The Let's Play Archive

Final Fantasy VII

by Elentor

Part 55: Onward

Chapter 55 - Onward


At long, CD 2. Let's do a small recap of shit that happened:


::: Primary Plot Points :::

Sephiroth is looking for the Promised Land. The "Promised Land" is a place full of Lifestream (also known as Mako).

Sephiroth's goal is to summon a Meteor to wound the planet. To do so he needs the Meteor Materia (also known as Black Materia, also known as Ultimate Destructive Magic), which had been sealed away by the Ancients (also known as Cetra).

Cloud is controlled by Sephiroth or so it seems. He deliberately gave the Black Materia to Sephiroth, which led Aeris to go Plan-B and leave by herself. Which led us to...

Sephiroth killed Aeris. There are no Ancients alive anymore. No one knows what her plan to save the planet from Sephiroth was.



::: Secondary Plot Points :::

Sephiroth is not an Ancient as others believed back in the day. Aeris states this.

Hojo believes in an event called "Reunion". It seems all "Sephiroth Clones" are following Sephiroth.


So, let's move on.







After a short vision of Sephiroth leaving, we get our hint to the next location.



And thus, we leave the Forgotten Capital.



I hate this screen. You see that chest in the bottom right?



If you so much as touch the base of that "spine" on the ground, Cloud starts hoping. You need to move left to this ramp here. However, going straight leads you to a dead end.



Arghh.



There are three paths. The margin for each one of them is pretty small.



As the name obviously implies, it's a weapon for Cid with Double growth.



Either way, this is my favorite part of the game, art-wise.



For a simple reason. We're moving towards north, to a progressively colder place. And yet, there's a huge diversity of color schemes and environments slowly building to it.



Oh, sup Quina.



This screen is fairly simple. We climb on the black scars on the wall and collect the treasure on the way.



OH GOD GO AWAY



The enemies in this place are all weird.



Nevertheless, this monster has another [Water Ring], which nulls Water Damage.



The [Bolt Armlet] is not an accessory. Rather, it's an armor with the same effect as the Elemental Rings - it nulls Lightning, in this case. These armors will be useful later on.



The [HypnoCrown] is an accessory that increases the chances of the wearer to successfully cast Manipulate on the enemy. Hooray!



Last but not least, a Megalixir. The glow is just an effect to spice up the scenery.



Unnecessary to say but as we move further, more and more enemies will be Water/Ice themed.



To the bottom left, going down the stairs we get a [Magic Plus], which is a direct boost to Magic like the other similar Independent Materias.





Farewell, Loot Cave. You shall be missed.



I'm gonna spoil something for you. Notice how the set of blocks to the left of the cave exit is the same texture as the set of blocks to the far left. Now you know what it feels like to be an artist. You see laziness everywhere.



Back to the World Map. We're in full snow mode now.



The encounters around this place are mostly wolves. Also, this:



Yes, they don't stop jumping or punching you hard.



A great time to make good use of [Comet].



Fuck you, Jumping. I love the brutality of [Comet]. Its main downside is that it cannot be paired with All. But we'll get to that (Comet 2) eventually.



Also, when you successfully Morph an enemy, it kinda flattens out as it dies.



There are some useful Morphs in the next areas but the enemies are so rare and have so much health I'm not gonna bother much. Instead, we get [Antarctic Wind], the same we could get half a year ago at the Chocobo Races.



There we go. Our next destination. It's been a while since we stopped at a new city.



You know what? I think this is a great time for us to give it a rest and play a bit with our party. I present you [Team Marshmellow].



I'm gonna make Cait Sith a mage because Cait Sith has the best Magic attribute after Cloud and Aeris.



Technically, so does Vincent, but Vincent has worse overall stats than Cait and between gimmicky bad Limits, I prefer Cait's. Let's say going Berserk isn't very useful for casting spells.



I'm gonna put Barret, our lowest level, lowest-HP member in the role of Tank. And of course, nothing screams tank more than a Chainsaw.





I'm gonna spoil you and say that by the end of this arc I still don't have Barret's level 2 limits.



MATERIA SLOTS. Manipulate suits Cait Sith's smooth blackmailing talk.



I stick all the +02 Magic materias on Cait, a Magic Plus, our latest Summon and Comet + MP Absorb. You'll see it in action somewhat soon enough.

The result for that stravaganza is Cait with very, very low HP from all the MaxHP -5%. But who needs health when you have love?



I put Fire+Elemental on Cloud's weapon because from here on a lot of enemies are weak to Fire (naturally). Other than that, Counter-Attack, Long Range and most level-based Command Materias go on Cloud. At this point, between the Fire element, Champion Belt, the Power Sources and strong weapons, Cloud is dealing between 10 and 12 times more raw physical damage than the other members.



You better do it right, Barret.



Almost done. Now we use all these Sources we've been getting on Cloud of course.



And change the color scheme to cold blue. It's been a while since we had emo vampire red. Much more thematic now!


NEXT TIME:

Flashbacks! Flashbacks! Flashbacks! Seriously, flashbacks.




Chapter 55 Bugs & Bytes

The last date

Now that we're done with the very depressive stuff (don't worry, more will follow soon), we can finally see the last Gold Saucer date.



ALTHOUGH IT'S MORE LIKE GOLD SAUSAGE RIGHT GUYS



That's right. In case you didn't know, the last of the four dates is with Barret. Square one-upping Bioware since 97.



To be fair, this is more like an easter egg than anything.




You have to really, really try to get Barret as your date. And by try I mean being as much of an asshole as possible to everyone else.



Your reward is one of the most awkward events in the game. Huzzah.



It's the only one of the four dates without the theatre event too. You're being homophobic, Squaaare



I can show you the world...









Oh well, I'll let you enjoy the rest of this trainwreck.















Seriously, what am I supposed to say here?



There's a Mr. T impersonation on a gay ride with a transvestite mercenary. They're debating which girl from the group they would date, except that they didn't.



It's awkward, embarassing...



And downright creepy. Cloud just wants the night to end.









Hey Barret, Cloud is RIGHT THERE. He can listen.





There we go, another emotional breakdown.



And with that, we really conclude this update!