Part 101: Hide and Seek

Chapter 100 - Hide and Seek




This is it, the last disc in our adventure. The first thing we see is the Jessica Rabbit wannabe that Cid loves.



We are the border of the Northern Crater, the Final Dungeon. We could go down and defeat the game... in this very chapter. I even have the videos for the final battle ready.



There's still a bunch of stuff to do, though. Let's see what Yuffie has to say.



























At least she's trying to steal the materia legally












Fate of Wutai decided because these two just can't not puke.



Well that was great. One of my favorite dialogues in the game.



Everything seems to be in order.



Damn, she's right. We need some beach balls right now.



You do know that our airship is literally there, right?



Oh clearly you haven't read my LP. The time for flying is only beginning.



Ok, now you're just screwing with me.



Would you say... this guy... are sick?



Sure, all the clichés that you want.



These options are great.



There you go Tifa.



Why yes Cid, in fact, I do have.



You should see Laurence Gackt Olivier doing it, great soliloquy too. Truly a marvel of modern theatre.



Cid: "And I remember seein' it just once..."

Cid: "That was when I was in Midgar interviewing to be a pilot. I had some free time and thought I'd catch the play."

Cid: "Now, I'm no big fan of the theater or anything."



Hahahaha



This is the best sequence of pre-final-dungeon dialogues I've seen.



Cid: "The sister of the lead asks her lover, 'Do you really have to leave?'"

Cid: "And the guy says, 'I promised. The people I love are waiting.'"

Cid: "-...I don't understand. Not at all. But... please take care of yourself."

Cid: "-Of course... I'll come back to you. Even if you don't promise to wait, I'll return knowing that you'll be here."


Cid: "I remember thinking when I heard those lines,"

Cid: "*&%! What the hell's he talking about?"


Cid: "But, you know... now I'm not so sure... I think I understand..."



Alright, I do feel like flying after that epiphany.



The first thing of which we need to get rid is the Ultimate Weapon. Remember when we fought him in Mideel? He's back in the center of this huge crater he made. We can't let him destroying things all over, that's our job.





Ultimate Weapon unfortunately is extremely easy, probably even easier on air than when we fought him in Mideel. I wish I could see his KDA and compare it with Air Buster. Did you know there's an arena in WoW in which you can see the win rate of certain bosses? For months after release this little guy here had over a 100:1 win ratio, which means people on average died 100 times to him before managing to beat the encounter.




You can pretty much defeat him by just holding the Confirm button, as long you either have someone who can attack from afar or you have the [Long Range] Materia equipped.



After you defeat him the dude just flies away, thus giving birth to an incredibly annoying chasing sequence.



Colliding with him pushes you very far away. You need to hit him a few times before he decides to move and attack someplace else.



He really dislikes Mideel.




You don't even need to reach a damage threshold, he'll just run away on his own after some turns. So depending on how much damage you deal per encounter this can take a long, long time - or you can just kill him in one encounter with, say, Knights of the Round, in which case he'll immediately move to his final destination with a fixed minimum amount of HP.



There are plenty of places he can attack, in the meanwhile.



I hate him so much.



I think we should let him.



Interestingly enough, fighting him in Midgar results in a land fight. Which is cool, because I like this combat background. I take this chance to steal from him a [Reflect Ring] which I will never use.



Ok seriously now I really think we should let him.




Here's something cool:



His Ultimate Beam uses the (Hidden) Element which, for all intents and purposes, is just a non-elemental special attack. However, most Materias count as being (Hidden), which means if you put a [Long Range] on Cloud for him to hit Ultimate Weapon and link it to an [Elemental] Materia in his armor, you'll be absorbing the damage from Ultima Beam.



Even Ultimate Weapon hates the RTS minigame.



Another one of the many different encounters.



If you don't have something to deal a lot of damage in a few turns (usually a cheese that will take him from 100 to 0, let's be honest) he can be a huge pain, especially if you lose sight of him - you can spend a long time tracking him playing the most nightmarish version of hide and seek you can imagine. When you're done with his low-but-still-annoying-since-he-runs-away-before-you-can-deplete-it Health Pool he'll move to this place, near Cosmo Canyon.



He always casts [Shadow Flare] before he dies, an Enemy Skill. At this point it's just a matter of catching them all for the sake of completion.





And at last we get Cloud's Ultimate Weapon, called Ultima Weapon, dropped by Ultimate Weapon.





Oops.



With Ultimate Weapon gone the local landscape is now dramatically different



Which means we have now official access to the forest pudding we've been spotting since Disc 1.



I mean, we could always have accessed it anytime with a Chocobo but this is the "correct" way.



And it looks gorgeous!


NEXT TIME:

Side-Quests! Jumping Puzzles!