Don't Step on the Flowers

Final Fantasy VII Playthrough
Playtime: 00:56-01:46

"They say you can't grow grass and flowers in Midgar. But for some reason the flowers have no trouble blooming here."
"Oh! And don't step on the flowers!"

Got in a quick bit of playtime here on Sunday night. Wasn't much, but I managed to get through the whole sequence with the Sector 5 reactor where you eventually fight the "Airbuster" boss that blows up and sends Cloud plummeting until he falls through the roof of Aeris's church. Aeris (or Aerith, whichever works for you) is probably my favorite character. In the middle of the dankest, dirtiest, most violent, most morally empty slum imaginable, somehow she's a giddily happy, somewhat aloof girl content to grow flowers all day. Logic would seem to dictate that it would be impossible for her to exist. Either she'd get killed, or the cold reality of the world would leave her bitter and hardened inside. Somehow she does exist though, and she becomes an incredibly endearing character, even before her whole importance to the game's larger plot really comes into play much later in the game. The scene where Cloud and Aeris are hopping along the rooftops trying to evade Reno and the soldiers who are with him--where Aeris tells Cloud to slow down as she very cautiously and deliberately works out her jump between each one--is kind of adorable. With the very blocky character models, the very simple and often repeatedly used character animations, and the fixed camera which is often far away from the characters, sometimes it can be hard to figure out what the hell they were really going for. This scene actually works well though.

I have Cloud at level 11 right now. I plan on trying to keep myself at a fairly comfortable level as I play through the story, but I'm not going to power level to the point where battles become a complete joke. After a brief stopover at Aeris's house, I get to the Wall Market, and the infamous cross-dressing part. Hoo boy. To be continued...