Part 8: The Soap Opera Appreciation Station
Chapter 8 - The Soap Opera Appreciation Station
What is up with you people and knowledge of military secrets?
Yes ma'am sorry for just saving your daughter's life.
Poor Cloud can't catch a break, can he?
Oh shit.
Cloud's monologues are the most confusing shit.
Judging by her clothes, that's probably Cloud's mom according to FF7 World's clothing convention.
Yes mom they always want to take me to dance with them
and we talk about the guys together and they tell me their secrets and it's ~magical~.
Oh wait, that wasn't what you meant
Playing dress-up with the other girls is a bit weird, son.
I wouldn't worry about that though, the only way to get a date with Cloud is by asking him to bodyguard you from the mafia and I bet that doesn't happen very often.
Here's an interesting fact - Aeris is actually older than Cloud. Cloud is 21, Aeris is 22.
Even Cloud's mom realizes he's the bottom type.
Yeah you go and show her, Squall.
So here's your obligatory annoying mini-game - You need to slowly walk away without Aeris listening to you.
If you walk too close to her door she'll hear you. If you merely PRESS the running button she will hear you. EVEN if you're not moving, Cloud will make a running animation and be caught.
Hell yeah we're out.
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat
Haha I love the expressions.
So we have to cross this bizarre place which is like a sunken road...
It's a neat looking background.
We can also fight one of the weirdest enemies in this place -
Hell Houses have much more HP than your usual enemy, and also drop a considerable amount of gil (250).
Once you deal enough damage they go apeshit and
There's no way I'm dropping someone who can both Tank AND Heal.
What do you mean in my way?
Can we have a break?
In FF7 this is like asking how much he makes a year or if he owns a car.
If you think hard about it, you can make a parallel between this scene and Johnny Mnemonic.
The same as who?
The first time I played Final Fantasy 7 these sentences confused the hell out of me. "Boy... friend... ok, it's a boy who's friend, but why is it in the same word"?
This conversation reminds me of some slice of life drama movies. In particular Pika*nchi Life is Hard Dakedo Happy.
It's a common theme in Japan - how you as a teen needs to grow into the adulthood, and what you miss with that.
So they like to add these contrasts, and it's very deliberate - you have Aeris and Cloud sitting in a place for children, reminiscing their memories. The place is in ruins and Aeris "can't believe it's still here" even though she lives relatively close to it.
They're talking about teenage love, but in a realistic way. Aeris liked the dude but it's gone and she doesn't think he was the love of her life or any of that crap. The Japanese liked to include these conversations a lot in some movies. It's a bit "educational", but for young adults to learn how to deal with their feelings.
There's a certain feeling of "this is cool, but we're too old for this shit". After you fall in love and break up so many times it kinda becomes automatic. This is not the case of either character, but it's what the conversation is trying to convey.
In a way, this is in a way why FF7's Script and characters are different. The script is shaped very closely after soap-operas (or doramas, if you may) and slice of life movies even though they're dealing with a much larger plot. It has a bit of a psychological thriller and depressive aspect to it which was likely an influence of Evangelion, which was out just some time before.
FF9 is different in the sense that it features a less modern script. While FF7 was going for extreme realism (That's a direct quote from the devs, but I'm not linking here because it contains spoilers), FF9 goes straight to a more Shakespearean drama format. Both have the same roots, but present themselves in different ways.
What the hell?
My favorite Mexican Soap Opera is La Usurpadora (The Usurper).
You have in this scene - Slums, a Damsel in Distress, a noble hero being unfairly pursued by the justice, a Love Triangle and a talk about relationships.
There's something unsettling about this.
No shit Aeris.
Of course Aeris ignores him and rushes to her impending doom.
NEXT TIME:
Being Friend-Zoned straight into a Gay Friend! Creepy Fetishes! Creepy Japanese Fetishes! Muamba!
Chapter 8 - Bugs & Bytes
Gaining Limits
As I said previously, most characters have four sets of Limits, each set with usually two limits. You can only have one set active at a time.
So for example, Cloud has two limits in the first set:
1-1: Braver
1-2: Cross-Slash
When he "levels up" he'll be able to use limit 2-1.
As a general rule of thumb you acquire the second limit of each set by using the first limit of that set a x number of times. That number is fixed, but it is different across characters and limits. Usually is around 10 times.
To unlock the next set, however, you have to kill a certain number of enemies while under the previous set, with that character. That is also fixed and different across characters, but it's around 120-130.
Keep in mind the character has to do the killing blow. This can be a problem if you use a character exclusively to heal, which you shouldn't because no one needs to heal in this game.
Repeat the process. Use 2-1 x times and you unlock 2-2, etc.
The last set has only one limit, 4-1. 4-1 is not unlocked by normal means - you need a specific item to unlock it, and it usually is a secret item.
There are two characters with a different ruleset for limits.
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