Part 47: The Calm
Chapter 47 - The Calm
Hello there my friends!
I'm very enthusiastic today.
Do you wanna know why? Because once we climb up these stairs we can finally get this [HP Absorb] materia being held hostage by the cats.
And that's it. We're finally out of Wutai!
JUST KIDDING.
There's one thing left. Remember all these Turtle's Paradise flyers? Here's the resolution!
The last flyer is the one in Yuffie's House, which means we can't get this done until Yuffie leads us to the trap (her house wasn't accessible before).
Our hard-earned reward.
It was specially annoying because when I first looked at the flyer in Gold Saucer's Inn, I forgot to save. So when I first came here I was like "wait, where's my reward fuuuck I hope it wasn't a flyer in Midgar."
This is the map, so far, with every place we've visited. Now, let's see. Five Chapters ago we learned Rufus was going for the [TEMPLE OF THE ANCIENTS], but this was the wrong direction.
There are four points in the map that we haven't visited yet. Let's check from top to bottom. The topmost place doesn't seem accessible as there are no available beaches around it. So it leaves us with this gigantic dinosaur bone in the middle of a forest.
Oh look at that dinosaur fac HOLY SHIT IS THAT AN AIRCRAFT FIGHTER?
Do we have a count on the airships we've seen so far?
* The Tiny Bronco.
* A huge airship we saw in Junon.
* An even bigger airship in Junon.
* Helicopters.
* A red airship in Costa Del Sol.
* The broken airship in the ruins of Sector 7.
And now this one, not counting the rocket, seven total. It seems only one airship of each type is produced in the world of FF7.
Anyway, we need hints.
He's like, everywhere.
Well our only choices left were indeed "way down south", although "on the other side between this town and the inland sea" does confuse me.
Ok, that's better I suppose.
Alright, sounds good for now. First we need to find where that place is, though, then we'll look for that "keystone".
what
Sounds interesting, but of course...
That's the game's way of saying this is not where we're supposed to be yet.
Nevertheless, we can still check the forest...
...to get this. [Kjata] is a summon materia that bounces around the second screen of the forest around the corners. It's easy to miss.
More importantly, Kujata (the materia name is misspelled) is MUCH superior to our previous Summon Materias, being 1/3 more powerful than [Leviathan].
Which is entirely offset by Kujata also being the only materia in the game with three elements - Fire, Lightning and Ice. Guess what happens if the enemy absorbs or is immune to any of these!
Let's go south check out on those places.
That definitely is a pyramid sticking out in a forest, I'll give it that.
You can never go wrong with pyramids for exotic, ancient and mysterious.
Curious thing - nothing happens if you come here without Aeris. You need to have her to trigger this sequence.
Also relevant - the music that plays in this place. It sets a good tone for the ancient, mysterious temple.
While you read Aeris' words, I'd like to point out something.
I think this is one of those points where the game tone changes. Remember how creepy was the escape from Shinra building and since then we've been on the dark, kinda exploring the world without anything relevant happening?
While it's not an On/Off switch, this is the point where the plot starts again and things get weird. We're halfway in the game, but I'd say that we've seen 15% of the plot, and everything else is tightly packed in the later half.
Like I said, it's not black and white. We still have some things to explore in this chapter before moving on. And then things happen.
It's hard to see, but there's a man in a black cloak by the door.
Given history, I think it's safe to say we're on the right place.
However, we still have to find that "Keystone". Trying to enter the Temple will result in Cloud looking confused.
There's one place we haven't visited yet. Remember the house by the Gongaga peninsula with no one in?
The house is the closest place to the Temple. It's impossible to miss it once you're leaving the place, so let's check it out first.
He's damn right about that. His house is a bit out of the way and is one of the select few secret buildings that don't show up in the world map.
Welp.
Nevertheless, like I said, he's the closest person to the temple, and the game is set so that he'll tell you where to go next. So, where the hell is the keystone?
What a great coincidence that the rare unique artifact known as the Keystone was just in the first house we stopped by.
Of course, he just sold it.
The plot thickens.
Huh.
Well that doesn't sound good. So let's recap.
Rufus knows Sephiroth is going to the [TEMPLE OF THE ANCIENTS] due to plot reason (or maybe the fact Sephiroth talks to everyone about it), which is why he went to Rocket Town to get the plane borrowed.
Instead, we took it and crashed it.
To enter the [TEMPLE OF THE ANCIENTS] you need the Keystone, which was being held by this random dude in the middle of nowhere.
Dio, the owner of Gold Sausage, bought from him to add to his absolutely godawful collection.
Inside the Temple there's something which legends say to be the Ultimate Destruction Magic, and, well, Sephiroth is going after it.
Anyway, we're not done here yet.
As it turns out, we do have the Mythril.
Remember from update 34 when we took the Buggie back to Junon and talked to the sleeping man in the secret cave?
Ah, the classic dillema. This is straight from the end of The Last Crusade.
You can only pick one reward. Picking up from the big box will net you a [Gold Armlet], which while not a bad item, is pretty mediocre as a reward and that is available from you way back in Nibelheim.
The entire point of this sidequest however, is for you to pick up the small box and get this.
[Great Gospel] is the 4-1 Limit for Aeris. Here we see Cloud being Cloud about it.
Given that her past two limits were a Full Cure-All and an Invincibility, yoiu might be asking what Great Gospel does. Well, it's easier to ask what is it that it doesn't do.
Great Gospel heals everyone to full AND makes everyone in your party invulnerable. Yes, it is quite ridiculous. It puts Aeris right there in the God Tier list. We're officially overpowered.
Now that we're officially done with the world map and side-quests we can finally move on. Since we know Dio has the key, the logical destination is [Gold Sausage].
I see.
What a tormented existence must be that Moogle's. His life consists of staring vacantly, while a train moves in and out ofhis mouth. Motionless, restless.
I WAS JUST KIDDING ABOUT SIDE-QUESTS. There's still work to be done. As soon as you get the Tiny Bronco, the Omnislash is unlocked as a reward in the Battle Arena. Omnislash is Cloud's 4-1 Limit and unlike Yuffie's and Red XIII's, it's awesome.
The cons? It's outrageously expensive to buy right now. You need a lot of GP just to pay for the battles (if you leave the Battle Square, you lose all your Battle Points).
I love exploiting these reels.
Something worthy of notice is that the Battle-Square is fucking hard right now. It just got tuned with a whole new set of enemies, all of them with twice as much HP as usual.
Overall it was pretty smoot-oh God what is this
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
While not technically a boss, the Dragon is a brutal encounter, and far harder than any previous boss.
The Dragon is aimed to be hard to level 30 parties and by the time you encounter it in Nibelheim mountains, it's one of the hardest creatures in the game, if not the hardest.
It belongs to an entire different tier in Gold Saucer. With 7000 HP and you most likely severely handicapped, plus with only one character at your disposal this fight is really tough.
With persistence, and a shitload of Magic Hammer, we do it. In the end the only materias I used were Enemy Skill and Counter Attack. It's good not to be magic-reliant because the last reel tends to include [Remove All Materia] which will screw you if you're using a caster setup.
Mathematically, [Omnislash] is the second best limit in the game, dealing 15 hits for 0.75x damage for a total of 11.25x Physical Damage.
NOW we're done with all side-quests. We can move on. That took long.
In a FF7 Live Action movie, who do you think should play Dio?
This is a bad idea. The last time someone didn't give Cloud what he wanted, he
I don't even remember when was the last time that happened but I'm sure that was the end result.
I think he just realized that. I also find curious that "being good" means killing the guy he put to manage the prison.
Oh, no.
Oh, NO.
Cue Lux Aeterna.
Oh, that, we can do that.
Though I swear, after doing this place 30 times to get the Limit, it does get old.
There's really not much to say, although I tried to skip through the encounters as fast as possible. Magic Hammers helps a lot with the MP, so I went full glass cannon spamming Beta and Aqualung.
From left to right, Reduces 5 Levels (makes no frakking difference), Poison (which you need to cure as soon as possible, as the damage do get annoying), Total HP regeneration (Love it), and Inflicts Small (again, you do need to cure it).
oh god NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO not again
Fuck you Dragon.
Young man, there's no need to feel down.
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground.
These are the extra rewards for us winning the challenge. [Choco Feather] is an accessory that increases 10 Dexterity, while [Protect Vest] increases 10 Vitality.
Now that we're in possession of the Keystone, everything else should be easy. And with that note, we conclude this update.
Next Time:
Will we finally get to the [TEMPLE OF THE ANCIENTS]? Is shit gonna happen? Find out here!
