LogFAQs > #976466396

I began today's session by flying around the world! The NPC dialogue was 1/3 the same (the guy in the dig town was even still talking about the Lunar Harp, I'm way past that dude). 1/3 of it was new dialogue about Meteor or how crappy the world is now. All of that was interesting to read and made my little trek worthwhile. And 1/3 of the dialogue was essentially "go to the southern island to progress the plot you idiot". I probably would've figured that out on my own. After all, it was the only new town on the map. There was something important I needed to take care of first, though. I had to climb the Wutai tower with Yuffie.

I'm guessing this was designed to be undertaken way earlier, because it was super easy. I just cast Haste on Yuffie first turn, then Regen, and then spammed basic attacks until the enemy died. Yuffie even defeated her dad with this unbeatable strategy. As for the plot, sometimes fighting it out is the best way to solve an argument. By the end, Yuffie and her dad understood each other's points of view. Her dad even encouraged Yuffie to steal all the Materia once they were done saving the world, haha. That little bit of character development made the whole Materia Thief quest worthwhile. Yuffie is great.

After that, I finally went to the town the game was pointing me towards. It turned out that Cloud was there, but he was in a wheelchair and speaking nonsense (at one point he said "Xeno... gears...", what could it mean???). Still, he was alive, and that was enough for Tifa to decide to stay by his side. Son of a bitch, that's my entire A team! Aeris died, Cloud went crazy, and now Tifa is leaving me behind too. Just to rub salt in the wound, worst character Cid was the new leader. He may have been nominally in charge, but that was only because Yuffie was off vomiting from airsickness when the leader was chosen. Make no mistake, when I formed a party of her, Cid, and Vincent, Yuffie was the one who was really in command.

Thanks to Cait Sith, the team overheard a conversation about Shinra planning to launch a bunch of Materia at the meteor. That sounds like a plan that wouldn't work, I mean this is a magical world-destroying monstrosity, not just a regular old space rock. So, the team set out to get to the huge Materia first. Yuffie (not Cid) led the charge on Corel. They hopped onto a train, fought their way to the front, and then managed to stop it with four minutes to spare. I got the Ultima Materia for my troubles, aw yeah. Then came Fort Condor, and... ugh, I have to play this awful minigame again? I won't lie, I looked up a strategy because I didn't want to have to do this again if I failed. And, thankfully, it turns out I didn't need to do anything. I just let the bad guys reach the shack and then I won an incredibly easy fight. My reward here was the Pheonix summon, aw yeah again!

After this, the crew decided to head over and check on Tifa and Cloud. They got there just in time to intercept an attack from Weapon. Right away, this fight was looking dicey. I was already envisioning myself reloading, grinding for an hour to make Cid and Vincent not suck, and then trying again. Thankfully, though, this was one of those battles I didn't need to win. It just flew off after a few turns. Everyone tried to escape the collapsing town (which was a neat scene), but Tifa and Cloud didn't make it. They fell into the lifestream, and into the shattered remnants of Cloud's mind.

This was a unique setting with a lot of weird dreamlike stuff, like multiple Clouds and impossible locations. I thought it was really cool. Tifa spoke to the various bits of Cloud's psyche, slowly piecing together the person he used to be. Again, I might be wrong about some of this, but here's my understanding now. Cloud is, in fact, an actual person. I was wrong about that in my write-up yesterday, but Tifa herself essentially said "I know Sephiroth said you weren't real, but these memories are real and therefore you are real", so I wasn't stupid yesterday. I was supposed to think Cloud wasn't real. On the other hand, I guess I was stupid with my "Tifa's memories were messed with by Jenova" theory. I guess she just didn't tell Cloud any of this because she was worried how he might react? That's kind of lame. Then again, this flashback has been expanded on several times now. Maybe there's still one more time where we'll delve into the past and Tifa's silence will make a bit more sense. Again, in my defense, the exact line that Sephiroth said (taken from the script) is "Jenova has merged with Tifa's memories, creating you." I took that to mean Jenova was responsible for Tifa's memories, but I guess not.

Anyway, this section expanded on Cloud's backstory a lot. He was an outcast as a kid but wanted to get close to Tifa (and I mean, look how hot she grew up to be, can you blame him). He followed her into the mountains, she got injured, and everyone blamed Cloud even though it wasn't his fault. This made him even more of an outcast, and also drove him to join SOLDIER to get stronger so that Tifa would notice him. Sadly, he failed, and he became a regular soldier instead. Turns out he was one of those faceless goons during the Nibelheim disaster. So he was there, just not playing the role everyone assumed he was. That's a pretty neat twist! I also liked how Zack got wrecked instantly by Sephiroth, but Cloud was able to injure him and then toss him into the reactor. Lowly soldier Cloud killed the great hero Sephiroth, that's badass. Still not sure how he survived those wounds though. Maybe there's another flashback coming up where Hojo turns him into the Sephiroth clone, I dunno. There's still a gap between "everyone is injured" and "Tifa finds Cloud on the street years later and doesn't say anything even though he's acting like a crazy person".

Once all of this was figured out, Cloud and Tifa finally emerged from the dreamworld. Everyone was glad to have him back, but no one was happier than me. My A team is restored! I kicked Vincent and Cid to the curb, geared up Cloud/Tifa/Yuffie, and then landed to save for the evening. The last thing I'll say is that Yuffie is great. When Cloud went up to her, they bonded over their shared struggles with motion sickness. Then Yuffie asked to get put in the party so she could get off the airship for a bit. Also, back when the party rediscovered Cloud, I liked how Yuffie was steadfast in her belief that Cloud would get better because, quote from the script, "WE'RE here for him. He's gotta get better!". This ninja lady is alright.