Part 33: The Terrible Secrets of Chocobo Racing

Chapter 33 - The Terrible Secrets of Chocobo Racing






At least, we're done with this Dyne sequence.



It's not particularly long, but it's (to me) one of the most boring parts of the game.



Which is a shame, because I do love Gold Saucer.



I like the detail of the pendant in this scene. After Dyne's death you also get the pendant as one of your plot-items.





Man, that Mr. Coates reminds me of something...



I KNEW IT.



Turns out Mr. Coates is a Guido.



Something that I always read on Japanese stories is this concept of the local who makes his own rules.



And it never makes much sense. I suppose it's some sort of high-school culture?



For example, in FF8 you have Seifer and his disciplinary committee.



And in these games/stories, the leader of these "committees" is always the bully. So yes, I'm going with high-school trauma here. Anyone wanna weight in?



Although FF7 disguises it pretty well, it has a lot of influences from Japanese 80's Cyberpunk stories.



I suppose the Corel Prison is a huge throwback to the incredibly cliche "whole world is a wasteland, gangs make their rules, there's no justice". Something like Fist of the North Star.



I mean, the whole place is pretty much a concentration camp. It's also a continuation of the theme "The rich live above the poor". We've seen it in Midgar - a suspended city with a building 10 times the size of the others, then in Junon (an even taller city)...



And now taken to eleven at Gold Saucer, an even taller place. A Giant Casino/Theme-Park built for the elite of the elite, built over the remains of a city also destroyed by said elite, that now serves as a concentration camp.



The people there are sent without judgment. Law is passed on by a local thug, and the prisoners are used to entertain the wealthy people in the Chocobo Races.



It's an interesting progression.



I find funny how they expect someone who's never rode before to win the race.



Nooo, you're getting it all wrong. That's what got us here in the first place.





Convenience, thy name be plot device.





1. INT ESTER MOTHERS HOUSE AFTERNOON 1

ESTER'S MOTHER
Ester, what's your job dear? And why do you dress like this?

ESTER'S MOTHER looks anxious to hear, as if she hasn't seen her daughter in many years. She is of low stature and humbly dressed. Otherwise, she looks healthy. Behind her we see small ornaments that you'd find in the slums around an otherwise upper class residence, looking slightly out-of-place.



ESTER
I... uh, I'm an escort at the Honey Bee Inn in the Gold Saucer...

We show ESTER looking uncomfortable with the reveal. Behind her we can see exquisite furniture in the background as well as elegant paintings in rich, ornamented frames. ESTER moves her lips as if to say "sorry", but ultimately holds her breath.



ESTER'S MOTHER frowns and forcefully tries to smile. She looks at ESTER'S SISTER behind then back at her.

ESTER'S MOTHER
Well then... we are really grateful for you coming for your sister's birthday, my dear. We understand... how busy you usually are. This means a lot for us. Here, I'll leave you two to spend some time together.



2. INT ESTER'S SISTER BEDROOM AFTERNOON 2

ESTER
So... nineteen uh? I bought you this dress. Don't worry, it's nothing like what I usually use.

ESTER'S SISTER
I know there's no Honey Bee Inn in Gold Saucer. Why did you lie to us?

ESTER
Oh dear... sweetie, I really can't tell you what I do.

ESTER'S SISTER
But you just said you're a prostitute who dresses like... well, that. What can be possibly worse? Please, I don't want my own sister lying to me. I... I miss you.

ESTER sighs. She turns her back for a moment, looking at the mirror on the wall just behind. She looks tense, her hands around her waist. Finally, she turns to her sister again.



ESTER
I manage slaves from a Concentration Camp in the Corel Desert. They're sent there unfairly and without judgment... one of them was this man in the late thirties... he has a daughter here in Kalm. She's nine. He adopted her after our investors burned his town and killed her mother.

ESTER'S SISTER turns her face slightly to the left and smiles faintly, in disbelief.



ESTER
Her dad was there too. He's been there for as long as we remember. The kid, she's never even seen him. I manage them, and we use them illegally in the Chocobo Races. I decide who gets a shot at freedom, but it's all a lie.They're just filler riders, few of them can really get away, fewer still can even really win. So, as I was saying, the desert turned her real father insane over the years. So when the foster father met him there, they had a fight... and he had to kill him. And now I just managed him and his gang in a Chocobo Race, and they won their freedom. That is the person your sister has become, LUCY. That's what I do. This is who I am.

LUCY runs away, her face in tears. We cut to ESTER sitting in her bed. Camera pans around her, and we see LUCY's favorite band posters. ESTER starts sobbing, as she looks around. She finds and grabs LUCY's copy of "Loveless".



ESTER
What have I become...

Finally, ESTER holds the Loveless Book tight, as she cries, still sitting in LUCY's bed. ESTER cries progressively louder until she screams in agony. Camera zooms out. Fade to black.



And now, back to the normal schedule.



This is one of those places you can only visit once in the whole game.



Cloud is a pro criminal.



If you look really close, you can see a Red Materia on the ground.



Which is a major dick move, because if you miss it, that's a materia you can never get anymore. A lot of Summon materia in the game are like that.



Some foreshadowing. You can, in fact, meet Joe again. Joe is a rider that you can race against in the Chocobo Race later on. He's also the hardest racer in the game.



[Ramuh] is another Summon, this time Lightning-based. As usual, its damage is only marginally better than the previous.



What? How is this supposed to be a bad thing, considering Cloud has 0 skill in riding Chocobo?



And then, it was tiiime.

Chocobo Racing

Racing is something weird. It's not badly done for a minigame - I actually appreciate most FF7 minigames (and boy does this game have tons) - but it's just really weird. There are three things you can do - move to left/right, boost the speed (which runs your stamina a lot faster) and regenerate the speed (by holding L1 and R1). This means you just hold L1 and R1 for the entirety of the race. I don't think they thought things through, but anyway.



I think the first Chocobo Racing is not only the hardest, but also one of the hardest minigames to beat on a blind run. Just like the first Blitzball game in FFX. Oh God, that Blitzball game



Yay! Now Cloud can get back to the schedule of running from the authorities while chasing a lunatic assassin!







Gold Saucer - Where being innocent gets you jailed, and killing a man gets you free.



A++



He's obviously washing with Mukki and co.





It's like a Christmas miracle!



Aeris learned how to sound like a tutorial with Cloud. She's now extremely proficient.



Oh



What



Oh.



So, let's talk a bit about the Buggy.

The Buggy is not our first vehicle (technically it would be the Chocobo) but is extremely interesting. First, because as that last part points out, we can travel back to the other continent and still have the buggy.

The buggy is much faster than walking, so it gives you a lot of freedom between the two continents. The only downside is that you can still fight random encounters.

Point is, now that we can have the buggy and can go back to the eastern continent, there's a shitload of things that can be done.

But anyway, that's it for today.

NEXT TIME:

Side-quests! Enemy Skills! More ruined towns!