and Sephiroth continue
inside, leaving Private What's-his-Name to stay outside and make sure Tifa
doesn't run off. Follow Sephiroth into the back of the reactor where Sephiroth
will quickly and effortlessly fix the problem, but that's not all of it.
Sephiroth looks around and explains to you just why all the monsters were
appearing. You may notice that the room you're standing in is full of very odd-
looking pods. Well, have you ever seen a pod be used for anything besides
creating monsters? Sephiroth explains that "normal members of SOLIDER" are
exposed to mako to enhance their strength, kind of like steroids. But that they
remain human. The things thrown into these pods are being exposed to uber-high
amounts of mako, so much to the point that they are literally becoming monsters.
And, of course, wouldn't you guess that Dr. Hojo was behind it all?
Hojo's insanities are actually the least of your worries right now. You see,
Sephiroth had used the term, "normal members of SOLDIER" to refer to everyone
except himself whom, as we've already established, kicks very much more ass than
they do. Then again, brains must not have been his strong point, because this
is the kind of thing it takes for it to finally dawn on Sephiroth that just
maybe... this is how he came to be? He was... created? Of course not,
Sephiroth, you were just naturally born like that. And if that's what you've
believed for all these years, I've got a bridge to sell you while I'm at it.
Needless to say, Sephiroth flips out, while Cloud leaves him to his insanity.
You are given the option to save your game at this point, which you may or
may not take Cloud up on. More insanity to come!
Following this little incident, Sephiroth returned to Nibelheim and confined
himself inside the friendly neighborhood haunted house, dubbed the "Shinra
Mansion" by the villagers because people who worked for Shinra used to live
there. Rather than populating it or at least tearing the Goddamn thing down
and/or looting the place, they just left it as it was. Anyways, Cloud decides
to go after Sephiroth. Head up to the second floor and to the right. There's a
soldier standing outside a room that Sephiroth entered but never left. Inside
this room, you'll find a door to a giant spiraling staircase that in turn will
take you to the basement. Here in the basement, there's a gigantic library
where you'll find Sephiroth doing his research. And in the world of Final
Fantasy VII, a little knowledge is a very dangerous thing.
Sephiroth reads that Professor Gast, a long time ago, discovered an
apparently dead organism in an ancient geological stratum. He named the
organism Jenova, and soon discovered that Jenova was an ancient. Following that
began the "Jenova Project"... Amazingly enough, it is at about this moment that
Sephiroth begins to grasp the concept that his mother, Jenova, and Dr. Gast's
pet project may possibly be related. Again, brains were quite obviously not one
of Sephiroth's strong points. Attempt to converse with him to no avail, and
then leave him to his madness.
Sephiroth continues to stew in the basement for quite some time... And then,
one day, Cloud wakes up in the Shinra Mansion to some very ominous music, which
alone should tip you off to something. Head back down into the basement to find
Sephiroth, quite obviously gone mad. He calls you a traitor, and then explains
why. The Cetra, or the Ancients, were a nomadic race (and in case you haven't
gotten it through your skull by now, Sephiroth is a member of said race). They
would travel from planet to planet, populate it, and move on. At the end of
their long journey, they were to discover the Promised Land. However, a faction
disliked the nomadic life and instead opted to settle down and live the easy
life. They took and took from the Cetra without giving a damn thing back. They
would be the ancestors of the norms.
Long ago, a great cataclysm rocked the planet. The norms survived by hiding
out. The Cetra sacrificed themselves to save the planet, after which the norms
flourished. So, apparently, their only real crime was surviving (and I guess
being a bunch of deadbeats). This is apparently enough to send Sephiroth off
the edge, though. Well, he also finally appears to have come to the realization
that he is the result of the Jenova Project... On that note, he strides towards
Mt. Nibel to find Jenova. Follow him.
As Cloud exits the mansion, he finds that in the couple of moments that
Sephiroth was outside, he has managed to set the entire village on fire, which,
I have to admit, is quite a feat. Zangan sees you coming out of the mansion and
calls to you, "hey, you're still sane, aren't you?" Well, "sane" isn't usually
a word I would use to describe Cloud, but, for the moment and relatively
speaking, he is. He leaps over the flames and assists Zangan in scavenging the
village for survivors. Actually, come to think of it... this may be how Cloud's
mother died... Anyways, Cloud looks over to the north and spots Sephiroth
walking away from the village in a very kick-ass CG movie sequence.
Cloud chases Sephiroth to the reactor at Mt. Nibel. Heading into the
reactor, you'll see Tifa and her father... You should actually recognize this
sequence from earlier in the game. Tifa is kneeling beside her wounded father
swearing vengeance on the Shinra and Sephiroth... sound familiar? Well, now for
the part that you didn't see. Tifa, in an understandable rage, grabs
Sephiroth's long-ass sword which he for some reason left lying next to the guy
he mercilessly stabbed to death and runs into the back room. Tifa then charges
Sephiroth at full speed wildly brandishing said long-ass sword. In retrospect,
that was probably about the dumbest idea since the First Annual Broken Glass-
Eating Contest, but you can sort of understand why she might not be thinking
clearly at the moment. You can sort of imagine what happens next: Sephiroth
effortlessly snatches the sword away from the enraged girl and slashes the hell
out of her with it. She flies backwards through the air, sickeningly bouncing
on the steps on her way down, finally coming to rest at the bottom. Ouch.
Cloud enters the back room in shock. Your first job should be to help Tifa
out. For the moment, Cloud will carry Tifa out of harm's way. He's really too
much of a dumbass to do anything helpful like or stop the bleeding or dress up
her wound, so for the moment she's just going to have to lie there quietly and
try not to stain the floor. It's actually a very sad and touching scene.
Really. Cloud should then confront Sephiroth.
You'll find Sephiroth in the back room talking to Jenova. This is kind of
odd, because Jenova has actually been dead for quite some time now. Anyways,
this doesn't stop Sephiroth from happily elaborating how he and her are going to
take the planet back form themselves. He then grabs the oddly-shaped life form
and begins to make off with it. Cloud, as you might imagine, is rather
indignant with the senseless destruction of his hometown and angrily chides
Sephiroth as he tries to leave. The intensity rises... Sephiroth on a binge of
destruction... Only Cloud remains to stand against him... Too bad that at this
moment, Cloud's brain performs an illegal operation and must be shut down.
Seriously, of all the parts of the story that he could have forgotten, this
would be the one part that I kind of assumed that he'd remember. Then again,
maybe Sephiroth kicked his ass to the point of brain damage, which would go far
in explaining Cloud's personality today.
Anyways, there're several holes in Cloud's story that for the lack of a
better source of information you're going to have to let slide for the moment.
The greatest of these, obviously, is the fact that Cloud challenged Sephiroth
and lived to tell the tale. I guess a close second would be how Tifa managed to
survive without so much as a scar. Also, there's Sephiroth. Y'see, official
records state that Sephiroth is dead. But then again, Shinra Inc. has a bit of
a monopoly on things of the official sort, so it's not like you could trust the
information, anyways. But on the other hand, if Sephiroth truly is alive, and
had Jenova with him when he left Mt. Nibel, how did Jenova end up at Shinra
H.Q.? Cloud says that it was transported there following the whole incident,
but if you'll recall, Jenova was missing from the Shinra building after the
massacre... there's obviously something missing from the puzzle here. And at
about this time, it all becomes too much for Barret, who's brain goes into
complete overload. Please note that other things that cause Barret to become
completely and totally confused include: thinking, conversation, opening doors,
and other non-killing-related activities.
The whole scene ends on a touching note, when Tifa asks Cloud how badly she
was cut up back at the reactor. Cloud replies that she was pretty bad, and that
he didn't think that she was going to make it. And I've got to hand it to Tifa,
surviving an attack like that took something that I don't even think Bruce
Willis could muster. Then again, Cloud challenged Sephiroth and he still seems
to be fine. "Fine" is determined quite loosely here, though, seeing as this is
the same guy who has more people in his head to talk to than in real life and
who's memory has more holes in it than my underwear, so I'll let you come to
your own conclusions on that one.
The next morning, head on downstairs. Barret hands you the PHS, which is
basically what you will be using to switch out your party members. You'll
recall the ban on traveling in groups greater than three, so this glorified cell
phone actually comes in quite handy despite its inability to be used indoors or
within a fifty-foot radius of civilization of any sort. I mean, without it, you
wouldn't see half of your team ever again. You are now left with the party that
you had originally created back at Midgar. You are free to leave town, though
first you may stop to converse with a few of the citizens (for an effect on the
game later on, no less, as mentioned in section VII.A. of the FAQ) You don't
find much else out here, though. The main news here seems to be that everyone
is happy because the nearby city of Midgar has introduced to them a novelty
known as mako power. Also, you'll find a lot of unemployed miners at the bar.
They used to work in the Mythril Mines to the east, but have been out of work
ever since hideous monsters started patrolling the area. Monsters! Heh! When
I was a kid, I walked to school everyday barefoot in the snow fighting off
hordes of the bastards and it didn't bother me one bit! In fact, I rather liked
it! What else? Oh, yes. According to Shinra, AVALANCHE has disappeared...
Which is interesting, really, because considering that their headquarters was
recently massacred by a homicidal madman, PR really shouldn't be on their list
of top concerns for the moment. Lastly, there's a guy here who saw Sephiroth
heading east.
Anyways, take care of any other business that you may have around Kalm and
then continue east.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Chocobo Ranch
Continue east along the continent into the deep boonies. You'll know you're
headed in the right direction when all of a sudden you have a burning desire to
wear overalls and watch Hee-Haw. There're also lots of farm-themed animals out
here that, despite what you may think, want to kill you. The Levikron is an
ostrich-like creature that is fairly easy to kill, but has a nasty tendency to
enrage you with its attacks. The Elfadunk is an elephant, if that helps. It
also has an attack which can make your characters sad, so be wary of that, as
well. The Mandragona has very high magic defense, and it takes quite a bit of
magical effort to put them down. As you might imagine, physical attacks are
generally a better route to go. It will not attack you unless you attack it.
It is also a weed. A weed which has somehow sprung to life to attack random
passersby. Pollution-much? Lastly, let's look at the Mu. It's one of those
rare occurrences around here, but it's an enemy that you should seek out, if
nothing more for the fact that it uses the Lv. 4 Suicide attack, which you can
learn with your E. Skill materia. Needless to say, it's also a rather powerful
attack when used against you, so be careful. Aside from the Lv. 4 Suicide
attack, they also have another powerful attack called Sewer, which will do a
very large amount of damage to one of your characters, so you'd be wise not to
let these little bastards live for too long, no matter how ridiculously cute
they may look.
Anyways, grab yer wife an' kids, hop in da pickup, and head on down to dat
dere dun Chocobo Ranch. Ya can't miss it- it's a giant farm in the middle of
nowhere. And I'm talking "kid with no teeth sitting on the front porch playing
a banjo" backwoods middle-of-nowhere, here. You'll arrive at a very pleasant-
looking ranch. The Chocobo Ranch: home of inbreeding and 75% of the world's
illiterate. You'll see a bunch of chocobos hanging around out front, whom you
can talk to. If you say, "wark", they get really happy and do a little dance
and reward you with the Choco/Mog materia, so it's at the very least worth your
time. Now, head to the house and speak with the head farmer here, Chocobo Bill.
He tells you that the Midgar Zolom patrols the swamp to the south. This is
important because you must cross said swamp to reach the Mythril Mines and
therefore continue on your journey. He suggests that you acquire a chocobo to
safely cross the swamp and refers you to his son in the stables for more
information on that matter. Now, get out of here before he begins to talk about
the UFO ride he took last week.
Head to the stables and talk to Chocobo Bill's son, Billy. I think his full
name is Billy Bubba Bo Bob Brain, but I really don't think that that would fit
in the text box, so Billy it is. He informs you that there are no chocobos
available for rent, so you're gonna have to go rustle up your own. Of course,
you're going to need some Chocobo Lure first, which interestingly comes in
materia form. Materia is like Lunchables, I suppose, in that just about
anything can be made into it. He does gouge you quite a bit for it, however.
Now it is possible to cross the marsh without a chocobo (see below), but if
you've got the gil, I would still recommend you pick it up while you're here.
But, it's your call. Secondly, if you're going to have any chances of catching
one, you may need a green. Pay no heed to Billy's relentless price gouging and
just grab the cheapest crap he has- it's likely all you'll need, and this way
you save more of your gil.
And, though not neccissarily a lost-forever, the Chocobo Lure is mentionied
in section I.F. of the FAQ. There's only one of them, or at least until one of
my rumors at the end of the FAQ is confirmed, anyways. Don't sell this thing,
lest you make Baby Jesus cry. Or at least don't whine about it after you do.
Now, it's time for the Chocobo catchin'. Even if you don't want to use one
to cross the marsh (see below), you still may want to enter into a battle with
one for two reasons. One, when you enter a battle with them, the battle music
changes into an odd rendition of "Wipeout", which I find very odd given the
Hicksville, USA motif of the area. Secondly, they use an attack called
Chocobuckle, which you can learn with the E. Skill materia. However, they only
use this attack when you use the Lv. 4 Suicide attack (learned from the Mu) on
them. Anyways, now for the catchin'. You've got to defeat all of the enemies
in the battle without harming the Chocobo (lest it freak out and run away). It
actually has a tendency to freak out and run away without you ever actually
touching it, hence the reason you bought the greens. You see, if you toss it
the green during battle, it will just much away, completely unaware of its
surroundings. Kind of like Palmer, y'know. That fatass wouldn't notice if he
was on fire so long as you stuck something delicious in his mouth. The more
expensive green you feed it, the longer it will take it to finish it, and the
more time it will buy you. Of course, if you are at any kind of a decent level
of experience and skill, these battles should progress fairly easily, and as I
mentioned before, the cheapest crap that Chocobo Billy had should be more than
sufficient in this respect.
Anyways, as I have made it a point to mention before, it is more than
possible to cross the swamp without using a chocobo. It's just sort of hard to
do without becoming a Midgar Zolom's bitch. Basically, once you set foot in the
swamp, that thing will start coming for you. It is virtually impossible to make
it across without it hitting you, though it can be done. When it catches you
(if you're on foot, that is), you'll enter a battle with it. If you win the
battle, you may continue as you were (though a new Zolom will appear, so you
must hurry on). Lose the battle (quite likely), and you are ejected from the
swamp. For those interested in doing battle with the Midgar Zolom, details are
listed below. The rest of you, just skip to the next paragraph.
Wanna tangle with a Midgar Zolom, do you? First off, you're going to need
Barret with you. Without Mind blow, you might as well just bend over and kiss
your ass goodbye. You may also want to stick most if not all of your characters
in the back row, as the Midgar Zolom has an uber-powerful attack. On a positive
note, this does mean that you'll get lots of limit break opportunities. Again,
use Mindblow early in the fight (you'll find out why later). Keep pounding away
at it with all you've got. Magic attacks are the most effective (Bio really
helps, as it may poison the Zolom), as are your frequent limit breaks. You'll
want to vigilantly watch over your HP, however. Aeris can be an asset here with
her Healing Wind, but you'll still need the aid of one or two good Restore
materia-bearing characters. Hi-Potions and Phoenix Down in your inventory is
also good to have. Anyways, after you do enough damage to it, it will "stand
up", sort of. Its attacks don't change much, but it is a sign that if you
haven't used Mindblow/Seal Evil yet, do so expeditiously. After more of an ass-
whipping, the Zolom quite literally knocks one of your characters through the
air, removing it from the battle (this will be the character that last attacked
him). It's comical in a way, but it does serve a purpose. You see, at this
point, the Zolom will begin using an attack called Beta, which will completely
waste your characters. With one of them removed from the battle, you still
lose, but at least it's not game over. But here's the catch: Beta is a magic
attack. Mindblow will prevent it from using Beta, therefore allowing you to win
the battle if you keep your wits about you. You really don't get much
experience or AP for the effort, but you do get a nice feeling of satisfaction
and accomplishment.
Anyways, I need to stress a point about Beta, the attack used by the Midgar
Zolom. Wasn't Beta such a kick-ass attack? You bet your ass, it was! There's
some good news and bad news here. The good news is that you can, in fact, learn
Beta with your E, Skill materia. The bad news, however, is that surviving the
attack is sadly a prerequisite for learning attack. And, as you may or may not
have discovered if Beta has had its way with your ass, there is no way in hell
you're going to survive it at the moment. Do make it a point, however, to come
back here as soon as you can to learn this most kick-ass attack. This may not
be much longer into the game (you'll discover a Fire Ring before too long), but
there is one final tip I will hand out to players making a return trip: there is
an enemy skill called Laser which will easily be the most effective attack
versus the Zolom in the early game. Its HP is at 4,000, and Laser will chop it
in half. Use Laser again for 1,000 points of damage. Past this, however, you
may wish to switch to other attacks, as once the Zolom gets to 500 HP, it will
knock the person that last attacked it out of battle, and you don't want him
ejecting the person carrying the E. Skill materia from the fight, now do you?
Of course, Demi 2 may also be used in place of Laser, but this note is meant
more for people coming back way too late in the game to have many attacks that
won't kill the Zolom outright.
As you near the Mythril Mines, you are treated to a rather morbid scene.
You'll find a Midgar Zolom impaled on the remains of what looks like it was once
a tree. Lightning flashes in the shrouded sky in the background, making for a
quite awesome scene. However, you might sit back and think for a moment that
this was the work of Sephiroth. The person you are chasing... You're after a
man that is capable of this, and you think for some reason that you're going to
be able to stop him. Forget what I said earlier about Sephiroth's lack of
brains, because it appears that your team is no smarter than he is. Either
that, or they've got the courage of Bruce Willis. Proceed into the Mythril
Mines.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: The Mythril Mines
The Mythril Mine is actually rather small, and your trip to the other side
should be relatively short. However, there are several enemies in here that you
would be wise to be aware of. The first would be a creature called Castanets.
They are weak, pathetic fighters with a weakness against fire. So jes torch
their highly-flammable asses to get rid of them quickly. Next, we have the
Crawler. The Crawler is a small snake-like creature that has a tendency to
attack in very large numbers. Then again, they are even weaker fighters than
the castanets. To get rid of them uber-quickly, prey on their weakness to earth
magic. We also have the Madouge, a ball and chain wielding maniac. I know it
seems like a metaphor for being married, but again, don't expect them to put up
much of a fight. You should make it a point to steal a Grand Glove from one of
them, however. Lastly, we have the Ark Dragon, which would be another on of
those rarer occurrences. The Ark Dragon looks something like a dragonfly on
growth hormones, and is probably the most dangerous creature here. You're
advised to track one of these things down, because they use the Flame Thrower
attack, which you can learn with the E. Skill materia. However, be careful, as
the Flame Thrower attack is somewhat of a striking contrast to the weak,
pathetic attacks used by all of the other enemies. In addition to this, the Ark
Dragon has considerably more HP than any of the other enemies here. The bad
news is that since they are flying creatures, earth magic obviously will have no
effect on them. In addition, they also absorb fire-based attacks. However,
they do fall prey to wind-based attacks, so you may want to stick the Choco/Mog
materia with the Elemental materia into the weapon of one of your characters and
use that character to inflict massive damage to any Ark Dragon that dares defy
you.
Anyways, as you step into the Mythril Mines, you can either head right or
left. If you head right, you'll head to a room in the northeastern corner of
the Mythril Mine, where you'll find several treasures for the taking. First and
foremost, there is a vine growing on a ledge near the room's entrance. Climb up
this vine to the top of the ledge and take the Long Range materia you'll find
atop it. Also in this room (up and to the right of the entrance) is a Tent and
an Ether free for the taking. Anyways, back at the entrance to the mine, the
left path will take you to another fork in the road. There, going right will
take you to a chest containing a Mind Source, whilst going left takes you to
another fork in the road. From there, going up is only a dead end, and going
left continues to the next room.
In the next room, you'll meet up with none other than Rude of the Turks. You
may remember him as the guy who threw your ass in jail back at Shinra H.Q..
Well, for the moment old Rude really doesn't seem to be that interested in you.
He tries to be cool about things, but that's when Elena shows up. You see,
after you kicked Reno's ass hardcore, the Turks sorta needed to hire a
replacement for him. And judging by who they hired to fill his spot, it seems
that the only other applicants for the job were a little girl with heavy brain
damage that speaks no English or any other coherent language, and a slightly
below-average mango. Elena is the most pathetic attempt at a professional
badass I've ever seen. She goes on and on (making very little sense in the
process) about how they're after Sephiroth and how they've got to stop you along
the way, or maybe that it's you who's stopping them. We'll never know the
truth, really, because Elena has been taking all of her orders from a Magic 8-
Ball for the past three weeks.
Anyways, before Elena has a chance to make an even bigger ass of herself,
Tseng arrives and makes her shut up. However, even he can't stop her from
arbitrarily blurting out, "Rude and I will go after Sephiroth, who is headed for
Junon Harbor!" Christ, Elena! Why don't you just get a giant flashing neon
sign and broadcast your orders to the rest of the world? It's like Pinky and
the Brain meets the morals of a Latin-American dictatorship. Anyways, Tseng has
a few final words with you, which will be different depending on whether or not
Aeris is with you, and then leaves with baldy and the dumbass. Oh, well. At
least the Turks really don't seem to care much about you, anymore.
Near the back of the room you are standing in, you'll find another path,
which will lead to a another room, where you will find a Hi-Potion and an
Elixir. When you're ready, exit the Mythril Mine through the exit Rude and
Tseng took (you'll have to crawl onto the ledge via a vine that grows alongside
it).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Fort Condor Area
You'll emerge in a beautiful countryside upon exiting the Mythril Mines.
This area is rather large, and is filled with forests, sprawling plains, and
rivers. You may want to use the map to ensure that you don't get lost.
Anyways, standing not too far from the exit to the Mythril Mines is a large
hill, atop of which sits the infamous Fort Condor. Going there is completely
optional at this point, but recommended. At the very least, I suggest that you
at least go there once and fight the first battle, if nothing more than to get a
feel for how the place works (as you are forced to do battle here later on).
Another worthy note that the Battles of Fort Condor and their respective prizes
are all lost-forevers, as mentioned in section I.F. of the FAQ. For more
information on Fort Condor, refer to section X of the FAQ, and also take note
that your actions taken during your first trip there will have some degree of
effect on your game later, as mentioned in section VII.A. of the FAQ. Also, one
thing you may want to do right now is recruit one of the game's hidden
characters. Instructions for this are detailed in section V.D. of the FAQ.
Anyways, let's also take a moment to examine the local monster activity. The
Zemelett is a... very odd creature, to say the least. It's normal attacks
aren't that bad, but it does have a very powerful Thunderbolt attack, which can
rip up one of your characters pretty good. But, it really doesn't use
Thunderbolt that often, and likely only will if you take too long to kill it.
It also has an attack called White Wind, which you may learn with the E. Skill
materia, but it will never use it. You must return to this area later on when
you obtain the Manipulate materia. Lastly, the Zemelett is weak versus wind-
based attacks, so the Choco/Mog and Elemental combo in someone's weapon will
help you make quick work of it. Next on our list of monsters is the
Neurosufferoth. It has a rather powerful fire-based attack called Heatwing
which does good damage to one target, but thankfully the attack is used
sparingly. There's also the Formula, which is a bird-like creature and likely
the toughest creatures in the area. But they appear mostly in the forests, so
you can go far in avoiding them by simply not venturing through any. Their main
attack is called Blue Impulse, which is a powerful attack against the whole
party. In addition to this, their normal attacks are powerful, as well. Both
attacks are also long-range, putting your back-row members at risk. They are
invulnerable to earth-based attacks and weak versus wind. However, since the
Formula is by far the most dangerous creature you'll meet out here, you'll
probably be more interested in attacks that will rid you of them quickly, such
as Matra Magic, Fire/Ice/Lit/Bio-All spells, and the admittedly non-wind-based
Choco/Mog summon. Lastly, there is a very good weapon they carry called the
Boomerang which you might want to steal (if you've recruited Yuffie, that is).
Truth be told, you might actually want to swipe multiple copies, as they make
excellent projectiles for the Throw materia (which Yuffie brings into the
party), as well. Next, there's the Capparwire. This is the one enemy that
appears only in forests, and is probably the next strongest thing you'll face
besides the Formula. Their main advantage is their ability to attack in very
large numbers. Aside from that, they also have powerful regular attacks, and an
attack called Grand Spark, which is like a regular attack, only a bit stronger.
They have no weaknesses, but conversely, no strengths. Again, attacks that
target all enemies are the way to go, especially considering that since they
attack in groups, they inevitably have low HP (but probably not as low as you'd
expect). Lastly, galloping across the plains, you may encounter the Hell Rider
VR2. It has a mean normal attack and in addition, is rather durable and
difficult to finish off, especially given that it has no weaknesses. It always
travels alone, though, and just about everything will do good damage to it.
Anyways, you'll eventually want to head north to the port town of Junon. It
can be difficult to spot, as it is built into the side of a cliff which faces
away from you. It is at the northern edge of the mountain range, however, and
is located near a very small, oblong bay. As you travel, you may wish to stick
to the plains whilst avoiding the forests. As we've already established, the
forests are populated entirely by the two most powerful creatures around here,
while on the plains it's easy pickin's for the most part, though you may happen
across a couple of Formulas. Anyways, see you at Junon!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Junon
You'll ultimately arrive at a festering crap-hole called Junon. The place
used to be a cozy little fishing town, y'see, but that was before the Shinra
moved in and built a division of their company down here. Keeping in with their
"screw the lower class" motif, they built a city on top of the town you see now,
and the result is pollution and a general hatred of the Shinra abound. An old
lady through some mystical force realizes that you're headed west (we are?), but
says that the only way to do so is via a Shinra Boat. Look around town, but
refrain from heading to the coast (in the lower-left section of town) before
your party is prepared for the upcoming boss battle. Anyways, the shops here
are crappy, and sell mostly bottom-rung garbage. There's no inn at which to
rest, meaning that you'll have to step outside town and use a Tent instead.
Which sucks.
Go ahead and arrange your materia for the upcoming battle. While magic, as
always, is the best attack you can use, in this case it may prove to be the only
attack you can use, as the boss battle in question is a long-range fight. So,
unless your characters are packing long-range heat, the best way to go is with
magic. Lighting magic will be especially useful in the upcoming battle, while
earth magic will prove ineffective. Also, for reasons mentioned later, you may
also wish to attach an attack materia to an All materia. Restore, needless to
say, will be helpful. Anyways, get your team revved up, and then head for the
coast (again, located in the southwestern corner of town).
You'll see a little girl named Priscilla playing with a dolphin by the beach.
You approach her, but she seems to believe that you're working for the Shinra.
Why, I have no idea. You sure as hell don't look it, that's for damn sure.
But, maybe it's just something she's saying to try and piss you off, like
calling you a booger head, or saying that your mother wears army boots.
Anyways, the argument doesn't last very long until an unfortunate side effect of
the water pollution comes flying towards you at a high velocity. Priscilla
stupidly runs toward it. Your team, always ready and willing to save the
stupid, runs after her and engages in combat with Bottomswell.
Bottomswell's main attack is called Big Wave, which will do a good amount of
damage to the entire team. It uses this attack often, but no so often as to
pose too much of a threat with it (though be warned it does use Big Wave as its
dying attack, which if it catches you off-guard can wipe you out). Just keep
your HP up and there shouldn't be much of a problem. The other attack you need
to watch out for is its Bubble attack, which functions exactly like Reno's
Pyramid attack did with two notable differences. One, the Bubble can only be
broken with magic (hence my suggestion of an attack materia paired with All).
Two, the Bubble, aside from completely preventing whomever is inside from
moving, will also drain that character's HP. Meaning, you'll probably want to
hurry up and get rid of it. As we've already established, lightning magic is
going to be your best bet here, while earth magic is going to have no effect
whatsoever. Also remember that this is a long-range battle, so you're probably
going to have to stick with magical attacks for the most part. Anyways, just
keep your HP up, and the fight will be over in no time. You'll receive a Power
Wrist for winning this battle.
After the battle, you'll find Priscilla lying on the beach, unconscious.
Before you can react, a man runs up from the village and demands that you
perform CPR on her. Why you? Because you're the one holding the controller,
silly. This little task can be a big pain in the ass if you're not quite sure
what you're doing. Press the button to make him start breathing in, and press
the same button to make him breathe into her. You'll have to hit it at just the
right moment, though. The precise moment you need to hit the button is a split
second after the bar reaches maximum height. You may want to let the bar run
all the way up first without pressing the button to see exactly what level
maximum height is (it's kinda tricky). And don't worry, she isn't going to die,
no matter how badly you screw it up. Hell, it took me the better part of an
hour my first time, so take it easy. Anyways, once you've brought her back, the
old man carries her off, and you're left alone on the beach.
Return to town and talk to an old lady hanging around the village's entrance.
She congratulates you on protecting Priscilla, and offers to let you sleep in
her home. Go ahead and take her up on her offer. Never mind that the whole
place is made out of gingerbread... Anyways, at your command, the team will
camp out for the night, and you all go to sleep.
And now, yet another interlude from the creepy voices in Cloud's head.
Today's topic, like everything else that is ever discussed in the nether-regions
of Cloud's mind, is complete insanity. This time, the voice makes references to
that day five years ago and to Tifa. The voice gets very prodding, with
questions like, "where was Tifa other than that?" and "why couldn't you see Tifa
alone?" Cloud, being the dumbass he is, cannot provide an acceptable response
to these questions (which may be mainly because the questions don't make any
sense to begin with...) In response to this, the voice suggests that you ask
Tifa if she remembers anything. While I'd be a bit reluctant to bring up a
discussion I had with the voices in my head to anybody other than a licensed
therapist, it does have kind of a point. Maybe Tifa can remember something that
your hopelessly damaged brain can't? The voice then commands you to wake up,
which you do. Tifa is standing over you, and there appears to be loud parade
music playing in the background. On an unfortunate note, Tifa's memory appears
to be just as bad as Cloud's is, so that's one more question unanswered for the
moment. For now, lets go outside and figure out just what the hell is going on?
The entire team is gathered outside Priscilla's house. Try to enter
Priscilla's house, and she will come out. In thank you for helping her, she
hands you the Shiva materia. And I tell you, that's a hell of a lot more useful
that a drawing of you that looks more like a misshapen green dog turd with three
eyes. Anyways, Priscilla explains to you that the whole parade music is to
welcome the new president of Shinra. That would be Rufus, by the way.
Priscilla tells you how much she hates the Shinra, and how they moved in and
polluted her city. Anyways, the team comes to the presumptuous conclusion that
Sephiroth has already crossed the ocean and that Rufus is here to give chase.
Well, the only way you're going to get to Upper Junon is by climbing a dangerous
and deadly high-voltage tower. Guess who among you gets volunteered to do that?
Follow Priscilla down to the beach now.
Arriving at the beach, Priscilla explains that maybe Mr. Dolphin will be able
to help you climb the tower. She hands you a whistle that will make Mr. Dolphin
come to you whenever you blow it. Barret shows up right about now to take the
PHS away from you, saying that it'll break if it gets wet. He apparently
doesn't seem to notice or care that Cloud will break if he comes into contact
with that high-voltage tower, but... Anyways, there's a spot on the tower that
you can safely walk across. The idea is to position yourself I such a way that
when Mr. Dolphin launches you into the air, you'll land right on it. This isn't
very hard at all: from the spot where you begin, blow the whistle and let Mr.
Dolphin launch you into the air. From where you land, blow the whistle again,
and you'll land right on top. Easy, wasn't it? You're now well on your way to
Upper Junon
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Upper Junon
As you climb up to the top, you'll get a spectacular view of the Highwind,
the world's premiere airship. Of course, it belongs to the Shinra, and is
currently undergoing repairs, so it's off limits to you now. From where you
are, head south to a giant platform. Press a button on that platform to lower
it, and enter the building near the bottom of the screen. As you step inside,
you will be immediately mistaken for a Shinra soldier, and this is where the fun
begins. Your drill sergeant corrals you into a back room and makes you get
dressed. He then calls upon two of his lackeys to show you what you'll be
doing. You, my friend, are going to be marching in Rufus's welcoming parade.
Take heed of the controls and commands you learn here, and then follow them out
of the building when you are finished.
Well... you'll exit the building somewhat late for the parade. It seems that
while you were being an idiot and being mistaken for a soldier and all, they
decided to start the parade without you. Following yet another berating from
your drill sergeant, one of the soldiers with you gets the bright idea to sneak
through the alleyways and inconspicuously join the parade. This is what you'll
be doing. Watch as the soldiers in front of you sneak in and keep in step with
the soldiers around them, and do exactly as they do. You can tell when it gets
to Cloud, because he is the one who shrugs at the drill sergeant. Now, I know
it all seems asinine, but the live TV ratings will be tied directly to your
performance here. And the people out there aren't the kind who enjoy tuning in
to see soldiers screw up. Nosiree... The slightest misstep has absolutely
horrible effects on the ratings. It's like ratings system is run by Hitler, for
God's sakes. Anyways, the TV producer is pretty much ignoring everyone else and
keeping an eye squarely on you, as well. If you perform well (ratings at 50% or
higher), the station thoughtfully sends you 5,000 gil as a reward (whilst
ignoring the other thousand soldiers who also marched flawlessly). The next
step down (40-49%) would be six Ethers, and below that (30-39%) six Potions.
However, if you, like me, perform exceptionally horribly at this (29% or lower),
not only have you disgraced the Shinra army, but you've also gotten some poor TV
producer fired. His boss angrily demands that he send you a bomb for this
insult, and you will receive instead a Grenade. It's a nice thought, though I
seriously doubt that that's what his boss had in mind.
Anyways, following that little incident, you'll see Heidegger and Rufus in
another section of Junon. They discuss issues of transportation. Apparently
the Highwind (that giant airship you saw on the way here) is not ready for
flight at the moment, nor is the Shinra Gelnika. So, it appears that they will
be crossing the ocean via boat, instead. That's right, Shinra Boat. Anyways,
Rufus takes some time to make it clear that he thinks Heidegger is obnoxious
before he leaves (an insult which Heidegger will rather violently take out on
you once Rufus leaves). When both Heidegger and Rufus leave, the soldiers
mention that Sephiroth was supposedly seen roaming the city. Apparently, he
showed up, killed a few soldiers, and then vanished. Following that, your drill
sergeant dismisses the entire group of soldiers. Before you have a chance to
move, however, he comes up to you and begins berating you. No matter how you
respond, he's going to drag you back to the torture room for more "training".
Apparently, your next mission is to perform the send-off ceremony for
Heidegger and Rufus. And to assist you in this mission are the same two
miserable jackasses from before. Then, the drill sergeant proceeds to show you
all of the basic moves of the send-off ceremony (though at the ceremony he will
be delivering commands entirely at random). You can screw up all you'd like
now, and can even do the same at the ceremony, if you'd like (though you may
think twice about doing it). Anyways, following this horrid little training
session, your drill sergeant will set you loose in the streets.
First and foremost, you may wish to save at that save point which has
materialized out of nowhere right over there. Secondly, there are to exits to
the building that you are in. One is the one that you already know will take
you to the streets. The other is in the lower right corner of the room and is
an elevator which will take you back down to lower Junon. Though you cannot use
it now, it would behoove you to remember that it is there. Anyways, head on out
to the streets and see what you can accomplish. Notice that all of the
buildings are lined up on one side of the street for easy access. Also note
that what you see now is just half of the city- the other half can be found by
continuing south along the street, past the hallway that leads to the Underwater
Reactor (to which you cannot go at this time), and finally to the other side of
Junon. Junon can be sort of difficult to navigate because the damn camera angle
keeps changing, but once you realize that it's all just one straight path,
you'll be fine.
Well, for starters, as you emerge on the street, you may happen to catch a
glance of Rude of the Turks heading into one of his favorite bars. You can
follow him and even converse with him once you get there, if you'd like, but it
really doesn't do much. Above the bar, however, is an excellent weapon shop
(though you may already posses the entire inventory through freelance theft).
You'll actually find the rest of the Turks in another bar on the other side of
town (interesting how Rude doesn't like to hang out with them). Anyways, take
some time to do any shopping you need to get done (the Seal and Revive materia
are both available in one of the better shops here). The guy who runs the
crappier materia shop has hired some nice girls to invite people into his store,
however, so it's worth a look if not just for that. Also note that your
supplies going into the next part of the game may have an effect on the game
later on, as detailed in section VII.A. of the FAQ). There's also a "training
room" hidden here in Junon if you know where to look for it (in the basement of
someone's house). It's an advanced version of the one you saw back at the now-
decimated Sector Seven. Again, you probably already know what these ass-rammers
have to say, but stop in anyways to pick up the E. Skill materia. Also, don't
place yourself above theft. A lot can be gained from walking into people's
houses here at Junon and just blatantly taking things. Among the items you can
acquire here are: a Power Source, Mind Source, Speed Source, Guard Source,
Luck Source, and two 1/35 Soldiers.
Once you're through raping and pillaging the town, continue to the other end
of Junon (just keep following the path you're on until you reach the docks).
Here, you'll meet up with Rufus and Heidegger again. Of course, they're too
busy squabbling pettily to notice their arch-nemesis standing right next to
them. The send-off ceremony is about to begin, but keep something in mind
before you begin. How you perform during the send-off will affect the reward
you'll receive upon completion (and again, you, for some reason are the only one
who seems to be getting any kind of a reward). The president has a "mood"
rating, which will go up by 10 points every time you do something right, and
will not be affected at all if you screw up. However, at the end of the send
off, it will inevitably go up ten points because Cloud will automatically do
that part right (again, Rufus doesn't even appear to catch on to his rival's
trademark stance). Anyways, the rewards for the ceremony are as follows: a
Force Stealer for a mood of 100 or higher, an HP Plus materia for a mood of
60-90, and Silver Sunglasses for anything below that. You would be wise to
know that the HP Plus has higher monetary value than the Force Stealer, and also
is not available for purchase until later in the game than the Force Stealer is.
You may also notice during the send-off, something red and furry poking up from
behind a crate in the boat... Hmm...
Anyways, after the send-off ceremony, Heidegger presents you with your
reward. Rufus mentions that he expects AVALANCHE to show up... Hmm... they
might even be... right... here... Anyways Rufus and Heidegger leave (not
without yet another violent outburst from the latter), and the soldiers sit down
to discuss what an asshole Heidegger has been lately (as if he normally wasn't
one). Apparently, he's been on edge ever since Dr. Hojo vanished, leaving a
letter of resignation. Apparently having his throat ripped open by Red XIII
really didn't leave him in much of a condition to be working. Anyways, it
appears now that the whole Sephiroth investigation has been placed squarely in
the hands of Heidegger. Sephiroth, in case you haven't been paying attention,
was the one who mercilessly slaughtered the majority of the population at the
Shinra building, so you'd kind of understand why Heidegger is a little edgy...
After this whole discussion, the troops take off towards the barracks, leaving
you alone at the ship.
Again, you may have noticed earlier that Red XIII had managed to make it on
board... You can either follow suit and get on the boat, or try to leave. If
you try to leave, Red XIII will yell at you from the ship and make you get on,
anyways. Either way, it's bon voyage for AVALANCHE!
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--- Welcome to: The Shinra Boat
About halfway across the sea, Cloud decides that just standing in the cargo
hold like a putz isn't such a bright idea, and he begins to move around. Walk
around the ship and talk to everybody. Roughly 50% of the crew are AVALANCHE
members in disguise, however. Do be warned that several of your responses
aboard the Shinra Boat will have an effect on the game later on, as mentioned in
section VII.A. of the FAQ. There's an Ether in a chest in the cargo hold, as
well as an All materia. However, if Yuffie is amongst your numbers, she will
be standing in the way, so you're just going to have to make it a point to come
back for it after the team regroups. Also note that on the deck there's a
sailor who's running a small business, though it's not apparent at first. If
you tell him you're tired, he sells you a ludicrously overpriced energy drink
that functions as an inn, and he also has some meager supplies to sell if you
tell him that "something's missing".
Anyways, you'll meet up with Tifa and Red XIII (who is disguised, apparently,
as a complete jackass) here on the deck. You saw Aeris and Yuffie back in the
cargo hold... So where's Barret? If you haven't already, go talk to Aeris
twice. The second time you talk to her, she asks you where Barret is and says
that she hopes he's not doing anything stupid. Well, of course he's off doing
something stupid. It's Barret, for God's sakes. You also must talk to Tifa,
Yuffie (if she's with you), and Red XIII to trigger the next event. What
happens, is that there is path on the deck that leads to the bow, or the front
of the ship. And once you've talked to everybody, the idiot sailor who was
standing in your way decides to move so you can get past. At the front of the
ship, you'll see Barret spying on Rufus and Heidegger. Barret is, as you can
probably imagine, very pissed. He's about to just give in and go kick their
asses, when all of a sudden the klaxons begin to blare. Apparently, a
suspicious person has been spotted on the ship... Have you been found out?
Barret and Cloud run back to the stern, where the rest of the team regroups.
Everyone's here, meaning that the suspicious person must be... Sephiroth!
Select a team to go investigate the matter further, but realize that you've got
a huge boss battle on the way, so choose wisely. If Red XIII knows Lunatic
High, you may choose to bring him along for this fight due to that alone, but
all in all, it's really a matter of personal preference. With your team
selected, you can wisely choose to save your game at a nearby save point (God,
those things are everywhere!), and you may also talk to the sailor-turned-
salesman who still has no qualms about selling you things or in any other way
aiding you.
As for your materia set-up? The only ineffective magic in the next battle
will be poison magic. Quake and Flame Thrower are both good attacks to use, but
are trumped by Ice 2, Fire 2, and/or Bolt 2, if they are available to you.
Shiva and Choco/Mog will both help out in a pinch, but only as single attacks.
Throw, by the way, is the most powerful materia available to you at the time,
but only if you have projectiles on hand (and are willing to use them).
Truthfully, it would be a better idea to just have the Throw materia handy and
resort to using it only if you have to. And I probably shouldn't have to tell
you this, but you're going to need some serious healage on hand. The
Restore/All combo is by all means recommended for this fight, and you may even
consider taking Aeris along for her Healing Wind (or Yuffie, if she already
knows Clear Tranquil).
Anyways, proceed down into the cargo area, where you'll notice that there are
now monsters on board the ship. First and foremost is the Marine. And the
main thing concerning them that you should be aware of is that you can steal the
most excellent Shinra Beta from them. In addition to being kick-ass armor,
it's also one of the game's lost-forevers, mentioned in section I.F. of the FAQ.
Take your time and steal as many as you like from them, because these guys are
seemingly endless. In combat, they are really nothing to speak of. They have
an annoying tendency to put your characters to sleep, but that's about it. Also
on the ship is an enemy called Scruitin Eye, which is a lot more dangerous than
the Marine. They can cast both Fire 2 and Ice 2, so you've got to stay on guard
around them. They have no weaknesses, and they are invulnerable to earth magic.
Anyways, you may want to fight around in the Cargo Bay for a minute or so
whilst you collect some Shinra Beta. If you haven't already collected the All
materia down here, you may also be wanting to do that right about now (the All
materia here being one of the lost-forevers mentioned in section I.F. of the
FAQ). You might also want to build up your limit meters in preparation for the
upcoming boss battle (especially Red XIII's, if he's with you and knows Lunatic
High, that is). When you're ready, proceed through the door in the cargo bay
into the next room. Just inside the next room, you'll see a ladder to your
left. You can crawl atop it to the catwalk above and follow it to a chest
containing the Wind Slash, a weapon for Yuffie and yet another of the game's
lost-forevers (mentioned in section I.F. of the FAQ) At the from end of this
room, you'll see a sailor standing quietly against the wall. When you try to
talk to him, he collapses at your feet... dead.
That's when Sephiroth appears. And by "appears", I really mean "rises up
creepily from the floor beneath you". I'm sorry, but this is just getting just
a tad bit creepy. Cloud tries to yell at Sephiroth, but he doesn't even give
Cloud so much as the time of day. Instead, he just floats into the air, and
then... launches himself into the air at an incredibly high velocity. You're
left with no time at all to ponder exactly how weird, strange, unsettling,
unusual, creepy, or disturbing that may have been, because a fight will
immediately begin with a little playmate that Sephiroth has left behind for you.
Say hello to Jenova-BIRTH.
Jenova-BIRTH's attacks aren't horribly powerful, but you'll find that it is
atrociously fast, and that it's attacks often occur in tandem, thus giving you
reason enough to worry. It's regular attack does a considerable amount of
damage, and it also has its Tail Laser, which is a fairly powerful attack
against the entire team. To make things worse, Jenova-BIRTH can make use of the
Stop spell. And, unfortunately, neither Mindblow nor Seal Evil can prevent this
attack. So, really, you've got no defense against it. The best thing you can
do for yourself (besides quickly using Lunatic High, if applicable), if to just
wail on its ass with all of the attacks that you've prepared yourself with (see
four paragraphs above this one). And, perhaps most importantly, keep an eye on
your HP during this battle.
After you've killed it, it's arm sits there on the floor and continues to
creepily flop about as though still alive and completely independent from the
rest of its body... God, it's creepy. Cloud at this point has the option of
giving a brief synopsis of the story. And by brief, I do mean very brief. His
story pretty much begins and ends with: "Sephiroth killed a bunch of people and
now we're after him". Thanks, Cloud, because I'm a complete retard and was
unable to figure that out for myself. Why don't you go have another
conversation with those voices in your head and leave the thinking to us, all
right?
Shortly afterwards, the ship docks, and the party arrives in Costa Del Sol...
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--- Welcome to: Costa Del Sol
Let me begin by saying that absolutely no decision you make here will have
any impact on the game later, as discussed in section VII.A. of the FAQ, so have
fun. The team disembarks the ship as it docks and talk quietly amongst
themselves. Comments are made about Barret's cute sailor outfit. And I'm
sorry, but no amount of Staypuff Marshmallow Man jokes are going to do that suit
justice. After some meaningless banter, the team splits up (with whomever is in
your group staying with you). You can leave the screen via the stairs up to the
rest of town on your bottom right.
As you leave the screen, you'll see Rufus and Heidegger stepping off of the
ship. Rufus gets very angry at Heidegger after he learns that not only was
Sephiroth on board the ship, but you were, as well. Gee, imagine how mad Rufus
is going to be when he finds out that Sephiroth annihilated 90% of the crew...
Anyways, Rufus leaves in his chopper, and Heidegger takes out his frustrations
by running up to a couple of locals and kicking their asses. Good lord,
Heidegger! It looks like someone could use a little anger-management therapy.
I'm not even saying he's got to calm down, but just refrain from randomly
injuring innocent bystanders whenever his boss yells at him.
The scene switches back to you, standing near the entrance to Costa Del Sol.
You see that giant archway you're standing on top of? If you head left, it'll
take you back to the docks. Beyond the archway and into the distance is the
town's exit... you don't want to go there, yet. Do yourself a favor and hang
around town. The materia shopping here is the same as it was back in upper
Junon, but you may find yourself wanting to do some armor shopping (there's a
guy at the bar selling it). The Four Slots sold here is a lost-forever, as
mentioned in section I.F. of the FAQ, but odds are you could care less. Far
more importantly, be warned that hanging around inside the bar is Mukki and his
entourage of creepy, muscle-bound, oily speedo men. Running as far away from
Mukki and his creepy, muscle-bound, oily speedo men as possible, also make it a
point to visit the "tropical getaway" mentioned in section XVIII.B. of the FAQ.
While you'd have to be some kind of an idiot to buy the place (a rich one, at
that), you'd be wise to loot the basement of its valuable contents, which
include the Motor Drive, a Fire Ring, and a Power Source. Lastly, the item
shop is of worthy mention in this town. The owner recommends that you buy a
Soft as a memento of your stay. As idiotic as the idea of selling tenderizer to
tourists is, there is a reason that it has become their number one commercial
item. However, before you buy, realize one thing: there is only one enemy up
ahead than can stone your characters. Furthermore, it is a slow stone (it takes
30 seconds to take effect), and even if you haven't managed to end the battle by
that point, the condition will not last past the end of the battle.
You'll also find your team hanging around town in various places (excluding
the ones who are with you, of course). Barret has commandeered the bathroom at
the local inn and appears to be having some difficulty getting out of his sailor
outfit. Tifa has located an old childhood friend and is chatting with him (a
fact which would make Cloud jealous if he were capable of human emotion).
Yuffie has found a part-time job at the local materia shop from a man whom she
later intends to rob blind (Yuffie's not a very considerate person, you'll soon
learn). Red XIII is napping on the sidewalk near several children playing
soccer. More than likely, you'll find yourself giving in to the urge to run up
to the ball and kick it at Red XIII, possibly repeatedly.
Lastly, Aeris is at the beach (accessible from the lower right corner of
town). As you enter the beach area, Aeris will spot Dr. Hojo lying on the
beach, surrounded by beautiful women. Never have I wanted more to be a flaky
psychopath than I do now. The team approaches Dr. Hojo with an inquisitive
mind. Of course, there's only so much information you can hope to glean from
someone who speaks mostly to himself and entirely in indecipherable gibberish.
He begins another one of his orgasmic seizures and pratters on about something
calling you or that there's some place you feel like you have to visit. You
know, sane things. Even Cloud, who has frequent discussions with voices in his
head can't relate to this level of insanity, and replies that the team is after
Sephiroth. After a little more questioning from the team, Hojo begins mumbling
more nonsense, but thankfully manages to splice "head west" somewhere into it.
Following this, you cease wasting your time with the lunatic and head back into
town.
You'll probably want to take a nap at the inn (where your dreams will be
accompanied by the soothing sound of the ocean waves), after which your team
will "regroup". By regroup, I mean that the ones that were hanging around town
have since left. Take the time to point and laugh at the materia shop owner who
was grifted by Yuffie (interestingly enough, he still has the same selection of
wares as he did before). And to answer a question that I myself had at one
point: your team never sees a dime from Yuffie's thieving escapades. Even more
weirdly, you can bring Yuffie back to the shop owner and neither of them will
say a word to each other. Anyways, having accomplished all that need be done in
town, say goodbye to the tropical paradise of Costa Del Sol and head westward.
In the fields, you will run into only one enemy in the local area. This
enemy is known as the Garagalan, and is what appears to be a gigantic floating
barrel. If that wasn't ridiculous enough, once you damage it enough, it can
generate a smaller version of itself called the Garangalan Jr. The Garangalan
Jr., in turn, having reached sufficient levels of damage, can spit out three
very tiny, very cute Garangalan Jr. Jr's. Essentially, this is the kind of
enemy that one would think up after about nine or ten hits off the crack pipe.
To further substantiate my theory that the Costa Del Sol area monster activity
was developed by a bunch of programmers in the span of about five minutes after
two months of heavy narcotics use is the fact that the Garangalan and its spawn
have only one attack. It's called Silver Wheel, launches a shiny metal sprocket
directly towards your face, and despite how painful it looks is a relatively
harmless physical attack towards one of your characters. As far as fighting
them goes, they have no strengths or weaknesses to speak of. The Garangalan can
take a lot of damage, however, but thankfully will only spawn a Garangalan Jr.
when it is near death. The Garangalan Jr. can take a lot of damage, but not
nearly as much as the Garangalan. It, too, when near death will respawn. The
miniature Garangalan Jr. Jr.'s are very easy to kill and will likely fall in a
single hit. When you kill a Garangalan creature, everything that it spawned
will die with it, meaning that battles can easily be brought to an end by just
wiping the floor with the original Garangalan. However, you will only get AP
and experience for the creatures that you killed directly. So, if you're not in
any kind of a hurry, you might want to stop and pick up a little experience by
killing them all. Oh, and did I mention that the Garangalan(s) are immune to
earth magic?
By the way, there actually is one other creature around here, but you will
not encounter it unless you go down to the beach. And the term "ridiculously
easy to kill" does not do the Beachplug justice. It is a weak, pathetic
creature in every way. However, they do have an attack called Big Guard which
you may learn with the E. Skill materia. They will never use it, however, so
you're just going to have to remember to collect it once you pick up the
Manipulate materia.
Anyways, head westward and follow the path through the mountains to the base
of Mt. Corel.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Mt. Corel
It's kind of misleading at first, because the base of Mt. Corel is a cave for
some unknown reason. It's one of those flukes in video game physics. So just
don't be surprised that after stepping into the cave you find yourself at the
bottom of a rocky mountain path. A guy conveniently loitering around here will
mention having recently seen Sephiroth pass by here. And Sephiroth must've been
in a good mood, because this man is noticeably not hacked up into tiny little
pieces. Hot on Sephy's trail, head on down the mountain path.
Before we go over the local monster activity, let's go over one detail right
quick. Now, I know you're just dying to use your Shiva and Ifrit materia to
nail and lay waste to all who dare oppose you... But, realize that by
overusing those two materia, your MP will nosedive. However, realize that the
Choco/Mog materia at this point is equally effective in annihilating all of your
enemies, and at a much cheaper MP cost.
That being said, wouldn't you know that there's monsters here? Let's go over
them now. The Bagnarada, first and foremost, is mentioned in section XIX.B. of
the FAQ. They are large creatures with an immunity to fire magic and a weakness
to ice magic. Their attacks are weak, but they will occasionally use a powerful
Poison Breath magical attack which will do quite bit of damage to one of your
characters in addition to poisoning them. They are quite durable in comparison
to the rest of the creatures around here, as well. Lastly, if you are so
inclined, you may wish to steal a Diamond Pin from one. Next, we have the
Boatfloat. The Boatloat is a little flying creature that is both very weak and
easy to kill. They have a powerful attack called Spiky Hell, but it is used
only as a clutch attack. Being an airborne creature, they have a natural
resistance to earth magic. They fall prey to wind-based attacks, but unless
you've got the Elemental/Choco/Mog combo in someone's weapon, this isn't going
to be a fact you can exploit. Either way, they're still easy to kill. Next up,
we have the Cockatolis. The Cockatolis is a giant bird that you will meet upon
emerging on the old railroad tracks. They are weak creatures, and their only
point worthy of mention is their Petrify Smog attack which, you should be aware
of, is the reason that guy back in Costa Del Sol was trying to pawn off a bunch
of Softs on you. However, it takes 30 seconds for the petrification to set in,
and if the battle isn't already over at that point, the effects won't even carry
over to the next battle, so there's really little point in being worried. At
the main section of the railroad tracks, you'll meet the Needle Kiss, an evil
little bastard. It's a bird with a powerful lightning-based magical attack
called Thunder Kiss. Lucky for you, they're at least easy to kill, but they are
immune to both lightning and earth magic. The Search Crown (also mentioned in
section XIX.B. of the FAQ) is an enemy you will be introduced to on the other
side of the tracks. They are small and very easy to kill. However, they have a
tendency to show up in numbers, and can show up in very large numbers at times.
Their attacks are of moderate strength, but they also have a more powerful
attack called Four Lasers. But again, what makes them most dangerous is their
numbers. They are at least easy to kill, as I have already mentioned, but avoid
using fire magic, as they will absorb the damage rather than take it. The last
enemy you meet at Mt. Corel arrives at the bridge, and is a giant, floating
Bomb. Against better instincts, you are to attack the volatile floating Bomb,
which will, as you might imagine, anger it. It has 600 HP in all. One you deal
past 450 damage to it, it blows up in your stupid-ass face. As you can imagine,
this hurts quite a bit. The idea is to avoid bringing its HP down to 150, and
then dealing 150+ damage to destroy it before it has a chance to blow up. It's
normal attack is not horribly bad, but it does have a powerful fire-based attack
called, get this, Fireball. It also gets stronger and stronger as it takes
damage and grows in size like an evil blowfish. Hehe... blowfish...
Anyways, as you head up the path, you'll soon find yourself on a long bridge
leading towards a mako reactor built into the mountain. Head towards the
reactor, and from there, head south to the next screen. There, you'll emerge on
an old set of railroad tracks. You'll see a set of stairs to your left which
you can use to disembark the tracks, but they really won't take you anywhere
(you can go underneath the tracks and up the stairs near the top of the screen,
but the only thing you'll get from it is a nice view of the reactor). Staying
on the tracks, head to the bottom right corner of the screen to advance to the
next screen.
You find yourself atop the sprawling railroad tracks leading through the
mountains. Before you advance any further, there is something that you should
be aware of. In three spots on these tracks, the tracks are rotted. And when
you step onto them, they will give way. You can press a button to avoid this,
but keep in mind that you will only have three chances to fall off the side of
the tracks, and there are two items that you can find down there that are for
this reason considered to be lost forevers. That is, once you've stepped on all
three sections of track, there's no way for you to get back down there. The two
items are the Wizard Staff (on the left) and the Star Pendant (on the right).
You can only collect one item at a time, as you can only climb vertically on the
tracks. Thus, you must make at least two trips down here to collect both items.
To collect them, wait until the track gives way when Cloud steps on it and you
fall. Hold left or right as you repeatedly mash the appropriate button (the
game will tell you which button to mash). If you did it right, you'll grab a
hold of the tracks near the bottom on either the left or right side. If you did
it wrong, then you will grab on in the middle of the tracks and will thus be
able to collect neither item on this trip down. Lastly, keep in mind that when
the tracks give way, they will create obvious holes in your path, but you can
just hop over them.
As for the tracks themselves, continue on until the track splits into upper
and lower sections. For starters, not matter which path you take, there's going
to be a rotted section of track just past the fork (you can tell which parts are
rotted by the way they look). Anyways, going up takes you to a treasure chest
that is for some reason lying on the railroad tracks. Inside is the W Machine
Gun. The tracks also end with the W Machine Gun, as the gap is too large to
jump. Back at the fork, the bottom set of tracks will take you to the section
of track where the upper and lower paths meet. If you go backwards along the
upper path, you'll find a Turbo Ether, followed by the third rotted section,
followed by a Transform materia. People leave such useful things lying on
railroad tracks, don't they? Anyways, where the upper and lower tracks meet,
the tracks again split into upper and lower paths. The lower path will lead to
an area where the remainder or your team has converged. Their progress is
currently stymied by a raised drawbridge. Rather than lowering it themselves,
they thought they'd wait for you to show up and do it for them. If you'd like
to change the members in your party, do so by taking the lower path and speaking
with the team. If not, then take the high road.
As you continue along the high road, you'll spot the rest of your team on the
tracks below as you hurry across the bridge. At the other end of the bridge,
you'll see a small shack. Enter the shack and pull the lever. This lowers the
bridge, thus allowing your teammates to cross it. You may also return to that
spot and cross it. But first you may wish to follow the track that you are
currently on as it twists around the corner. From there, you can scale the
cliff to a small bird's nest. If you'd like, you can pilfer 10 Phoenix Down
from said nest (at somewhat of an expense to the baby birds, mind you). In
choosing this, you'll also have to fight the mother (a Cockatolis). By the way,
your decision here has no effect on your teammates' feelings towards you (as
discussed in section VII.A. of the FAQ), so go ahead and pilfer away if you so
choose, you evil, heartless bastard.
So, return to the bottom and cross the bridge. Continue along the tracks
until they fork. One path goes left to a seeming dead-end. However, if you
walk across the path of junk and turn right underneath the tracks, you'll enter
a small alcove where you can find a Tent, a Mind Source, a Power Source, and
a lazy worker. Keep in mind that an arrow to the entrance will not appear even
if you use the select button, so you'll have to find it on your own. Anyways,
back at the fork, the right path takes you to the next screen.
The next screen is the longest rope bridge you've ever seen in your life.
Now, I know your party has had negative experiences with rickety rope bridges in
the past, but you really have no choice but to cross it. Miraculously, the
bridge does not collapse into nothingness as you cross it. Someone must be
watching over you...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: North Corel
Anyways, just at the other end of the bridge, you'll emerge in a quaint
little town called North Corel. And by quaint, I mean "barren, deserted trash
heap". A couple of scruffy-looking guys approach Barret and begin to
relentlessly trash-talk him. Before you duck and cover to prepare for the
expected bloodbath, realize that Barret is... taking it? The guys prod and
antagonize him feverishly, calling him a traitor and blaming the current
condition of their trash pile, I mean, town on him. Barret's only response is
"I'm sorry..." before the guys just give up and walk away. Approach Barret and
talk to him, but he just runs off, presumably to shoot something.
Take a look around through the filth and talk with the local residents. Like
every other normal citizen of the world, they despise the Shinra. Of course,
for some unknown reason, they despise Barret equally. There's a guy here who's
considering getting a tattoo and asks your advice. If you reply that you
haven't a clue what he's talking about, he responds that he saw someone matching
Sephiroth's description passing through here, and also that he had a "1"
tattooed on his hand. Hmm... Anyways, seeing as the town is little more than
"Jonestown: the Morning After", the shopping, as you might expect, isn't
horribly great. Of course, there are a few decent buys at the weapon shop if
you're at all interested and/or haven't already picked these items up yet. The
item shop also sells meager supplies. When you're done scrounging through this
hell hole, head to the trolley station in the far west area of town (and you
might also want to get a tetanus shot...)
You'll find Barret at the trolley station, and at this point the team
questions him. Barret explains that his hometown used to be around here. By
"used to be around here", he means that the place wasn't always a landfill. It
was once a cozy little mining town that, for some reason, nobody has bothered to
begin rebuilding over all these years. One day, the Shinra came to said cozy
mining town and asked them permission to build a mako reactor. At a village
meeting, everyone in the town, even Barret, supports the idea, except for a man
named Dyne. Dyne is the one that isn't about to throw away his ancestor's coal
mines for the technology of the future. Also present at this meeting are a few
Shinra troops led by evil bitch, Scarlet. Scarlet makes a few empty promises,
and ultimately, Dyne is overridden and the reactor is built.
Barret and Dyne were good friends, you see. And one day, while they were off
visiting the reactor, something happened. Barret and Dyne returned to North
Corel only to discover that the Shinra had firebombed the place. Apparently,
there was an explosion at the reactor which Shinra blamed on a rebel faction. I
have to admit, in a way, Shinra's method for dealing with crime is very harsh to
say the least. They decimate an entire city because someone in it pissed them
off. Sure, it's effective, but it's just that if they keep it up, they're not
going to have any cities left. Anyways, Barret blames himself for the whole
incident, even though his only real crime was trusting the Shinra. He feels
even worse because the fire killed his wife, Myrna. This, by the way, is why he
feels so attached to Marlene: she's all he's got left.
The trolley is about to leave, and you should go ahead and get on. Barret
steps onto the trolley, dejected. Your team follows him on, making all sorts of
comments on the way. The only one who does not sympathize with him is Yuffie,
who really isn't capable of such a non-evil emotion, anyways. The trolley takes
off, and your team heads for the Gold Saucer.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: The Gold Saucer
The first time you go to the Gold Saucer, you are treated to a lovely, kick-
ass CG movie sequence. The Gold Saucer is the coolest thing that ever was and
the most kick-ass place in the entire game. You arrive just outside the Gold
Saucer and a guy standing up front will charge you for a ticket. The price of a
one day ticket is 3,000 gil, and a lifetime ticket is 30,000 gil. Keep in mind
that you will want a lifetime ticket as soon as you can afford one, but you
probably won't be able to afford one now. If you can, then by all means go for
it. If not, just be sure to have all of your fun before you leave.
The team steps inside the Gold Saucer and splits up. Barret, obviously, is
still pissed. And no amount of cheering up from Aeris will work. He eventually
breaks off and heads off on his own. You at this point can choose one of your
teammates to accompany you through the Gold Saucer. This decision will have an
effect on the game later, as mentioned in section VII.A. of the FAQ. Note that
if you try to leave without taking anyone, you'll receive a random teammate by
default. Truth be told, I believe that this "random" teammate may be decided by
which character is the most fond of you at the time, but I really have no way of
proving it.
Have some fun at the Gold Saucer, now. Most attractions here cost gil, but
some will cost you GP (which can be acquired through various means). You may
also want to stop by the Ghost Square to check out one of the flyers mentioned
in section V.A. of the FAQ. For more information on the fun and attractions
here at the Gold Saucer, refer to section VIII. of the FAQ. However, do not
head to the Battle Square, as it will trigger an event which will end your stay
at the Gold Saucer (though the event will not be triggered until you have
triggered a previous event at the Wonder Square, meaning that if you'd like to
visit the Battle Square, do so before going to the Wonder Square). You'll see
some Shinra soldiers at the Chocobo Square, and at the Speed Square, you'll meet
Dio, the owner and proprietor of said kick-ass place. Dio, if you didn't know
any better, looks like one of Mukki's followers. He's a creepy, oily muscle-man
in a speedo that keeps calling you "boy". He asks you if you've ever seen a
"black materia", saying that Sephiroth came by looking for it, and reaffirms
what the idiot back at North Corel said by stating that Sephiroth had a "1"
tattooed on his hand. Dio then leaves you to your devices and heads off to the
Battle Square, presumably to participate in some speedo-related activity.
I also mentioned a triggered event at the Wonder Square. As you arrive, you
are approached by a gigantic stuffed animal. Its name is Cait Sith, and it is
the worst fortune-telling machine the world has ever known. Cloud takes the
bait and asks it where he can find Sephiroth. The response you get from it is
both non-sequitor and blatantly wrong. Miss Cleo could give better advice by
reading fortune cookies than this thing could. But he tries, dammit. He really
tries. And at the end, he seems so pathetic as to need a hug just for trying.
The last fortune he spits out is rather ominous, however: "what you seek will be
yours, but you will lose something dear". Of course, he wants to know what the
hell it means, so he decides to come with you. And he isn't taking no for an
answer. Welcome Cait Sith to the party. He comes with a Transform materia
(with 7,000 AP already on it, to boot) and the Manipulate materia. Joy.
With Cait Sith in your party, head on over to the Battle Square. You should
be quite familiar with the sight of bloody massacres by this point, and that's
exactly what you see here. There's a twist to this one, however. The people
here were all shot. Sephiroth would never use a gun... One of the dying people
fingers "a man with a gun on his arm" as the cause of all the slayings. Dammit,
Barret! What have we told you about killing people!? Bad, bad Barret! No
cookies for you! Dio arrives at about this time, and you party does the
absolute stupidest thing imaginable: they run. Of course, they are easily
caught. Your punishment? You will pay for your crimes "down below"... Before
you can derive anything sexual from that remark, a couple of gigantic machines
grab your characters and skydive out of the Gold Saucer.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Corel Desert Prison
You find yourself in a ratty hellhole that almost makes North Corel look
livable. Cait Sith mentions that this is a desert prison, where people are sent
to rot, pretty much. In one special case, a man was set free, but since it
would fall into the category of actual helpful advice, Cait Sith can't tell you
much more about it. At the bottom of the screen, your party sees Barret.
Approach him and speak with him, but don't expect to get much out of him. He
pretty much just tells you to leave him alone and runs off again. Barret
doesn't like to be bothered after his killin', you see. However, your party,
not being ones to follow common sense, unwisely should continue after the
enraged man with a gun grafted into his arm.
Before you go any further, you should probably note that enemies wander the
streets, and you're more than likely to get into a fight before going too far.
You'll meet a lot of scum out here, beginning with the Bandit. If there's any
place you can expect to do battle with things that will steal from you, it's
here. As always, be wary of them and dispense with them quickly to avoid theft.
They possess no weaknesses, but thankfully no strengths, either, and are
relatively easy to kill. In addition, the Bandit is also mentioned in section
XIX.B. of the FAQ. In addition to also being mentioned in section XIX.B. of the
FAQ, the Bull Motor is a more viable opponent than the Bandit. While it cannot
steal from you, does have the powerful Matra Magic attack (which you can take
the time to learn with the E. Skill materia if you haven't already). Next on
the list is the Death Claw. Again, there's not much to talk about here. It's
a fairly tough opponent with no strengths or weaknesses to speak of. It does,
however, use the fairly detrimental Laser attack, which is yet another worthy
addition to your E. Skill materia, so you might want to take the time to learn
it (you may also choose to utilize the Manipulate materia to speed the process
up some). The 2-Faced is another... strange thing. It's a bouncing,
spinning... thing. There's really not much to talk about with these things, but
don't be surprised if you find them doing strange things like healing you or
committing hara-kiri halfway through the fight. Lastly, we have an enemy that
you will not encounter until your dumb ass wanders out into the desert (which,
sadly, you'll have to do). The Land Worm has an insanely high amount of HP
(making Laser a very good attack to use against it). Fire magic will only do
half damage, so isn't really a good idea. In addition, the Land Worm is immune
to earth magic, but is weak versus ice magic. More good news is that the Land
Worm always travels alone. Do watch out for its attacks, however, as they are
fairly powerful and do target the whole party.
Anyways, with that out of the way, follow Barret to the southern end of
"town". You'll find him in a small, nondescript house somewhere on the right.
You'll enter and attempt to talk to him. He turns around and... shoots at you.
Seriously. Actually, when the dust clears, a man who was hiding behind the
couch appears and collapses to the ground. I'm not quite sure why Barret shot
him, but I'm fairly certain that his reasons were something along the lines of
"he needed killin'." Barret just turns around and says that he doesn't want any
of you to get involved. Well, dumbass, you went around and shot everybody and
got us sent to prison, I'd call that pretty involved. The rest of the team
arrives and it is Red XIII who finally brings up the massive slaughter to
Barret. Barret denies having anything to do with it, saying that there is
another man with a gun-arm... It seems just a little too far-fetched to
swallow, but Barret provides proof in the form of a flashback sequence.
The scene begins right where the last one left off: with Barret and Dyne
rushing through the mountains to help North Corel which, as you will recall, was
being attacked by the Shinra. And when I say "attacked", I mean it. This
wasn't just a routine city-bombing. An elderly old man comes hobbling the
mountain path to warn Barret and Dyne of the disaster in the village and is shot
in the back by a Shinra soldier. Christ, Shinra! When you are shooting elderly
men in the back as they are slowly but surely fleeing your evil ass, you can no
longer use "trying to crush a rebel faction" as an excuse for your actions,
because at this point you are just blatantly committing genocide. Barret and
Dyne now run for their lives from the firing Shinra soldiers. They probably
would have gotten away, too, except that Scarlet, everyone's favorite evil
bitch, shows up at this point and begins yelling at the soldiers for their
horrible aim. She kicks one of the soldier's asses, takes his gun, and begins
firing. And I've got to hand it to Scarlet: that woman is the best shot I've
ever seen in my life. Dyne trips over the edge of the cliff and Barret grabs
his arm. As Dyne dangles over the edge, a bullet (presumably fired by Scarlet)
hits them directly where their hands met, thus severely damaging both mens'
hands, and causing Dyne to plummet into the abyss below. Barret never does
explain how he managed to escape the situation with his life, though at this
point I would not rule out divine intervention.
Anyways, Barret was an angry amputee for quite some time following. He
finally decided to have a gun grafted into his arm, thus becoming an angry
amputee with a gun. That's when he set out to mess the Shinra's world up. He
mentions that the doctor who performed the operation on him (yes, Barret was
through some strange means able to find a doctor willing to do this) said that
another man had had the same operation, except that the other man had damaged
the other arm. Barret can only assume that this man was Dyne. Again, we really
don't get any explanation as to how Dyne could have survived that huge drop, but
thus is the mysteries of life.
Cloud and the teammate of your choice will now accompany Barret to locate
Dyne (because stupid things like "trying to get out of this hellhole" can wait).
Again, whomever you choose will affect the game later on, as discussed in
section VII.A. of the FAQ. The rest of your team will hole up in this God-awful
shack, and you can return to switch out your teammate whenever you wish. The
rest of the houses around here aren't much help, either, and are populated
entirely by scumbags and sleazebuckets. There is a meager item shop in the far
southeast corner of town, but that's about it. Do take note, however, of a
cargo truck almost directly west of the building where your team is. Mr.
Coates, the owner and proprietor of said hellhole is hanging around inside in
his green leisure suit and has for some strange reason yet to be shot to death
by a local ruffian. It may have something to do with the fact that he alone is
in charge of the elevator that leads back up to the Gold Saucer. Nobody goes
back up to earn a chance at their freedom without his go-ahead. And he, of
course, says that you ain't going nowhere until you speak with "the boss". And
for those of you who have never taken remedial plot-mongering 101, "the boss" is
none other than Dyne.
To hunt down Dyne, head back up to the northern section of town from whence
you originally came. Head north through the town and exit this screen on the
right side of the fence you see. You should emerge on the right side of a fence
in the middle of the desert (and your progress north should be halted by a
gigantic chasm ahead of you). From here, just keep heading east through the
desert. If you for some reason manage to mess up and get lost in the middle of
the desert, a passing chocobo cart will pick you up and dump you back off at the
beginning. But, it shouldn't be very hard to follow the directions "go east",
should it?
You'll find yourself at yet another scrapheap. Before you advance much
further, do take note that Barret is about to fight a boss battle alone, so you
might want to go ahead and outfit him with the appropriate materia. Restore
helps immensely. Poison might also be an asset, as the poison will help you out
some. Then again, it's just going to come down to a shooting match, anyways, so
your selection of offense is of very little concern. Anyways, continue north to
the end of the scrapheap to meet up with Dyne.
Dyne... Well, he isn't the nice guy he used to be. He's actually sort of
lost his mind and wants to kill everybody and everything. This becomes readily
apparent when he fires a few bullets into Barret. They really don't hurt him as
much as you'd expect them to. Your party tries to intervene at this point, but
Barret insists that this is a fight that he must fight alone. Actually, no
Barret, we just wanted to get our materia back before you dumb ass dies of
multiple gunshot wounds. And the fight with Dyne begins... As I said above,
it'll really just come down a to a firing match, but do have Barret cure himself
if his HP gets low. Dyne has an attack called S-Mine which is deadly in the
sense that it can be used in tandem with a normal attack, thus doing twice the
damage. At the very least, Barret'll get a few good limit breaks off. All in
all, the fight should be over fairly soon.
Anyways, Dyne at this point decides to end his life by jumping off the edge
of the cliff, which really isn't too bright of an idea when you consider that
the last time this happened, he sustained no notable injuries of any sort. At
the very least, before he goes, he tosses a pendant to Barret, telling him to
give it to Marlene. It ends as yet another one of those touching scenes that
shows that Barret has a heart after all.
Of course, Barret makes up for his rare show of emotion in the next scene.
The party approaches Mr. Coates and demands to be sent back above. Mr. Coates
sees the pendant that Barret is carrying and immediately understands the whole
story. He explains that one person at a time can be sent above for a chance to
set the party free. And then, just for good measure, Barret roughs Mr. Coates
up a little, because he ain't no pussy! Now, I know you're probably expecting
to have to fight for your freedom by explaining to some form of judicial body
what really happened. No. That is antiquated bullcrap. Here, you fight for
your freedom by winning a chocobo race. Maybe this is just my opinion, but
racing is generally a very poor measure of a person's innocence. If anything,
winning the race is an indicator that said person will have a higher than
average chance to outrun the authorities after committing their next heinous
crime. But, at least it's an easy way out for you guys, at any rate.
Naturally, Cloud is the one person selected to go up above and fight for the
team's freedom.
You are accompanied by Esther, a chocobo manager who heard of your plight and
wishes to help you out. She'll explain to you on the way up how to properly
ride a chocobo and all that, and then you arrive in the Jockey's Lounge. There,
you'll meet Joe, one of the top riders. He says that he looks forward to seeing
you again, though past this moment, you never will see him again. Esther
hurries off to prepare a chocobo for you, leaving you in the lounge with all of
the scary jockeys. The bell rings for the race to begin, and the jockeys, like
zombies almost, hop up and file out of the room. After they have all left,
Esther shows back up at the door. You can talk to her to begin the race, though
before you do, I strongly urge you to grab that Ramuh materia someone left
lying in the corner. The Ramuh materia is, as we all know, a lost-forever, as
mentioned in section I.F. of the FAQ, so you'd be very wise to nab it while you
can.
As for the chocobo race itself, this is something you'll probably become far
more familiar with later in the game, but I'll go over the quick basics you'll
need to win right now. From the outset of the race, just take off. Dash as far
as you can until just before your chocobo's stamina runs out (if it runs out,
your pace will slow to a crawl), and then let up on the acceleration. At this
point in the race, you should be so far away from the rest of the pack that your
win is in the bag. If you fail to win the race, you are sent back into the
Jockey Lounge to relive the past five minutes of your life all over again until
the end of eternity or until you finally win.
The above information should really be all you need to win, but if you still
find yourself having difficulties, do yourself a favor and hold down the R1 and
R2 buttons throughout the entire race. This will slowly refill your chocobo's
stamina bar as you race, meaning that near the end of the track, you'll have
enough stamina for a second wind.
Anyways, when the race is over, Esther hands you a letter from Dio. In it,
Dio goes on and on with a lengthy apology, stating that how sorry he is and that
you are obviously not guilty if you possessed the skill to ride a Goddamned
chocobo (which makes as much sense as assuming that one is a good chef because
he or she wears puffy pants). And yes, he calls you "boy" throughout the whole
letter. Goddammit, Dio... Anyways, as a further sign of his apology, he
mentions that he has delivered a "gift" to you. Before your dirty mind can
become frightened at that last remark, you get a call from Aeris on the PHS
saying that Dio has given your party a buggy. A special buggy that can cross
rivers and deserts, at that. Esther bids you farewell, saying that if you ever
get a chocobo of your own to come back and she'll be your manager. And yes, you
should be seeing more of Esther later on. See you later, Esther...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: North Corel Area
The game will tell you at this point how to operate the buggy you are
currently driving. It's exactly like walking, except that you can now cross
rivers and deserts. Also note that if you drive into Costa Del Sol with it, you
can stow away on one of the boats at the dock to head back to Junon. There are
several good reasons to do this. For starters, with that Fire Ring you found in
Costa Del Sol, you can now return for a final showdown with the Midgar Zolom and
learn the most kick-ass Beta attack. In addition, with the Manipulate materia
on hand, you can also learn White Wind from the Zemzelett. You can also keep
up-to-date with the Battles of Fort Condor, which are detailed in section X. of
the FAQ. You can also visit the Sleeping Man, who is described in detail in
section V.C. of the FAQ. You'll probably wish to return to the Costa Del Sol
area and learn the Big Guard skill from the Beachplugs, now that you have the
Manipulate materia, as well. You can also learn the Aqualung attack from the
Chimeras around the desert (I talk more about them below), which you are now
free to drive about in. This is a good idea, namely because the Aqualung enemy
skill is a lost-forever, as mentioned in section I.F. of the FAQ. Oh, and by
the way, back at Junon, feel absolutely free to head to the hallway leading to
the underwater reactor (located at Upper Junon, between the two streets) and set
off the alarm there. The only response the alarm will yield will be tough
enemies appearing there in random encounters, making it a relatively good place
to level up at this point in the game if you feel you need it.
Hmm... did the words lost-forever stand out enough in the above paragraph?
Oh, well, I bet they do now.
I also should mention that this is the first time you will be exposed to the
area surrounding North Corel. Let's examine the local monster activity, shall
we? The first enemy is a badass called the Joker, who attacks you with
surprisingly painful playing cards. The Spade is a physical attack, and the
Diamond is a much weaker physical attack. The Heart, as a matter of fact,
actually heals your character, which is pretty sweet. Club is more detrimental,
as it casts Quake on a character. The worst card, however, is the Joker. The
Joker is, as you may have guessed, instant death. Ouch. Thankfully, it's
rather rare. The Jokers, lastly, are immune to earth magic, but weak versus
wind-based attacks. Moving along, then, to the Flapbeat. The Flapbeat is a
bird with a quite powerful long-range attack called Flying Sickle that it uses
quite often. Lucky for you, they are easy to kill. Again, they are immune to
earth magic, but fall prey to wind-based attacks. The Spencer is a completely
generic enemy in every way, and had no attacks, strengths, or weaknesses to
mention. They are also very easy to kill. Lastly, we move on to an enemy that
you will only meet while driving in the desert: the Chimera. It has an attack
which can poison you (it does no damage, thankfully), but that's not what you
should watch out for. It also uses an attack called Aqualung which, you may
know, is equal in power to Beta. I also mentioned in the paragraph above how it
is a lost-forever, so take note, young one. Now the good news is that the
Chimera's magical capabilities aren't quite that of the Midgar Zolom, so it is
possible to survive a shot of Aqualung (and also to learn it with E. Skill).
Still, expect this attack to do several hundred HP of damage to each character,
and be thoroughly prepared to kick its ass following your recovery from said
attack. In the field of HP, the Chimera also possesses a lot of resilience,
which is accented by its lack of a weak point. If you know Laser, it makes a
good opening attack, by the way. The good news? Well, the Chimera always
travels alone, so at least you'll only have to put up with one at a time.
Anyways, you may wish to spend some time cruising around, fighting and
earning money (because you've probably gone and developed some sort of addiction
to one of the games at the Gold Saucer by now). If not, then proceed west
across the river into the Gongaga area.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Gongaga
As you head west across the river, you'll enter some very thickly-wooded
terrain. Welcome to the Jungle, baby! And now for a quick overview of the
monster activity this side of the Mississippi. First, we have the Gagighandi,
a creature who is of very little mention. They have a Stone Stare attack, but
that just means you have half of eternity to end the battle lest you be turned
to stone. There's also something called Grand Horn, which again merits very
little mention. They have an attack called Grand Punch, which casts Quake on
one of your characters, but that's about it. And lastly, I've seen some very
poorly named enemies in the history of video games, but nothing could prepare me
for the Touch Me. That's right: Touch Me. Finally, an enemy that sounds more
like a bad 80's song than a bad guy. They are tiny little frogs with two very
annoying attacks. One, called Frog Jab, will transform whatever it hits into a
frog (or, if the target is already frogged, back to normal). You'll probably
want to kill them before they have a chance to piss you off with it too much.
However, their other attack is called Frog Song. Despite the fact that Frog
Song is far more annoying and debilitating than Frog Jab, do be aware that this
is something you can pick up with the E. Skill materia. To make things easier
on yourself, you might want to utilize the Manipulate materia to achieve the
desired end in this respect.
Anyways, you may spot a giant piece of junk nestled in the middle of one of
the smaller forests in the area. Naturally, you must investigate. Hop out of
your buggy and have a look-see, but first stop and make sure that your party is
prepared for an upcoming boss fight. There are no real red flags you should be
aware of, but keep in mind that powerful attacks like Beta, Ramuh, Bio 2, et
cetera, will help end said boss fight very quickly. Also, the boss fight in
question will feature two targets, so any attack magic materia you plan on using
should be attached to an All materia where applicable. Throw is also a powerful
attack, but with so many other powerful attacks (and the fact that Throw cannot
be made to target all), there's really little point in wasting your hard-earned
projectiles. On a final note, the characters you choose to bring with you may
or may not have an effect on the game later on, as described in section VII.A.
of the FAQ.
Entering the area, you'll emerge on a quiet forest path... well, quiet except
for the two people you spy on the path ahead of you. It's Reno and Rude of the
Turks! And the two of them are, of all things, gossiping. Apparently Rude has
a thing for Tifa, Elena likes shiny things and also Tseng, but Tseng likes
Aeris. Before they begin to discuss Tifa's cup size, however, Elena comes
walking along the path behind you and begins to talk to you about how stupid
Reno and Rude are being. "It's so stupid!" Elena whinees. Yes, Elena, but
apparently not as stupid as talking to people for twenty seconds before you
realize who you're talking to. Indeed, after a few moments, she shuts up and
stares blankly at you. She then runs screaming towards Reno and Rude, yelling,
"they're here, they're really here!" Good work, Elena. Listen, we're going to
be reassigning you to our "retard" division, ok?
Anyways, after some meaningless banter, Elena splits and Reno and Rude
decide to throw down with you. But, as we've already established, a few
castings of your ultra-powerful magics will introduce them to painful new ways
to die. Laser, by the way, being a gravity-based attack, will not work.
Neither of them have attacks that are too horribly powerful, but for what it's
worth, Rude is the one with the Cure spell, so his ass needs to be the one to
go first. But, most of your good attacks should be targeting both Rude and
Reno, anyways, so this should not even be an issue. Once you've sufficiently
dominated the two, they will turn tail and run. Actually, Reno is the one who
runs. Rude just looks at his watch and casually meanders off... he's so cool.
Anyways, your reward for kicking their asses is an X-Potion and the Fairy Tale.
Following the battle, Cloud voices his suspicion of the Turks. How did they
know that you were coming this way? Was it a spy? Granted, it was just a
matter of simple deduction, but when a group's main source of intelligence is
someone like Elena, you become suspicious if they're so much as able to
distinguish you from the buggy you rode in on. However, Cloud steadfastly
expresses his trust in everyone in the group and pretty much drops the subject.
Before you go much further, might I remind you that you are currently in an
enemy-infested jungle. While some of the creatures here are recycled garbage
from the outside, expect to see a few new faces here. For starters, we have the
Flower Prong. Its attacks aren't horribly powerful, but it does cast Bio 2,
which you should probably be very familiar with. As you might expect, they
absorb poison-based attacks, so they are not a very good idea. On the other
hand, fire and earth-based attacks will mess them up pretty badly. There's also
the Kimarma Bug, who has a most annoying tendency to hit you with its Stop Web.
As you might expect, this will, well, stop you. Since they travel alone, it
won't be too bad unless it has the time to afflict your entire party, but even
then, you'll survive. However, it has a bit more HP than most of the other
enemies around, so it can take a bit more time to get rid of. The last enemy is
one you will not see until a tad bit later, and is called the Heavy Tank. The
Heavy Tank has an extremely high amount of HP and takes a bit of time to kill,
especially given their resilience to gravity based attacks. It's attacks are
powerful, and it also has an attack called Big Spiral that will target your
entire party for a decent amount of damage. The good news is that the Heavy
Tank always travels alone, and is generally a greater test of your patience than
your strategical skills.
By the by, you are currently standing at a fork in the road. It doesn't
really matter, but we're going to be heading left first. Go left to a new
screen and another fork in the road. First things first, grab that Deathblow
materia you see lying on the ground. Secondly, the left path here will take you
back to the world map, so go right.
You'll emerge in a quiet little forest town. The first thing Cloud notices
is that exploded reactor in the distance. Seeing that, guess what just about
every Goddamned person in this town is going to talk to you about? Here's a
hint: it has something to do with that exploded reactor back there. The huts in
this village are set up in an unusual fashion, as you can only access the second
floor of each via strangely out-of-place fireman's poles built into each one.
Scope out the town and the shops here, as well. Interestingly enough, from
every shopkeeper in town, you have the option of buying from them, or asking to
hear a story. This really would have been a fun and interesting feature if not
for one fatal flaw: everyone tells the same Goddamned story. And the story goes
pretty much like this: "The Shinra built a reactor here. It blew up. The end."
Thanks, shopkeeper. Because I couldn't derive that myself from taking a look at
that gigantic blown-up Shinra reactor back there. Y'know, the Shinra just might
have work for all of you in their special "retard" division. And say "hi" to
Elena for us while you're down there. As for the actual shopping, at any rate,
the weapon selection is the equivalent to the stuff back at Junon. Even if you
might be interested in making a purchase, for one reason or another, do realize
that another equipment upgrade is just around the corner, so you're advised to
save your money at this point. However, you should definitely make it a point
to raid a man's hut and steal his White M-Phone, because it is a good weapon
for Cait Sith, but more importantly, it is also free. Lastly, you might also
want to stop by the accessory shop and look around. The accessory shop is also
the town's materia shop, by the way. Among the materia available here are the
Time and Mystify, both of which you may choose to get while you're here (because
in passing on either, you're going to have to wait awhile for the next
opportunity).
Lastly, there's also Zach's house. Zach was a guy from this village (who, as
we'll later discover, looked startlingly like Cloud) who left to join SOLDIER.
Zach's parents quickly peg Cloud as an ex-soldier and begin barraging him with
questions about Zach. Apparently, they haven't heard from Zach in 10 or so
years, so you can kind of understand their excitement. But, lo and behold,
Cloud knows nothing. If Aeris is with you, they mention that Zach had mentioned
getting a girlfriend, and if Aeris happened to be it. Granted, the only thing
they have to go on is the fact that Aeris is a girl, but it's worth a shot.
Aeris and/or Tifa (whomever is with you) will leave in a huff. Your actions
following this will have an effect on the game later, as mentioned in section
VII.A. of the FAQ, but here's the basic gist of things. First of all, Zach was
indeed Aeris's first boyfriend. He was also a SOLDIER 1st class, which makes
things even weirder. Since 1st class is a fairly elite ranking, it seems very
odd that Cloud and Zach had never heard of each other, not to mention the other
creepy similarities between the two. Anyways, Aeris had heard that Zach had
gone missing after leaving on a mission some five years ago and never returning.
Aeris thinks that Zach, being a real ladies' man, had found someone else.
Psychologically, this might explain her attraction to Cloud (who is obviously
not a ladies' man). Anyways, as for Tifa, she was just pissed at the whole
idea. She, like most other sane people, saw too many startling similarities
between Zach's story and Cloud, which brought up the memory of Cloud ditching
Nibelheim. Accomplish what you want to accomplish here, and then return to the
original fork in the road (back where you entered from the world map).
Taking a right at the original fork in the road, you'll head towards that
busted-up reactor. As you enter the shell of the reactor, a helicopter
approaches in the distance, and the party runs to hide. Off the helicopter
steps Tseng and the evil bitch. Cloud finally reveals that Scarlet is the head
of Weapons Development at Shinra, but "evil bitch" still seems to be a far more
appropriate title. She comes to inspect the reactor for materia, it seems, and
comments disdainfully on the poor selection here. She says that she's looking
for "huge" materia to make "the most powerful weapon ever". Which, when you
think about it, doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense, seeing as the Shinra
technically owns 90% of the world, anyways, and wins the rest by sphere of
influence. The only remaining nation for the Shinra to attack is itself
(though, as we have clearly seen in the past, the Shinra apparently has no
problem with laying waste to its own cities...) It kind of reminds me of a kid
who builds a sand castle just so he can knock it down... Anyways, following
this, Scarlet zings Tseng a good one about his boss being Heidegger. And that
hurts. Because it's Heidegger, for God's sakes. Heidegger. Sure, Scarlet may
be an evil bitch, but at least she doesn't have to answer to someone who gets
angry and begins randomly assaulting people every time his boss hurts his
feelings.
Anyways, after the two leave, examine the reactor for the Titan materia, and
then blow this popsicle stand. In case you've forgotten, you're still after
Sephiroth. And he's not here. Hop in your buggy and continue east across the
river and through the mountains...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Cosmo Canyon
First of all, with the new land, comes a new set of enemies. First, we have
the Desert Sahagin. If you'll remember the original Sahagin from Sector Five,
you'll recall their annoying tendency to severely reduce damage dealt by
incoming physical attacks (but again will only think to do so after you've hit
them a couple of times with physical attacks). But, unlike their brethren, ice
magic will ruin their day in no time. Just refrain from using fire magic, which
has only half effect, and water magic, which it will absorb. Next, we have the
Griffin. They are among the more difficult-to-kill monsters in the area, and
can be very annoying when they utilize an attack called Peacock, which will
drain lots of MP from each character on the team. There's also the Skeeskee.
Besides having a name that's really fun to say, they are surprisingly strong,
having more powerful attacks than the other enemies in the area. They also have
a very powerful attack called Rage Bomber, which can cause rage upon your
characters. Lastly, we have the Golem. The Golem, for starters, boasts more
HP than any of the enemies in the area, and is by far the most durable. It's
attacks, while slightly more powerful than those of some of the other creatures,
are thankfully not horribly powerful, a fact which will be amplified by the
tendency of the Golem to travel alone. The Golem is also mentioned in section
XIX.B. of the FAQ.
Anyways, as you drive through the mountain trail, the sun begins to set in
the distance. It's supposed to look cool and go with the flow, but if you keep
driving back and forth along the foot of the mountain, you can recreate an old
Simpsons gag by making the sun go quickly down then back up again and back down
and up until you get very bored from doing so or too tired to stay awake any
longer. Sun goes up, sun goes down, sun goes up, sun goes down, up, down, up
down, up, down... With this out of your system, keep driving until you begin to
experience what we in the biz like to call a "mechanical breakdown". Goddammit,
Cloud, I told you to put gas in this thing! Now Barret's going to get mad and
start shooting people again! And, for future reference, when you start to hear
your vehicle make a funny noise, turning up the radio to drown the funny noise
out is generally not the best solution to the problem. At any rate, just be
thankful that you conveniently broke down three feet away from a town. Let's
head on inside, shall we?
Welcome to Cosmo Canyon, a tribal village built into the side of a cliff.
Now, in the world of Final Fantasy VII, even a tribal village such as Cosmo
Canyon is technologically advanced, but they are more or less the only village
on the planet that is not affiliated with Shinra, Inc. You see, Cosmo Canyon,
as the guy at the gate will proudly hail, is the home of the study of the life
of the planet, so you can sort of imagine why nobody here wants the Shinra
involved in their business. Before you even get to the gate, however, Red XIII
bolts ahead of you and is promptly welcomed home by Gate Guy, who refers to him
as "Nanaki". Nanaki, of course, being Red XIII's real name. A bit of confusion
follows, and as you might expect, you can see a pretty hilarious conversation
occur here if you had the foresight to name Red XIII Nanaki when you first met
him. Gate Guy is about to toss your ass back out onto the streets (I'd be wary
of letting someone with a sword that big into my town, too), but Red XIII has a
few words with Gate Guy, who'll then happily let you in, because helping Red XII
was apparently a "horse of a different color" or something-rather.
Speak with the people around town, and you'll basically hear that you are in
Cosmo Canyon, home to the study of the planet. Well, I already told you that,
didn't I? You do meet a really nice guy who offers to fix your car, but talking
to him isn't required for the car to get fixed. Interestingly enough, however,
you can try to talk to him a bit later on (after he has already fixed the car),
and even offer to pay him. You'll practically have to cram the 1,000 gil down
his throat, and all you really get in return is him telling you that there is an
Elixir underneath the couch upstairs at the inn.
Anyways, you'll see Red XIII hanging around the stairs on the west edge of
town. He tells you that this place is the home of him and his tribe, but that
he is the last of his kind (just in case you were getting your hopes up of
seeing more talking dogs). His mother was a brave warrior and died fighting
here, whilst his father, the coward, fled. He also says that his mission is now
to protect the village, and that his journey will end here. Following this, he
turns and heads upstairs. Follow him. You'll make your way through a couple of
shops (I'll go over the shopping detail in just a few, so for now head to the
top of Cosmo Canyon). On your way up, take note of the giant sealed door you'll
see... it's important.
At the top of Cosmo Canyon, you may already have noticed, is a gigantic
observatory. Inside said gigantic observatory, you'll meet Red XIII, and his
grandfather, Bugenhagen. You should probably realize that grandpa is an
honorary and not hereditary title from the fact that he is noticeably not a
talking dog, but rather he looks like one of the guys from ZZ Top. He thanks
you properly from bringing Red XIII back home, and then proceeds to reveal that
Red XIII is really only a child, relatively speaking. Because of his tribe's
incredible longevity, his 48 years of age are something more like a human that
is only 15 or 16. Bugenhagen finds it amusing that you thought Red XIII was an
adult, but the truth of the matter is that when you meet a talking dog, its age
is going to be pretty far down on the list of things you're curious about. But,
seeing as Red XIII is both the oldest and youngest character in your party, you
can really perceive him as either/or.
Following this begins Bugenhagen's speech on when the planet will die. It
could be tomorrow, or a hundred years away... More or less, take the prophecy
of Armageddon and remove any trace of organized religion from it, and that's
what he's talking about. He says that he can hear the cries of the planet, you
see. He's not an Ancient or anything, he's just got some kick-ass equipment
that can hear it for him. Planets are born and planets die, he'll say, but
you'll get a more thorough lesson shortly. Red XIII mentions the fact that you
are on a quest to save the planet. We are? Damn, I thought we were after
Sephiroth to stop him from killing people (a mission we also seem to be failing
quite miserably at). Well, I suppose we also hate the Shinra, too, but who
doesn't? Either way, Bugenhagen finds it amusing that you're trying to save the
planet, but he agrees to show you his observatory, anyways.
A man walks in, saying that several odd-looking people have arrived in the
village. And when your team consists of a man with a gun grafted into his arm
and a cat riding a giant stuffed animal, it really doesn't take much more than
common sense to figure out that he's talking about your team. Red XIII tells
you that only three people can fit inside the machine at once, and then leaves.
Now, what you must do, obviously, is go back to the base of Cosmo Canyon and
assemble a party to go inside the observatory. And no, Bugenhagen isn't nice
enough to show it to the entire team- only three of you get to see it. And,
despite what you may think, your choices will not affect the game later on, as
detailed in section VII.A. of the FAQ, so just go back to the foot of Cosmo
Canyon, scrounge around until you find one of your teammates (excepting Red
XIII, who has seen the machine more times than he cares to deliberate), and
speak with him/her to bring up the PHS screen. The head back to Bugenhagen's
Observatory for one of the most kick-ass movie sequences in the game.
Granted, your characters will still look the same, the observatory itself is
still a sight to behold. First, your party will take in the beauty of their
surroundings, and then Bugenhagen will get down to business and explain the Gaia
theory to you. Except for in this game, it's not a theory, it's a fact written
in stone. Basically, the spirits and souls of every living thing are all part
of one collective force known as the Lifestream. When something is born, it
takes "spirit energy" from the Lifestream, and when they die, it goes back into
it. He then gives you a really neat visual. Bugenhagen further deliberates
that it is spirit energy that makes it possible for planets to be planets.
Without spirit energy (and you'll get a visual on this one, too), the planet
will crumble and die. This, by the way, would explain just how badly the Shinra
is messing the planet up with their mako reactors. So, basically, unless you
stop the Shinra, the world is screwed. But, for some reason, Sephiroth remains
to be Cloud's top priority (which really makes one wish that Sephiroth and the
Shinra would have just taken care of each other back at Shinra H.Q.)
Following your little lesson, head back down through Cosmo Canyon. For
further instruction, you can speak with the two elders hanging around town. One
of them will talk about the Promised Land. More or less, the Promised Land was
something that existed only for the nomadic Cetra, and it was basically the
eternal happiness that they achieved when they died and returned to the
Lifestream. So the Promised Land, essentially, is that which is all around us.
This also means that the people at the Shinra are a bunch of friggin' idiots who
are wasting their time looking for something that they already have. You'll
find the other elder getting plastered at the bar. He's got a far more
intriguing tale to tell. He talks about Dr. Gast, who, as we all know, was a
well-respected biologist. He used to come to Cosmo Canyon back in the day, and
the people here would never have believed that his ass had anything to do with
the Shinra. The elder recalls the day he heard that Dr. Gast had discovered the
body of an Ancient, subsequently naming it Jenova. But then, one day, Dr. Gast
showed back up at Cosmo Canyon, mumbling some nonsense about Jenova not being an
Ancient. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Gast disappeared, never to be seen again.
Take this story any way you'd like, but either way, it does raise a few
questions.
Oh, yeah, there's also shopping to be done here. The Tiger Lily Arms shop,
first off, contains one of the flyers mentioned in V.A. of the FAQ. Secondly,
you can buy some better equipment here than has been available elsewhere. You
might want to save some gil for the materia shop (located further towards the
top of Cosmo Canyon), because there are a few materia available there that you
might be interested in purchasing. Of note are the now-available HP Plus and MP
Plus materia. The item shop (located on the east edge of town), lastly, will
have anything you need to further round out your inventory.
When you've had your fill of shopping and talking to creepy old men, you'll
find the rest of your team sitting around that eternal bonfire they've got going
at the base of the village (something that either or both of the elders would
have made a point of telling you if you spoke with them). Walk around the
campfire and speak with your teammates, listening to the interesting things they
have to say. Barret gives an inspired speech about how this was the place that
AVALANCHE was born (which explains the name AVALANCHE, at any rate). But,
sadly, Biggs, Wedge, and Jesse are all dead, having given their lives to their
cause. But that don't matter to him, because he's gonna keep fighting!
Fighting until he's gone and saved the planet! And, even though he doesn't
really say it, he has an epiphany at this point. Granted, the original
AVALANCHE is no more, but take a good look around you, Barret. What do you see?
A guy with a huge-ass sword, a big-breasted hottie who kicks more ass than Jean-
Claude Van Damme, a girl who has an intimate connection with the planet, an
incredibly wise talking dog, a thieving little whore (if you got Yuffie, that
is), and... er, a cat riding a giant stuffed animal. Don't you see, Barret?
That's right, AVALANCHE is reborn!
Tifa just stares thoughtfully into the bonfire and begins to bring up that
day five years ago to you, but then stops herself. She says that she feels like
Cloud is going really far away, and then asks if Cloud is really himself.
Granted, this is a very weird question that would not merit a response from
anybody, but Cloud more than likely doesn't answer on the grounds that all of
the voices in his head are giving conflicting responses. Aeris, on the other
hand, is feeling very sad. She spend a lot of time talking to the elders and
learning of the Ancients. And it's just started to hit her hard that she's the
last of her race alive, making her feel like she's alone in the world. Cloud
tries to cheer her up, saying that he and the rest of the team are there for
her. But, it's really no use. Though, I have to give Cloud credit for the
unexpected and uncharacteristic show of affection.
As for the rest of the team? Since you can't really expect much from a cat
on a giant stuffed animal I guess you can't really blame Cait Sith for not
having much to say. In a nutshell, he sucks at fortune-telling, and he sucks at
conversation, too. And Yuffie, if she's with you, is far more concerned with
future stealing opportunities than she is with whatever the hell it is that your
party is up to (you said you were trying to save a plant or something, right?)
Talk to Red XIII last. He'll begin to talk about his father and how much of
a coward he was, but that's when Bugenhagen shows up and asks why Red XIII can't
forgive his father. Red XIII stalwartly proclaims that while his mother fought
bravely to defend Cosmo Canyon, his father turned tail and fled like a coward,
leaving Cosmo Canyon and its people for dead. Bugenhagen, in lieu of a
response, just asks Red XIII to come with him. Saying that the trip will be
dangerous, he requests that Cloud also come along with the teammate of his
choice. Sure, Bugenhagen, we have time to take a break from saving the world
from Sephiroth and the Shinra to deal with your crap.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: The Gi Cave
Before we move on, let me take a minute to state that everything found inside
the Gi Cave is a lost-forever, as mentioned in section I.F. of the FAQ. That
being said, let's go.
You may recall seeing the giant sealed door of doom. Well, Bugenhagen has
decided to crack it open and show everybody what's inside. Bugenhagen will join
your group before you venture inside the Gi Cave, but don't be expecting any
help from him. No, no, he prefers to sit quietly on the sidelines and watch.
Though, I suppose there's not much you can expect from a man whom you'll later
discover is 129 years old. You do get some rather interesting commentary from
him at rather inappropriate intervals, however. By the way, he was right when
he said the place was loaded with baddies, so do yourself a favor and set up
your equipment and materia properly before venturing inside.
The monsters here all carry a fun undead theme with them, though only a few
carry the trait of the undead (a weakness to holy-based attacks). First,
there's the Gi Spector, which looks suspiciously like Slash from Guns N' Roses.
Their attacks are of little mention except that they can cast Death Sentence,
and the only reason I mention that attack is because you can pick it up with the
E. Skill materia. You need not worry about Death Sentence unless it takes you
more than 60 seconds to end a battle, in which case I pity you and your lack of
mental competence. The Gi Specter isn't horribly difficult to kill, but fire
magic makes your job much easier, as does their susceptibility to holy magic
(meaning that curative magic is also an effective attack against them). The
Sneaky Step is another enemy that has no real attacks of note, except for again
Death Sentence. They are a bit more difficult to kill, however, and have no
weaknesses as do the Gi Specters. Next on the list is the Heg, a snake creature
that has the capability to show up in large groups. Their vice is the ability
to normally poison you with their attacks, which can be annoying. Take
advantage of their weakness to ice-based attacks to rid yourself of them in a
hurry, but avoid using poison magic, which they absorb. Finally, we have an
enemy called the Stinger. You will not encounter them randomly, but there are a
few places where you will fight them in the third room. Expect a tough fight,
as they have more powerful regular attacks than the other creatures here and are
much, much harder to kill, as well. In addition to powerful regular attacks,
they also boast the Rabbit Food attack, which is twice as powerful, as well as
the Sting Bomber, which is a maliciously powerful attack which can very well
kill a weakened character, so keeps your HP up.
Just behind the door, there's a long path leading to the cave below. Make
your way down via the ropes as you hear the sounds of Cosmo Canyon fading
further and further into the background, until you at last reach the entrance to
the Gi Cave.
In the first room, you'll see a little path, and a total of four small
alcoves scattered throughout the room. Kudos to you if you also see the very
large, obvious materia lying near the top of the room, but you cannot yet reach
it, so be patient. Anyways, of the four alcoves, each has a rock inside. Each
rock is described with a different non-sequitor adjective. The one you're
looking for is the rock inside the alcove on the upper-left. Break that rock
open, and the door to the next room opens. Break any of the others open, and
you are instead treated to no progress of any sort, and also a random battle.
As you exit the room, Bugenhagen will stop to talk a bit about the cave, saying
that all of the monsters here are the fallen spirits of the Gi tribe, who all
perished in a certain battle. That must have been a big Goddamn battle, given
that there are an infinite amount of spirits abound.
Moving along to the next room, you'll quickly hit a fork in the road. The
left path will take you to that materia you saw earlier (which, by the way, is
the Added Effect materia). On the way, however, beware that strange liquid on
the floor that you really don't want to touch but have to because it's right in
your way and your characters never learned how to jump. Walk slowly across it,
because if you run, you'll slip and the walls will react somehow by skewering
your ass with a bunch of pointy spikes. From the strange goo, you can go down
to the materia, but the path leading up is a dead-end. Back at the original
fork, continue up to another fork in the road. And since going up is a dead-
end, go left until you reach some stairs and a path leading up. While the path
leading up will take you to the next room, the stairs ultimately will take you
to two treasure chests. If you go down the stairs and continue down, you'll
reach a chest containing the Black M-Phone. However, if you go down the stairs
and go right, you come to another fork in the road. Going down, as you might
have seen already, is an ultimate dead-end, but you can go up to a chest
containing an Ether. Hurry on to the next room now, stopping to listen to
Bugenhagen pratter on a bit more about how lucky Cosmo Canyon was to have not
had the Gi attack right through this cave.
In the next room, you'll see five separate passageways standing before you.
To make things easier the only two worthy of mention are the second and fourth
from the left. Both paths, for starters, are obstructed by gigantic webs. When
you touch these webs, you will battle the aforementioned Stingers, so be
prepared for that. Moving on, the fourth passageway from the left will take you
to two treasure chests. One, in the upper-right corner of the room, contains an
X-Potion. The other is accessible by going left when the path forks and
underneath the intersecting walkway to it, which contains a Turbo Ether. The
second path from the left will take you to the next room, but you might make it
a point to deviate from the path, heading left and then down towards the bottom
of the screen. If you emerge from a small cave (shaped like one of the original
five passageways), you went too far down. Rather, go up a bit from there, and
take a turn right, going behind a giant boulder to a treasure chest containing a
Fairy Ring.
Before advancing to the next room, prepare yourself for an upcoming boss
battle. The boss in question has no weaknesses except for holy-based attacks,
and is unaffected by earth and, quite obviously, gravity-based attacks. Prepare
your most powerful attacks (which at the time should be probably contained
within the Throw and E. Skill materia). Also note that you'll be taking quite a
bit of fire-based damage in this fight, so your Elemental materia paired with
Fire in someone's armor, as well as the Fire Ring, which you might still have,
can help in this respect. If you know the Big Guard attack, you may or may not
want to bust it out during the next fight, as it will be a prolonged one against
powerful opponents. In opting not to, you might at least want to take along a
Haste-all spell to help you out. As you head towards the last room, Bugenhagen
mentions that the Gi tribe was defeated here, but before Red XIII can get any
ideas, you continue to the next room.
Meet the Gi Nattack and his two pet Soul Fires. Those of you who have ever
battled Wrexsoul from Final Fantasy III/VI may know what to expect, but this
fight plays just a bit differently than it. The Soul Fires will periodically
"possess" a member of your party, but the only real detrimental effect this will
have is that they will occasionally cause fire damage to that character. On the
field, they are a nuisance, mainly because of their many resistances. They are
immune to earth, poison, water, and gravity damage and in addition, they absorb
fire damage (which is why they will constantly cast fire on themselves to heal
up). They fall weak against wind and holy damage, meaning that if you really
want to take them out, you might as well just Cure the whole lot of them. If
not, then just concentrate your efforts on the Gi Nattack. Gi Nattack has quite
a bit of HP, and has a nasty tendency to steal your HP and MP, so be prepared to
bust out a couple of Ethers and Turbo Ethers in this fight. Physical attacks
are decent, but any applicable magic attack is preferable in this fight,
especially given the high HP of Gi Nattack. Throw, if you have any projectiles
on hand, is a powerful attack to consider unleashing on the Gi Nattack. Also,
if you're not really concerned about the Soul Fires, a good move you can bust
out on Gi Nattack is Beta, which, combined with other good attacks, can have him
dead in a few turns or even less.
Of course, if you wanna be a pansy and end the fight immediately by using an
X-Potion or Phoenix Down on Gi Nattack, go right ahead. I, however, do not
condone or endorse this behavior in the least.
Following the battle, Bugenhagen explains that this is why the cave was
sealed. You continue to the back of the canyon, where the party is shown an
imposing figure in the distance... It is Seto, Red XIII's father. His stoned
body stands atop the canyon, long defeated from his battle with the Gi tribe.
Bugenhagen, after getting rid of the rest of the team, explains that Seto left
the village to fight off the invading Gi tribe, and succeeded. Because of
Seto's brave actions, the invasion was fought off, and Seto did not stop
fighting even when the poisoned arrows turned him to stone (yeah, notice the
fifty gazillion or so arrows sticking out of the stone statue... creepy).
Before Seto left, he and Red XIII's mother made Bugenhagen seal the cave forever
and promise never to tell anyone about it. And it's nice to see how well he's
upheld that promise, isn't it? I guess the important thing is that Red XIII no
longer thinks poorly of his father, and the asses of the dangerous things
roaming the cave have now become thoroughly acquainted with your foot. As a
final bonus, the statue begins to cry, and the teardrops form a most kick-ass
weapon for Red XIII (the Seraph Comb). Red XIII hops atop the rock and howls at
the moon, now proud of his father. Bugenhagen tells Red XIII to continue on his
quest with the group. He says, in so many words, that your cause is hopeless
and that you are fighting a losing battle against the inevitable, but you've got
to try, anyways. Thanks for the encouragement, old man.
Your party, back at Cosmo Canyon, is informed that the buggy is fixed and
you're ready to go. Red XIII isn't around, and the team expresses their
feelings before packing up to leave. You'll make it to the entrance of Cosmo
Canyon when Red XIII comes bolting down the stairs towards your group saying
that he's coming too. "I think I grew up a little!" he excitedly shouts.
Goddammit, Red XIII, just because Bugenhagen called you a kid doesn't mean you
have to act like one. He's 130 years old for God's sakes! Dick Clark is a kid
to this guy... With Yoda having rejoined the group, pack into your buggy and
move out.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Nibelheim/The Shinra Mansion
It's a short drive to where the canyon ends, and you'll cross another river
at this point. And a new area means new enemies abound. The Nibel Wolf and
the Volron are both very simple, generic, run-of-the-mill monsters, and are
very easy to deal with. The Nibel Wolf is considerably easier to kill than the
Volron, and the Volron may put up the occasional M-Barrier, but that's about it.
If you happen to meander down to the beaches, however, you will meet a third
enemy, the Crown Lance. They aren't too hard too kill, especially given their
weakness to fire-based attacks. Just refrain from using earth magic, which they
are immune to, and lightning magic, which they will absorb. Their attacks are
nothing to worry about, but as a general rule, you are going to want to kill
them outright in a single blow. This is mainly because they will retaliate to
any form of attack by instantly stoning the caster.
Anyways, not too far into the distance, you'll spot a small town nestled into
the mountains. It's Nibelheim, Cloud and Tifa's hometown. However, when you
enter Nibelheim, Cloud stops to note how the village is noticeably not
incinerated to a crisp as he remembers seeing it last. Well, Cloud, even though
those bastards over at North Corel don't believe in it, it's a little something
called rebuilding... But, alas, Cloud may have a point after all, as the
village is completely identical to the condition it was in before Sephiroth's
inferno. And as if that weren't eerie enough, start talking to the people
around town. The normal citizens all seem to have collective amnesia, and no
one seems to remember that little incident that happened five years ago. For
that matter, nobody seems to know who the hell Cloud and Tifa are, and react
rather violently when you try to talk sense into them.
Their credibility is pretty much destroyed, however, by the fact that they
are coexisting with about a dozen or so creepy midgets in black cloaks who
wander aimlessly about town chanting "Se...phi...roth..." and "Re...un...ion..."
And that's creepy on a scale I can't even begin to fathom. Cloud will notice,
upon speaking with them, that each one has a number tattooed on them. Even
though the spikey-headed idiot boy doesn't quite grasp the concept at the time,
you might already be drawing a few parallels between Sephiroth's "number one"
tattoo, the retarded dumbass living in the pipe back at Sector Five, and these
creepazoids. Despite the overwhelming unsettling feeling it may give you, it's
still a good idea to talk to the Sand People, because they are so completely out
of it that Cloud can steal their personal effects from them while they go on
about their Goddamned reunion. Among the loot you can get by speaking with the
local cultists are: 2 Luck Sources, an Elixir, Turbo Ether, and the Platinum
Fist. Take heed that all of these items, namely the Platinum Fist, are lost-
forevers, as mentioned in section I.F. of the FAQ, by the way.
The psychopaths hanging around the Shinra Mansion actually have the most
useful information of the bunch. They utter that "Sephiroth... is near..."
He's inside the Shinra Mansion! We all know what that means. It's time to go
stupidly face off with him. The Shinra Mansion is kind of a pain to get
through, but only if you've decided to take up the optional side quest of
cracking open the safe here (highly recommended). In that case, you've got a
big boss fight ahead of you and you'd best be prepared (refer to section IV.A.
for more details). Regardless of your decision, you still get to put up with
the obnoxious enemies hanging around the Shinra Mansion, however.
Keeping in step with the extremely eerie and creepy theme of the entire town,
the monsters here achieve a 9.8 on the creepazoid scale. The Ghiorofelgo, for
starters, is a man swinging on a giant anchor that is the most disturbing thing
you've ever fought. He's not horribly powerful, but he's a pain to kill (lots
of HP there). In addition, he's got a pretty high resistance to magic, and is
completely immune to earth magic. Physical attacks work so-so, but he has an
Achille's Heel that makes him the easiest creature here to deal with, especially
given that he always travels alone. Gravity magic is twice as effective against
him, meaning that Demi will slice his HP in half, and Laser or Demi 2 will kill
him outright. Moving right along, we also have the Judge. The Judge is
holding a scale, which will periodically tip. On one side of the scale, they
are affected only by magical attacks, whereas on the other only physical
attacks. They begin the fight with it on the physical side, later switching to
the magical side. You can tell which side they are currently on by their
attacks. Physical attacks on the physical side, and they switch to using
powerful magic attacks on the magical side. This means that you'll probably
want to off them before they have a chance to tip the scales. Their HP
thankfully isn't as high as that of the creepy anchor man. Two things are of
special note about the Judge, however. The first is that they use an attack
called ????, which you may learn with the E. Skill materia. Don't worry: this
attack is usually completely ineffective against you, but you can use it with
better results. Secondly, the Judge is mentioned in section XIX.A. of the FAQ.
Next on the list is the Dorky Face, probably the most common enemy you'll meet
here. The Dorky face is a huge pain in the ass and has two attacks that you
should be aware of. One will confuse the entire party, while the other will
silence one member of the party. Both are very annoying, but at least the
silence helps to lessen the severity of the confusion. In preparation, you
might want to put the Added Effect/Mystify combo in the armor of your strongest
character, as you'll find that attacks from some of them can really hurt.
Secondly, even though these are battles you'll want to end quickly, refrain from
using doomsday attacks like Beta. Cause guess what happens if you get confused
before you can use it? That's right. However, summons make excellent attacks,
because even if your character gets confused, the summon still affects the right
party. Just set up your fastest character with a summon like Shiva or Ifrit
(due to their thankfully low HP, anything higher than Choco/Mog should be enough
to kill them in one fell swoop), and end these battles before they even begin.
If you don't feel like wasting the MP on a summon, however, you might try
setting up your fastest character with a good Sleep-all spell, or something like
it. Since every status ailment will affect the Dorky Face, just pick your
favorite thing to shut them up long enough for you to kill them without worry.
As you move into the Shinra Mansion's basement, you'll meet an even creepier
creature known as Ying Yang. Ying Yang is a single enemy that exists as two,
but always travels alone. Ying has a very high resistance to physical attack,
whilst Yang is difficult to hit with magical damage. You've got to kill them
both to get rid of it for good, so both physical and magical attacks are needed.
They have a mean physical attack, and some pretty nasty spells (Bolt 2 and Ice
2), but that isn't what is going to really piss you off about them. It's that
every five seconds, the battle pauses so that you can watch them eerily writhe.
It's enough to make you want to stick something sharp and pointy through your
TV, and if there was some kind of "delay of game" penalty you could lay down on
this asswipe, you would in spades. To make things even more annoying, they have
quite a bit of HP each, and are unaffected by gravity magic. And sadly, you
can't even put them or sleep or stop them, or anything else like that... you
just get to watch them writhe... and then show them the true meaning of pain.
The last enemy is really more of a nuisance than anything. It's the Giant Bat
that also hangs around in the basement. Their attacks are laughably weak and do
nothing but steal a little HP from your characters. They are more resilient
than you'd expect from a bat, and are naturally immune to the effects of earth
magic, but it shouldn't take much effort to shut these flying little bastards
out.
Well, as I've already mentioned, the meat of the Shinra Mansion is the fun
little sidequest detailed in section IV.A. of the FAQ. Even if you don't decide
to go through with it right now, realize that there are a host of other items to
be found scattered throughout the mansion- items that won't be horribly useful
if you come back too much later to pick them up. Since collecting most of these
items involve traveling all around the mansion, the very least you could do for
yourself at the moment is figure out the combination to the safe (details in
section IV.A. of the FAQ), which also involves quite a bit of running around and
to pretty much the same places. Without further ado, the following items can be
found lying around the Shinra Mansion: the Silver M-Phone in the room just
right of the entrance, the Twin Viper found by going into the back hall from
the entrance, hanging a right, and going into the back room, the Enemy Launcher
in the chest in the room with all of the plants in it (found in the left wing
upstairs), and lastly a Magic Source found in the back room in the right wing
upstairs (the room just behind the stairs leading down to the basement).
With that out of your way, the path to Sephiroth is very short and
straightforward. In case your stupid ass forgot where the stairs to the
basement were located, just go upstairs and head to the right wing. Head down
the stairs, into the basement, and towards the library. Guess who's been
sitting here waiting for someone to come and yell at him for killing people?
Sephiroth gets right to the point, asking Cloud if he is going to be at the
"Reunion". Cloud, in an attempt to sound badass, angrily replies, "I don't even
know what a reunion is!" Nice one, Cloud. But I suppose I should just be happy
that Cloud knows enough to discern what is and isn't ok to stab to death. In a
possible attempt to make Cloud jealous, Sephiroth deliberates how Jenova will be
at the Reunion, and refers to her as a "calamity from the skies", a fact which
intrigues Cloud. Sephiroth proclaims that he is heading north, past Mt. Nibel,
and that if you wish to learn more, you should follow him. Sephiroth then hurls
a materia at you, and then does that creepy crap where he flies away like
Superman. And you decide to follow him. Why, I do not know, because as Cloud
has again proven, confronting Sephiroth is doing you absolutely no good. You
just bullcrap with him for a few minutes before he flies away. At this rate,
the planet is going to be pretty screwed in a hurry. But, well, you've got to
try, I suppose. Pick up the Destruct materia, which is oddly enough undamaged
from being used as a projectile, and get the hell out of here.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Mt. Nibel
Parts of this place may seem very familiar if you were lucky enough to
maintain consciousness through the flashback at Kalm. You'll find yourself at
the base of daunting Mt. Nibel. It's not much bigger than some of the other
places you've been to, but there's an assload of baddies to worry about here.
We first have the Zuu, a giant flying bird with a mean long-range physical
attack. It may also use the Great Gale, which damages the entire team, but
thankfully not for too much damage. It is also one of the rare enemies that is
a long-range venture to you, meaning only characters with long-range
capabilities may damage it physically. The Zuu is immune to the effects of
gravity and earth, and has quite a bit of HP to sustain itself. The only
weakness to speak of is wind, but at the very least the Zuu always travels
alone. Next up, we have the Sonic Speed, a birdie that seems strangely
reminiscent of the Formula from Junon. However, they are nowhere near as
obnoxious. They just have a regular physical attack, and the ability to somehow
fire a Harrier cannon at you, which will do twice the damage of a normal attack.
Both attacks are long-range. The Sonic Speed is immune to earth magic and weak
to nothing, as well. Next up, the return of the ball and chain man, the
Screamer. Nothing to speak of here except an immunity to gravity magic. Then
there's the Kyuvildens, an enemy supposedly named by mashing random letters on
a keyboard. They are tiny insect creatures with a mean attack called Lay Flat,
in which they more or less physically assault you with the entirety of their
tiny, insect-like bodies. Fire magic should toast their ass in a hurry, though.
The Twin Brain is a very obnoxious creature with an attack called Stare Down,
which paralyzes your characters. They always begin the fight with this attack,
and then resort to their Absorb attack, which isn't so much powerful as it is
annoying, because you're likely to paralyzed to retaliate. Thankfully, they
have no resistances and are very easy to kill. Lastly, there's the Dragon.
The Dragon is an enemy not to be taken lightly, and is easily the strongest
creature at Mt. Nibel. They have an insanely high amount of HP, almost as much
as some bosses. They attack you constantly with Flame Thrower (an attack which
you likely know with E. Skill), and their physical attacks are just nasty (much
more powerful than Flame Thrower). To make things worse, they absorb fire-based
attacks and are immune to gravity magic. Not much else I can say except go kick
some ass here, but if you have the patience, you can steal the Gold Armlet from
them- the best armor available at this point in the game (and free of cost,
too).
Moving right along, then. The path up the mountain as you see it is more or
less straightforward. There are two deviations in the path, however. The first
is a fork in the road that splits left and right. The right path spirals up a
path leading to the Rune Blade, whilst the left path continues on. The second
deviation in the path is very hard to spot, and is a path leading up shortly
after the area where you jump down a ledge in the path (just before you continue
left off of the screen). This is a very long path, which takes you back to the
right a bit and finally spirals up to a chest containing the Plus Barrette.
Continue left to an area where you'll see five numbered chutes. Before going
down any of them, however, you might want to go down those stairs in front of
you and lower the ladder on the left side of the screen. This ensures that
you'll be able to get back up here without going all the way around (I'll go
into that shortly). Back to the chutes, however. Chute 2 will take you to a
chest containing the Powersoul, whilst Chute 4 will take you to a chest
containing the All materia. From either landing space, you can hop down to the
bottom of the room. Chutes 1, 3, and 5 all take you to various spots in the
room unworthy of mention that will also see you to the bottom of the room.
From the bottom of the room, you have several options. One is to go back up
to the ladder which you may or may not have let down so you can go down another
chute to collect more treasure. There's also a save point down here which you
may wish to utilize. Oh, and you see that giant fire-breathing dragon standing
over there? Don't touch it, or it'll attack. As long as you don't touch it,
however, you can maneuver all around it. Since it's guarding the exit, you're
going to have to fight it, however, so be prepared when you do. However, you
might first want to take the long path around Mt. Nibel, as there is lots of
treasure to be found here. Those impatient bastards who wish to skip this part
and go straight to the boss fight should skip the next few paragraphs and also
know that they are impatient bastards.
The rest of Mt. Nibel is one long, circular path, which can be accessed from
two locations in this room. The first is right near where you let the ladder
down at the top of the screen, and the second is on the bottom of the screen
near the dragon. And since the second you step foot outside the bottom path,
you hop down a ledge which you can get back up, you are advised to go this route
rather than starting up at the top. And since we're going to assume that you
were a dummy and forgot to lower the ladder before taking a chute ride, I guess
you really don't have much of a choice (seeing as this is the only way for you
to get back up there without the ladder). The exit at the bottom of this room
takes you back outside to the mountain. Remember, once you hop onto the ledge
below, there's no turning back. You'll land in front of a cave, and also see a
path leading down. The path leads nowhere, so enter the cave instead.
This cave should look very familiar, as it is the same one you went inside so
many years ago. As you take the path towards the back, however, there is a
treasure chest to be found along the way. You just can't reach it. Beyond the
chest, however, you will see a small tunnel which you can access. Enter that
tunnel and go left, then down, then right to the treasure chest, which contains
an Elixir. Then continue to the back of this cave to the old mako fountain.
Your reward for searching the mako fountain is an Elemental materia which has
appeared there over the years, so be sure to grab it before continuing on.
In the back of the room with the mako fountain is a path leading to another
room. There are a lot of stalactites blocking your way around this room, but it
isn't too hard to get around. There is a Sniper CR located in a chest near the
top of the room, which you can access by going left from the start, or by going
right and taking the first left you see. To reach the exit, go all the way
right for the start, and then head towards the lower right corner of the room.
Exiting this room, you find yourself again outside Mt. Nibel. You'll see two
paths, leading left and right. Since the right one is a dead-end, go left and
up the long and winding road that takes you to the top of the mountain itself.
At the top, you'll find the old mako reactor sitting there, being a mako reactor
and not much else. You can go inside the reactor, if you'd like, but only if
you want to stare at the pretty machinery and generally waste your time. Once
you've had your fill, run beyond the mako reactor to that door on the right side
of the screen. On the other side of that door is the room with all the chutes
in it. You made it!
Though I start to talk about preparing for the boss battle in the paragraph
below, I'd just like yo stop and take this time to make extra certain to point
out that you may learn the enemy skill Trine from it, which is a lost-forever,
as mentioned in section I.F. of the FAQ.
Before attempting to provoke the dragon (named Materia Keeper) that wants to
kill you, you'd be wise to prepare for the battle. For starters, there's the
save point you would be wise to utilize. Secondly, equip materia appropriate
for the battle. Gravity magic, as always, has no effect, and fire magic also
will prove inefficient, as it heals this boss. Anything and everything else
works, though (including poison, which, as always, helps to take a good chunk
out of said boss when cast early in the battle). Throw, as always, is your most
powerful attack, but only if you possess and are willing to use the needed
projectiles. Big Guard, again, is an attack which you might want to utilize in
this fight, but you should at least carry along a Haste-all spell failing that.
It (the boss) has some pretty mean physical attacks, but are overall not much to
worry about so long as you take the proper measures to protect yourself. What
you really need to watch out for is Trine, an attack strangely reminiscent of
Beta that this boss will occasionally bust out with. That's the bad news. The
good news, and there always is some, is that Trine isn't as bad as Beta was.
Secondly, you can further protect yourself with the Elemental/Lightning and
Elemental/Ramuh combos in your armor. Lastly, you'll definitely be wanting to
take your E. Skill materia along, not only for the powerful Aqualung attack
(probably the strongest attack you can use against this boss), but also to learn
Trine (I mentioned this in the paragraph above, if you'll remember correctly).
Anyways, with all the preparation complete, approach and do battle with the
Materia Keeper. So long as you're properly prepared for the battle, you
shouldn't have too much difficulty. Proceed to kick its ass; you'll know when
its nearing death because it starts to cast Cure 2 on itself. But so long as
you're piling on the big damage, it will be too little too late for the Materia
Keeper. You'll win a Jem Ring when the fight is over, and also be sure to
snatch up the Counter Attack materia it drops.
With the Materia Keeper gone, the back exit to Mt. Nibel stands ahead of
you...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Rocket Town
Exiting Mt. Nibel, you find yourself in a big field. And wouldn't you know
it, but there's a lot of new enemies for you to face around here! For starters,
the Nibel Wolf from Nibelheim is back. There's also a creature called the
Velcher Task, a big ugly thing, but thankfully not overly powerful. It's
attacks are moderate in strength, and it occasionally blows out poison clouds
onto the party, but that's about it. Avoid using poison-based attacks, which it
absorbs, but anything else goes. And if you so desire, you may also want to
take the time to steal from them a Remedy, an item which you will not have the
opportunity to buy until later in the game (and it's expensive, too). The other
two enemies around here can be found only in forested areas. The first is the
Bahba Velamyu. And is it me, or were the game's creators really running out of
enemy names at this point? Anyways, it's really hard to describe this small
little piece of crap, but its attacks thankfully are not horribly powerful.
Other than that, they are nothing to speak of. Lastly, there is the Battery
Cap, another enemy which may seem familiar to you. Their favorite attack, Seed
Shot, does no damage at all, but their other attack, Four Lasers, is rather
powerful and strangely familiar. And when you consider that they travel in very
large numbers, expect to have it used against you once or twice in any given
battle. Anyways, no weaknesses or strengths to speak of here, so have fun.
Anyways, you should see a small town in the distance, which you should at
some point mosey on over towards. Why? Because it's there. As you enter town,
Cloud looks up and sees a giant, rusted out rocket in the distance and comments,
"I wonder what they'd make something that huge for." To go into space, dumbass.
And someone who carries around a sword as big as Cloud's has no room to make
comments like that in the first place.
Anyways, first things first. Let's go shopping! The item shop here has all
of your item needs covered, and also offers for the first time available the
Barrier and Exit materia. The local weapon store has a few good buys, which you
should at least peruse (one of which, the Shotgun, is a lost-forever, as
mentioned in section I.F. of the FAQ). If you look at the completely loaded gun
rack at the weapon shop, Cloud comments that the owner of this store must be a
real gun fanatic. Notice how he makes this comment under his breath, likely
because the owner of this store (the aforementioned gun fanatic) is sitting
right there behind the counter, discussing with every customer how much he loves
his guns and how he uses them to blow the heads off of non-gun-lovers. It seems
to me that Barret has a new friend. Also remember that you are not too good to
walk into people's homes and steal from them, and that you may obtain a Power
Source and a Drill Arm from doing so. Lastly, there is an old man in town that
asks you to look at the rocket with him, and will give you the Yoshiyuki out of
gratitude. The Yoshiyuki is notable as it is also one of the game's lost-
forevers mentioned in section I.F. of the FAQ.
Everyone around town keeps talking about a guy named Captain. You find a few
things out, like this place was the original site of a rocket that was to be
launched into outer space (oh, that's what that thing is for... I thought it was
a decorative piece), but that the plan was scrapped and the Captain just spends
his days working on the rocket. How fun. But, you'll find the most out in one
of the houses on the right side of town. Go out into the backyard, where you'll
see an aircraft known as the Tiny Bronco. It's a small plane bearing the Shinra
logo, and, as Cloud so succinctly puts it, "is cool". Seeing as it has Shinra
written all over it, your party's first thought it to steal the damn thing, but
just as you're getting warmed up, a woman walks out into the backyard and asks
you just what you're thinking of doing. Um... we were... uh, looking at it.
Yeah, that's it. She directs you to go speak with the Captain if you want
permission to borrow the Tiny Bronco, and indicates that he is more than likely
inside the rocket.
Slither over to the launch pad and head into the rocket. Sure enough, you'll
find a man inside, and are given the option of asking him several questions.
First off, his response to your request to borrow his airplane is, surprisingly
enough, a resounding "hell no". Secondly, he assures you that Rufus is indeed
on his way here. But you'll find out the most information by asking him to just
tell you about the rocket. The Captain laughs and begins his long-winded
speech, first introducing himself as Cid. He then explains that this rocket was
originally to be sent into outer space, and he was slated as the man to do the
job. But because of a mistake made by Shera (the girl you met back at Cid's
house), the whole project went to hell. Furthermore, the Shinra soon discovered
that they could make a profit from mako power, and gave their space department
the financial shaft following that. And since Palmer, the head of the space
division of the Shinra, is far more interested in Twinkies and the possibility
of more Twinkies than he is in asking for more funding to his department, you
can sort of understand Cid's despair. This rocket has been sitting here ever
since that day, and Cid has been wasting his life away. In a way, he just wants
to leave this God-forsaken place behind him, but he has a new hope that the
space plan will be renewed when Rufus comes to visit a little later on. He then
hangs his head and you won't be able to get much more out of him. If you want
to ask him any more questions past this point, you'll have to exit the rocket
and come back. But, I'm assuming you've already found out all you need to know,
so head back to Cid's house.
Speak with Shera again, who admits that it was her fault that Cid's dream
never came true. Cid then returns home and gets hella pissed. Apparently, it's
some sort of blasphemous and heinous crime that Shera has guests and has yet to
serve them tea. And before your party can voice any objection to this, Cid
replies with one of the coolest lines ever in a video game: "Shut up! Sit your
ass down in that chair, and drink your Goddamn tea!" Such hospitality there,
Cid. I'd hate to see how you'd treat us if you didn't like us. Cid then
meanders into the backyard to tinker on the Tiny Bronco and wait for Rufus to
show up.
Your party, understandably, is just a little curious as to why Cid has this
immense hatred for Shera and the entire world around him. Shera sighs and tells
the story of that one day many years ago. Cid stands in the bowels of the
rocket awaiting the launch. Shera, being the meticulous type, is doing some
final checks on the oxygen tanks. Cid yells at her, saying that there is
absolutely nothing wrong with them. Then, we switch to the scene where Cid
triumphantly steps aboard the ship and takes to the controls. The door locks
behind him and the countdown begins. However, it seems that his negligent crew
has forgotten that Shera was still in the bowels of the ship, doing some final
checks. Cid brings her up on the radio and yells at her to get the hell out of
there, lest she be incinerated to a fine crisp. She replies that the results of
the previous tests were not satisfactory, and that she is checking the tanks one
last time for Cid's safety. Apparently, she doesn't realize that when the
rocket takes off, there won't be enough of her left to scrape off the launch
pad, but I guess that's besides the point. As the countdown reaches closer and
closer to zero, and Cid becomes increasingly and increasingly worried he finally
aborts the launch to save Shera's life. The rocket sputters and rises a bit,
and then lands back on the pad with a crash, slowly tilting to the position it
rests in now. So this, Shera says, is why she doesn't mind how poorly Cid
treats her. He saved her life, so she will live her life for him.
Cid comes back inside at this point, infuriated that you have yet to be
served your tea, and proceeds to bitch Shera out yet again. Then, just for good
measure, he yells at you, too. He sits down and impatiently awaits the arrival
of Rufus. Instead, however, who should come walking through the door than fat
pile of goo, Palmer, whom Cid has a few choice words for. Palmer informs Cid
that Rufus is outside, and Cid leaves, making sure to berate Palmer on his way
out. Palmer goes up to Shera and requests a pile of lard, quite possibly with
some tea floating around it. Sure, Palmer. We wouldn't want you to, you know,
lose some weight or anything. He's actually so infatuated with the promise of
food that he doesn't even seem to recognize you as the same group of people who
marched into his office and started killing people a short while back.
Back outside, an interesting conversation takes place between Cid and Rufus.
Rufus has no intentions of restarting the space program, but rather wants to
borrow the Tiny Bronco so that he may give chase to Sephiroth. Cid, as you
might expect, isn't too happy with this request. Rather, he is blinded with
rage. And I'm sure he would proceed to introduce Rufus to the stabbidy death if
he just had something sharp and pointy on hand, but something else appears to be
going on right now. Shera approaches you and mentions that she believes that
Palmer is out back attempting to steal the Tiny Bronco. This is a good thing, I
suppose, because your party can really only take so much of dealing with the
Shinra before they get so frustrated that they have to kill something. Now,
let's go kill Palmer.
This isn't what you would consider to be a hard battle or anything. Not like
the Materia Keeper or Gi Nattack, where you actually had to, you know, try.
Fighting with Palmer is more like a personal challenge to see how long it takes
to make the battlefield explode into a mess of butter and shrapnel. Palmer
stands on one side of the screen, wiggling his fat body about in a presumed
attempt to move, or perhaps communicate. Occasionally, he pulls out a gun and
fires it at you. But since he went and ate all the bullets, thinking them to be
Pez, the thing is running on a combination of materia and AAA batteries, and
instead mimics the effects of Bolt 2, Fire 2 and Ice 2. But, he is susceptible
to the effects of Stop, meaning that if you've got Seal Evil or some other
equivalent on hand, he won't even be able to get an attack off. If you don't
paralyze him, it's no big deal, but be warned that Palmer will periodically lean
over and slap his ass in an attempt to be provocative, but ends up disgusting
you more than anything. Kick his ass to high hell, unloading everything you've
got onto the chubby guy. The only thing that will not affect him is gravity-
based attacks, quite possibly because a body as large as his tends to produce a
gravitational force far stronger than anything you could ever conjure up.
Anyways, once you've hurt Palmer badly enough, the Tiny Bronco begins to move.
Palmer will turn tail and hobble his fat ass along, trying to catch the vehicle
that he is attempting to steal. At this point, the game rewards your patience
by hitting Palmer with a truck. To add insult to said injury, your team steals
his armor (the Edincoat) before leaving him to bleed rich and creamily.
Well, the Tiny Bronco is starting to move, and there's not much your team can
do to stop it, so everybody hops on board. Despite the fact that the only
aeronautical training Cloud has ever had was that paper airplane he made back in
the third grade, he takes the controls to the Tiny Bronco and expertly navigates
it across the skies. In a moment of thought, he swings back down in front of
Cid's house to get him before he makes a mess of Rufus's innards all over his
front lawn. Cid hops onto the Tiny Bronco as you pass by, but you should
realize the tendency of the Shinra by now to destroy anything that displeases
them. Indeed, the troops accompanying Rufus begin to fire at your ass and the
Tiny Bronco takes a hit to the tail before it gets very far away from town.
The good news is that you escape Rocket Town relatively unharmed, and also
since the Tiny Bronco has been destroyed, Rufus no longer has any interest in
dealing with you and leaves without any further incident (of course, this may
also possibly be due to the fact that your team now consists of seven to nine
people who want to make him intimately familiar with what his insides look
like). The bad news is that the Tiny Bronco crash-lands in the water and,
according to Cid, is not going to be able to fly anymore. Cloud, rather that
expressing sympathy for Cid's loss, asks him if the Tiny Bronco could be used as
a boat. Cid just tells you to do whatever the hell you want. His plane is
wrecked and his life is pretty much a ruin, but at the very least he left that
town and is never going back. Rather, Cid decides to go with you so he can slit
a few Shinra throats. You see, like Barret, Cid is fighting a hopeless battle
he almost knows he can't win, but at the very least he'll feel better so long as
he gets to kill something.
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--- Welcome to: The Coast of the Western Continent
Cid had mentioned that Rufus was headed towards the Temple of the Ancients to
chase after Sephiroth, but hold your horses for a second there, Sparky. You've
reached a bit of a turning point in the game, and you might want to slow down
and take care of some business first off. For starters, the game teaches you
how to use the Tiny Bronco, but it's of worthy mention that the Tiny Bronco can
sail across the rivers just as it can the shallows, meaning that you can cut
across the large western continent via the river that divides it in half. Also,
the next leg of your quest is going to force you to use Aeris, so if you've been
neglecting to use her up to this point, you might want to level her up a bit
and/or acquire some of her higher-level limit breaks. Next up, leveling-up
and/or gaining a few more limit breaks might not be such a bad idea if you've
been neglecting it for awhile, especially given that you now have the entire
team on your hands. This should hold especially true if you have meandered over
to the large island off the west coast, because it is there that you may
participate in the game's major sidequest, which is detailed in section V.B. of
the FAQ. Bear in mind that not only will you benefit greatly from getting it
done, but also that it will have an effect on the game later on as detailed in
section VII.A. of the FAQ. In addition to that, the side quest and its
subsequent rewards are lost-forevers, as mentioned in section I.F. of the FAQ.
That being said, you might finally also want to traverse the known world and get
any shopping done you've been neglecting to do or any missed E. Skills, items,
etc.
Anyways, you at this point are more or less meant to wander the coast
aimlessly. As you come up along the coast of Gongaga, you may notice a small
house (which you might have even visited before, as it is mentioned in section
V.C. of the FAQ). Since you really have nothing better to do, dock at the
conveniently-placed beach and meander inside the guy's home. Talk to him, and
he gets right to the point, telling you that the Keystone is no longer
available. Before you can ask him what the hell he's talking about (look,
asshole, we just wanted directions), he says that the Keystone is the supposed
"key" to the Temple of the Ancients, which can be found to the east of here.
However, as he already mentioned, the Keystone has sort of already been
purchased by Dio, the owner of the Gold Saucer. Well, mayhaps you can go reason
with him? I mean, all you really have to do is explain to him that the Keystone
is in no way related to speedos, and methinks he'll just fork it right over.
Let's go see what we can do.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: The Gold Saucer (Again)
You should be familiar with this place by now. Skeddadle over to the Battle
Square and head to see Dio's trophy room, which you might have remembered from
his shameless plug about it earlier on had you not been too busy at the time
expressing your disgust with his speedo. Just inside the battle arena, take a
right and head on over to Dio's trophy room. Now, I know that you're probably
expecting to see, well, trophies here. But that's not quite it. Dio's trophy
room is not so much a trophy room, you see, as it is a bunch of cheap crap. And
prominently on display in this collection of cheap crap is the Keystone. As you
are examining it, and more than likely contemplating stealing it (where's Yuffie
when you need her?), world-renowned speedo man, Dio, approaches Cloud and
strikes up a conversation. And I swear to God, if he calls me "boy" one more
time, I'm going to knock his damn block off. Also note that the entire
conversation has a "look at my speedo" subtext. Anyways, Cloud asks Dio for
permission to have the Keystone, and Dio agrees, but on one condition: you must
"entertain" him. Oh, my God, not that! Keep it in your Speedo, Dio! Oh, no...
that doesn't fit in there! Arrrgh! Actually, all he wants you to do is fight
in his battle arena for a few rounds.
You may wish to deny his request at first so you can enter the menu and
properly equip Cloud (the person who must fight alone in the arena) with some
good materia. He'll be fighting alone, but the battles are all very easy, as
all eight battles shall be against normal, everyday enemies. Which enemies, I
cannot say, as they are presented at random, so prepare yourself with a variety
of different attacks. Bear in mind that you can get your ass beaten and still
earn the Keystone, but if you choose to and succeed in winning all eight fights,
you'll also pick up a Protect Vest and a Choco Feather, which is a nifty
bonus, to say the least.
Anyways, with this short and speedo-filled chore out of your way, you are
free to leave and head on over to the Temple of the Ancients... or are you?
Apparently for some plot-related purpose, the tram leading back to North Corel
is out of service, trapping you inside paradise for the moment. Cait Sith hops
his stuffed ass over to where you are about to kick the repair man's ass and
mentions to you that he knows most of the crew here at the Gold Saucer and can
get you guys a free night at the inn. Wow, Cait Sith, you saved us a whopping
100 gil. Oh, well, at least we can still use him for a pillow.
Over at the Ghost Square, the entire party meets in the hotel lobby and
begins to talk amongst themselves. Cait Sith comments that the group never
really gets a chance to sit down and hang around like this. Unless you count
the fact that you have all been journeying together for quite some time now
(it's just that nobody ever feels like hanging out with Cait Sith's stuffed
ass). The group newbies, Cait Sith, Cid, and possibly Vincent, lobby for an
explanation of just what the hell is going on. Barret dismissively comments
that he's been around since the beginning and he still has no clue as to the
current situation. Well, Barret, maybe if you'd take a break from killing
things once and a while to stop and pay attention, maybe you'd know. Despite
what option you choose, Cloud attempts (poorly) to retell the story. Aeris,
sensing Cloud's complete lack of storytelling skills, breaks in and starts
talking about the Cetra and the Ancients. Barret replies with a classic Barret
line: "Cetra? Ain't that some kind of disease?" And you have to know that
Barret has heard the word "Cetra" clearly defined at least ten or twenty times
by now, which makes that line even more hilarious. Let's just hope that being a
frighteningly dumb ass isn't contagious, Barret. The group also notes that in
addition to searching for the Promised Land, Sephiroth also appears to be
searching for the "Black Materia", which is something that no one in your group
has apparently ever heard of. The discussion then turns to those numbered
freaks back at Nibelheim. Red XIII looks down at the tattoo Hojo branded on him
(the tattoo being, not surprisingly, the number XIII), noting that there must be
at least twelve others. Aeris ponders the possibility of some involvement of
Hojo in the predicament of the twelve caped freaks of nature, and then runs off
to bed, followed by Yuffie and Barret. Red XIII asks Cloud if he's going to be
the next one to lose it, given his number. Tifa walks over to Red XIII and
tells him to be strong in an interestingly touching dialogue between the two.
Shortly thereafter, the group adjourns to their respective rooms.
That night... Cloud stews in his room, perhaps ready to have another
discussion with the voices in his head. But he is interrupted by someone
barging into his room. That someone will be entirely dependent on your actions
during the game thus far, as described in section VII.A. of the FAQ. But
whomever that someone is, they ask Cloud to come on out into the Gold Saucer
with them and hang out for awhile, and have a little bit of fun. So take a
break, relax, and enjoy whatever scene you've earned. Though the scenes are
described in detail in section VII.B. of the FAQ, there's nothing there you
really need to know.
Your date is brought to an end, however, when you spot Cait Sith hopping his
miserable ass through the Gold Saucer carrying the Keystone. When he sees you,
he hops away. You are to give chase, but you will suffer more or less the same
problems you have with chasing Sephiroth in that even when you catch up with
him, there's not much you can actually do to him except politely wait for him to
get away again. You'll end up outside the arena at the Chocobo Square, and a
helicopter approaches in the distance, piloted by none other than Tseng of the
Turks. Cait Sith tosses the Keystone to Tseng, and Tseng flies evilly away in
his helicopter of evil.
Time for the ass-kicking now. Cloud and his date approach Cait Sith fully
intent to spread his insides around the Chocobo Square, but Cait Sith starts to
weasel out of it. He says that he was simply doing what he was ordered to do by
the Shinra, and that he really has been thinking about things since he has
joined your group. Apparently, you have given him a new outlook on things,
though not convincing enough to make him shun his evil duty. But perhaps his
most compelling argument is that the cat and the giant stuffed animal are both
inanimate and replaceable, and are being controlled by someone back at the
Shinra building. He pleads with you to just let him travel with you so that he
may learn more of your ways and also continue to spy on you, even though you
appear to be getting ready to thoroughly introduce his stuffed ass to your foot.
That's when he pulls out his trump card: he relays a message to you form
Marlene, who has been captured by the Shinra and is being held at the Shinra
building. And admit it, you saw this coming ever since you left her in the
hands of Elmyra. Cait Sith gets to come along with your team once more, but
this little stunt more or less cements his role as the team's bitch.
Before leaving Cloud's room the next morning, search the dresser in his room
for an Elixir, and then head out to the lobby to form your team. Aeris is
coming with you no matter what, so it's all a matter of choosing a third
companion before heading on out. With your team revved up and ready to go,
leave the Gold Saucer and head eastward.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Temple of the Ancients
Before we get into things, I'd just like to note is that all of the items
from this point forward (until the end of the Temple of the Ancients sub-
section) are lost-forevers, as mentioned in section I.F. of the FAQ, so be sure
to grab what you want.
Between the eastern and western landmasses, there is a small island to the
south where the Temple of the Ancients lies. If you happen to get into a battle
during your short trip from the beach to the Temple nestled within the forest,
be aware that the area is populated almost entirely by flying little bastards
called Slaps. They are tiny clouds of wasps whose main attack does almost no
damage, but will berserk your characters. In retrospect, this is probably the
least wisest attack in their arsenal to be using as a main attack. They also
have stings which can paralyze or poison you, but they rarely use them (though
if they show up in large numbers, don't be surprised to see them bust out with
them on occasion). But, again, the damage done is minimal, and your berserked
characters will more than likely make short work of the Slaps, and that their
resistance to earth magic and weakness to wind-based attacks should mean very
little to you. There's also a creature wandering around called the Kelzmelzer,
which is really not worthy of mention at all. It can poison you, but that's
about it.
Anyways, as you approach the temple, Aeris runs off ahead of you and begins
talking to the planet in nonsensical sentence fragments. As she is doing this,
you've got a good eye if you happen to spot one of the creepy cloaked men at the
top of the stairs leading inside the temple. Aeris says that she wants to go
inside, and rejoins the group. Head to the top of the stairs and, after
watching creepy insane tattooed guy number nine die a mysterious and meaningless
death, head inside.
Tseng of the Turks lies just inside, and he looks as if he's had a recent and
intimate encounter with Sephiroth's blade. He's still alive, but barely. He
says that it's not the promised land that Sephiroth was searching for. He might
have been more informative in this respect, but he instead gets into an argument
with Aeris. Finally, he hands you the Keystone, telling you to place it on the
altar to enter the temple. Do just that, but be aware that once you advance
past this point, it's a long road ahead with no turning back. When you feel
ready, place the Keystone on the altar and watch the altar react. You then sink
into the floor.
Before you can say, "Holy crap, I've died and gone to an Escher painting!",
you emerge in the middle of a gigantic maze of stairs and dead-ends. Before we
advance any further, let's delve into the local monster activity. The
Doorbull, for starters, has a lot of HP and can take quite a bit of punishment.
Add to this its immunity to gravity magic and the ability to absorb fire magic.
The good news is that amongst its repertoire of attacks, none of them are very
powerful. And also, the Doorbull always travels alone, so don't expect too much
difficulty here. The Toxic Frog is a different story, however. It may be weak
and easy to kill, but those little bastards, like the infamous Touch Me, utilize
two very annoying attacks: Frog Jab and Frog Song. Both, needless to say,
result in you becoming frogged. With these bastards, it's a "kill them before
they have a chance to piss you off" deal. They are weak to ice magic, and given
their low HP, can likely be taken out with a well-placed Ice-all spell. I'd
advise you to set up whomever performs this action with some sort of protection
against transformation, however (Added Effect/Transform in the armor works well
enough). The Under Lizard is the considerably more powerful friend of the
Toxic Frog, but their only real power is the ability to petrify you. This may
prove to be your downfall only if you've let the transformation inflicted by the
Toxic Frog's debilitate your offense (especially given that the Under Lizard has
around three times as much HP as the Toxic Frog does...) But, again, it's
attacks beyond that aren't too much to worry about.
There are three more enemies at the Temple of the Ancients, but all three are
enemies are completely avoidable. The only one you may end up fighting is the
Ancient Dragon, as two of them will be guarding the Nail Bat (an item you'll
find later). They are immune to earth and water magic, but weak versus wind and
gravity. Pay special attention to that gravity part, as you can have them down
in no time flat with two Laser or Demi 2 spells (they surround you, sadly,
preventing you from nailing both at once). Failing gravity magic, they have
quite the supply of HP, so expect a bit of a fight, at least. In addition to
having a strong physical attack, they also have an uber-powerful ice spell
called Southern Cross, so watch out for that. Moving right along to the
Jemnezmy. The Jemnezmy's greatest asset is the fact that you will likely spend
more time staring at her than you will fighting her. They've got an ice spell
called Cold Breath which does a considerable amount of ice damage to one of your
characters, and also possess the ability to confuse one of your party members.
Luckily, their HP is somewhat low, and they are easy to kill. They are immune
to ice magic, but poison magic is their kryptonite. Lastly, we have the 8-
Eye... which is a creepy blob-like creature that just must die. Though it's
Absorb attack will siphon an ungodly amount of HP from its target, don't be
fooled, the HP max of the 8-Eye is actually quite low. It is immune to gravity
magic, but poison magic again is the key here. Their HP is low enough that a
simple Bio spell would kill it instantly, but please note that poison magic of
any sort is an automatic deathblow to the 8-Eye.
From your starting point, head right to the first fork in the road. There
are some stairs to your right, and path to the left. The stairs lead to a dead-
end, so go left. The left path circles you around and takes you down a level,
where you will see a small archway to your right, and a path leading down. The
path is a dead-end, so head through the archway and crawl down the vines on the
other side. Below, it may not be apparent which way to head, but do you see
that treasure chest on the other side of the overhanging stairway? Go towards
it (and also collect the Trident inside of it). From here, the path forks.
The path leading up will take you to some stairs, and subsequently, a dead-end.
The path leading right takes you to a huge wall, which you can scale via the
overhanging vine. The doorway at the top of it is sealed for some reason, but
you can continue up the stairs to your left. From here, there is an archway to
your to your lower left, and some overhanging vines on the wall next to you.
First, you'll likely want to scale the wall. At the top, you can take some
stairs down to a doorway to your left (making sure to nab the Mind Source along
the way). Just inside the doorway is the hideout of that adorably cute bearded
midget you might have seen running around the maze. According to Aeris, they
are the embodied spirits of Ancients who have protected the Temple of the
Ancients for years, but in that time appear to have lost the ability to talk.
Aeris attempts to and fails to engage in basic communication with him, but Cloud
can make various transactions with the guy, such as purchasing various items,
asking to rest in his home, and saving the game. Admit it, at least one time
during your stay here, you started thinking about taxi drivers. Oh, and be sure
to steal the Silver Rifle from his treasure chest before leaving.
Going back to the archway, head through it, picking up the Turbo Ether on the
other side. From here, take a long stairway leading towards the lower left
corner of the maze. At the bottom, there is an archway to your left leading to
another set of stairs heading in the same direction. From there, head down and
left a bit further until you get to the chest containing the Rocket Punch.
Follow the path to a set of vines, which you can scale to the top of a short
wall. You see that little guy who just took off into that doorway to the left?
That will take you to the next room. However, you may wish to first head up the
stairs above you, go through the doorway, go down the stairs to the right, climb
up the vines on the side of the wall at the foot of those stairs, and walk along
the top of the wall to grab the Luck Plus materia.
Anyways, in the next room, you'll see a hallway leading to the right. The
problem is that giant U-shaped rocks are constantly rolling down it. And guess
what happens when you get hit by one? Actually, it doesn't hurt, but it does
squish Cloud in a cartoonish manner and sends him back to the beginning. It's
as if the rocks should have ACME stamped on the side of them. Anyways, head
down the hallway, making sure to stand where the U-cut will not make squishies
out of your team. Halfway down the hallway, you may notice how the path
deviates to a small pool of eerily-glowing liquid. There is a Morph materia
lying in front of it, which you should grab. Heeding the general law of common
sense that you should avoid any an all things that glow eerily, your team does
not mess with the pool and continues down the path. Once you reach the end, the
boulders stop, but Aeris decides she's going to go screw with that pool in the
middle of the room.
The pool, as all mystical pools tend to, shows you an image. You'll see
Elena and Tseng walking through a room with a lot of writing on the walls (a
fact which Cloud will later note). Tseng asks Elena out on a date, and then
shoos her away. That's when Sephiroth appears. Never mind the fact that
Sephiroth splits into two images during the conversation, or that the second
image does nothing but stand off to the side and glow eerily... It serves no
purpose except to make you think that your Playstation just broke. Sephiroth
describes how he plans to become one with the planet, blah, blah, blah. He's
not really making since at this point, because in a roundabout way all he's
trying to tell us is that he'd really like to die. The then does something to
Tseng that you've likely been wanting to do for the majority of the game: he
stabs him. Cloud at this point rallies the team to find that room, and that he
is through dealing with Sephiroth. He decides that it's going to end here, and
that he's going to take Sephiroth out. Sure, Cloud, we believe you... Anyways,
talk to the little guy at the end of the hallway, if you'd like, to restore your
HP/MP and/or save the game, and then continue to the next room.
The next room is a gigantic clock, with the hands forming walkways and doors
at the end of each one. The game describes how to rotate the hands, but you can
only rotate them once per visit to the room (meaning you have to leave and then
come back if you screw up. Also beware the second hand, as it will knock your
ass off if it hits you. You might want to let this happen at least once, as you
do get the Nail Bat for your trouble. You'll have to make your way back here
from the sealed door back at the maze, however. Anyways, without further ado,
happy door hunting!
The door at one o' clock is a dead-end which also leads to an enemy
encounter. You are advised to avoid it.
The door at two o' clock is also a dead-end, but with no enemy encounter.
The door at three o' clock, like the door at one o' clock, leads to a dead-
end and an enemy encounter.
The door at four o' clock leads to the Princess Guard, an excellent weapon
for Aeris.
The door at five o' clock leads back out to the maze, and onto a ledge where
you can collect the Ribbon.
The door at six o' clock takes you to the "door maze", which in turn will
take you to the room with the mural on the walls. Don't come here until you
have collected everything you want from all of the other rooms first. For
details on the door maze, see below.
The door at seven o' clock leads to the Trumpet Shell.
The door at eight o' clock leads to a Megalixir.
The door at nine o' clock leads to a dead-end.
The door at ten o' clock should be an easy one. It's the door you came in
from.
The door at eleven o' clock is also a dead-end.
The door at twelve o' clock is the exit to the Temple of the Ancients. Come
here after visiting the door at six o' clock.
Once you've collected the desired treasure, it's time to visit the door at
six o' clock. This takes you to a maze of doors, and you'll also see another
one of those cute midget guys hopping around. What he does now is move in a
predictable pattern through all of these doors. The game explains to you that
you can hop down to the ledge below if need be, but so long as you know the
mechanics of the doors, it shouldn't take more than one try to capture this guy.
You see, he will go into one door, and emerge out of another. You need to go
into the door that he would have emerged from. Which door that would be is
dependent on which door he went into.
There are 11 doors in all, but only 9 are part of the maze. The one on the
right on the top floor leads back to the clock room, and the one in the middle
(that looks different from all of the others) leads to the room with the murals.
Thus, the door on the left side of the top floor shall be door number 1. The
doors on the second floor, from left to right, shall be numbered 2-5. The doors
on the bottom floor, from left to right, shall be numbers 6-9.
If he enters door 1, he will emerge from door 9.
If he enters door 2, he will emerge from door 4.
If he enters door 3, he will emerge from door 6.
If he enters door 4, he will emerge from door 1.
If he enters door 5, he will emerge from door 8.
If he enters door 6, he will emerge from door 5.
If he enters door 7, he will emerge from door 2.
If he enters door 8, he will emerge from door 7.
If he enters door 9, he will emerge from door 3.
Oh, and you might want to get the Work Glove out of that chest on the bottom
floor.
Anyways, when you catch him, the door to the mural room opens, and you may
enter. But you might first want to prepare for the upcoming boss battle. This
won't be a very difficult boss battle, as the boss in question doesn't have too
much HP to back itself up. It has a pretty nasty physical attack which it uses
quite often, and also a fairly powerful fire breath attack that will nail the
whole party, but that's really all you need to worry about. The boss is immune
to gravity magic, and will absorb fire magic. Everything else is game, however.
Inside the mural room, you will come face to face with Sephiroth. Sephiroth
starts flashing eerily and self-replicating like nobody's business, all the
while jabbering on about becoming one with the planet. When he finally stops
with all of the flashy flying crap, he stops to explain his sinister plan to
you, as do all evil villains with a sinister plan. It's as if the first lesson
at evil villain college is "how to never keep your mouth shut". Anyways,
Sephiroth explains that when the planet is damaged, spirit energy is gathered to
heal that wound. But what if there were a gigantic wound that threatened the
very life of the planet? Lots of spirit energy would be gathered, and Sephiroth
plans to merge with that spirit energy and become God. And to inflict that
wound, he plans to utilize the ultimate destructive magic, Meteor. Otherwise
known as the black materia. What he fails to mention is that the power of
Meteor will be enough to knock the Earth out of orbit and annihilate it
completely, but meh. Petty details.
Sephiroth leaves you, and Cloud begins to freak out. And this isn't one of
his normal freak-outs, either. This time, it looks like one of his
personalities is trying to break free from the rest of his body. He completely
loses it, spouting off random gibberish, until he pulls himself together. And
then he goes on as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened, as does the
rest of the team. Ok, then... As the team discusses amongst themselves, the
Red Dragon appears to do battle with the team.
The Red Dragon, as I've already mentioned, isn't much of a difficult fight
due to the comparably low HP it possesses. Spells like Big Guard, Slow, and
Regen can all help, but given the possible short length of the fight, may not be
entirely necessary. Poison helps to do some good damage to him if cast early
enough in the battle, as well. On a final note, go nuts with your MP, because
you get a free refill after the fight. With those facts in mind, this fight
should be over pretty quick. You'll earn a Dragon Armlet for your victory.
Following your squeaky-clean battle, the first thing you'll probably notice
is the Bahamut materia left behind by the Red Dragon. After collecting it,
head on over to the right side of the room and take a look at the little scale
model of the temple itself. You are given several options of things to do with
it, but any attempt you make to mess with it results in failure. Aeris gets the
idea to ask the planet how to operate the damn thing. Interestingly enough, the
planet responds to her. It seems that the Temple of the Ancients itself is the
black materia. The little model of the temple contains several puzzles, and
with each puzzle you solve, the Temple of the Ancients gets smaller and smaller,
until it is big enough to fit into the palm of your hand. The catch? The
puzzles can only be done from inside the temple itself, meaning that whoever
goes about solving said puzzles will find himself unable to use the black
materia due to the fact that he will be made to be somewhat squished by it.
So the black materia is safe here, right? Not according to Cloud. Cloud's
idea involves releasing the black materia from the deadly trap so that you guys
can hang onto it and keep it away from Sephiroth. This is probably the dumbest
idea any human being in the history of mankind has ever had. Cloud does mention
that Sephiroth has a gazillion flunkies which he would not think twice about
sacrificing to obtain the black materia. This is true, indeed. But, what he
neglects to mention is that most of Sephiroth's lackeys also lack the
intelligence to chew without outside assistance, let alone solve ancient
riddles, so I stand by my earlier comment that this is the stupidest idea ever.
Anyways, that's when the solution to your problem will present itself. Cait
Sith will speak up (or call you on the PHS if he is not with you), saying that
he does not mind in the least sacrificing his inanimate body for the good of
mankind. And to make a long story short, you really have no option but to let
him get himself killed, though I cannot see why you'd have any objection to
this. I mean, sure, you're unleashing hell on Earth as we know it, but you're
getting rid of that little bastard, Cait Sith, in the process. I think the
latter outweighs the former, personally.
Now, you've got to get the hell out of here. Heading back to the door maze
room, take the time to stop and chat with the little midget guy, because he will
offer you rest and the chance to save up. Back in the clock room, the hands
stand ready to allow you access to the exit, but you might first want to stop
and prepare for a difficult boss battle. The boss in question has a couple of
very nasty physical attacks, one which will do big damage to the whole party,
and the other doing huge damage to a single character. Big Guard (or Barrier,
at the very least), will prove to be a very big asset in this battle. Also
expect the occasionally petrification attack, which under most circumstances
wouldn't be so bad, except that the prolonged length of this battle will
necessitate you have some way to counter it. Is you do not know the Esuna
spell, I hope you've got a few Softs or Remedies handy. Now, in utilizing Big
Guard, a Haste-all spell is not needed, but the Time materia can still shine in
the upcoming fight. If you have unlocked Slow, you would be wise to use it, as
this will be a surprisingly speedy boss (which is a bad thing to be combined
with powerful attacks). Finally, this boss will be immune to the effects of
poison and gravity magic, and will be resistant to earth magic.
On a side note, there are potential lost-forevers here to be aware of (you
know, what I talk about in section I.F. of the FAQ?) That would be Aeris's
equipment. Make sure she's not wearing anything you really like.
Once equipped, step into the door at twelve o' clock and prepare to do battle
with Demon's Gate. Demon's Gate, as we've established already, is a powerful
boss to take on. Unload the most powerful attacks you have into it (expect to
see a bit o' limit break action in this fight), while keeping your HP up. Other
than that, I think I covered everything you need to know in the above paragraph.
After your battle, Cait Sith announces just a little too cheerfully that he's
here and ready to help. Aeris tries to comfort him and make him feel better by
asking Cait Sith to read y'all's fortunes one last time. This is a surprisingly
emotional scene, given that Cait Sith is an inanimate object which is not
particularly governed by the laws of life and death. Also, you hate Cait Sith.
Aeris asks Cait Sith to predict the compatibility of herself and Cloud. He does
so, and notes that the two are a perfect match. Of course, as has been proven
several times in the past, Cait Sith isn't necessarily the most reliable source
of psychic information. With this out of the way, the party leaves and Cait
Sith heads towards the mural room for his last hurrah.
Despite the fact that he is not alive, the game does it's absolute best to
make you feel sorry for the poor kitty. You'll see the stuffed animal trip, and
then the kitty landing on his poor little kitty head, finally hopping back onto
the stuffed animal and continuing towards the puzzle. And as if that weren't
sappy enough, Cait Sith then starts talking like a bad episode of Sesame Street
(who he's talking to, I don't know, as the rest of the team obviously cannot
hear him), stating that, "There may be lots of stuffed bodies like mine, but
there's only one me!" Good. That means we'll be rid of your backstabbing ass
when you get crushed to death. Now get to work!
The Temple of the Ancients vanishes after Cait Sith reduces it to the black
materia. You'll see a giant crater where the temple used to be, and the black
materia lying in the middle of it. Cloud walks over to it and picks it up,
proudly proclaiming that as long as you are in possession of it, then Sephiroth
cannot have it. And anyone who has ever watched a movie before can tell you
that you should never say things like that, because they will inevitably be
followed by something very bad. Cloud then hopefully asks if anyone on the team
can use it, somehow not realizing that it might not be a good idea to trigger
Armageddon. Aeris mentions that the user of Meteor must have a lot of spirit
energy, and the spirit energy of one person is not sufficient to use it. You'd
need a lot of spirit energy... Like, the amount you might find at the Promised
Land, which, as we've already discovered, does not exist. Well, at least not to
non-ancients like Sephiroth (huh? Since when was Sephiroth not an ancient? Did
I miss something here?) Anyways, Sephiroth shows up at this point and boldly
proclaims that he is better than the ancients, as he is now a "traveler of the
Lifestream itself", which at the very least explains that freaky flying-flashy-
self-replication crap he's been doing lately. Just how he accomplished this,
however, remains a mystery. He warps over to Cloud, supposedly to stab him.
But he doesn't even have to do that. He just politely asks Cloud, and Cloud
walks over to Sephiroth and forks over the black materia (and while he does
this, you control Cloud's subconscious, but all you can really do is run around
frantically while Cloud's body is busy sentencing the world to utter
destruction).
Nice going, Cloud, you just doomed the entire planet. Sephiroth, pleased
with himself, flashes off into the sky, leaving Cloud to his insanity. Aeris
tries to comfort Cloud, telling him that it wasn't his fault. Really? Cloud
walked over to Sephiroth and handed Sephiroth the key to destroying the world;
now please tell me how this wasn't his fault. At this highly inappropriate
time, Cait Sith's unrequested and unwanted replacement shows up. And seeing as
he looks and acts just like the original, the only thing that has really changed
in your life is that everybody is about to die because Cloud had to be an idiot
and get us all killed.
Following some uber-insanity from Cloud, the screen goes white. You wake up
in the middle of some forest (later identified as the Sleeping Forest), where
you see Aeris running around calling out to you (Cloud). She tells Cloud that
she's going to take care of Sephiroth herself, and that Cloud should take it
easy so that he doesn't have a breakdown. Of course, if this is the sort of
crap Cloud is seeing, I'd say he's way past the point of a mental breakdown.
She says that she, being an Ancient, is the only person that can protect the
planet from Cloud's stupidity, I mean, Sephiroth. Aeris then leaves to go to
the City of the Ancients, where she claims she will be able to stop Sephiroth.
Cloud tries to stop her, but obviously cannot, given that this is just a
psychopathic dream and all. Sephiroth arrives and does his creepy Sephiroth
crap. He seems angry at the possible interference of Aeris and appears to want
to stop her by any means possible.
About this time, Cloud wakes up with Tifa and Barret standing around him.
They mention that Aeris appears to have vanished, and that the rest of the team
has left to look for her. Cloud details that Aeris is headed to the City of the
Ancients to stop Sephiroth, and that Sephiroth is after her. Even though he may
be right, I find it somewhat sad that we have resorted to taking advice from
Cloud's random fits of insanity. Tifa and Barret get a little scared, and say
that you've got to go help Aeris... and fast. Cloud, coming to the slow
realization that he is a psychopath, begins to doubt that he should, saying that
if he gets near Sephiroth again he may lose it. Well, Cloud, look at it this
way: you already doomed the entire planet; what more harm could you possibly do?
Barret at this time has a few choice words for the dumbass that condemned the
Earth (spouting off his soon-to-be-famous quote: "there ain't no gettin' offa
this train we're on"), but at least Tifa seems to support you.
Follow them outside the building you were in to find yourself back at Gongaga
village. Barret and Tifa encourage Cloud to come along (though Barret's promise
comes in the form of the assurance that he's going to kick Cloud's ass if he
goes crazy on them again), and Cloud reluctantly agrees. Get your crap together
and move out. You'll find the Tiny Bronco parked just off the coast of Gongaga.
Under most circumstances, you'd be forced to guess where to head next. But
seeing as only one unexplored landmass remains in this world, it should be
rather obvious that the Sleeping Forest, and subsequently the City of the
Ancients can be found on the northern continent. Getting there can be a pain,
as you can't reach it from the middle sea. Try approaching it from the west.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Bone Village
Disembarking on the only non-frozen edge of the northern continent, you find
yourself in a peaceful valley. And when I say "peaceful", I do mean it. The
forests around here contain no enemies, and only rarely on the plains will you
get into a fight. In that case, expect to do battle with a Trickplay, which is
more or less a revamped version of the Mu. Sewer, as always, is kind of a nasty
attack, but not too horrible. Lv. 4 Suicide, if it catches you off-guard, will
waste you, however (and, of course, can be learned with the E. Skill materia).
Sinking appears to now mimic the effects of Quake 3, but still does about as
much damage as a Quake spell would. But, to even things out, they also have an
attack that heals you.
Anyways, that little village nestled in the forest is called Bone Village, and
is where you should head if you are interested in advancing in the game. Bone
Village claims itself to be a village "for nature lovers". You can tell this,
because the entire village is built into the fossilized skeleton of a dinosaur.
Damn yuppies. Anyways, first things first, you'll probably want to be getting
you some shopping done here. The item shop offers a fine selection of armors
from which you can choose, though I do find it extremely odd that these
backwoods yuppie bastards have somehow acquired better military defense
technology than the Shinra has.
The people in the village mention having seen a girl running into the
Sleeping Forest, followed by a man in a black cape. The other thing they talk
about is the Lunar Harp, a treasure around here that they are trying to
excavate. The usefulness of said treasure will become readily apparent if you
try to enter the Sleeping Forest (accessible from the back of the town). You
see, if you don't have the Lunar Harp to "wake the forest up", you get to run in
aimless circles around the forest for all of eternity. It doesn't make much
sense, but you'll be needing the Lunar Harp.
It shouldn't be too hard to acquire the Lunar Harp, however. Talk to the
foreman of the excavation site (he's the guy at the front of the village) and he
asks you if you'll be wanting to dig. You are given the option to search for
"normal treasure", "good treasure", or the "Lunar Harp". Normal treasure will
yield garbage, mostly. Good Treasure, if you have your wits about you, will
give you the most excellent Buntline, so you might want to take a break from
saving the world and such and devote some time to finding that. And, naturally,
opting to search for the Lunar Harp just might leave you with the Lunar Harp.
Do be aware that this'll be costin' ya money, because apparently these
jackasses were just here screwing off waiting for some random passerby to come
pay them to do their jobs. Walk around and dictate where you would like workers
to be. Each worker you place will set a bomb, follow the tremors, and then face
in the exact direction of the selected treasure. Though you can place five,
common sense would dictate that you'd only need two. But given their extremely
cheap cost (hmm... must be illegal immigrants), you'll probably want to hire all
five since you don't know where the damn thing is, and there are two levels to
Bone Village, anyways.
By the way, the Lunar Harp is the one treasure here whose location is set. It
is on the top level of the village to the left of the tent. Just put two guys
up there, pinpoint the location, and order the dig. I should note that
unfortunately, this fact only holds true for the PSX version of the game, so
you're pretty much on your own if you're playing the PC version.
The next morning, the results of the dig are placed in a treasure chest next
to the foreman's hut. Assuming you've gone and obtained the Lunar Harp (and
perhaps also the Buntline), there is nothing more for you here. Now make haste
to the Sleeping Forest.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: The Sleeping Forest/Corral Valley
This place oughta look familiar. It's also a very short area. Despite the
peacefulness, of the place, there are a few enemies running around. The odds of
you running into them are virtually nil, however. But for what it's worth, the
Boundfat is a little creature that is not worthy of much mention. It
occasionally casts Ice 2, and absorbs ice attacks in return. But it's pretty
easy to kill, anyways. The most important thing about the Malldancer is its
mention in section XIX.B. of the FAQ. It is also immune to poison and water
magic, but that is pretty much all that can be said about this relatively easy
to kill monster. Lastly, the Hungry is a funny little guy that likes to cast
Mini, but can't really fight worth a damn besides that. He does have assloads
of HP, but that's about it.
As you trot up the forest path, the Lunar Harp reacts and "wakes" the forest
up. It really doesn't change things much, but it does look all green and glowy
for a second, there. Those of you with good eyes will spot the Kjata materia
to the left of the path. As you go to pick it up, however, you'll notice that
it is moving. Chase that damn thing down! Or, if it gets away from you, just
walk away and then come back to try again.
The next portion of the Sleeping Forest is a bit rockier. It's also where
the enemies start to appear. From where you start, you might first want to take
the right fork to a treasure chest containing a Water Ring. The Water Ring is
important mainly because it will render you invincible during the next boos
fight. Anyways, there's small ledge to the left of where you started that you
can climb. From there, cross the fallen log across the chasm and out the other
side of the Sleeping Forest.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: The Forgotten City (City of the Ancients)
You find yourself in the middle of a great valley. And experts agree that
there's something very... unusual about this valley. The ground is oddly
colored and everything around you has a strange glow to it. Not to far in the
distance appears the Forgotten City, or the City of the Ancients. Go there now.
The game strikes an ominous chord as you step into the city, with an
unsettling and foreboding score and a barren, desolate ruin of what was once a
great city lying ahead of you. There are no enemies here, so take your time as
you explore. As you advance towards the city, you'll see path's branch out to
the left and to the right, and the final path will lead directly towards the
center of the city. You're probably going to want to check out the side paths
first.
Down the left path, you'll eventually come to the ruins of an old home,
inside of which you will find a Magic Source. There is also a save point in
this house for your saving pleasure, If you continue along the path as it
circles around behind the city, you'll find an eerie machine set in the middle
of a large chasm. Though you cannot use or even understand the machine, you can
very well liberate an Aurora Armlet from a nearby chest.
Going down the right path, you'll come across two more ruined homes (there
are two path's beyond them, but you cannot traverse wither at this point in
time). Inside one home, you'll find a chest containing a Guard Source. Inside
the other, you'll discover an Elixir and an E. Skill materia. There are also
some beds here, and you are presented with the option to rest. And if there was
ever a place or time where taking a nap probably wouldn't be the smartest idea
in the world, this is it. Still, you'll probably want to rest up, if not for
the upcoming boss fight, then to simply add to the mood. Cloud will wake up
later that night, telling the team that he can sense something... Aeris and
Sephiroth are both here somewhere. The group moves out, and you'll notice that
a gloomy night has fallen over the Forgotten City.
Before advancing any further, you might want to pause and prepare yourself
for the upcoming boss battle. The boss in question is a water-based enemy, and
has attacks that are all water-based. Thus, anyone wearing the Water Ring will
be invincible during this fight. As further insurance, you might put the
Leviathan/Elemental combo in someone's armor. Gravity magic, as always, will
prove ineffective, and water magic will be absorbed. Earth magic, on the other
hand, will work quite well. However, as this boss also likes to cast Reflect,
making Destruct a good materia to take with you into this battle. Also note
that one of the three attacks used by this boss is the deadly Aqualung, and
you're probably going to want to be prepared for that. If you haven't already
learned Aqualung with your E. Skill materia, shame on you. Aqualung is used
rarely, but the other two attacks are still quite powerful, as well. But, with
ample protection from water magic, you really have nothing to worry about.
Head straight towards the center of the city, where you'll find yourself
inside yet another ruined home. There is a large spiral staircase, at the top
of which you'll discover the Comet materia. About halfway up the staircase,
however, you'll notice a stairway deviating from the original staircase, leading
down. As you walk down that stairway, you'll find yourself approaching a
beautiful crystalline city below. In all honesty, words cannot convey the raw
beauty and celestial purity of what you behold.
At the bottom of the crystalline stairway (admit it, you started humming
Stairway to Heaven when you were going down them), you'll find yourself in the
heart of the City of the Ancients. And kneeling at the altar at the center of
the city is Aeris, silently locked in prayer. You'll probably want to make use
of that save point over there before heading down the stairs below you, which
will in turn take you to a series of raised steps resting in the pool beneath
you. These steps lead to the altar at the center of the city. The team begins
to walk towards the pylons, but Cloud stops them, insisting he go it alone from
here. Make your way over to where Aeris is.
When you reach Aeris, Cloud has another one of his freak-outs. Who woulda
thunk it? You can walk around and everything, but talking accomplishes nothing,
and every time you attempt to make Cloud take some sort of action, he just ends
up doing something stupid. For instance, first he draws his sword, then he
stands behind Aeris, and then begins to draw his sword back. Mysteriously,
Aeris does not even flinch. Luckily for her, the rest of the team starts
yelling at the Goddamned psychopath to put his sword away.
And that's when it happens. Out of nowhere, Sephiroth drops from the sky
with his sword drawn, impaling Aeris as he lands. Her eyes thrust open as she
goes sickeningly limp on Sephiroth's sword, and the force of the blow jostles
her ribbon loose. Her cherished "useless" materia falls from her hair and
gently bounces over the ledge and into the pool below, sinking into eternal
nothingness. For Christs's sakes, this is a girl that could withstand a nuclear
blast in the midst of a heated battle, and Sephiroth here takes her out with one
sword thrust to the abdomen. Video game logic... Sephiroth seems just a little
too pleased with himself, as if he is awaiting for the judges to award him a
perfect "10" in the "spilling the blood of the innocent" category.
Cloud pretty much loses it at this point, rushing over to Aeris's body and
holding her, frantically crying out in anguish. It's actually a very startling
contrast to his usual indifferent attitude, and it just goes to show that when
you show no emotion of any sort at any time, it's all going to come out at some
time. Sephiroth spouts off some more garbage about becoming one with the
planet, but Cloud tells his ass to shut up and starts yelling at him for killing
Aeris. As mad as Cloud is, he still for some reason does not see it fit to
attack Sephiorth in any way, instead allowing Sephiroth to calmly explain that
he is heading "north past the snowy fields" to become one with the planet.
Sephiroth then flies off as he always does, leaving you to do battle with Jenova
LIFE.
The battle with Jenova LIFE has a very solemn note to it, as Aeris's sad
theme continues playing as you fight. You can almost feel Cloud's anguish with
every slash of his sword. As for the battle strategy itself, it was more or
less covered a few paragraphs ago when I was detailing the preparations for the
battle. But to recap: water and gravity attacks are bad, earth attacks rock,
and if you're wearing the Water Ring, don't even bother with strategy because
you're not going to die, anyways.
When the fight is over, a solemn Cloud takes Aeris out to the middle of the
pool and says his final goodbyes. He then lets go, and watches as Aeris's body
descends into the water, never to be seen again...
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_\ /_ | ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ/ \Ż
\ \/ / | O / /\ \
_\ /_ | F. Adventures in the Frozen North | Ż/ \Ż
\ \/ / O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | / /\ \
_\ /___________________________ | Ż/ \Ż
\ \/ /|Section III: Walkthrough|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \
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--- Welcome to: The Corral Valley Cave
Well, the good news is that the game is going to stop trying to make you cry
for now. The bad news is that Sephiroth is still out there and still needs his
ass kicked. Though Cloud has repeatedly proven in the past that he is in no way
up to this task, he decides to set off, anyways, but not without giving an
uninspiring pep talk to his teammates. This is mainly because his pep talk
consists mainly of "please come with me and make sure I don't do anything
stupid", as if chasing Sephiroth wasn't something innately stupid to begin with.
The good news is that Cloud appears to be tapping into his psychic powers, and
is able to determine which direction Sephiroth headed (which would be down the
path leading east from here). I'd insert a bad joke about Cait Sith right here,
but I'm too lazy, so make up your own.
Head down the path until you see a gigantic conch shell. For starters, you
may encounter an enemy here, in which case it's going to be something from the
Sleeping Forest. Secondly, before you climb up the conch shell, you might want
to first go around it (on the left side), and circle around to the treasure
chest over there, as it does contain the Viper Halberd. With that done, crawl
up the conch shell and circle around to the top. At the top, begin to circle
back down in the opposite direction, only to be dumped off at the entrance to
the Corral Valley Cave (note: completely different than Corel Valley).
Inside the Corral Valley Cave, expect to see a bit o' monster activity. The
place is populated mostly by little midget soldiers called Grimguards, who
carry around shields that are bigger than they are. Their main attack consists
of futilely spinning the shield around, accomplishing absolutely nothing in the
process. They may occasionally bust out with a Bolt 2 or Ice 2 spell, or that's
it. They are immune to the effects of ice and lightning magic, as well, but
aren't horribly difficult to deal with. The Acrophies is a different story
altogether. It is a large dragon-like creature that has a healthy supply of HP
behind it. It's attacks are not that bad, but it does have a particularly nasty
Tidal Wave attack. Since it always travels alone, it's usually possible to rip
it to shreds before it has much of a chance to attack, though. Expect water
magic to be ineffective, and it also absorbs wind-based attacks for some reason.
Anyways, the Corral Valley Cave is more or less one giant wall you need to
scale. You accomplish this by shimmying up the cracks in the wall there they
are narrow enough to do so. The first one you see upon entering the cave is too
wide, so you'll have to go up that one on the left, instead. Climb up, and then
hop off to the left. Head left to another gap you can shimmy up. At the top,
you can either go left or right. If you co left, you can pilfer the chest on
the ledge above you for the Bolt Armlet inside (the same can be accomplished by
crawling up to the ledge where the chest is, but it is not necessary). Head
over towards the right side of the screen now to another gap. First, you might
want to head down to the treasure chest below and nab the Hypnocrown. From
there, head back up to the top of this gab and hop off to the left. Continue
left to another gap, and crawl to the top of it. Again disembarking on the
left, head in that direction until you reach a vertical railing that spans the
height of the entire cave. At the bottom of it, you will find the Magic Plus
materia. At the top, you will find a ledge which leads right and to the exit.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Icicle Inn
You'll emerge from the Corral Valley Cave in a snowy field. And with a new
area comes a new set of enemies. But, like most enemies as of late, they ain't
much to worry about. The Bandersnatch sounds more like a bad porn title than
an enemy, but what are ya gonna do? There's not much to mention here except a
weakness to fire magic. The Hopping, is a cute little snowshoe bunny that hops
up and down on the battlefield, If you can take it upon yourself to harm these
adorably cute and relatively harmless creatures, note that physical attacks tend
to miss more often than they should, but the problem isn't too detrimental.
Still, magic is the easier way to get rid of them, even though they have no
weaknesses. The final enemy is one that can only be encountered on the few
small, unfrozen tips of the land. Still, you'll likely want to go out of your
way to face the Vlakrodos, for several reasons. For starters, they are
mentioned in section XIX.B. of the FAQ. They can also be very important to
chocobo breeding (for more on that whole mess, check out section X. of the FAQ).
But the fight itself isn't quite so easy. Consider yourself lucky that the
Vlakrodos has very weak attacks, because it's a pain to kill. It's HP is
astronomical, and despite only being half-effective, gravity attacks are still
the way to go in this fight (you'll probably want to start off with a shot of
Demi 2 or Laser, and then go with Demi 3 for the rest of the fight). The Sense
materia, sadly, does not work on them, but I'll give you a little heads-up and
inform you that their HP max is 33,333. That's more HP than most bosses.
Anyways, from the exit to the Corral Valley Cave, just keep heading straight
until you see the mountains jutting further out towards the left. Go around
them, and then start wrapping around to the right (you should spot one of those
unfrozen tips of the land in the distance). As you keep wrapping around to the
right, you'll eventually make it to a small village called Icicle Inn.
I'll go over shopping detail and other things shortly, but for now, we're
going straight to the meaty part of things.
Probably the most interesting aspect of this peaceful little retreat, is that
it happens to be the area that Professor Gast retired to after his little
breakdown with the folks over at Shinra. It was here (well, we assume, at any
rate) that he met a woman named Ifalna. This name should sound really familiar,
because Ifalna was Aeris's mother, if you'll recall. A lot transpired here, and
lucky for us, the professor was smart enough to capture most of it on videotape.
You can view these tapes at Professor Gast's home (you can't miss it- it's the
one with all of the computer equipment in it). Scroll through his personal
video collection (which sadly does not contain any porn), and scope out the rare
footage.
In the first tape, Ifalna talks about the original disaster (the disaster
that Sephiroth spoke of earlier in the game). A great calamity fell from the
sky and injured the planet. The site of the injury came to be known as
Knowlespole, was located in this general area. The Cetra gathered at
Knowlespole and began to read the planet. They did their best to cultivate the
land and summon spirit energy to heal the wound, but due to the massiveness of
the wound, it could only be healed over the span of several thousand years. But
that's when "it" appeared. "It" being the calamity that fell from the skies.
It appeared to the Cetra as a friend at first, but oh, how they were deceived.
It spread a virus to the Cetra gathered at Knowlespole, killing them off like
flies. It then traveled the world, wiping out the other Cetra clans with wanton
disregard. At this point in her descriptions, Ifalna begins to get sad, and
Professor Gast cuts off the taping.
The second tape picks up where the first one left off, beginning with Ifalna
confirming what you have probably already guessed. That calamity which fell
form the skies, that "it" that killed off her people was indeed Jenova, the
organism that had once been mistaken for an Ancient. Professor Gast, judging by
those comments he made to the elders at Cosmo Canyon, knew this already. This
also, by the way, finally explains to us how Sephiroth is not a member of the
Cetra race. Anyways, Ifalna goes on to talk about Weapon. Weapon was created
by the planet when it realized that as long as Jenova existed, then it could
never heal. Jenova was ultimately defeated and contained by a small group of
surviving Cetra, but Weapon did not cease to exist. Rather, Weapon lay dormant
somewhere on the planet, watching over Jenova and awaiting further instruction.
You see, Jenova had been contained, but was by no means dead. The planet seemed
to know this, and kept Weapon around, awaiting the day that Jenova would rise
again. This does raise the question: why has Weapon not yet gone after
Sephiroth? But, alas, your question goes unanswered, and the tape cuts off.
The final two tapes are the ones labeled "private". They were taken after
the marriage of Professor Gast and Ifalna, and concern their baby: Aeris.
That's right, Aeris is (was) Professor Gast's daughter. But all was not
happiness and sunshine, as only 20 days following the birth of Aeris, Professor
Gast received a surprise visit... from Hojo! A surprisingly young-looking Hojo
bursts into Professor Gast's home, accompanied by Shinra soldiers. A very
touching, though horribly cliché, scene follows, in which Professor Gast
attempts (and fails) to defend Ifalna and Aeris. Ifalna offers herself in
exchange for Aeris's safety. Hojo, however, is fully intent on using both
Ifalna and Aeris for his twisted experiments. Before anything else happens, one
of the soldiers turns to shoot out the camera, so all that is left for the
ensuing struggle is audio. Professor Gast, sadly, died in the struggle. Ifalna
and Aeris, as you should know, were taken back to Shinra H.Q., but were
ultimately able to escape the clutches of the evil Shinra, and, well, you know
the rest of the story.
With that revelation out of the way, you're free to explore the rest of
Icicle Inn (except the back, which is currently off-limits to you). For
starters, you can take the Turbo Ether that Professor Gast was keeping in his
basement. Other items that can be stolen from people's houses around here
involve a Hero Drink, Vaccine, and an X-Potion. The weapon and item shop
here are one and the same, and is run by a geezerly old man who needs to be
woken up by his daughter when customers arrive. It seems like such a rustic,
backwoods operation, but the weapons offered here are anything but. Go nuts,
and buy what you need, but don't blow a hole in your wallet, either.
One thing you need to do is stop by the old house of a man who left to climb
the Great Glacier. His wife tells you that he is there somewhere, and that if
you are going that way, to seek his aid. You'll also hear that there is no
chance in hell you cannot make the trip without a map. While you probably can,
the Glacier Map is a key item that the game requires you to get. Just tear it
down from the wall and move along.
As you try to exit through the back of Icicle Inn, the guy back there stops
you and tells you that the slope takes a steep drop from there, and that to
advance any further is dangerous. As you are busy ignoring his advice, a
familiar figure enters Icicle Inn: Elena, of the Turks! And furthermore, she
appears to be here without any supervision. This may explain why she's still
wearing her bib. Anyways, she and a couple of troops charge up towards you, and
Cloud demands to know what she is doing here. Elena replies by saying it's a
"Se-cr-et". Honestly, she spells it out for you. And she seems so damn proud
of herself that you almost want to give her a gold star sticker (though I
suppose someone should have told her that "se" isn't a letter). But then she
begins to wildly accuse you of killing Tseng. Cloud explains to her that
Sephiroth was the one who killed Tseng, but Elena does not listen and goes right
on with her obviously rehearsed speech. Never ceasing to amaze me with her
idiocy, Elena spends the next three sentences or so telegraphing the punch she
is about to throw at Cloud. This is a bad idea, because I've found that
physical assault is often much more ineffective when the target has been warned
minutes in advance of the incoming attack. You can press the directional
buttons to step off to the side if you'd like, but the only real consequence you
suffer for getting hit is the embarrassment of being knocked out cold in one
punch from someone who still needs training wheels. Assuming she misses, the
weight of her enormous, retarded head sends her off-balance, and Elena more or
less rolls right out of Icicle Inn. And who said this girl wasn't a complete
dumbass?
Anyways, there is one final task you must accomplish before heading down to
the Great Glacier. You're not allowed to just walk down the hill: you've got to
shred down it. So, instead of making it to the bottom with a few cuts and
scrapes, you'll now be making that trip in several pieces, and quite possibly
wrapped around a tree. There's a house here with a kid who got injured from
snowboarding a while back. You can't miss it: he's the only kid in two with a
Snowboard. Anyways, go talk to him and he starts to tell you how he got injured
on his Snowboard. Then he just looks at you and says you can have it. He gives
you no indication as to why he's doing this, and you had made no mention of even
wanting it. It's as if he was just sitting here waiting to hand his Snowboard
to any random stranger that wandered into his room and began talking to him.
Meh. Grab his Snowboard (after politely asking first, at least) and head off
to the exit at the back of the town.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: The Great Glacier
The Great Glacier begins with a most excellent mini-game that entails
snowboarding and not getting your ass beaten by it. This mini-game will be
mimicked by the snowboarding game at the Gold Saucer, so you might refer to
section VIII.C. of the FAQ for more information. However, there are not time or
technique penalties for screwing up, and the balloons that appear throughout the
course here are entirely meaningless except for possibly a cheap thrill. This
is good, because it is impossible to collect every balloon on this course,
anyways. Also note that the Great Glacier course is different and much longer
than the three located at the Gold Saucer (as opposed to the G-Bike, which was
identical to the Shinra chase). The one point that needs to be stressed,
however, is that the path will fork twice near the end of the course, and which
direction you go at those forks will affect your starting point at the Great
Glacier.
Going left at both forks lands you in Area 3 to begin with.
Going left then right takes you to Area 1 to begin with.
Going right and then left will start you off in Area 9.
Going right at both forks will place you in Area 5 to start off.
Anyways, a conventional walkthrough for the Great Glacier just isn't going to
cut it. There are various paths you can take, in addition to different starting
points. But, to make a long story short, the Great Glacier is broken up into
thirteen different "areas", as labeled on the map. These thirteen areas are the
main sections of the Great Glacier, but they are separated by numerous side
paths that run between them all. Your ultimate destination is the base of
Gaea's Cliff, located just north of Area 12, but there are several items to be
found at the Great Glacier, as well.
Do be aware that you are racing against the clock, however, and that spending
too much time out here will result in your party succumbing to the sub-zero
temperatures, Granted, all that will happen is that you will be rescued and
taken to the base of Gaea's Cliff, it can still be a pain in the ass if you
happened to be far away from Area 12. It is virtually impossible to collect all
of the items at the Great Glacier on one trip through, though, so you can more
or less expect collapse sooner or later. The good news is that if you're too
lazy to navigate the Great Glacier, all you need to do is wander around until
you pass out.
Before we get started, let's kick off with the local monster activity. The
Bandersnatch, which you may or may not remember from just outside Icicle Inn,
is back with a vengeance. There's the Frozen Nail, which is an enemy that
can't have a whole lot said about it. Accompanying it is usually the Shred,
which has a few noteworthy attacks. The Crazy Claw has been known to berserk
its target, and the Shred also knows the Cure 3 spell (which it rarely casts,
thankfully). Fire and wind are the Shred's weak points, but it is immune to the
effects of ice, earth, and water magic. Next up is the Ice Golem. It is an
adorably cute enemy, because it is about 1/8 your size. It's main attack is
called Cold Snap, and is a magical attack of the icy property. Thankfully, its
no more powerful than its normal attack (which again isn't too powerful). It
can take a lot of punishment, and also absorbs ice-based attacks. Everything
else works, though. Finally, we have the Magnade. The Magnade is extremely
evasive of physical attacks, so magical means are suggested to kill them off.
All magic attacks work, but fire and gravity magic are its weak points and work
especially well. But, like everything else around here, the Magnade really
doesn't have any horribly powerful attacks to watch out for. The final enemy is
the Snow, which is a lot like the Jemnezmy from the Temple of the Ancients.
Snow is an extremely rare encounter, but odds are you'll meet her at least one.
This is because you will meet one at Area 13, if you venture out there. She can
confuse you, and also has a Cold Breath attack which does a moderate amount of
magical damage to one of your characters. She can take quite a bit of
punishment, but given the "boss battle" motif, is horribly easy to kill. Prey
on her weakness to fire, and she's out for the count in no time. Just avoid ice
magic, which she absorbs. Oh, and one last thing, you can steal the Circlet, a
kickass accessory from her, so don't forget to bring the Steal materia along.
Area 1 would be the entrance to the Great Glacier. If you head south from
here, you can go back to Icicle Inn. You can also make this your starting point
by going left then right at the snowboard course. This is the best starting
point to choose if you'd like to back off, save, and take your time going
through the Great Glacier. There are no items or other things of interest to be
found here, but from here, you may head west to Area 2, north to Area 3, or east
to Area 5.
Area 2 is located quite some distance northwest of Area 1. Like Area 1,
there is nothing to do or see here at Area 2 except advance to other areas. The
path leading south from here will take you to Area 1, the east path goes to Area
3, and the path leading north heads to Area 6.
Area 3 is a maze of trees directly north of Area 1. It's where you'll land
if you chose to go left twice back at the snowboarding course, and there's also
a Mind Source lying around here somewhere. From here, you can travel south to
Area 1, west to Area 2, or east to Area 4.
Area 4 is nestled in between Area 3 and Area 5, and is more or less northeast
from the entrance to the Great Glacier. Area 4 rather large, as well. The lake
at the Great Glacier borders Area 4 on its northwestern side, but a large slab
of ice grows on it, allowing you to cross. For starters, you can pick up the
Potion located on the slab. Secondly, if you exit the screen on the
northwestern side (where the slab is), you are taken to an ice cube maze. You
have probably seen these kinds of puzzles before, where you can only jump on the
overturned cubes, but when you jump onto one, the status of all cubes adjacent
is reversed? Your reward for making it to the other side is the Safety Bit.
Anyways, back at the main section of Area 4, you can exit the screen on the left
side (heading west or south) to go to Area 3, on the right side (going east or
south) to go to Area 5, or head north (along that thing ridge) to Area 9.
Area 5 is located east of the entrance to the Great Glacier, and rests at the
base of the large mountain on the eastern side of the area. There is a cave
here at Area 5, but there is nothing in it. Rather, it is a very long ice slide
that will eject you from the Great Glacier if needed (though, personally, I
think that the escape route would have been a lot more effective had it been
located further from the entrance). You might also have landed here if you
chose to go right at both forks back at the snowboard course. Other than that,
the paths on the northern edge of Area 5 fork. The left path goes to Area 4,
and the right to Area 10. You can also head south from here to go to Area 1.
Area 6 is located on the western edge of the Great Glacier, and lies some
distance northwest of Area 2. There is a small cave here (which has two
entrances, as you might see), that contains an Elixir. You can also travel
south to Area 2, east to Area 7, and both paths leading north will take you to
Area 11.
Area 7 is probably as close to the center of the Great Glacier as you are
going to get. It lies just north of where the lake spawns a river, and consists
mainly of a log bridge crossing that river. Other than that, there are really
only two places you can head from here. Exiting Area 7 on the left side of the
chasm takes you to Area 6, while exiting on the right goes to Area 9.
Area 8 lies almost directly north of Area 9, but the only path that runs
through it connects to Areas 10 and 12. Area 8 is an important stop on the map
if you're headed towards Area 13. Since you'll probably end up coming this way,
anyways (unless you're approaching from the west), you'll likely want to stop
and touch the Hot Springs here. Touching the Hot Springs has no visible effect
on your character, but is helpful in acquiring something from the crazy lady at
Area 13. From here, head northwest to Area 12, or southeast to Area 10.
Area 9 is more or less a featureless terrain that borders the eastern edge of
the lake at the Great Glacier. There is a lone tree here (which also appears on
the map, mind you), but that's about it. This is also the furthest into the
Great Glacier as can be chosen as a starting point , and can be reached by
taking a right and then a left back at the snowboarding course. From here, you
can head south along the edge of the lake to Area 4, east and up the mountain to
Area 10, or west to Area 7. Note that going north, rather than taking you to
Area 8, will also take you to Area 7.
Area 10 is located in the heart of the large mountain on the eastern edge of
the Great Glacier. Several paths converge here, as well. The southern path
leads to Area 5. The lower left path heads to Area 9, and the higher left path
takes you to Area 8. The northern path should take you to Area 13, but does not
(even though you can take a path from Area 13 to area 10, it's more or less a
one-way trip). This path will instead take you to Area 8, but it is important
to note that when traversing this path (from Area 10 to Area 8 rather than Area
13), that you can find the Added Cut materia lying along the northern edge of
the path (on the second screen of the two-screen path). It blends in very well
with its surroundings and can be very hard to spot, so keep your eyes peeled.
Area 11 is a quiet, lonely place that rests along the northwestern mountain.
It is located near where the river flowing north form the lake turns right.
From here, you may head west to Area 6, south to Area 7, or east to Area 12
(these routes may look a tad different if you happen to be looking at them on
the map you blatantly stole from Icicle Inn, though).
Area 12 is a God-forsaken blizzard-ridden snowfield located on the northern
edge of the Great Glacier. Take special note as to which direction you are
facing when you enter Area 12, because the game does its absolute best to
disorient you. You are allowed to place markers as you move, and do so with
wanton disregard (you have an infinite amount). You're best advised to move
slowly, placing markers as you move. When the camera begins to spin, wait for
it to stop before moving on. Also, there is a small cave located in the direct
center of area 12, which helps to serve as a mark, as well as containing an All
materia. Remember that the entrance to the cave faces south. The western exit
of Area 12 leads to Area 11, the southern exit leads to Area 8, and the eastern
exit is the only way to access Area 13. The northern exit, lastly, takes you to
the base of Gaea's Cliff. Go there last.
Area 13 is the far northeastern corner of the map, deep within the mountains.
The creepy snow lady lives here, and if you speak to her after touching the Hot
Springs at Area 8, she freaks out and goes psycho on your ass. The snow lady
would be the one and only occurrence of the Snow creature mentioned in the enemy
activity paragraph, and will indeed reap the Alexander materia when killed.
Back outside her cave, you can head north back to Area 12, or south to Area 10
(though be aware that the path to Area 10 is a one-way trip, because for some
reason you will not be allowed to take the same path back to Area 13).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: Gaea's Cliff
Before we set off, I'd just like to make note that everything at Gaea's Cliff
is indeed a lost-forever, as discussed in section I.F. of the FAQ. This
includes not only the items, bit several enemy skills, as well. Not all of the
enemy skills here are lost-forevers, mind you (only Trine is), but this is still
the last chance until the end of the game you'll have to pick up Magic Breath
and Bad Breath. Take heed, and then let's get moving.
One of two possible events will land you at the base of Gaea's Cliff. The
first would be actually traveling here from Area 12 of the Great Glacier. The
second, and most likely method is having passed out back at the Great Glacier,
and through some miracle were discovered by this guy who just happened to be
passing by (which is even more amazing when you consider that this is a guy who
never leaves his cabin). Anyways, he introduces himself as Holzoff, a fellow
rock climber who has been living here at the base of Gaea's Cliff for the last
20 years. Hey, asshole, maybe you should go back and visit your wife back at
Icicle Inn every once in a while 'eh? Anyways, despite any effort you make to
not hear his boring old man story, he is going to force you to sit down and
listen to it, anyways (honestly, I clearly and specifically told him "no", and
he still went on with the story. Unreal.)
Anyways, him and his climbing buddy (someone named "Yakuza", or some other
unpronounceable name), were scaling the cliff. Needless to say, it was colder
than Hillary Clinton on a bad day. And, well, the other guy couldn't handle it
anymore, so he cut his rope and plummeted to his death. Holzoff didn't notice
until it was too late, sadly. He now resides at the foot of the cliff giving
unsolicited advice and stories to passing climbers. He does give you two
seemingly vital pieces of information, however. The first is to always "check
your route" as you climb. Don't try to make any sense of it, because I was
thinking on that one for the better half of an hour. That isn't a tactic which
is limited to rock climbing, dumbass. Anyways, the second, and more useful
piece of information is that you must periodically stop and "warm yourself up".
What you do is rapidly press the appropriate button to rub your body against
itself to generate heat. This idea really makes you want to take Tifa along,
doesn't it? Before leaving Holzoff's cabin, finally, you can and should both
rest and save.
Outside the cabin, the rest of the team has gathered. Barret starts to get
really philosophical at this point, because at this point he is literally
struggling against the planet he is trying to save. If you talk to Cait Sith,
he also lets you in on the fact that Rufus is headed out this way, as well. On
a final interesting note, nobody on the team really seems to appear to be that
cold, except for Yuffie. Tifa, especially, worries me. Given what she's
wearing, she should be freezing her pretty little ass off. Either that, or
she's a robot. Anyways, from here, you can either form your party and move out
to Gaea's Cliff, or head back into the Great Glacier for missed items.
Amazingly, no matter how many times you go back to the Great Glacier and pass
your stupid frozen ass out, Holzoff will rescue you. It's like he's stalking
you or something. So get what you need done, and then let's advance
You'll find yourself at the base of Gaea's Cliff. Climbing it isn't horribly
difficult, as Cloud ascends without the assistance of tools of any sort. He
just grabs ahold of the ledge and up he goes. Note the red flags along the way
that mark the ledges, but they are really of little importance. Just keep
climbing, and Cloud more or less goes in the direction he needs to go. Be wary,
however, of your temperature. If it drops below 26, you pass out and Holzoff
has to come rescue your frozen ass. As a general rule of thumb, you'll probably
want to stop and warm yourself up if your temperature hits or drops below 30
degrees or so. But what's really amazing is the extremely low temperature your
bodies can survive being at for some odd reason. The average human can't drop
far below the average body temperature of 98.6 degrees, while Cloud and company
have no problem with their body temperature at 30 degrees (which, by the way, is
enough for their blood to have frozen over) and lower, even. Abolutely amazing.
Anyways, at the top of the edge is the entrance to the caverns of Gaea's Cliff.
By the by, I've probably received more e-mail concerning the above paragraph
than the rest of the contents of this FAQ combined. Many people felt the need
to let me know that in the parts of the world that aren't America, there's this
strange method of gauging temperatue known as Celcius, and in Celcius, the
numbers listed above actually make sense and wouldn't result in your blood
becoming a non-tasty popsicle treat. But this is Texas. And down here in the
state where we're lucky to have electricity and running water, we still found it
biblically screwed up to see Cloud prancing about in temperatures lower than
Hilary Clinton. Frankly, I blame the translators. Lazy bastards. Anyways, on
with the dungeon.
You need not worry about the temperature in here, but there are some enemies
you should be aware of. The Evilhead is more of a pain in the ass than
anything. It's attacks are not that powerful, but Ultrasound also silences you
and Blood Suck heals them in the process (but is thankfully so weak that it
really wouldn't matter one way or another). They have no weaknesses, but are
really easy to kill regardless. The Zolkalter is also of little mention. It
can poison you with its Toxic Barf, but is overall a very weak and easy to kill
monster. Simply avoid poison magic, which it absorbs. The Head Bomber is a
bit tougher than the first two enemies, but is still not of too much concern.
It can enrage your characters with its Extreme Bomber, possess semi-powerful
physical attacks, and can take a moderate amount of punishment, to boot. Moving
on, then, to the Stilva. The Stilva is a badass that will more than likely
introduce you to its Magic Breath attack. And if you're not keeping that HP
up, Magic Breath is enough to wipe out your entire team in one blast alone.
However, you can use its own attack against it by learning Magic Breath with
your E. Skill materia. It is also capable of casting Trine (another attack you
can learn with E. Skill), but rarely does. In addition, its physical attacks
are just nasty. Thankfully, its HP isn't too high (2,000 HP, to be exact),
meaning that it won't have the chance to damage you too badly if you lay on the
big damage right from the outset of the battle (though you should still be
warned that Magic Breath is usually the Stilva's opening attack). If not, then
by all means beware the Magic Breath. The Malboro is another odd enemy.
You'll only meet it at some of the "outdoor" areas of Gaea's Cliff, and it
always travels alone. Nine times out of ten, it attacks with its Frozen Beam, a
powerful ice magic against any one character on your team. Its other attack, it
uses rarely, but it can completely ruin your day if you're not prepared for it.
Still, you might want to whip out the Ribbon to prepare yourself for the effects
of Bad Breath, because you can indeed utilize the attack for yourself with the
E. Skill materia. The final enemy here is not a random encounter, but an enemy
you'll have to fight a few times to advance at a certain point. I don't suppose
you could call the Icicle an enemy, as it is an inanimate object, but you are
required to fight them, and they do retaliate with a slightly damaging physical
attack every time you hit them. They always appear in the company of Evilheads,
but here's a hint: kill the Icicle, and the battle is over. The Icicle absorbs
ice, but has several weaknesses, including fire, earth, and gravity magic.
Failing all else, Demi 2 or Laser is an instant deathblow to the Icicle, and
ends the battle immediately.
Anyways, you'll find yourself inside an ice-filled cavern. Begin by heading
into the back of the first room, and you will emerge on a small ledge. You
can't advance very far into this room, as the pathway is blocked with
stalagmites. And as we all know, your team is completely incapable of melting
them, or just kicking them or something... Noooooo, we have to go it the hard
way. To the left of the way you came in, you'll notice a second path leading
back to the room you came from. Take that pathway, and follow it (it is linear,
but be sure to nab the Javelin from a chest along the way). It wraps around
and leads back to the top of the room with the stalagmites. You'll see a
boulder at the top of the path which you can push. It moves excruciatingly
slow, given the supposed amount of inertia is should possess. It does do a good
job of taking out the stalagmites, though. Return to that room and cross the
newfound path. From there, the exit is close by.
You'll emerge on the cliffside once more. It really doesn't matter which
path you take at the forks, because all of the routes merge eventually, so go
nuts. Just keep moving up (movin' on up... to the east side). Again, stop to
warm up if your temperature drops, cause you really don't need to be going back
to the start.
Inside the next cavern, you'll find yourself unable to reach the exit because
a small puddle of water is resting between the exit and the rest of the room.
You're not allowed to jump it or wade through it or anything... nooooo...
because again, we have to do things the hard way. Also note that treasure chest
in the corner that you can't get to right now because video games just suck like
that. What you're going to have to do is exit through that door to the right.
You'll find yourself in the middle of a narrow valley, on the right one of
two paths wrapping around their respective mountains, separated by a very narrow
chasm. And no, you aren't allowed to jump the damn thing... gotta do things the
hard way... Follow the path until it wraps around the ledge and up to a new
room. In this room, there will be four Icicle battles. After each battle, you
are given to option to jump down to the room below, but you're going to want to
fight all four battles before doing that. Also, before jumping down, you might
also want to empty the two treasure chests in this room. They contain a Fire
Armlet and a Last Elixir. Why it is called "Last Elixir" is beyond me, but it
is in reality a Megalixir. Anyways, if you have already chopped down all four
icicles, just exit the room, come back in, and walk over to the ledge. The game
should ask you if you want to jump down or not. Unless you want to stick around
up here and look at the pretty colors, hop on down.
Back on the bottom floor, you'll find that the Icicles whose asses you kicked
dropped down to form a convenient bridge to the exit. Before leaving, you might
also want to nab that Speed Source before moving on to the next room. The
icicle bridge leads you, of course, to the other side of the great chasm. And
by "great chasm", I mean that three inch gap that you were too much of a pussy
to jump over. First, grab the Enhance Sword from the chest to your left, and
then follow this path to the third cliffside area.
If you managed to scale the first two cliffsides, then the third should be no
problem to you. Again pay no mind to which way you are going, so long as you
travel upwards, you'll make it. And do mind to keep yourself warm, cause it's a
long way back from here, and you really don't want to make Holzoff come all of
the way out here to rescue your frozen ass.
Just inside the next cave, there's a save point and a pool which will restore
your HP/MP. Methinks there's a boss fight pending? Indeedy-do. Let's prepare.
The next boss is actually two targets in one, making things doubly dangerous.
You also need to kill both of them for the thing to finally die. The left
target is ice-based, and thus absorbs ice magic. The right side is fire-based
and thus absorbs fire magic. Both are immune to gravity magic, and neither
possesses any weaknesses. Depending on the side attacking, they will attack
with either a powerful Ice Breath or Fire Breath attack, which does some pretty
nasty elemental damage to each opponent. But be the most wary of the capacity
of both sides to cast Quake 3 on the entire party. Also note that both sides
get Quake 3 as a dying attack, meaning that if you don't keep your HP up, it's
going to take you down with it. First and foremost, you may wish to equip
weapons, accessories, and/or materia that will protect you from the
affortmentioned attacks. That being said, you probably should still take other
measures to defend yourself. Big Guard will be a major asset in this fight,
obviously. If you find yourself having to recast your barriers (possibly using
a Barrier materia attached to an All materia), M-Barrier tops Barrier in this
fight, for obvious reasons. You should hopefully have Regen by this point, and
it should also help to keep your ass alive more so in this fight than many
others. Other than what I've already mentioned, bring along anything you feel
comfortable using (except for sex toys- they never help in a battle).
Heading down the hallway on the next screen, you won't get very far until you
are attacked by Schizo. Schizo is a gigantic, two-headed dragon, and each head
is a target. The battle itself is more or less covered in the previous
paragraph, so check back there for more details.
With Schizo defeated, step out onto the ledge of Gaea's cliff and scale the
peak. Just over the horizon, you'll see it in all it's glory... It's
Knowlespole, otherwise known as the Crater.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Welcome to: The Crater (AKA "The Whirlwind Maze")
The team emerges on the edge of a gigantic Crater, glowing with an enormous
amount of spirit energy from within. This truly is a special place... Well,
it's also home to a host of new baddies, so let's go over them now. The Gigas,
for starters, is about ten trillion times the size of everyone else in your
group. But don't be fooled into thinking that that fact alone makes him any
stronger than you or harder to kill. In fact, he's actually a huge pussy. He's
got quite a bit of life, but other than that, don't expect this lone attacker to
put up much of a fight. If it catches your fancy, you might could steal you a
Gigas Armlet or two, but this opportunity is a lost-forever, as detailed in
section I.F. of the FAQ. Moving along, then, there's not much I can say about
the Gremlin, except that he looks like he wants some freakin' Honeycomb.
Seriously, he looks like that little freakazoid from the commercials. But, he
has no real powers to speak of. The Sculpture is an odd enemy... because it is
what appears to be a walking bed. That attacks you. And your team sees nothing
strange about this. Its physical attacks are not bad, but is does have a more
powerful attack called Fire Shell. Next is the Killbin, another very odd
creature. It's a box, which attacks you with either a physical attack, Fire 2,
Ice 2, or Bolt 2. Granted, it almost always goes with the physical attack,
which is considerably weaker than the magic. No weakness or strengths to speak
of, sadly. Lastly, there's the Wind Wing. You are only made to fight them as
punishment for being knocked on your ass by one of the windy sections of the
Crater. Its attacks are not that bad, though it may choose to bust out on your
ass with a devastating Aero 3 attack. Thankfully, this is rare. It also knows
White Wind, but never uses it. You may choose to manipulate it to learn White
Wind with your E. Skill materia, if you don't know it already. But, again, no
strengths or weaknesses at all.
Another point that needs to be made is that all of the items to be found at
the Crater are lost-forevers, as mentioned in section I.F. of the FAQ.
That being said, the Crater's path is very linear. Just mosey on inside,
picking up the Neo Bahamut materia along the path. You don't get very far
inside, however, before Cloud spots something approaching in the distance...
it's the Highwind!
Cut to the bridge of the Highwind. Rufus stands at the front, accompanied by
Heidegger and Scarlet, the evil bitch. Rufus gloats that he has finally found
the Promised Land. In the back of the cockpit, you see Rude chilling with Hojo,
who states that this is indeed not the Promised Land, but where the "Reunion"
will take place...
Back to Cloud. Continue down the path until you reach an area where the wind
blows. You need to cross when the wind is calm, lest you be knocked on your ass
and be forced to battle a Wind Wing. Oh, and you might want to pick up the Hi-
Potion and Ether over there, too. Anyways, past that is a long and winding
road, where you'll also find a chest containing the Kaiser Knuckle. You'll
then come to another windy area, but with a twist. In addition to just being
windy, green energy waves move through at predictable intervals. Avoid being
hit by those, as well.
Before advancing any further, you may wish to stop to prepare for the
upcoming boss battle. Not much can be said in the way of preparation, except
that this boss likes to use a lot of fire magic, so choose your materia and
accessories appropriately. This boss can also cast Silence, so prepare for
that, as well. Obviously gravity magic will have no effect, but everything else
works.
Just ahead, you'll see Sephiroth using a couple of his flunkies for target
practice, slashing them up and sending them into the abyss below. Jesus,
Sephiroth, lay off! Good flunkies are hard to come by nowadays... And then he
does his little vanishing act. Your team, for once, is surprised. Some
weirdness ensues, going on about the black materia and the cells of Jenova and
such. Don't try to make any sense of it. What eventually happens is that
Sephiroth flies through the air and knocks out your entire team. When they wake
up, they get to face Jenova DEATH.
Jenova DEATH has a few powerful fire attacks, but nothing too damaging. If
you prepared yourself, you'll be fine, as it attacks almost exclusively with
fire magic (as Jenova LIFE did with water magic). Jenova DEATH occasionally
casts Silence, which is something that can be a pain in the ass if you're not
prepared for it. Other than that, just wail away on its ass to get this fight
the hell over with.
After the fight, the entire team converges where the fight took place
(there's also a save point here for your saving needs). You now have the black
materia in your possession, but it's probably not the wisest idea in the world
to hold onto it. Hand it to one of the characters not in your group (it really
doesn't matter who, because the eventual outcome here is inevitable), and then
move on down the path (Tifa, by the way, comes with you at this point if she
isn't already with you, so be sure to equip her properly).
From here, note the save point just a little further down the path for all of
your saving needs. Do so with wanton disregard, and also be sure to nab the MP
Turbo materia and the Poison Ring lying around here. Other than that, it's a
relatively short journey from here. You will encounter yet another windy path,
and this time you not only have wind and green energy waves to deal with, but
lightening strikes the path at regular intervals, as well. Jesus! Just wait
for an opening, and then take it.
As you near Sephiroth, the scenery begins to change... to Nibelheim? Yes,
friends, it's Nibelheim. And according to Cloud, Sephiroth is trying to psyche
them out by showing them false images. No, Cloud, if Sephiroth wanted to psyche
you out, he'd show you a picture of your ass just before he kicked it to high
hell. What you first see is Sephiroth entering Nibelheim that day five years
ago... and behind him is not Cloud, but a soldier who will later be identified
as Zach. Cloud laughs at the stupidity of all of this, and if you talk to Tifa,
she just tells you it's an illusion and not to worry about it. Despite her own
words, Tifa seems pretty freaked out, if you ask me. Also note how Cloud
becomes increasingly defensive.
The next scene plays, again switching out Cloud for Zach. This time it's the
day where Sephiroth barbecued the whole village. Cloud and Tifa talk to each
other right now literally like a couple of kids who are being picked on and are
trying (poorly) to act like it doesn't bother them. Cloud calls out to
Sephiroth, saying that he knows that Sephiroth is trying to make it look like
Cloud was not at Nibelheim five years ago. That's when the real Sephiroth
appears, glad that Cloud has finally realized this. Cloud replies with a, "what
you are trying to say is that you want to confuse me, right?" Sephiroth replies
with a few words of his own, but this whole discussion can more or less be
translated into: "you're a poop-head," and "I know you are, but what am I?"
Sephiroth does have a point though, as he more or less elaborates on. Plus,
he delivers one of the coolest lines in the game: "what I have shown you is
reality. What you remember, that is the illusion." Walk up to Sephiroth and
talk to him, and Cloud will ask him why he is doing this. Sephiroth explains
that this is Cloud's true self, and that he never imagined that a "failed
experiment" would turn out so useful. He stops beating around the bush at this
point, and openly tells Cloud that he is nothing more than a clone of Sephiroth
himself, constructed by Hojo after the incident at Nibelheim. Furthermore, he
was the "failed" clone, that wasn't even given a number. And when you take a
look at the freaks walking around that actually got numbers, that's probably the
biggest insult thrown Cloud's way thus far. Sure, Cloud may be a mental case,
but at least he can still kick your ass once he's done freaking out. These
Goddamned caped freaks don't even have the capacity to wipe themselves after
going to the bathroom.
The scene gets more pathetic when Cloud talks to Tifa. She tells him not to
listen, and Cloud assures her that he's not. This could not get any more
childish if Cloud were to suddenly burst out with, "I am rubber, you are glue!"
But the interesting thing is that the both of them really are bothered here.
Tifa claims that she has known Cloud since childhood, and that they have many
memories together. Thus, there is no way Cloud could have been created after
the fact. Sephiroth then threatens to make an image out of what if currently on
Tifa's mind, and that shuts her up pretty quick, though. Hmm... interesting...
Talk to Tifa again. Cloud goes about ten minutes too far in trying to defend
the fact that he is actually who he claims to be. Why he is explaining this to
the one person that actually believes him, I do not know, but then again, Tifa
seems to be a little confused herself. It almost seems like she's starting to
believe what Sephiroth is saying, given her withdrawn reply. Sephiroth comes to
explain that the cells of Jenova inside of Cloud have merged with Tifa's
memories to create the memories they have together, which may have included a
childhood friend named Cloud. This is probably one of the most screwed up
explanations for anything I have ever heard, but sadly, it's the least screwed
up explanation we have so far. Tifa at this point just tells Cloud to stop
thinking, as if that was going to help at all.
Some more banter between Sephiroth and Cloud ensues. Sephiroth, tiring of
this, decides to pull out his trump card, which would be the photo that was
taken of the team before they ascended Mt. Nibel. Indeed, Cloud is absent from
the photo, having been again replaced with Zach. Cloud gets a little more
defensive at this point, spouting off every single action he took from the
moment he set foot in Nibelheim that day five years ago. "Well first, I put my
finger in my nose, like this, and then I dug around a little, like this, and
then..." That is, until he gets to the part about him being in SOLDIER.
Suddenly, his memory gets hazy. This is not an unusual occurrence for Cloud, by
any means, but this time, it really seems to bother him. He cannot recall when
or how he ever joined SOLDIER, freaks out a little bit, and then goes completely
and eerily silent. The screen goes dark, and you hear Tifa call out to Cloud.
Cloud announces that they should be moving out, and that he is all right. And
of all the adjectives I would choose to describe Cloud right now, "all right" is
definitely not one of them. And where are you going? You saw Sephiroth; you
had your damn chance. Might I suggest that when you encounter Sephiroth next
time that you kick his ass rather than argue with him?
The scene switches to the friendly Shinra folk. Rufus, Scarlet, and Hojo
make their way deep into the Crater, discovering a beautiful, untouched
geological stratum that is not only a sight to behold, but also laden with raw
materia. Rich, flavorful mako on the outside, and abundant, crispy materia on
the inside? No, it's not Rufus's favorite breakfast cereal, but he does claim
that this place is the Promised Land. Hojo, as always, is around to tell Rufus
that he is a Goddamned moron who has no clue what he's talking about. True, but
at least Rufus can go five minutes without spasming violently, you creepy little
man. Rufus doesn't particularly enjoy having his parade rained on, and falls
back to more or less calling Hojo an idiot in response (for lack of anything
intelligent to say). The cavern begins to shake, and Scarlet sees something
inside the wall moving. A gigantic eyeball flashes open, and Hojo immediately
recognizes this thing as Weapon. Hojo calmly explains that Weapon was created
by the planet to destroy everything in sight whenever the planet was in danger,
or so it was stated in Professor Gast's report. I would expect Scarlet and
Rufus to at least be a little freaked out at the threat of certain doom. They
don't even have to scream and panic, just a startled gasp would be good enough.
Rufus's response? "You sure keep a lot of things to yourself." You seriously
have to admire that level of blatant stoicism.
Cut back to the rest of your team, who is waiting somewhere else in the
crater. It probably would have been a good idea for them to, you know, get the
black materia the hell out of there, but alas, they did not. The person holding
the black materia talks to the rest of the team, before the rest of the team
vanishes before their very eyes. As that character runs about aimlessly and
confusedly, Tifa appears to them. Tifa says that the rest of the team is
waiting just up ahead, and to hurry along that way. As that teammate heads off,
Tifa takes off her disguise, revealing the face of Sephiroth, who then chuckles
and says in an evil voice: "and don't forget the black materia!". And I suppose
this should probably go without saying, but I just know that if I don't say it
then some idiot is going to be really confused: that was not Tifa; it was
Sephiroth disguised as Tifa. Tifa is not a traitor. Tifa also has large
breasts. I like Tifa's large breasts very much.
Back with the Shinra folk, Scarlet is the first to express some, if any
concern with the fact that they are all about to be eaten alive, saying that she
has a bad feeling about this place. Well, I would have a bad feeling too, if
something five hundred times bigger than me was slowly waking up next to me and
was intent on killing me. Rufus calmly explains that they should be getting
back to their ship (you know, before they were all brutally dismembered or
something), but that's when Cloud and the team are magically transported into
the room. Scarlet angrily asks where you guys came from. Though I'd be tempted
to respond with a smart-assed response involving the stork, given the situation
on hand, I suppose a more appropriate answer would be "Hojo made me." Cloud
says to the Shinra folk that they'd better clear out, because things are going
to get rough. This place is where the Reunion is going to happen, and that is
going to be a supposedly bloody event for all involved. Rufus responds with a
dismissive laugh, as if to say, "oh goody, we're all going to die. Who wants
pie, then?"
Whichever teammate was holding the black materia arrives at this point.
Cloud walks over to that character, stopping every few seconds to spasm.
Finally reaching that character, Cloud asks for the black materia, saying that
he's going to take things from here. You've gotta be joking. The last time
Cloud had the black materia, it took all of thirty seconds for it to become the
property of Sephiroth. And that was back when he was still semi-sane. You'd
have to be some kind of a dumbass to hand him the key to destroying the world
now that Cloud has completely lost his mind. And then your teammate does the
stupidest thing imaginable: they hand it over. They give Cloud the Goddamn
black materia! Arrrgh! Does not anybody on this team have an inkling of common
sense!?
Cloud, standing in the middle of the room, tells everybody that he's sorry.
He says it four times. Seriously, he's really sorry that he has to bring death
and destruction to us all. As a final benediction, he tells Tifa that he hopes
that she one day meets the "real" Cloud, which I imagine would be kinda hard to
do once the planet has been reduced assorted wreckage and debris drifting
aimlessly through outer space. But, some of them aren't necessarily unhappy
what with the impending doom. Hojo, actually, is thrilled that something he
built actually works. He eagerly asks Cloud what number he is. Cloud sadly
replies that he was never given a number, and asks Hojo to please give him one.
Hojo, upset at this turn of events, calls Cloud a miserable failure.
Meanwhile, that tiny voice of reason inside your head is probably saying
something to the effect of, "hello? You're all about to friggin' die! Get the
hell out of there!" Cloud, downtrodden and depressed, floats up into the air
with the black materia in hand as the screen goes white.
Hojo begins with his long-winded explanation (as an alternative to escaping
this place before he is burned alive, I suppose). Cloud is a clone created
after the real Sephiroth died five years ago. Using a combination of Jenova's
cells, mako, and spare parts dug up by his assistant, Igor, he created Cloud
(it's just too bad that his budget ran out and he wasn't able to provide Cloud
with a brain). In practice, Hojo completely failed to clone Sephiroth, as Cloud
noticeably looks and acts nothing like the original. However, this did help to
prove Hojo's Jenova Reunion theory. This theory stated that even if Jenova's
body was dismembered, it would become one again. And seeing as Hojo had to be
an idiot and distribute Jenova's cells all over the place, that is why we are
seeing this mass convergence of failed Sephiroth clones meeting here at the
Crater. He had originally thought that they would all converge at Midgar, where
Jenova's body was stored, but he was wrong. Jenova literally began to move
(with the help of Sephiroth, of course).
I suppose that the Sephiroth thing merits an explanation, as well, given that
he is supposedly dead. In case you haven't figured it out, what you've been
dealing with thus far is not the original Sephiroth. It's the only Sephiroth
clone that ended up looking like him (hence the number one tattooed on his
hand). According to Hojo, Sephiroth himself is manipulating the clones from
beyond the grave. How exactly he is doing this, I am not sure, but the best
explanation I can come up with is this: Jenova is an abomination that is not of
this planet. Sephiroth was made from Jenova, thus when he was not entirely able
(or willing) to merge with the planet's lifestream. This at least explains how
he was able to become a "traveler" of the lifestream, at any rate. From there,
I suppose he would somehow be able to control clones of himself, at least. This
is all purely speculation, but I defy anyone to come up with a better
explanation.
Hojo and Rufus continue to banter. Hojo explains that he had been wondering
where all of the clones were heading, but that he was never able to figure it
out. All that he knew was that they were ultimately going to end up back where
the original Sephiroth was. Meanwhile, Cloud is somewhere up near the ceiling
summoning Armageddon. Cloud, taking note of the Jenova inside him, notes that
he was not pursuing Sephiroth. Rather, he was being summoned by him. This is
when Cloud realizes his duty, which is to deliver the black materia to
Sephiroth. And as Cloud walks along the... stuff growing on the ceiling,
Sephiroth's body, preserved entirely in mako, drops into plain view. And Hojo
couldn't be more ecstatic. "Did you see it!? It's Sephiroth! So he IS here!
This is perfect! Both Jenova's Reunion and Sephiroth's Will!" He might also
want to throw "Destruction of the Planet" in there somewhere, too.
I suppose this is another thing that merits some explanation. The Jenova
theory indeed stated that Jenova would become one again if dismembered. Hojo
just thought that everything would converge at Jenova's body, which it didn't.
Rather, they all went for Sephiroth, instead, for it was his will commanding
them. The only way I can begin to explain this is that Sephiroth's will is
simply Jenova's will that lives on through him, so in essence, the clones are
returning to Jenova, and they are taking Jenova's body with them.
Hojo pratters on about how cool it's going to be that instead of diffusing
into the lifestream, all of the spirit energy will instead be gathered here.
Tifa is the first one to point out to Hojo and the rest of the idiots around
here that certain doom is not something that Hojo or anyone else should be
getting happy about. Rufus, also, at this point gets it through his thick skull
that you should probably be getting the hell out of here, and nonchalantly
invites the team back to the Highwind, saying that he'd like to hear the full
story about what's going on. Sure, it seems like we can trust you, you evil
prick.
Well, Cloud is too busy floating around to listen to the rest of the team, so
everybody leaves without him, as disaster is closely imminent. In a kick-ass CG
movie sequence, you'll see Cloud placing the black materia inside Sephiroth's
encasing of mako or spirit energy, or whatever the hell it is. Meanwhile,
everybody else is busy fleeing in the Highwind. But because it took you dumb
asses so long to get out of there, guess who is close behind on your tail? A
gigantic hellbeast comes crawling out of the Crater right behind you... it's
Weapon! It begins to start charging up or doing something... and then it blasts
off into space, nearly missing the Highwind. The force of the sonic boom in its
wake is enough to knock Tifa, who is standing on the deck of the Highwind, onto
her pretty little ass. A reader of mine pointed out the extreme jiggliness of
her boobies at this precise moment, which is something I most certainly would
not know anything about, as I am not the kind of pervert who would sit there and
ogle a video game character. But I did go back and watch the CGI movie a few
hundred times, you know, just to make sure I was reporting accurate information.
Anyways, with all hell unleashed upon Earth, and certain doom impending, your
job here is complete, and the Highwind flies off into the distance.
wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
\ \/ / O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|Section III: Walkthrough|/ /\ \
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\ \/ / | O / /\ \
_\ /_ | G. A World in Despair | Ż/ \Ż
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_\ /___________________________ | Ż/ \Ż
\ \/ /|Section III: Walkthrough|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O / /\ \
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--- Welcome to: Shinra Building (at Junon)
Following the disastrous events of the Jenova Reunion, you are thrust into a
mysterious intermission. You should be used to seeing Cloud argue with himself,
but this time it's Tifa's mind that we have delved into. The scene flashes back
to one day, where Tifa happens upon Cloud lying on the ground at the train
station at Sector Seven. He seems really out of it, more so than usual. A
nearby bystander sees Cloud lying on the ground moaning, and then leaves
indifferently. Tifa rushes up to him and helps him to his feet. Discussion as
to exactly how he ended up there is nonexistent, but rather, they almost
immediately recognize each other. Tifa asks him a few questions, but each one
is met with one of Cloud's classic memory spasms. Cloud mentions that it had
been five years since he saw Tifa... referring to the incident at Nibelheim.
But he was wrong. According to Tifa, it had actually been seven years. Tifa
does not come out and say it, but what she is hinting at is that Cloud really
wasn't at Nibelheim five years ago. From what she could tell, Cloud had got his
wish, joined SOLDIER, and quit after the incident at Nibelheim. For those five
years, he had become a mercenary. But something seemed odd to Tifa then. Cloud
did not remember things that he should have remembered, and knew things that he
shouldn't have. And that's when Tifa heard of Cloud's plan to leave... to go
somewhere far away. Tifa didn't want that. She wanted to keep an eye on him,
to learn more about him. So she told him about the AVALANCHE job so he would
stick around. And so the truth comes out. Could this all mean, then... that
Sephiroth was right all along? That this was not Cloud, but the workings of the
cells of Jenova, which somehow merged with Tifa's own childhood memory and
transformed the image of this... experiment to that of the boy named Cloud?
Alas, you really have bigger problems than that to worry about right now.
Tifa wakes up on a table in some strange room. Barret is standing in the
corner, and seems kidna happy to see her wake up. The first part of their
conversation makes literally no sense, but they end up on the subject of Cloud
somehow. Barret explains that nobody has any clue what happened to him or if me
made it out of the Crater alive. Tifa asks how long she's been asleep, and
Barret mentions that she's been out for an entire week. He neglects to mention
the important details, such as where in the hell you are right now, or what
happened to the rest of the team.
But that's when Barret begins with the bad news. For starters, Sephiroth
remains at the Crater, which is now protected by a completely impenetrable
barrier of light. There's really nothing that anyone can do, except wait for
old Sephiroth to wake up. On top of that, Weapon has been going around
destroying things left and right. Weapon's motives are unclear at this point,
but I think that "death and destruction" is pretty high on its "to do" list.
Currently, Rufus is trying to battle Weapon, which makes even Barret admit that
the man has balls. But when you think about it another way, Barret, it's not
really like Rufus has any alternative to fighting Weapon, seeing as his is the
only nation on Earth, so he really doesn't deserve any credit for not just
bending over and kissing his own ass goodbye. Barret mentions that AVALANCHE
should have been the ones to take out Weapon, because everyone knows that a
small, ragtag team of vigilantes can accomplish what endless legions of soldiers
cannot (this is true for any video game, actually). But, again, that's when he
points out that you've seriously got bigger things to worry about. Barret walks
over to the window and opens the blinds. There, looming in the sky, is Meteor.
Well, that just sucks. Kinda puts a damper on your day, doesn't it?
Rufus enters the room (heralded for some reason by the Turk's theme song),
wondering aloud why Cloud has yet to show up and "rescue" you. I guess this
sort of means that Tifa and Barret are being held captive by the Shinra somehow.
After a brief discussion about Cloud, Rufus more or less openly admits that the
world is screwed. What he has decided to do now is to publicly execute Tifa and
Barret and blame the whole mess on them. "People are ignorant," he says.
"They'll feel better as long as someone is punished." The hell!? A
maliciously evil hellbeast is rampaging the Earth, destroying everything in its
path, Sephiroth sleeps in the Crater, awaiting the day of mass destruction, and
a giant Goddamned Meteor is going to reduce our entire planet to rubble, and
your biggest concern is PR!? Isn't there some way we can impeach your stupid
ass?
You gain control of Barret after Heidegger ties his arms up. A soldier
personally escorts Tifa down to the execution chamber, but Barret is more or
less left alone. I guess they just sort of assumed that the gigantic, angry man
with a gun for an arm would politely follow to his certain and untimely demise
without being instructed to do so. Alas, there is really not much Barret can do
but follow, and also make use of that save point you see on your way down.
You might want to stop right now and give Barret some materia (yes, despite
being tied up and away from the rest of the team, he still mysteriously can
access their materia). It really doesn't matter what the hell you give him,
just so much as your battle options aren't limited to "fight" and "item", you
should be all right.
Down in the press room, Scarlet, the evil bitch, does her absolute best to
demonize your team to the media. Granted, she has absolutely no proof or even
evidence that your team has done anything wrong, but don't think that that's
going to stop her. Scarlet explains that with all of the chaos abound, that
Shinra desperately needs to rally public support (an area in which, I admit,
they are currently desperately lacking). So, someone, anyone, needs to be
punished severely. I can think of far better candidates than the ones who are
taking the fall, it's just that I doubt that Rufus would want to execute his own
employees. Evil Bitch makes a pretty good point when she notes that even though
no one will admit it, people love this kinda stuff. And when Tifa is taken to
the gas chamber and Barret angrily yells that if anybody is going to be executed
first, it might as well be him, Scarlet reaches a new low in demanding that the
camera's get a good close-up shot of Barret's "tearful goodbye". Good lord,
Scarlet... that's evil even for your evil bitch ass.
Scarlet leads Tifa into her "special gas chamber", accompanied by a generous
amount of shoving. As Tifa is thrown into the chair and strapped in, Scarlet
looks at Tifa disdainfully, calls her a "stuck-up bitch", and slaps her. I
don't even know where to begin picking this one apart, but I think what it comes
down to is that while Tifa's personality was sacrificed in order to make her
extremely attractive, Scarlet's was instead sacrificed to make her unfathomably
evil. And I honestly think that Scarlet is jealous because Tifa is so damn hot
(plus, well, her being unfathomably evil and all). Eat that, Scarlet. Scarlet
and the soldier walk out of the gas chamber, making extra sure to drop the key
to Tifa's shackles as they leave.
Klaxons blare as Scarlet exits the gas chamber, announcing that Weapon is
rapidly approaching Junon. And in case you haven't figured it out by now,
you're at the Junon branch of Shinra H.Q.. Everyone files out of the room
except for that ugly Cait Sith-shaped reporter, who walks up to Scarlet and
says, "How does it feel now, Scarlet?" Before she can respond, he knocks her
out with sleeping gas and takes off his disguise, revealing Cait Sith
underneath. The soldiers that were accompanying Barret attack you, but battling
them will probably be the hardest thing you've had to do since tying your shoes
this morning. After the battle, Barret rushes up to the door and tries to open
it, but to no avail. This is bad...
Cut to Heidegger, who rushes into Rufus's office. Rufus, of course, is not
in the least bit concerned that Weapon is approaching the city at a high
velocity intent on destroying it. He calmly tells Heidegger that he knows his
orders, and Heidegger orders his troops to give Weapon a blast from the giant
canon. For once, I guess we should be happy for the Shirna's technological
advancement. I don't know if you ever noticed the giant cannon before, but it's
that huge thing built into Junon that's about as big as the city itself. Jesus!
And the cannon fires. Unfortunately, whoever fired the damn thing forgot to
aim it at something, and the blast flies a gazillion feet through the air and
finally just crashes into the water, damaging nothing but the reputation of the
Shinra. Rufus, having seen this, in a presumed attempt to be funny, goes, "did
we get 'em?" Well, Rufus, unless we were looking to blast a hole in the water,
no, we didn't get him. You bastard.
A few minutes following the dead silence, the klaxons roar back to life, and
Weapon rushes towards the city. Heidegger seems shocked at this, because he for
some reason thought that you had hit Weapon dead-on. If by "dead-on", you mean
"missed completely", yeah, I suppose you're right. Also, you are a jackass. As
for the current situation, Weapon is barreling towards the city, and the cannon
will take some time to reload. In the meantime, it appears that the Shinra will
be resorting to conventional firepower. They might as well be using rocks and
pointy sticks, because the one or two percent of the ensuing shots that actually
come into contact with Weapon don't appear to be slowing it down in the least.
Weapon rams the city head-on, not doing much initial damage, but jostling it
about quite a bit.
The scene cuts to Tifa, who feels the chamber shake from the impact of
Weapon. And that's when the gas starts pouring out. Barret yells through the
door for Tifa to hold her breath and that he'll find some way to get her out of
there. Sure, Barret. There's nothing that you can do here, because it seems
that the door to the gas chamber is kept locked from a different room. Barret
and Cait Sith rush out into the hallway, only to have the door to the previous
room lock behind them. Inside, they can hear Scarlet cackling that they'll
never save Tifa now. Barret is a bit pissed, but Cait Sith says that he may
have an idea, and that the team needs to head to the airport. Barret is a bit
untrusting, but there's not much else you can do at this point except go along
with it. The path is fairly linear, and Cait Sith will direct you in the proper
direction you need to go. Any fight you get into will be ridiculously easy, and
over with in a hurry, though I do find it amusing that there are soldiers who
care enough about the escaping prisoners that recapturing them will take
priority over doing battle with the thing that is about to eat their city.
You'll see a TV reporter on your way to the airport that turns out to be Yuffie,
who will also accompany you to the airport. Just over the horizon, you will see
Weapon slowly rising, seemingly intent on doing something very painful in a
minute. You should waste little time in hurrying to the Airport at this time.
As the team reaches the airport, a brief dialog ensues between Barret and Cait
Sith. It ends with Barret grabbing his gun/arm and saying to Cait Sith, "Yo,
you better watch my back till the end... partner." It's kind of touching how
even Barret knows the power of forgiveness... even if it is a slimy,
backstabbing traitor like Cait Sith.
Cut back to Tifa. Despite all of the commotion outside, it is deathly silent
on her gas chamber. She at this point gets it through her head that there isn't
anything Barret can do to help, so she needs to get that key for herself. It's
really easy to do (and I'm really curious as to why she didn't think of this
sooner): just grab the key with her legs, transfer the key to her mouth by
pressing both buttons at the same time, and then transfer the key to one of her
hands. In freeing that hand, transfer the key to the other hand. And take your
time: that poisonous gas has no visible effect on Tifa whatsoever. You're still
going to want to shut off the switch when Tifa finally frees herself, though.
But, as you try to open the door, it's really no use, as you are sealed in.
Help is on the way, though. Outside, Weapon is preparing an extensively
painful blast for the city of Junon. He charges it up, and then lets it rip.
Now, I know you were expecting some nuclear-concussive blast or something, but
such is really not the case. Rather, is just makes a small incision in the wall
of one of the buildings, conveniently enough located right next to the gas
chamber. And maybe its me, but that's just a little too ridiculous to swallow.
At about this time, the giant cannon (located a good two or so meters away from
Weapon's face), fires again, resulting in an almost cartoonish explosion.
Weapon looks at the giant cannon strangely, and then slowly leaves for the time
being. Lovely. The strongest weapon in the world was enough to confusedly stun
Weapon. We're doomed.
And, well, according to a couple thousand e-mails I've received, it turns out
that what I said in the above paragraph was false. Apparently, I just wasn't
watching close enough and didn't see that the shot did indeed blow Weapon's head
right open, killing it in a quite gruesome fashion. Of course, if you were
paying good enough attention during the CGI sequence back at the Crater, you'll
know that there's still more Weapons (or WEAPONS) left to deal with, so there's
really no cause to celebrate quite yet. On another note, of all the WEAPONS,
this poor bastard is the only one who was not given a name by the game
programmers, quite possibly due to the fact that the programmers were lazy
pricks. Final Fantasy VII fanatics jumped at this opportunity, and seem to have
unanimously bestowed upon him/her/it the name Sapphire WEAPON. I have decided
to break with tradition, however, and shall call him Gus.
Anyways, Tifa at this point takes full advantage of her new escape route and
crawls out of the hole blasted into the wall, then begins to scale down the
building, pursued by Scarlet and a few expendable troops who were never taught
how to climb, and thus plunge immediately to their deaths upon attempting to
give chase. Tifa scales the building and runs along the top of the giant cannon
(note the name "Sister Ray" is etched onto the side of the giant cannon, as this
is its proper name). But, alas, she reaches the end of the line when she runs
out onto the barrel of the cannon, which rests hundreds of feet above the ocean.
Scarlet approaches Tifa and a cold standoff ensues. Scarlet, still on her
"stuck-up" kick, slaps Tifa again. And here's where things get fun. You get to
slap back. So have some fun, slap that bitch, and enjoy watching the catfight
of the century. Meee-ow!
Needless to say, Scarlet will probably lose. Being the sore loser she is (no
pun intended), she calls in her troops to finish Tifa off. That's when you hear
a voice calling out for Tifa to run to the end of the cannon. Don't think, just
run. And as you near the end of the cannon, something begins to rise in the
distance... it's the Highwind! Barret throws a rope over the edge for Tifa to
grab onto, and she leaps towards it. A suspenseful note is hit when the rope
sways away from her and she falls, only to barely grab onto the rope at the
bottom as it snaps back towards her. Following this, the Highwind turns and
flies off into the sunset, leaving Junon behind them and making for a f