Part 67: Weapon ex Machina
Chapter 66 - Weapon ex Machina
Last time, Tifa was about to be executed when the city alarms are set off.
She was really looking forward to this.
Weeks of preparation. Five hours getting her hair done. A nice bedsheet.
She had just ordered the Final Destination blurays, her favorite comedy series.
Whoops!
Cait Sith reveals his secret identity. I knew letting a stranger stuffed robot toy spy on our group was bound to pay off. His guilt trip has been saving us time and time again.
Oh yea, I love this fight. It's like the fight in Wutai, when you absolutely were not ready. Like me here.
And these fights are always against enemies who can make you sleep.
It's not like he can get more suspicious than he already is, so I call this a victory.
Of course, if I've learned something in this game is that nothing ever goes right.
Now officially a VLP.
NOTHING ever goes right.
You know, I have some questions.
What is this room for, and why is it abandoned? We haven't yet seen the central military room where people are giving desperate phone calls trying to organize a defense. Which brings me to something else - where the hell are the SOLDIERS?
Other than that...
This is a really memorable sequence. The game's been throwing you off constantly. Ever since you reached the crater there hasn't been time to breathe without something crazy happening.
It's like the world's in chaos, and the narrative shows.
I'm glad they had invented that big-ass cannon and the Weapon is conveniently roaming towards it, though.
Go, sailors, go!
Ok, this is a really cool sequence.
The plates go up to protect the buildings...
It's like this city has no purpose other than being a gigantic ironclad cannon. The citizens are just there to pay the bills so the thing can work.
Holy shit. Ok, now that's just silly.
The biggest rubber cable known to man.
We get it, Cloud, Sephiroth, Shinra...
Everyone in this game has huge overcompensation issues.
Either way -
Sit back and enjoy the cinematic in its full screenshoted glory.
"Holy shit we really used that cannon, my father was right all along."
"Who would have imagined it actually works?"
AAAAAAAH 
That music is awesome.
But, yea, like I was saying, nothing works.
"Don't let it land! We can't risk having Hojo come anywhere close to it!"
That music with that scene makes me think this whole sequence, or at least Nobuo's work was influenced by Jaws.
You know -
This is a really great moment. The game keepes escalating it further and further. It's like every single shit we/Seph/Shinra did is having its consequences and we're seeing it.
There's no time to breathe (in Tifa's case, literally) and everything is spiralling out of control.
Ordinarily, this would be a generic JRPG action sequence.
But things were built-up to this point. We're not seeing an action sequence that happens for the sake of happening with no consequences.
Instead, what we see is in itself the consequence of every single crap done during the peaceful times we exploited. Our crew, Hojo, Sephiroth, Pres. Shinra, Rufus, everyone is to blame.
I think the metaphors here are pretty clear given how FF7 has its plot publicly stated by Sakaguchi to be about the environment.
In any case, this sequence is intense. Yes, the SD characters looked out of place EVEN in 97/98, but you don't go into CD 2 expecting to see stuff like this.
I'M NOT SURE IT WAS A SMART IDEA TO STAY THERE.
Goodbye, Bob the Guardsman.
We barely knew thee.
BLAM.
Oh God a fade-to-white not now go away
Ah, it's just Tifa about to die in a most horrible way.
Don't worry folks. While it's true Tifa's instructor was Zangan, what you don't know is that Tifa was also Guybrush Threepwood's disciple.
"10 minutes to be exact."
NEXT TIME:
More panic! More giant monster blowing things up! The silliest fight in the entire game!
Awesome music we've listened in this chapter:
Weapon Raid - An absolutely amazing song that sets the tone really well for the Weapon attack.
Weapon Raid Remastered - The only remastering you'll ever need.
