Final Fantasy Playthrough
'Till the End
Yeah, I couldn't bring myself to be an absolute completionist on this. This had already taken forever, and I wanted to expedite this and get it out of the way, because I just purchased Final Fantasy IX off of the Playstation Store, which I think I'm going to blog about next. I think that'll probably prove more interesting, as I've never owned it before this, and only beaten it once on a friend's copy some years ago. I really only have very vague memories as to the specifics of the story and, well, most of the gameplay for that matter, so my writing on that will probably be a lot different than this, which was me playing a game that was old hat. As I started to say in the last post, I don't really think there's enough of a bridge to get you to where you can realistically fight Ruby and Emerald Weapon (which were tacked on for the American release of the game, which I'm sure is mostly to blame for this) from where you can beat Ultimate Weapon. The Ancient Forest gives you a few new high-level enemies to fight, but for the most part, if you're going to get everything you need for those two fights, like your Final Attack-Phoenix combination and maybe your W-Summon/Mime, it's really just a complete grind to do.
Being at around level 65 with a lot of good materia (no W-Summon, KotR, or Mime though), the final battles were a bit of a joke, though I managed to beat the game with something of a dramatic flair anyway, as immediately after Sephiroth used "Heartless Angel" to bring everyone to 1 HP, then used Omnislash to kill Sephiroth without having healed anyone in between. Poetic, I know. The game ends exactly where it began, which Aries's face surrounded in a field of stars, as she summons Holy to destroy Meteor. I kind of like that they ended it there and didn't feel the need to continue on with an extended coda, where there's like a "Where Are They Now??" segment for each of the main characters. In fact, were it not for Advent Children, however many years later, you can make the argument that the humans don't even survive the events of the ending. As Bugenhagen said when you took him to the City of the Ancients, it was going to be up to the planet as to whether or not humankind was going to be saved. The quick after-the-credits sequence with Red XIII leading his kids to see the wreckage of the old Shinra complex, now covered in thick plant-life could be interpreted as evidence that the planet said "You know what? You guys still suck, humans. It's the firey-tailed furries that shall inherit the earth!!" But then Square realized that "everybody's dead!" doesn't make for a lucrative sequel and went ahead and made Advent Children. A lot of people seem to be in love with it, and while it was kind of fun from a purely fan-service perspective, as a movie it didn't really do much for me. I haven't played any of the prequel stuff either. Maybe I will eventually, but for right now, as far as I'm concerned, Final Fantasy VII is still a self-contained thing.
Next up: Final Fantasy IX!
Showing posts with label Final Fantasy VII. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Final Fantasy VII. Show all posts
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Why Save the World When You Can Breed Chocobos
Final Fantasy VII Playthrough
Playtime 28:56-36:41
I played through the Midgar sequence ending in the boss fight with Hojo, thus ending disc 2, and of course declined to go right into saving the world in favor of doing more sidequests. Obviously, the nature of video games is such that suspension of disbelief is much more difficult than with movies, but there's something particularly amusing about the idea of flying your airship to the edge of a big hole in the earth that you're going to have to descend to the bottom of within a week in order to save the earth, only to decide to up and fly away to instead race some chocobos at an amusement park. I do, of course, appreciate that there's a lot more to do above and beyond the main storyline, although one thing I will say is that there's not really enough new areas where you can just level up and get more GP (chocobo breeding is expensive) without it being complete mind-numbing tedium. Once you kill Ultimate Weapon--which is one of the last things I did before writing this--you can access the Ancient Forest which helps, but other than that you pretty much have to go to the Sunken Gelnika or otherwise retread areas you've already visited as part of the main story, unless I'm really forgetting something.
I've made a couple of attempts at going for Omnislash and/or W-Summon at the Battle Arena, which is genuinely challenging. The most expensive thing I was able to commandeer was the "Stardust" at 8,000 BP, which if I was online at the time I wouldn't have bought because it's just a one use item that casts Comet 2. Somewhat confoundingly, it's more expensive than Speed Source Materia at 4,000, and Preemptive Materia at 1,000. I did get the Speed Shoes for winning 8 battles at least once, which are kind of awesome in and of themselves (automatic haste). To win all 8 battles with any sort of consistency, you're pretty much required to be at a high level with excellent materia, and even still you need a lot of luck. Going into it with a Ribbon can help tremendously, but of course one of the penalties is "accessory broken," which I got after the first round on more than one occasion. One of the possible 2nd round fight is a group of five little insect creatures which can all put you in berserk, so if your Ribbon is broken after the first fight, that pretty much screws you right there, unless you're overpowered enough to be able to muscle through the next 7 fights without ever having to heal. One of the possible first round fights is also a group with two little caterpillar enemies, who will always use Silk on you on their first turn, which slows you down and which your Ribbon doesn't protect against. Having a leveled-up Counter Attack helps, so does sticking an Added Effect-Hades pair on your weapon, as very few of the Battle Square enemies seem to be immune to much. Materia equipped Really, to get through all 8 battles, at least at level 58 which is where I have Cloud at, you need a pretty perfect confluence of events to happen. I suppose having First Attack materia would mitigate against some of this, but I don't have that at the moment, nor do I remember off hand how you get it. May have to check a FAQ after this.
I've been doing some chocobo breeding as well. Right now I have two that can win in the ultra prestigious Class C--where you can win such fabulous prizes as Potions--but that's it. I'm not sure if I'm going to bother getting a gold chocobo. I don't even remember all the details of how to get one, except that you have to steal the nut to breed one from the goblins on one of the isolated islands on the map. Gonna play that one by ear.
Playtime 28:56-36:41
I played through the Midgar sequence ending in the boss fight with Hojo, thus ending disc 2, and of course declined to go right into saving the world in favor of doing more sidequests. Obviously, the nature of video games is such that suspension of disbelief is much more difficult than with movies, but there's something particularly amusing about the idea of flying your airship to the edge of a big hole in the earth that you're going to have to descend to the bottom of within a week in order to save the earth, only to decide to up and fly away to instead race some chocobos at an amusement park. I do, of course, appreciate that there's a lot more to do above and beyond the main storyline, although one thing I will say is that there's not really enough new areas where you can just level up and get more GP (chocobo breeding is expensive) without it being complete mind-numbing tedium. Once you kill Ultimate Weapon--which is one of the last things I did before writing this--you can access the Ancient Forest which helps, but other than that you pretty much have to go to the Sunken Gelnika or otherwise retread areas you've already visited as part of the main story, unless I'm really forgetting something.
I've made a couple of attempts at going for Omnislash and/or W-Summon at the Battle Arena, which is genuinely challenging. The most expensive thing I was able to commandeer was the "Stardust" at 8,000 BP, which if I was online at the time I wouldn't have bought because it's just a one use item that casts Comet 2. Somewhat confoundingly, it's more expensive than Speed Source Materia at 4,000, and Preemptive Materia at 1,000. I did get the Speed Shoes for winning 8 battles at least once, which are kind of awesome in and of themselves (automatic haste). To win all 8 battles with any sort of consistency, you're pretty much required to be at a high level with excellent materia, and even still you need a lot of luck. Going into it with a Ribbon can help tremendously, but of course one of the penalties is "accessory broken," which I got after the first round on more than one occasion. One of the possible 2nd round fight is a group of five little insect creatures which can all put you in berserk, so if your Ribbon is broken after the first fight, that pretty much screws you right there, unless you're overpowered enough to be able to muscle through the next 7 fights without ever having to heal. One of the possible first round fights is also a group with two little caterpillar enemies, who will always use Silk on you on their first turn, which slows you down and which your Ribbon doesn't protect against. Having a leveled-up Counter Attack helps, so does sticking an Added Effect-Hades pair on your weapon, as very few of the Battle Square enemies seem to be immune to much. Materia equipped Really, to get through all 8 battles, at least at level 58 which is where I have Cloud at, you need a pretty perfect confluence of events to happen. I suppose having First Attack materia would mitigate against some of this, but I don't have that at the moment, nor do I remember off hand how you get it. May have to check a FAQ after this.
I've been doing some chocobo breeding as well. Right now I have two that can win in the ultra prestigious Class C--where you can win such fabulous prizes as Potions--but that's it. I'm not sure if I'm going to bother getting a gold chocobo. I don't even remember all the details of how to get one, except that you have to steal the nut to breed one from the goblins on one of the isolated islands on the map. Gonna play that one by ear.
Square-Enix's Plot to Destroy America
"What the... no countdown? It doesn't seem the same without it!"
"We ain't no Ancients if that's what ya mean."
Final Fantasy VII Playthrough
Playtime 27:23-28:56
Hey, remember when I used to update this? After a long hiatus, I started up my playthrough again, starting with the last Huge Materia quest in that takes place (echo effect) in spaaaaaace. Granted, over the course of the story, the whole party sees all manner of strange stuff, but it's still a bit bizarre and rather amusing that no one in the party other than Cid really seems to care that they're the first people in outer space. Cid is pressed up against the wall peering out the porthole, arms clutched around it like he's trying to capture all of space in his hands, while everyone else just sort of sits motionless, wondering when they're going to be done with the whole thing. After the Huge Materia quests, the next plot point is going back to visit Bugenhagen, who tells you to take him to the City of the Ancients, where he conveniently finds writing scribbled by a scientist (who writes in riddles?) about where to find the Key to the Ancients. I guess they don't quite show how deep the pool is or if it feeds into flowing water or something during the cutscene at the end of disc 1, but it's a bit perplexing why Cloud is so dead certain that they're completely fucked when Bugenhagen explains that Aries's White Materia is the Holy power that can save the planet. Having just made it back from outer fucking space on a spaceship that was on an irreversible collision course with a giant meteor, does fishing something out of a big pool of water seem that impossible?
Before returning with the Key of the Ancients though, I've stopped off for a few more diversions first. I went to see Lucretia behind the waterfall, which is kind of a fun scene culminating in Vincent telling her the white lie that Sephiroth is dead. I also did the pagoda sequence in Wutai to get Yuffie's final limit break. I dunno if it's supposed to be a direct homage, but the whole "fight one guy with a different style on each level of a pagoda" thing is the same premise as Game of Death, the movie Bruce Lee was making when he died. Sadly, unlike Game of Death the final battle here does not involve a vampire Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It never really occurred to before that Wutai could be seen as a commentary on post-war Japan. I mean, granted, it's obvious that Wutai's culture is supposed to be like the in-game equivalent of an Asian culture set aside from a largely Westernized world, but I think you could make the comparison more specific than that. There's a lot of ranting amidst the Wutaians about how after they lost the war, the country was opened up to a bunch of outsider touristy types who started messing up the place. At the end of the pagoda sequence, Yuffie's father tells her to steal the party's materia after their quest is over. Does Square-Enix have a secret plot to steal America's materia? I think it would irresponsible not to speculate.
Right now I'm saved in the Sunken Gelinka, where I'll get what is pretty much free XP from The Turks in a battle that has a really bad AI glitch, but then I'll have to fight some stuff that can probably actually kill me.
"We ain't no Ancients if that's what ya mean."
Final Fantasy VII Playthrough
Playtime 27:23-28:56
Hey, remember when I used to update this? After a long hiatus, I started up my playthrough again, starting with the last Huge Materia quest in that takes place (echo effect) in spaaaaaace. Granted, over the course of the story, the whole party sees all manner of strange stuff, but it's still a bit bizarre and rather amusing that no one in the party other than Cid really seems to care that they're the first people in outer space. Cid is pressed up against the wall peering out the porthole, arms clutched around it like he's trying to capture all of space in his hands, while everyone else just sort of sits motionless, wondering when they're going to be done with the whole thing. After the Huge Materia quests, the next plot point is going back to visit Bugenhagen, who tells you to take him to the City of the Ancients, where he conveniently finds writing scribbled by a scientist (who writes in riddles?) about where to find the Key to the Ancients. I guess they don't quite show how deep the pool is or if it feeds into flowing water or something during the cutscene at the end of disc 1, but it's a bit perplexing why Cloud is so dead certain that they're completely fucked when Bugenhagen explains that Aries's White Materia is the Holy power that can save the planet. Having just made it back from outer fucking space on a spaceship that was on an irreversible collision course with a giant meteor, does fishing something out of a big pool of water seem that impossible?
Before returning with the Key of the Ancients though, I've stopped off for a few more diversions first. I went to see Lucretia behind the waterfall, which is kind of a fun scene culminating in Vincent telling her the white lie that Sephiroth is dead. I also did the pagoda sequence in Wutai to get Yuffie's final limit break. I dunno if it's supposed to be a direct homage, but the whole "fight one guy with a different style on each level of a pagoda" thing is the same premise as Game of Death, the movie Bruce Lee was making when he died. Sadly, unlike Game of Death the final battle here does not involve a vampire Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It never really occurred to before that Wutai could be seen as a commentary on post-war Japan. I mean, granted, it's obvious that Wutai's culture is supposed to be like the in-game equivalent of an Asian culture set aside from a largely Westernized world, but I think you could make the comparison more specific than that. There's a lot of ranting amidst the Wutaians about how after they lost the war, the country was opened up to a bunch of outsider touristy types who started messing up the place. At the end of the pagoda sequence, Yuffie's father tells her to steal the party's materia after their quest is over. Does Square-Enix have a secret plot to steal America's materia? I think it would irresponsible not to speculate.
Right now I'm saved in the Sunken Gelinka, where I'll get what is pretty much free XP from The Turks in a battle that has a really bad AI glitch, but then I'll have to fight some stuff that can probably actually kill me.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Can Has Huge Materia?
Final Fantasy VII Playthrough
Playtime: 21:26-27:23
Yeah, it's been a good chunk of time since I've posted. In the meantime, I've done the Corel, Ft. Condor, and Underwater Reactor huge materia quests, as well as the Wutai sidequest where Yuffie steals your materia (what a bitch). Wutai is a fun little distraction. I kind of wish there was more of it. I can go back later of course to do the quest to get the Leviathan materia. Running into the Turks on vacation is amusing, as is the confrontation with Don Coreno when he does his little bit where he asks you a question and then gets it turned around on him as he's hanging off a cliff.
Fort Condor is just completely obnoxious, another mini-game that I could completely do without. I've never actually won it without having to fight the boss, and I don't really care enough to try. The sub minigame after the underwater reactor is less annoying, but it's really damn easy. You don't really have to do much sub hunting. The red sub spawns right in front of you and usually you can catch up to it in a couple seconds and start mashing square. I actually got killed by the Carry Armor boss in the Underwater Reactor. That goofy-ass looking lanky robot is one of the tougher boss fights in the game. His lapis laser attack does something like 1500 damage to everybody, and he can keep a party member held in each arm to take them out of battle. So you have to destroy the arms fast. I managed to use Morph on the ghost ship enemy (and by the way, why are you fighting a floating pirate ship with a skeleton on it in a hallway anyway), so I have the Guide Book for the Underwater Materia later on.
On a related note, last weekend I went to the Final Fantasy Distant Worlds concert at the Rosemont theater. It was excellent. Nobuo Uematsu was in attendance and performed on an amazing rock version of "One Winged Angel" at the end of the concert. In terms of FF7, they also played Aerith's Theme and the Opening/Bombing Mission track. They're going to be back in Chicago again on August 1st, 2010 with the CSO. I looking forward to going again.
Playtime: 21:26-27:23
Yeah, it's been a good chunk of time since I've posted. In the meantime, I've done the Corel, Ft. Condor, and Underwater Reactor huge materia quests, as well as the Wutai sidequest where Yuffie steals your materia (what a bitch). Wutai is a fun little distraction. I kind of wish there was more of it. I can go back later of course to do the quest to get the Leviathan materia. Running into the Turks on vacation is amusing, as is the confrontation with Don Coreno when he does his little bit where he asks you a question and then gets it turned around on him as he's hanging off a cliff.
Fort Condor is just completely obnoxious, another mini-game that I could completely do without. I've never actually won it without having to fight the boss, and I don't really care enough to try. The sub minigame after the underwater reactor is less annoying, but it's really damn easy. You don't really have to do much sub hunting. The red sub spawns right in front of you and usually you can catch up to it in a couple seconds and start mashing square. I actually got killed by the Carry Armor boss in the Underwater Reactor. That goofy-ass looking lanky robot is one of the tougher boss fights in the game. His lapis laser attack does something like 1500 damage to everybody, and he can keep a party member held in each arm to take them out of battle. So you have to destroy the arms fast. I managed to use Morph on the ghost ship enemy (and by the way, why are you fighting a floating pirate ship with a skeleton on it in a hallway anyway), so I have the Guide Book for the Underwater Materia later on.
On a related note, last weekend I went to the Final Fantasy Distant Worlds concert at the Rosemont theater. It was excellent. Nobuo Uematsu was in attendance and performed on an amazing rock version of "One Winged Angel" at the end of the concert. In terms of FF7, they also played Aerith's Theme and the Opening/Bombing Mission track. They're going to be back in Chicago again on August 1st, 2010 with the CSO. I looking forward to going again.
Saturday, December 05, 2009
Please Insert Disc 2
Final Fantasy VII Playthrough
Playtime 18:24-21:26
One of the reasons why I think FF7 is one of the easier FF games is how easy they go on you with respect to status effects. Except for the two that effect your limit breaks, Fury and Sadness, all of the others only effect you for a single battle. Poison can be absolutely brutal in some of the SNES games, while here, I usually don't even bother to cure it since I can most assuredly end the fight before it kills the character and it'll then be gone. The start of disc 2 throws marlboros at you as one of the possibilities in random battles. They're the bane of every FF players' extistence, but they're really not all that difficult to deal with here compared to a lot of the other games. It also helps that I already have a Ribbon on one character at this point. While its nice not having to sift through menus after battles to try and find whatever cure item matches up with the status affliction you need to take off, I wish there was a bit more challenge in this regard.
A lot of the snow area at the start of disc 2 just annoys me. The snowboarding minigame is nigh impossible to control, long, frustrating, and just generally weird. It also makes me want to play Snowboard Kids on N64, a snowboarding game that's actually fun to play from the same era. The whole Great Glacier area where you have a map with different landmarks and spend a lot of time running along paths between them, is uninteresting and tedious to me. Then there's the whole "climb up the side of this mountain and stop at every overhang and mash square to warm yourself up again" thing. Fairly mind-numbing. The two-headed monster thing you fight at the end is genuinely a pretty tough fight though. It can mess you up pretty good with its final attack. I'm saved at the first save point down in the Great Crater, glad to be out of the snow, and anxious to get on with the main story again.
Playtime 18:24-21:26
One of the reasons why I think FF7 is one of the easier FF games is how easy they go on you with respect to status effects. Except for the two that effect your limit breaks, Fury and Sadness, all of the others only effect you for a single battle. Poison can be absolutely brutal in some of the SNES games, while here, I usually don't even bother to cure it since I can most assuredly end the fight before it kills the character and it'll then be gone. The start of disc 2 throws marlboros at you as one of the possibilities in random battles. They're the bane of every FF players' extistence, but they're really not all that difficult to deal with here compared to a lot of the other games. It also helps that I already have a Ribbon on one character at this point. While its nice not having to sift through menus after battles to try and find whatever cure item matches up with the status affliction you need to take off, I wish there was a bit more challenge in this regard.
A lot of the snow area at the start of disc 2 just annoys me. The snowboarding minigame is nigh impossible to control, long, frustrating, and just generally weird. It also makes me want to play Snowboard Kids on N64, a snowboarding game that's actually fun to play from the same era. The whole Great Glacier area where you have a map with different landmarks and spend a lot of time running along paths between them, is uninteresting and tedious to me. Then there's the whole "climb up the side of this mountain and stop at every overhang and mash square to warm yourself up again" thing. Fairly mind-numbing. The two-headed monster thing you fight at the end is genuinely a pretty tough fight though. It can mess you up pretty good with its final attack. I'm saved at the first save point down in the Great Crater, glad to be out of the snow, and anxious to get on with the main story again.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Why Does That Wall Hate Me?
Final Fantasy VII Playthrough
Playtime 16:38-18:24
The "Demon Wall" boss appears in at least one other game that I'm aware of, that being FF4, and you get it again here at the end of the Temple of the Ancients. The FF4 boss is much more sadistic, and you pretty much have to throw the kitchen sink at it and down it in a couple of turns or else your whole party gets crushed to death. FF7's version can hit you pretty hard, but you have much more time to deal with it. Really, the entire Temple of the Ancients was a lot easier than I remembered. Granted, I'm probably a little bit overleveled right now. The end of disc 1 throws a ton of goodies your way. In the big clock area of the temple you can pick up a Ribbon, essentially negating status effects for one of your characters. After fighting Sephiroth's big-ass dragon friend that is inexplicably hanging out at the center of the temple, you get the first Bahamut materia. And on your way into the Sleeping Forest, you get the Kajata summon, the big plus of which is the fact that it's considered Fire, Ice, and Lightning elemental, so equipping it to your armor linked with elemental grants you immunity from all of those. I put both the Ribbon and the Kajata-Elemental combo on Cloud, so right now he's immune to all status effects, and all three of the most common elemental attacks. Not too shabby.
The whole sequence with Cait Sith going into the temple to get the black materia is just sort of weird. I'm not sure if it was intended to be funny, but it is. When he's skipping down the hallway in slow-motion, falls, gets up, and does his little jig for no reason I laugh every time. I'm a bit perplexed by Aeris's whole explanation about having to solve a series of "puzzles" to get the black materia. I don't know if this is a weird translation or if there was some sort of a minigame that you did with Cait Sith that they decided to scrap, but it basically seems like he just kind of runs up and grabs it (and does a jig). There's no puzzles involved. Kind of odd. The little excavation minigame is a cool idea as well, although I think it would make a lot more sense if it were a bigger area. You can deploy up to 5 of the diggers, but its hard to really find space for more than two together on either the upper or lower level. Not really that much to it ultimately.
Anyway, the City of the Ancients is next, and the end of disc 1. Bad things are going to happen to Aries.
Playtime 16:38-18:24
The "Demon Wall" boss appears in at least one other game that I'm aware of, that being FF4, and you get it again here at the end of the Temple of the Ancients. The FF4 boss is much more sadistic, and you pretty much have to throw the kitchen sink at it and down it in a couple of turns or else your whole party gets crushed to death. FF7's version can hit you pretty hard, but you have much more time to deal with it. Really, the entire Temple of the Ancients was a lot easier than I remembered. Granted, I'm probably a little bit overleveled right now. The end of disc 1 throws a ton of goodies your way. In the big clock area of the temple you can pick up a Ribbon, essentially negating status effects for one of your characters. After fighting Sephiroth's big-ass dragon friend that is inexplicably hanging out at the center of the temple, you get the first Bahamut materia. And on your way into the Sleeping Forest, you get the Kajata summon, the big plus of which is the fact that it's considered Fire, Ice, and Lightning elemental, so equipping it to your armor linked with elemental grants you immunity from all of those. I put both the Ribbon and the Kajata-Elemental combo on Cloud, so right now he's immune to all status effects, and all three of the most common elemental attacks. Not too shabby.
The whole sequence with Cait Sith going into the temple to get the black materia is just sort of weird. I'm not sure if it was intended to be funny, but it is. When he's skipping down the hallway in slow-motion, falls, gets up, and does his little jig for no reason I laugh every time. I'm a bit perplexed by Aeris's whole explanation about having to solve a series of "puzzles" to get the black materia. I don't know if this is a weird translation or if there was some sort of a minigame that you did with Cait Sith that they decided to scrap, but it basically seems like he just kind of runs up and grabs it (and does a jig). There's no puzzles involved. Kind of odd. The little excavation minigame is a cool idea as well, although I think it would make a lot more sense if it were a bigger area. You can deploy up to 5 of the diggers, but its hard to really find space for more than two together on either the upper or lower level. Not really that much to it ultimately.
Anyway, the City of the Ancients is next, and the end of disc 1. Bad things are going to happen to Aries.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Keep Going? Off course!
Final Fantasy VII Playthrough
Playtime 13:16-16:38
"I'm number 13. Am I going to go mad too?"
One thing about replaying RPGs that you already know really well is that sometimes you get ahead of the game. In the section where you return to the Gold Saucer to get the Keystone, immediately after getting it I went right to the hotel since I knew that's where you end up eventually. There have been a couple of instances where I've done stuff like that thus far. Before this brief unpleasantness was the actual getting of the Keystone, which involves you running through the Battle Square. For the most part, Final Fantasy VII's translation is actually very good, although here there's one typo that never fails to make me laugh, after you've completed a round of the Battle Square and you're asked "Keep Going?" with the choice of "No way!" or "Off course!"
I ended up spending some time grinding in the Shinra Mansion and in the mountains, then doubling back and opening the safe in the mansion. Evidently, this was about as strong as I've been fighting him because I really didn't have a tremendous amount of trouble with him and beat him fairly easily. Doing so got me the Cosmo Memory limit break for later in the game, the Odin summon and, most significantly, Vincent as a playable character. I haven't played a minute of the games that Square has spun off of FF7 like Dirge of Cerberus, and whatever the recent one on PSP is called. Based on what I've heard, especially with Dirge of Cerberus, I'm not really missing that much, at least in terms of gameplay. I don't really know how much further backstory Vincent gets in either one. In Final Fantasy VII proper, you learn that he was with the Turks and you learn through him that Lucretia is Sephiroth's birth mother, but you don't get a lot of details to fill in the broad strokes. I kind of like his whole vampire schtick though. Its a bit over the top when you find him in his coffin and the lid flies off as you approach it, but I think it works in a weird way.
I like Cid as a character too. For right now he's a bit of a comic relief character more than anything, with his whole "sit down and drink your goddamn tea!!" routine. I find it interesting that in the world of FF7, where technology has advanced at least to where we are, and in some ways a bit further, that they haven't made it into space yet. I'm not sure if there's a commentary in there or not, but I find it interesting. Maybe because the Shinra and Midgar don't have their own version of the USSR as a rival they haven't been compelled to put forth more effort towards it. I am a bit confused as to why Rufus shows up wanting to buy the Tiny Bronco. There are at least three different scenes where you see a Shinra helicopter in fight, and all of a sudden they need Cid's little prop jet? Whatever, I'm not gonna lose sleep over it.
I was somewhat taken aback when I ended up with Tifa as my Gondola ride partner. I wasn't really trying to get her, and my understanding was always that Aries was sort of the "default" option, and that Tifa, Yuffie, and Barrett (lol) are all progressively harder to get from there. I don't quite remember all of the criteria used to determine who you get, but in general I didn't really make a point to give douchy responses to Aries and nice answers to Tifa when prompted. Maybe the amount of time they're in the party factors in as well or something. Not really sure. Storywise, I think it makes the most sense for it to be Aries. Obviously, at the end of Disc 1, Aries is going to be at the bottom of a lake, and the gondola ride--if its with her--is one of the last scenes where she's in focus.
Right now I have Cloud at level 35, which should be more than sufficient for me to just go ahead and mow through the rest of the disc without anymore going out of the way specifically to level. That may happen anyway though, as the opening part of the Temple of the Ancients that looks like an MC Escher painting always gives my a bit of a headache, and I might find myself in a bunch of random battles as I struggle to not get lost. I'm going to do my best to not get crazy over-leveled such that every battle is trivial, but I do want to try and milk Aries for just about all she's worth before she's kaput. I'm not going to spend the time to get her all the way to her Great Gospel limit, but as of right now she's still on her Level 1s, and I want to get her more than that.
Playtime 13:16-16:38
"I'm number 13. Am I going to go mad too?"
One thing about replaying RPGs that you already know really well is that sometimes you get ahead of the game. In the section where you return to the Gold Saucer to get the Keystone, immediately after getting it I went right to the hotel since I knew that's where you end up eventually. There have been a couple of instances where I've done stuff like that thus far. Before this brief unpleasantness was the actual getting of the Keystone, which involves you running through the Battle Square. For the most part, Final Fantasy VII's translation is actually very good, although here there's one typo that never fails to make me laugh, after you've completed a round of the Battle Square and you're asked "Keep Going?" with the choice of "No way!" or "Off course!"
I ended up spending some time grinding in the Shinra Mansion and in the mountains, then doubling back and opening the safe in the mansion. Evidently, this was about as strong as I've been fighting him because I really didn't have a tremendous amount of trouble with him and beat him fairly easily. Doing so got me the Cosmo Memory limit break for later in the game, the Odin summon and, most significantly, Vincent as a playable character. I haven't played a minute of the games that Square has spun off of FF7 like Dirge of Cerberus, and whatever the recent one on PSP is called. Based on what I've heard, especially with Dirge of Cerberus, I'm not really missing that much, at least in terms of gameplay. I don't really know how much further backstory Vincent gets in either one. In Final Fantasy VII proper, you learn that he was with the Turks and you learn through him that Lucretia is Sephiroth's birth mother, but you don't get a lot of details to fill in the broad strokes. I kind of like his whole vampire schtick though. Its a bit over the top when you find him in his coffin and the lid flies off as you approach it, but I think it works in a weird way.
I like Cid as a character too. For right now he's a bit of a comic relief character more than anything, with his whole "sit down and drink your goddamn tea!!" routine. I find it interesting that in the world of FF7, where technology has advanced at least to where we are, and in some ways a bit further, that they haven't made it into space yet. I'm not sure if there's a commentary in there or not, but I find it interesting. Maybe because the Shinra and Midgar don't have their own version of the USSR as a rival they haven't been compelled to put forth more effort towards it. I am a bit confused as to why Rufus shows up wanting to buy the Tiny Bronco. There are at least three different scenes where you see a Shinra helicopter in fight, and all of a sudden they need Cid's little prop jet? Whatever, I'm not gonna lose sleep over it.
I was somewhat taken aback when I ended up with Tifa as my Gondola ride partner. I wasn't really trying to get her, and my understanding was always that Aries was sort of the "default" option, and that Tifa, Yuffie, and Barrett (lol) are all progressively harder to get from there. I don't quite remember all of the criteria used to determine who you get, but in general I didn't really make a point to give douchy responses to Aries and nice answers to Tifa when prompted. Maybe the amount of time they're in the party factors in as well or something. Not really sure. Storywise, I think it makes the most sense for it to be Aries. Obviously, at the end of Disc 1, Aries is going to be at the bottom of a lake, and the gondola ride--if its with her--is one of the last scenes where she's in focus.
Right now I have Cloud at level 35, which should be more than sufficient for me to just go ahead and mow through the rest of the disc without anymore going out of the way specifically to level. That may happen anyway though, as the opening part of the Temple of the Ancients that looks like an MC Escher painting always gives my a bit of a headache, and I might find myself in a bunch of random battles as I struggle to not get lost. I'm going to do my best to not get crazy over-leveled such that every battle is trivial, but I do want to try and milk Aries for just about all she's worth before she's kaput. I'm not going to spend the time to get her all the way to her Great Gospel limit, but as of right now she's still on her Level 1s, and I want to get her more than that.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
The Great Warrior, Seto
Final Fantasy VII Playthrough
Playtime 10:58-13:16
Played through the whole Cosmo Canyon sequence, from Bundenhagen's whole Powerpoint presentation about how the planet's going to die, to fighting through the Gi Cave. Cosmo Canyon is probably the coolest single locale in the game, with some of the coolest music to boot. I don't think anywhere else in the game has the same sort of character that it does, with the hut-like buildings set into the mountain and the whole tribal feel of it. I've never been one to think it absolutely critical that Square come out with a remake of FF7, but I think Cosmo Canyon is one area that would be very cool to see in a game without pre-rendered painted backgrounds where they could open it up more and let you explore a bit more.
I went through the Gi Cave with Red XIII and Tifa. Among the loot you can pick up there, is your first piece of Added Effect materia, which is very cool, but wow is it a pretty annoying little area. The big spiders that you run into at the five-way tunnel area towards the end especially hit hard. Its not that long, but there's no save point in the middle, which means you might be a bit depleted in MP by the time you get to the boss, which makes it a bit annoying. Got through with no serious disasters, though. Also what the hell is the deal with the face in the stone wall that comes alive just before you fight the boss? Kinda confounding and kinda creepy. The reveal of Red XIII's father, Seto, looking over the cliff with a bunch of arrows still protruding from him, is kinda cool, although when he literally cries big crystallized tears at the end, that was a bit much, I think. There's a lot of points in this game that are kind of short on subtlety. I'm still not sure I get the whole explanation for why Red XIII couldn't know until now that his father was actually a hero and not a jackass that abandoned his mother. Bundenhagen says his his mother told him to keep the cave sealed, which I guess makes sense since its still roaming with vengeful spirits, but I don't see how that requires making Red grow up hating his father. Whatever. Its a pretext for a little mini coming-of-age story for Red to grow his character a bit, and to give you an excuse to fight some more before getting on with the main plot.
I'm currently saved just outside of Nibelheim with Cloud at level 27.
Playtime 10:58-13:16
Played through the whole Cosmo Canyon sequence, from Bundenhagen's whole Powerpoint presentation about how the planet's going to die, to fighting through the Gi Cave. Cosmo Canyon is probably the coolest single locale in the game, with some of the coolest music to boot. I don't think anywhere else in the game has the same sort of character that it does, with the hut-like buildings set into the mountain and the whole tribal feel of it. I've never been one to think it absolutely critical that Square come out with a remake of FF7, but I think Cosmo Canyon is one area that would be very cool to see in a game without pre-rendered painted backgrounds where they could open it up more and let you explore a bit more.
I went through the Gi Cave with Red XIII and Tifa. Among the loot you can pick up there, is your first piece of Added Effect materia, which is very cool, but wow is it a pretty annoying little area. The big spiders that you run into at the five-way tunnel area towards the end especially hit hard. Its not that long, but there's no save point in the middle, which means you might be a bit depleted in MP by the time you get to the boss, which makes it a bit annoying. Got through with no serious disasters, though. Also what the hell is the deal with the face in the stone wall that comes alive just before you fight the boss? Kinda confounding and kinda creepy. The reveal of Red XIII's father, Seto, looking over the cliff with a bunch of arrows still protruding from him, is kinda cool, although when he literally cries big crystallized tears at the end, that was a bit much, I think. There's a lot of points in this game that are kind of short on subtlety. I'm still not sure I get the whole explanation for why Red XIII couldn't know until now that his father was actually a hero and not a jackass that abandoned his mother. Bundenhagen says his his mother told him to keep the cave sealed, which I guess makes sense since its still roaming with vengeful spirits, but I don't see how that requires making Red grow up hating his father. Whatever. Its a pretext for a little mini coming-of-age story for Red to grow his character a bit, and to give you an excuse to fight some more before getting on with the main plot.
I'm currently saved just outside of Nibelheim with Cloud at level 27.
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Concerning Cats with Megaphones
Final Fantasy VII Playthrough
Playtime 08:02-10:58
"We'll cross the ocean to the new continent.... even if we are wearing Shinra uniforms."
Nearest I can tell pretty much everyone hates Cait Sith. While I certainly don't make a point of using him regularly in my party (whoever decided that his Slots limit break should have a chance of killing the entire party is a douchebag), but he makes me laugh sometimes. I love his goofy little jigs and just the absurdity of the whole character. Its a cat with a megaphone telling a giant, fat, frankly somewhat retarded looking moogle what do to. And since you find out later that Reeves is telepathically linked to Cait Sith, I guess there's some type of weird multi-tiered mind control thing going on, since presumably Reeves is controlling the cat which is controlling the moogle.
I made two attempts at the Speed Squre game at the Gold Saucer and failed both times, slightly less miserably the second time. God, that's incredibly frustrating. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to put a shooting minigame into a game that uses the PS1 D-Pad, but suffice to say it wasn't a good idea. After the Gold Saucer you get thrown down into the desert prison and have to find and confront Dyne, Barrett's also-gun-armed and now somewhat crazy in the head acquaintance. The flashback to Barrett and Dyne trying to dodge Shinra gunfire is kind of awful. I realize that circa 1997 there was only so much you could do with 3D, but if you look at Scarlet during the cutscene, she's not even holding a gun. She's literally "firing" her empty arm at them. That bugs the hell out of me every time I see it.
I'm starting to gain levels some of my basic materia (All, Fire, Ice, Lightning), and I have mostly weapons with double growth slots equipped right now (you find a big string of them going along at this point in the game). I really like materia as a magic system. It can be frustrating at times, and having to swap around materia as you swap around your party members gets tedious. Its much less frustrating though, than the bizarrely concived Junction/Draw system they implemented a game later in FF8. It wasn't in any way intuitive at all to learn, although at the same time, once you got late into the game and had a stockpile of good magic, it was easy to completely break the game. With the push of a button you could, say, bring your characters HP from something like 2,000 to the max of 9,999. Materia isn't at all volatile like that, but its also pretty customizable. With some tweaking, you can come up with some interesting combinations, especially with Elemental and Added Effect materias. I also like that most materia will buff and/or debuff some of your stats, somewhat making up for the fact that unlike the earlier FF games, all of the characters aren't all that dissimilar to begin with, as opposed to a game like FF4 where you sure as hell weren't ever going to get anywhere mashing Attack with your caster class characters.
Right now Cloud's at level 21, and I'm saved outside of the Gold Saucer doing a few random battles before taking my sweet-ass buggy down south. Its not too long before I get to Nibelheim. I don't remember what level you have to be at to feasibly beat the boss you need to get past to get Vincent. I'm probably going to try it on the first time I get to Nibelheim regardless, so it could get ugly.
Playtime 08:02-10:58
"We'll cross the ocean to the new continent.... even if we are wearing Shinra uniforms."
Nearest I can tell pretty much everyone hates Cait Sith. While I certainly don't make a point of using him regularly in my party (whoever decided that his Slots limit break should have a chance of killing the entire party is a douchebag), but he makes me laugh sometimes. I love his goofy little jigs and just the absurdity of the whole character. Its a cat with a megaphone telling a giant, fat, frankly somewhat retarded looking moogle what do to. And since you find out later that Reeves is telepathically linked to Cait Sith, I guess there's some type of weird multi-tiered mind control thing going on, since presumably Reeves is controlling the cat which is controlling the moogle.
I made two attempts at the Speed Squre game at the Gold Saucer and failed both times, slightly less miserably the second time. God, that's incredibly frustrating. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to put a shooting minigame into a game that uses the PS1 D-Pad, but suffice to say it wasn't a good idea. After the Gold Saucer you get thrown down into the desert prison and have to find and confront Dyne, Barrett's also-gun-armed and now somewhat crazy in the head acquaintance. The flashback to Barrett and Dyne trying to dodge Shinra gunfire is kind of awful. I realize that circa 1997 there was only so much you could do with 3D, but if you look at Scarlet during the cutscene, she's not even holding a gun. She's literally "firing" her empty arm at them. That bugs the hell out of me every time I see it.
I'm starting to gain levels some of my basic materia (All, Fire, Ice, Lightning), and I have mostly weapons with double growth slots equipped right now (you find a big string of them going along at this point in the game). I really like materia as a magic system. It can be frustrating at times, and having to swap around materia as you swap around your party members gets tedious. Its much less frustrating though, than the bizarrely concived Junction/Draw system they implemented a game later in FF8. It wasn't in any way intuitive at all to learn, although at the same time, once you got late into the game and had a stockpile of good magic, it was easy to completely break the game. With the push of a button you could, say, bring your characters HP from something like 2,000 to the max of 9,999. Materia isn't at all volatile like that, but its also pretty customizable. With some tweaking, you can come up with some interesting combinations, especially with Elemental and Added Effect materias. I also like that most materia will buff and/or debuff some of your stats, somewhat making up for the fact that unlike the earlier FF games, all of the characters aren't all that dissimilar to begin with, as opposed to a game like FF4 where you sure as hell weren't ever going to get anywhere mashing Attack with your caster class characters.
Right now Cloud's at level 21, and I'm saved outside of the Gold Saucer doing a few random battles before taking my sweet-ass buggy down south. Its not too long before I get to Nibelheim. I don't remember what level you have to be at to feasibly beat the boss you need to get past to get Vincent. I'm probably going to try it on the first time I get to Nibelheim regardless, so it could get ugly.
Friday, October 02, 2009
The Man in the Black Cape
Final Fantasy VII Playthrough
Playtime: 06:00-08:02
"Am I... human?"
"He continued to read, as if he was possessed by something, and not once did the light in the basement go out."
"I challenged Sephiroth and lived. Why didn't he kill me?"
I completely forgot about all the silly minigames in Junon Town. First, there's having to do CPR on Priscilla, a girl whose entire purpose in the game seems to go no farther than to exist you can save her and get the Shiva materia as a reward. Then there's the part where you have to have the dolphin boost you up to the top of the high voltage tower, which I never seem to get right the first twelve times. Then there's the marching scene, where you basically just have to march in line (I won 6 potions, I don't know if that's good or not, nor remember what I usually get). Now I'm saved on my way to the docks to do drill for Rufus's send off.
Before getting to Junon was the big flashback to Nibelheim with Sephiroth going insane and burning the town. I'm still not entirely sure I get the entirety of the story with Jenova, and the Cetra, and how Sephiroth came to be. You get bits and pieces of it here. The Cetra were the original inhabitants of the planet, but came from elsewhere. Mako is like the physical manifestation of the Cetra's wisdom. Jenova is something that fell from the skies during the time of the ancients and sat in the ground for about 2,000 years before it was pulled out by the Shinra. I know on Disc 2 there's an optional scene where you can find a recording that Professor Galt made going into some of this. Going to have to do that and pay attention. I'm sure there's more explained in the game than I can really recall right now, but even so, I don't think they do as good a job painting the complete picture that they could have. Some of the telling of the background feels incomplete.
Cloud's at level 17 right now as I'm sitting in Junon. I got my first two summoning materias in the form of Shiva and Choco/Mog (the animation for which never fails to make me laugh). Now that I'm starting to accrue some materia, at some point in the near future I'm going to make a post talking about the system, which I think is one of the best magic systems in the series.
Playtime: 06:00-08:02
"Am I... human?"
"He continued to read, as if he was possessed by something, and not once did the light in the basement go out."
"I challenged Sephiroth and lived. Why didn't he kill me?"
I completely forgot about all the silly minigames in Junon Town. First, there's having to do CPR on Priscilla, a girl whose entire purpose in the game seems to go no farther than to exist you can save her and get the Shiva materia as a reward. Then there's the part where you have to have the dolphin boost you up to the top of the high voltage tower, which I never seem to get right the first twelve times. Then there's the marching scene, where you basically just have to march in line (I won 6 potions, I don't know if that's good or not, nor remember what I usually get). Now I'm saved on my way to the docks to do drill for Rufus's send off.
Before getting to Junon was the big flashback to Nibelheim with Sephiroth going insane and burning the town. I'm still not entirely sure I get the entirety of the story with Jenova, and the Cetra, and how Sephiroth came to be. You get bits and pieces of it here. The Cetra were the original inhabitants of the planet, but came from elsewhere. Mako is like the physical manifestation of the Cetra's wisdom. Jenova is something that fell from the skies during the time of the ancients and sat in the ground for about 2,000 years before it was pulled out by the Shinra. I know on Disc 2 there's an optional scene where you can find a recording that Professor Galt made going into some of this. Going to have to do that and pay attention. I'm sure there's more explained in the game than I can really recall right now, but even so, I don't think they do as good a job painting the complete picture that they could have. Some of the telling of the background feels incomplete.
Cloud's at level 17 right now as I'm sitting in Junon. I got my first two summoning materias in the form of Shiva and Choco/Mog (the animation for which never fails to make me laugh). Now that I'm starting to accrue some materia, at some point in the near future I'm going to make a post talking about the system, which I think is one of the best magic systems in the series.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Sephiroth is Alive?
Final Fantasy VII Playthrough
Playtime: 04:28-06:00
"Where's its fucking head? The whole thing's stupid."
"I'll talk as much as you want later, miss."
"Speak with the planet? What does the planet say?"
"Who you callin' Mr. Barret? That don't sound right!"
FF7's overworld theme is the best in the series. Felt the need to get that out of the way.
One of things that I think is pretty brilliant about the way the first act of FF7 is set up is the misdirection that's put into it. If you're someone who played the NES/SNES games and figured that eventually, in spite of the fancy new futuristic setting, FF7 would eventually start conforming to previous conventions, then maybe eventually getting out of Midgar and roaming around the overworld wasn't that much of a surprise. Its easy to imagine, though, someone going into the game completely blind finding it completely plausible that the game takes place entirely within the city of Midgar. The city would certainly be big enough. Similarly, even though every once in a while you get vague mentions of some guy named Sephiroth, the beginning of the game seemingly makes it perfectly clear that the object of the game is to thwart the schemes of the Shinra corporation within their own reactors and their own headquarters, and that the game's main antagonist is President Shinra and his gawdy red suit. All of this gets turned on its head, when, surprise, President Shinra gets killed, not by anyone in your party, but by Sephiroth. Rufus, the President's son, and the rest of Shinra certainly hang around for the rest of the game, but the main focus of the story shifts tremendously after you get out of Midgar. In some ways, Final Fantasy VII is a pretty simplistic "good saves the world from evil" story, but on another level, its pretty unique in the way it keeps the player guessing in where its going.
Right now I'm saved on the world map right outside of Kalm. Going to save the big long exposition setting up all of Sephiroth's backstory until next time. I ran into a little bit of an issue fighting whatever the hell the boss is that chases you down after the motorcycle pursuit minigame. Not thinking, I had an Elemental-Poison materia combination on Cloud's weapon (with no other attack magic), thus making him unable to hit the (non-living) tank type of thing. So he was completely useless for the entire battle. Still managed to win though. Crisis averted. Elemental-Poision isn't even that good of a combination, I realize now. I was confusing Elemental with Added Effect, which you get much later in the game. With Elemental, the enemy has to have a vulnerability to the Poison element in order for it to do anything, something that I don't believe applies to a lot of enemies in the game. With Added Effect, on the other hand, anything that isn't specifically immune to the Poison status effect (where their HP drains every turn) has a chance to have Poison inflicted on it every hit.
Oh yeah, and this section of the game has my absolute favorite line from Barrett. Cloud realizes that Jenova is being stored in the Shinra building, which pretty much induces a seizure in him. We the player can only imagine what the hell is going on with this grotesque creature and what Cloud's connection is to it. Meanwhile, Barrett just looks in and says, "Where's its @#&@# head? The whole thing's stupid!"
Playtime: 04:28-06:00
"Where's its fucking head? The whole thing's stupid."
"I'll talk as much as you want later, miss."
"Speak with the planet? What does the planet say?"
"Who you callin' Mr. Barret? That don't sound right!"
FF7's overworld theme is the best in the series. Felt the need to get that out of the way.
One of things that I think is pretty brilliant about the way the first act of FF7 is set up is the misdirection that's put into it. If you're someone who played the NES/SNES games and figured that eventually, in spite of the fancy new futuristic setting, FF7 would eventually start conforming to previous conventions, then maybe eventually getting out of Midgar and roaming around the overworld wasn't that much of a surprise. Its easy to imagine, though, someone going into the game completely blind finding it completely plausible that the game takes place entirely within the city of Midgar. The city would certainly be big enough. Similarly, even though every once in a while you get vague mentions of some guy named Sephiroth, the beginning of the game seemingly makes it perfectly clear that the object of the game is to thwart the schemes of the Shinra corporation within their own reactors and their own headquarters, and that the game's main antagonist is President Shinra and his gawdy red suit. All of this gets turned on its head, when, surprise, President Shinra gets killed, not by anyone in your party, but by Sephiroth. Rufus, the President's son, and the rest of Shinra certainly hang around for the rest of the game, but the main focus of the story shifts tremendously after you get out of Midgar. In some ways, Final Fantasy VII is a pretty simplistic "good saves the world from evil" story, but on another level, its pretty unique in the way it keeps the player guessing in where its going.
Right now I'm saved on the world map right outside of Kalm. Going to save the big long exposition setting up all of Sephiroth's backstory until next time. I ran into a little bit of an issue fighting whatever the hell the boss is that chases you down after the motorcycle pursuit minigame. Not thinking, I had an Elemental-Poison materia combination on Cloud's weapon (with no other attack magic), thus making him unable to hit the (non-living) tank type of thing. So he was completely useless for the entire battle. Still managed to win though. Crisis averted. Elemental-Poision isn't even that good of a combination, I realize now. I was confusing Elemental with Added Effect, which you get much later in the game. With Elemental, the enemy has to have a vulnerability to the Poison element in order for it to do anything, something that I don't believe applies to a lot of enemies in the game. With Added Effect, on the other hand, anything that isn't specifically immune to the Poison status effect (where their HP drains every turn) has a chance to have Poison inflicted on it every hit.
Oh yeah, and this section of the game has my absolute favorite line from Barrett. Cloud realizes that Jenova is being stored in the Shinra building, which pretty much induces a seizure in him. We the player can only imagine what the hell is going on with this grotesque creature and what Cloud's connection is to it. Meanwhile, Barrett just looks in and says, "Where's its @#&@# head? The whole thing's stupid!"
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
A Golden Shiny Wire of Hope
Final Fantasy VII Playthrough
Playtime: 03:05-04:28
"In my veins courses the blood of the Ancients. I am one of the rightful heirs to this planet!"
I played through the pillar section, climbed the wire, and worked my way up to floor 64 of the Shinra building. Ran into another addition to the bizarre enemies list for this game (see the previous post) in the form of the enemy called "Sword Dance", which roams the halls of the Shinra building and appears to be a giant floating fish type creature. I believe they're the first enemy of the game to put my characters in Fury status--the status effect that there's no reason to ever get rid of. Fury increases the rate that your limit bar fills up, supposedly at the cost of weapon accuracy, but any sort of decline that actually exists really isn't noticeable at all. Throughout the game you get Tranquilizer items that take you out of fury, but there's no really why anyone would ever want to. I really don't think they tested that thoroughly enough if it was supposed to have any sort of real determent to your characters such that it would possibly outweigh the benefit of more limit breaks.
On the 62nd floor you meet the mayor, a very minor character, but an amusing one. I love the idea that Shinra has so completely taken over Midgar that they've literally stuffed the mayor into a tiny room in the library and he spends all day making up odd little riddles. They really go to great lengths establishing Shinra as being completely, cartoonishly evil throughout the game. I guessed The Mayor's password right on the first try in the little minigame where you have to find the misplaced books in the library and get a letter for the password from their titles. That got me an Elemental materia. Not all that useful to me right now, but I can start leveling it up. I also picked up all three item coupons on floor 63, although I screwed it up a couple of times to begin with. That got me a Star Pendant (immunity to poison), Four Slots (armor), and an All materia. You can never have too much All materia.
Up next I fight to the top of Shinra tower, meet Red XIII--the favorite offurries "anthros" everywhere, and get the first glimpse of Jenova as the game's plot starts to shift from an anti-giant corporation, death to tyrants sort of thing, towards something much more operatic and heavy on fantasy. That, and the bizarre Road Rash-like driving minigame.
Playtime: 03:05-04:28
"In my veins courses the blood of the Ancients. I am one of the rightful heirs to this planet!"
I played through the pillar section, climbed the wire, and worked my way up to floor 64 of the Shinra building. Ran into another addition to the bizarre enemies list for this game (see the previous post) in the form of the enemy called "Sword Dance", which roams the halls of the Shinra building and appears to be a giant floating fish type creature. I believe they're the first enemy of the game to put my characters in Fury status--the status effect that there's no reason to ever get rid of. Fury increases the rate that your limit bar fills up, supposedly at the cost of weapon accuracy, but any sort of decline that actually exists really isn't noticeable at all. Throughout the game you get Tranquilizer items that take you out of fury, but there's no really why anyone would ever want to. I really don't think they tested that thoroughly enough if it was supposed to have any sort of real determent to your characters such that it would possibly outweigh the benefit of more limit breaks.
On the 62nd floor you meet the mayor, a very minor character, but an amusing one. I love the idea that Shinra has so completely taken over Midgar that they've literally stuffed the mayor into a tiny room in the library and he spends all day making up odd little riddles. They really go to great lengths establishing Shinra as being completely, cartoonishly evil throughout the game. I guessed The Mayor's password right on the first try in the little minigame where you have to find the misplaced books in the library and get a letter for the password from their titles. That got me an Elemental materia. Not all that useful to me right now, but I can start leveling it up. I also picked up all three item coupons on floor 63, although I screwed it up a couple of times to begin with. That got me a Star Pendant (immunity to poison), Four Slots (armor), and an All materia. You can never have too much All materia.
Up next I fight to the top of Shinra tower, meet Red XIII--the favorite of
Thursday, August 27, 2009
You're the One Who Wants to be Cute
Final Fantasy VII Playthrough
Playtime: 01:46-02:50
Well, if nobody else, apparently my friend in L.A. and proprietor of Don't Cross the Streams is reading this. So that's cool.
For whatever reason, FF games always have at least one or two completely random, bizarre enemies. This section of FF7 has one of them, the "Hell House", literally a big house that inexplicably shoots rockets at you and occasionally sprouts arms and legs. As to how or why these are roaming around the streets of Midgar--apparently in big packs because I fought three in a row--I'm not sure. I ran into another one in the train graveyard a bit later on--Elegor, some sort of demon thing riding on what I think is supposed to be a chariot, but looks more like a wheelchair with a horse head sticking out of it. He shoots lasers at you. There's a couple of other bizarre ones later on, like the guy who swings from an axe and every once in a while falls off of it. Sometimes JRPGs are just odd beyond explanation.
I played through the whole Wall Market cross-dressing sequence. Sadly, Don Corino did not choose me. I don't remember at all the combination of stuff that you need, and frankly, it wasn't really worth the effort. It takes a solid half hour or so to get through the whole sequence if you do the optional stuff like staying at the inn to get something from the vending machine and venturing into the Honeybee Inn. Once you've done it a couple of times and you know the gag, its a little tedious to go through, although I have to admit that it still has a certain amusing quality to it, namely because of the sheer creepiness of everyone you meet. It's funny to watch the whole situation devolve and get progressively weirder, like when Aeris says you need a wig and so the person at the dress shop tells you to visit the gym because there's other people "like you" there. Then when you get there you're confronted by the very manly men who patronize it ask if you're the one who "wants to be cute," as if you're encroaching on their territory. The whole sequence has to be just about the most bizarre sequence in an FF game. Yes, more bizarre than the leg-sprouting rocket houses.
Up next I have to fight my way up the pillar, then its up the wire and into the Shinra building.
Playtime: 01:46-02:50
Well, if nobody else, apparently my friend in L.A. and proprietor of Don't Cross the Streams is reading this. So that's cool.
For whatever reason, FF games always have at least one or two completely random, bizarre enemies. This section of FF7 has one of them, the "Hell House", literally a big house that inexplicably shoots rockets at you and occasionally sprouts arms and legs. As to how or why these are roaming around the streets of Midgar--apparently in big packs because I fought three in a row--I'm not sure. I ran into another one in the train graveyard a bit later on--Elegor, some sort of demon thing riding on what I think is supposed to be a chariot, but looks more like a wheelchair with a horse head sticking out of it. He shoots lasers at you. There's a couple of other bizarre ones later on, like the guy who swings from an axe and every once in a while falls off of it. Sometimes JRPGs are just odd beyond explanation.
I played through the whole Wall Market cross-dressing sequence. Sadly, Don Corino did not choose me. I don't remember at all the combination of stuff that you need, and frankly, it wasn't really worth the effort. It takes a solid half hour or so to get through the whole sequence if you do the optional stuff like staying at the inn to get something from the vending machine and venturing into the Honeybee Inn. Once you've done it a couple of times and you know the gag, its a little tedious to go through, although I have to admit that it still has a certain amusing quality to it, namely because of the sheer creepiness of everyone you meet. It's funny to watch the whole situation devolve and get progressively weirder, like when Aeris says you need a wig and so the person at the dress shop tells you to visit the gym because there's other people "like you" there. Then when you get there you're confronted by the very manly men who patronize it ask if you're the one who "wants to be cute," as if you're encroaching on their territory. The whole sequence has to be just about the most bizarre sequence in an FF game. Yes, more bizarre than the leg-sprouting rocket houses.
Up next I have to fight my way up the pillar, then its up the wire and into the Shinra building.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
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...
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...
Friday, August 21, 2009
This Isn't Just a Reactor
Final Fantasy VII Play-through
Playtime: 00:00-00:56
"This city don't have no day or night."
"The upper world... a city on a plate. Its 'cuz of that @#$& pizza that people underneath are sufferin!"
Once upon a time, FF7's opening CG movie looked amazing. Two generations of systems later, it of course looks incredibly primitive now, even compared to graphics now rendered in real time. Part of its probably the nostalgia I get from it, but even now as dated as it looks there's still a certain impact that it has. Were they ever to adapt FF7 into a movie, (I mean based on the original story, Advent Children doesn't count) I can't imagine how it would open any other way. We start out adrift in space, only to suddenly transition to an extreme close-up of Aries, who we don't formally meet for a while, but who is in some ways as much of a protagonist as is Cloud. Aries walks away and we pull back to see the totality of the giant sprawl of the city and the enormity of the Shinra tower in the center. The title appears, and then suddenly we get another quick cut as a train comes barreling into the station down below, the train that later Cloud is going to use as a metaphor for destiny. In just a couple of minutes and with no words, only Nobuo Uematsu's music the game's creators perfectly introduce the game's near-future, super-industrial, dystopian setting while leading right into the opening mission. Few other games contributed more to giving video games a cinematic element, and FF7's opening sequence is one of its best examples.
The bombing run mission which directly follows the opening is mostly about new players getting their bearings about them, and introducing Cloud and Barrett. Cloud is widely mocked, and admittedly deservedly so, as being the first example of the "angsty" phase of Sqaure protagonists, the precursor to Squall in FF8, who was MUCH worse. The first hour of gameplay gives us the first example of the infamous "....." text box, and Cloud literally says about a half a dozen times some variation of "I don't care about the planet, I just want to get my money and go home!!" As Cloud sets the bomb in the Mako reactor, (side note: given that the first hour of the game has you blowing up a reactor for a terrorist organization, do you think this game would've been released in America had it been made after 9/11) he has a minor freakout, and a voice seemingly in his head says "This isn't just a reactor," giving us the first hint of Cloud's insanity that eventually is going to lead to the whole Cloud/Zach dual-life plot. Once that really starts to unravel, Cloud becomes much more interesting than the walking pile of angst that he is here.
A lot of people seem to dislike Barrett as well, complaining that Square basically made him a walking caricature--a black guy, permanently armed, with a gun grafted to his arm who talks a bit like Mister T. I can't really deny that there's a certain inherent ridiculousness to his character, but I also can't deny that I like him as a character in spite of it all. His frantic, overbearing personality is a great equalizer for Cloud's sullen nihilism, and he has some of the most memorable lines early in the game, like the "fuckin' pizza" line at the beginning of this post. Later in the game, once Sephiroth comes into the fold and the story becomes a battle of mythical forces, Barrett gets lost in the shuffle a bit, but in the game's first act he has his own sort of complete story arc. Here, we see him leading a terrorist cell as they complete their most brazen attack. Later, he leads them on another, still bigger attack which fails, leading Shinra to retaliate by eviscerating his entire neighborhood and nearly killing his daughter, after which Barrett is distraught but decides to fight on. I believe its Barrett who comments that the wire you climb up to get from the Wall Market to the Upper Plate "looks like hope," but I'll have to confirm that when I get there.
I mentioned Nobuo Uematsu's music when talking about the opening CG, and it really can't be stressed enough how brilliant his music is throughout the game. I love the background music for the mako reactor, where he combines a melody in the form of an electronic buzzing sort of sound overlayed with big bellowing chime sounds. The music envokes the same sort of feeling that the opening CG does, that this is taking place in a city that often seems less like a real living city and more one giant, cold, sterile, and dark machine. Once you get back to the surface, you hear the track that I think is called "Heart's Anxiety" on the soundtrack, with its haunting string sounds that fade in and out ethereally. Uematsu's music on the NES and SNES was absolutely amazing, given the great limitations of the hardware he was working with, and here in FF7 on a system that can actually approximate the sounds of real-life instruments with some degree of success, Uematsu is absolutely on fire.
I'm currently saved outside of Tifa's bar the morning after the Sector 1 reactor bombing. The whole sequence in the bar is probably a little long. It gives Tifa a chance to be introduced, but the flashback to Tifa and Cloud as kids sitting up on the watertower, or whatever that is, isn't really all that dramatic for the time spent setting it up, and there's a lot more of Cloud's incessant "I don't like people, just give me my money!" attitude than is really necessary throughout the whole scene. Up next, I'm off to try and blow up the Sector 5 reactor. Spoilers: this one doesn't go as smoothly. I'll see if I get around to playing some sort tomorrow.
Playtime: 00:00-00:56
"This city don't have no day or night."
"The upper world... a city on a plate. Its 'cuz of that @#$& pizza that people underneath are sufferin!"
Once upon a time, FF7's opening CG movie looked amazing. Two generations of systems later, it of course looks incredibly primitive now, even compared to graphics now rendered in real time. Part of its probably the nostalgia I get from it, but even now as dated as it looks there's still a certain impact that it has. Were they ever to adapt FF7 into a movie, (I mean based on the original story, Advent Children doesn't count) I can't imagine how it would open any other way. We start out adrift in space, only to suddenly transition to an extreme close-up of Aries, who we don't formally meet for a while, but who is in some ways as much of a protagonist as is Cloud. Aries walks away and we pull back to see the totality of the giant sprawl of the city and the enormity of the Shinra tower in the center. The title appears, and then suddenly we get another quick cut as a train comes barreling into the station down below, the train that later Cloud is going to use as a metaphor for destiny. In just a couple of minutes and with no words, only Nobuo Uematsu's music the game's creators perfectly introduce the game's near-future, super-industrial, dystopian setting while leading right into the opening mission. Few other games contributed more to giving video games a cinematic element, and FF7's opening sequence is one of its best examples.
The bombing run mission which directly follows the opening is mostly about new players getting their bearings about them, and introducing Cloud and Barrett. Cloud is widely mocked, and admittedly deservedly so, as being the first example of the "angsty" phase of Sqaure protagonists, the precursor to Squall in FF8, who was MUCH worse. The first hour of gameplay gives us the first example of the infamous "....." text box, and Cloud literally says about a half a dozen times some variation of "I don't care about the planet, I just want to get my money and go home!!" As Cloud sets the bomb in the Mako reactor, (side note: given that the first hour of the game has you blowing up a reactor for a terrorist organization, do you think this game would've been released in America had it been made after 9/11) he has a minor freakout, and a voice seemingly in his head says "This isn't just a reactor," giving us the first hint of Cloud's insanity that eventually is going to lead to the whole Cloud/Zach dual-life plot. Once that really starts to unravel, Cloud becomes much more interesting than the walking pile of angst that he is here.
A lot of people seem to dislike Barrett as well, complaining that Square basically made him a walking caricature--a black guy, permanently armed, with a gun grafted to his arm who talks a bit like Mister T. I can't really deny that there's a certain inherent ridiculousness to his character, but I also can't deny that I like him as a character in spite of it all. His frantic, overbearing personality is a great equalizer for Cloud's sullen nihilism, and he has some of the most memorable lines early in the game, like the "fuckin' pizza" line at the beginning of this post. Later in the game, once Sephiroth comes into the fold and the story becomes a battle of mythical forces, Barrett gets lost in the shuffle a bit, but in the game's first act he has his own sort of complete story arc. Here, we see him leading a terrorist cell as they complete their most brazen attack. Later, he leads them on another, still bigger attack which fails, leading Shinra to retaliate by eviscerating his entire neighborhood and nearly killing his daughter, after which Barrett is distraught but decides to fight on. I believe its Barrett who comments that the wire you climb up to get from the Wall Market to the Upper Plate "looks like hope," but I'll have to confirm that when I get there.
I mentioned Nobuo Uematsu's music when talking about the opening CG, and it really can't be stressed enough how brilliant his music is throughout the game. I love the background music for the mako reactor, where he combines a melody in the form of an electronic buzzing sort of sound overlayed with big bellowing chime sounds. The music envokes the same sort of feeling that the opening CG does, that this is taking place in a city that often seems less like a real living city and more one giant, cold, sterile, and dark machine. Once you get back to the surface, you hear the track that I think is called "Heart's Anxiety" on the soundtrack, with its haunting string sounds that fade in and out ethereally. Uematsu's music on the NES and SNES was absolutely amazing, given the great limitations of the hardware he was working with, and here in FF7 on a system that can actually approximate the sounds of real-life instruments with some degree of success, Uematsu is absolutely on fire.
I'm currently saved outside of Tifa's bar the morning after the Sector 1 reactor bombing. The whole sequence in the bar is probably a little long. It gives Tifa a chance to be introduced, but the flashback to Tifa and Cloud as kids sitting up on the watertower, or whatever that is, isn't really all that dramatic for the time spent setting it up, and there's a lot more of Cloud's incessant "I don't like people, just give me my money!" attitude than is really necessary throughout the whole scene. Up next, I'm off to try and blow up the Sector 5 reactor. Spoilers: this one doesn't go as smoothly. I'll see if I get around to playing some sort tomorrow.
They Were Mako Eyes
This is another new experiment I'm going to try out for this blog. As per normal, I'm not quite sure how well its going to work, nor how much I'm going to stick with it, but you have to start somewhere. What I'm starting this time is basically progressively blogging my thoughts as I replay through Final Fantasy VII, and maybe some other RPGs after that if it goes well. I've played all the way through FF7 maybe four times. Recently I've had the hankering to replay it, and I figure this would be a way to keep it interesting and maybe, just maybe, write something people would want to read in the process. Right now my plan is to basically write a blog entry for every couple-of-hours-long block of playtime that I get in. Final Fantasy VII is the first games in the FF series I was ever really exposed to, although I went back and played through VI (or III as it says on the US SNES cartridge) before actually beating FF7. Its a game that's near and dear to my heart, and while over time its flaws have started to become more apparent to me, and the graphics certainly haven't held up with age, its still a game that I absolutely adore. The opening CG is playing as I write this, so here we go...
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