Part 97: Bungee Oogie Oogie

Chapter 96 - Bungee Oogie Oogie




The next part of the game is triggered when we fly over Midgar with the Highwind. If you're playing the game and using the LP as a guide, keep this in mind if you want to finish off those sidequests - you might wanna avoid passing by Midgar not to trigger the event.



Barret: "There'll be no way we could slip into the slums."



This is a problem. Somehow the only way to get to Midgar is through the slums (through the train which is obviously not working right now). I wonder how people get in and out of the city since the doors are usually closed?



Cid: "If land's no go... we'll go by air!"



Hell yea.



I like how they just roll with the plan.



Like, no second thoughts or anything. We're storming this city from above. Everyone just wanted an excuse to do it.



Wheeeeeeee!



They see me rollin'



They hatin'





I don't envy the people who had to sync the cinematics with the real-time models.



Tryin' to catch me fallin dirty.



This is how we roll. Now to actually start the mission.



Subtle isn't the exact word to describe our grand entry. So yes, let's go underground.



This is a pretty good background.



You can see some of the posters back from the opening cinematic all over the place. I like Tifa's remark.



Well, I sure don't know this underground. I mean, this is no Temple of Ancients, but still manages to be pretty annoying.



This place would have a much different feeling in 3D. I mean - we're floating in the air. This place with an Oculus Rift would make people vomit. We don't get to see "dangerous angles" because we already know Cloud can survive a pretty long fall, so this is just routine.



Overall this place is just a huge test of patience to see whether you can endure all the different screens to get the chest items. The reason is because the encounter rate in this area is incredibly annoying. I equipped two [Enemy Away] materias to deal with it.



The [Aegis Armlet] is very unique.



It gives you 50% Magic Evasion, which is pretty good when you're stacking defenses. Too bad most of the really powerful attacks you'll take are physical.



A very average, down-to-earth attack.



Now this is just cruel. It gives me I Wanna Be The Guy flashbacks.



This entire section is basically a bunch of backtracking in order to pick up the chests. They aren't even that good.



This area contains the Behemoth, a very famous Final Fantasy enemy. It's surprisingly strong compared to the other enemies, but it has such low HP that even with its powerful attacks it's not much of a challenge.



The Max Ray is an incredibly powerful weapon for Barret.





With 97 Attack it has one of the biggest attack damages in the game. It's almost an Ultimate Weapon in that regard, even better in some cases.



Oh cmon now you're just messing with me.



Let's get out of this place, towards the Plate sewers.



We can go up or down. Let's go down first.



As Red points out, going down isn't the proper way, but it's still really important. There are multiple Sources among the way, and a very special materia at the end.



The enemies are all very reminiscent of the mechs we see in the early areas of the game, which is nice. The encounter rate here isn't all that annoying since we're pretty much going on a straight line.



Lots of Sources, pretty much one of each.





Minor detail, but I like how the tunnels have small variations so not to look too repetitive.



And our final reward. [W-Item] can only be found here. As the name implies, it allows you to use two items in the same turn. It's also a super important materia as it opens up a game-breaking bug that allows you to duplicate combat items. This may not seem much but it actually is - it can be extended to duplicate some sources and duplicating Elixirs is super useful for the endgame, due to one of the biggest sources of AP being a monster that requires you to feed it an Elixir first. Seriously.

Let's head back since this is a dead-end.





Of course! Would you look at that?



It's our friends the Turks! And Elena really wants not to fight with us.



Elena: "Yes, sir. You're right."

Reno: "Come on, we've got work to do."



Elena: "Our orders were to seek you out and... kill."



Oh man.



Oooooh man.



Yea, there's really nothing to say. I think at this point Cloud just can't believe the guts.



Which gives us the funniest option that becomes available if you've done the Wutai sidequest before.



I mean, at this point we're just pitying them, which is hilarious from a gameplay standpoint. This is a downright acknowledgment that the Turks are worthless, and there's nothing they can do about it because they sure as hell can't defeat us and they know it.

Reno: "Wait, Elena."

Elena: "Reno! You're not violating the order... are you!?"



Yea, this is most definitely the final nail in the coffin.



Oh now you're just screwing with her.



I'm almost dropping a tear here. I hate long goodbyes.



Farewell you beautiful bastards.



Just kidding. There's no way I'm letting these clowns go.



Yea, it's the relationship between Lemmings and a cliff. Get dunked.






This battle has all the marks of a traditional Turks fight - it's easy, it has very important items which can be stolen, Rude will never attack Tifa, it's heavily scripted, etc.





Also - the moment you defeat one Turk, the other two run away - but you only gain the Experience and AP from the one you defeated. Which means the optimal way to defeat them is to kill them all at the same time.




This battle is also unique in that no matter what happens, Elena will always start with the first action. Other than that the main challenge is to steal from all of them while keeping track of their HP so you can finish them off at the same time.




While we have stolen their Tough Ring and Ziedrich before, the unique [Minerva Band] Elena wears is special because it's the equivalent of the [Escort Guard] armor exclusive for female characters.



We shall do that Tifa. Right on!


NEXT TIME:

We get sidetracked and don't go to the cannon.




Chapter 96 Bugs & Bytes

Doubling your Items

So. [W-Item] is a pretty ridiculous materia. It allows you to duplicate any of your combat items. And it's not even hard - I mean, at some point someone using W-Item is bound to find it out by him/herself.

Whenever you use an item with W-Item you immediately get the prompt to use an item again. However if you select an item then cancel it you'll return to the previous prompt - except this time the first item you used will duplicate.

The bug probably occurs because when you use an item the game reduces the value of that item by 1, so if you cancel the command it has to give you +1 of that item back in the case of W-Item. However the script is only called when you're using the second item, not the first, which allows you to cancel it infinitely many times (and so, get 99 of a single item).

In fact, what not a lot of people know is that if you use an item, then cancel without picking an item, then cancel again, you'll lose that item permanently even though you didn't use it! They call the (+1 item) function at the worst possible time.


Ambushed! NO U

This Turks fight is the last fight that allows you to ambush the boss, by being a boss battle in an area where random battles are possible.

However, since Elena has a scripted first attack, even if you ambush the Turks she'll still attack first, making it a very confusing first turn.